Building a long term game studio
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- Ideally, you're not learning gamedev, just to make a single game, and then just pack up, even if that first launch doesn't go great. In this book club episode, we talk about some more business topics regarding creating a long-term games company, focused on sustainability, and weathering some storms.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Long Term Game
02:09 Mindset
03:33 Getting the idea
05:47 Leading
08:13 Funding
10:04 Validation
11:35 Trials and Tribulations
13:17 Overall thoughts
15:10 Closing
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I think it is important for Devs to decide up front if they want to make a game or if they want to run a studio. They are very different tasks with very different goals.
Also important to realize whether you have the skillset for one versus another. At which point, you should probably figure out whether you're going to hire the necessary pieces or settle for game dev as a hobby.
You can be a great game dev but crappy studio head (I just finished following a game with this problem), which results in the entire process being a mess.
In my experience, focusing on making a game will end with everyone and everything being burnt out. Its just a bad focus IMO, cause its looking at the objective rather than on the journey. Gamedev is all about the journey. People make games, not the other way around.
I just finished reading the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It's a general small business book that's supposed to be applied to all small businesses and it was very informative. The main takeaway is that for your business to be successful, you have to create a system of different roles, and these roles are interdependent of each other. When you start a small business, you're most likely going to be solo, so the author suggests listing off every single role that's needed for your business. Then for each role, you write a list of all the duties for those roles. Then since you're working by yourself, you write a contract and sign a contract for each role, as if you are hiring yourself. That way when you hire someone to fill the role, they will take it seriously because you took that role seriously. He goes into a lot more than that and talks about how you're supposed to set up your company to grow. I think it was a good resource and I found it very motivational.
Nice summary! I haven't read the book, but I think the book is about making a game startup, not "just" a game studio. The difference is that if you create a startup, your goal is to sell it (including an IPO). If you create a studio, you want to make great games and enough money to make the next one. That's a fundamental difference.
Greets from another content creator in Belgium. Good job boys. I'm Buying every single game you guys make, just because you deserve it.
Enjoying the content you're putting out, been watching the videos spraticly over the last 12 months and can see you guys adapting and refining your approach. I see you going through alot of the same hurdles the game dev team I'm part of do and also growing from them. It's endearing to watch you guys as you continue to develop your company.
Keep up the good work.
There is a major problem with following the latest hotness, genre-wise. How do you convince people to even look at your game when their are hundreds of others in the same space? Not to mention those standout games dominating the space. For example, why play X studio's rogue like when I can purchase the hottest games in that space, which are still seeing community interest and developer support?
I think that approach works if you're still learning, but it's even less likely to make any worthwhile profit than something unique that will at least inspire a second glance.
That's certainly a problem, but it's actually less of a problem than you think it is. Take RPGs for example. Sure, BG3 hogs all the spotlight, but I guarantee you, there will always be plenty of people out there who would buy the next Spiderweb Software game, even if the graphic looks similar to the games they make nearly two decades ago.
The bigger problem here is actually development time. Survival and city builders are popular NOW, but games aren't built instantly. There's a good chance that by the time your game is launched, the trend has shifted. And sometimes, the reason why a shift in trend occurs is not because there's something better, but because the current trend has become stale and boring. That's the real danger there.
Thanks for the video!
I tried to make a sustainable business but after a few months creating prototypes we realized we weren't ready yet. We'll try again later!
As for approaches to picking a game genre to make, I'd like to make a third suggestion. Find narrow genres that are dominated by one major title. Then from that list, look through that list and where a new release has not come out in a while, and the next release is also likely far off. What you are looking for is a game that you can make that has a genre with a pre-built in audience and demand, but is waiting for the next title (or its unclear if a new title will come out). If you can release a competitive title for that space before the next major release, your title can fill that demand (with sales) until the genre leader releases their title. Note, this does not have to be a AAA genre, you are just looking for a space where there is demand, the demand is pent up and underserved within the time period you can release your own title.
I swear to god, everytime i think "now a new bitme video would be perfect", they drop a new video
You know, it's kind of predictable, every Tuesday and Friday 18:30 CET ;) -M
@@bitemegames ah nice, i actually dont remember the upload times of my favourite youtubers, im just happy when they drop a new Video ☺️
I thought about running my own studio many times. I do enjoy the fact that I can make any game I want and just learn from my mistakes what games are popular. I am at a point where I want to publish demos games quickly and see which one stick
The idea of "pre-mortum" was worth watching the whole video, hadn't heard about that before.
I'm really considering putting together a team but I don't believe in unpaid interns, but I also don't have money to hire people, so I'm thinking maybe a rev share system or something but it's just so overwhelming to think about
Thanks man ✨🌌✨
Interesting takes. You say mobile dev being niche seemed weird to me though. Seems to me like that is the bigger part of the whole game biz at this point.
Guild Architect looks like it's going great, hope it goes well!
Tough call on the game. But better now than later.
I dream big but have no clue. I'm taking it day by day and waiting to see what manifests in reality. But I'm getting there.
If I could pull together a 5 year plan... with traction , I would love to put together a studio.
Your Next Five Moves was a GREAT book!
I am curious, how many failed games would you call it and say it isn't working and shut down?
As someone who really has no choice but to do this solo, I do think I need to downsize my team because my "employee" clearly doesn't understand programming :\
I can't fire anybody - it's just me! LOL
Oh, there's no way I'm wasting time analyzing what players like or don't like about my games, that's a task before the game is published, better to work on my next games and gamedev skills. There is enough gaming data that needs to be taken into account while making the game and giving the players what they like. If the game isn't made good enough for most of the target players, it's too late to analyze afterwards. But maybe the above isn't valid for studios and other solo devs.
marmix, guys PLEASE! wen japanese fountain girl dating sim WEEEN!! 🗾⛲👰♀
@@sainteven8181 yo 4 cereal, these guys are 1 game away from stardom c'mooon
Seems like indie game devs do more UA-cam videos than actually making games.
