donald-harris.com
Just passionate about Education, Gaming, and Family
The Year of Projects
02 weeks ago
by Donald Harris
in Uncategorized
Last year was a great year for me business wise. Things got dicey in the middle which left me parting ways with a company I helped start. I finally settled with a company that I am extremely happy with both challenge wise and work/life balance wise. I had to really put my nose to the grindstone in order to get ramped up as things started moving fast and I was off traveling and representing the company about a month in. All in all I think I have found the company that I can see myself working for a long time into the future. That was a major life goal: Finding the perfect job. I have completed that. Now on to 2012….
These aren’t resolutions, mind you. These are objectives for this year. First is my personal health. I am currently working towards getting to a goal weight of 299 lbs. I know you maybe asking yourself, “What does this have to do with business?” Being a healthy weight helps your appearance, and sometimes, as fickle as it is, first impressions can be all about looks. Also being healthy enough to network a room and not get winded or tired is also beneficial to business. I have had more than one person that I look up to in the industry advise me on this. So here is my advice to you: Lose weight and get fit for business.
The next goal for this year is to help my company develop a new product that we are bringing online a little later this month. Can’t really talk about it much here, but you can check the company blog in the near future. The good thing for you is that this product is still focused on marketing and business development, so I will be able to share learning experiences with you here. There is always the goal of growing the business and creating more revenue so that goes with out saying.
The other goal is to write more. I took a long break from this blog in order to get things on the job setup and squared away. I find that writing more helps with several things. Most importantly it helps me learn the lessons I just experienced. Secondly it helps me connect with many different people around the world, which is good for business! Also I need a place to express my views 
The last goal is to challenge mentally. I have always wanted to get involved in the Maker Community of hacking and building creations. I have always had little projects I worked on at home as a side hobby to gaming and business. And now this year I am going to explore that fully by building at least two projects from start to finish. I doubt I will post it here since they wont deal with business. However, if I learn something business-wise from the experience, I will share it with you.
Well, I will end this post here. Ideally you will read a lot more from me and see a little less of me
Intel AppUp and Tizen and Jolie O’Dell
03 months ago
So I am just getting settled in from my recent trip to Seattle. I went there to attend the Intel AppUp Elements Conference. It was a small conference, maybe about 500 or so attendees. While there, we discussed the migration of the AppUp App Store to a new platform called Tizen. I won’t get into a technical explanation of what AppUp and Tizen are, mostly because I am not an engineer. What I will say, from a business standpoint, is that this is another opportunity to develop and spread your brand to another audience. Right now, that audience is a bit on the small side when comparing it to other app stores. However, Intel seems to be really behind this effort and they are investing a lot of money, time and tools into it. They have set a lofty goal of 6M users by September of next year which is HUGE, considering that they currently have only 300k users. I personally plan on keeping an eye on this platform to see where it goes with the new ultra-books and embedded platforms of the future.
Before reading this next portion listen to Jolie O’Dell’s speech here
I was sent to The Elements Conference in Seattle to seek out business opportunities. While there, I had some time to take in some sessions. One session stood out the most to me. The one that was given by Jolie O’Dell was about how technology is being use to impact the social good.
Imagine this soft spoken voice basically calling you out and saying that all you work on and are passionate about is garbage. I think after the first few well written lines of her speech people quickly realized that this was not the message they thought they were going to hear. The long and short of her speech was that we, the developers, have the power to change the world with this magic we call technology. And we have the responsibility to do so.
Her message was great and I loved it. However, her delivery was crap. If you are trying to get people to join your cause and “do the right thing” you probably shouldn’t start off by telling them that the stuff they love and are passionate about is garbage. Also don’t follow it up by listing other companies who are better than us because they do “x”. At one point in time she said that about 90% of the room were Atheist, which further shows the amount of assumption that had been put into her speech.
