Successful startup: Is there life after death? (part two)

Illustration: Mystery Revenge: Hidden Evidence by Crystal Clear Soft

There are two possible options for a successful gaming startup: an indie startup and an investment startup. In this article we will consider the first option.

Before starting the review, I want to note that we are considering modern and specifically gaming startups, and not innovative technologies or other types of projects. And the discussed options for the development of events are not the ultimate truth, because all the information described is subjective and based on personal experience, the experience of colleagues. However, the described theses will help to get a complete picture of what is happening, compare expectations and reality, and draw appropriate conclusions.

So, the first way is a gaming indie startup. You have decided that it’s time to try your hand at independent self-development. It does not matter whether you will do the project yourself or with colleagues. We will consider the second option, but it implies the same as the first, excluding some minor caveats. Why is this the case? Because it is important to analyze the ideal development of events, because even in it there are a whole lot of pitfalls. And for more difficult situations, multiply the number of obstacles by two, or even three.

Axioms of success of an indie gaming startup

Before analyzing the options for conducting indie startups, I would like to announce a couple of mandatory conditions, without which a startup (even without detailed consideration) can be classified as a failure:

• Availability of necessary professional skills

It is obvious that without professional skills it is hardly possible to achieve any success. This is an axiom that hardly anyone doubts.

• Work experience in game development

Without experience in game development, it will not be possible to do something profitable and of high quality. Moreover, it is imperative that future startup colleagues (friends or just acquaintances) also have the necessary experience, preferably versatile.

A gaming indie startup. Expectation

Initially, let’s get acquainted with the picture drawn by our naive imagination.

0. Experience, professional skills, necessary team

This thesis is null, since it refers to the mandatory conditions for success.

So, let’s imagine that you approached the creation of the project responsibly, so everyone did everything according to Feng shui. That is, you have experience, professional skills, a team is needed.

Ideally, if there is not just a team, but a team of friends. It’s divine if it’s a family business (for example, a programmer brother and a game designer brother plus an animator sister). You are ambitious, consider yourself ready to conquer the peaks and look to the future with optimism, because after a whole mass of success stories, your own project seems ideal.

What’s next?

1. Determining the source of project financing

Before starting the project, you have decided on the sources of financing for your project. There are not too many options at this point:

• Own financing (in fact, lack of financing)

Logical for indie, but a losing option. Yes, you are not directly financing the development. However, you invest your time, energy and health in it, and this is also an investment, and not the cheapest.

• Third-party financing

This item means fundraising from free third-party sources, or, as fans of fashionable American buzzwords say, crowdfunding. The most famous example of popular fundraising for the benefit of sick and poor independent developers is Kickstarter and the like. Naturally, doing a project for someone else’s money is always more pleasant and profitable.

• Determination of potential profit “on the shore”

Although formally this item does not relate to financing, it is related to money, so it is here. Ideally, you immediately honestly agreed on the profit sharing and fixed it not just in words, but on paper.

2. Analysis of your own capabilities

You cannot launch a project without analyzing your own capabilities. It is quite obvious that if you have only a Unity programmer in your team, then you need to write a project in Unity, and not invent a bicycle and make it in HTML5. Or, if you have a casual artist, then you should not choose a project with a realistic setting. And if your game designer has been making quite successful strategies all his life, then it is more reasonable to do them further, and not to implement his “brilliant” idea of a unique mechanics for match-3, and only because he wanted to try “something new”, and the strategies are “already in the liver.” You are doing business, not playing Santa Claus, who fulfills the wishes of a game designer, so such an approach is a path to potential failure.

3. Determining the niche of the future project, its genre and setting

After you have analyzed your capabilities, the choice of genre and setting of the future project has sharply decreased. And now it’s time to make a final choice in favor of a certain genre and setting, its audience. A successful startup is not a project for fun, but a product aimed at success, so it should immediately be made for its audience

4. Competitor and Audience analysis

A thesis that is in close contact with paragraphs 2 and 3, logically complementing them. When choosing a genre and setting, you should conduct a brief analysis of your main competitors and understand why your project will be better. Why exactly he will be able to attract an audience. What kind of audience it will be.

Our CEO Mikhail Kharkov has analyzed these theses quite extensively in his report: “Genre and setting are the cornerstones of a successful project.” He also repeatedly touched on it in several other materials.

