Russ: This is The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. It's guest time on the show and I'm very pleased to have with me Anthony Broussard, iPhone game developer and Founder of Quantum Potato Software. Anthony, welcome to The BusinessMakers Show.

Anthony: Thanks, Russ. It's great to be here.

Russ: Let's start by you tellin' us about Quantum Potato Software.

Anthony: All right. Well Quantum Potato Software is my iPhone game and business apps company and I've been doing this for about a year now, learning how to program for the iPhone and developing games and business apps. I've got one game that's in review waiting to go in the App Store right now.

Russ: In review meaning it's in review by Apple. Okay.

Anthony: Right, Apple's reviewing it.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And when they approve it, it'll go on.

Russ: Okay and what's the name of that game?

Anthony: That game is Enlightenment and Vision and it's a – sort of a physics arcade game, which life is chasing understanding and you've got to interact with different elements of the game to clear the obstacles off the screen.

Russ: Sounds like the real world.

Anthony: Yeah, it's pretty interesting.

Russ: That's cool and that's your first iPhone game?

Anthony: Right, that's my first one.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And then I've got couple others that are very close to being completed, prob'ly in the next month or so, and then I've got a few more different projects on the side and as well as some business apps I'm developing on contract as well.

Russ: Okay. First back to this game. You're developing these things speculatively. I mean you work and you develop 'em and you put 'em on the iPhone App Store and hope that people come and buy 'em right?

Anthony: That's right and the cool thing about the App Store though is, if enough people buy it and like it, there's a review system and so you can see how many stars people have given to your game.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And so if your game does well initially, it tends to steamroll and picks up more speed later on.

Russ: Okay. What is the cost gonna be for Enlightenment Vision?

Anthony: It's gonna be 99 cents so it's just a dollar.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And you can have apps on the store that are either free or a dollar or going up in dollar increments. The way the revenue sharing works is developers get 70 percent of whatever the game puts up there which is a really great deal, compared to the old publisher model where they put up a bunch of money and then demand a whole bunch of money from the game profits.

Russ: Okay. And publishing games –

Anthony: Right.

Russ: - you're talkin' about computer games that got –

Anthony: Right.

Russ: - that's interesting but how in the world do you get people's attention for Enlightenment Vision because I know the iPhone App Store has millions of games by now, right?

Anthony: Sure. Well the main thing you do is you record a video of your game and send that video along with a promotional code to different review websites. There's several great review websites online like Touch Arcade is one of the biggest ones. And I'll send a video of my game there and with a promotional code they can download for free and if they play it and like it, they can put a review up on their website.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And generally, the way people buy games, since there's thousands and thousands of games available –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - there's no way to know which one to get so usually people go to review website and see a review, watch a video and they can decide if they like it. And then the other big way that games spread is actually through viral marketing. Just people telling their friends and their family.

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - who tell their friends and their family and just goes from there.

Russ: Okay. I know that games is definitely your sweet spot but you mentioned business applications as well on the iPhone?

Anthony: That's right. You can have any kind of app on the iPhone and I'm workin' a couple contracts, different companies, getting some interactive apps with a website or registering accounts and interacting the website, things like that.

Russ: Okay. Well I was right, though, wasn't I, in saying that games are your sweet spot, right?

Anthony: Yes.

Russ: Okay. Well Anthony just recently turned 22 but you've been developing games for quite some time already, right?

Anthony: yes, actually, it was – I guess I was around nine years old when I first started developing games. I got Interplays' Learn to Program Basic for my birthday from my parents and so I learned Basic and this is after I told them that I wanted to quit school and make games.

Russ: At nine?

Anthony: Right. And they were pretty shocked. They saw that I was serious about it said, "Well okay, we'll just buy him the CD and see where he goes from there."

Russ: Okay. But this was a CD to learn and be able to develop with Basic.

Anthony: Right. It – this Basic CD that teachs you how to program in the language Basic and stuff –

Russ: Right but it's not necessarily focused on games, it's just program.

Anthony: Well it – right. It was just programming but it did have several different game projects.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: So it said, "Here, try to build an Asteroids clone. Here's – we'll get you started on this part –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - but you have to figure the rest out.

