rousutt's blog: "rs golds"

We were afraid that if we took our foot off the gas, even a little bit, this just wouldn’t happen. We were pretty driven, so when all the other lads were like “Oh, I’m off to Cheap DarkScape Gold the Caribbean” or “I’m off to the pub” we were like “oh, well we’re going to go drink some coffee, do some paperwork, make sure all this stuff happens.”GA: Yeah, I remember lots of flipcharts. We moved from the pub to someone’s apartment and started banging out flipcharts, getting ideas together and really getting back into the groove of the creative process again as we decided what we were going to make.So where did you get the backing to start a studio?GA: We pretty much did that all off our own back. There was no external funding to the studio, we all ST: We gave our time.GA: We gave our time, absolutely, and we gave a little bit of our own money to get things started. There was a fair amount of time, really, before we got started seriously working on Playroom; quite a few months passed in between. We had a lot of good contacts in and outside the industry that had done this sort of thing before, and they were a great source of advice and inspiration. We just had to manage that early financial exposure, you know? But it wasn’t a great deal in terms of money; it’s more about the time you put in.ST: Yeah, the thing about a small development studio is the majority of the cost is staff. So when the staff was just us directors knocking around together, it wasn’t much of an issue. Not that it was easy, don’t get me wrong; we could have gone off and gotten other jobs, certainly. But as Graeme said, a lot of people gave us really honest advice on how we could proceed. We just got really good at haggling as well, trying to get stuff for next to nothing or for free.GA: Yeah, free is best. That was our motto when we started.ST: Yeah, we did okay on that, didn’t we? We got a few things for free. And that’s it, really; once you get the groundwork set up, most developers are tech types so you can probably do most of your work from home.Any specific advice for devs in similar situations who might want to strike out on their own?GA: Yeah, I’d say that you shouldn’t try to think of it all at once. That can put you off, because there are lots of things you have to do: all the paperwork, the hassle of getting an office, setting the company up, all that work. But really, especially in this business, which is basically the entertainment business, it all comes down to the content and the ideas that you’re making. It’s about keeping your focus on that, really; I mean we didn’t even we still don’t have business cards, right?ST: Nope.GA: So focus on the things that are really important, early on.ST: I think it helps that people in this business are pretty laid back, and as long as you don’t make too many mistakes they’ll go easy on you when you’re new.