Advanced Entrepreneurship: Avoiding Total Studio Disaster
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- Опубліковано 26 жов 2017
- In this 2017 GDC talk, Execution Labs' Jason Della Rocca discusses how game developers can be better entrepreneurs in order to build a successful smaller studio.
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I honestly don't see why people disliked this talk. This is a talk that purely deals with the business side of things but at least I'm glad it is from a guy who understands the varying intensities from where developers come from and hope to reach.
It doesn't deal purely with the business side of things. One thing I don't like about this talk that there is lot of talking, lot of name dropping, relativelly little information and coherence.
Yep agreed, Jason is a G as far as i'm concerned and the information highly valuable, something our studio has aligned to for several years now.
Who doesn't like it? I found it one of the most interesting. I know how to make games (not sure they're any good :D) but I'm not good at actually monetizing them and this talk was very helpful
You know? I kinda have to respect this guy for Tip #0. At least he understands the situation he's in and acknowledges the first impression this speech would give to an audience of normal gamers and indie devs coming into it cold.
Many people comment on this video trying to point out situations where this guy is wrong. These situations are edge cases and are not the majority. Yes your scenario that you create to be contrary to what he says would show that he's wrong, but he clearly states this talk is for business and money growth. He comes from a perspective of investing in companies that follow trends and have a high chance of succeeding. I think people looking for a better chance of actually making money and are looking for venture capitalists to invest should listen to this guy's points.
Yep! It's a "know thy enemy" sort of thing, but without the whole negative connotations of "enemy" of course, haha. It's usually helpful to get an idea of the perspective that's held on the opposite side of the negotiations table. :)
“Every GDC is crazier than the next” I assume a mistake but hoping that was an expert level troll
Jack Spira You know: Most of the time when someone talks in general it only apply to that person or a specific context. Probably at this point he wanted to share his personnal feeling for doing it year after year for so long.
Jack Spira Good observation. I think it's that he often says things that approximate what he meant that do not semanticly mean what he intended. For example, when he says "for those who know him" he then proceeds to explain who that man was, instead of "for those who don't know him".
I hope he doesn't have that habit when coding..
who cares
Public speaking is hard, let alone just being in front of such a huge crowd. Props to him for doing as well as he did, I for one would have stumbled over far more of my phrases than he did. On the upside, I enjoyed how clear/unclutteredand and thought-out his graph and explanation at 7:14 was. True some of what he says is far too generalized, which to his credit he admits has bitten him in the ass, but as he says, it's the nature of the business. Unfortunately there's a lot of manpower that goes into being more granular and personal about making business decisions. All in all, it was very insightful and got me thinking, so he has my thanks! :) In fact, I want to try and reach out to say thanks in person and pick his brain if he'll allow me a few minutes of his time.
Retl The last sentence is hilarious. You have killed it!
Please watch this video. Do not neglect the business side of game dev. Very insightful.
Lord, I hope not TOO many people listen to this guy. We already have enough open world games with multiplayer, thank you very much.
Thanks for the talk
"Don't think of them as those things that will dispense cash... so... don't think of them the way they think of me then.
Business is a field i don't have a solid grasp on, so will remember a lot of these points
Great stuff.
Great talk
Like I say, take most things with a grain of salt.
This has a lot of important, relevant information. But not everything I do agree with.
For instance, he kind of says it's not ok to come to a publisher to ask what they're looking for, but he's thinking something in the ways of "I don't want to hear that".
You totally should ask that. He just doesn't wanna hear it, but he'll probably hear it anyway. If you don't say that it's going to be a guessing game of which publisher would want to publish what.
But he said the complete opposite of what you wrote.
The dangers of trying to guess if you're climbing a small hill can make you miss out on a good idea.
Many smash hit games are ideas which someone could've rejected on the notion that the potential profit is too small. PUBG, Angry Birds, etc. "Look at other catapult games. Their numbers are shit"
"No way a 1-map game about camping in a circle is going to be a smash hit"
The followup question should be "why do you think they are climbing small hill" (/their numbers are shit).
Sometimes as the investor you may be trapped in the Simpson Paradox if you dont dig deep enough (or sometimes digging more is just not worth it).
By looking at the numbers one may create heuristic that makes it impossible to succeed - "Market is saturated, you wont make any money" and "Market is small, you wont make any money" lose-lose situation.
Sometimes if you make game that is different enough no investor can help you in judging success or failure - assuming you are truly making game that is different enough (altho publisher can still help you in advertisement and other things anyway).
But it's all risk vs reward...investors' goal is to make back their money (well multiple time the amount they invest).
The risk is just way higher than the potential reward. In the vast ocean of games released every day, the ones out of the box that actually succeed while not looking at the market represent what, 0.1%?
If you ask someone to lend you money and tell them that there's 0.1% that they get it back...do you really think they'll reach for their wallet? Video game is an industry, not a charity.
4:12 Basically if you bring crap it will still stink no matter the pitch
19:55 Think about Overcooked. Is a couch game and yet it's successful
Overcooked can be played online.
Kids love games like Among Us, but when my nieces and nephews get on the Game Cube or play Mario Party on the Switch, it's a different level of fun. Couch Co-Op is something more kids need to do. Arcade OneUp too, they love those things. TMNT gets lots of play every Sunday at Nana's.
very good talk, but it took me a moment to start listening, because he looks like the evil manager from tropic thunder xD
Anyone have a list of the books he recommended?
a bit late, but for anyone looking for this: 48:25
Am I the only one to think he talks like Tony soprano ? Great talk !
