Panel discussion: Thursday October 8, 2009
Panel discussion: Ontario game studios. From start-up to stability
By: Derek Maninang
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While the winds of a cool autumn October night blew through the streets of Toronto, inside the Metro building a room slowly began to fill with aspiring entrepreneurs and game industry professionals. Jason MacIsaac took to the podium and started the monthly IGDA meeting with a small introduction of each guest speaker.
The panel discussion comprised of a Q&A format where each question for discussion was initiated by Jason, who was also the moderator for the night. Among the panel of guests speakers were some of the established and successful entrepreneurs who were able to answer any questions the attendees had about starting up a local gaming studio in Ontario.
Their business ventures ranged from development studios focusing on console games to social gaming. With their collective years of production and business experience, the room of about 120 people was buzzing as they awaited the first question to kick start the event.
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Q: Where did you get the money to start?
Richard Hilmer CTO at Dark Matter Entertainment spoke of his early days where using his own money was his first source of funding. Ryan Creighton CEO at Untold Entertainment first used his severance pay that he collected from being laid off by his past employer to fund his first business venture. Ryan MacLean CEO at DrinkBox Studios explained how during the early stages of his company financing from angel investors was where he turned to. He also explained the advantages and disadvantages of going finance hunting with angel investors and venture capitalists.
Q: What route did you take to lead you to creating your own successful business?
The mention of having a balance by a few of the panel speakers was a common answer. Having a balance between the understanding of the hands on production processes involved at the studio as well as the knowledge and experience with the business side of running a company were both key factors to their success. Julian Spillane CEO at Frozen North Productions spoke of the importance of starting young. Being able to take those risks early in life eliminates any major failures that may be involved when waiting until a later age. He also brought up a point about having mentors who were able to critic and provide sound advice along the way. Josh Druckman CEO at Dark Matter Entertainment believes having the hands on knowledge of being an artist or programmer is a great asset to have along side business skills. He also brought up his experiences with big publishers and the differences between working under a contract with them verses a private investor.
Q: What kind of government programs or funding did you use?
There was a commonality between the answers when it came to government assistance. There are many financial programs available to help start up a small business. And many agreed that it would be a lot easier to achieve a small grant or loan from the government then it would be to attain support from private investors. When applying for government assistance many requirements must be met in order to be approved such as; number of years of business/ industry work experience, proof of annual income are just a few requirements you may be asked to provide along with your application.
Q: Do you ever play multiple roles in a startup company? And how do you find enough people to fill the necessary roles?
“We wear many hats” Julian Spillane said as he continued on about the importance of finding the right people for the job. Being sure that you hire the one person who shows passion and dedication towards making games as well as having the ability to self manage were very important qualities he looked for in a potential candidate. Ryan Creighton spoke of the importance of not only having to find the right staff but also having enough equity to provide competitive salaries which boost employee moral and maintain the dedication throughout the long process of production.
Q: What was the moment when you knew your company had finally hit sustainability?
A few of the guest speakers laughed at the thought of sustainability, mentioning how you can never really be stable. There is always room for growth and improvement. Ryan Maclean took the aspect of the word balance and applied it to being able to work on multiple projects which were big and small at the same time, so that he could maintain steady revenue. If one project were to fail, you would always have other side projects alive that would keep the company afloat. He also added that there were times in his past experiences where he would have to even turn down projects due to the work capacity that the studio was able to handle. Josh Druckman mentioned the big publisher business model, and how maintaining sustainability was only possible when milestones were met and money was being received at each deadline so that he was able to feed the pipeline process.
Q: Some companies get into trouble when they grow too fast. How do you manage this issue?
Take time in growing a company, and ensure that the right people for the job are being hired. This was some advice from Richard Hilmer who believed that having more time to make smart decisions in company growth, along with capable employees who were able to work effectively and efficiently were keys to avoiding trouble when growing. Ryan Creighton made a good point as well about the importance of hiring senior experienced staff which to many would seem less cost efficient, but to Ryan having a solid foundation of skilled workers was more of an investment towards successful growth.
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--->IGDA Toronto would like to thank Rob Berry and the City of Toronto for providing the conference room along with the coffee and donuts. A special thanks to all the guest speakers as well as everyone one else who came out to support this months meeting.
If you would like to get more information on any of the presentations or any other developers discussed in this article you can visit the links listed below.
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