How to Build Your Own Game Studio from Scratch

What the talk is about

Maik Rafiienko explains how to grow a game studio from scratch, drawing on his work with many teams, some of which he helped build from the ground up. A studio grows in stages: from a few like-minded people drawn to an idea, through the search for first funding at around 5–7 people, to 20+, where HR and a new view of leadership become necessary. His core idea is that a business goal means converting talent into money and money back into talent. He also covers motivation, the fact that the leader sets the studio's culture, and three leader types borrowed from Game of Thrones. He rejects the myth that charisma makes a leader and advises balancing pessimism and optimism. In the Q&A he touches on finding teammates at game jams, scaling only with guaranteed funding, and burnout in remote work. Useful for indie studio founders and producers.