作者：Aj Grand-Scrutton

推动我写下这篇文章的主要元素便是不久前在Brighton举办的开发大会。

一些“免责声明”：

我并不是相关专家，我从未就这一话题给出任何实际建议，我只是如实说出自己的想法罢了。所以请不要将我所说的奉为真理。

这里并不存在真理。并不存在任何方法能够进行完美的交流，你的“技巧”也只是针对于你自己的看法及工作。

通过描述，你可以发现我利用交流为自己的公司Dlala Studios创造了巨大的基础，所以你必须清楚我通过这种交流获得了某种形式上的成功。

DlalaStudios（from gamesbrief）

所以在此我将不出于任何目的地分享自己的一些窍门：

窍门1——抓住任何能够说话的机会

这不只适用于会议上，也适用于各种类型的事件中。你需要把握住任何可以在公共场合说话的机会，主要有两大原因。首先，这能够突显你自己。以前我很害怕在公众面前说话，但是在9个月前，我被邀请在TIGA上发表谈话。我之所以接受这次邀请是因为Dlala缺少市场营销资金，并且游戏也即将发行了，所以我需要为《Janksy》和我们工作室大胆地开口。而这真的是非常好的机遇。我很幸运能够说出自己的职业故事以及Dlala的创建过程，而观众们似乎也对此很感兴趣。

在结束谈话后，我见到了许多很优秀的人，如索尼的Shahid以及Team17的Debbie。他们都愿意与我平等地进行交流。而这次公开讲话带给我的最大影响还是在于，之后有个人找到了我，并递给我一张名片后介绍自己是“来自Rare的Craig”。当我看着他的名片上的“Rare的工作室总监”时，我差点叫出声来。任何了解我与Dlala的人都知道，我们是Rare的忠实粉丝。

Craig真的太了不起了，我们一起谈论了游戏，我们的职业，以及90年代的西雅图摇滚等等。除此之外我们还分享了“交流恐惧”感。这是当你即将发行一个项目但却不知道该怎么办时便会出现的感受。任何人都有可能产生这种想法，而我们需要记住的是，交流与支持工作室的游戏开发一样重要。

在我们分别的时候，Craig也表示希望能够彼此保持联系，并在任何需要建议的时候告诉他。你会在与产业中许多出色的人见面时听到这样的话，如果像我这样的情况，你可能会想“这真的是件很棒的事，但是他们可能会因为太过忙碌而忘记了自己说过的话。”但事实证明这种想法是错误的。在那之后Craig仍与我维持着朋友的关系，每当他来伦敦的时候我们总是会抽空见面，并且在Dlala的发展期间他也提供了巨大的帮助。他还邀请我带领整个团队去参观Rare，向我们讲述了该公司的故事并回答了我们的各种问题。

对于像Craig这样的工作室领导者能够花时间带领我们团队参观其工作室，一起讨论我们的理念以及对于Rare的事物的想法真的是件太神奇的事。而Lee Schuneman（Lift London）和Shahid Kamal Ahmad（索尼）也是这样的人，他们完全改变了我对于游戏巨头的看法。便是这些年优秀的人支持着我完成了第一次公开谈话——通过谈话我也认识了诺基亚和Dolby中一些很棒的人，并非常荣幸地交到了许多好朋友。

你应该把握住任何在公众面前说话机会的另一个原因其实很简单。即等于你获得一张免费的门票。大多数情况下，这些会议的门票都很昂贵，像我们这样的工作室总是很难进入其中。就像去年，我便恳求过开发大会以学生价将票卖给我。如果你在大会上发表了讲话，那便等于你获得了参观讲话当天所有大会内容的机会——从而能够听取其他演讲者的内容。这对于你的帮助可以说是无价的，因为你能够免费进入一个汇聚了许多可能带给你的职业巨大帮助的优秀人才的地方。

窍门2——不要太过挑剔

不要觉得你只需要瞄准那些与自己的原则或产业相关的目标会议和事件。去年我在AppsWorld上发表的谈话便主要侧重于应用而非游戏。并因此认识了来自诺基亚的人以及一些潜在的投资者。所以一定要避免在这方面上过于挑剔。

窍门3——商业名片

也许在如今的数字时代中说商业名片很重要是件奇怪的事，但是几乎在每一次与别人见面时，我们都会递上彼此的名片。我的书桌上摆放着满满的一盒别人的名片，而每一次当我思考着Dlala的新发展时，我便会去翻看这些名片寻找是否有合适的对象能够提供给我们合理的建议。

