Entertainment as a Business – Part 2

If you are making a game to sell to more than your mother, you are jumping into the entertainment business.  This lesson teaches a few fundamental lessons by analyzing Pixar.

Key Principle

Even the big studios, with all the talent, money, and expertise, don’t really know what will be a hit. 

Key Verse

James 4:13-14a
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

Homework

• Read Chapters 14 – 27 of To Pixar and Beyond

Discussion Questions

1. Revisiting this statement: Great artistry requires a great business plan.  Do you agree or disagree now?
2. Steve Jobs and Pixar, with no indication of success, doubled down on quality.  Was that a wise move? 
   1. What alternatives do you see?  
   2. How does this impact your project?
3. Frequently Pixar has identified John Lasseter as a truly special and skilled person in the industry.  A business asset.  Who on your team brings that “special magic” to make your project better than anything else in the world?
4. What do you think about the end of the book where the author feels a new calling to mix business and spirituality?
   1. If you don’t like it, how does that help you empathize with non-Christians viewing Christian Game Developers?
   2. If you do like it, how does it help you think about your Christianity and your game development? 
   3. What the author presents is an excellent model on how to gain an audience through excellent work, and then utilize that platform to share one’s beliefs.  Regardless of how you felt about his spiritual odyssey you did listen to it and probably with more openness than from a complete stranger.