how do you get past small startup issues?

Question

Two friends and I started a venture to develop small game applications. It seems like we have the great combo: artist, programmer and a business person.

We started two projects so far, but it seems hard to get a product out. There's design questions, wondering if we should make the perfect application or get something out there to test the market... maybe these are usual startup issues. Sometimes it feels like much more could be accomplished in a one man shop.

Currently this operation is secondary next to day jobs. Obviously day jobs provide security, but also use up most of the time in a day.

Anyways, if you have good or bad small startup stories, please tell and point out what or why it worked or not.

Answer 1

Dive in and build something, don't look back! First you need something people want, then the rest can follow.

Answer 2

Develop quickly, fail early and leverage the plethora of open source tools and software.

Answer 3

On a fly-by-night startup, how is the business person going to justify their cost? If it's just a hobby project, I don't see any harm. But if you guys plan on making a living off this, that's a pretty serious expense.

Answer 4

I am currently reading Eric Sink's "Business of software" that tackles small independent software vendors issues.

Answer 5

Release early. Release often. Fail forward fast and keep reworking the product.

Answer 6

Until you have released something, and some people know who you are, you're effectively worthless. It can certainly be hard to find investment if you're a completely unproved team with an unproven project.

Do something, get it out there, get people to pay attention to you. If you're doing games, get a demo or something released. It'll give you the opportunity to gather feedback and ideas for improvement, as well as giving you (and potential investors) an idea of commercial viability of your game.

Answer 7

wondering if we should make the perfect application or get something out there to test the market

Well there's your problem! There is no perfect application. Put a decent amount of polish on the game and do some good bug fixing, and then put it out there... call it a Beta version if you must. Take user feedback and let it inform any changes you make in the design. If you wait until you think your work is perfect, you'll never release anything.

Answer 8

Set up a forum or a blog so you can release updates on what you are doing (even if no one reads it). It helps you stay focused AND you can get some user interaction in there. Get a few people who are interested in the game/project posting on it and it does wonders for motivation on those late programming nights.

I did a bit of game development with a buddy for fun and it really did help having people interested in it. I now do web development and feedback really helps out, both with fixing bugs, adding features, and the motivation to build the best thing possible

EDIT: I definitely agree with the posts about getting a quick demo or beta out though. That is all part of tying it in with user interaction. But people won't care about what you do or have planned until they see that you are actually working at it (releasing a beta, doing a few updates, etc)

Answer 9

Well, if there were sort of a magic "one size fits all" answer, we'd probably all be billionaires by now, but unfortunately it's not that easy :)

I've worked for startups most of my career, lots of them from the "no money and running out of the back of a buddy's garage" stage, and if I really had to boil everything down into a general piece of advice, it would probably be "Think big and plan for the future, but focus in the short term, and ensure that you have defined your goals and mission and don't let yourself stray from the path until you have the resources and luxury to do so."

Another way of putting that would be "What problem are you solving, and for whom? Is [random idea #123,129,202] helping you achieve that goal? If not, either stick it on the back burner to rethink or laugh about later (trust me, you'll have a lot of both!)."

In my experience MOST of the real issues I've seen with startups in the past have been due to a lack of focus... comes with the territory, you're doing new, exciting things, the sky's the limit, and the possibilities are endless! It's hard to nail it down to just ONE thing to get started with. But as you get further along, letting yourselves be pulled in umpteen different directions because you have so many good ideas will make it much, much harder to execute well on any single one at such an early stage where you're very resource constrained and trying to get your foot in the door. If you're planning on pursuing VC funding, they will pick up on a lack of consistent vision/focus/mission as well (or at least that's always been my experience, haven't had to seriously talk to/raise VC cash for about 4 years now).

Good luck!

Answer 10

Dreaming in code could be a valuable read. Meanwhile, focus on getting something out as fast as you can and go public.
Be aware that in order to succeed in the gaming industry you need to come out with something that can make even a small difference... IMO, there's no point in investing time and effort into a game that only your family and your closest friends will play. Good luck.

Answer 11

I think it's really important to partner with existing businesses - they can take a lot of the work away and help you grow. So in your case, make a cool game, and then try to get in touch with a small company that already makes games, show it to them, and hope they're nice enough to want to help you market it.

Another thing I believe is that it sometimes is important to first find a customer, then make a product. I've spent too many years of my life trying to come up with an idea for "the product", only to realize that there's no one to buy it. But I'm finding that almost every business has technology problems you can solve, and its far easier to start something that way.

Also, I think that just the act of growing and writing a codebase is important. Like someone said above, release fast and often. I think there are few projects in the world that have been in development for more than a year with several releases that don't have SOME value, even if it is hard to get them to customers. Eventually, as the thing grows, there's gotta be SOMEONE who wants to buy it!!! :)