Russ: And that got you going and you did well and you – but you were just making games for yourself, right?

Anthony: Right. Well it's funny 'cause the way I really got started all this before that was I was very young. I guess prob'ly just before that seven or eight.

Russ: Yeah.

Anthony: And I was thinking that just heard a lot of adults complain about their jobs and I decided I didn't wanna complain about my job when I was older.

Russ: (Laughter)

Anthony: And when I made this decision, I was at a friend's house –

Russ: Yeah.

Anthony: Right in front of a huge box of video games.

Russ: Yeah.

Anthony: So I was thinkin' to myself, "What could I do where I could get money and still enjoy my job?"

Russ: Yeah.

Anthony: And I was thinking, "Well, I prob'ly can't get too much money just playing games –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - so why don't I just make them?" And that was my decision then. That's what prompted all this.

Russ: And so, do you feel like you're accomplishing your objective and you're not complaining about what you do for a living?

Anthony: Definitely.

Russ: I think your dad did make you stay in school, right, and get at least a high school diploma?

Anthony: Yes, I did finish high school.

Russ: Right? And you actually did go to college?

Anthony: I began college, yeah.

Russ: You began.

(Laughter)

Russ: And how long were you there?

Anthony: Just one semester.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: Uh, actually half a semester technically.

Russ: Half a semester. And you decided – and you convinced your parents that you didn't need to do that?

Anthony: Well, I actually had a job opportunity in Australia by then.

Russ: Whoa! So this comes along from this serious focus that you already had on game development?

Anthony: Yeah.

Russ: Because all – from nine on, you were still developing games and advancing. Were you working for game development companies?

Anthony: No, just on myself. Me and some friends, we would program games and –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - email our code to each other and say, "Hey, check this out."

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: Or, "I need some help on this. Can you give me a hand here?"

Russ: Okay. So you're in your first semester of college and you get an opportunity to work where?

Anthony: Well I get – I got an opportunity to work in Sydney. And –

Russ: Sydney, Australia?

Anthony: - yeah, but as a precursor to that, my dad and I had been going to different gaming conferences for a while, now.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: Prob'ly, I guess the first one we went to was the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, when I was 16, and actually you're supposed to be 18 to get in but I emailed the director, Mary Dolaher, and got some letters of recommendations sent to her and she let me in.

Russ: Okay. Now wait, this is when you were 16? Why was your dad going with you to gaming shows?

Anthony: Well, he saw that I was serious about developing games and he really wasn't sure it was legitimate business or not. So –

Russ: So he was checkin' out the industry.

Anthony: Yeah, so he said, "Well, hey, I'll go with you and check it out and see what it's like."

Russ: Okay and that sorta convinced him that it was for real?

Anthony: Right and when he saw that it was a legitimate business and they're actually making more money than movies –

Russ: Yeah.

Anthony: My dad used to be in the film production business, so –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - he was pleasantly surprised to see that and said, "Okay, well I'll help you with this however I can."

Russ: That's cool. I'm talking with Anthony Broussard, Founder and President of Quantum Potato Software and I'll be back with more with him after this. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com and continuing on with the Founder of Quantum Potato Software, 22-year-old Anthony Broussard. Well, Anthony, you mentioned that you dropped out halfway through your first year in college 'cause you have this opportunity to work, for a gaming development company, you said, in Sydney, Australia.

Anthony: That's right –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - and actually before I ever went to Sydney, I was actually in Korea for a month –

Russ: Oh.

Anthony: - interning there.

Russ: Okay, was that before you started college?

Anthony: Yes.

Russ: What did you do in South Korea? Who'd you work for there?

Anthony: Yeah, I worked for a company called Go Pets, which they're an online virtual pet, sort of like the Tamagotchi.

Russ: And you got an intern job but you went actually to South Korea by yourself –

Anthony: Yes, by myself.

Russ: - when you were 17?

Anthony: Yep, I lived there for a month.

Russ: Okay. Okay.

Anthony: And it's a really great place, actually. Love the food there and miss it every day, actually.

Russ: Right? Well was that a for-pay intern job?

Anthony: Yep, that was a paid internship.

Russ: Okay. And so you start college and about halfway through, you had enough – mainly because you got this opportunity.

