16 million downloads and 300.000 da us later when those numbers can't keep us safe from a...
DESCRIPTION
Some of the biggest causes of a game studio to fail include: a demotivated and/or burned out team, lack of funds, legal trouble, not seeing the problems ahead, a neglected game and/or audience, internal arguments and publishing problems. At the start of January 2014, Critical Force Entertainment based of Kajaani, Finland had every single one of those challenges one way or another. This talk is intended to share the insights, learned lessons and best practices of how we succeeded through failing endlessly, even with a game that had a huge audience which we sadly never managed to properly monetize and the stigma of being a 'cloner'. Regardless of that, being creative and coming up with solutions to our problems on a step-by-step basis got us to become strong than we ever thought we could be. The main focus of this talk is on sharing our story of performing a complete startup turnaround regardless of the relative success we've had with our games. Topics include: Team Culture - we were lacking a defined team culture, so we decided to completely fix that Product management - we never had anybody focus on this, now we do Legal Concerns - we were facing 300+ websites that iframed our game from Kongregate, we show how we turned this into profit Funding - we were making money, but didn't properly manage our budget. Titanic Effect - we were focusing too much on growing quantity instead of improving quality Community - we had neglected our audience, now we're going to leverage them Partnerships - finding the right partners to work with has saved us a lot of hassle for a worth-while share of our revenues. We will be sharing concrete examples of how we tackled the above topics and will provide various forms of data, references, tips, best practices and learned lessons. Part of these can be found in the attached presentation draft. Intended audience & prerequisites: Mostly intended for small-medium sized independent developers or developers intending to start their own company. Session takeaways: We want developers to walk away with a new toolkit that allows them to see opportunity in every bit of adversity that might cross their path. Our story is but one of many, but will illustrate some of the most fundamentally necessary mindsets, perspectives and attitudes that developers can adopt to turn the biggest failure into something useful.TRANSCRIPT
The Complete Game Startup Turnaround
When even 27 million downloads and
300.000 DAU can’t keep us safe
Slides: www.slideshare.net/VGVisionary
Question
How much are you willing to sacrifice to do something
nobody else is doing?
Table of contents
• The story of Critical Force Entertainment
• What does a damn game startup turnaround look like?
• The lessons we’ve learned so you don’t have to go through this crap
• Summary
• Questions
Who am I?This is a talk by
Vlad MicuHead of Studio at
Critical Force Entertainment
Used to be the PR Manager of
Grambleworld.com
Did production, game design and creative direction for
arkavis Siam co. ltd. in Thailand
Wrote for many other international outlets including
Gamesauce.org, TechInAsia.com, PocketGamer.biz, Control
Magazine, Gamer.nl, XBLAFans.com, Casual Connect
Magazine and many more.
@vgvisionary
Partners & Clients
Where does this all come from?
• 600+ developers interviewed
• Personal start-up experience
• Advising multiple international studios & getting tons of advice
• Reading a BUTTLOAD on the interwebz & listening to other devs.
Not enough to succeed!The past 9 months looked like
this: • (A) Post traumatic stress from
layoffs, • (B) then just hoping the
wheels don’t fall entirely off the car,
• (C) then investing in product pipeline,
• (D) then on-boarding new team members and leads, then — and this is the place we’re at now —
• (E) solving for a repeatable viable business model.
Coincidence• Jason Gold
This talk is inspired by a blogpost on Startup Turnaround by Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab
(betashop.com)
He took a lot of words right of my mouth…
“The experience we will gain in this turnaround will be the most valuable experience of our
lives.” – Random Fab Employee
Our challenge: A complete startup
turnaround• Team• Product• Funding• Vision• Pitching
#1 What is our culture?• Team = Not a family, but
a well-oiled machine.
• Responsibility > Authority
• The ‘24H bother’-rule
• Weekly reports
• Shareholder agreement“I can say with confidence that Fab will win or lose based
on our ability to assemble and manage the right people for right now.”
– Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab
Adding the right people
Ben + Minh = 25+ years of game development experience
Do we foster young talent the right way?
• First month of intensive research & training
• Giving them more responsibility
• The simple rule: make informed decisions based on proven practices.
Free or Unpaid internships?
#2 Do we optimally exploit our own products?
300+ websites iframed the web version of Critical Strike Portable
from Kongregate.com
Solution: Funnel
CriticalStrikePortable.com
Early results
Success!
Now
2 Million users!
Earning us 19757.59 euros from Feb 25 – September 17th 2014
#3 How are we handling our budget?
• Monthly burn-rate: +- 20.000 euros• Major budget cuts!• Improve our existing
revenue sources– ad optimization – IAP design
• Find alternative sources of revenue
Bootstrapping: my example
• No salary• Living in the office• Travel costs covered
as a speaker• Computers from
university• Collected cans on
the street for ‘pant’ (Finnish for change)
http://blog.kurtvarner.com
Kurt Varner lived in his car for 4 months, renting a coworking space and using a gym
subscription to shower
Petsku from Zorg Entertainment sold his Transformers to fund his startup and game
AG Drive
http://i.imgur.com/yacucU1.jpg
The BetaDwarf team lived in a university classroom for 7 months before getting
discovered and kicked out
= Perfectly alligned jobs that allow you to work on/prepare for
your own dreams
(Smart) Work for Hire
Early results
“The Last Tinker is particularly eye-catching for being so colorful in a Viva Piñata-esque manner” – Destructoid
At first, I thought The Last Tinker: City of Colors was a childish game. It turned out to be the game that has made me smile the most in the past year. – TheDailyChill.co.uk
"The Last Tinker is a colorful and truly beautiful game." - IndieMag.fr
“Although The Last Tinker feels like a blending of different genres and earlier games, the gorgeous art style and creative story offer a vibrant new appeal.” – VentureBeat
115 Preview articles from February – April 2014
YouTubers
47+ YouTube videos from February – May 2014
with a total of 750.000+ views
Final Results
153 Reviews published after launch on Steam
AppCampus
There is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’
#4 Is all of that enough for us to keep running?
