Game development team for sale on eBay

I'm gonna start selling all my friends on ebay!

Wouldnt it be great if Mr. Thompson bought the studio?

Grand Theft Paul Eibler.

I was kind of hoping this was EA ;)

Here's an idea, maybe we can get enough joystiq fans to throw in some money and use this development company to make the Pirate Baby (PBCBSF2006) game... I will throw in $300.00.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Video-Game-Development-Team_W0QQitemZ8278223283QQcategoryZ62053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Some may think this cool, I just sorta think its sad.

I might think about chipping in if, you know, they actually mentioned the company's name. XD

To #5 Chrispy,

It says that they all worked on a variety of games, so I wouldnt doubt it if its a bunch of guys from different studios getting together and offering their services.

90 days is not enough to make a game...

"90 days is not enough to make a game"

Not a full length game, but it's plenty of time to make several playable prototypes. There was a group of grad students that made 50 games in one semester.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

Their goal is not to make a game, it says in the auction description "the ultimate goal [is to] make a playable demo, proof of concept, or machinima trailer."

maybe they can make a pretty badass mod for BF2 in 90 days ill give about $50 into the Rent-a-dev fund

I'd be willing to throw in some cash if they make some pseudo-homage to a great retro game, Streets of Rage 4 anybody, Ristar II, Dungeon Explorer III, Smash TV redux!

Older than Jesus's dad.

(Over a week old)

OMG, someone TOTALLY needs to pony up the dough so they can make Pirate Baby into a real game. Hand-drawn sprites and all. And maybe in color. =D

Hmm... 8 member team...90 days...my control..:)


I'm seeing one hell of an advanced "hot coffee" mod coming out of this. It would have such photorealistic graphics and realistic physical interaction that it would be renamed "boiling cappuccino."

It would be distributed as a full fledged game and would be rated "E" with Jack Thompson's full approval.

Some of the "Ask seller a question" questions are just hilarious:

Q: Can you help me finish Duke Nukem Forever? I just need a little help.

A: Thanks for your inquiry, no.

ROFL

Could you get an Xbox Live Arcade title off the ground in this time?. Old school 2D shooter with 3D elements.
Or another puzzle-em-up?
I wonder if you'd make back your 150k?

I know Sierra used to have a branch in Eugene. I believe they made Red Baron back in the day, but I could be wrong. This could be them, but either way this is totally a joke/publicity stunt.

There are no real terms to work with here. Is this eight people for 90 days? Assuming a 40 hour work week. This is about $26 an hour per person for $100,000. $40/hr if it costs $150,000. Is overtime involved? Vacation? Sick days? When does the 90 days start?

And what the hell does award winning mean?. Everyone's won some type of award at some point in their life. And any local award there in Eugene ain't gonna be that important.

So basically it's all about publicity (29,000 views of the site). I would almost guess it's a group of students offering their summer for hire. Maybe the award they won was school oriented. Who knows?

Robert, we can answer most of your questions with just a little bit of common sense. You should try it sometime, seriously.

Is this eight people for 90 days? - They say you get 8 people for 90 days. I'm not sure exactly which part of that is causing you difficulty.

Assuming a 40 hour work week. This is about $26 an hour per person for $100,000. $40/hr if it costs $150,000. - OK, so you know how to use a calculator. That's neat!

Is overtime involved? - Does the listing say 90 days plus overtime? (The answer would be no).

Vacation? - Does anyone in their right mind expect to be paid $40/hour to be on vacation? (The answer to this would also be no).

Sick days? - If you're paying someone for 90 days of work, do you think a day when they're not working counts? Think about it.

When does the 90 days start? - Either when the auction ends or perhaps when you get round to submitting your ideas/material. If the buyer ended up never submitting anything then the team would have been paid $150,000+ for nothing - pretty sweet I'd say.

There, was that really so difficult?

Gareth -

You're assuming quite a bit.

Actually, you get the services of a development team. It doesn't specifically say 8 people will be working on it at all times. The team includes eight categories of jobs, but that doesn't mean you get only eight people. They also say "our writers" which leads me to believe there are more than one.

My point about the vacation/sick days is that the "development team" might have rules on sick days and vacation already that they'll have to comply with. And people get paid $40/hr to be on vacation all the time. That's the great thing about a salary.

My point was that they left too much up in the air for this to make a contract that anyone in their right mind would want to sign before throwing down $150,000.

And this was all based on the ebay listing itself. I didn't realize they answered some of these questions from other people in a different section. Although that just reinforces my point.

And I was apparently right about Red Baron. Yay me.

My bet would be that this is Tesseraction Games. They have created Enigma:Rising Tide. I am a former employee.

Eugene contains a fair amount of Game Studios, so it might be one of the others. It was home of Dynamix. When Sierra shut down Dynamix (Makers of Tribes and other games) many of those laid off formed a variety of Game companies.

Tesseraction Games is a professional organization. Its lead developer is highly skilled and has my respect. I would guess their size to be around 8 people now.

They have competent Artists and Programmers. When I was there, money was very tight. They already have licenses to some game engines.

I think a quick XBox Live arcade game for the 360 would be the most feasible option, and could result in significant income.

I think Marble Blast Ultra is the top selling XBox Live arcade game, and it was made here in Eugene.

It's so sad when a game company has to start hooking on the streets to make ends meet.

Oh, Acclaim, you used to have so much potential!