Anthony: That's right.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: Yeah, early in that year my dad and I were at a Christian game developer's conference in Portland, Oregon and I met some of the leaders of the industry there, including Jay Moore, who's with Garage Games.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And John D. Margritte –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - and John is the President of Big World and Micro Forte and Big World is a MMO technology company. And basically an MMO is a type of game that's massive multiplayer online, so if you've ever heard of people playing World of Warcraft, that's –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - an MMO. You've got millions of people playing –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - this one game. And they're different from traditional games 'cause they require a lot more architecture set up to host these thousands of players and so Big World's technology where you can buy that instead of developing your own engine. Anyways, I started talking with John there at the conference and he's actually been developing games since he was my age –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - I said, "Well, can I just stay in touch with you and get some advice?" "Yeah sure." So I guess it was about a month later. I'm emailing him, asking him, "Okay, how do I become a game designer 'cause that's what I really wanna do professionally. Should I start my own company? Should I go to college? Should I try to raise money? What should I do?"

Russ: Right.

Anthony: And he wrote back the pros and cons of each of those options and then added his own, which was, "Or you could come work for us in Australia."

(Laughter)

Russ: Wow.

Anthony: I said, "Great."

Russ: And what was his company in Australia?

Anthony: That's Micro Forte.

Russ: Micro Forte.

Anthony: They have offices in Sydney and Canberra.

Russ: Okay and they're exclusively a game development company?

Anthony: Big World Technology is a technology company but – and Micro Forte is the games company –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - but the technology company, what they do with that is to license that primarily for games but there's some other virtual world applications that aren't specifically games that people have had interest in the technology for. And so I had to write a sample design document and I brought that to Austin Game Developers Conference later that year, gave it to John. He took it back to Sydney and gave it to Lead Designer, Paul McInnes there, and he looked it over and said, "Okay, well we'll give him an interview," so I had about an hour long interview on Skype –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - with Paul and then the Head of Studio, Steve Wang, Sydney, and after that said, "Okay, you're hired."

Russ: Okay. So they apparently liked what you said on your Skype interview.

Anthony: Yes.

Russ: Wow. So you go to Sydney, Australia and work for Micro Forte for how long?

Anthony: Yeah, two years.

Russ: Wow.

Anthony: And unfortunately, they had to shut down Micro Forte when the economy's crashing and –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - we were looking to raise more money for the company but couldn't really get investors with the economy going downhill.

Russ: So that got you back to the USA?

Anthony: Right.

Russ: And, and that's what, ultimately, has led to the start up of Quantum Potato?

Anthony: That's right. Now we'd actually had been looking at iPhone games in Sydney for a little bit. Just, prob'ly about two months before we actually shut down.

Russ: Right.

Anthony: We – our lead programmer just started looking into it and we started making alpha of a game there. An alpha's like a very, very early build –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - version of the game. So, when I came back here, I met with my friend, Jonathan Massapeqa and he's a graphics artist for the Houston Rockets. And he said, "Well hey, you've been doing iPhone games in Sydney, right?" I said, "Well no, I was just doing some design and didn't do some programming."

Russ: Right.

Anthony: He said, "Well, if you wanna learn the programming aspect of it, you can borrow my Mac and go from there," I said, "Okay, great." So, I borrowed his Mac and started learning. Got a couple books and looked on the 'net and just searched the Internet trying to find examples of stuff and how to do things. It was really tricky at first 'cause I hadn't been doing a lot of programming before that –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - but the more you do it the better you get and I've gotta say the more I enjoyed.

Russ: So previously, what you did was more of a designer and now you're more of a developer or a combination of the two.

Anthony: That's right. I had been doing some programming in the past but my primary interest was in design and that's where my strengths have lie but as things developed, I've had to program 'cause it's kinda like this. I guess everyone's got ideas for games but to actually make them, you really have to have someone programming them.

Russ: Right, right there you go. Okay and we're gonna talk more with Anthony Broussard, the Founder of Quantum Potato Software after this. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.

[Aflac Commercial]

Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com and continuing on with Anthony Broussard, the Founder of Quantum Potato Software. So obviously, you've got very interested and involved in both developing and designing games for iPhone. Do you see this thing really snowballing and gaining quite a bit of momentum?

