In this episode, we sit down with John Smith, a veteran game developer known for his work on several AAA titles.
John shares his experiences working in large development teams, the importance of storytelling in games, and his perspective on the current state of the gaming industry.
Whether you’re a gamer or aspiring developer, John’s insights are invaluable.
what do you think is the secret to developing a game that stands out in 2024 now you need to find the
opportunity which is the mix of different maybe geners but not only Jers
but also Technologies art styles do you feel like people in the gaming industry
have kind of forgotten about the joy of what the game’s going to do and they obsess too much about money it’s a kind
of red line that you need to to be very careful every month you are burning
money let’s try to start some side project maybe a little small work for
higher because then a publisher or investor come to you and they say oh but
you are only eight people you cannot handle it it’s impossible bye-bye you mentioned before we started recording
you had loads of disaster stories and then successes as well so I’m just going to ask you the big question like what is
the biggest disaster that happened and how did you overcome it oh it’s not easy to select the the the
the biggest disaster if you have a one marketing plan and one of the versions is not ready when it’s needed to be
ready you are dead you know what I mean we we were very very very affected by uh
covid we need to accept it okay let’s survive then we signed it a Russian
publisher you know what happened Russia started the the war with Ukraine oh no
yeah Baron welcome to the podcast I want to
start with how we met which was two weeks ago how did you find that party that we went to oh amazing uh it was
unexpected to be honest it was an incredible time um I went to Dubai with
no too much expectations uh invited as a speaker just to explain how we survived the last
seven years as an indie developer but then I found a lot of contacts a lot of people
first day was incredible and then also the party and everything that you organized so yeah it was
uh yeah incredible so very well very well amazing so let’s start with could
you please tell us what do you do and what are you making at the breach Studios let’s paint a
picture of course um at this moment uh in the brid studios I am the co uh you
know the guy for everything so basically when you are a CO you need to to make
everybody happy uh and and do the commercial stuff uh at this moment uh
after almost seven seven years um uh we
founded founded the company in 2018 um we are looking for a publisher
right now or investor after these years where we we we did a lot of different
staff work for hire um uh our own projects Etc but we feel that now it’s
time to be more focused on our own IPS and that’s why we are looking for investors or Publishers and it’s 80% of
my work nowadays is uh talking with uh these companies and try to to to make a
deal with them but then of course you know everything related with the day today of the company it’s also my hands
loads of stuff to get into here and that’s not new to you is it because you were the chief marketing officer before
like you wasn’t a CEO of a previous company so let’s dive into like what happened before the breach that’s led to
you now being the CEO of this company that you recently raised $4 million I guess to date and now we’re looking for
the final thing so yeah what’s happened to Fan before you got to this point I started in
1998 more or less uh around 2000 um I started uh organizing uh
Starcraft championships or the first uh servers of Counter Strike One .6 so I
was more in the Esports side of things but at that time the word Esports was
not there in the market so we we we we were kind of pioneers in in in this in
these championships you know the CPL at that time it was a c atlet professional league but then I started uh creating uh
PC shops you know the the places with a lot of PCS uh I started with one in
Barcelona and then we grow a lot to 25 places
around Spain where the people can could go and play and it was amazing during
six years uh it was a franchise that I sold it was my first exit it was amazing
and then I moved to development in 2006 you know Java Games uh we used to to do
the first Unity games uh we work for big Brands uh uh Bank or water institutions
in in Spain so our own projects but small Indie projects but then also were
for hire for big Brands then I I founded a new company in
2011 it was it was amazing because it was get at games I was the CMO there as
you mentioned but also one of the shareholders uh and co-founder uh with
gerar p j p used to be a former football Barcelona player and he was the the the
investor and the and the president of this company it was amazing trip during
seven years we launched several games the most successful one was uh called
Golden manager we reach almost 100 million people with this game it was incredible because it allow us to grow
the company from 10 people to almost 100 uh and we we we we managed this game for
