Lawyer to Game Designer: First Game!

Hello comrades, my name is Antonio, I am a lawyer from the Republic of Ecuador. I grew up with Command & Conquer as an inspiration and videogames have been a lifeline. I turned 30 back in May and thought, "It would be a terrible thing to leave this world without having developed a game." So I began a crazy journey that took me to reducing my "game idea" to the minimum expression and contact a game development studio in Quito, the capital of my country.

A little context, Ecuador is a blessing of a country, I could describe it as Paradise on Earth. However, it is mismanaged in such a way that the minimum wage is USD 2.88/hour. With this in mind, I could not quit my day job as a lawyer to learn programming and go full into game
development. However, my profession allowed me to hire one of the few game studios available here, called Equinoxis Studios led by Diego Narváez. Although this has tied up half of my resources for the next year entirely into the game, the professionals in Equinoxis are worth their weight in gold, having the experience of already developing and launching videogames.

We signed the contract this November 5 and I am very excited.

I have never done something like this. After meetings with the developer team, we agreed on the first Game Design Document and we have found that this idea is actually viable. I can’t reveal much just yet, only that it is a free to play Battle Royale for mobile with Soviet aesthetics!

The game will be very fun, with emphasis on simple mechanics with a high skill ceiling. I'm including more details in the following blog post, hoping to divulge more of it soon: https://legalgamedev.blogspot.com/2024/11/from-courtroom-to-code-my-first.html

I would be incredibly grateful for any advice from those who have worked with remote dev teams or publishers before. My contract with Equinoxis Studios involves a 13-month development cycle, and as my first time managing something like this, I would greatly appreciate any insight.

Do svidaniya!