Adam Saltsman and I chat about his journey from freelancing to building a successful game studio. We talk about what some of his first gigs where to slowly building upon his experience and always looking for the next challenge. Networking, understanding and learning when to spot opportunities, and finding your stride is always an ongoing endeavor. Building a game studio (or freelancing/entrepreneur career) wont happen overnight. Perseverance, learning from your mistakes, and finding your niche will put you on top!
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Adam Saltsman
Adam is game developer, game publisher, and family man who is known for his addicting games. He is the force behind the game Canabalt and along with his wife Bekah the game studio Finji. Their newest games from Finji are Tunic, Night in the Woods, and Overland.
Twitter: @ADAMATOMIC
Website: http://www.finji.co/
In the Beginning
- First freelance gig was Flight Simulator X
- Found from friend of a friend
- Building models
- Building portfolio from T-Mobile games
- Difficult to make living from just art and focused on “turn key” game making service
- Cheaper to hire someone to create a game for larger corporation/organizations
- Stumbling into niche and noticing patterns
Work on your Portfolio
- Fill portfolio with work you’re going after!
- If you don’t have existing clients, create internal portfolio projects
- Plan for the long-term with your portfolio
- Try to take on opportunities that come your way
Work on things that benefit you long term
- Find the balance working on your portfolio as well as finding clients
- Nights and weekends may be something you’ll have to do short term
- Look ahead to see what you’re working on now to get the clients you want
- You get a lot of experience from practicing and failing
- Rates should be able to cover the overhead of working for yourself
- Pivot and level up when you feel that you’ve plateaued
Not all Red Flags are from your clients
- Learn what your ‘Red Flags’ are for your clients
- You’ll have to set time aside for your company as well as your clients
- Don’t take on more work than you reasonable can do
- Don’t forget about your own company
Client Red Flags
- “Weasel Detectors” to sniff out the wrong clients
- Do they know what they’re actually doing?
- Get to ‘no’ as quickly as possible
- Micromanagement
- With experience, you’ll notice flags quicker
Vetting Customers/Clients can help you reduce headaches
- Poke the client with small push-backs to see how they respond
- Understanding how the clients work will come easier with experience
- Challenge ideas
- Don’t forget, you’re the expert THEY hired
- Receptive clients are much more fun to work with
- There isn’t a magic formula for the perfect customer
- Sometimes you have to vet the customer longer than you normally do (Old Spice)
Dikembe Mutombo and Old Spice game
Success takes work
- Instagram filter doesn’t show the effort it took to get that one shot
- Short term sacrifice
- Working for exposure…no thanks
- Not everything you do will be in exchange for money. And sometimes that’s ok
Build in time for your company road map
- Build time within your week to make sure you’re on track
- Work on yourself as well as your project
- Are your projects stagnant and on track?
- Are you doing what you really want to do?
- The quality of your output will greatly increase
Keep an eye on your goals
- Company goals
- Personal goals
- Retirement goals
- Quarterly Check-Ins
‘Dark Side’ of working for yourself
- In the US, a lot of moving parts that you may not know about
- It IS doable, but you have to keep it in mind
- Healthcare, taxes, and filing are part of your responsibilities
- Research and organize your own retirement and healthcare
- You WILL do better and understand how to run a business
- You may have to take gigs to fill the gap when needed
- Time it takes to get paid can be a pain
- Time management!
Be an effective contractor
- Your goal is to get as few jobs that you can
- Quality over quantity
- Don’t just pile it on!
- Refer other people that you trust if you need to pass on a gig
Learned on-the-way skills
- Learn how to communicate
- Pitching ideas that almost re-states what the problem is
- Give context and justification for the pitch
- Gains peoples by-ins and get them on your side
- Repeating their problems back to them as conclusions
- Sometimes you’re hired to fall on the sword, unfortunately
- Being sensitive to the environment you’re working in
- People may hire you and still do it their way
- Channels of communication may need to be ‘off the record’
Community Outreach and Help/Share Knowledge
- Adam and his studio love helping people who want the help
- Finji.co blog has a lot of behind the scenes and studio information
- YouTube talks about game dev
- Email contact button on Finji.co or adam@finji.co
Quick Picks
- Google Pixel orders come with the Google Mini
- Fluid commands
- Google Ecosystem intergration pretty easy
- ‘Hackingtosh’ – PC built to run Mac-OS
- Pain to get setup
- Impressive once completed
- Normal PC equipment with Mac Pro performance