The Gaming Studio That Never Began

In 2010, I began my first true business venture, and I have to say: it was harder than it sounded. I had been working in web and graphic design for several years, and then one day it just hit me: why not start a video game studio? Well, yes, it was just that simple. I logged into my Google Drive account (it may have been Microsoft Word, as I am not sure if Drive was around at the time) only to find that I had a script already written.

Super simple: I developed a fond 400-page Game Design Document (i.e. the Bible of a video game, sullied and forsaken, where every last detail - from the characters to the dialogue, to the actions, to the controls...) and posted it on my website. I found that in the midst of sanction, I had a grand idea, especially for a circa-2012 release. No, the game never got off of the ground, but this tale has a point, I promise: it is not hard to try new things.

I like to call this the "Ripple Effect" because upon completion, I had a very fond idea.

Mind you, this was before the days of mobile gaming, and so it was meant for a PC release. What I found interesting, however, is that I was able to recruit a team of forty people in less than three days. The unfortunate part here was, I did not have the investment to pay them. So, I cycled through numerous entries, trying to find the perfect dynamite team.

It was here that I realized how important a team is in comparison to a one-man show.

I cycled through over one hundred developers, from designers of characters to the programmers, so on, so on...until I found a key variable: the "Cumulative Advantage" by Mark Schaefer?in his book . We had the edge needed to merge our way into the video game industry for good...until I gave up. Now, why would I spend two and a half years developing a game that went nowhere? Well, I'll tell you what happened.

The Cumulative Advantage

The "Cumulative Advantage" is defined in?Mark Schaefer's book : "The Marketing Rebellion." I would go check it out on Amazon as it applies to all ventures, all quests, all milestones...you name it, this book has it.

Now, we were in a good spot here. We were one of the first video game studios to develop around that time. Independent developers were a rare breed, and this was before CGI and animation had become fully loaded with the goodies they do now. We had an edge: a unique video game idea that would sufficiently pay bills...

If So Unique, Why Did We Fail?

Simple: we gave up. This is not a tale of success. Rather, it is a tale of lost time. It was somewhere around that time period when puberty stops and the brain begins developing (a concept called?"neurogenesis" ). Yes, puberty ends at around 25 years of age, according to the latest studies, and I was not in the same situation I am now. If I could have gone back in time with the knowledge and experience I have now, I would have killed it.

When you start a business, venture through an idea for a product or service, or really just about any scenario in life, you can have a Cumulative Advantage (examples are the ever-chronic tale of "the rich get richer," where an initial advantage such as timing ruled kingdoms). We were ahead of our time. Way ahead of our time. The video game design world had not yet gotten to where it is now, but we tried ever-so-hard to get this game launched. Finally, we settled with an app and brushed the other project aside.

However, that was roughly three years later.

What do I do now?

It Was Too Soon...

When you develop an idea, remember that timing is everything.

We could have redefined a genre, incorporating multiple types of gaming elements that now already exist. If I had the ego to do so, I would claim that I was the first to this new element, where cinema and gaming merges into one subtle piece of work. When you think about the success (or the failure) of a project, you must always realize that you cannot simply open. You have to launch, and that is what gained our initial advantage.

In fact, even twelve years later, I am still seeing the "Likes" go up on our Facebook page (yes, even after the game fell apart!)

Timing Is Key To Anything

And that includes your business. When you think about that word: "timing," it can be a bit hard to understand how important that initial advantage is. If a man has $1,000 in a savings bond and another has $10,000, who will succeed faster? Well, a lot of variables feed into this, including the need for clothing, food and shelter. However, imagine that both people are equally educated, equally motivated, and equal in every other way. Answer this question:

Who will be $14,000 richer in less time than the other?

The answer is rather obvious: the one with $10,000.

But this does not mean you have to settle for less.

Rather, Peer Into The Future!

What we did with this studio was launch, not just open!

When you want to launch a product or a service, or a business, or a venture, you cannot just open your doors. Imagine a bar's first opening day. Who will succeed: the business that opens its doors and simply waits, or is it the entity that gains an initial advantage by putting giant lights up on the outside, promoting and marketing effortlessly in the pre-production phase, and invites thousands of followers (imagine a bar opening with a branded limousine that drives people to the bar) to get the initial advantage to get people in the doors?

Don't Open But Launch!

The bar (or in this case, our studio) drew thousands of followers because we were unique. You see, we had an initial advantage, but we were far ahead of our time. The platforms used to make video games now function effortlessly, in comparison to back in 2010-2012.

The graphics are better, the interface you play on is better, and the fact that the video game industry is now worth roughly $138 billion (versus $68 billion as it was then , roughly one-half the size) means more competition.

Perhaps Too Unique

We were so darned close to success, but we never finished. The moral of this tale is not to just gain an initial advantage, but to also know that timing is everything. Without timing, you cannot succeed; without an initial advantage, you cannot succeed. The one thing that beats "luck" is timing. Remember that life is not a rat race. Recent studies have shown that?over 17 million new businesses? will enter the arena in 2022.

That is a lot of competition, and most assuredly a number of variables play into this. For one, most startups close their doors in one year; 50 percent make it to year two; 30 percent make it past year three. This is a conclusion we all have to accept: that the world is changing drastically, and with so many pandemics amidst, wars overseas, and the like, adaptation is crucial, albeit, necessary. We cannot sit idly by and watch the world turn.

Allow It To Turn Around

In this case, video game studio or not, launching your company, not just opening the doors, is something to consider. Another variable to think about is to focalize one's attention on the future. What will be happening in the industry you are in one, three, five and ten years from now? There are legitimate ways to find this out on your own, but for now, I will leave you with one single line to finish this article: do you have what it takes?

www.NBreedGaming.com for more info!