six years years in live hops so we learn a lot about multiplayer live hops you know and then finally in
2018 I I decided to found uh the brid studios after this uh amazing six seven
years with with jard and and and K games and yes it was my previous career in in
a very brief uh answer yeah and I find what hearing you talk about it it’s got
on you a lot of skills that are very useful for what you’re doing right now because you got the marketing side the orts the promotion and and I’ve seen the
game in person it’s like I can see how all of this is very useful to what you’re doing right now so yeah I want to
ask you like what do you see the role of a CEO is because every CEO I talk to do different things and hearing you say 80%
of your time is on the commercial side now like what do you see is the role of the
CEO we’ll try to make a couple of sentences uh the first one should be
keep the company alive it could be your first uh goal and
motivation uh second one make everybody happy uh so you need
the people to be happy in the company uh you know at the end of the day you are the first reference that they have if
you are not the first uh in in the company you need to be second the first
it’s preferable and yes hard work to to
be a mirror for the others you know and uh trying to create a culture you know
because of course the culture is something that we do all together but at the end of the day you need to to put
the basis and the focus on what’s uh what’s a company you know for example in the bridge Studios I had a very clear
idea and again it’s uh because of my background I used to be a lot of time in
Finland you know I I love Finnish uh uh management uh I used to work with Robo
um do a lot of collaborations also with supercell this kind of of companies I
did my studies uh I did my master on video games in Alto University in Helsinki so I I I learn a lot about how
these Nordic guys uh do things in the companies and I love it so here in
Barcelona the bridg studios is one company that has a lot of Nordic you
know smell because it’s very horizontal everybody has a word to say you know
doesn’t matter if you are sound designer you can have an opinion about game design or doesn’t matter if you are the
3D modeler uh if you think that there is something that you can add value please tell it so we Empower people to be very
very uh proactive in the company and then you know this uh flexy time that we
have you can start at 8 or at 10: doesn’t matter we we try to do a lot of
flexibility for people to to have also a life out of of the video games and for
example I don’t know this is something that maybe in the future we can go for a 4 day week uh uh you know model that I I
guess uh will increase a lot the productivity we we have SE uh talking with some companies with this model that
they say they they have increased 20% productivity so this kind of you know
approach and mindset important uh to to be defin it because then people can wow
I love it let’s let’s try it at least because if you are a small Meat Company
and you try to compete with salaries you cannot do it you know you cannot pay like I don’t know scopi or or
tilting point or king or yeah I don’t know whatever so yeah I guess the work
of C is survive culture and and make
everybody happy uh yeah I guess it’s a good I like I like the brief I like the
brief you mentioned before we started recording you had loads of disaster stories and then successes as well so
I’m just going to ask you the big question like what is the biggest disaster that happened and how did you overcome
it oh it’s not easy to select the the the the biggest disaster because to be
honest have been quite a lot of of mistakes that we did in the past you
know from choosing grown Technologies to do something you know that had a huge
impact in the costs uh for the company uh I remember um developing a a
mobile game and we decided instead of uh using Unity uh to have one single
development we we we decided to do both you know Android and and uh iOS
uh Native developments uh in our mindset was we can be let’s
say better uh in quality and good practices doing native but then at the
end of at the end of the day there is a big problem that it’s both uh uh versions were in in different stages and
you have one marketing plan so if you have one marketing plan and one of the
versions is not ready when it’s needed to be ready you are dead you know what I mean so I I try to empower a lot people
to make things in I don’t know if you don’t want Unity if you don’t want unreal now we are unreal company you
know but if you don’t want that maybe if try to react so try to do things one
time uh because it has been very costly in the past other stuff that uh I I I
can explain to you maybe you know when you when you do your
studies uh I studied economics and uh you know it’s very usual in in companies
to do the SWAT you know the Matrix to to know which is are your strengths your
powers and and your your your weaknesses whatever
but the menaces that you can find in the in the in the in the market and external
uh sometimes are kind of difficult to to you know to to have in in in consideration because for example we we
