You have to have proof that you can do it and if you haven’t done it before, then it will cost an investment with a strong roadmap to secure deals at the beginning. – Mel Kirk
Mel Kirk is the COO of Zen Studios, specializing in creating pinball machines, and handles the business development for the studio. His studio is use to working with big partners: from Star Wars, Marvel and Ghostbusters to DOOM, Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Portal. Yet Zen Studios have remain indie to the core. In this episode, Mel offers a great perspective on the business of indie games and lays out general steps to working with big partners.
Topics discussed in this episode:
0:00 About Mel Kirk
6:09 Being assertive in business development
14:02 Indie teams needing to leverage existing IPs more
18:47 The early days of Zen Studios
23:26 Building a network to working with Street Fighter
28:24 How to setup your company towards acquisition?
35:40 Balancing steady growth over huge ambitions
39:40 Why is Zen studios located in Budapest, Hungary?
43:19 How did remote working affect the studio?
48:50 Thoughts on VR with Guitar Hero experience
53:00 Words of wisdom to the indie crowd
57:27 Shout out
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Mel:
