What I didn’t do in year 2011

About a year ago, I promised several things that I shall NOT do. Here’s how things went:

BAD GOAL: “no email on my main computer”. I still email on my main computer, it’s just convenient. It’s convenient for certain purposes. The good thing is I’ve used mobile devices to clean my email, so I consider this to be success. Goal itself was bit bad. SUCCESS: “no twitter on my main computer”. I have tweeted a few times, but 97% of the tweets are used mobile devices. That’s success for me and will keep it this way. SEMI-FAIL: “”no (too much) NHL11? was my goal. What can I say. I bought NHL ’12… I think I didn’t waste too much time, and we had some good online gaming with my bro so it’s pretty ok. Less next year. SUCCESS: “ad sales hunting”.: I stopped this. I did accept some ad offers when people contacted me, which is fine. Will keep this way. SEMI-SUCCESS SEMI-BAD-GOAL: “no distraction”.. I think I managed to say “no” to many things, and recently started GTD stuff has been a blessing for especially all non gaming stuff. SUCCESS: “no clutter in email” Email has been zero. I mainly Inbox or Archive, or Trash stuff. I did have zero inbox for the whole year. That is a great feeling. FAIL: “no more new Insider members accepted” – I did change the whole gamerelease.net thing (added forums on that domain, added twitter and other stuff), and there’s new members too. SEMI-FAIL, SEMI-SUCCESS: “focus in making game, having fun, generating the green stuff”. To get green stuff, I have had to do other than gaming stuff. I have had fun making card game, which is now in Tweak state. I’m not focusing on green stuff no more. It’s funny, but somehow those software pirates have taught me that “greating fun games for people” (and to myself to enjoy) should be the goal. I think that indeed is the biggest thing one can aim for. That’s where I’m aiming as well. SUCCESS: “no wockas if being parent requires time”. It sure does. Bye bye free time, but welcome great time. This soft talk is what only parents can understand. DUNNO: “no too fast conclusions”. I think I draw too fast conclusions, but maybe drew less fast conclusions last year. (Hmm, or do I draw a too fast conclusion here? I dunno)

Since I have one young kid and second one coming, I had seriously need to re-think my resources. My main goal was to get rid of stuff this year, and ensure there’s room for game development. I think that was achieved pretty well, and I’m pretty satisfied how this year has been.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 12:18 am and is filed under Game Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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The Sims Social Tile Art: Just in case you didn't know that was R2D2

by Joe Osborne, Posted Dec 21st 2011 11:15AM

We'd say that looks like the beepin' boopin' droid if it were ever in an 8-bit game, wouldn't you? Well, it's not: It's in The Sims Social, and player SamRi has created R2D2 from the classic film we shouldn't even have to name Star Wars. In case you haven't been following, it's called Tile Art, and all the rage in EA and Playfish's hit Facebook game. Rather than craft a retro video game character from the social simulator's myriad tiles, as so many are wont to do, SamRi opted to pay homage to a retro film character.

In fact, perhaps one of the most cherished retro movie characters of all time. And just in case you might not recognize it, the creator went ahead and labeled his or her creation for you. (Do people that haven't seen Star Wars exist?) What's most amazing about SamRi's creation is that it's both terribly accurate and interpretive at the same time.
Next up is Link from the Legend of Zelda series, and tile for tile (or pixel for pixel), player Yngven93's rendition is picture perfect. This version of Link looks like it comes from one of the Zelda games released on the original Game Boy, but with some holiday chic. While this piece is brilliantly accurate to the original, it could probably do without the outline of black tiles. Regardless, we're suddenly wishing we had never traded in that old Game Boy to Funcoland. There we go aging ourselves again.

[Via The Sims Social Fansite]

[Image Credits: SamRi, Yngven93]

Are you impressed by these pieces of The Sims Social Tile Art? What's the most incredible piece of player-made artwork you've seen in a Facebook game? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: ea, Electronic-Arts, Facebook games, Link, Playfish, r2d2, sims social, social games, Star Wars, The Legend of Zelda, the sims social art, the sims social tile art, tile art

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Why we didn’t apply to Seedcamp or running a startup in your 30s

Seedcamp is an amazing program for European startups. The best and brightest of European startups compete for a spot in the Seedcamp week in London. The week is stock full of amazing workshops, tutorials, hands-on training and perhaps most importantly world class networking with European and US serial entrepreneurs, investors and deal makers. If you are chosen as a winner the Seedcamp organizers (The Accelerator Group) will invest €50 000 at a quite rational valuation.

Sounds perfect for any startup. So why didn’t Everyplay apply to Seedcamp? Double why as I even participated as a mentor in the Seedcamp Helsingborg event?

The truth is yes, I really wanted to apply because I love the concept, but it is was made impossible by the “extended Seedcamp concept“. The main use for that invested €50 000 is to bring the core members of the startup team to London for three months to take the company further. By applying to Seedcamp you agree to this.

Let’s just stop there for a moment. This works perfectly for 20-somethings that don’t have obligations to anybody but themselves and who can just pack a suitcase and go. It also requires that your core team is quite small, so that you can get your whole core team over to London.

The concept fails when you or any core member of your team is married, has kids or in general has a life outside of the company. It also fails if you can’t bring all core team members over to London as otherwise you are totally impairing your company’s progress at a very sensitive stage by splitting the team into two (one part staying at home base and another part in London).

Everyplay’s core team has several people who are over 30 year old, are married and have kids. Packing up our lives and moving to London for three months isn’t an option, so we had to pass on Seedcamp. To be fair, this is not dig on Seedcamp. They are just doing the same as Y Combinator is doing in the States.

However, it is interesting to think about this selection criteria in the light of research results reported by TechCrunch that the average founder of a high-growth company launched his venture at age 40. I believe Seedcamp is limiting itself unnecessarily with this “move to London for three months” requirement.

(CC) by tibchris on Flickr

Seedcamp aside, the bigger question is how can one succeed as an entrepreneur in a high tech startup and have a family life. Steve Blank recently posted about how he and his wife managed to stick together and raise their kids while going thru a couple startups. My own experiences and arrangements are very much like his.

The reality is that it feels like running two startups in parallel. It is physically, mentally and emotionally taxing, but also immensely rewarding. At the risk of sounding corny, seeing things thru a child’s eyes is eye opening. Being a parent is a monumental, continous learning experience. It does sound just like running startup =) and I actually do think that having an entrepreneurial mindset really helps in parenting.

I like to compare running a startup to having kids as both bring with them higher emotional highs and lower lows at a lot faster pace than before. With that in mind, it is easy to justify Seedcamp’s and Y Combinator’s selection criteria  – less hassle, just focus on the startup. But with age comes victories, mistakes, experience, and possibly even expertise and insight. To quote a recent post on Both Sides of the Table, one of my favourite VC blogs:

“Good judgment comes from experience,

but experience comes from bad judgment“

The finalists for this year’s Seedcamp were announced today. Congratulations and best of luck to everyone!

I wish I could have been there too.

Explore posts in the same categories: business This entry was posted on September 10, 2009 at 22:02 and is filed under business. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: business, entrepreneurship, seedcamp, startup

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