were very very very affected by uh covid so it was crazy because at that time you
had an investor uh it was a a company uh here in Spain very focused on uh cema so
they did sheras for Netflix so big company but with the co they stopped
everything so they couldn’t do uh any kind of serious whatever and uh of
course the first thing that they cut was video games because was not the main you
know for them was strategic but not the main thing you know the core business so
okay Co okay we need to accept it okay let’s survive then we sign it uh Russian
publisher you know what happened Russia started the the war with you
of course oh no yeah so it was like it’s it’s not possible I cannot do the SWAT
and having this uh uh worldwide pandemic Wars the next thing it’s zombies maybe I
don’t know but I don’t want zombie yeah maybe it’s zombies you know I don’t know
but it was crazy because uh because of the War uh they they had a lot of
problems blah blah blah and they decided to cut all the companies invested and we
were one of them so uh we were lucky because these guys were really good and
they helped us um and we had the game at that time it was July last year so we
had the game kind of 80% developed so it was not that bad so uh we survived again
uh the way we survived because to be honest uh last December we were about to close because we had no
more Runway and and suddenly we come back um because it was incredible
because uh the same company the same company that cut everything because of the war they they give us world for hire
to make uh fortnite maps with the creative you know the ufn all these
systems that you can create yeah and it was a a huge uh War for High contract so
it was like we are saved uh thanks God so uh yeah and and and thanks to this
world for higher now we have been developed more the game so you know our
game has both the single player and the multiplayer now the multiplayer is 100% developed so it’s fully playable we can
do play test whatever and now we are uh starting the single player missions it
would be kind of C similar to Hell H hell divers too but instead of buxs it
will be based more in giant robots and this retro Japanese stuff that it’s really really cool you know you had
opportunity to see the game I’ll put something on the screen now and people can be looking at it a of course that’s that’s amazing so
yeah basically um that’s that’s maybe the worst things that I mentioned to you
uh that can explain to you no so the co uh the War uh the technology decisions
that uh uh because if you are in in in a point that you have uh you know a couple
of maybe one game that it’s a cash cow you know that allows you to to make
mistakes okay but if you don’t have it every mistake can can be like like dying
you know how did you get through that like I can’t imagine going through that twice and then obviously you came out of
it how do you go through that like as the CEO you wake you just go to bed just like
looking up at the sky like ah so how do you get through such a big
challenge um in addition to the pills against an
in addition that’s a joke but but no being very resilience resilience is the is the
name in English uh very resilient it’s
difficult to say for me so you never give up you know what I mean it’s like uh you need to fight for what you think
that it’s uh it’s the best for you and and I
never think that this is the end so this is like like a tennis match you know H
you you never know that you can come back you know like Rafa Nadal that
sometimes did it in the past so we have this spirit in Spain that we are figh you know so I guess it’s it’s kind of
this a a ND or ADN that we have that uh
we never give up and and it’s it’s one of the keys uh to see okay and also of
course working a lot because you know to to have a solution maybe you need to
talk with 100 people you know I remember last time we signed a publisher we talk
it with 100 three uh I remember because it was an Exel with 103 lines and I
remember that the 103 number so uh from this 103 we we we did around 12 Play
test uh and from these 12 Play test two companies were really in love with with
our prior game uh before uh project SD
and and one sign it you know when when we sign it but to sign one we had to
talk with3 and 10 month yeah it’s it’s hard of course but
as I always say because sometimes people is not going to events it’s not going to
to meetups it’s not going and for me it’s like okay some a lot of
people is like fan who do you do that because it’s incredible you always sign blah blah blah but it’s like hey guys
keep in mind if you don’t go you haven’t gone so it’s it’s very easy if you don’t
go you you you doesn’t gone or you didn’t go so you didn’t go um you need
to go to the places because uh when you go to a venue when you go to a meet up whatever or you maybe can participate
doesn’t matter what but with with the industry things happen you know you
start conversations that drive you to another guy uh and the magic starts so
this is for me one of the if I can say advice I I I’m not I’m not an advisor
