Welcome! This blog will share reflections and reports on the work of Basic Array. This post introduces the aim.
I’m Isaac, a designer, developer, creative director that’s worked in games since the mid-90’s and is, right now, slow-rolling an independent studio. This involves cooking an unannounced multiplayer space game, gathering collaborators, and getting studio ops and infrastructure in place. This whole blog is not about the making of a game so much as establishing the working parts of a studio. The audience: startup game developers lacking experience in getting started building a sustainable operation.
So “studio”?
It's also increasingly unacceptable to call yourself a "studio" if you don't PAY people, IMO. Otherwise you're not a studio, you're a group. Studios are professional entities!! With capital!!!!
— Anna 🌿👁️ (@annacwebs.bsky.social) Apr 8, 2024 at 3:34 AM
Professional entities, agree. Defined by staff or money, disagree.
Unpacking this skeet, let me agree that it is a bit embarrassing to wear “Studio” on a hobby operation’s name; it immediately signals low-skill punching. (FWIW, in 2024, I think it’s corny for anyone to put it in their name.)
Beyond that, I’m not a fan of this gatekeepy skeet. I get that it’s a common sense view—a creative studio has money and employees—but it’s common because most people have never started a studio. If you’ve been an industry veteran, doing a startup with other industry veterans, you will remember, before any deal was signed, you organized yourselves as a studio. Or, if you’ve been a studio director when things have gone horribly wrong—a critical project canceled, a deal collapsed—and you saw your bank accounts run empty, then you know a studio can indeed exist in the absence of money. (Oh the relief of a bridge loan, or an acquihire…) Studios last until their operators stop operating.
A studio is neither the acrid odor of a burn rate, nor the pitter patter of investor feet. A studio is an institution, formed of organization and practice, not balance sheets or payrolls or tax returns. As an institution, it can add or remove people, yet persists in a coherent form and activity. Studios have (formally or informally) policies and practices—ways of doing things that structure work amongst the operators and their output.
These institutions offer stuff like:
- Identity—member are associated with the studio brand—the values, reputation, and products
- Communication—email, and social media channels connected to partners and communities
- Infrastructure—websites, file shares, source control, tools, private networks
- Operations—platforms, storefronts, deployments; DevOps stuff
- Project management—plans, schedules, responsibilities, measurements, reviews
People absolutely need support, and by that I mean that people need money. And having been at studios that ran out, I think it’s unconscionable to be opaque to your members regarding the state of finances. But neither the money, nor their salary, is what makes the studio a studio; it’s collective practices. Again, a studio is an organization of people—IMO—even just one.
But let this be the last time I act like I care what you call yourself. The reason for this devlog is to help people new to game development organize their operations like studios. As Basic Array is built out, these posts will share the approaches adopted here, so you can pick and choose practices for your own ventures. If I can help make some of the important but boring or tedious stuff easier to deal with, I’ll be satisfied.
I believe in you!
—Isaac