Simon Prytherch and his colleagues have overcome numerous challenges as studio Lightning Fish became Chromativity. Here he shares the lessons he has learned and offers advice on keeping your studio your own
Simon Prytherch says having multiple projects – such as Adidas miCoach – (above) is vital to a studio’s survival
I AM CEO at Chromativity, previously known as Lightning Fish. We have been through a difficult year and
have completed a management buyout in which we have returned the control of the company to the founders. Here is my list of do’s and don’ts of running a successful games developer.
SET YOUR COMPANY STRATEGY I am not a fan of detailed hundred-page business plans, but you do need to have clear aims. This is your company’s strategy and is
important for investors and your team. You can split this into short term (less than six months), medium term (less than two years) and long term (more than two years). This is not something you do once and
forget about. I suggest every three months you re-examine based on new information and opportunities. Strategy is important because it defines the activities of the rest of your company. Designers can focus on the games that fit these strategies and then the dev teams can implement them.
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For example, at the beginning of 2011 we decided to expand our motion gaming into other genres/platforms, plus establish a mobile team to focus on sports strategy games. 18 months later we are starting to see the results.
FIND YOUR NICHE I think one of the key strategies for a small developer is to identify your niche and then exploit it. Look at your strengths and where you can make your mark. Try to identify markets or trends early. As an example, when we established Lightning Fish we setup the studio specifically to concentrate on motion gaming. We knew we could not compete head-to-head with the larger studios in more traditional genres such as driving and shooting. Shortly after starting development of our
first Wii title we started looking at web cams for tracking movement. This research brought us to the attention of Microsoft and Sony. They invited us to work with their very early prototypes of Kinect and Move. We then went on to develop a launch title for
both platforms. That in turn allowed us to go on and work with Adidas, the result of which is Adidas miCoach, released this summer. As we work on new platforms such as PC,
smartphones and tablets, the main criteria is ‘Can we make a impact?’. We are still fairly small, so we need to make sure our limited resources are used efficiently.
SEEK OUT ALL SOURCES OF FUNDING There are many sources of funding accessible to a young company including investors, publishers, friends/family, crowd funding, grants and loans. Don’t forget about friends and family; at
the start they might be the only ones that have complete faith in you and will not demand a huge slice of the company. Look at all the sources of grants and decide which ones you should apply for. This is ‘free’ money, but it does require a lot of preparation and paperwork. Typically, a grant will take six months from the moment you start preparing for it until you receive the first payment. The most appropriate UK grants are administered by the Technology