but if I can advise is go go and be if you can of course with a low
budget if needed uh but be try to be where things are happening because if
not you are out of the PCT 100% I couldn’t I saw that so much happened in Dubai the
thing you mentioned there on low budget it’s really important you don’t need a crazy setup like you could get the
cheapest of cheapest places nearby as long as it’s close to the studio and then the past to these events aren’t
usually more than 100 bucks go there and I had this you had a different
experience to me I feel like you had back-to-back meetings a lot I had a bit of both so I had a couple days where I
had back to back but I got a lot out of just wondering locking is someone saying
hey I do this what do you do and they might have not been someone who would have been my client or a partner but
they knew someone that happened with with us like we don’t have much Synergy apart from
this amazing podcast that we’re doing but we’ve done introductions so I can’t second that enough like go to these
events the main cost for me is you could be spending that time doing something else which is a very true cost but the
actual cost of being there and having the conversations it especially as a CEO if you’re looking
for a publishing deal and you’re not doing that like I I don’t know what to tell you because there’s a lot of people
looking for a project right now A publishing project in hearing you say it took 13 I believe you said like I can’t
imagine the amount of hours this takes like this isn’t that doesn’t happen by accident so it’s literally just do more
of the same but you just actually have to keep going like you said fight for it absolutely absolutely I have a
question what do you think is the secret to developing a game that stands out in
2024 now and I want to ask you about the book don’t make me think by Steve kug
you have it in your LinkedIn profile I wonder how did that affect your gain development process if at
all yeah this book I read this book uh I don’t know maybe could you describe the
book like what is it about yeah the the book talks about
uh you need to be in the in the position of your uh client or your your gamer
your player uh the people that will play your game and try to emphatize with with
uh the experience that this guy will have so don’t make the user think too
much you know make it easy so I I I really love this this book it’s a lot of
about uh um user interface user experience uh it
it’s it’s from Theory but also practical cases so you learn a lot with this book
and this approach of um easy to play and maybe hard to master it’s something that
I I I really believe because uh it’s a way to to make it easy to for everybody to to to start playing uh it’s not only
make it easy to to play but um something that sometimes we forget is
that when somebody plays uh in in multiplayer games most uh also single
player but most of this is for multiplayer you need to find the ways
for the people to feel that you are important you know what I mean so
doesn’t matter if it’s uh doing something uh with your
teammates or maybe you are the medic of the team but because you are not good in
shooting you know in a shooter but uh thinking about okay how can we create
the dopamine in in the mind of of all our users uh for me it’s very important
and these kind of books also you know um there is a couple of of
them that uh we can talk about but but in this specific case uh I recommend a
lot for people that it’s starting let’s say because it gives you the basis for
also talking with your game Design Team Art team uh with uh some fundamentals
you know I I used to be also a game designer uh at the very beginning of my career and so you know game designers
are I guess it’s like the drummers in a in a in a in a rock band because it’s
special on you know it’s sometimes it’s not easy to deal with game designers
because they have very clear you know pillars and if you move these pillars
it’s like oh everything is Chang you know it’s it’s shaking you know and they
they they afraid blah blah blah but trying to answer your question also
about uh what to do 2024
um I don’t know you have seen this guy U Manor Lords you know the the the buil
the building uh game about the fodal and the medieval stuff so at the end of the
day this guy found an opportunity to use the the theine uh to make something
really nice for the eyes that I used to work to to to this building uh games I
started with Sim City three years ago or something like this it was very complex
you know and artistically uh uh the art side of these games I used to play I don’t know
sers a lot of these games uh but was more I don’t know cartoonish not that
realistic now so this guy found a formula so it’s like in my opinion of course I I I’m not God but in my opinion
the secret is okay you need to find the opportunity which is the mix of
different maybe geners but not only geners but also Technologies art styles
blah blah blah and with the mix try to find oh there is an opportunity to make
a building game with an amazing art you know because the mechanics are the same
