This article is about the hard reality of starting and running a computer games company. I started Intelligent Games (IG) in 1988 because I have always loved computer games and I hired my first employee and moved into real offices in 1993. I sold the company and left in 2000. In that time we released sixteen titles, which together sold over two million copies. The company grew to more than sixty-five people and worked with some of the biggest publishers in the business: EA Sports, Westwood Studios, LEGO and Hasbro. We got there without debt and without external investment. It is from this experience that I am writing this article – as they say in America: ‘your mileage may differ’.
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How to write like a hacker
The world of the computer hacker can seem as alien as Sanskrit or quantum physics. But it’s worth trying to understand the geniuses behind the internet as well as the mindset of the minority of hackers who turn bad. Who knows, perhaps you’ll discover your inner geek?
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Geeks: how to write for a non-technical audience
Two peoples divided by a common language.
George Bernard Shaw said this about the British and the Americans, but the same can be said of anoraks and suits. The ability to write for a non-technical audience is a skill often lost on the geeks among us, but I’m happy to provide a cheat-sheet.
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5 leadership lessons from the captains of Star Trek
Few science fiction franchises can claim to be as inspirational as the philosophical heavyweight that is Star Trek. Far from being a quaint canon of quirky aliens, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek has been an unending source of inspiration and leadership lessons. In this article, Grace O’Brien pulls out some of the best insights.
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John Boyd: Patterns of Conflict presentation and biography
I had heard about John Boyd’s legendary Patterns of Conflict before I read his biography. But I had never seen it so I went on a quest to find it!
Regular readers will know that I have an interest in military history. (See How to improve morale and confidence and Interview with Stephen Bungay.) I’m reading an excellent biography of John Boyd (Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War) at the moment and this has really got me thinking.
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Fast, cheap or good: choose two
I used to make computer games and back then we had a saying about project management: ‘you can have any two of fast, cheap or good.’ It’s a choice that most people don’t want to make.
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