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I just quit my job! Going to work on my games company full-time!

It's finally happening! This past Friday was my last day at my mechanical engineering job. I'll now be working full-time on my games company for at least 1 full year to get things off the ground!

I'm very excited, but honestly, the transition hasn't hit me yet. I'll probably need a few more days to feel the freedom really become apparent.

Two friends and I have been working on side projects together for about 4 years, and we formed Spiralburst Studio last year for our games. We secured the rights to our first app version of a board game this year which was awesome, but our workload quickly increased. I knew I'd need to quit soon to assist with programming and ramp up our PR/marketing.

Are you sure about this?

It may seem crazy to give up solid income for something that isn't making us money yet, especially during this pandemic. However, we created this opportunity for ourselves, and I think this is a necessary step to see it through to the end.

We also have a few big advantages that we have going for us:

  1. A captured audience. The physical Maracaibo board game is popular and is ranked 44th overall on the biggest board game site. This has made marketing much easier compared to Hexicon, which is our own creation.
  2. Scarcity. Maracaibo has sold out before, and an app is a good alternative for players who are unable to get a physical copy or aren't willing to pay $75.
  3. Demand. Video game playtime is up during the pandemic. This is especially true for digital board games, as in-person game nights have been put on hold.

On a more personal level, one silver lining brought around by this awful pandemic was the freezing of student loans in the US. I was able to finally pay everything off this year and save up a year's worth of cash!

So, what's next?

Our first goal is to sell 10,000 copies of Maracaibo Digital in 2021. If we can make that happen, I would be convinced that we can make this business work.

This wouldn't be quite enough to break even with basic living expenses, but it would certainly extend my runway. This would buy us time to secure other contracts, develop more games, and create additional income streams.

Hexicon has been on the backburner development-wise while we run marketing tests with a publisher, but that could also become a great revenue source once up and running.

Thanks IH!

I also have to say that Indie Hackers has really made a huge impact on my mindset in these last few years. I've learned so much about running a business from these forums and the podcast, and more importantly, I've gained a lot of confidence about this whole endeavor. Most recently, these three posts about quitting a job contained a great range of advice which helped me gut check myself before my decision.

So, thanks @csallen, and thanks IH for being such an amazing community!

  1. 4

    That's awesome! Congratulations.

    Would love to know more about your learnings from negotiating your deal to get the rights to build Maracaibo digital version.

    1. 5

      Thanks so much! And for sure, happy to share info about that.

      It started with a cold message on Board Game Geek - my co-founder asked the game's designer about making an app for another one of his games. He passed on that one, but suggested Maracaibo instead, a game we owned and enjoyed. The fact that we were fans of his game was a non-zero factor in him wanting to work with us, I imagine (dedication + knowledge).

      The designer put us in touch with the game's physical publisher - this is who we actually negotiated with. We laid out a contract outlining the work and a placeholder for the final numbers. My co-founder's dad is a contract lawyer which is a crazy useful advantage, so we had him look it over.

      The actual deal was $2000 up-front to us, at 2 milestones prior to release. Then 50/50 revenue split after store fees.

      The 50/50 is great for a first deal, though the up-front amount really is a reflection of risk mitigation on their part. Hexicon is only in open beta and a much simpler game, and we're an unknown studio. In the future, our deals likely will differ in format - many established game studios actually pay to acquire an IP and then take the majority of the revenue.

      1. 2

        Wow thanks for sharing that sounds like a great opportunity for you and your team, I will rooting for you and your studio’s as it’s super close to the stuff I’m working (also digital tabletop).

        1. 2

          Thank you!! I do remember, I think we chatted on Twitter once before. How's that going? Online party games iirc?

          1. 2

            Haha yeah I do remember seeing your other game posted somewhere.

            It's going well! I actually just started launching my first game for Mobo Games, it's a light-weight strategy game called Siege the Castle. I am taking a gradual roll-out approach so I can learn with each mini launch and improve the process.

            I actually just recorded a podcast interview as a guest for the Board Game Design Lab podcast to discuss digital tabletop games in particular. It was my first podcast experience ever, so I definitely had some jitters.

