lystn

Brian and Ike discuss the practicalities of how to get a company off the ground and rolling. If you're looking for work-for-hire, then this episode provides some useful ways to obtain client work and how to build up your business development. Today's Developer Diary Ike is back! He is fresh after working at iD Tech Summer Camp where he taught high school students game design. It was fun to show them how to make games and by the time they left the camp in two weeks they had their own prototype working on their own phones. Ike also rang his "game release" bell! Puzzlin' Pieces: USA is now available on iTunes, Android and Amazon. His daughter helped develop this new game about learning about US geography. If there's any Windows 8 Microsoft people listening, please reach out to Ike. He wants to release the game for Windows, but keeps on hitting road blocks. So, if anyone can help please reach out to Ike! Brian just got back from Seattle! After doing his very first talk at Unite 2014 -  High End Mobile Development - highlighting his game Gates of Osiris. During the talk he spilled some tips and tricks on how they're going about the art of the game, a lot of the effects and how they're building the terrain. Was what really awesome was during his introduction when he mentioned he was a co-host of the Game Design Dojo, people clapped! And people also clapped when he mentioned their responsible for the Tuscany World Demo for Oculus VR. Our listener Vinny came up and talked with Brian. Thanks Vinny so much for coming out to the talk! Contact Work/Work For Hire The secret to Fenix Fire's longevity has been balancing work-for-hire with their own IP. Brian has been an indie for the past eight years and was in AAA for the previous six years. So, he's actually been an indie longer than he's been in the friendly confines of being an employee. He owes this primarily to work-for-hire by getting good contracts and doing good business development. General Thoughts About Work For Hire: It's a balancing act - you don't have control over your clients needs and timetables and you'll have to work around their deadlines as opposed to yours Repeat business - is the most efficient way to get get more contract work Making your own games - can yield a lot of opportunities Have at least one game shipped - really important and brings credibility Where do you begin to try to get Work For Hire? For the purposes of this episode, Brian and Ike use the scenario of a start-up company either with a team of 2-3 or a lone wolf who has all the skills needed to make a game. So, how would you go out and start landing a steady stream of clients for full service game development? Approach #1 - Try doing pro-bono work Go to a bigger company and offer to make a game for them for free. You'll make the game for them, they'll share their IP and you'll market it. If you have the ability to pull this off: You'll be getting a game on the shelf to then go and show other people When you go to those other people, you're showing the work you did for a big company You might actually get numbers because that big company is going to be able to do a lot of marketing This is something that's recommended to do for your first project, you shouldn't do it more than once. But it's a great way to get your name out there and to build some credibility. Approach #2 - Make your own IP Coming up with your own IP and putting it out there does yield opportunities. Brian has had experience of this first hand when he released his game Roboto. Approach #3 - Target a category of companies Once you've targeted a category of companies that you're interested in, come up with a prototype or a demo that they can play on the device that you ultimately want to launch it on and show it to them using their brand. When they see it playing in the device, it will make it a much easier sell for them. Make sure it's something that you can expand upon yours...