4/29/2013 - A Business Perspective to Starting Projects

This week Jordan gave a talk on how developing and producing video games intersects with the business world. His focus was on what developers should take from the business world to be more efficient with their time and be able to communicate more effectively with those on the business side.

The first thing he brought up were the differences between programmers(developers) and entrepreneurs when it comes to creating a game. The core of a programmer's motivation when developing is to bring an enjoyable experience to as many as people as possible. On the other hand, "Business people" want make money. This doesn't mean that both sides can't learn from each other.

Jordan broke up the pre-development process into multiple steps:

Step 1: Feasibility
Do you have the technology? Knowledge? Tech support (for when you get stuck)?
Step 2: Buedget
Do you have time, interest, and motivation to see the project through?
Step 3: Market Research
Is there a market? What is the competition? What can you do to beat the competition?
Step 4: MORE Market Research
What is your distribution platform? How will you communicate with users?
Step 5: Post-Release Support
Listen to the symptoms the players bring up, but don't listen to their diagnosis.

Some tips:

If no one plays then no one is having fun regardless of how great the game is.
You can tell when your game is doing great if you have a consumer base that gets annoyed when you release a patch.
Do not bring other people into the project until you have done everything you can alone.