Ed Dille (FOG Studios), Ronnie Nelis (Team6 Game Studio), Aaron Baker (Game Cloud Network), Jason Alejandre (Game Mechanic Studios), and Steve Fawkner (Infinity Plus 2) talk about building game studios that last.
4 minutes and 20 seconds of the video transcribed.
Ed Dille: Welcome everyone, We are going to be talking today about how you build a game studio that lasts. My name is Ed Dille, I’m the CEO of FOG Studios. We were the first video game agency in existence, started in 1979 and I’m joined today by four of my friends and clients who each illustrious in their own way. So I would like to go around the room really quick and give them a chance to introduce themselves and then I’ll talk about the format we will be using. Ronnie, you want to go first?
Ronnie Nelis: Hi I’m Ronnie from Team6 Game Studio and CEO of publishing house Lion Castle, in a business now for all of my life or at least 25 years professional and I released over 92 titles worldwide till date.
Ed Dille: Aaron.
Aaron Baker: Hey I’m Aaron Baker, I’ve started in the game industry in the early 90’s doing Super Nintendo games and I got hooked right out of college. I’ve been doing it ever since and I’m the Founder & CEO of Game Cloud Studios. For the last 11 years we’ve built and shipped I don’t know a lot of games. Thank you.
Ed Dille: Ok, Jason.
Jason Alejandre: Jason Alejandro, Game Mechanic Studios. Been in business and just about to hit the 12-year mark. Worked on a bunch of titles with other studios and we now just released yesterday, Wizards Wand of Epicosity on all consoles. We got some cool stuff coming up. Thank you.
Ed Dille: Jason when did you get into the industry.
Jason Alejandre: Like you know the first games I worked on was Genesis Muhammad Ali Boxing and Magic Johnson’s for Super Nintendo, so when I was 15 I sort of started making games a long time ago.
Ed Dille: So he’s older then he looks.
Everyone: Chuckles…
Ed Dille: Steve please introduce yourself.
Steve Fawkner: Steve Fawkner, I’m the CEO of Infinity Plus 2. I think I started back in about 1983 when I’ve made my first game and I didn’t get a hit before about 1999 when we did the Warlords Series, so a bit of a slow learner because it took me about 6 years to get a good game. It’s been nice since then. We did the Warlords games, about 12 spin ups. We did puzzle quest in the 2000’s and after a brief little flirtation with getting merged with Electronic Arts we kind of escaped out of that, and formed Infinity Plus 2 which is where we are working on the free to play Gems of War, coming on 6 years going really great, loving it.
Ed Dille: Super, thank you. So everyone here is the format we are going to be following. You know the belief we have collectively is if you are going to build a successful game development company the Founders and CEO’s need to be proficient in performing or managing all of the following topics and we are going to go through them one by one but we are going to talk about:
- Recruiting and retaining talent
- Setting and communicating a vision for the company and it’s products/services
- Raising capital via investment and/or business development
- Resource management, planning and executing to the plan
- Leadership, solving personnel issues, inspiring loyalty
- Customer Service, B2B and B2C
- Brand/Reputation Management
All of it is a factor in building a game studio with longevity. Now we are going to try and use some stories and real-life experience where ever possible. So Steve the first topic recruiting and retaining talent you had some insight there that you would like to share.
The rest is in the 51-minute video.
