It’s been a while since I started this little gamedev journey and I wanted to talk about all the bits that aren’t gamedev so I can share what I’ve been up to. This is also why I say making games as a hobby is a totally valid thing and the gap between hobbyist and professional is larger than people sometimes think. Though if you are interested in crossing the gap maybe this will help.

This is in the order I did things, not the order you should do things. Also this is my first time being a company Director of a games company so many mistakes made and I’m sure there is a lot I should do better. If you know of some stuff I’ve missed please shout out.

Working Space

This was while I was still at Adobe and I wanted to separate my at the time hobby gamedev from work while also staying in touch with the community. To this end I found the Tentacle Zone, a gamedev specific coworking space. This was the perfect first step, it got me back into the groove as I dedicated one day a week to gamedev. I met up with other devs and spoke to other indie founders not already in my friend circle. This remains one of the most valuable resources and if you have any dedicated physical spaces with professional gamedevs you can access I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Setting up a Company

I’ve already had the experience of setting up a company with my wife’s book publishing and honestly doing that for the last decade has been a huge level up. If you have any experience running a company a lot of those skills are transferable. This is mostly about setting up a company on Companies House. You will need a company name, business address and some googling for your industry. For the book company we used a virtual office company who we paid a subscription to for virtual office which included mail forwarding and privacy with additional options of renting meeting rooms and such when you need it. It is a great solution especially as we were renting at the time and most rental agreements prevent you listing your home address as a business address but if you own your house you can go with that option. In this case I asked the Tentacle Zone and they were willing to let me use the coworking space as the registered address which was very handy.

There is also the matter of shares, standard in the UK is 100 shares you split among the founders. It is also important to write up documents and policies around IP, disagreements, buyouts if a founder leaves the company. It’s not complicated but you need to have the conversation as early as possible and write out in plain language what those policies and actions work like. What does shutting down the company look like, what does success look like and have a hard think about the biz bits.

Money, Money and Tax

One of the reasons you want a legal entity as soon as possible is so you can file for game tax credits, grants and all other bits. For the book company we filed our own taxes, and did most of the paperwork. For many companies it’s not as hard as people think, especially if you can file micro accounts. Though creative companies, especially with tax credits, means you really should get one with experience of the industry. Thankfully when I asked around one fellow described himself as <person I know>’s dumbass accountant. I immediately had good vibes and I sat down to chat to him.

My mum is an accountant and I’ll admit I have real paranoia because of the amount of crooked money people I’ve met, ironically my mum is one of the most moral and honest people I know so the contrast is stark. So hiring an accountant was a scary step but I think we found a good un. Now accountants typically have a range of services and billing options. We don’t need payroll yet, but we do need VAT, year end and some other bits.

Company Bank Account

Everything must go through this. From experience you will hate anything that doesn’t go through this. Modern digital banks are great options and this is a lot less painful than it used to be. This sets you up with a business card and my accountant signed me up for an invoice tracking thing called FreeAgent, a bit of kinda easy accounting software. Then it involved finding all the things I could file under business like Tentacle Zone ect… and move it over.

Then comes VAT registration which I’ll be honest is a whole ‘nother pain of activation and codes. We had a bit of a faff with mail on this one and this actually took a bit more of my time than I expected. Then I needed to make sure the accountant had all the access and information they needed. Thankfully again modern systems are a lot better for this with read only accounting APIs which are fantastic.

Setting up Website and Social Accounts

We made the decision to call the new company Flammable Penguins Games as we already love the name of the book company and we could reuse a lot of bits though some new accounts were needed and a website refresh was required. This sounds like a small thing but again it all takes time to set up and manage.

Logo Design

Again another fun job and I’m rather proud of the new logo but this took time to concept, draw up and match to the existing branding we have. I thought I would need to hire someone for this job but honestly dusting off my graphic design was just fantastic. Though again not time spent making the game which we hope to ship.

Writing Pitch Decks and GDD

We are mostly self funded at this point but it would be silly not to seek funding where we can get it. Now one of the nice things about being a small studio is you don’t need a ton of documents because you build what you want and you're small enough a few conversations can decide a lot but it turns out you need pitch decks and game design documents for a variety of things.

There are some great templates and resources out there to get you started. You tend to need to write some project decks as well as company pitch decks. It can get a bit awkward bigging yourself up and at the same time talking about your project.

Setting up Developer Accounts

One of the things you need those documents for is setting yourself as a developer on consoles, Quest and other stores you need to do. Console dev is often scary to many but assuming you have a company and the documents to support it like a GDD then you can apply. Sooner is better than later as you should read the submission requirements and access resources sooner rather than later.

PlayStation: https://partners.playstation.net/
XBox: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/register
Nintendo: https://developer.nintendo.com/

Promotion and Networking

Well this includes things like writing this blog, doing an upcoming talk at Develop North and ensuring a certain level of exposure. One thing I learnt from the whole book biz is we suck at marketing and we are doing what we can to improve on that but it does take time away from dev.

Another side of this is meeting up with friends and going to events to stay in touch and ensure you're not going crazy on your little team in your home office. Also our friends and colleagues often bring up things we might have missed. This includes pitching and grant opportunities, because honestly knowing who to talk to and what to apply to is half the battle.

Game Changers

This is honestly my lovely wife not me, though as half the company her time not on gamedev is also handy. It was a big win for her to get on the London Mayor’s Game Changer program. She is getting mentored, founder support and will be travelling to Slush as part of the GC cohort in the next month or so. This has been a huge level up for her and super handy.

Pitching to Publishers and Applying for Grants

Pitching to a publisher is only a few meetings or quick conversations though there is a whole song and dance beforehand. You tend to need to tweak your pitch deck for each meeting, do your research and frankly they are a bigger time drain than you think.

Additionally there are a bunch of grants we needed to apply for. This means instead of a meeting you have to read through all the grant documentation and additional annexes ect… looking for scoring grids and guidelines. Then tailoring the decks and documents to that specific grant. It also usually involves a bunch of form filling and in its own way is even more stressful than publisher conversations.

Godot Engagement and Side Dev work

This falls somewhat under the category of dev work but mostly what I put in this bucket is staying in touch with other Godot devs, checking on engine issues and engaging with the XR working group. This is a biweekly meeting but it's super valuable to the long term future of the studio. Also there is side dev work like adding support for Logitech MxInk Pen to Godot. This was awesome work I enjoyed doing and I love giving back to the community and working on the Pen was just a fun little project.

Biz Dev Work

As much as I want to get my head down and focus on the project you need to keep an ear open because you never know when opportunity will knock. The industry is in a rough place and sometimes people need help. Some friends needed a little help with some tech advice, another thing came up where some talent might have been able to come on and join the studio. Additionally people wanted to talk about bits of work mostly which I say no to as I try to focus on the game but sometimes you need to have the conversation to know if you should say yes or no.

Conclusion

Setting up a company is a bunch of work, none of it very hard but it all adds up and I wanted to just document it all to show some of the non-gamedev work that goes into a gamedev company. Thankfully now that it is set up and we have our decks and materials are in order, maintenance is much easier. Also the good news is that Nov-Jan is relatively quiet on the business front as few deals are done over the holiday period. With the madness ramping back up as we approach year end, taxes and our first year end, omewhere in there we hope to launch our first small game.