Presentation by Gabriel Dobrev, CEO Haemimont Games

1. 7 reasons you’ll fail
and how not to

2. Why?
• I have an idea!
• I don’t know if your idea is good or not
• Background
• What’s that experience worth to you?

3. Your idea sucks
• It's exactly like that great game
but 3 years late to the market
and with 1/50th of the budget
• It's so different it's crazy
and no one knows what it’s all about
• It's all about this thing that no one cares about
• It’s not marketable – cannot be explained

4. Your idea sucks
Whatever works for Blizzard
does not work for you!

5. Your idea sucks
HOW?
• Same thing but different
• What is your twist?
• I mean, explained in 10 words

6. You’ll never finish
• Typical fate of games
– One out of 10 (at best) gets released
– One out of 10 (at best) gets to break even
– One out of 10 (at best) gets to make a splash
– These we hear about a lot
• Time kills - your interest, market conditions,
funding, personal time

7. You’ll never finish
• Most of the work is boring
• The last 10% take the second 90% of the time
• Tutorials, options, icons, buttons
• Accommodate various players
• Hardware/platform support?
• Localization?
• Support?
• Patching?

8. You’ll never finish
HOW?
• Be realistic
• Plan with reserves
• Cut
• Know thyself

9. You’ll lose motivation
• You're making the best game ever
A WOW and LOL killer - at the same time!
• Fear of failure will paralyze you
• What you imagine is not how it turns out
• Your game is not yours anymore
• The novelty will wear off
• Life will happen
• You'll hate it by the end

10. You’ll lose motivation
HOW?
• You are not the game
• Make it about the process and the learning
• Learn to handle stress
• Keep the inspiration high
• Think of the long run

11. Your game will not work
• It will crash on start on any PC outside of the
office
• Tech is hard
• It's hard to find and manage tech people
That’s why many indies are developers
• Design is harder
You don't know your customer because there are 1000s
• Ostrich effect: ignore hard issues

12. Your game will not work
HOW?
• Use proven tech and pipeline
• Unless you're 100% confident you can do
something - cut it
• Can a game without this particular feature be
still good?
• If I’m given a game with and without this
feature would I see the difference?

13. No one will hear about your game
• If they don’t know about it – it does not exist
• Marketing is not something you do in the end
• Was your idea marketable? As in explainable
in 10 words?
• You'll have to become and expert in one more
field

14. No one will hear about your game
HOW?
• Start from day one
• Talk to people, ask questions, read
• Use every opportunity
• Plan time and effort (not money)
• Think of impact – talking to game developers
is not marketing

15. You’ll get robbed
• In a very elegant way – there are quite a few
The Chinese will steal it,
publishers will forget to pay
or go bankrupt
• Do you remember that sweet deal?
Now you know what they meant
• That deal that was nearly done but wasn’t?
• Withholding taxes, net revenue definitions,
sublicensing deals

16. You’ll get robbed
HOW?
• Trusted partners
• Aligned interests
• Deals that make sense for everyone
• Long term cooperation
• OPM

17. Game development is amazing
Just don’t get carried away!
Questions?