Ep. 87: Starting Your Own Game Studio

Creating a new video game is a long and strenuous process, but that process is nothing compared to launching your very own game studio. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Lior Hadashian (CTO & Co-Founder at Gavra Games) about the importance of being a data-driven game studio, when to double down on a good idea, keeping your games fresh, and what all needs to be considered when selecting your co-founder.

Here are your cheat codes:

1:10 How did Lior Hadashian get into the video game industry?

4:23 Angel Investing

9:34 Coming up with new game ideas.

16:49 Creating Cross Platform Games

18:44 Live Ops

20:32 Double down on an existing hit game or create a new game all together?

22:19 The process of developing your next game.

24:04 Finding your niche.

26:39 Timeline for creating a fully finished game.

29:34 Early Access Games

31:34 Data Driven Games

35:20 Useful Analytics

39:59 Improving your game with accurate data.

41:43 Keeping your game fresh with new content.

44:35 What all goes into selecting your co-founder

49:59 How to keep more players around longer.