The Plan
My general plan is to get back into post-secondary education, specifically going to the University of Western Ontario, earning a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies (BMOS), and continue my entrepreneurial ventures by forming a small video game development group within Western over the course of my studies. Either during, or following graduation, I will incorporate the studio, releasing commercial games under my business leadership, and the development team’s creative skill. Whenever ready, the team and I will establish a downtown London, Ontario studio, and grow the business from there.
I have many contacts within the games industry now, thanks to my time running the North American affairs of Gaming Union Inc., around the continent, and of course locally. It would be moronic to jump right into managing the business end of a studio without knowledge in that very specific position, so while also studying at Western, I will also seek out mentoring opportunities within the local video game industry in London, Ontario. Furthermore, I’ll be attending local and international video games industry conferences, and working towards an internship and hopefully an exchange program with a Japanese university.
This plan will expand and evolve over time. If for whatever reason things go down the tube, I’ll still have a BMOS to my name, there’s always plenty I could achieve with that.
Current Progress
Now that I’ve been accepted to university, I’ll be diving into my classes, and doing my best. Sometime in my first month (this September) I’ll begin my next major step by looking for a mentor in the local video games industry in London, Ontario, Canada.
Plan Breakdown
1. Get into the University of Western Ontario’s BMOS program
[Complete: Accepted August 10th, 2010]
2. Possibly minor in Japanese to ease potential future Japanese opportunities
[Complete: Confirmed August 13th, 2010]
3. Further business knowledge by excelling in BMOS program
4. Seek out mentoring opportunities in London, Ontario
5. Learn about studio business management through mentoring
6. Network with students studying to work in video game development
7. Begin experimenting with forming a student video game development group
8. Form student video game development group with studio aspirations
9. Begin development of first game, likely a portable downloadable title
10. Graduate from the University of Western Ontario with BMOS
11. Incorporate video game development studio
12. Release first video game
13. Move business to proper office space
14. Continue to make games and grow the studio
