We recently connected with Brad Hendricks and have shared our conversation below.

Brad, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

We’ve recently considered this question within Blind Squirrel Games leadership, and in 2024 we anticipate publishers wanting less risky investments with stability and a potential for consistent returns, with risk mitigation at the forefront of business decisions. Based on these factors, moves toward games based on licensed IP, remasters of existing titles, and re-imagined IP will be trending during the coming year. These three focuses are less susceptible to market fluctuations as they have a built-in demand that can provide a constant revenue stream for owners and publishers, especially if the IP has a proven track record of success in its other iterations or in its original form. This tactic is also a win for consumers, as new chapters in beloved franchises help world-build and strengthen the IP for future development.

Brad, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I came into the industry like a lot of people—I started in QA, where I did some work with Activision. After that, I was hooked and fell in love with the industry and started working my way into production and business development roles over time. I’m most proud of taking a huge leap and starting Blind Squirrel Games without any real experience running a studio. It’s turned out pretty well so far. I’ve always been very solutions-driven and I rarely take no for an answer, which is useful when starting a new company. I don’t think anything is impossible, it just takes some time and thinking, and we’ll always find a way to get there. I’ve always been good at identifying great people to fill tough roles. I haven’t always been perfect, but I’m generally pretty good at seeing the diamonds in the rough.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Assembling highly skilled and talented people who have a serious passion for what they do on a daily basis has been key. This leads to solid work and I think a lot of our customers see that and want to continue to work with us. We’ve managed to put our name on a lot of really big AAA titles over the last 13+ years and I think that speaks volumes about the caliber of people we have.

Any advice for managing a team?

Keeping morale high is always a challenge, but I think it’s important to make sure people understand that this is just a job and acknowledge that they have lives and families outside of work. I always work to protect my people from losing sight of that, not only from themselves, but from external forces as well. I try to be a positive influence, when possible, even when things aren’t going well. I do my best to find the “silver lining” where I can and share that with my team. I think the most critical thing that we all do at Blind Squirrel Games, and I’ve made sure we all think like this at all levels of our organization, is that transparency is key—no-one likes not knowing where things are going. This is a north star that I recommend all business leaders follow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blindsquirrelentertainment.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradhendricks/