TechHub Meetup InsightsFounding an indie game dev studio outside Bucharest

In Cluj: - There is less competition- Cluj is a mainly outsourced city, so having a product-oriented mindset

would greatly benefit the community- In spite of all the big tech companies there, the community isn’t really

coagulated yet, which is why an initiative such as RGDA is necessary and welcome.

In Iasi:- Mobility Games is the only indie studio in the city, so competition would

most likely help increase the quality of the projects- The team is looking forward to collaborating with other indie studios in

the country- Iasi is a powerful university center, but people are not encouraged to go

into games.

TechHub Meetup InsightsOn building free-to-play games

Constantin (Mobility Games, Iasi) - free-to-play is just another business model that requires a different

approach- With Frozen Freefall, we did everything from scratch and had no idea it

would be so successful. We worked on it for 3 months and it was very challenging.

Tudor Rad (Transylgamia, Cluj)- The first free-to-play game we did took 9 months to build- We learnt that the best way is to develop fast, launch fast, don’t be

overly confident and don’t get ahead of yourself- Learn to test market reactions, iterate and improve according to the

feedback you get.

TechHub Meetup InsightsChallenges in getting exposure for indie games

First of all, plan according to the 3 important stages in developing a game: 1. User acquisition

• The core of the game has to be easy to pick up by everyone• Find a good franchise/brand that can support your marketing efforts and has

the resources to invest in this• Make your game appealing to a variety of users: find a game mechanic that is

popular in the market, who doesn’t bore users 2. Retention

• Come up with game elements and challenges that keep the users involved3. Monetization

• Discover and encourage your super fans, the ones that give you money on a regular basis or the ones that give you a lot of money.

Other tactics you can use are: - App store optimization- Cross promotion - Be prepared to handle to post-launch operations: engaging users, making users spend

more without forcing them, giving more content, plenty of options, etc. - Make sure to have a dedicated team for that game title you want to build into

something amazing.

TechHub Meetup InsightsStarting an indie game dev studio – lessons learnt

Tudor Rad (Transylgamia, Cluj)

• We started with seed money, enough to keep us alive for 1 year• It took the pressure of making our first titles successful • We approached new technology, new platforms and had a lot of

challenges to deal with• Our advice would be to start out small and learn as much as you can

along the way• We had bootstrapped for the past 7 years, so we didn’t have the network

and the knowledge to build a big project, so we started with a smaller one

• When dealing with failure, my advice would be to analyse the failures that others have experienced, find the pattern that made them fail and learn how you can avoid the same pitfalls.

TechHub Meetup InsightsStarting an indie game dev studio – lessons learnt

Constantin Marcu (Mobility Games, Iasi)

• We had previous experience with the mobile market, we knew the dynamic, etc., which helped us a lot.

• There are different ways to start: if you’re a startup, you can choose to start small or, if you’re confident of your idea, you can pitch your idea to someone who can finance the project

• If you have the knowledge, you can also go for it on your own and based on the research you can do by yourself

• You can learn from the failures experienced by others• Make sure that your game is a very good one – focus on retention • If retention works, monetization will work as well.• Going small/big/whatever is all about your objective. If you want to

invest 1000 EUR and want to get 2000 EUR out of it – then that’s a good goal.

• Small and big budgets depend on the resources you have • Set your objective the right way and you’ll probably reach it.

TechHub Meetup InsightsAdvice on building free-to-play games

Freemium/free-to-play games are a huge market that appeared almost out of nowhere. • If you want to able to test your games for free – go for this model• The game market is getting really, really crowded and there are more

than 2 million devs with Unity licenses • Even if they don’t all make games, it’s still a big number• The difference in resources are sizeable between big companies and

indie studios• The free to play model was tampered with by some developers, who had

an aggressive monetization strategy• Users get content for free, so this is a good experience for the users – but

they also have expectations towards this• Execution differentiates between the good and the bad ideas• Look at the skill set that’s necessary to develop the game you have in

mind or you can adjust your product to what you can deliver.

TechHub Meetup InsightsWhat would you have done differently? What would you have done the same?

Tudor Rad (Transylgamia, Cluj)Differently: I would’ve started a lot sooner. The same: working on keeping the team united and motivated.

Constantin Marcu (Mobility Games, Iasi)Differently: wish we would’ve caught the iPhone train earlier, because, in the early stages, things were much easier. The same: enjoying what we do.

See you at our next event! Bucharest.TechHub.com

Facebook.com/TechHubBucharestTwitter.com/TechHubBuc