As you know, I am the owner of @novarama, an independent games studio from Barcelona. We are not Bioware, but we managed to survive as a 30-people game studio for 17 years. So I thought I’d share advice on how to ensure your indie studio survives and thrives. Enter thread!
The reason of this thread is I’m advising several younger studios, and I spot the same mistakes over and over again, which put studios at risk. And, if you're old enough, there “10 commandments of studio survival”, which are quite basic rules to stick to. Here they are:
First, choose founders well. Divorcing founders is basically impossible. We have had the same shareholding structure since the start, and that’s key. People start companies with their friends or family many times. And when it goes wrong, you lose your company and your friends ;-)
When we started Novarama, we seeked to have all key positions covered: team leads are all founders. We were not friends back then, we met ad hoc to create the studio. Of course 17 years later we’ve become kinda friends, but the focus is work, not relationships.
Second, understand cash flow peaks and valleys. This is the #1 reason why studios die. They do a project, goes reasonably well (a “peak”) then need to cross the “valley” until the next project comes. And by not planning finances well, they bleed to death a too long valley.
During Valleys you burn cash but generate no revenue as there’s no game out. This is SO frequent, that to prevent starvation during valleys, I will devove my next 3 pieces of advice. Third: always be pitching. This idea of “we work, and then when a game ends, we pitch” is wrong.
We are always in pitching mode. A deal takes at least 6 months to materialize, so always be in the lookout. At GDC, Game Connection, everywhere, keep your commercial firepower always active. If you get too much work, you can always grow. And growing isn’t bad. Dying is worse.
Fourth: become multi-lane as quickly as possible. The best way to prevent starvation is to have several projects and work on them side by side. Valleys and peaks will be broken, and cash flow will be steady. And you reduce vastly your exposure if a gig gets cancelled.
Fifth: combine internal and external projects. I know a lot of developers who do their own IP. Then they disappear. Owned IP is fantastic: it builds value, it’s motivating for the team. But it’s also slow to build and mature. And it’s risky. Work for Hire, on the other hand, is…
… faster to find, and more predictable. Always do both. For example now at Novarama we have @killsquadgame, our own IP which we’re slowly maturing via Early Access. But we also have work for hire projects which keep us funded and are great fun as well.
Avoid the “if it’s not my IP, it’s devaluing my talent” mindset. That’s not true. There’s great IPs out there you can work on. Sixth: to get the last 3 points right, it does help to get an agent. Agents force you to pitch. Watch your valleys and peaks. Help you find IP to work on
An agent takes a % of deals found, and will do business development for you. I know many of them. We chose a USA based agency as it really does complement our Europe-based presence really well.
Seventh: learn to cancel. We all get attached to our game projects. To the point of never being ready to part ways with one, especially if it’s our own IP. But a game that’s not performing or is taking too long to perform should be analyzed and considered for cancellation.
You don’t want to bleed to death while waiting for your wonderful idea work after 7 years. It’s happened to us: you do a game, believe 100% in it, release, it fails, and you spend one year trying to make it work. Only to find out it was flawed from the start and still sucks.
Always analyze: is this fixable? Do we have the funds to fix it? Is this the best use of these funds, or can I make a better use of them somewhere else? Most of the times, the answer is: cancel. Learn when and how to do it. It’s painful, but the alternative is way worse.
Eight: have good advisors. Imagine you are at D-day on a landing boat on Omaha beach. Chances of survival? Pretty bad. Now imagine the same situation, but you have a radio link to 10 other soldiers, who have already landed and survived. Chances of survival? Way better.
So cultivate a network of mentors and veterans who can give you advice. They’ve faced what you will face. They know how to dodge many of the bullets you’ll encounter. This thread is an example of this. I try to mentor younger studios whenever I can. But, it should be more.
New studios often have this mixture of boldness and arrogance that makes them great, but reluctant to ask for advice. Most of what I’ve done right, it's because someone told me. So become friends with older people, and listen to them. It will pay off in the long run.
Nine: listen to everyone, but follow only your gut making decisions. It’s great to have lots of inputs. But, at the end of the day, it’s YOUR company, and nobody knows more about it than yourself. Don’t fail following other people’s advice (including this thread).
If you do, you will feel doubly stupid: first, because you failed. But second and worse, because it wasn’t even your plan to begin with. I try to be like a sponge, sucking ideas from everyone around me. But, when decisions need to be made, having just one criteria is very useful.
And tenth: have a lawyer. That’s easy. They seem expensive. But when things go wrong, they are the cheapest investment you will make. I know tons of them, in different jurisdictions (yes, you need one lawyer per country you operate in).
So that was my ten commandments of studio survival. If you need mentorship or advice, just fire me a DM, I’ll do my best. To wrap up, my 11th commandment is, enjoy the ride. This is a stressing industry, but it’s super fun as well. You’ll meet tons of cool creative people.
If you liked this thread, can you do me a favour and retweet it? Knowledge sharing is super important, and I think there’s valuable lessons in it. And if you really liked it, follow me, I’ll do more like this one in the future. Cheers!