5. Development process

Having completed all the preparatory work, the development process starts directly. Ideally, you have a lot of positivity in your studio. Of course: friends, colleagues or relatives are nearby. Jokes, laughter, fun, fan. Everyone is set to work and are responsible, so tasks are done with pleasure and on time. Other problems do not bother. Everyone supports you. You don’t work, but almost live in paradise. The only difference is the absence of a blessing from the Archangel Gabriel before the start of work.

6. Completion of the project and its promotion

The closer the project is to completion, the more often you think about the publisher. But let’s assume that everything is fine here, too. You yourself or by acquaintance have found a great publisher. He gave you a good feedback on the project and helped you refine it to the required quality. The publisher provided you with contact with the feature team of some market (say, the App Store), which also gave its feedback, and you finalized the project based on these comments.

7. Making a profit

After the completion of the improvements, the long-awaited release took place. You were profiled by the market. In parallel, the publisher adds its traffic to your project. The press writes a lot of articles. Developers are giving interviews right and left, deservedly resting on their laurels. The audience is delighted, young maidens throw rose petals at the feet of the conquerors.

A gaming indie startup. Reality

Naturally, the previous paragraphs are somewhat exaggerated, but, in general, they convey the expectations of the team when creating a project and correspond to the most intimate dreams. But what happens when harsh reality sets in? In the vast majority of cases, a feeling that is called disappointment gradually arises.

0. Experience, professional skills, necessary team

In the harsh reality, there is never a lot of successful experience. If you have enough experience to succeed, then I give 90% that you have already succeeded. And not by participating in dubious startups, but inside a successful company (although there are exceptions).

Getting all the necessary skills is also not easy. To do this, you need to constantly improve your level, invest money in self-development (for example, various online courses are very popular among artists).

Well, to gather worthy partners for development is also not an easy task. There’s always a chance that your game designer isn’t nearly as cool as you think, right? And that the opinion of the art lead of your team will not coincide with the opinion of the audience for which he draws art.

In practice, it turns out that there are always some gaps that are eliminated at the expense of people from the outside who need to be paid. Or you need to solve these problems in other ways (persuasion, selfless help, ordering small outsourcing). And it’s good if you see a problem. It’s much worse when you confidently make a space setting for a match-3 project, and at the finish it turns out that you had to make sweets, and your art lead with the game designer was wrong.

Putting all the factors together is a really difficult task. No one is saying that it is unreal. But it is difficult and no one will give a guarantee of success.

1. Determining the source of project financing

The second reason for disappointment. Initially, few people think about it, but the project still needs to be funded.

• Own financing

Surprisingly, most startups believe that their time, effort and health are not investments in the project. Well, or investments, but not critical at all. Cheap. Small ones. But in reality, this is a gross mistake, which you need to keep talking about. This is a huge investment, which is much more important than money!

When you are young, you have a lot of time and energy. When you have a family, there is not so much time. And the forces are not unlimited. It is no longer possible to afford to work a week without sleep or live on a penny. This was written about in the first article. And not every wife will dutifully agree when you tell her: “Dear, we have started a promising startup here with the guys, and in half a year we will be rich. But we will seriously save these half a year, so I will buy you the promised fur coat for next winter.” I guarantee that the scandal is secured.

You must clearly realize that time is the most valuable thing in every person’s life. Even health can be returned if there is money. You may well get a new heart from a donor. But time cannot be returned, and to think that there is a lot of it is nonsense.

Even when you are young, you can spend time studying new technologies (for example, you write on a flash drive, but you can learn conditional C++ in the evenings), on online courses or other training, on outsourcing work (direct earnings of funds), etc. And if you are developing, then you can do more work and ask his employer in the company has more favorable financial conditions – this is a direct dependence. Older developers have families and children, and they will have to choose between evenings with their beloved family and evenings at work.

And the strength? Are you ready to spend your health and sleep 5 hours a day for this? We often do not understand this, but sleepless nights actually take away days of life in old age. And your health? Hardcore developers will understand: count the amount of coffee drunk at night and multiply by the cigarettes smoked.

