Dear Entrepreneur

"it is going to take twice as long and four times as much money as you think to get half as far as you expected to go"

When you approach an experience investor, this thought is going through their minds. They are not casting aspersions over your competence, ...   more »

I strongly suspect that far too few game designers really understand what “entertainment” means. They do appear to be getting better at it, but are not quite there yet. They are also somewhat unaware of the “unintended consequences” of really good game design – consequences that can serious damage the long term viability of a game or even the publisher. - I'll explain a little hear about the 'pre-cradle to post-grave' user experience, and fun, and some design issues in games of every type - There is one drawback of getting this absolutely right, of course. Can you guess? Yes, long term: a really great game is compelling, addictive, rewarding and so damn fine you don’t want to play anything else. Which means, of course, you will never sell another game, as everyone will keep playing the last one. Did you think about that in the design phase?   more »

There are two good excuses for going to trade shows technical knowledge and business knowledge. I’ll examine both as they affect start-ups and innovators in computer and video games, and hopefully show you ways to make the $5,000 cost of getting to a trade show for a week (including beer!) much better value for money. I’ll also dig into what a world in which games are released on 3 to 6 month cycles means for innovators and trade shows. [PART 1]   more »

Rapid cycles of development and rapid changes of business model are now the norm in iPhone and mobile games. 3 to 6 month cycles, with constant patching and upgrading in the released version mean a radical change in the games environment. Much has been said about the technical and games designs issues involved, but what about the cash flow?   more »