William Chyr

William Chyr an artist and game designer. He is the Creative Director of Studio Chyr, an independent games studio based in Chicago. He worked on Hotel Infinity, Manifold Garden, and Strata. 

Balancing Creative Experimentation with Sustainable Business Practices

Creative experimentation requires time and iteration, but publishers and funders today expect more polish and content than ever before. Developers need to invest more upfront (whether money or time) in order to more fully prove out the game concept before scaling up - beyond prototype or vertical slice. This can be challenging especially for smaller studios, where spending several months of runway on meeting expectations can eat up profit margins.

This roundtable, moderated by William Chyr (Studio Chyr), will focus on discussing how studios address this clash between taking creative risk versus high fidelity expectations, addressing topics such as: 

• Balancing time between polishing one concept vs broader and riskier experimentation
• Managing team expectations and schedules when shifting between prototyping and polishing work
• Sustainable business practices while meeting higher standards for fidelity and content