Re: [philly-igda] About me (Dysheed Goodson)

[Nathan Solomon]

I know a number of people on the executive side of things, and that's a difficult path to try to get onto intentionally through an academic program. Locally, Wharton (especially at MBA-level) is the source of a lot of industry executives, but I assume that most don't go to business school to get into games, they're just high-performing people, hired into the industry because they have a sexy MBA and other background. USC, Harvard and Stanford are other schools that provide a pipeline into exec postions in the industry. I went to Temple myself (as well as AFI, which was only slightly more relevant for my career), and I believe it's a great place to go when planning on getting into games, because the culture is hardworking and built on doing much with little, which is very helpful in games, but its presence on your resume is not going to get you an exec position in games. -As a Temple grad you will need a different path to the industry. As an aside, Drexel at this point is even stronger, on average, in many of the positive elements of a Temple education (and consistently listed as a top program in game development), but so much more expensive that from a student perspective maybe it ends up being a wash.

I know of no one who recommends an undergraduate degree in Business Administration. Business is too general and provides too little in the way of concrete skills at the undergraduate level. This may be even more true of someone who wants to get into games. 

Unlike conventional "tech startups" which, as often as not, are led by a business guy, game businesses are all about tech and creative aspects, and the business guy is really secondary. If you're hoping to be the business guy in games, it's going to take a lot of humility on your part; in fact, I would say that that's the core requirement (along with, secondarily, grit, flexibility and insight).

The best example I can think of someone who started in your position and went on to massive success is Mark Rein, who began as a fan/tester. He started as a playtester at Id, and ended up handling the business side of the company, eventually moving on to Epic. At Epic, he has been the hard-nosed business guy who's driven great success for that company. He's sort of a bastard to deal with, because he's only there to protect brilliant tech and creative guys, and he does that like a pitbull.

I believe that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for you to form a game company. You don't have the skills to drive creation of games. You're in a position where you need to find people who make games and make yourself as useful as possible to them. What you might want to do is volunteer your services to a local game company that you admire. Skills that could make you more useful to the business side of a game company are likely in accounting, marketing and/or project management. You might want to approach such a company and ask to interview them so that you can better understand their needs and perhaps tailor your focus in college to real world demands.

Regards,

Nathan

_____________________________

-Nathan Solomon

The Philadelphia Game Lab

http://www.PhiladelphiaGameLab.org

-@phlgamelab

-skype: nathansolomon

On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 12:03 AM, DGood <dys...@yahoo.com> wrote:

I'm currently going to a community college (Montco) looking to transfer to Temple University to pursue a bachelors degree in business administration (is this the correct path for someone who wants to become a CEO of one of the leading game companies in the video game industry ? I'd like to know if you could give me any pointers, tips, guidance, etc.... on where to go, what to look for, just anything that could shed light on my mission. 

Below are a list of questions that tie into what i already said above....

I was told to start my own gaming company right away don't wait ... where should I start and what should I focus more on as a "newcomer" trying to create a game company?

I love games I want to make a living off my passion, is this obtainable? What should I look for?

Does it matter that I've never created or developed a game, only played? What programs should I began to get familiar with so I could create games?

What does a great game developer consist of?

Are both producers and developers one in the same?

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[Alex Hillman]

I completely agree with Nathan that an academic program isn't likely to give you what you need to become the CEO of a game company - or any company for that matter - that's going to be more persistence, experience, and hard work. 

But this:

I believe that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for you to form a game company. You don't have the skills to drive creation of games.

Needs a counterpoint. 

If you're serious about starting your own company instead of working your way to the top of somebody else's, I'd suggest that you introduce yourself to the guys at http://flyclops.com, Parker and Jake. They're really good guys, work out of Indy Hall a few days a week.

For some backstory, Parker moved to Philadelphia a few years ago to work for me. When I interviewed him, I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he didn't know, but he loved "t-shirt designs and playing video games". Luckily he showed promise in a bunch of other areas and a very, very strong desire to try and learn. He'd never designed/made a game. He'd never started a company. He'd never run a team. He'd never done negotiation. He'd never done customer support. He'd never really thought about "mobile". 

Today he's a partner/founder of one of a successful indie game company, and is making a living for him and 2 other team members 100% from game income. They're not signed to a publisher. They have no outside funding. His partner Jake had a few solo titles that did well before they partnered, but Parker had zero. As of a few months ago, they pay 100% of their bills from income from their games, and are growing every month.

Parker should speak for himself, but I believe that he'll tell you that the real skill you can work on right now is learning how to be a great partner in a company, and a great learner in business. You will benefit from any aptitude in technical and creative skills that you can pick up, but the fact is that Parker and Jake tirelessly work to practice their skills. They weren't born into them, nor are you. The only difference between them and you is what they've attempted so far.

Again, if you're serious about this, talk to Parker and Jake about what skills they needed to build a company and launch their first successful title (after a pretty nasty flop, I might add). 

Oh, and once again, get yourself ready to learn all of the stuff that they don't teach college. 

-Alex

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/ah

indyhall.org

coworking in philadelphia

building a community? http://masterclass.indyhall.org

[Nathan Solomon]

I am all for small-team game development (to a fault, probably), and not advocating for joining a big company. This issue is totally different. When Rein joined Id, they were garage-level, and broke; flyclops is probably wealthier than they were at that point. My point is that creative and tech guys rule in games. If someone wants to be an exec (not creative or tech lead), they need to latch on to smart creatives and technical folks and not try to be the "guy with the vision," as they could be in a tech startup, because that just annoys people who actually make games.

My suggestion is only this: As a non-programmer, non-designer, if he wants to be the business guy in game development, it would not be productive for him to attempt to be the initiator; instead he should find people whose work he admires and make himself useful. That should be people on the scale of flyclops, not zynga, though.

-Nathan