Hey All!
Apologies for the long silence. We have a new baby! She arrived in February and is doing well.
Don't take it personally, I think that means she likes you.
With that plus GDC I've been pretty tied up and haven't written as much as I'd like. Hoping to get more of these out shortly!
Speaking of GDC...
Gave a talk this year on leadership roles and stances with several awesome leaders in game dev. First time doing a group talk, many thanks to Ryan Scott, Shaina Grade, and Serge Knystautas for helping the whole thing come together.
(Shaina, me, Serge, and Ryan)
I also got to talk to some people, and my TL;DR of the games industry...
...is bleak.
I do think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I also feel like we're still in the rough part of things, especially in the west.
We need to adapt, and leaders need to lead, be willing to take risks, and try things.
Unfortunately, many game studios and publishers are drawing back into what they consider "safe bets."
I like a safe bet as much as the next person, but I also know an industry like game dev, focused on creating engaging experiences, can't stop innovating. If you stop, others - mostly smaller studios - will pick up the mantle.
But the way the large and established AAA game companies are set up culturally seems to be pushing them into a corner of slow decline, which I think is a solvable problem.
I just don't know how many are willing to attempt the solve.
AI (via LLMs) is a red herring in the whole thing. It plays a role, but it is not the reason game dev is struggling. We were already in trouble, LLMs just provided an excuse and rationalization for hard and sometimes poor decisions.
If you're want help pivoting in a better direction, feel free to reach out. Making games is always hard and is never guaranteed to work, but most studios could do a lot more to tip the scales in their favor, and I'd love to help get that set up for you no matter what scale you're operating at.
Game Dev Leadership Accelerator (GDLA) Price
The GDLA has been going strong for about 6 months now, and I've been loving it! I've had leaders from art, engineering, production, founders, and more join and share what they are facing. Talking with them, helping them solve their problems and honestly just have more options when they face challenges ... it's been a blast for me and the feedback has been great so far.
I also now need to manage demand for the course, because I'm directly engaged with it on a regular basis vs my other online, prerecorded content.
If you aren't interested in the GDLA, then you can ignore this.
If you ARE interested in the GDLA, if you sign up to learn more about it before Monday (April 6th), I'll hold the current price for you, even if we don't get to talk for a week or two. We'll track when you sign up, so hit it now if you've been on the fence.
Seriously, if you want to improve how well you lead and your ability to create amazing teams and games, sign up!
OK, enough of that.
Thank you again for your patience while lots of life things happened. Here's to hoping we can improve leadership and therefore our industry to weather the storm ahead and come out stronger.
Appreciate you!
Ben C.
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