Quick little tweetstorm on why, if you desire to have a small software business, you should prefer doing Boring Business Productivity SaaS to writing a video game, even if you really like videogames:
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Videogames are a hit-driven business. Discovery is largely up to aggregators of demand, principally Steam, Youtube, App Store, and (to a far lesser extent) the media and other marketplaces. You have to pray to the gods that you hit those at launch and you get *one shot*.
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The budget for most videogames is invested in "assets", like art/etc. Market expectation for asset quality is a) judged against AAA games and b) constantly increasing, which means assets depreciate right off a cliff.
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When a SaaS shop thinks of "assets", they think things like "an email list", "a customer account", "a guide which is a repeating source of new trials for us." SaaS assets generally appreciate, rather than depreciate. (Slight oversimplification because Twitter.)
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I cannot underline enough the importance of the launch window for videogames, as a function of their distribution model. A game which sells $1k in its first week has already failed and will take the business down with it if it is the only product of the business.
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When a SaaS app only gets e.g. $20 worth of paying accounts in the first month... that's totally fine. Plenty of SaaS apps start out that way. You simply start climbing the Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death.
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There exist repeatable, predictable technologies for climbing the Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death which are available to undercapitalized companies, like most first-time single-member SaaS firms. There are none for videogames and pure hustle only works for some operators.
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Replying to @patio11
I know I sound like that awful guy who should be answered with "let me google that for you" but it would be nice if you can write a list of these repeatable, predictable technologies for climbing the Long Slow RaaS Ramp of Death. In fact, that sounds like a great blog title
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Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death is indeed a talk title, by Gail Goodman. It’s one of the best texts ever re: low-touch SaaS.
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