Business
Posts about the art, science, and process of game business. Example topics include pitching, financials, and company structure.
That Tricky Platformer About Climbing Mt. Anxiety But That's Not The Name Of The Mountain
On why that game about stamping passports is so successful.
Ask Rami: The Ten-Thousands Rule
Rami reassures a South American developer on how much they can negotiate on a publisher deal before the publisher might walk away.
Pitch Stalling & The Risks of Publisher Feedback
Throughout 2023, the ecosystem for games has contracted significantly. That has made the practice of something I'm calling "Pitch Stalling" far more common, and as a massive risk to your game project, So what is Pitch Stalling, what dynamics create it, and how do you avoid it?
Pitch Template
A bit of a different post, and it took a bit longer to put together. I hope you'll all agree it's worth the wait: a ready-made pitch template, with the blessings of folks working at several indie studios of all sizes, and folks working at two dozen publishers.
The Publisher's Lie
There's one lie between game developers that has been repeated so often, so frequently, that it has now become all but truth. It is a simple lie: publishers fund indie games.
Upfronts, Guarantees, Recoups
Revenue share. It's a commonly asked question: what is a good revenue share? How do you navigate who gets what? And how much can & should you negotiate your revenue share?
Anti-Bullet-Points
I end up teaching one simple pitching trick often enough in consultancies that I'd thought I'd write about it: to ask yourself "would anyone ever claim the opposite"?
Min-maxing
People often think that running a business means "minimizing risk while maximizing opportunity". I don't think that's a smart way to run a business, and especially not if you're relatively new to entrepreneurship. I say: pick one.
Budget Viability
How realistic is your budget?
A Good Pitch
Why is getting a pitch right so difficult for many game developers? It's because they believe they're supposed to pitch a game when in reality, they're not. Let me explain.
