Decade of game dev studio evolution — lessons learned
Summary
For the 10th anniversary of Anshar Studios, an AA video game developer from Poland, employing ~160 specialists, I made a speech at a Digital Dragons conference:
From a Sustainable Company to an AA Developer followed my speech from four years ago — From indie to a sustainable company.
This article summarizes these speeches into a tight series of lessons learned throughout the ten years of running a gamedev studio. Enjoy!
Gain experience before you start a company
While many dream of young entrepreneurs ditching college to kickstart their own companies, that path might be apt for general startups. But if you’re zeroing in on founding a video game company, I’d say a deep dive into the industry is a better move. Why burn through your cash and learn the hard way when you can gain invaluable insights, get paid, and work in the industry for a few years? Plus, having experience with shipped games boosts your credibility. Fellow game developers tend to trust those who’ve been in the trenches.
Treat choosing a business partner like choosing a spouse
You’ll be clocking in endless hours with your business partners, hashing things out, and making countless decisions together. If the vibe isn’t right or the dynamic feels off, things can go south real quick. Even if it does click, it demands consistent effort from everyone to keep it that way — kinda like a marriage. So, choose your partners wisely. It’s got to be more than just, ‘Hey, we share a dorm room!’
Make connections
How you approach this varies based on your specialization and experience, but as with any industry, relationships are key. The go-to way to network in game dev? Industry events. We’re talking conferences, game jams, academies, and the like. My advice? Build a tight-knit circle around your specialty. Say you’re a Tech Director — ideally, you should be able to ring up top Tech Directors in your country, or even abroad. Share insights, seek advice, or just chat about the latest industry buzz. Don’t forget, specialized Discord groups are gold for connecting with your peers these days.
Cashflow is king
The top reason companies fold? Running out of cash. Always keep an eye on cash flow when making business decisions, especially when partnering with a publisher or taking on work-for-hire gigs. Things like milestone acceptance criteria, upfront payments, payment frequency, and due dates are critical to lock down.
Find the right investor
You might choose to stay small, aiming for a stable enterprise that turns a profit regularly — and that’s okay. There are game dev companies that thrive this way. However, many companies, particularly those with stock market ties, pursue growth. This doesn’t always mean expanding the team. But if you expand significantly, you’ll find yourself a mid-sized player in a vast pool with bigger competitors. To maintain or boost this growth, you’ll likely need a financial partner at some point. Going solo can make you vulnerable, unless you have some blockbuster titles under your belt for security. Yet, the trick isn’t just finding any investor with cash to spare; it’s about finding the right kind of money. Do you share strategic goals? Do your values and mission align? Does the investor genuinely grasp and back your vision, offering more than just funds? Perhaps it’s publishing capabilities, IP, tech expertise, or other knowledge. Opting for funding based on money alone isn’t the best strategy.
Fail faster
“Fail fast and follow the fun” isn’t just for game design. Whether it’s a core gameplay loop in your game or a feedback loop in your studio’s daily operations, the key is to test quickly and iterate. However, remember that failing simply for the sake of trying isn’t success, contrary to what Silicon Valley startup culture might suggest. Failure is beneficial only if it’s relatively quick, cost-effective, and you’ve learned something valuable from it that you’re actively using to improve.
Have more than one bank
Banks can go under, face liquidity issues, change their rules, or get acquired. They’re not a guaranteed service. Your assets could be frozen, or your credit line could be canceled. It’s always smart to have a backup.
People are everything
We’re in a knowledge worker industry, where the most significant value comes from executing an idea. Studios typically have little to no value in tangible assets. If you’re lucky, much of your value comes from your IP, but beyond that, your company is worthless without its people. The most critical asset you have is your ability to execute development tasks. Given this, one of the key metrics to monitor and enhance is talent retention. A bit of turnover can be beneficial — it keeps things fresh and ensures you mostly have people who are truly aligned with your company’s vision. However, high turnover damages company culture and efficiency, and hinders knowledge transfer among your team.
Additional materials:
You won’t be making games anymore
You’re either running a company or making video games; it’s tough to excel at both simultaneously. When you’re running the company, your primary role is to foster an environment where others can efficiently produce games. If you’re not ready for that shift, consider appointing a CEO and return to game development. Juggling both roles can be detrimental to you and the company.
Additional materials:
· Game Studio Leadership: You Can Do It by Jesse Schell
Adapt
You must remain flexible and continuously adapt to the market landscape. That said, whenever feasible, stay true to your mission and current strategy. This way, you capitalize on the specialization and experience you’ve already accrued. But always be open to refining the methods and tools you employ. Evolving and iterating your company is an ongoing process — there’s no final release date; it’s continuous live ops.
Keep in mind the industry you’re part of. You’re not just a VR or mobile game developer; you’re in the video game business, which at its core is an entertainment industry. If the landscape seems to be shifting unfavorably, be ready to pivot — change platforms, engines, or genres, especially if there’s a promising opportunity. Just remember that pivoting has its costs. Every time you venture into uncharted territory, there’ll be a learning curve, and in some areas, it might feel like starting from scratch with your company’s progress.
