Originally presented at GDC 2004, this was a candid, no-holds-barred look at why my first start-up company, Escape Factory, ultimately failed. There are plenty of stories out there about game studios that succeed, but not enough about studios that fail. This presentation was also in part an attempt to make good on a promise to our angel investor to share all the lessons we learned setting up Escape Factory.

1. “ What to do when it all goes to hell” Escape Factory Post-Mortem James Gwertzman Former CEO, Escape Factory Ltd Managing Director, Sprout Games, LLC

3. Company Milestones

4. Project Mistakes

9. Actual Org Structure

10. Idealized Org Structure

15. Dealing with Cancellation

21. Console Life Cycle Affects Deals Unit Sales Deal Signing Ease 2 nd Wave: Publishers approve many new projects. No teams have prior experience. 3 rd Wave: Bar goes up; Publishers prefer teams who published in wave 1. Launch Titles 2 nd Wave Titles 3 rd Wave Titles

22. Self Confidence Issues?

25. Escape Factory Headcount

26. Escape Factory Net Worth

31. Q&A

40. Call To Action … So what's our dream? That we'll be the studio that finally elevates the video game into an art form where it rightfully belongs alongside film and theatre. An art form that unites epic stories, beautiful cinematography, and rich drama with the forgotten magic of childhood play. We can't wait for the rest of the industry to do it because most developers are too deeply sunk into the culture of "by hardcore gamers, for hardcore gamers" and most publishers are too busy chasing whatever sold the most last year…

43. Regular Post-Mortems