Boz wrote:
>I have a rather detailed game project in my mind

It needs to be on paper.

>and am thinking of starting a company once I get some starting funds together. I'm 20 years old

Whoa! Don't! A game idea is not a business plan. You need game industry experience, business experience, and a business plan. I urge you not to go starting a company without those three prerequisites. Your company will fail.

> and planning on becoming a primary school teacher as I like kids,

That's a reason to become a teacher?

>its a guaranteed job and money and the shorter hours would make it easier to organize this other endeavor.

Running a game company is a full-time-and-a-half endeavor. You need to totally rethink your plan. This one's unworkable.

As a side note, being a primary school teacher is a full-time-and-a-half endeavor also. The time saved by the "short hours" (and then some) is taken up with preparations for class, checking work, dealing with parents, meetings, etc. Not to discourage you, it is a noble career IMHO. If you budget properly you can have the summer off for other things (but a LOT of teachers hold second jobs to cover the shorter work year).

No I'm not a teacher, I just watch my sister deal with all this :-)

Quote:Original post by LordBoz
I'm 20 years old and planning on becoming a primary school teacher as I like kids, its a guaranteed job and money and the shorter hours would make it easier to organize this other endeavor.

Liking kids isn't enough of a reason to become a school teacher. You actually need to like teaching. Actually game development is much the same. Enjoying playing games and thinking of game ideas isn't the same as enjoying the (difficult, often boring, frustrating and always demanding) game development process.

I tease my girlfriend about her "part time job" because she teaches so few hours a week. Of course she is never home early because, as Krez mentioned, there is a stack of extra work she has to do that. Just like game development teaching is a is a more than full-time job.

Quote:1. How many people would it take to make a TES-like RPG (in a sense that it is a sandbox, first person, 3d RPG - nothing more) with much of the content (quests, people, story) procedurally generated?

If you want to know how many people it would take to made TES then look in the credits of TES.

Quote:..... For example "Mount & Blade" was made by a team of 6 I believe, the husband and wife started it but more members were added later.

Don't ever start a business (or any large endeavour) based on what you believe... only on what you know. Even a cursory read of their website shows that they had to team up with another developer to get their game finished. Make sure you know what sort of team they needed to make the game before you start trying to emulate them.

Quote:many very complex questions....

The project your proposing would be tough for a team of experienced professional developers (and also hugely expensive). If you don't already know the answers to those questions you asked then you don't have the necessary skills/knowledge to succeed (and no you won't get them just from us answering those questions). You need to learn that stuff by doing it and if you haven't made a game before you need to start on something much smaller.

Is it possible to make a game in your spare time? Sure, a small 2D casual game or possibly a decent sized 2d RPG like Mornings Wrath if you have a few years to invest. Anything bigger than that and you get into the realms of big expensive development over several years.