Work for Hire Studio Seeks Own IP to Develop: What Could (and did) Go Wrong??
summary
SockMonkey Studios builds Fish Tanks as a self‑funded arcade arena game, ships a playable demo at GDC 2019, then faces chronic team churn, repeated context switching with work‑for‑hire projects, and eight art‑heavy arenas that must be simplified for consoles. Two publisher deals fall through after paid feedback, COVID forces reconsideration of local multiplayer versus costly retrofitted online, and marketing starts too late. Outcome: a finished game, a growing studio (≈35 staff), and a small charitable whale DLC with WDC that raises funds while costing little to produce.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Studio and project goals
- 4:29Fish Tanks development
- 6:21Timeline and team challenges
- 10:56Design flaws and testing
- 14:05Publisher interest and COVID
- 17:14Contract issues with publisher
- 19:43Marketing struggles
- 23:10Team morale loss
- 25:35Comparisons to other games
- 27:19Lessons and Fish Tanks future
- 32:34Whale charity DLC success
- 35:46Conclusion
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