            I'd love to chat more if you're interested, you can DM me on Twitter or email (jkchu(at)hey.com)

            1. 1

              Nice! That sounds promising, would like to pick your brain on that so I'll shoot you an email.

              Overall this is something I've been wondering about a lot. We've been curious about how monetizing games on web would look like today. Sites like Tabletopia and Board Game Arena exist but are all existing IP - what you're doing is pretty cool since it's all your own creations. Will be very curious to learn what pricing strategies work for you! Nice that you aren't jumping to subscription right away (at least at a glance) and are going for more of a launcher/platform pay-per-game system. I feel like that is a more approachable system to start maybe.

              Anyway, I just signed up. Will try to play Siege tonight when my friends are off work (I can say that now lol)!

              1. 2

                that would be awesome!

                I am almost done with an overview video for Siege the Castle that helps introduce the game and the basic mechanics. I have an incomplete version uploaded here that you cold use in the meantime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ukvr33IJbE

                Rulebook

                Look forward to chatting with you more!

  2. 3

    Best wishes Christian!

    As @ProfessorBeekums mentioned, have a clear sales and marketing strategy which will help you a lot in this journey.

    1. 1

      Thanks! It's definitely great advice, and I've still got work to do in that area. Not starting from nothing, but I'm hoping to start applying what I've learned with all this new time

  3. 3

    This is a great story! Wish you luck. Definitely makes sense that getting the license for an existing property can make the marketing easier.

    Have you discussed a marketing plan with the IP holder? I worked for a company that received the rights to some popular board games. It worked ok, but we still had some marketing challenges.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot! And great question. We have discussed a marketing plan with them and are trying to coordinate with them as best as possible. We both have contacts throughout the bg/games industry which we shared. This includes video reviewers, twitter influencers (surprisingly big in board games industry), bloggers, review site writers, and cross-promotion in other games.

      Much of the reason I am quitting is to do a better job of managing this. As the developer, a lot of tasks fall to us, though the publisher obviously has the largest reach at the moment.

      I'm curious - what were the main challenges you faced? Seems super relevant to our situation! Would love to pick your brain on this : )

  4. 2

    I have an idea for a webApp game, where should i start ?

    1. 1

      I think the best place to start is to quickly prototype the most basic concept of your game on web. We used Heroku for our first Hexicon prototype and it very quickly validated that the game was fun. Check out our first version!

      You'll also want to recruit as many of your friends to play as possible. That will be another good gut check of whether it's a game you should pursue. In our case, our friends were critical about some aspects but ultimately everyone really liked playing.

      Let me know if you're not at the stage where you might prototype though, happy to give other advice too!

  5. 2

    Congrats in the jump! I hope all goes well 🙏 I wouldn’t recommend this approach thought myself. Being an indie founder is all about risk management. And this is a very risky move!

    I’d first ramp up so the game is making some MRR or has enough presales to get the team to profitability.

    I deffinilty see you’re point that it’s getting to the level where you need to be full time. Are you currently earning any MRR?

    1. 1

      Thanks so much! To be honest, I think I would have agreed 100% if this was even 6-8 months ago.

      Part of the reason I am tolerating this risk though is that I think we actually won't do well with our game's release without this extra time. That is generally a situation we would prefer to avoid, but this is honestly too big a chance to pass up. If this goes well, it will put us in a good position as a studio that can turn around nice board game apps quickly. If it goes poorly...I think it would make the leap to quit a job in the future even harder.

      I also just wanted to go for it tbh and am not opposed to looking for a new job in 8 more months if things go poorly. I left my job on great terms and they are open to taking me on as a contractor if there's work needed next year. That was a big part of my risk management before leaving for sure!

      As for MRR, quite low, I can't hide from that! Hexicon makes ~$20-50/mo during beta but our publisher takes that during the market tests. Maracaibo won't make money until release, but we have some small $1000 payments coming from the publisher as our development fee beforehand.

  6. 1

    This is amazing! Godspeed!

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