How to open a game development studio

Greetings, my readers. We read the Power Page article without water, from a real developer.
If you are seriously thinking about the question - how to open a web studio and start making money, then sit back.

Structure:

• How to open a studio
• Where to start
• Documents
• Employees
• Where to look for orders
• State orders
• Work Model
• Parting words

How to open your web studio

IT business in Russia enjoys a number of benefits and formally, our country is interested in its development, I am sure that in the future there will be additional tax or financial privileges for owners of their WEB/IT development studios.

All this gives additional motivation to novice businessmen. Start simple:

• Studio name
• Logo
• Social Media Communities
• Website design
• Legal entity
• Meaningful study of our blog

Where to start

Create a good media kit and describe your services in it. Indicate approximate prices, contacts, links to social networks and website. The main problem you will face is the lack of a portfolio, which is extremely important for future customers. Post on all game forums like gamedev or gcup. Keep a close eye on your forum threads, answer questions, and don't forget to post content regularly. It is important to get the first order, it will give you good motivation.

Documents

No license or special permission is required to develop games and apps. Only a legal entity,  on behalf of which you will conclude contracts with your customers. It is worth reading separately about No. 212-FZ, tax and FSS contributions, which are less than those of other companies.

Employees

You can choose the HR management model that best suits your needs.

Model I. Remote Collaboration

The point is to register employees remotely. Sign a standard contract with them and pay taxes for them. At the same time, it is important to organize a transparent time tracking system and control the work of your employees.

Pros:

• No office rent.
• Remote employees are always paid less than in-house employees.
• A large selection of employees, as you can hire a person from any region of the Russian Federation.

Cons:

• Better control of employees.
• More risk that the employee will cheat, and perhaps not show up at all.

Model II. State

A common way. You rent a room, advertise, accept for a trial period and track the main KPI indicators of your employees. This option is suitable for large studios that can keep a competitive salary and rent an office.

Where to look for orders

Take a note.

• Game forums
• SEO website optimization
• Freelance exchanges
• Contextual advertising
• Targeted advertising in social networks
• Western exchanges, subject to site localization
• E-mail newsletters in the company with a proposal to develop an application

These are the main methods of attracting customers. For 2017, the realities are such that with the correct construction and organization of your work, you can easily receive 2-3 applications for development per day. Of these applications, 4-6 specific projects will actually remain, which can be taken into work with an average check of 800,000 rubles and a profit of 400,000 rubles from each project.

It is not difficult to calculate that after doing the basic work and initial investments, in a few months your company's income will be approximately 3 million rubles per month, and the total profit will be close to 1 million rubles.

State orders

State orders are a separate area. Yes, yes, this is a small market share, but quite important - at least for the portfolio. There are a lot of examples - metro, museums, a map of bus routes, etc. All state orders work on a competitive basis, that is, tenders. Winning a tender is quite simple, because due to the specifics of the industry, there are practically no competitors. Over time - it is worth hiring a separate specialist in state. contracts.

Work model

What does a game development studio do? That's right, makes games. But in fact, it is important to initially choose your work model.

You can develop your own games, or make custom games. For example, Blizzard studio - works exclusively on their own projects. And vice versa, there are a lot of studios - which make exclusively games to order. For example, our studio deals with paid orders in their free time from their own projects. A fairly flexible way to exist in the market.

Parting words

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You will definitely everything to succeed.