Katie: Welcome back to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. Well Esther you and I have been going over "The Big Game", the Super Bowl coming up, but actually Russ Capper had a great interview with Anthony Broussard who is the founder of Quantum Potato Software, so this is a whole different game that we are talking about here.

Esther: Yeah, seriously.

Katie: So I am really excited to hear what the two of them had to talk about, from Anthony having to program software from a very young age to some amazing things that he has going on now.

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. 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: 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: 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 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 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: 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, 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.

Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann from Odyssey One Source with another Business Survival Tip. Texas law gives employers the right to define and enforce their employment policies and procedures. Something called the "employment at will" doctrine allows employers to change policies at will based on the needs of the business. The only exceptions are well established rules that most employers don't even consider to be policy, such as pay, discrimination, safety, and benefits which are regulated under specific statutes.

Employment policies can be oral, written or both but important policies should always be in writing. Even the best policies are of no value if your employees are unaware of them. More importantly, employees may not be held responsible for violating a policy that they were unaware of. For example, if it is your company policy to terminate employees for repeated tardiness, you better make them aware of that policy before you hold them accountable. Otherwise, they are likely to qualify for unemployment benefits once you fire them.

Although employers have the right to change policies at will, always try to give advance notice. If a policy change alters an employee's work relationship so adversely that a reasonable employee would quit under the circumstances, your company could risk losing an unemployment claim. Unfair or poorly-timed policy changes could also result in drops in employee morale and productivity.

Above all, try to follow your policies, especially with respect to disciplinary matters. Even handed enforcement of fair policies will help avoid unemployment claims and claims of discriminatory treatment. That alone could provide an incredible return on investment in an Employee Handbook.

Work rules vary by state and not all states recognize the "employment at will" doctrine. Always have your employment policies reviewed by your legal counsel.

I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.

Katie: Thanks for being with us here on the BusinessMakers Overtime Show where we are wrapping up segment two and have a great upcoming segment talking about the business of the Super Bowl. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com