Are there any publishers lurking about in here? From the UK? I would rather like to talk with some of them to try and get some finance for our game. Drop me a line if you''re listening... http://www.shavenpuppy.com Cas

Publishers very rarely contact you!!! You have to contact them!...

Unless your company happens to be called "id", "Lionhead" etc, they aren''t going to take the trouble to contact you!

- even if you take the trouble to contact them, the chances of getting something signed/financed are slim unless you have something exceptional, and preferably a track record and a fully established team!... they don''t thow $1million at anyone who asks for funding you know! (although it can probably seem that way looking at some of the tat which gets published).

Triple-A publishers in the UK you can count on half of one hand unfortunately, the rest are now owned by larger US and French companies... The smaller/B-list publishers still have a bit of representation.

If you''re actually serious about this, contact them to find out their submissions procedure (usually an NDA signed by both sides to prevent either accusing the other of ripping off ideas etc), then send them a business plan together with a complete game design, a technology demo, and a team breakdown...

... if the like what they see they''ll probably want to arrange a meeting (You go and see Them!), often at one of E3, ECTS, Milia, TGS etc



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Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

I visited your site, and I must say I was surprised at the quality of the stuff you're developing. My first impression of the name "Shaven Puppy" was not a positive one. Naming your company after mutilation of a small helpless animal my not add to your chances of landing a publishing deal. (Maybe this is just my American perspective; in the UK this humor may be better received?)

After looking at your business plan I would say that my biggest critiques are the marketing analysis and the financials. In my experience with writing business plans and convincing VCs to invest in you (I've competed in one of the biggest Business Plan competitions in the US, the PEI for what it's worth) they don't really care about your idea or your technology, or you for that matter. They want to see a guaranteed market and some serious financial skills. Your sales projections etc are a little un founded, you need to have a break out of all your up front expenses on going expenses and projected sales and be able to justify all your numbers.

Venture capitalists may have some domain knowledge about the games industry, but what they really know is numbers, financials, and ROI. This is what you have to sell them. They just don't hand out money to a good idea. They have to be absolutely sure you have the capability to manage that money and bring them a strong ROI. If you don't have an advisory board of industry veterans, I suggest you start trying to acquire one. This is a major selling point for VC's. I'd especially recommend recruiting someone with a strong background in business finance.

If I had advice to offer it would be this. You've invested a lot of money and you have some excellent art assets as well as some nice technology. What could you release inside of a few months that would generate some revenue? If you can become self sufficient you won't need VC funding or a publishing deal, you can own the whole company and still achieve your goals. If you set your only goal to hit the big time or nothing at all, I think the nothing at all scenario in all probability is what you're going to hit. I'm not trying to say "Don't think big", by all means "THINK HUGE!" but be prepared to start small

All the best...


Cleaning up some odd formatting artifacts...

Edited by - ironside on March 6, 2002 4:49:55 PM

Hmm, I hadn''t visited the site when I posted the above, it seems like you''ve thought things through more than many people on these boards - however what I said before still stands - if you want their business/investment you''re going to have to hound them directly!

I agree with Ironside about investment from VCs and what they''ll want to see (we had a visit from some VCs when we formed back in early 1998ish, we found alternative funding since then so the company is still 100% owned by its [paid] employees).
Also expect VCs to want a higher proportion of your shares than you''d like!



--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com

>Also expect VCs to want a higher proportion of your shares than you''d like!

ha ha So true, expect them to take a controlling interest or walk away. Also there are two types of VC money; "Smart" money and "Dumb" money. Both want a controlling interest, one will build and support your company, the other will drive it into the ground because the don''t understand the buisness.

Avoid "Dumb" money at allmost any cost, and only use it if it is your absolute last resort!

Just as an idea, you should consider pitching your concept to Microsoft. I know you do all your stuff in java so you probably hate them . But seriously, the are expanding their influence in the game market all the time. They also took a chance on Turbine Entertainment for AC, even though they were (at the time) an unprooven company. If they''ve done it once, they might do it again.

The only problem I can see is your choice of Java as your programming language.

I think you will find it hard to get good people experienced in this area as it is not an industry standard language. In some places C is still prefered over C++. The main reason they don''t like C++ is they don''t know how to optimise it. So you can imagine the problems with Java.

Your positives for using Java aren''t convincing me either as MacOS X, Linux aren''t huge markets. Most game companies don''t even bother with them. The big market these days are on console and the most stable console compilers and IDE''s are written for C. Hopefully C++ has come a long way since I was involved in that.

Most venture capitalists would only look at you if you have a solid track record for making money. You wouldn''t buy into a business without checking the books first would you?

From what I''ve seen you could easily finance yourself by releasing lesser versions of your game and building up from there.

Good Luck.

quote: Original post by Ironside
Dupe! Admin, feel free to delete.
Edited by - ironside on March 6, 2002 4:22:07 PM

Ironside: You can delete your own posts as long as you are logged in. Click the icon to edit it, then check the "Delete? To delete this post, check this box" checkbox, then click the "Make Modifications" button.

TWO years in the forum and i''m just finding this out now!?
(thanks)

Thanks for your speedy advice!

Shaven Puppy is a pretty unorthodox name but it sticks in the mind, doesn''t it?

A strange thing did happen recently though; although we''ve run out of money to develop the game further at this point the core code I developed has found its way into live television graphics, where it is suddenly extremely valuable.



Cas