Anthony: Well, that's the idea. Like I said, I've got one game in the App Store right now, it's in review – a couple more coming out after that – and ideally, I would make enough money from those to support myself for future games –

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: - and hire artists and musicians, so on to get more and more polish on the games I develop and ideally this would become a full-time business.

Russ: Cool.

Anthony: It's something I love doing. It's challenging but it's interesting and ideally I could see myself doing this for five, ten years easily.

Russ: Cool. This one that you have developed and the other two that are sort of still in development stage – all of these were 100 percent your effort design and development?

Anthony: Well, the one I've got in the store right now, I designed and programmed. And then another one making with my friend, Jonathan Massapeqa, that I mentioned. He got me into –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - iPhone development.

Russ: Right, right, right.

Anthony: Let me borrow his Mac and so on.

Russ: Right.

Anthony: And we're making a space themed tower defense game for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And then I've got another game – we've hired a graphic artist from California, Martin Cameron, who's worked on the X-Wing versus Thai Fighters series, Star Wars games and we're making another physics arcade game and hiring him for that.

Russ: And that's a iPhone game?

Anthony: Yep. All these games can be played on iPhone or the iPod Touch.

Russ: Okay. Cool, real cool. Now you mentioned further down the path. So describe for us what would be the perfect world scenario for you, ten years down the path?

Anthony: Well, perfect world is being successful in this and love to travel different places and – I've kind of been around the world already a bit and I'd –

Russ: Right.

Anthony: - love to move back to Australia at some point and have enough money to travel and visit friends around the world. Ideally I would be working with other people and I guess get a team together and say, "Okay, we've got say, half a dozen people and we're all working on maybe our own projects or collaborate together," and just work and produce games.

Russ: Okay. The part one of that sounded like you just wanted to be finished and successful and retired but part two sounded like well, but you still wanna be involved in games.

Anthony: I do wanna be successful enough for – I guess I could retire but I love working on this and it's a lotta fun so I can't really see a more interesting use of my time than to be developing games.

Russ: Okay. And you would prob'ly see yourself continuing to avoid that thing that you witnessed when you were seven years old – adults complaining about their jobs?

Anthony: That's right.

(Laughter)

Russ: Okay. All right, well Anthony, before I let you go, let's say that there's somebody in the audience right now very young, under 20 for sure, that's totally interested in games and perhaps becoming their own game entrepreneur. What kind of advice would you give 'em?

Anthony: Well, my best advice – if you wanna be a designer or a programmer – either way you should learn programming because everyone wants to be a game designer but if you can't show your ideas then it's kinda hard to convince someone that you're a good designer. As far as programming goes, two great places to start – I'd either recommend learning Flash, which you can buy the expensive version or you can go search online and get some free versions of Flash which will run fine and well, before those Flash games really only make money through advertisement.

Russ: Right.

Anthony: So it's kinda hard to make it big.

Russ: Right.

Anthony: But now if you check out a company called Mochi Ads, they actually embed ads in your Flash application.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And you can distribute it to a bunch of websites and you'll get paid every time someone plays your game –

Russ: Cool.

Anthony: - which is really great.

Russ: Cool.

Anthony: And the other thing I would suggest is if you've got the money to get a Macbook or a Mac, go ahead and get into iPhone development. It's only $99.00 a year to be an iPhone developer and it's a little bit tricky at first but if you get some books and look on the 'net, can learn it, I would recommend that you get the iPhone Dev Book. If you go to iphonedevbook.com, that book was tremendously helpful to me in learning how to program and yeah, I'd say just go from there but start programming stuff and the very important thing is don't take too long on something.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: You might wanna have this really elaborate idea that will take a year to make. See what you can do in a day or a week or a month.

Russ: Okay.

Anthony: And then after that, start a new project and keep going from there.

Russ: Okay. Anthony, I really appreciate you sharing your story with us.

Anthony: Well thank you, Russ. It was great to be here.

Russ: You bet. We're gonna keep following you, too.

Anthony: All right.

Russ: All right. We've been talking with Anthony Broussard, the Founder of Quantum Potato Software. And you're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.