Quest #8 - Company Mission and Vision

While our company hasn't completed a mission statement or an overarching vision for ourselves, we've certainly talked about it. I will create what I feel is a synthesis of things we've discussed. However this will likely be only a prototype of what our final mission and vision will look like.

Mission:

At Dropkick Games, we are dedicated to bringing gameplay back to its roots, while providing new and meaningful adventures to players with the quality standards and attention to detail of the classics.

Vision:

We feel that as an industry, video games have lost some of the charm and careful crafting that made gaming a work of art from hobbyists, for hobbyists. We aim to help influence the industry in a return to these values, and give players experiences we feel that they are missing. We will strive to create personal and friendly relationships with our customers and the community as a whole, because we feel that community is very important in game development, and our products work in service to it.

Quest #7 - Graham Evans' Talk

Graham's discussion was a very practical one. He primarily tackled marketing, and how it affects a business' endeavors. I thought he put it well when he said that a great product with poor marketing will not do well, while a lousy product with decent marketing is more successful, and a great product with excellent marketing will do the best. He gave examples of British companies and their penetration into the U.S. market, and various factors that affected that. A common one was market research. I of course knew this was a part of the process of marketing, but Graham highlighted its importance very well. He talked about a store chain that made its way into the U.S. market, but did not take into account cultural factors in the way that Americans shop versus the way the British shop.

Graham also touched on some key "survival tips" of sorts when being an entrepreneur, similar to some of the maxims that Andrew introduced previously. "Know what you don't know" was probably the biggest thing he mentioned, and one that I think is key. Much like Andrew talked about, being aware of your strengths and weaknesses, your knowledge and your knowledge gaps, can make or break your business. Knowing your knowledge gaps allows you to either acquire people that complement those gaps, or can give you a checklist of things that you should work on learning.

Finally he talked about approaching investor groups, and provided an interesting tidbit of advice here too. He talked about how there will be investors that are interested in your idea and are involved in your industry, just as there will be some that are very uninterested. The advantage to pitching to the less interested investors first, interestingly, is that you will get more constructive criticism and be able to refine your pitch without taking a large credibility hit within circles of investors whom you really want to support you.

I felt that I learned a good handful of useful tips and perspectives from this talk, which I plan to keep in mind in the future.

Quest #6 - Kickstarter Brackets

This exercise is actually quite useful, as my company intends to use a kickstarter in the near future to allow us to pay for art assets and software needed to make our game as we envision it.

Here are some fictional brackets for backers to pledge to the kickstarter.

$5 or more - You will be immortalized in an acknowledgements section on our website! 

$15 or more - You get a digital copy of the game when it is released! You will also be featured in the acknowledgements on our website.

$30 or more - You not only get the above reward, but you also get a digital download of the soundtrack in any format you can imagine!

$50 or more - You get a digital copy of the game on release, an acknowledgement feature, and a 3x5 print of the cover art signed by our artist!

$75 or more - You get the above reward, and a digital download of the soundtrack!

$100 or more - You get the above reward, with TWO copies of the game on release!

$150 - You get all the rewards of the $50 package, with a limited edition CD version of the game soundtrack, signed by the composer!

Quest #5 - John Dimmer's Talk

Listening to John Dimmer's talk in Tuesday's class was quite interesting. He introduced himself by talking us through his various entrepreneurial endeavors. He graduated college and began acquiring skills to help him start his own company, and he referred to his knowledge base as an "armory" that he filled with weapons for his own business. This idea resonated with me a lot, enjoying the medieval era in history and much of the fantasy and lore that comes from that. Moreover though, I think this is a really valuable tactic for an entrepreneur. You make the most of the experiences you have, in order to better equip yourself for your endeavors.

John also talked about two business endeavors he is involved with now. The first was owning a series of Airstream dealerships. He owns the majority of the western corner of the U.S., having dealerships in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California. It was fascinating to hear about some of his tactics, from referring to the Covington location as "Seattle" to keep that portion of the airstream market to himself to trying to squeeze out competitors geographically. The second venture of his is co-owning a Honda dealership. This provided some interesting insight into dead ends. He and his partner were met with so much inflexibility from Honda that they couldn't fulfill their goal of having a series of dealerships. This was a valuable lesson because not only did they run into this problem, but they are now potentially looking to sell. This illustrates a second part to this, and that is that it's possible to simply alter your course and still come out ahead. Selling the dealership may not be ideal, but it can still make some profit.

On top of the entrepreneurial insight, I was interested in John's experience as an Angel investor. He talked about the way in which you approach Angels or get involved in a network if your area has one. This was useful information, as seeking Angel funding may be something in the future of my game development company, or future endeavors as well.