This is just a question I was wondering regarding game development, and I was curious to hear what other people think.
Essentially, when is the right time (if there even is a specific time) to have a ‘company’ (I don’t really like the word company- more like an identity for the game developer) name? Does it depend on the amount of people in the team? Do names even matter?
Personally, I believe that identities (ex. Ubisoft) are easier to remember than individual developer names.
What do you guys think?
EDIT: I’ve changed the title to make my question more understandable. I’ll leave my original text, but here is an additional explanation.
Essentially, when you release a game, you more or less have a choice: Do you release it under your personal name (e.g. Jimmy Neutron), or a given identity (e.g. ‘Darkmatter’)?
Does that choice matter? Is that step even necessary/relevant? Does it affect the outcome?
EDIT: Although legal matters play a role, this question isn’t really aimed at the process of starting a company. It’s more of a branding question, just to understand different views on the matter.
In my opinion, once you are serious you should register your company - which requires you to name it.
At the same time you should:
Register an internet domain for your company
Create a Facebook page for your company
Create users for various media sites with your company name (Twitter, Youtube, Reddit etc.)
Why? Mostly to prevent anyone else from doing that.
Google your desired company name and check what your competition for that name is. If something vastly popular already has the name, consider if you should pick a different name. Availability of internet domains is also something to consider when choosing a name.
I would recommend NOT creating the legal business entity until you’re extremely certain you’re going to deploy (as in, you have a realistic target date and you’re mostly code complete) and you may start generating income. Creating a company puts certain things in motion and it’s usually to your advantage to delay that as long as possible. The specifics depend on your state or country, both where you live and where you choose to domicile the business.
There are other scenarios in which it makes sense to create a real business (hiring people is an obvious one, if you end up with the kind of budget which supports that), but anyone with those types of concerns will already be beyond the point of asking this question.
If you’re starting a business for this as I have, you should have a game or two ready to release quickly and the funds to promote it well or else the business will fail.
I think you should name your company that sounds like similar to what type of game market role you are trying to make.
For example, the word with “Online” in the game “Albion Online” and “Eve Online” sounds like a online MMORPG. Also you can make your game company sounds more childish to fit in the children game market by naming your company like “Club Penguin”. But, do not try to make your game company sounds like fitting too many type of unspecific game market roles.
I believe to startup your game company needs a very good game idea to get enough money from fans to support your game company alive. Your pitch idea is the most important to startup a small company.
EDIT: Sorry misread your forum. I thought you were asking how to create a team name. Now, I know you meant when to create a team name.
How to choose a good name is a worthwhile thought, though. One of my property holding companies (created for liability reasons) has a joke name. My partner and I figured nobody would ever see it anyway. Five years later I’m sitting in the City Council hall at a rezoning hearing listening to all the councilmen repeat this embarassing joke-name while debating whether to let me bump up to Light Industrial…
I am kind of confuse what you have just said, because it sounds like a joke. Are you trying to say, “A game company name does not really matter much in the end, even though your company name is a joke, because it is just a small easy going on a game Light Industry?”
These are both good points, but I think you misunderstood my question (it’s also extremely possible I worded my question oddly enough it couldn’t be understood).
Let me give an example.
Let’s say you have created a game called “Lunar” and want to release it. You have a choice between either releasing it under A) Your personal name (Jimmy Neutron, for instance) or B) An identity (‘Darkmatter’, for example).
What are your opinions on that choice? Is it necessary? Are there advantages? Does it even matter?
Generally you need to release it under a legal entity. That means either your name, or a properly registered company. There are some liability advantages to a company, though not as much as is often made out to be.
I wouldnt waste my time until I was making money… even then I wouldnt bother until I was at the point of considering hiring other people.
And, if you havnt finished a game, this is even more pointless. Make something to prove you can actually finish before you start getting into this generally un-important rubbish.
Depends where you live but you can write off business expenses for awhile even if it is still in development. In the USA the IRS will start to trigger red flags around the 3 year mark though if all you have is expenses and no revenue and you may be in for an audit.
It’s called branding. And to a certain degree, it is important.
The particular name that you choose, isn’t. It can be your actual name. It can be an assumed name. It can be a company name. The name is just words. How people feel about the words…now that matters.
Pick something, stick to it, and begin building a brand around it. Think about it, but don’t obsess over it. What matters is the communication with the audience, and how they feel about the brand you’re building. One of the biggest parts of this is releasing a game that people like. This is the best way to strengthen a brand. Nothing puts faith in a brand like a string of successful, desirable products. This is why Blizzard has such a strong brand, and why Valve is so trusted.
To continue with this thought, all the online stores (Steam, iTunes, Play, etc) are going to require tax information so they can report your income. In some places (like where I live in Florida) it’s cheap and easy to form the simplest type of company called an LLC. The chances of running into a liability issue from releasing a game are remote, but here it only costs about $130 per year so it’s worth doing anyway. In some other states it can be more complex, a few are very complex, and some are quite a bit more expensive.
Again assuming you’re in the US, after forming the LLC you just fill out another form and the IRS assigns the company a tax ID, and you sell under that name. In some states you may also have to register for state income tax. An LLC is called a “disregarded entity” for US federal taxes, so come tax time there isn’t anything special you have to do in this simple case, you just declare the game income along with your other income and pay whatever income taxes result from it. (Assume the usual not-a-lawyer / not-a-CPA disclaimers here.)
The 3-year IRS red flag thing mentioned by tiggus is actually 3 consecutive years without showing a profit; revenue isn’t enough. They will quite literally reclassify your business as a hobby and eventually start sending nasty letters. The other tax matter to handle very carefully (seriously, talk to a CPA if you want to do this) is the home office deduction. Probably more people run afoul of that one than the 3-year thing.
I think branding comes a bit later after when your company is big, because the most important thing for a small company is at least being more known outside to the world with the strangers is more important than branding.
It’s over $1,000 here in Kalifornia to incorporate (S-Corp, LLC, C-Corp) when state, county, and local fees are done with you. Your SSN (as a sole proprietorship) should be fine for most places, it’s all that’s needed for the 1099, which is what the IRS needs. If not, it’s most likely company not the government.
