Weekly review #14

Hey folks! This week, we went to Lyon to attend the F101 training program offered by Inria StartupStudio at EMLyon Business School. Over five busy days, we received different training on entrepreneurial postures, innovation marketing, business model and business development, and financing.

Week overview

After obtaining our PhDs in computer science and developing video games for years (Nico had already written courses on game creation when he was in high school for the MediaBox training centers, and Jimmy co-wrote the book "Blender for video games" in French), we knew how to develop games, but not how to create a company. Of course, nothing forced us to go into entrepreneurship; we could have simply developed the game and gone through a publisher. After some reflection, we decided to create a studio for several reasons: firstly, to remain independent of publishers (as we discuss on the homepage), and secondly, to gradually build a team so that we can work on several other game projects in the future.

So, we have a new problem: if we know how to create games, we don't know how to create a business. This is where the incubators and our supporters (Inria Startup Studio, Incubator Lorrain, Peel) come in to help us. This week, the F101 program has complemented our training by introducing us to many essential topics in business creation.

Among these issues, we are currently thinking about setting up a board for the company, as well as developing the business model and business plan. Besides being indispensable to doing things well, having a first version is necessary for many financing applications.

Overall, this training is complementary to what we have with the Incubator Lorrain, and we are very happy to have had this opportunity. The professors and speakers of the week were very interesting, and it was also a great opportunity to spend a week in Lyon.

Other current points

Although we were quite busy with the training, we had several other topics to address simultaneously. We were able to make progress on recruiting the 3D artist and set a date for the start of the mission. We also registered for the GameCamp, which will take place on June 19 and 20.

We have another good news to share: on May 12th, we will participate in the Indie Game Night #19 in Strasbourg. This event allows different independent studios to present their games and answer questions from the public at Shadok. EastGames invited us to participate in this session, where we will present our game VirtualSociety and discuss the backstage of its development. We also plan to present a small demo of the game.

Finally, we have prepared our communication materials for upcoming events, including the Foire Expo de Nancy and Vandoeuvre-in-Games, by starting on the graphics of the kakemonos, business cards, flyers, and t-shirts.

Exceptionally, we will not post a preview of the editor this Saturday, since we have had absolutely no time to work on the development.

Thank you for your support, and see you next week!