At first, I was getting into her speech. But then I felt like I was being yelled at and called a bad atheist… even though I consider myself to be a good Christian. So then this thought came into my mind… “Jolie why don’t you do what you are telling us to?” It started to bother me so much that by the end of her speech I went up to her and asked that very question. Her reply? “Oh, I don’t think my bosses would appreciate it.” — FAIL! You can’t yell at people and tell them they are not doing the “right” thing and then never give them a resolution as to how to do the “right” thing. And then to not even be practicing your own advice, that is just hypocrisy at it’s best.
Anyways, I would love to hear your opinion…
Casual Connect, Comic-Con, and then Vegas
05 months ago
Just a quick update about whats going on. I have been even more busy than when I was running Marveloper. Like I said before I joined the team at CerebralFix, a creative and extremely passionate bunch of kiwis from New Zealand. The last half of last month the core executive team flew over and took me along for the ride. Like the title says in 2 weeks we went to Seattle for Casual Connect, San Diego for Comic-Con, and then Vegas for rest and planning. When we finally hit Vegas we were exhausted and basically running on fumes. You can check out the pics I took here
Since it was my first time meeting the team and seeing how the internal workings of the company took place it was a real eye opener. And I started analyzing what I was seeing. When I was hired I was told that I could run my portion of the company like it was my own and that I was basically being empowered by the rest of the group to go and make partnerships for the company. When you first hear something like that, you think to yourself, “Oh there has to be a limit somewhere.” or “Well yeah but you will shoot down my ideas”. Not only is that not the case here but it would seem like all of the executives have that same amount of empowerment. And from that comes a heck of a lot of passion and ownership. I have been slowly reading this book: From Good to Great and what I got it from it so far is that titles don’t matter. What matters is that you run your business as if you, yourself are the CEO. Even if your are not. That sense of ownership and loyalty will surly bring you from Good to Great. (Yes, I know there is more to the book than that) I notice myself saying over and over “My company…” and “My guys back at the office…” Once things slowed down, I thought about it and how I felt personally responsible to everything I said and did on the companies behalf. My ego stepped aside and the company’s ego stepped in its place. Which is a surprise to me, because I love my ego, but it would seem that the company is more important. I know I got side tracked into business talk but let me sum up the business talk with this:
I think every company should look at its executive leadership team (or any leaders) and foster an environment where they are empowered to treat the company as though it was their own.
Now back to the fun stuff. I had a blast at Casual Connect mostly because I love Seattle and would love to live there. My new friends and I not only got a lot of learning done but we socialized as well… socialized is another word for partied hard If you have ever been to Casual Connect and been to the aquarium party you know what I mean by parting hard. As far as work is concerned, there was a large number of chats going on and some very successful talks being had. If you are in the business of making casual or social games and you don’t attend this conference, you are not in the business of making casual or social games.
My next stop was Comic-Con, it was my first time and it was amazing. From a business stand point I didn’t get as much as I wanted done there. Not because of lack of effort mostly just because I didn’t know where to go to get the work done. So this time, it was a learning experience. Next time, it will be better. Yes, of course I took pics with the cos players Check the link above for them
The last stop was Vegas. Yeah, I know what you are thinking and let me set the record straight – it was all work. It was a company retreat. Here we took a breather and focused on all the business we acquired at Casual Connect and Comic-Con. We then started planning for the up coming year. Obviously, there is not much I can say about what was spoken there. But, it was fun and challenging at the same time.
Anyways, thats the update from my travels. Hopefully the next update will be back to business strategies and social media trends. Thanks for reading!!
A New Day
26 months ago
by Donald Harris
in Uncategorized
Well it seems like a new day has arrived for me. I have been through quite a few changes in the last few weeks. From running my own business with a business partner to now working for a company based out of New Zealand. The main role I will have with this new organization is to develop more business opportunities in America. So you may start so see changes in what I post here as well as what I speak about on twitter. It will still be game focused and business related. I want to thank everyone for keeping up with me this far through my little journey.
Pretty soon I will be headed to Casual Connect and Comic-Con. If you will be out at these events I would love to meet up with you. Fair warning I may geek out a bit though at Comic-Con since it will be my first. Anyways I will try and keep up the blog a bit more and also start creating more Youtube videos.