Those on youtube, maybe. But you can see many interesting exceptions, usually woth low subscription numbers and view counts.
It's necessary if anyone is going to learn about your games. Making a game while sitting in the shadows doesn't really drive interest.
If they spent as much time working on their games as they do on making videos, they would be a successful studio :')
Worth reminding that these videos bring extra revenue which can also fund the games. Clearly those guys don't have infinite money, so that's something to consider.
Also putting more time on something doesn't guarantee it's success. That's the type of nonsense old people say just to have the last word.
@@skillo6399 man wtf you talking about? I made no judgment. Just stated my observation. Why you butt hurt?
I disagree with the validation arguments you made. The mobile ecosystem has matured extremely fast compared to pc in terms of kpi-informed decision making. Many of those methods apply to pc gaming as well, but maybe through different KPIs. Validating your product-market fit is incredibly important , and a cornerstone of your business. Don’t forget that you are a gaming expert. You already do a shitton of validating simply through making decisions based on your knowledge or “gutt-feel”. A formal process through KPIs or other validation methods can only strengthen your ability to make great decisions.
Also your choice to bootstrap may sound great, but do not underestimate the relentless grind you are setting yourself up for.
Making games is not the same thing as making a product. As a professional game dev you are making products. The goal is to sell your product. If your game is great, but it won’t sell, ultimately the product failed. Great game, failed product. There are many ways to increase your chances of success, or reduce your risks.
By limiting the tools and method you use because you don’t think they apply to “indie” or specific platforms, you introduce major risks that potentially will lead to that bootstrap grind that can burn you out.
That said, I wish you the best of luck with the next game. Looking forward to playing it. ❤
I knew this topic would be something you have feelings about, as the book is basically written by the Finnish version of you ;).
I think the argument I have more is that there is a disconnect between this book's focus on specific KPIs, which focus on mobile, vs. what our audience mostly makes, which is small, one-time purchase indie games. Bobby who makes his first survivor-like with 400 WLs, does not care about Return on Ad Spend and Cost Per Acquisition.
Instead, PC games have a different set of KPIs and things to track through Unity Analytics for example. How long do people spend in certain parts of your game, are they being hung up on tutorials,... I think these things are more important for the PC market to validate your game.
The focus of the book club series is talking about the book, and what my thoughts are about it, even if it's not 100% what we do.
Also, I more than know the relentless grind we're going through due to bootstrapping. We started this with just €2500 of our own investment and haven't taken a single piece of external funding yet, despite being approached by angel investors in the past. It was simply something our team also wasn't ready for back then (and the money offered, also wasn't that high, so we couldn't do much meaningful with it).
Is this the best approach? Absolutely not, as we have much less financial leverage (which is annoying often). But doing this also has allowed us the freedom to invest time in things like our UA-cam channel, which I believe will give us even better leverage down the line due to having built up a brand focused on being genuine and relatable.
If I wanted the easy life, I'd go back to regular software dev and just slap some AI on whatever I'm going to make.
-M
Haha fair enough. Regular non-gaming dev sucks. Can I get a high five? 😊
There are open source projects unrelated to games that can be rewarding and fun, but you have to sleep under a bridge. Company-backed open source can be soulless though
I get that the genre is not desirable but maybe you should split your time between sons of everjade and your next game.
I've released about 18 games now on Steam and I've learned from each release.
Just don't commit to Q2 and list it as Coming Soon instead.
Your credibility as a studio will drop if you just abandon the game.
Releasing the game broken (or very bad) would drop their credibility, abandong the game wouldn't when they haven't really done any sales yet
Yes I get what you mean and I don't mean my comment as a negative I do want the studio to do well.
I just mean that there's plenty to learn from "finishing"
@@PaulConnor1978 It's also a matter of sunken cost fallacy, the amount of effort (time + money) required to get it to a decent state vs what it would bring them. Dropping a non-working game isn't bad at all, especially since they're open about development, hence we see that they abandonned a game.
@ryuusaisai they were telling the world how much better the game looked and feels a few weeks ago and that they were making great progress.
Don't forget they are a team.
Read some of the other comments...
Like I said their credibility is taking a nose dive.
They've openly said their 1st game wasn't very good and now they are ditching this one.
If a game has a steam page, a trailer, a next fest submission and Q2 2024 as a release window it's a bit more like they have been defeated now rather than making a decision early in development.
I'm totally solo and know how much "effort" goes into getting to the stages mentioned above.
They are making UA-cam videos at this point and not video games.
As a solo dev who enjoys these videos I feel a little embarrassed by their defeatist attitude quite honestly.
You don't throw away months of effort if you're serious about releasing.... you fix the problems and don't chase the coins by genre hopping. That's not Indie!
I look forward to their manga style porn release in Q2 2025 though.
@@PaulConnor1978 They were making progress, but their Next Fest performance was poor, with one of the biggest feedbacks being that it wasn't that "fun". They'd need to do a big overhaul to fix the core pillars.
Their 1st game was their 1st game. This is their second game in a whole different genre, and now they're returning back to a more management style genre with new skills and experience. When there are 1000s of devs releasing a single game and disappearing into the void, they seem to be doing quite well with still going at it.
Is it painful to see wasted effort? Surely, but "throwing months of effort away" is better than spending even more months of effort on it, with little to no guarantee on any kind of returns on it. Sunken cost fallacy at it's finest. (Which is to say, even if they don't release Songs of Everjade, they can have learned a lot during it's development and so it's not all thrown away)
Cancelling a game is painful, but releasing a bad game stains the name much more.