As well as a form of art and entertainment, games are about business. Whether you want to work at a game studio, start your own business or make games as a hobby, recognizing the dynamic landscape of the videogame industry is critical to finding your place. This course will introduce you to game production, project management, teamwork skills, and how to position your game ideas and yourself in the broader marketplace. By the end of the course, you will be able to develop an impactful portfolio of game work to get noticed and/or develop an effective business plan to bring your game to market.
Entrepreneurship
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From the course by Michigan State University
Business of Games and Entrepreneurship
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From the lesson
Entrepreneurship and Starting a Company
Starting a company isn't for everyone. But it is also good to know what goes into starting a company even if you're not the one doing it. Often times, as an employee, it can feel pretty arbitrary why a company makes the decisions it does (and sometimes it is, but for the sake of argument, we'll assume that the person at the helm of the company isn't just making random decisions). But, often there is a logic there and understanding why a company does what it does is often rooted in the logics that we will be discussing here.
Meet the Instructors
Casey O'DonnellAssociate Professor
Media and Information
Welcome back.
So now that I terrified you a little bit with the idea that maybe some tax entity
will want to come take your money after you've actually made a cool game, let's
talk about entrepreneurship, because it's part of what we're interested in here.
The games are a business in addition to a really interesting, creative,
compelling art form.
And money and business has always surrounded art.
Howard Becker has a wonderful book called Art World
that gives you a sense of the richness of even in some traditional art.
The business and
the complexity of that world, and the same really is true in games.
I think one of the important things to ask yourself,
if you're thinking about starting a company particularly you're starting
a game company, like, how many people wanna be their own boss?
Not everybody has that drive, wanting to be in charge, because it can be hard.
You're the person that other people look to for their paycheck, and when that
company, creators, or does well, you're bringing those people along with you.
So maybe you do, maybe that excites you.
That's great, I would encourage people to do that.
The younger you are, the more I would encourage you to do that.
Make those mistakes before you have a mortgage and kids and
pets and things that require upkeep and money.
So how many of you out there have this great game idea, or
maybe it's not even a game idea, that you really wanna develop.
Maybe it's a product or a service.
Do you have that idea?
Maybe you do, and that's an opportunity.
It's a risk, but it's exciting.
Now I guess, ultimately you have to ask yourself,
do you really have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, taking that risk?
When I was younger I did.
I don't always feel that way though.
But it's important to ask yourself before you jump in.
Particularly, if it means quitting your day job, or
moving in back with your parents or with a friend,
suddenly having a roommate when you haven't had a roommate in years.
Those are questions that you have to think about because entrepreneurship, because it
takes capital and money and time, sometimes you're making those sacrifices.
Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur,
which means that you're gonna undertake innovations and finance.
And you're gonna have to have a business acumen
really to transform an idea into a good or service that can be sold.
It's about taking a vision and putting it into action.
So this may result in new organizations,
or maybe it's part of revitalizing an existing company, right?
You're changing gears.
Maybe you work at a company that's like, you know,
we do all of these things that are related to games, why not make a game?
There are plenty of companies that have gone that way,
that you see an opportunity and it's worth the risk.
And so that question becomes, how do you want to orient yourself to opportunity,
and not letting limited resources stop you?
If it's a different opportunity but you have all of these skills,
sometimes you have to do that because the truth is lots of people have ideas.
Ideas about games, ideas about movies or books, or things, and products, or
services, and this invention that they really wanted, but
not very many people take that step and do it.
Go down, maybe to the local courthouse, or whatever the process is.
Fill out the forms, pay the fees, go to a bank,
open a bank account, and start a company.
Or jump into that new pool, jump into that new pond.
Not many people do that.
So it's exciting, but it's also risky.
So let's talk about the cycle of entrepreneurship because
it's important to think about that.
So in some ways, a great deal of entrepreneurship is about risk management.
And the first thing you wanna do is sort of to assess,
to figure out where the opportunities are, where the markets are.
Where are the places where you can jump into new markets?
And the next thing you wanna do is evaluate.
Is that really worth the risk for the opportunity?
What's the possible payoffs?
And then you wanna manage your risk, you wanna be careful.
What is the right amount of risk, or the right possible amount of reward?
Then you're gonna watch and you're gonna do some things and
you're gonna make efforts there.
And then you're gonna measure the outcomes.
Are you getting the kind of return that you were hoping for?
This is one of the reasons why many people who have jumped in to making games
on platforms like Google Play, or iOS, or the Amazon App Store.
They're starting to assess whether or
not they're getting the payoff that they want from that.
Managing risk is one of the key components of entrepreneurship.
You're trying to balance opportunity and cost.
It's important to think about that there's actually a lot of common traits in
entrepreneurs.
Now, sometimes it comes off as arrogance.
But this really rock solid belief in themselves and their idea.
And so hopefully, that comes from a position of competence,
knowing what they know.
Sometimes it's arrogance.
But there's a reason why people identify very particular kinds of personality
traits for entrepreneurs.
Oftentimes there's an unrelenting focus on that thing or that idea or that business.
Entrepreneurs are often some of the most driven and passionate people.
They have a vision for what they wanna see in the world, and
they wanna put it in action.
They wanna take that risk to see that thing exist.
And the third thing is a real sound appreciation of their own strengths and
weaknesses.
You need to be self aware, and I think that's where it cuts off that arrogance.
If you're really good at knowing what you're good at and
what you're bad at, that's just as important.
That sort of blunts that arrogance because you know, oh, I am not good at that.
I need to go find somebody who's really good at that, and
I don't care if it's finances, or marketing, or whatever.
If you're not good at it, go find it.
When I make games, I'm not particularly good at thinking about the overall
visual aesthetic of my game.
I'm really interested in the technical problems and
the design problems and the systems, and I'm not good at the aesthetic part.
And so I go find people that are really good at that.
And so that's a self awareness that you have to have.
As a game developer, you're going to need to be entrepreneurial to be successful.
It's a competitive marketplace.
Thinking about that, as you develop your games, how you're gonna fit into that
market, or maybe you decide that you don't wanna be a part of that market.
This is just a hobby or an interest or a side thing.
But even if you just want it to be art to stand on its own,
that requires thinking about the economics of all of it, too.
Most artists have to think about how am I gonna pay for my studio?
How am I gonna pay for gallery time to get my work out there?
So to bracket, or say that, well, it's just art,
well, there's an entrepreneurialism in all of that as well.
And so you're gonna have to do that if this is something you wanna do.
We're gonna talk a little more about if you decide to make that step,
how you might go about it.
I'll see you on the next video.
[MUSIC]
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