Confessions:

February 10-12 2009 Casual Connect Europe 2009

Starting your own game business

Jussi LaakkonenEveryplay

February 10-12 2009 Casual Connect Europe 2009

Full presentation with notes & audio

track:http://

jussilaakkonen.wordpress.com

Hi, I’m Jussi!

CEO,founder

since

Aug 2008

Main organizer

Entrepreneur for 15 years

Demo & LAN party with >6000 visitors a year

Business developmen

tdirector

Multimillion € deals

Produced games

Filled the dishwasher

Console racing games

>3M units sold

previously

Confessions

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Why starta (game)business?

Passion – I got to do it!Do your own thingNobody else gets it!Change the worldThe last great adventureGet rich quick epic fail

must have killer idea,

right?

your first idea

will suck.

get over it. get going.

so,my first idea?

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”Hype or real deal?” panel

virtual worlds, microtransactions

heureka!the

future of games!

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Guild Wars

+co

nfessions

”Diablo 2 Casual MMO”

&

a ”me too” idea

killed it earlyP.S. check out Guild of Heroes

on Facebook ;-)

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Just a speed bump.

I knew the future!

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Look for the

opportunity

big risks

high growth

new audiences

mass distribution

change in behavior

disruptive technology

unclear business models

something that currently sucks

Customer baseViral distribution

Rule changing

Persistent onlineVirtual goods

Flash

DistributionPaying customers

Finally mobile doesn’t suck

Persistent onlineVirtual goodsUnity, Flash

XBLA / PSN?

Games in non-game apps

New domain & customersUnproven

social gaming

co-creation with users

persistent world

virtual goods

open web APIs

Flash client

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Does it make a tasty soup?We’ll see...

an idea & promising market =

ideas are a dime a dozen

execution is king

PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE!!!

PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE!!!

So good that they can walk

on air!

2-4 founderstech, biz, art, design

because you have toget more done with less

Smart people who get things done

Marissa Mayer, Google

FIERYPASSION

Get somebody who hates selling less than starving

don’t hire a suit

No assholesA single person can

destroy your new company.

Bizdev

Sales, marketingPartnersStudio mgmt

Server lead

Game server

CEO

Product ownerProductionPR, finance

CTO

Game client

Design

Detailed designGame mechanics

All art

AD

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GET STUFF DONEFAST

Agile & Lean for

EVERYTHINGNot just code, but also

business and management

All your plans are just guesses

Release early & often

Measure

Learn

Implement

9/10

startups

die because

they

couldn’t

find

customers

Develop your customers

Don’t worry,

be crappy.Guy Kawasaki

We game developers in general SUCK at real user driven

iterative development.

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Radically new stuff for me.

Scrum for productionCustomer development

for biz.

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Still learning it.

It always takes longerthan what you expect.

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5 months of iterating, learning. Reduced scope for earlier

launch.

So, where do I get the money so that

I can start?

nobody said it was easy.

your own savings

1.

Friends & Family

2.

Work for hiregames and other industries

3.

R&D tax creditsAvailable in most EU countries

Tax credits, grants or loans

15-70% of R&D costs

Paid months after costs were incurred

4.

Preproduction grants

National, regional & EU wide programs

10 – 100 k€, max 50%

5.

Angel investorsNot many ”game millionaires”

vs. a lot of ”IT millionaires”

Hard – not impossible

6.

publisher advancesa.k.a. paying customers

Only after you’ve alreadyspent lots of money

on the prototype

7.

Seed fundsSemi-governmental

e.g. VeraVenture in Finland 50-500 k€

SeedCamp, Y-Combinator...10-50 k€

8.

Venture CapitalFuel to grow faster.

Not for new companies or hit-driven game studios

Only for scaleable businesses like MMOs

Great if you will be sold for >50M€ in less than 5 years.

9.

2007-2008: VCs invested

$1,7 billion in online games

Still available for best game businesses.

1.Own savings

2.Multiplied by public grants and R&D

support

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Started with

Our success recipe forpublic grants & loans:

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Strong team

Bold vision

Game + platform

Own money invested

Experience with the paperwork

Win one, and a snowball effect starts

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So, what does it feel

like?

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Loving every minute!

startsmart