timing is everything, in flowering strategies as well as business.

are you putting out your flowers just as the pollinators are flying past, or when the wind is blowing? how do you know the time is right to launch?

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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 »

when handling frogs, or toads, first kiss them to find out if they are a Prince

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get the right tool for the right job.

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It is Ada Lovelace Day - and this is not something that you would normally expect a 46 year old, 200+lb bald bloke to write (or even care) about. But I am writing and I do care, because, you see, I have a secret.

You need to look back to ...   more »

Next time someone steps on your great new innovation, think of the cockroach. Then look them in the eye, lean forward and say "we will inherit the earth, you know". Then scuttle out, thinking of your next irrepressible idea. ...   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 »

It is not your job as entrepreneur to make perfect flowers. Would be nice if you had the time and the money and the expertise, but would the market be large enough?

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Sharp colours and fast movement, even in plants, attract the eye

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The Parable of the Stick => A man was walking through the woods with friend when his friend fell and twisted his knee. Seeking some way to continue to their destination, their eyes fell upon the coppice of hazel alongside the path. The man realised that a market need had been created, in which at least one person has an urgent requirement for something that can be supplied, and the features can be specified: it must enable one to walk, be portable, help reduce pain and be available immediately. (based on an almost true story. Read on here ->)   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 »

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Today has shown me why US business, and usually Californian business cleans up in tech.

Case Study 1 - in a bar, in a non-descript mall in San Bruno. On way to rest room (well, beer has to go somewhere), I meet a rack server clogging the hall with a ...   more »

Here is a stick, beat me with it later. Many pundits, charlatans and so-called-psychics make vague and untestable prognistications, and escape all consequences of their failure to be correct simply though passage of time. They are often helped by the tendancy of the human mind to be good at correlating things that happen with information, and very much less good at correlating things that fail to happen with anything at all. So, I’m inviting you to make a bookmark on this post, and set a diary reminder for about five years time. That way you can come back and tell me how badly I missed the mark with my forecasts. The things that I think are going to be really huge (as in: they will generate businesses worth over $1bn, at least 1 IPO at over $1bn or profits of over $200m a year) are:   more »

There is a basic principle in start-ups that if you do not reach approximately 2% of the market that you can address within the first two years you will slide back down into the snake pit. Momentum is everything. The critical factor is when you decide to start the clock. I have written on several occasions about the benefits of bootstrapping, and one of the largest benefits is that it gives you the control of the moment on which you start the investment clock, and, perhaps more importantly, you can get all of your mistakes out of the way before you start that clock ticking.   more »

“Everybody you meet in business is going to be nice”. Yeah, right! One of the best things about being in a start-up business is that most people are trying to achieve the same result, which makes for a friendly and constructive working environment. However, the sad truth in the world is that not everybody is there to help you. Rather like the Fox giving you a lift across the river in the children’s stories, some people are there to rip you off, make your life miserable, steal intellectual property, or just get one over on you. Sadly, fraud is a very real factor in business life. It is not my intention to make anybody about to launch himself or herself into a start-up become paranoid. All I’d really like to do is get off my chest some of the things which I have seen happen, and to give one solid piece of advice: If it looks too good to be true, just walk away, whatever you’ve already invested   more »

Most of my posts have been on general or technical business matters. This one is far more personal. If you react badly to middle aged men discussing their life thoughts, now would be good time to stop reading. However, if you are, like me, a little past 35 and wondering ...   more »

How much disruption can an industry stand?

The theme of GDC for me has been the confluence of forces of massive disruption, almost all of which are aimed at over turning the dominance of the current platform holders or channel owners. It looks like a very bad time to be ...   more »

I'm currently at GDC 2010 and realising that things have changed exactly as they should have done, given what I knew 6 years ago (when I was last actively developing a game).

It is at least 10x more:


Than ...   more »