CEO Letter – Gameplan Studio, 2022
It’s that time of the year again. Let me reflect on everything that happened in 2022, and what awaits us for 2023.
What a crazy year. By crazy, I mean unexpected, revolutionary, transformative, and full of victories and success for the company.
As many of you may know already, by the end of 2021 we have decided to pivot Gameplan Consultancy into a full time Game Development Studio. We did so because of the overwhelming positive feedback we got from our first project “Meu Dinheiro, Meu Negócio”, a serious game in partnership with Principal Finance and Junior Achievement Foundation Brazil, and also responding to a consultancy provided by APEX (Brazil’s Export Agency) on Gameplan’s business, within the PEIEX Export Program. Every evidence pointed that the studio path, with special attention to codevelopment, would be a positive one.
The game now has more than 20.000 downloads and quickly became a strong support portfolio for the next projects. I believe that any successful entrepreneurship has a lot to do with focus and achieving a bigger-than-you mission. So, we did set this goal for 2022 – to become a stable, financially healthy, full stack game development studio, focused on codevelopment and our own games.
I am still in awe of how incredibly fast things happened from that moment until now. From 5 people to 30 (and hiring!), from our first project to managing full IPs, to becoming strategic partners with key worldwide game publishers and platforms, to the ever-committed team we built, to me and Sandra actually moving out of Sao Paulo into Fortaleza.
Wow. Believe me, this year was nothing less than overwhelming, and I’m very thankful.
First, to the management team, that got together and delivered the promise. To the Gameplan team, the best I could ever ask for. To our partners, that believed in us to make great games and literally enabled us to do what we do best. To the Ceará Games Ecosystem, especially ASCENDE (Ceará’s Association of Game Development Companies). What a ride.
What about 2023? Looking back at 2022, we built a world-class studio. We’ve done it. But now the work of keeping up the great work continues, summed up with the challenge of steady growth, nurturing the current partnerships and building new ones, along with navigating the market trends and opportunities.
It is impossible for me not to be optimistic about next year. With all we accomplished collectively in 2022, 2023 is within reach for us to get even better on what we already do, and be the best in class on everything else.
The goal for 2023? Be one of the reference codevelopment studios in Brazil. Grab a couple publishing deals for the great Ips we are building in house. Put Ceará’s game development scene on the map. We do have, per our effort this year, all the tools to deliver and deliver HARD on these promises. It’s all about keeping focused, clear-minded, and doing the utmost best we can. At Gameplan, we just not only deliver. We go BEYOND.
