A Lesson In Business And Industry From Andrew Douthwaite of Alliotts!

  In conversation with Hugh Wybourne

Our g.g fest sponsor interview series continues with something a bit different today, as we have Andrew Douthwaite from the Guildford branch of Alliotts, a business advisory and chartered accountancy firm. They specialise in a truly staggering range of sectors and this includes some really forward-thinking and contemporary expertise in technology and, relevant to us today, the videogames industry as well. This year won’t be the first time they’ve visited us, but it’s the first chance we’ve had to sit down with one of theirs and get some more insight into what they do. 

Our conversation had to balance a lot of big and small concepts simultaneously and I’m certain Andrew could have given me a full course if we had the time but I wanted to keep our conversation tethered to g.g and the games community we love. Nonetheless, I wanted to pick his brain for any insights he could share. 

The global value of the videogames industry is worth more than every other media platform combined, impressive considering its comparatively extremely young age. What do you think it is about videogames that has made it so successful worldwide?

[AD] For me it's all about the creative and interactive side – other media platforms to me feel purely consumption, but gaming offers a much more expansive experience and in many ways pushes people to think and feel more. If you also add in the competitive and collaborative side when playing with others -  whether that’s chucking red shells at the family on Mario Kart on a split screen in the living room or arguing over who should play jungle in League of Legends online - gaming to me really takes all the focus and stresses of normal life away for a time, which is very valuable to people.

Escapism, humanity’s favourite pastime since we first figured out we could tell stories about things that didn’t actually happen. You can tell that Andrew really cares about games, and you know what they say about what happens if you make your job something you enjoy. He elaborated more about this feeling with the next question we talked about. 

How long have you been working with the video games sector and what was it about g.g that drew you to us? Beyond our outstanding charm, of course!

[AD] One of the first clients I ever worked with as a trainee was a gaming start-up, so quite a long time! Why I ended up being attracted to doing more in this sector is similar to why I work mainly with early stage and growing companies - I love being able to see their story unfold and help along the way, and a lot of these clients need a hands on and personal service which is fundamental to what my team does.

That first client for example was initially just a group of university friends that were developing a game whilst I assisted on tax credit claims to keep them funded. Once they released it, we were then advising on the tax implications and profit extraction strategy (as well as playing it!) and then finally when they received a large offer from a larger developer, we guided them there too. So I suppose I’m drawn to the chance to have a meaningful impact with clients that work in a sector I hold passion for, and the opportunity to see all the facets of a business in a relatively short space of time.

Our interest in g.g started when we visited the festival last year and were very impressed, and then later I was introduced to Lauran and Jason of the committee. I was taken aback by the sense of community importance that g.g has to the gaming sector. The energy and effort that is put into it really resonated with me, and as we are keen to support this industry, it really was a no-brainer to come onboard.

Genuinely an inspiring story, we’ve spoken before to founders and talent scouts and they all say that in theory there is technically nothing stopping anybody from turning their game into a success for a budding indie dev studio. The only trouble is, even the best-prepared find themselves against staggering odds and that road is filled with important hoops to jump through to even have a chance at trying, but people like Andrew and his team can help alleviate some of those worries. We moved on to talk about some more concrete information next.  

There are plenty of stories in Guildford of smaller developer teams finding success, but that doesn't make it easy. For artists and creators that want to turn a great idea and a tonne of passion into a viable business, can Alliotts provide them the help they need?

[AD] Well it's not uncommon at all to have devs who start on a project as a secondary thing but then suddenly find that things are either taking off or have the potential to take off. This can happen organically, but we also see founders take investment through Venture Capital or Angel Investors and suddenly find themselves needing to report in without much in the way of a finance structure! That’s when my team offers alongside traditional services a ‘Virtual Finance Team’.

This allows Founders and Directors to get away from the finance work, and concentrate on building a great product or game without the stress of hiring someone. For indies, this could just mean us taking on the monthly or quarterly bookkeeping alongside VAT returns and compliance work, but for those that may have investment, it could mean providing regular investor reporting or even in-house fractional CFO/FD level support to chair board meetings and provide the funnel between investors and the directors.

In truth, no two businesses are ever quite the same in terms of need so we scale this service on what is needed. The big benefits are that this tends to cost a fraction of hiring a full-time internal finance team, is fully scalable, and doesn’t have a minimum contract or service term. Finances are rarely at the forefront of founders' minds, and this gives them much needed reassurance. If a client scales to a size where they want to recruit internally, we still provide the standard accountancy services you would expect from a specialist gaming team – including VGTR/VGEC/R&D Tax Claim advice. As we maintain that relationship, the business keeps that continuity of advice and as a full-service accountancy firm with an international network – there isn’t much we can’t do or cover!

I may not know what any of those letters mean when put in that order, but I do know when to spot a useful service when I see it, and perhaps it is specifically because I don’t know the details of what he is talking about that I should be relieved at the thought of this service being available. I’m not a finance expert, a game director, or a company founder but I can rest at ease thinking that if I do find myself working for any of those types of people, that this really quite important section of game development is safe in the hands of people like Andrew!

So to finish up then, we want to know what your favourite Guildford-made games are!

[AD] After overcoming the really steep learning curve having never played D&D, I am nonetheless currently in awe of Larian and Baldur's Gate 3 and trying to wield my influence to push that around the office! I completed my first playthrough just before my son was born last month and have started a second Dark Urge run since then that I have a feeling may tell me a lot about my morals. I also think the story of No Man's Sky and the massive effort from Hello Games to realise the game’s potential is inspiring, and with quite a few clients in the Space Sector at Alliotts and having seen Brian Cox at G Live last year I do find it a very fascinating and oddly relaxing game to play. Lastly, I am also ‘old’ enough to remember classics made in Guildford such as Fable – and my team are more than happy to point out just how old that is to me!

On that note of discussions of things new and old, we can bring this interview to a close and we give thanks again to Andrew for spending his very precious time with us to shed just a bit of light on all the honestly impressive things he and the team do. So if you’re a developer of any size and think you’re ready to take the next steps required to make it in the business of game development, you now know who to call!