When I tell people I work with game developers and publishers, I am often asked “what do you do for them?” Another way to think about this question might be “how are they different than other startups?”
For starters, they are capitalized differently. Like most traditional startups, most game studios don’t set out with a bunch of cash. Sure, some do (we all know that one producer who got a huge lump of cash from a successful first person shooter at his old studio and then set out on his or her own), but most don’t.
A regular startup might bootstrap until they have a minimum viable product, or even just a pitch-able one, then seek out additional funding through angel investment, VCs or otherwise. Most independent game studios are too financially risky for traditional angels and VCs to take much interest (publishers, hardware and middleware companies can be another story). For a lot of developers, this means bootstrapping all the way up to the release of the game.
But a game studio is still a business, and businesses still have expenses. Click here to read full article.