Four interviews with young Scottish students and graduates from a 1990s Scottish university who set up new-start computer games studios

Abstract

This paper investigates the experiences of students and graduates who attended classes in the computing department of a Scottish 1990s university, and who established and ran their own new-start computer games studios between 2010 and 2012. The aims of this study were to find out (i) the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors which motivated them to establish their own studios; (ii) the progress achieved with developing and/or selling their games; (iii) the challenges they faced as young student/graduate entrepreneurs; and (iv) where applicable, what events or factors compelled them to abandon projects and/or close down their companies. Qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured interviews (with the directors of three of the companies), along with follow-up questions via email or telephone; the director of the fourth company lived abroad, and he agreed to complete the survey questions via email.

Two of the four companies were closed down after two years of product design and development which did not result in any sales or income. The other two companies were still registered during the time of interview, although their directors had not yet succeeded in generating sales or income. All directors who were interviewed considered the main problems they encountered were (i) lack of investment, resulting in a dependency on working in other jobs (thus restricting time devoted to their projects); and (ii) being unable to market their products effectively to large audiences, or secure contracts from key potential clients.