名片是一种非常有效的交流工具，甚至是对于品牌认知来说也很重要。你应该将商业名片当成是工作室品牌的扩展，即使是只有你一个人的工作室。从这点上看我便不得不提Moo.com（游戏邦注：你可以花20英镑从该网站上获得非常棒的商业名片设计）。

我们通过交换商业卡片获得了许多很棒的反馈，但这却只是一件小事。在业务中我最讨厌的一个阶段便是“为了你想要做的工作打扮而不是你所拥有的工作。”我之所以讨厌这点是因为在工作期间，我大多数情况下都是穿着宽松的衬衫和运动裤。所以我更愿意相信一张突出的商业名片所具有的重要作用。在moo的帮助下，你能够花20英镑购买50张名片，并在背面设计各种不同的样式。

当你拥有了自己的名片时，你将面对两种方法去使用这一名片。一种是“将名片递给见到的任何人”，这是我当前经常使用的一种方法，还有一种方法便是“布局定位”，“我必须更加谨慎地分发名片。”即使你的名片已经发完了，也请勇敢地跟别人索取他们的名片，然后通过电子邮件的方式将自己的信息发送给对方。

窍门4——没有要求，就没有获得

这是贯穿于我的全部生活中的一点，而我爸爸则是这方面的老手。就像如果我要买房的话，我一定会带上爸爸，因为他在购买地毯后一定会要求对方免费送上门。

当你遇到一些优秀的人物时，请勇敢地向他们寻求建议，从中观察他们能够在你的发展中带来多大的帮助。很多时候，如果你有一个很棒的“故事”，你便不需要这么做（我将在第5个窍门中提到这点），但是不管怎样你都不能畏惧向别人提出要求，如果他们能为你指明正确方向的话。如果你不知道该做些什么的话也不要感到害羞。就像在Dlala中，当我们不知道该如何执行业务时，我和Craig便会举起手去寻求其他人的建议。我在各种事件上认识的99%的人都很乐意提供帮助。而如果你提出了要求但是对方却拒绝了或者不能提供任何帮助，你也不算处于一种糟糕的情境下，因为你并没有任何损失啊。但是如果没有要求的话，你就什么都得不到。

窍门5——如果你有一个故事，请大声说出来

在Dlala，许多人的加入便是因为喜欢里面的故事，但这却是现在我们团队所厌倦的内容。我们的故事是关于Craig和我是如何离开本来高薪且有保障的工作，而利用父母的车库且没有任何成本地开始创建属于自己的工作室，并在6个月之后成功与微软展开合作。

chompy chomp chomp(from wraithkal.info)

我们的许多朋友都有属于自己故事，就像Utopian World Of Sandwiches的朋友离开了原先的工作而投身于XBLA和PC游戏《Chompy Chomp  Chomp》上，Nicoll Hunt为了自己的游戏《Fist Of Awesome》在Kickstarter上募集了大量的资金，而《Imp Paired》的创造者Nick Lister更是在发现了自己对游戏的热情后果断离开了建筑产业。

如果你也拥有自己的故事（不管大小），请勇敢地说出来。我很喜欢听公司和开发者的发展故事，这比阅读他们的简历有趣多了。

最重要的窍门——做你自己

如果我的窍门会让你觉得“这并不是我想做的事”，那就不要盲目地遵循。你必须坚持做自己。我能够轻松地剪掉头发，刮去胡子，穿上西装而变成一个真正的商业人士——但是我却会因此做些自己不喜欢的事。

我希望Dlala足够单纯且诚实。这也是我们一直引以为傲的事。有时候你可能会因为某种错误的方式而惹恼某些人，但事实上，你就是不愿意如履薄冰地与某些人相处。所以当我需要参加某些会议时，我也仍会穿着自己平常的衣服出席，我会轻松地说话，甚至还会自豪地蹦出几个Essex方言哈。不管怎样，你必须确保自己能够舒适地进行交流。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Networking guilt and indie biz dev

By Aj Grand-Scrutton

Someone has watched one of my awfully structured, poorly presented and foul mouth filled talks and asked me to put word to virtual paper and do a blog post. I am very grateful for this opportunity and I also apologise in advance for anyone who may be offended by any of these posts but I feel honesty is always the best policy. I’ve got a whole range of topics I’d like to talk about but I’m going to start off by discussing ‘networking’. Main motivation for this is that I’ve just got back from Brighton and the wonderful Develop Conference.