Focus > Growth• Different platforms
• Reskinning
• Growing audience
• 3rd party devices
• SDKs SDKs SDKs
We’re a fucking start-up!“What is Fab right now? Right now it’s a fucking
startup. It’s really hard. It’s intense. It’s a struggle. It’s
ambiguous. It changes a lot. It’s all consuming. It’s a lot of sausage making. It’s working weekends to hit numbers and dates. It’s stretching people beyond their comfort zone. It’s insisting on doing it better
even when it’s already pretty good. It’s being brutally honest about gaps and weaknesses. It’s one day you’re headed in one direction and the next day another, because the first move wasn’t the best
move. It’s being ok with things not working because that creates opportunities to learn how to fix it.
It’s a fucking startup.”
– Jason Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Fab
Vision: become the Riot Games of Scandinavia!
Company Mantra: Become market leader of real-time multiplayer
mobile games with a competitive e-sports community
Different attitude & vocabulary
Getting Funding from Silicon Valley video: http://youtu.be/72SBcjjpogg
• Sustainable traction – who’s ever used that word?
• Cash flow positive– or this one?
• Share holders agreement
• Business plan!?
Having everything in written
• Every important meeting
• E-mail followup
• Contracts, jezus!
#5 Pitching = Knowing thyself
• Know who you are and who you aren’t
• Know what the other person wants and doesn’t have
• Use that to disarm your opponent and put him/her in the defensive
• Make yourself rare/scarce
Learn from Eminem!
http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/
The #1 Skill? Resilience
But be prepared
A support system helps
ColleaguesMentors &
PeersTherapist
FriendsA FUCKTON of books
#6 Are we investing in being out there?
Trade visitor ticket: 80 eurosHostel: 29 euros/night
Indie Showcase participant: Free Hostel stay: Free for entire event Independent Game Summit pass: 200 USD
Hostel: 39 USD/night
Game Awards Nominee: FreeParis AirBNB: 60 euros/night (2ppl)
Our result: we’re getting there
Progress, huzzah!
A closer look
We’re sustainable!
Take aways
Take aways
Take aways
Summary
•Team•Product•Funding•Vision•Pitching
Further reading• http://www.businessinsider.com/kurt-varner-lived-out-of-his-car-for-4-months-in-silicon-valley-2014-8• https://eliademy.com/catalog/appcademy-online/appcademy-dealing-with-investors.html• http://www.npr.org/2013/03/11/174030515/making-mistakes• http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/13/how-to-get-funding-as-told-by-august-capital-video/• http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/06/24/the-margin-manifesto-11-tenets-for-reaching-or-doubling-profitability
-in-3-months/• http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/how-five-men-are-changing-the-business-and-size-of-game-publishing• http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2014/08/whats-it-like-to-lose-100000000-at-facebook/• http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-06-dan-adelmans-advice-for-indies• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2013/10/28/business-mentorship-and-muses/• http://www.businessinsider.com/if-someone-handed-steve-jobs-a-pen-this-is-how-he-wouldve-sold-it-2014-8 • http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-influence-anyone-2014-8 • https://medium.com/@morganb/ten-things-i-learned-researching-ten-of-the-worlds-fastest-growing-startups-
a53106e2599a• http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-entrepreneurs-creed-inner-beliefs-of-true-entrepreneurs.html• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/06/24/the-margin-manifesto-11-tenets-for-reaching-or-doubling-
profitability-in-3-months/• http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/how-to-negotiate/• http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/how-to-get-an-mba-from-eminem/• http://betashop.com/post/83367408084/its-a-fucking-startup-why-are-you-here• http://www.incomediary.com/decoded-17-secrets-to-jay-zs-entrepreneurial-success• http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/26/the-psychology-of-automation-building-a-bulletproof-personal-
finance-system/#more-1528• http://lifehacker.com/make-46-meals-for-under-100-in-4-hours-1480339310• http://blog.readyforzero.com/how-to-create-a-budget/• http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/04/the-top-22-mistakes-of-first-time-ceos/• http://www.zef.fi/building-incredible-company-culture-buying-tesla-wont-salvation/ • http://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-chad-dickerson-blameless-post-mortem-2012-5• http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/05/10/5-things-founders-dont-talk-about/• http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/06/07/70-disengagement-3-ways-to-engage-those-who-arent/?
utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter • http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/22/on-trust-founder-fall-outs-and-6-steps-to-getting-things-back-on-track/
Bonus tip: watch my other lectures
www.youtube.com/vgvisionary
Contact me
• @vgvisionary
• Mail me at [email protected]
• Slides: www.slideshare.net/VGVisionary
#imlonely
Thanks!
Questions?