that you can find in other games but this art approach that it’s stunning and it’s amazing and also the combat that
normally in these kind of games it’s uh not too much good uh but this guy found
this this mix you know and I don’t know how how much units uh he has sold that
doing pretty good I guess more than 1 million for 26 of April so it’s not even been a full month yet on Steam and yeah
36,000 positive reviews you can only imagine how many units that sold more than one
million or maybe two million copies for sure uh he yeah he had uh 3 million in
wish list prior to launch the the alpha so first making good decisions uh when
it comes uh with the game because sometimes we we think that we have the the best idea because it’s my idea no no
no no wait share it with your team uh you know uh think about everything that
could could be wrong uh not the positive things but the wrong things uh I don’t
know competitors uh the difficult to to make it because a lot of games are not
fruitful because the scope is too much so the it don’t triangle you know the iron triangle that it’s about the budget
the quality and um and the time it’s it’s it’s key to to make
decisions if some of this it’s not working then wait and think more about
about the project before uh doing that and another thing that for me it’s key
don’t make a single code line uh before
um how to say uh validate the the concept because what
is really really uh expensive in in game development is uh starting coding uh
because it has a lot of not only Tech cost but uh depth that then if you have
to change anything it’s crazy so the AR architecture that you decide to do for
example I will put you an example in this game that we are developing right now we did a a a big decision at the
very beginning and it was okay we will use an real five as a g but we will try
to be as much agnostic and as much independent from theine as we can and
for example we did a lot of C++ all the technology regarding the multiplayer so
the all the framework the multiplayer framework is done by us from zero that’s one of the reasons why we have been two
years uh de in this game because we decided these kind of things but then
just an example it’s very high level so there is a lot of technical details that
we don’t have time to talk about but if the unreal GI decided as they do time to
time to to do an update you can have a lot of problems you know having
refactors oh we need to change this this the update has broken I don’t know whatever blah blah blah if you are
agnostic from the G you you will have you will have some problems always
you know but will be a minimum number of problems so this is something that you
learn by doing by failing by suffering these kind of things until the point
that okay we can make better decisions always we’ll have and will face new
challenges but at least try not to to make the the same mistake that we did in the past sure I love the point of
combining the genre I think like whenever you see all these games like power world or Hell divers 2 it feels
like they’re combining things we love from different games and just executing and last year anyway like when I was
doing recruitment I was speaking to a lot of Studios where it felt like I’m talking to someone making like another
vampire survivors or another X and they’re just doing small tweaks I think what you said combining two very
different games Concepts and then executing that’s where kind of the
passion is and I wonder I wanted to ask you like do you feel like people in the
gaming industry have kind of forgotten about the joy of what the game’s going to do and they obsess too much about
money like why do you feel like we’re where we are in the game industry
now uh game industry is very big you know what I mean um I can be agree with
you more in the mobile
games I guess uh because I’ve
seen top companies uh like you [Music]
know thinking only and exclusively uh about metrix and doesn’t matter if the
game is pie of [ __ ] you know what I mean it’s like doesn’t matter if it makes money or
if it has a good retention and we can put ads there that I annoying but people
pay to yeah you know turn off these ads or I don’t know I have huge respect for
everybody and and to find a way to to survive we did incredible things to
survive and sometimes you you need to prostitute a a little bit uh your your your your
your your you know your values uh to to survive I can understand that but
at some point I agree with you that uh or I can agree that uh sometimes uh we
are forgetting why we do games and I guess that why we do games is because we
love games and we are Gamers and we we we we want to to offer to people uh
Sensations that we had in the past with other games you know so this is the the
most uh rewarding things uh or things that
you can do making games because uh I have a video that I don’t know if I share it with you uh we we we we did a
play test uh and and more than 1,000 people come to this play test you know
uh it was four or five months ago and it was incredible because only taking a
look to the people playing our game having an incredible time shaking hands