So a few little ‘disclaimers’:

I am not an expert at this, I’ve never had any real advice on this topic and I’ve always just figured out my own way. So please do not take what I say as gospel

There is no gospel. There is no one way to network perfectly and your ‘technique’ should be tailored to yourself and what makes you comfortable

That said, in my defence I’ve built a large chunk of the foundation of my company, Dlala Studios, on the back of a lot of networking so at least you know I have had some form of success with it.

So here we go I’m going to do my top tips in no order whatsoever. Hope this isn’t too painful:

Tip #1 – Speak At Every Chance You Get

So this one isn’t just limited to conferences, but for any type of event, really. Every chance you get to public speak you should take it, for two very good reasons. The first is to simply to get yourself out there. I was terrified of public speaking then around 9 months or so ago I got asked to do a talk at a TIGA event. I took it because Dlala had no money for marketing and a game coming out shortly so I needed to get word out there of both Janksy and the studio as a whole. This was one of the best things that could possibly happen. I’m lucky in the sense that I get away with telling the story of my career and how Dlala was formed and people seem interested.

Off the back of that talk I met a wealth of great people like Shahid at Sony and Debbie at Team17. Both of whom treated me as an equal and took me under the wings, along with the MS guys obviously. The really big impact meeting for me off the back of this was this awesome dude who just casually came up to me afterwards, handed me a business card and introduced himself as ‘Craig from Rare’. Looking at his business card and seeing “Studio Head of Rare” almost blew my mind. Anyone that knows me and Dlala knows that we’re a bunch of Rare fan boys. It usually only takes about 2 minutes for me to mention Battletoads when I meet someone and usually Goldeneye and Banjo Kazooie will come up on a daily basis at Dlala HQ.

Craig was super awesome, we chatted about games, our careers and the Seattle grunge scene from the 90’s. One other major thing we shared in common was this feeling of ‘networking guilt’. This is that feeling you get when you have a project to ship but you are out working the floor. This will probably happen to all of you at some point and it’s very important to remember that the networking part is just as important as being back at the studio working on a game.

As we parted ways Craig told me to stay in contact and let him know if I ever needed advice. You will hear this a lot when you meet great people in the industry and like me you will probably think ‘That’s a really nice thing to say but I understand they are going to be way too busy’. I was wrong; very wrong. Craig and I have stayed friends, I’ve seen him most times he comes up to London and he’s been a real supporter and help to Dlala throughout our short time of being a studio. He also let me bring my entire team up to Rare for a day for a tour to see the awesome things they are doing, tell us the history of the company and answer our questions.

For someone like Craig who is studio head to take the time out of his schedule to personally give me and my boys a tour of the studio and chat to us about our ideas and our thoughts on Rare’s stuff is mental. It’s people like him, Lee Schuneman (Lift London) and Shahid Kamal Ahmad (Sony) who have completely changed my perspective on the big players in games. All of this came off the back of me doing my very first talk – since then through talks I’ve made great relationships with the guys at Nokia, Dolby and made a hell of a lot of friends that I feel privileged to have in my life.

The second reason you should always talk at every opportunity you get is a very, very simple one. You get a free ticket. These conferences are incredibly expensive a lot of the time and studios like ours would struggle to send any of us to them. Last year I had to beg Develop for a student price ticket and they were lovely to let me. 99% of the time when you speak you will get a ticket for at least everything on the day you are speaking – Develop, though, are fantastic and give you full passes for main track speakers. This is something that is priceless you get free entry to places absolutely filled with people who can help your career and who you can pimp yourself out to (in a nice way).

Tip #2 – Don’t Be Fussy

This is a big one – don’t feel you need to only target conferences and events that are specific to your exact discipline or industry. I gave a talk at AppsWorld last year which is very much focussed on apps as opposed to games. Off of the back of that I met the guys from Nokia and a couple of potential investors. Don’t be fussy and get yourself out there!

Tip #3 – Business Cards, Business Cards, Business Cards

As strange as it sounds in such a digital age business cards are so important. Nearly every single time I’ve met someone we’ve exchanged business cards. I have a box full of people’s cards next to me on my desk and every time I’m about to take a new step for Dlala I go through the cards to see if there is anyone there appropriate to contact for advice or involvement.