And the most paradoxical thing is that even if you understand all this and you have the finances to solve these problems, doubts still come sooner or later. Something is not working out, something is not going according to plan. Not everyone is mentally ready to go through doubts, depression, disappointment and other difficulties in order to reach the finish line. It’s difficult, because you will always doubt the results. Well, or until there are exact figures that guarantee that success has come.

In addition, I want to mention one more sub-item. It is specially located below, because, as already mentioned, time and health are the most valuable human resources, and money always comes and goes. We are talking about potential lost earnings. It was mentioned above that the time spent on a startup can be spent on the same outsourcing. Even if we take a relatively cheap hourly price, but for a long period, then a good additional amount of earnings is obtained for an ordinary developer. And this tit could be in your hands. But instead you chased a crane in the sky.

• Third-party financing

In reality, to start fundraising on the same Kickstarter, you need a beautiful video that will reveal the essence of your idea. You need the most original idea that people will believe in. You need to clearly and competently state this idea. And finally, you need people’s help. What is the probability of this? It is very easy to calculate:

– Evaluate the budget of your project taking into account all future expenses and improvements;
– Go to the Kickstarter and take a random sample from N projects;
– See how many projects from this sample have collected the amount you need.

The result of the sample is the probability of success. Obviously, an acceptable probability can not be expected.

There are thousands of “hungry” developers like you on any similar Internet portal. And how are you better than them? And are you really better? Is your idea really so original and inspiring that people will believe in it and you, and will finance the development? I know many real examples when very strong professionals tried to get funding through crowdfunding and failed.

And do not forget that even if they start giving you money, there is no guarantee that they will last until the end of development. That is, you always need to be mentally and financially ready for the first scenario (your own financing).

• Profit distribution

Let’s assume that you have made a successful project after all. But in reality, there is a very high probability that there was no contract on paper. And then the most interesting thing begins: friends become enemies, relatives are ready to give up each other for money. Well, if it’s not. But in life, even the division of inheritance turns into a grandiose scandal.

That is, in general, it is obvious that at this stage there are also many pitfalls and reasons for disappointment.

2. Analysis of your own capabilities
3. Determining the niche of the future project, its genre and setting
4. Competitor and audience analysis

In reality, few people take into account paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 at all when developing a project. For some reason, in our mentality it is considered normal to do first and then think. The end result of this illiterate approach is obvious: the developers did not analyze anything, started doing, did, failed. We will talk about the results of this failure a little later.

5. Development process

The development process is a solid pitfall. It also needs to be sustained.

• Disputes and quarrels

It is necessary to be able to argue, but not to offend. It is necessary to be able to choose a rational grain from disputes. It is necessary to be able to make competent decisions if the opinions in the team are divided. Compromises must be sought. But not many people can do it.

• Responsibility

Not everyone approaches their work responsibly. Someone gives his best for 200%, and someone allows himself to work for 50%, and devote the remaining 50% of the time, for example, to his girlfriend. On the basis of this, quarrels and discontent arise. And there are also downtime in terms, because such a “reveller” does not have time to do his work on time and everyone is waiting for him.

• Professionalism, qualifications and management

It’s good if you have enough professionalism to do everything correctly. It’s good if there are qualifications. It is good if there is a manager who can competently plan teamwork. And if something is missing or not enough? Problems come, which, in turn, generate disappointments.

• Development time

Another pitfall. In the beginning, when motivation is off the scale, everyone plows like an ox and is ready to devote 100% of the time to work. And then come the harsh everyday life. Motivation is falling every day. Finding the strength to self-organize is becoming more difficult. As a result, the development time is gradually blurring. And we already said in the first article that potential competitors appear in stores every day, so every day of delay is an increasing risk of failure.

• Life problems

Thesis related to the previous one. Life often takes its toll. Someone is sick, someone has a small child, someone is being taken to the army, someone has a session at the university. Thousands of reasons. And the team is not bound by obligations, so in the end the person leaves for an indefinite period, and there is no one to replace him, because this is not a streaming development within the company. And again you have to get out or wait. And waiting is stretching the development time. And to stretch time is new competitors, etc.

• Moral fatigue

It appears if developers have to develop their own game in parallel and work at another job. It is no less morally difficult to risk the absence of work and devote 100% of your time to your startup.