Finding Your Voice and Keeping It!
09 months ago
Yeah, I know its been a while since I have blogged. I have been very busy with several projects – mainly this one. On this blog post I wanted to discuss the subject of keeping true to yourself. You may have read some of this in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It but I want to put it in my own words. When you conduct business you should always be true to yourself. Keep your personality in everything you do. The main reason is this:
Collectively our customer’s BS meters are getting more accurate. If you dare to venture into the world of social media your followers need to see the same person they contact on the phone to buy something as they do in youtube videos and twitter status updates!
As you can tell from the content I produce, I have a casual approach to business. Don’t let this fool you. I am after the money just as any other sales person is, I have to pay the bills. However, my approach with customers is to build a true relationship. Which is the same thing I strive for on the different social media mediums. It’s all about the relationships! Find what works for your DNA though. My solution is my own. If you are the type of guy or gal who is all business – all the time, then be the best person out there at that. On the hand if you are a joker who loves to make people laugh, let that show in your personality. Just make sure that when you get into twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr and the rest that your push that same image.
Anyways that’s my post. In the comments below, let me know what your style is and why it works for you. Thanks for reading!
Why has there been no new post?
012 months ago
by Donald Harris
in Uncategorized
I want to apologize to everyone for no updating the blog so much lately in the past few weeks. I have been working very hard on a new project. This new project is still not fully announced yet. Yes it does involve video games and business development. And you can be sure it will be fun and educational for everyone! I will keep you posted as it develops further!
Welcome Back GarageGames!
31 year ago
Today GarageGames announced a comeback. The company formerly known as GarageGames, then formerly know as InstantAction, then oddly called TorquePowered is now back… as GarageGames. They have not announced who is the owner of the company just yet, but they have announced Eric Priesz as the CEO. Another very noticeable change to GarageGames is the price point. The 3d tool set has dropped to $99 USD which is considerably less than their rival Unity 3d. GarageGames has an old and loyal community that will follow this comeback and help move the brand back out into the spotlight. I am willing to bet you will see price moves from Unity this year in order to try and put more pressure on GarageGames. Needless to say this will be an interesting year for middleware providers and users. What do you think of the comeback of GarageGames?
Listen to Your Customers!
41 year ago
Today I posted a link on twitter and facebook referring to the hacker that took an MMO game hostage I also added that I thought the company should pay more attention to their, but some readers took that as though I was supporting the actions of the hacker. This was not the case. My thoughts were that I felt if the company paid more attention to their community this hack probably would not have happened. I know you can not please every whim from your customer base, however if several of your customers are asking for the same things then you should/need to appease them. There are plenty of companies that are showing excelent examples of how to handle and help their community. And one that is just surprising me everyday is Microsoft and its twitter Xboxsupport If you have a xbox follow this crew they are unstoppable. Let’s look at one particular case and break it down on how they are listening and ENGAGING with their community.
Here is a conversation I was following in twitter:
This is how you should do it!
Okay so lets break this down. I will break this down in way so that people who don’t use twitter will understand the full awesome of this post. My friend Chupacaubrey was trying to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 and could not connect. She … expressed her frustration to her entire follower list which is 557 people (potential customers). She did not message xbox directly and she was not really saying anything pleasant at all. However on the next message we see Microsoft’s Xbox Support team jump into the conversation. They were Actively Listening to their community. Meaning they must have search terms going for negative sentiment towards the word xbox. I could go into further detail but that will be a later post. Now from this point on they go into a dialogue of troubleshooting and blah blah… the meat of THIS post is in the first two messages. Microsoft is now controlling this negative experience before she would even call tech support or continue to spread negative messages to her friends. As you can see she turn off her xbox in frustration and I am sure she could have continued to say negative things about MS and there live network. But now the tables have turned, the team is in action fixing the issue. Even if they don’t fix it think about this: She did not even get the chance to call tech support! If you can’t see the awesome in that, then you need to close your doors and stop doing business now. Also note one very important thing. This entire conversation was public. They didn’t go behind a closed door to fix the issue. Let me know what you think?? Can they keep this up? Is this feasible for every business?