like this for me it was like okay I can die now because I I did you know I did
what I wanted to do you know what I mean doesn’t matter if I don’t find a publisher investor whatever doesn’t
matter of course it’s not true we need to keep moving you know but the the the
the feeling to to to to to do it it’s incredible and and I guess that if you
are only thinking about money um at the end of the day maybe you can do
something that it’s worthy for the money for the business but I guess that we are not here for the money to be honest at
least in my case uh money will be a consequence of what we do and maybe we
can be successful or we can fail of course but it’s not the goal itself
because uh then you you will do things that will not motivate you you will get
into a you know a very bad cycle that will end with you I don’t know closing
the company or something like this uh people like me that like we are
suffering let’s say uh having offers because of course we have offers from
from the from the industry but we decided not to take these offers because
uh if it was about money I could be I don’t know in a big one getting six
figures maybe I had offers like this in the past not recently but in the past
you know so this is the the I don’t know my wife
gets mad when when when I have these kind of offers and I decline because it’s like why why not you are always
suffering blah blah blah and I said wait this is a a trip that we are doing with
with everybody we are 26 people we everybody’s focus on that and we share a
vision so this is something that when you wake up every morning it’s a huge motivation you know and maybe working
for a big Corp it’s not what what what what what we like I guess that most of the people
with small meat companies uh we share this you know the the passion for what
we do uh and not not the man as the driver I think it connects to what you
said earlier when it comes to like having the fight the games that I see doing a lot of success and I used to
work with Arrowhead who made hell divers too when I was doing Recruitment and that was during the start like They too
had to survive and they were very Nimble but the CEO and had quite a lot of
control over the Creative Vision and just wanting to make sure like the game was good and did not sacrifice that I
think you need that if you want to have the aster is if you want to have long-term success yes you could probably
get away with short-term success but with long-term success you need the reason to keep going you had the reason
to keep going because Joy was or like you’re bringing like hearing you say about the thousand people play test and
oh I can die happily now that’s the fuel that will help you get through those Hard
Times yeah the thing here is that there is a a very how to say um it’s a kind of
red line that you need to to be very careful because in this
[Music] um Obsession to to improve the game and
to to to keep you know improving no no not yet not yet not yet not yet but
every month you are burning money you know you you must pay your employees so every time you have less
money less less less and the game is improving at some point is improving really slowly so at some point you need
to make decisions one decision could be guys we know that we can improve the game and
improving the game is a good way to to to launch and and to explode and to make a lot of money okay
good okay okay we we we we can we can try to do that
but uh the lifetime of the company will be I don’t know three four five month
and then we get out of money so it will be one shot are all agree that we go for
that and that it will be one shot are we agree with that if we agree with that okay let’s go but in my opinion what we
did in the past was okay wait this is the situation we need to improve but we
have six months of runaway in in the bank uh what can we do okay what we
decided in the past and worked well for us was okay let’s try to start some side
project maybe a little or a small or for higher this is bad for the main project
why because if you are 26 people and you need to move six or 10 to this side
projects then the the speed of the main project is affected you know but at the
same time you are making money and you are demonstrating to Future uh investors
or Publishers that you are capable to survive and to make money you cannot have a company a BMS company and after
six years not not not having incomes in
because it’s it means that you have been living only from the Investor’s money
and this is crazy you know what I mean we we we we we have been living uh these seven years but we did more than 5
million in revenues from for higher other projects blah blah blah but it’s
very important on the other side you have another decision that it’s
okay um let’s reduce the team as much as we
can it means layoffs it means uh a lot of motivation for all the people doesn’t
matter if they stay in the company but the the global uh atmosphere it’s it’s
bad because you did I don’t know 20 layoffs and uh everything changes and
wait what happens now okay we are now we are eight people let’s figure out