• Lack of necessary personnel

This paragraph does not mean permanent human resources, but additional assistants: beta testers, sound engineers, video directors, etc. It can also include just people-consultants who can help with advice and business in various difficult situations. It’s good if they are all available and ready to help. And if not?

Also, dozens of small pitfalls can be attributed here, which sooner or later may make themselves felt.

6. Completion of the project and its promotion

Let’s assume that you managed to assemble a team of like-minded people who united, gathered and earned effectively. The process is coming to an end by leaps and bounds and you have started looking for a publisher. And at this moment, the harsh reality continues to take its toll.

• Own marketing and promotion

Naturally, first you will think about your own marketing budget and your own promotion. And then another disappointment.

Firstly, we have already discussed the topic of our own marketing in the first part of the cycle. It is very expensive, it requires good specialists. We need our own analytics, we need our acquaintances in the press and stores. We need advertising at conferences, etc. That is, we need a lot of everything, and a simple team of indie developers often does not have money even for a CIS conference, and not for some Casual Connect in Amsterdam, or a conference in Asia or the USA. But that’s where the biggest players of the industry gather, that’s where you can make very useful personal acquaintances.

Secondly, it would be ideal to get a feature, for example, from the App Store. But there is also disappointment. Stores don’t feature just like that. They feature unique projects. They feature original projects. And if they feature a conditional runner, it’s only because of personal acquaintance with the feature team or as part of cooperation with major publishers (there is a strange confidence that the new runner from the creators of Subway Surfers will be profited). It’s almost impossible to get to know the feature team personally. To do this, you need money (to come to them), appropriate connections and contacts. But even this does not guarantee the result. With a good option, you will be able to contact them yourself, they will look at the project, give feedback and wait for the results of corrections. And then again. And there will be so many iterations until the project is ready for the feature. And this, again, is time for improvements and considerable financial costs. In the worst case, you will immediately have a polite refusal. Well, unless only if you have not done some super project that has attracted attention, and the feature team will write to you itself.

That is, in fact, this path is practically unrealistic.

• Release of a project with a major publisher

It is logical that, having crossed out the first option, you will go to large publishers, such as Chillingo, etc. And again disappointment: if earlier publishers recruited as many projects as possible, today the trends have changed. Now large publishers take much fewer projects and try to concentrate on quality. To give good analytics, to help with improvements and promotion, etc. That is, it is very difficult to find a large good publisher.

Moreover, even if you are lucky enough to find a great partner, it’s too early to rejoice. Surely after watching the game, he will give a massive feedback and you will have to redo the project. Well, if partially. But, in my experience, this happens very rarely. Someone is redoing some mechanics, someone is working on monetization, someone is completely changing the art concept of the game, reworking it. And in any case, these are not just financial costs, which, by the way, are again very significant and which you will pay out of your pocket (well, or if you are smart, then agree to finance them 50-50; ideally, the publisher will pay for the improvements himself, I know such examples, but believe me, this is a very big rare). This is also an additional job that falls on your already tired shoulders. And God grant that you can do it in a couple of months. But many projects are being finalized for three months, and half a year, and more, so if you think that there will be only one iteration of improvements, you are naively mistaken. And this is only a wave of the first improvements, those that go before the release of the project.

In the best case, it will be necessary to insert a statistics tracker from the publisher and make minor improvements and bug fixes. And to insert statistics from a major publisher is to read a 25+ page document and implement it. From experience, this is at least 1-2 weeks, because she tracks everything in a row and in all places. It’s a good thing, though, that the tracking data obtained is usually several times more accurate than that of standard SDKs. And in total, even these little things will not be done quickly, that is, you will pay again for improvements. The only thing that can calm you is the anticipation of the result. A major publisher has connections with feature teams, excellent analytics, press relations, and its own traffic of all categories. That is, such cooperation will certainly be profitable. But not guaranteed! Consider this!

• Release of a project with a medium or small publisher

But do not think that you will be lucky. Just the opposite. Most likely, a large publisher will refuse, so you will have to go to medium and small publishers. And then – another disappointment.

