As part of WN Dev Contest, we are discussing the industry with the jury members. In this installment, we catch up with Paweł Olszewskij, Business Development Manager at indie games developer and publisher Movie Games.
Paweł Olszewski
Business Development Manager, Movie Games
WN Dev Contest is a competition for Unreal Engine game developers. It’s held by WN Media Group in collaboration with Unreal Engine and Reboot Develop.
GWO: Paweł, what is the relationship between the marketing spend and production budget?
Paweł: Marketing budget usually reflects 30% of production budget. This sum includes our in-house support and potential cost of some 3rd party service providers we sometimes hire.
You know how team sometimes tend to overestimate their strengths and underestimate their timelines, especially once they have received funding and support from a publisher? Can you give any advice on how best to plan the development stages to ship the game on time?
There are a lot of factors that affect the final shipment date, there is no simple answer here. Flexibility is a must — from both partners, devs and publishers.
It is a popular opinion that the publisher is not so much looking at the game, but rather at the team behind it. What is a good development team for you?
Self-organization team is the best team for us as a publisher. Group of people who can organize and manage their own work. This approach with a decent track-record is often even more important than currently pitched game.
Do you use management systems and tools to keep track of dev’s progress?
We’ve our own workflow and apps, however, we’re also flexible and can adapt to dev’s company policy. We’re here to support them, not forcing anything. If they have their own tools which work OK, we are adapting to it to make the whole process smooth.
What kind of game are you looking for at the contest?
FPP Simulators, FPP survivals, FPP survival-horrors, 2D indies, isometric tycoons/strategies.