One of his contributions is organising HelloWorld, which on Tuesday celebrates its third edition with an open format, beyond the classic meetings in a bar, networking with a beer. "Right now there is a gap in the industry and with events like this we want to help students and professionals to focus their careers, to lose their fear and see that there are job opportunities," he tells VIA Empresa. He made the leap into this new sector 10 years ago without any type of specialised knowledge: "There was no state-level training at that time. That's why most people of my age are self-taught, people who learnt by applying what they knew about IT and doing, doing and redoing, making mistakes in the field of marketing, design and the most creative areas."
There was no formal training 10 years ago. Are universities now prepared to cover the demand for professionals?
Yes, but there is still a problem, as it is still a very young industry and there are a lot of things that are still not fully-developed that we are dealing with as they come up. It is not like mathematics or the sciences, which are stricter and taught the same way in one university as another; here there are things that still have to be worked out and experienced. We are discovering how to do things, how to explain them and in what ways we should work.
And is that something only here in Catalonia, or a more general thing in the industry?
It is on a state level perhaps, because here we are behind the United States, where they have a stronger industry and are ahead on the education side of things. But I do think that in general there are still a lot of tools that need to be developed and to see how to do things better, because there is no standard either here, in the United States or anywhere else.
The focus has been on video games in the past few years and in 2015 the industry generated more than 90 billion dollars. When did the turning point come?
There have been three key moments. One was the arrival of the Play Station, which broke records. While it is true that in its time the Game Boy helped the industry to grow, it was always with a traditional public, who were not interested in video games in general, who only wanted to consume that one thing and nothing else. The Wii changed all that, as a console that broke barriers by being open to a different public, making people see video games as something for the whole family and not only for nerds. And finally came smartphones, which have turned everyone into a potential consumer of video games, without any limit on age, social profile... that has changed everything.
Photograph: Jordi Borràs
What generates more revenue at the moment, consoles or online video games?
It all depends on the figures you look at, about whether we are talking about a state or global level. There are months when mobile makes more turnover; there are others when it is consoles. At Christmas, for example, the traditional console and PC market does better. It depends on trends, on fashions or whether there is a game that sticks out. There are few games today that change the balance by themselves. You can find that the trend suddenly changes because two or three particularly strong products come out and console or app sales suddenly go up.
So it is a market in which the demand focuses on certain games?
All sorts of video games are consumed, but it is undeniable that there is an elite. These are those games that attract more attention than others and so do the best, the ones most work has gone into and which are more or less the path to follow.
What is the situation of Catalonia within the worldwide industry?
Very good because Barcelona is a very attractive city. A lot of companies are coming here, we have a lot of training centres and we ourselves are producing people who contribute to helping it grow. We are growing a lot and the forecast is that will continue.
The sector here is made up of small companies dealing with small budgets. Is that a drawback?
It is true that most firms are microcompanies. That is good because they can move more quickly, they can react to the market trends with more agility and do not have to take so many risks. But it is also true that many want to make a game, do so and then find they have no continuity because they did not come up with a business plan or market study beforehand and have no interest in growing the business, but rather it was just the consequence of the project and they did it because it was needed. It is all the result of being an industry based on a passion that attracts a lot of idealistic young people. I think that there is a bubble in the sector and you can see that a lot of businesses will not make it; they will have to join together. I don't think that having so many microcompanies works and that many of them will end up merging to become companies with 10 to 12 employees.
One of the challenges facing the Catalan industry is becoming an international reference point. What do we need to do to achieve this?
I think that we lack a business network. Where creativity is concerned we can match anywhere else, also on the technological level. It is not a question of technical costs, it is about marketing costs, salaries and knowing how to sell oneself. We have to be more productive. Often we get carried away by the passion and we forget that it is a business and needs to be approached as such, as a company. Perhaps we have not been able to take advantage of traditional markets. The people who do Business Management and Administration or Economics could take a look at video games and we could learn from them, to share their knowledge a little. We know how to make video games, but not do business.
Photograph: Jordi Borràs
And is international capital needed?
Yes, although it is arriving little-by-little. Help from the Catalan and Central governments is also important. But let us not forget that it is an international industry and money from abroad is required. We have to sell and export and we have to know how to attract international funding.
So, the examples of Social Point and King must have helped.
Social Point is a business from here and King is a large company and a reference point. They have helped Barcelona to be seen as an attractive place and that helps the small firms. If they get investment, it creates a breeding ground that makes it easier to get money.
What is the process of creating a video game? Do you analyse whether there is a particular need?
A lot of people begin making the video game they want, creating a video game because they have had an idea and this is where we fall down. Personally, in the projects I have been part of, before investing money people thought about whether there was a gap or not in the industry. Normally there is no gap, everything is very dense and the thing to do is to look at the competition to see what you have to do better than the others in order to stick out. This is essential, but often it is not done.
Your latest step has been to become the YouTuber, Fukuy, gaining more than 50,000 subscribers to your channel, who want to hear what you have to say about video games. How are YouTube and the industry to converge?
YouTube has grown a lot and especially in the area of video games, so that now it is one of the main platforms where information and its influence on the consumer come together. People no longer turn to magazines or blogs, they go to YouTube to see what is being said, what a YouTuber they like has to say, which makes it important to be online. When it is a company, you have to prioritise a clear message. At times we get carried away and only focus on YouTubers with thousands of followers, but these can ask for a lot of money and may not cover the age range you are interested in, which is not your public. You have to learn what the demographic profile of YouTube is and where you should direct your efforts, depending on your product. Behind video games, despite being entertainment, there are people. There is the person who made the game and another talking about it, and between them is YouTube.