Today’s trend shows that such publishers have a simple policy. First they look at the project and evaluate it. If he is more or less attractive, they undertake to publish. If you are not attractive, they refuse. Statistics collection systems are no longer their own, which are accurate, but someone else’s. Conditional Flurry, for example. And it has a margin of error. At best, you will be helped with analytics, but it is not guaranteed to be of high quality. In the worst case, you will not be helped with analytics at all. They will give some small and not critical feedback on the project and a list of necessary SDKs for integration. You will do all this and the project will be released. If the starting figures are of interest to the publisher and the prospect of finalizing the project to profitable indicators is visible, the project will be polished. If the numbers turn out to be uninteresting, you will simply be told to look for another publisher, or the project will hang like a dead weight from the current publisher and will never make a profit. There are practically no publishers who will undertake to polish the project to the required indicators if the first release was a failure.

Often, as it happens: the project has average indicators and potentially it can be brought to mind and make a profit. But many publishers simply do not have enough qualified personnel and high-quality expertise in order to conduct competent policing. They understand this and refuse to engage in polishing the game. As a result, a potentially profitable project without a skilled hand of a master will simply rot, although it could earn money when carrying out certain works. And you will either have to put up with it, or personally engage in expertise and finalize it at your own risk. This requires, again, experience and knowledge. Not everyone has them, so if you decide to do this, you are 95% likely to lose even more time and money.

7. Making a profit

And even if you are very lucky and success has come, do not think that you will rest on your laurels and get a well-deserved rest. As if not so! The work is just beginning! Whether it is a large, small or medium-sized publisher, the process of constant improvements of the project will begin. There will be an emergency: adding new content, improving monetization, developing new game mechanics, refining old mechanics, etc. And if you are told to localize the game to the Asian market, for example? Your head will be boiling with tension. Of course, all this will not be so critical, because there will be a real tangible profit – profit. If the game “blew up” the markets, there will be articles and interviews. If this is a new World of Tanks, there will be young maidens with rose petals. And if it is just successful (let’s be honest, this is the most realistic option listed), then there will simply be profit and inspiration for new exploits.

But even here there is not without a worm: publishing and profit are not only positive. You will have to sign contracts, and even before the publication of the project. That is, you need to somehow register your activities, draw up documents, pay taxes, etc. In general, the next costs for lawyers and new problems are added to your pretty gray head.

Consequences of the failure of an indie startup

Completing the analysis of this path, it is necessary to separately consider the negative outcome of events and its consequences. If the advantages of the success of an indie gaming startup are quite obvious, then what are the disadvantages?

1. Waste of time

I do not get tired and will not get tired of repeating: time is the most expensive resource in the world. Along with time, a person loses other potential opportunities to succeed in this area or any other.

2. Loss of money

Another obvious lost resource. As we have already discussed above, any unsuccessful game project involves the loss of finances, one’s own or someone else’s, real or potential.

3. Loss of health

And another important resource mentioned. It is obvious, it has already been mentioned and there is no point in talking about it further.

4. Lack of positive work experience within any company, lack of career success

In fact, time is wasted. No successful work experience has been gained within the company, there are no career and financial successes. There is nothing but a negative experience and the thought: “A bad experience is also an experience.”

5. Lack of a normal resume

Having failed your own startup, you will have to return to the realities of a cruel life and look for a job in the company. For a well-paid job, you need knowledge and a resume.

And it is desirable that there are many projects in the resume. Ideally, if successful. And an unsuccessful startup will have only one project in his resume after a conditional six months of development and failure. And an unsuccessful one. Which even has nowhere to look because it’s closed or it’s a shame to show it.

The main question is: is success as real as it initially seems? If you were born in a shirt, and at the start of the project the Moon was in Capricorn – yes. Speaking without irony, success is unlikely. It is necessary that a lot of the factors described and not described above come together so that the developer is very lucky.

And only then will he be able to enjoy his first, but such an important victory.

But in reality, for example, there is always a chance that during the development of your conditional bodybuilder, a bodybuilder from some company like Zynga will appear on the market. Will your project be able to compete with it? I don’t think. Even if you have an original indie game, such a risk still exists, although it is several times less.

And besides you, the same ambitious young people also launch startups every day. Compare yourself and them. Are you really better? Do you really have a better chance of success? Answer this question honestly and make a decision.

 

Also on the topic:

• Successful startup: Is there life after death? (part one)
• Postmortem Shovel Knight