Good Understanding with the Client

Szczecinbiznes.pl: When and how did you create your Game Factory?

Sebastian Barabanow: The company was established at the beginning of 2005. Its establishment was a direct move from my ten-year career as a freelancer working with advertising agencies, publishing houses and television stations. I also made quite a lot of illustrations for computer games and to be honest, those were the most interesting orders I got. Therefore, when I finally decided to expand, the decision to enter the game market seemed only natural. It started with hiring one developer and then it all shot forward.

What is most difficult with setting up an IT company?

I think that for every company the first steps are always difficult. Especially, when there are no investors to support it, no initial capital. If this is the case, it is the people you work with that matter the most. We got all the money to go on from orders. We got a project and had to carry it out within the set deadline and budget so that we kept the company profitable. It’s quite a risky model because all has to be done right from the very beginning and, even though, we made quite a few mistakes, we succeeded. Nevertheless, the first years were particularly difficult.

The list of your clients is impressive. How come a fresh company from Szczecin gets orders from Disney or Sony?

The rule is that well-done work gives you more orders. Right from the start we tried to keep our work on the top level and when we succeeded with the first one, the news spread and we got more clients. We call it work-for-hire. A client that needs a game for advertisement or income purposes and does not necessarily have resources to create it looks for a company that could do it for them. Right now we have a fixed customer base that we like working with and which we rely on. If we accept and order from someone new, we do it only because it’s a really interesting project.

Is the entire income of the company based on precisely those customers?

We are operating on several models because diversified sources of income are crucial for efficient work of a large service provider. Apart from the work to order we also launch our own products: these are original games which we release in the so-called freemium model on various platforms, e.g. on the internet. We specialize in flash games and we are now the largest Polish company to produce them. We offer e.g. advergames to be used on the websites of our clients, online games used on Facebook, traditional entertaining games or educational games which are added to children’s magazines. Apart from a flash platform our goal is to create portable platforms, such as Iphone or Ipad, and portable devices with the Android system.

When did you enter foreign markets?

At the very beginning we operated only in Poland, but entering the global market was our goal. The main reason was limited financial resources of Polish companies. At first, we started cooperation with foreign agencies and media houses and through them we reached Disney, Sony, Unilever and many more. However, where the client is located is not crucial. For us, good relations with the client are most important: whether we understand each other well and whether they like what we present. This is usually what makes the project successful. In Poland it’s often more difficult because too often we talk about the dates and the budget and too rarely about how to make something interesting together.

Working in your industry, can one focus only on the Polish market?

I would suggest a global perception of the market. It’s not easy for many people because for years Poland was cut off from the work, both mentally and politically. The historical changes turned everything around. Thanks to the Internet, Poland has become part of the global village, but the fears in people’s minds are still there. If you have something interesting to offer there are millions of people out there who might be interested. Nobody has said that you need to stick to one small area. I would therefore not recommend accepting the first offer to come, but to look for the right client. Someone who will make the cooperation good and who will have the right financial resources.

How much can one make on game production?

The price can vary between a few and a few hundred zlotys. It all depends on the size of the game, on how much work it requires, how many illustrations there is to make. The boundaries are very fluid. One can create a small advergame which costs a lot and a relatively cheap, but large social game. It’s all about effective combination of the creative and executive part and its sale.

Do you have any competition in Poland?

Generally speaking, when it comes to the games, the Polish market is still in its infancy. Game development is still a niche, but there is still room for ambitious companies. The market is difficult and probably this is why a lot of able persons will chose the advertisement or media instead of production of e-entertainment. Another reason is that it is more difficult to win a client with a game than with a website - there are so may websites produced. Development of a computer game poses also a lot of difficult challenges, because it happens on the border of two completely different worlds: on the one hand a game is a computer program, on the other an entertaining medium. The team that starts working on a game needs to be experienced in software development management and understand the psychological bases which make a given game the source of good fun.

Does such a complex creative process require special organization of work?

Definitely yes. At the beginning, we had to do many things, often spanning a lot of totally different areas, with very limited resources. Now, when the Factory has become quite a large company, we can better divide work and respond to very narrow and specialist scope of game production. Our people are divided into teams with a lot of autonomy. Each person in a team is designated roles and tasks: producers, game designers, testers and artists, animators and developers. Only the work of the entire team may give a good game.

Have there been any investors interested in the Factory?

It was my goal from the beginning to create an independent company, in accordance with the values which are most important for the entire team. Therefore, any such inquiries, even from the largest market participants, were treated seriously, but will little enthusiasm. Investors are mainly interested in the return they can get from the operations of a company, and not necessarily whether the effects of the work give the staff satisfaction and ensure development. The idea of an independent company has so far worked really well and I don’t think that it should change in the nearest future.

What will be your challenges and development trends in the nearest future?

Next year we are definitely going to work on our effectiveness so that we spend less time on the executive part and more on the creative one. What we are most interested in is to keep a strong market position. We want to achieve it through development of several new large social games and further development: starting with portable platforms.

By Paulina Łątka