February 2000 Issue
GIG digs this issue's Spotlight, indeed.
He is not only a master game agent, he's an all-around good guy. Jay
Powell of Octagon Entertainment braved the wicked East Coast storms
to bring us his valued insight on being an agent in the game
industry.
GIG: Jay,
besides entertaining us with hunting stories at industry functions, what
exactly do you do?
JAY:
I'm an agent for Octagon Entertainment. I work with developers to
establish distribution channels around the world that will maximize
revenue and exposure. I also work with Licensors to take the property
rights from TV shows, video games, books, and movies and bring them to
life on video game consoles and PC’s by creating packages with top
developers.
GIG: How
long have you worked as a game agent, and how did you get your start?
JAY:
I’ve
been an agent for over 2 years now. I worked with Kirk Owen and Lloyd
Melnick (Octagon's co-founders) while I was attending school at the
University of North Carolina. Upon graduation I was offered a job
full-time as an agent and I have been very happy ever since.
GIG: I
haven't had any coffee yet. Can you please explain a bit more on exactly
what a game agent does?
JAY:
Sure. We have to look at the game industry from both sides. I spend half
of my day finding and speaking to developers, letting them know how we
can help them and seeing if there are any projects we can work on
together. I spend the other half speaking to publishers and making sure
my clients are placed with the best companies around the world. For the
last few years we have been seeking out developers who were at Beta
stage and had something to show. That is changing with our packaging
work and we are contacting the top tier developers now to develop games
from scratch based on properties that we are working with.
GIG: What
do you look for in a potential client?
JAY: Passion and stability. We
have many developers come to us with great ideas but they tell us that
they only have 1 month of cash left. We simply can’t help there. It
takes 2 to 3 months for a deal to go through with the big publishers and
it’s simply too late at that point. On the other side, the developers
with a true passion for their work are the ones that are great to work
with. This is especially true when we are looking for developers to work
on the properties. If the team really enjoys what they are working with,
the end product will show that.
GIG: Do people come to you or
do you seek out properties?
JAY: Both.
I spend a lot of time on the web and in magazines looking for new
companies or noting who has a team open, but we have a lot of
submissions as well and we treat them equally. We may not be able to
represent all of the titles that are submitted but we try to reply with
feedback from our experience to help them along.
GIG: What
is the most common mistake people make when approaching a game
agent?
JAY:
I don’t think a lot of developers plan for their distribution far
enough in advance. We see a lot of submissions that need deals
immediately. We have generated great deals for some of our clients in 1
month, but with more time the terms could have been much better. Many
developers don’t anticipate the problems that can arise in
localization either. By having a localization kit ready soon, you can
hopefully have a world-wide simultaneous release and eliminate piracy
issues. Localization kits can also speed up a publisher’s evaluation
process as well.
GIG: Localization
kit? Que es?
JAY:
A localization kit is all of the information that a publisher needs to
translate the game into different languages. This can be as simple
as a text file outlining the dialogue of the game or a complete package
with artwork that needs to be modified, samples of the speech from other
versions, etc. Obviously the more complete the package, the easier it is
for the publisher to evaluate and translate.
GIG: Where do you see the game
industry heading?
JAY: I see a lot of convergence.
Consoles, TV’s, Hand-helds, and PC’s are getting closer and closer
and in the next 5 to 10 years I see a one platform world. On the other
side, there have been such great advances in the last 10 years, that it
is probably a hard bet to make. Online gaming also has a huge presence
now. With the number of Massively Multiplayer games in development it
will be interesting to see how many the market can support.
Jay
with frequent GIG contributor Melanie Cambron at the GDC Austin
Road Trip after party |
GIG: GDC is just around
the corner, will we see you there?
JAY: I will be at GDC this year
with at least one other agent from Octagon. We haven’t finalized the
plans yet, but we will be looking for new development talent for
representation and established developers to work with our properties.
We will post these details as they become available at www.octagon1.com.
GIG: What advice to you have
for someone with an idea for a game.
JAY: The first step would be to
gather together a team. The better the softography of the people on your
team, the better chance you have of getting noticed. In order to
successfully approach a publisher you need to have something playable
unless you have a highly established team on the project. I would
definitely recommend contacting agents or producers in the industry and
asking for feedback on your idea. Make sure all of your legal bases are
covered and above all…have a good NDA. Even if the people you contact
can’t help you, they will usually provide some feedback. Be open to
this feedback as they don’t mean to insult you, they just have good
insight into what sells.
GIG: Jay, you rock. See you in
San Jose.
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