Business cards are a very effective tool for networking and also for brand recognition. You should see your business cards as an extension of your studios brand, even if you are a one man studio. I cannot rave enough about Moo.com – you can get fucking awesome looking business cards for 20 quid.

The amount of great feedback we’ve had from our business cards is ridiculous and it is such a little thing. There is a phrase in business I always hated which is ‘dress for the job you want not the job you have’. Obviously the reason I hate that is because for a lot of my working life I’ve worn baggy shirts and sweatpants. I am more a believer of selling yourself right and a good and often quirky looking business card can help. With moo you can buy 50 cards for 20 quid and you can have a variety of different designs on the back.

So with Dlala’s when we get our cards we have four different background colours behind the logo and I always ask people to pick what card they want. There are probably a lot of you reading this thinking “that’s fucking stupid” but it’s a funny, silly little personal touch that people like. It’s very easy to get your cards looking nice and a lot of the websites have some good predefined designs. We were very lucky that one of my oldest friends Dan Maslanka (danmaslanka@me.com) put together an absolute kick ass design for us.

Once you have the cards there are two approaches. There is the ‘give a card to everyone I meet’ approach, which is often the approach I take nowadays or there is the ‘strategic distribution’ or as I like to call it – ‘I’m broke so I need to be careful’. Don’t be afraid if you are running low on cards to ask someone for their card and then just instantly drop them an e-mail so they have details.

Tip #4 – Don’t Ask, Don’t Get

Now this one is something I’ve lived my entire life by and something that my dad is the king of. I’ve always said that when I go to buy my house I’m going to take my dad there for the negotiations because he’ll probably buy the carpet and get the house chucked in for free.

When you meet people don’t be afraid to ask them for advice and to see how they can help you on your journey. A lot of the time you won’t have to if you have a good ‘story’ (I’ll talk about this in Tip #5), but either way you shouldn’t be scared to ask people if they can point you in the right direction. Never be ashamed to call out the fact that you are clueless about something. A lot of our best business advice in Dlala has come off the back of me and Craig (Thomas, Dlala CCO) putting our hands up and saying we don’t have a clue when it comes to the business side. 99% of the people I’ve met at events etc… have been lovely and have wanted to help. If you ask and they say no or they can’t offer any help you are not in a worst situation so you have nothing to lose. Don’t Ask, Don’t Get.

Tip #5 – If You’ve Got A Story, Tell It

With Dlala a lot of people became involved because they liked the story, a story our team are fed up of hearing now. Our story is the tale of how Craig and I left our secure, well-paid jobs, moved into the parents’ garages to start our studio with no money, and then 6 months later were working with Microsoft.

Lots of our friends have great stories – the guys in Utopian World Of Sandwiches left their jobs and took a gamble on their XBLA and PC title ‘Chompy Chomp Chomp’, Nicoll Hunt got crowd funded through Kickstarter for his game ‘Fist Of Awesome’ and ‘Imp Paired’ creator Nick Lister left his career in architecture after one day rediscovering his passion for games.

If you have a story – however big or little it is – don’t be afraid to tell people about it. I love hearing about how companies and developers got to where they are. Plus, it’s a lot more interesting then hearing someone basically reading off their CV!

Aj (Who Doesn’t Really Know Anything)’s Top Tip – BE YOURSELF

If any of my tips put you in a position where you think ‘This isn’t me or something I would do’ then don’t do them. You have to be yourself. It would have been very easy for me to cut my hair, shave my beard, put on a suit and pretend to be a real business guy – I’ve blagged my way a lot through life but I didn’t want to do that.

I want Dlala to be pure and the result of honesty. It’s something we actually pride ourselves on that we are always completely honest with everyone we deal with. Sometimes you will rub people the wrong way but the reality is you don’t want to be working with, associated with people that you have to tread on thin ice with. When I go to conferences I always dress the same I would anywhere, I speak how I would and I even embrace my Essex dialect with pride (Dlala Studios does not endorse not associate itself with ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ in any way). In all seriousness though you have to be comfortable with everything you do when you are networking – people can tell when you are being fake and putting on a front is just unneeded stress.

So that’s my top tips for networking. I’m sorry that it was just some random hairy guy rambling on at you for over 2000 words but I hope that at least some of it was useful to you guys.（source：gamesbrief）