Glass Bottom Games.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: COMPANY

INITIAL LIGHT BULB After working in Louisville for the since-acquired and shuttered NetDevil on the Lego Universe game from 2008 to 2011, veteran game developer Megan Fox decided to start her own company in Glass Bottom Games.

"When I started, I had the grand idea of getting funding for a larger studio and bringing on developers," she says.

Fox started down that path in late 2011. The company had three failed prototypes in its first six months, Fox let her sole employee go, and GBG became a one-woman operation. Now she's working with "a cloud of independent contractors" to develop PC games with price tags of about $15 each.

IN A NUTSHELL After a moment of "panic" in spring 2012, Fox moved on to Jones On Fire, a "side-scrolling runner" where the player controls a boxy fireman to save cats from a raging inferno.

"I made it in 48 hours," she says. "It was goofy and fun." The game was released in March 2013. "It was a huge critical success," says Fox. "Financially, it was a bomb."

But Fox saw the game as an opportunity to build GBG's credibility in the market for $15 PC games. She's parlaying the buzz into a follow-up in Hot Tin Roof, slated for release in spring 2014. The film-noir-inspired game is another side-scrolling runner, this time featuring a feline detective looking to break up a catnip ring.

"The biggest problem working independently is visibility," Fox says. "It's super heightened in the mobile market. Good games disappear every day." The solution? "You just need to keep releasing games. Over time you can make a market that cares about your next game."

For this reason, GBG is focused specifically on the PC game market. "I will never again make a game...