Shipping game products

I was a programmer on John Madden Football at EA, and then I joined the production of Street Fighters at Capcom, then Test Drive Offroad franchise at Accolade; I don't think I skipped any step to go from grassroots to an executive.

I have been speaking with many entrepreneurs lately, and one thing I see in common is that they can be extremely positive with their pitches, and when we slow down and look at the products closely, their stories fall apart.

Unless you are selling speeches, products matter a lot; sometimes, the product is everything. Here are some universal issues to come to my mind when I think of this subject:

1. When to ship. Picking the right stage to ship the product is tricky for the less experienced; one school of thinking is that if you don't ship, you don't know what is wrong with the product. The drawback of this thinking is that games are more than simple products; you are dealing with emotional consumers. Not only won't they give you constructive feedback, but they also most likely won't give you a second chance; they will avoid your product and your company like the plague. The solution? Lots of QA! Internal QA and closed beat external QA.

I will say shipping too early is death in my world. Do you make a public speech without wearing pants? I don't care if you are out of time; I don't appreciate you not showing up with the best possible version of yourself.

I can't stress this point hard enough; games are not software. You can't develop games as if it is software; games are more than software and more complicated to produce. There is a reason 50% of the games being developed won't get finished, and only some of the finished ones can break even, let alone be profitable.

Many entrepreneurs are happy to put dog shit in the box and ship it.

On the other extreme end of the spectrum, you have the perfectionism synonym, this is more popular within the game industry, and this is also why some games took more than five years to build. Many never get finished due to nebulous goals or moving targets. Most of you guys won't need to worry about this problem. Many entrepreneurs are happy to put dog shit in the box and ship it.

Shouldn't what players feel matter the most? 

2. Objectivity. You are the only person who thinks the game/genre is great. Look, it's not about what you think or what I think; we are making games for the players. Shouldn't what players feel matter the most? Do a focus group, do many of them in many locations, or pay people, to be honest with you, and have a third party host the events so you can get candid opinions. This is a long-forgotten tradition in the video game industry, for which I still see much value. You spent so much money building the game that you should ensure that the product's appearance is appreciated and that the gameplay mechanism is sound and easy to understand. The larger the QA audience size, the better.

Build a smaller game if you don't have a lot of time, a lot of developers, or a lot of money.

3. Scope. This is echoing with the first point. Sometimes, you need more time because your scope is too large. In the old days, we all had to make the Christmas deadline, and the cut-off date was Thanksgiving, ideally Halloween. Therefore, in September, executive producers and producers will sit down and have a triage meeting. To cut features, or you may not have a product to ship. This requires discipline; it's painful, but you must have the discipline, or the company will suffer from missing the deadline. Build a smaller game if you don't have a lot of time, a lot of developers, or a lot of money.

We all want sustainability

4. What is your target audience? Web2 game's 5.2 billion gamers? Or the web3 community? You'll need to stay sharp and pay attention to the market movement; this is not the time to presume anything. The ego goes broke. I know companies are still drinking their own Kool-Aid, and while the market has moved on without them, there is no room for gameFi and no room for play-to-earn anymore. Yes, this is my opinion, and my opinions are formed by speaking with VCs and blockchain companies. We all want sustainability; 6 months of the product life cycle does not justify an investment. Could you ensure there is a market for your product when it is done?

You want to avoid bearing the tuition of someone to learn shipping/submitting games for the first time

5. Hiring the right people. I wonder why entrepreneurs are so careless when they hire game developers. You want the pilot for your flight to be experienced. Why won't you want your game developers to be experienced? By experience, I mean making games from concept to shipping to operating live games; check the games they claim they launched. All the mobile games and apps sales and download numbers are public information. You want to avoid bearing the tuition of someone to learn shipping/submitting games for the first time; that is one big ball of wax you do not want to pay for. The first parties(Apple AppStore, Google Play, Steam, Epic, Sony, Xbox, Nintendo...) will reject your submission fifty times if you have never done this before. Make your submission early if you are a virgin game submitter.

6. Remember confirmation bias; we all look for evidence to back up our beliefs, which can create blind zones. If you surround yourself with crypto bros, you will think like one of them. We believe that products exist in the objective universe, not the fantastical la-la land; you will get an actual response when you launch the product into the real world; DAU won't lie. Truth is not negativity or hate; building products is also a way to discover the truth. I like to listen to dissents; they allow me to think about my products from different perspectives. If you create a workplace where people are afraid to tell you the truth, you may never hear it.

Godspeed! Go build products that you can be proud of.