Blogs - WickedLoot

Since Indie DB is all about indie games, this video could be helpful. I happen to run both an indie game development studio and a startup. I get asked a lot what the difference is between the two. So this video covers the potential differences and provides some advice on how to approach your own game studio. In the future, I plan to cover some pointers on financing and company structures as well.

I hope some of you find it to be useful!

John Master Lee

Every indie game dev studio has a story on how they were founded. Here's our story!

Our founder John Master Lee had been in the gaming industry for nearly 20 years now. And despite working on some of the biggest gaming brands of all time from Star Wars, to Sonic, to The Elder Scrolls series, he recognized how detached he felt from the whole creative process. John broke into the game industry as a game designer, something he always dreamed of ever since he created his first game in 8th grade. But his career was predominantly on the business side of things where he headed up Sega's online division, Konami/Hudson's game publishing business, and more recently oversaw Raptr's business efforts.

THE ITCH TO MAKE GAMES
So a few years ago he got the itch to make an indie game, something on the side on nights and weekends. He picked up Flash, brought together a small team, and created the Ninjas vs Mafia series. And shockingly over a million gamers downloaded and played the game. And he knew then that he had to make a career switch. The only problem is that game development by nature is high risk. Was it worth throwing away a great career just to make indie games?

THE BIG IDEA - USER GENERATED CONTENT
That's when both the founders of Wicked Loot got together. While working at Raptr, a gaming community platform that tracks what games you play, John and Shou recognized the impact that user generated content was having on engagement. And the data they sifted through was incredible - Any game that included user generated content saw a dramatic increase in engagement and sales. This was the opportunity.

And that's when Wicked Loot was conceived. Wicked Loot was formed to create games that feature user generated content. We are gung ho about empowering gamers to create directly in our games.

WICKED LOOT CULTURE
This sort of realization that game design was changing had dramatic effect on our culture. Wicked Loot was going to conceive the basis for a game, but turn to the community to help guide how the development would go. Through feedback, metrics and what users create, the game would evolve over time. We now look forward to play what YOU create more than what we are creating.

Our next game, SPARK RISING is a great example of what the potential holds. It's game that allows you to build whatever you want, and then set things into battle. And then you can share your creations with others.

If you are an indie developer and have a story about how you were founded, please share! We'd love to hear about your experiences as well.