um and we can keep not four but one year because we are less people good and we
keep improving the game but then what happens this is very frustrating because
then a publisher or investor come to you and they say oh but you are only eight
people you cannot handle it it’s impossible bye-bye so then you need yeah
you need to find the the the the the balance between a a team that it’s enough for the Publishers and and the
investors to think that okay with this team maybe growing I don’t know five six
people more it’s enough but keeping this team with you
has a cost and it’s it’s it’s really really uh difficult uh you know industry
to to try to compete with these big uh USA and Chinese companies but here we
are hey we’re doing it I can see it it’s happening and I think yeah like you said it’s a fine balance you there’s no point
making the perfect game if you never release it right before we close out um I’m want to ask you because you’re going
to Nordic game next week you’ve been to Dubai recently I write on LinkedIn I live and Bri on
LinkedIn like how do you use LinkedIn and how could other CEOs potentially use
LinkedIn LinkedIn [Music] um four or five years ago I was really
comfortable with lincolin uh these days um I’m not that much because a lot of
people is using linol in like a commercial spam you know it’s it’s it’s too much in my opinion you know what I
mean uh my use my personal use of LinkedIn is
never try to do commercial contacts with LinkedIn but uh I use LinkedIn once I I
met this this this people or this person uh to keep talking with them and also to
recruit is is a a good way to recruit people because when you have you know
premium uh LinkedIn you can go to recruiter uh it’s quite nice when it
comes to the filter so you can filter a lot and find in in your search for
talent so this is the the two ways I’m losing not losing I’m using uh
LinkedIn uh but I don’t know you know some sometimes I think that there
is a space for another competitor that comes back to the original LinkedIn I’m
curious original LinkedIn Vibe was the lack of the commercial spam is that the only thing
cuz for me yes how many messages are you getting because if it’s 20 or 30 a
day no no no no it’s not 20 but uh easily five or six there some people
getting 30 you can do this just block bye-bye just see you later you have to just you treat yeah but yeah but it’s
like it’s only five of six okay but takes time yeah with you no and always
it’s the same you know uh I I’ve been listening about your company it’s incredable and they don’t know anything
about the company to be honest uh uh I am not the typical uh guy that but at
the end of the way it’s it’s a typical commercial spam so I don’t
know is the only thing that maybe can be a space for another more
commercial and maybe I I can be that you know and because then I know okay this is for commercial but LinkedIn at the
very beginning was more for professional contacts uh to be in contact you know uh
now it’s for me it’s too much but as you said it’s six seven okay it’s not C you
you can’t you can’t yeah I mean because I work with CEOs and like it can get a lot but if you just treat it like a boom
boom boom see you later what am I here for to connect I feel like you still have that platform that you can do the
networking with because you know yeah no no no sure sure why I I’m doing that of
course uh but I am the the kind of of of guy that I I like to answer everything
you know so I don’t like to pass just pass or delete you know or blog so I
used to at least to answer and say hey guys this is not a good time or this is
something that we don’t need blah blah blah but some sometimes the the the more annoying is
that I answer and and they answer again trying to keep okay if I could tell you
this one thing it’s like Hercules where you cut the hydra’s head so every reply averages 1.3 replies or something there
a statistic for that so it’s never ending one thing I would ask you if you got a thousand messages a day would you
still hold yourself accountable to replying to everyone logistically you wouldn’t because you have a job so if
you wouldn’t do it for that why are you doing it for people who don’t do the research different if they did the
research right so that would be my thing like yeah not everyone is old a reply
because like you said like you wouldn’t do it to a thousand people so that’s one thing amazing so before we close out is
there anything you want to cover um that you think we haven’t covered any
advice uh maybe as advice more for Indie developers starting um maybe a couple of
things that sometimes we forget
um first when you found your company uh I understand sometimes people wants to
make uh deals or companies with friends uh but my my my Approach here is that
okay try to find the people that it’s the right people for the position better
than friends and if it’s the good people and the good person for the place and
also it’s a friend that’s incredible that’s amazing that’s the the way to go but sometimes I found it that oh uh I’ve
created this with I don’t know former University students because we we were friends but this is the best uh art
