For years, the investment and publishing landscape in the games industry has been a challenging one for studios around the world - though some markets like Türkiye are defying that trend.

Speaking at UKIE’s The Funding Formula conference, The Game Angels founding member and former Jagex CEO Phil Mansell, Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott, Play Ventures head of talent Joe Burridge and Finstock Capital co-founder Oliver Jenkinson discussed the green and red flags they see when discussing deals with developers.

One thing investors might look for, according to Mansell and Burridge from an angel and VC perspective, is the team's experience and broader company plan, rather than specific mechanics for a game.

Burridge said as a hard and fast rule, Play Ventures doesn’t invest in solo founders. He discussed the importance of a team that has built trust and, even better, shipped games together before.

He said it was “definitely a flag” and ups the risk if a new ‘“Avengers-style” team has come together but hasn’t shipped together before, highlighting the potential for the team falling out a year from now. 

Burridge said it was more interesting seeing a plan for a studio’s production pipeline and how this will impact development. For example, a studio could show a plan of how they will use the investment to launch 20 games over two years, with only one of those needing to be a success.

Burridge also noted how, over the past 12 to 18 months, he was seeing more growth or performance marketers on the founding team, or as the first hire.

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