And yet with all this knowledge he did not succeed as an investor. He deserves all the respect for this work and interesting insights, but the case seems very much unsolved.
At 18:00 he says he isn't smart enough to understand the concept of local maxima. I'm pretty sure he needs some math courses and maybe that will help with his business ability.
mmmh I like the business angle of the talk -- although he rambles a bit -- but every single one of the people Della Rocca funded OR used as examples looked exactly the same as the others.
Tip 7: make business human. Sure, we're all humans, deserving of mutual respect and honesty, but the points he made prior to that tip made it sound like he'd only invest in you if you became buddies or can drink a beer together. I don't believe it always works that way: if your game prototype or vertical slice is really good (especially if you can back it with some traction, i.e. a demo online which has had a lot of downloads), a publisher will knock on your door, and there would be no need for a one year long courtship.
You don't have a demo or a vertical slice at the time you're talking with him, that's why you've woken up one morning & realized you needed money.
'Hope is a mistake' - Max Rockatansky
I must confess i have no idea what this guy is talking about. Better business means making more money, and i would have assumed as an indie studio you do that by staying independent and self-published. So it's better business to completely avoid this guy.
1. "Too bad I didn't invest in Ultimate Chicken Horse."
2. "Don't make couch games."
Seriously?
Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe he reached a local maximum in his job.
He obviously meant not to make local multiplayer only games. If it's multiplayer it needs to be online.
I disagree, especially with the word "obviously".
Why?
He was talking mainly about game design when he mentions it, and ended up suggesting multiplayer games / moba-s instead. He did not advice us to make our couch games work online instead...
Also he was associating the mountains with genre-s when talking about local maximum, which implicates that "you shouldn't make a game in genre X if a game in genre Y would sell better", which is something I find a bad notion.
The whole talk reminds me a bit about this:
www.vg247.com/2016/06/17/ea-wants-to-find-its-own-rocket-league-which-it-happened-to-turn-down-in-2011/
The situation is the same as with movies. Nobody really knows what will sell.
His talk would be better as a pitch - every game you played as a child was made for money, every piece of Renaissance art was made for money, every Disney movie was made for money, and that's OK. Its important! You aren't less of an artist because you want a roof over your head.
I agree with your point that you aren't less of an artist for wanting to be paid for your work, but this idea that everything creative is made for money is just blatantly false.
"Every game you played as a kid" - yeah, absolutely not. Speaking personally, tonnes of shareware PC games and early Internet games, completely free with no expectation of money. Generations before me also had floppy discs distributed for free just to share someone's creation. And, well, nowadays there is a wealth of free or incredibly cheap games made with no intention of money making.
"Every piece of renaissance art" this is kind of a ridiculous claim, but I'll make it clear that most famous painters weren't making significant money from it most of their lives - and that's the famous ones we know, most actual painters we don't even know existed and didn't make a dime from their work.
"Every Disney movie" - yes, because Disney is a corporation with the intent to make profit. That's the difference.
Like yeah obviously if your goal is money making these points are great, but this idea that that should be (or that you've put it, is) everyone's goal is just untrue. I know that this talk is not aimed at people who don't intend to be a serious business, but it and comments like yours do seem to dismiss the existence of those people.
I've listened to this 5 times now, and I haven't absorbed a word he said....
Can anyone TL:DR this...?
Basically that game studios should deal with their business the same way that a normal company would. Get investors, and to get investors you have to show that you are knowledgeable enough to not fail financially. Make budget plans, have a clear vision and show some sort of track record of following through on projects.
This is obviously only for if you're trying to fund a game, if it is self funded or just a game for art, then this talk wouldn't be helpful.
Key points: Be humble, ask for help, look for investors related to your work and the stage of dev your are in (early investor vs. late stage investor). Look at other games simular to yours to determine scope and pricing, pricing determines budget.
Join EA or Ubisoft, and make games only for money.
He rambles on for an hour and says nothing of any real importance. He does say he knows people, though.
Who invited Christopher walken to give a talk
Came here to say the same thing
Order by owners
steamspy.com/tag/Local+Co-Op
which ones from that list is a LOCAL COOP ONLY? ;)
I agree with you. It would require more work. This list is a good starting point.
sure thing. Also worth mentioning that with time passes, the idea of making game of ANY genre could become bad or good. I agree with Jason that the market for couch co-op is over-saturated, means no-one would buy yet another couch co-op game, resulting in bad revenues and studio's shutdown. Investors see it this way. It does not mean your game could not be a hit, it only means they don't want to risk :)
I'm out. After he mentioned Tim Schafer being good with money I could no longer take him seriously.
haha although I agree Tim isn't good with money I don't think that was the context he was referring to.
18:00 and he says he doesn't understand the big brain concept of "local maxima"?
Gonna have to hard pass on this. I find it hard to trust a business person who doesn't understand introductory calculus terms. Just... yikes.
Hopefully that's not where you stopped watching. He can't math a local maxima (neither can I), but he can tell you how to not lose your shirt when trying to start a business.
Yeah no, guys, it's an okay talk alright.
The only thing that got _my_ knickers in a twist is him saying "axe etera" all the time.
Like, if you don't know that there's no "k" in "et", maybe just say "and so on" instead. No point in trying to be fancy if you can't pull it off.
Likewise, "a maxima" is not a thing. That's the plural, mate. You don't say "a cars", either. Makes you sound like a plums. And you insist on saying it over and over and over again. To the point where it's not even funny anymore, just sad.