Interview with Paperchild Studios
31 year ago
by Donald Harris
in Uncategorized
Here it is with out further delay the interview with the team of Paperchild Studios:
Monji’s responses:
How many team members make up PCS?
Three full-time members (Enrico Crevecouer, Michael Lubker, and myself Monjoni “Monji” Osso) and around a dozen contractors and assistants
What is your role in the studio?
I’m the Lead Designer and QA Lead for Paper Child Studio. I also handle the creation of blog posts, tweets, manage some hires, and generally do whatever I can that needs to be done.
What was the main inspiration for Purify Puzzle?
Purify Puzzle is Enrico’s creation, modified a bit by myself. It’s inspired by our love of classic arcade games; the challenge, difficulty, and opportunity for growth that games like Puzzle Bobble and Puzzle Fighter had were major influences. Visually, the game’s anime-inspired look was developed by artists Christina Beard and Andrew Soman. We’re all big fans of anime and, given that the source of gameplay inspiration was Japanese as well, it was a pretty great fit.
What tech was used to build Purify Puzzle?
Purify Puzzle is built on the Scarlet Engine, an internal engine developed by Enrico over the last four years.
Enrico’s responses:
Explain the name Paper Child Studios?
As we were brainstorming a name for the company, my team members became intrigued by the image looming on my desktop ( http://www.paperchild.com/PaperCraftWall.jpg ). I explained that it was a “paper child.” We loved the cleverness of the art and felt it represented us well and immediately added it as a potential studio name. When we trimmed down the list to the last few candidates it was the only name that was easy recognizable, sounded good, and had the domain name available.
How many team members make up PCS?
We have three primary members: I’m Lead Programmer and the studio founder, our Producer and Business Developer Michael Lubker, and Lead Designer Monjoni Osso. We also have a number of contractors who are currently working with us.
What was the main inspiration for Purify Puzzle?
Old school arcade puzzle games which I used to play as a kid. It seemed like a good project to start out with.
What tech was used to build Purify Puzzle?
Our tech was built by me. We call it the Scarlet Engine internally.
It looks like Paper Child Studios also does traditional application development. What made your team turn to games?
We are a game studio first. It just took longer to make the game than the app! We make apps as way to bring in additional revenue so that we can make better games. This isn’t to say we don’t like making apps, or that we make them just for cash. We are passionate about our apps as well, but game development was our goal from the beginning.
From my audience participation portion, I also had a reader make negative comments about your site. The current design is one that looks at first to be a strictly business site and not one of gaming. Do you have any plans in the future to make changes to your site?
I ended up making that website myself, and I’m a programmer, so of course it looks like it’s all business! However, we now have artists and designers taking care of things so we do have plans to change it up. Stay tuned.
How did you make the choice to go from standard application development to gaming?
We are a game studio first. Like I stated before, we started out making both at once. It just took longer to make the game than the app.
When you made the change from app development to gaming did you find any differences in the design, build and testing processes?
We started both at once so there really wasn’t any transition. Testing for apps is not as rigorous as game testing, but I think this is because the app we made was simpler than our game. When it comes to design of course its different when you design an application versus a game. For games we were primarily designing the gameplay/fun factor, and the world in which that gameplay resides. Apps are more about the user interface and usability. UI and usability design is needed for games as well but apps feel more way more rigorous and involved in this regard. Our build and testing process pretty much stayed the same between the two.
Michael’s Responses:
What is your role in the studio?
I am the Producer and Business Development Manager. Though I often do more than what those entail (scheduling, budgeting, project management, talking to other companies). I also do some design work, management of the audio contractors, some QA, and some marketing and community management. I also do some work on the business paperwork side.
And the winner is…!
01 year ago
by Donald Harris
in Uncategorized
Bryan Todd Thanks for Bryan for participating on the blog I will contact you and send your Battlefield Play4Free Beta Code!