Seth Sivak Seth Sivak

Learning to Build a Games Company - Podcast Interview

Artwork_dpi150_cropped-min.png

A few weeks ago I had the chance to talk to Joakim Achrén on the Elite Game Developers Podcast. It was a wide ranging interview that covered nearly everything from my personal journey in the industry to the nitty gritty details of how we make decisions inside Proletariat.

Topics that we covered included:

  • What I think is the ideal company culture for a games company

  • Where a company can struggle in building a strong culture

  • The shift from mobile to PC/Console and how we think about pivots

  • Fundraising and the ideal amount of money to raise

  • The involvement of a CEO in creative and other decisions over time

  • Ways to balance innovation and proven ideas in game design

Read More
Seth Sivak Seth Sivak

Hello (New) World

3357373297_6e304747db_z.jpg

Why Now?

As I write this the world is in a strange place. COVID-19 is rapidly expanding around the world forcing millions of people to stay home and follow social distancing rules. In this turmoil, I wanted to spend some of the additional time at home doing something productive. I started working in the game industry over 10 years ago. The picture you see here was about 3 months into my first game job as a gameplay engineer. Since then I have been lucky enough to experience a number of roles including product manager, lead designer, executive producer, founder and CEO. Now seems like a great time to share some of the knowledge and lessons I have learned.

What is this blog?

Since founding Proletariat in late 2012 I have made dozens of notes, outlines and even full posts on a variety of topics. I want to finish those up and share them. These posts will mostly focus on product and leadership but may include some other things along the way.

What are these resources?

In my time as CEO of Proletariat I have had to constantly learn new skills. Starting all the way back at the founding of the company I knew I needed an education in startups, legal topics, fundraising details and more. The resources here are meant to list those out for anyone that wants to learn more. I will update them as often as I can.

Read More