Is a full-time game startup business almost impossible to make?
I wish to be a game startup since I was a teenager, and I always look at some business startup news. I need to relies my realistic S.M.A.R.T. goals and my standard to be able to make a startup business. So far I think most game developers creates a side business only instead of a full-time startup business that will last long.
Here is my facts to support a fact that most game startups is almost impossible to create a full-time business. 1. In this video at 5min 6sec, tells that over 2/3 of business only have fewer than 5 workers. Which shows most of the startup cannot hire a lot of people. 2. In this video at 2min 30sec, tells that a good full-time startup person should earn at least $250000 CDN, and there is like 4x times bad business owners that earns under $40000 CDN, which cannot really hire anyone. Meanwhile, most of the game Kickstarter is not exactly earning as much as $250000 per year. Leaving that most game Kickstarter does not really seem to last very long with a full-time business. https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games https://www.kickstarter.com/fulfillment
3. To create a full-time startup business you might need to create a small indie studio that realistically cost like tens of thousand of dollar like this person who I think he failed to make a startup company. In this website link, he also have used up his hundreds of thousand of dollar to pay his 7 employees within 3 years.
Can someone tell me some hints, tips, or plans to create a game startup business? Or I must get with it and I will need to try harder. I just wish I can prepare to create a startup business a bit earlier.
Steps to starting a hugely successful game startup:
Be in the right place at the right time with the right game.
Really though, if the answer was on the internet, everyone would already know it. The industry is new enough that there isn’t an obvious career path like there is in like, being a doctor or a lawyer.
I know in Philadelphia, there’s Cipher Prime, who started their company as a Web development or graphic design company (I forget) in the daytime, then at night would work on their games until they released Auditorium and were able to go full time, and now do a lot for the Philly game industry. But again, your mileage may vary with a strategy like that, because maybe there was something unique about them that made that strategy work for them, maybe you might need something different. And you are the only one who can answer that question.
That all depends. Do you have a track record of successful games, have run a successful business, have the proper education/experience to run a successful business, have mad marketing skills that you can get people to buy games from an unknown entity, and a year’s worth of savings to live off of and pay employees? Without all of those covered, your business is doomed to fail before it even begins.
This is it. To make a startup company you must first produce a game that makes money. Funding, staff, marketing, kickstarter, none of this matters until you can produce a game that makes money.
Forget trying harder. Hard work is not rewarded. If it was, then we would all be manual labourers. You need to be doing the right kind of work.
Doing contract work for other companies while you are setting up your own is a pretty common tactic. Of course this means you must have marketable skills to contract out. Which drops right back to @JamesLeeNZ 's post. You must have something worth selling to bring in money.
Here is my old business notes that I think it should be accurate.
– You should create a good enough pitch that might can create enough revenue. Usually a game pitch and a game type of business focuses more on a personal piece of an artwork to present their own creative design and feelings to create more money.
– The owner should ask their friend from LinkedIn if anyone wants to get hire first, before the owner creates a job post inside a website.
– The owner should try to get more money to hire better workers and maybe lay off the weaker ones. So your company can create more money easier.
– It is all about creating a better management by learning more right knowledge to fix something more correctly. Changing more times without a right knowledge inside your company can still be incorrect no matter how much changes you make.
– Should always create the S.M.A.R.T. goals to decide on their finance and their time management.
– Should know that most good game ideas will supposedly get too old after a long time of period.
Is my business note wrong or does it sounds too strange and funny? I got most of this notes from the business people like my old teacher who owns a film business, but I might just made their business strategy sound like a bit funny. Or does those note sounds okay? I just want a feedback that am I learning this all in a wrong way?
Competing Selective Choice
· Competing selective choice, because of the open wide Internet sells have a lot competition with many different other companies.
· Compete with Idea Business Running, not producing more focusing, not only services mainly (Know that a product have a focus in selling a resource, service, or a idea.)(Games shop is a consumer market not a business market. Consumer market is an idea person (consumer want.) Business market is a production line person (consumer need.))
o Needs a lot of theoretical thinking and abilities to think of a new idea that matches customers wants
§ Idea connecting to feelings & emotional design
Community (community services is the newest type of business that is not just producing and selling only)
· Make press conferences and press release booth/ knowing how to do sales promotion and ads releasing to the public
o Fun Entertainment Fan base Focus Community
o Community Group Fundraiser type to gain money
§ Reviving feedback and testing your community to fix your company
Yeah, because my book version is getting too old. But there is a lot of marketing and business process development informations. It used to cost me like $50 three years ago.
@computertech what is your experience level?
I Have seen a few successful startups, and am currently working for one that after only 1 year is running with a very small profit margin. What all of these had in common were they were built by people with lots of collective experience in the industry. This new company i am at is being run by a former EA Technical Director, and a Product Manager that was formally part of Capcom that have nearly 40 years of industry experience between them. Also this startup also grew out of the ashes of a other startup so you don’t always get it on your first try.
If you are serious about this, i highly recommend you set it as a long term goal, and work in the industry first so you can learn as much as possible, network within the industry as a whole and bank funds away. For any startup even ones that are less risky it is recommend that you have enough money that you can stay afloat while making no profit for 2 to 3 years.
I am not trying to discourage anyone, just in my experience this is what it takes. Being successful isn’t about luck and right place right time, but it is about knowing enough to put you in the right place and the right time. It is about knowing how to build a climate for your self that offers the best chance of success, and if it doesn’t take its about evaluating why and trying again.
P.S. You wont always be able to do what you want, where i work we want to make our own IP’s but when need money as a runway to do so. There is no shame in having to extend that runway but using your studio to do work for hire. This work for hire is what is keeping my work place afloat right now, but we all always have our end goal in mind and we are always working about on our own content when the time and money allows us to do so.
My level of experience is not like starting a business yet. I was just reading business book as a interest and hobby to plan my business in the future. But, I am still a game development student. I have only done some computer artworks. I am not going to start a business right now. Maybe until I gain enough experience and money from a game job first.