Free/fast money can change your company
Anshar Studios was fortunate to secure a substantial amount of government funding, primarily from the National Centre of Research and Development. If you find yourself in a position where you receive a large sum of money rapidly — whether from the government, an investor, or even from game sales right after launch — you need to be cautious. Many companies use this influx to grow quickly, and there are several risks tied to such a move. The most pressing concern is the substantial increase in costs, predicated on the hope that by the time the initial funds dry up, the investment would’ve started generating higher returns. This can be a dicey bet, and overextension is a genuine threat. Moreover, rapid growth can strain your company culture. Maintaining the quality of onboarding and other processes becomes challenging. The solution? Implement robust financial controls, ensure proportional growth in support staff, and have a solid plan for where future funds will come from to cover increased operational costs.
Have a mission
A mission helps concentrate your company’s resources on a specific goal and serves as a tool for straightforward communication, both internally and externally, about why you’re doing what you’re doing. Without a clear “Why” behind the “What”, rallying people behind your objectives becomes a challenge. Your company’s current strategy, which can naturally evolve over time based on circumstances, should always be rooted in the mission.
Additional materials:
· How to scale a gamedev company (“Mission, Strategy, Goals” paragraph)
· Start with why — how great leaders inspire action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound
· An example of a mission statement by Insomniac Games
Get your shit together
For a significant duration, and possibly always, you’ll be a bottleneck in your company. Decisions and actions will often wait on your approval, whether you’re taking them on directly or delegating. Delegating itself requires effort, especially when it comes to providing the right context and parameters for the task. A lot hinges on the team you build around you, but equally, it’s about your efficiency and self-organization skills. There’s a plethora of resources out there on this topic — some great, some not so much — but the crux of it is understanding that there’s an endless amount of work. Your role is to manage the pace, set priorities, maintain quality, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. It’s not about working harder or longer, but maximizing the quality of work in the time you can realistically commit without burning out.
Additional materials:
· „Getting Things Done” by David Allen
· „Essentialism” by Greg McKeown
· „Atomic Habits” by James Clear
· „Four Thousand Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman
Develop the company, not just the team.
At first glance, this might seem contradictory to the “People are everything” point, but it’s not. What sets companies apart from mere teams is the infrastructure that facilitates growth, support, and professionalization of game development. This encompasses IT, administration, legal, HR, and well-defined processes and procedures detailing how the company operates, from hiring to continuous integration. While all these elements are invaluable, they’d be meaningless without the people (the team) to begin with. However, these structures can significantly enhance the consistency and impact of the team’s work. Their importance grows with the size of the company.
Additional materials:
· How to scale a gamedev company
· Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t
· Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great, Book 2)
Be strategic with your bizdev
It’s tempting in bizdev to chase every lead, driven by the fear of missing out. While casting a wide net might seem effective due to the low average success rate, it often leads to wasted time on unlikely prospects. Don’t feel the need to attend every party or accept every conference meeting invite. Instead, curate your leads, eliminating the dead-ends, and focus on the truly promising ones.
For instance, if you’re targeting a publisher, don’t just send a generic email pitch. Research your connections to that publisher, find if they have events at upcoming conferences, or even schedule a face-to-face pitch if they’re nearby. Maybe tap into contacts who’ve worked with them before for insights. Instead of spreading yourself thin, invest your time wisely in meaningful connections. Remember, even with this targeted approach, you’ll face more rejections than acceptances. Build resilience for this journey.
Nobody knows how to make games
If you’re not creating a sequel or a clone with minimal changes, using the same team and tools, you’re in uncharted territory as a game developer, facing potential failure and learning on the go.
Because of this uncertainty, precise planning and budgeting can be a real challenge. To validate your game idea, you’ll want to use every method available, from peer reviews for game design validation to UXR-backed playtests and sharing your game with the broader public through betas or early access. The “Mike Cerny Method” and the ideation phase are essential here. Many games dive into production without a solid design or a well-defined target audience. It’s crucial to understand who your game is for. Some creative directors claim they’re designing games for themselves, believing they inherently know what players want. This mindset sometimes leads to arguments like “if we asked people, they’d just want faster horses.” I strongly disagree. Ignoring your audience’s preferences is a gamble, especially when aiming for innovation. Ultimately, the gaming world is unpredictable. The most iconic games often emerge as unexpected hits. All you can do, is try, there is no do.
Additional materials:
· D.I.C.E. Summit 2002 — Mark Cerny
· A Playful Production Process: For Game Designers (and Everyone)
Play the infinite game
The video game industry is unpredictable. Game development is intricate and often costly, particularly when aiming for high production values. Even though the industry is expanding, supply is outpacing demand, making mere survival an achievement. There’s a reason companies that have been operating for at least five years are seen as “doing something right.”
Anshar Studios has been around since 2012. We may not be the best, but we improve with each passing year, and we’ve persisted while many others haven’t. Your goal shouldn’t be to top the industry. Instead, focus on improving incrementally every year and ensuring you have the resources to remain in the game.
It’s not about beating the competition, but outlasting them.
Additional materials:
Final Thought
Running a game dev company is a daunting task. I imagine that running any enterprise where you combine love for the subject matter with the need to professionally run a business is challenging.
For those challenges ahead, I will leave you with a quote from the movie “The Martian”, which helped me tremendously throughout many perturbations in my gamedev career:
“At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you… everything’s going to go south and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end.
Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem… and you solve the next one… and then the next.
And If you solve enough problems, you get to come home.”