director that you can have no there is another guy so go for this guy and and
create a company you know so don’t because then you are stacked you know when you create the company you have the
shares and the rides and the IPS and it’s uh crazy and then try to keep small
as smaller as you can because good times will come but also hard times will come
and sometimes we do good games we start making money and
the first thing that we think is okay grow grow grow grow grow no wait of course if your goal is to sell the
company maybe this is the way to to to to to to to to do you know and to grow grow grow like like crazy but then
better the better for you is to sell the company because if Hard Times come you
have a lot of problems because maybe have theoretical we’ve seen it so
much yes that’s it so there is other stuff of course we can
be here talking a lot of of time but uh maybe the two more for me important
things to to have in mind and iterate a lot and try to have a first
game that makes some money okay don’t try to go and try to do that the next
war zone or the next Call of Duty wait um because this is something that
sometime people asking me so oh why why are you doing this this project that
it’s in the project but it’s it’s very ambitious because we did uh maybe 30
Games before you know and we fail with most of them and we we did uh successful
games maybe a couple of time but these two games has been the cashow for for
making other stuff you know what I mean so it’s little by little and you know in
this era in this in these times uh people wants everything like like this
you know like Tik Tok stuff or like YouTubers so making a lot of money
without having the time to to consolidate the project then uh it could
be another maybe advice to to to to try to to to be you know uh to do the things
uh step by step and don’t worry it you will get your goals but maybe not in one
year maybe five but you will be there the key is just to survive to actually do that th% yeah I think that at this
moment one of the Keys is because you know the state of the of the of the industry is what it is uh if we compare
the investment with 2021 2023 has been reduced by 80% so this is a lot this a
lot and and still reducing uh so every Everybody in the industry that has I
don’t know experience everybody thinks that the companies that can survive 20
2024 in 2025 will again have a lot of opportunities so it could be tough it
could will not be easy uh to survive but I encourage everybody to try to survive
until 2025 because good things will happen next year and of course if we can
close something 2024 don’t wait for 2025 but but yeah it’s it’s a bit of a base I
second that so much where can people go learn more about you and the breach where do you want to send
people uh to learn more I I guess maybe the the
our web page uh is the best place to go um you know you you you you can put the
the URL or whatever uh available to to the people if you go to the to the
website you will see uh the team you will be able to take a look at uh some
videos on the projects that we are working and also past project you will see the the the the quality and
the and the and the kind of of products that we do and also the team that at the end of the day is the most important and
yeah we are placed in Barcelona that also is a a place that if somebody’s considering to move internationally it’s
an amazing place to to be because uh we do a lot of uh you know meetups we support a lot uh um early stage video
game companies so there are a lot of incubators you know this kind of stuff
and something nice from Barcelona is that you have a good balance between
talented people and cost so having a team in Barcelona could be half of the
price of having a team in London and 10% of having a team in USA you know uh so
it’s a good place to have talent with a with a control in in the in the I’m
saying when I went in Barcelona the amount of Studios there in Talent the energy as well is a big thing that isn’t spoken about that much the energy and
fighting Spirit like you can feel it and I think that definitely makes a difference so yeah that’s the breach studios.com for everyone listening so go
check out and you can check out fan puny as well on LinkedIn Baron thank you so
much thank you and have a very nice week I hope we can
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It was a pleasure collaborating with Harry on our Live session. Unlike other experiences, it was good to get the feedback and in-put on content and successful Linked-In formats.
The support in the lead up and post event was great, this made all the difference in terms of reach and success. A very supportive and collaborative approach for reaching out to our industry.
Cheers Harry 🤗
Harry is an excellent coach!
I had a plan to strengthen my personal brand on LinkedIn, but I really did not where to start. I just kept delaying that. And then during the 1:1 power hour with Harry it became clear that I need somebody experienced to help me put a strategy in place. This is how it started.