Through the fire and flames

You would think that a failed first endeavor, a baseless lawsuit, and a debt reaching almost $1,000,000 would be enough to deter most people from investing their entire livelihood into a company that seemed as if it was going nowhere fast. It would be for most people. For Karthik Bala however, obstacles such as these were simply opportunities to demonstrate a frame of mind in which risk-taking can lead to a path of success and prosperity.

     Bala, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Vicarious Visions delivered SUNY Fredonia's 2011-12 Convocation Series keynote address on Thursday, Sept. 15, in King Concert Hall. Bala's talk, titled "Breaking the Rules! Or how I stopped listening to my parents and learned to be disruptive" discussed the benefits that can come as a result of breaking society's preordained, established rules and how one can be constructive by creating their own surroundings rather than being limited by them.

     Beginning with an analogy to the Great Depression, Bala stated how a number of memorable innovations were created during that era as he proved that ingenuity can exist even during the toughest of times and when creativity may be the last thing on people's minds. Such inventions included scotch tape, the chocolate chip cookie, and of course, canned beer, which Bala sarcastically states that when mixed with video games can lead to disruption and may or may not subsequently lead to growth and success.

     He compares these creations to the advancement of technology and more specifically, to the evolution of the gaming industry. Showing how rapidly video games have progressed in a relatively short time, Bala particularly cited the originality of the Nintendo Wii as well as the graphical prowess of titles such as the Gran Turismo series and how far ahead these works are from games like Pong and Space Invaders that were considered revolutionary just 40 years ago.

     Before Vicarious Visions became a subsidiary of entertainment software giant Activision and a company which has generated $2.5 billion in retail sales, the development team faced their share of frustrations and disappointments.

     In 1996, the company released an interactive detective mystery adventure for the PC titled, Synnergist. Aside from the game flopping in terms of financial success, the publisher that distributed the game failed to pay Vicarious Visions the royalties that were owed to them, leaving them in heavy debt.  

     "I had to really look deep down during those times and ask myself, ‘Is this something I really believe in?'" said Bala. "When things were going south and things seemed like they were falling apart, there were a lot of people saying, ‘Maybe this isn't the right thing.' But you can't be afraid to fail. You can't be afraid to take risks."

     Like many of the budding businesses that can be found at SUNY Fredonia's Technology Incubator which opened in December 2009, Bala's company is the product of a university incubator as well. After high school, he continued working on his business as a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and further developed it through the RPI Business Incubator in the mid 1990s. It was here that he developed contacts that were willing to invest $250,000 during the company's dire straits.

     The investment helped to finance the developer's numerous independent projects and a string of successes allowed the company to bring in two VP's, from GE, to help build the management team. The success however, as Bala pointed out, was unfortunately short-lived.

     "About a month after we hired them, the publisher we had been working with went out of business," he said. "We lost $2 million of contracts overnight. We had 45 people on the payroll and only $500 in the bank account. These were people with families, not just a bunch of college kids anymore."

     The company was in worse financial trouble than ever, and it forced Bala to take out a personal loan of $1 million from M&T Bank as he did everything possible to keep his dream alive. He and his brother Guha unquestionably displayed resilience and determination during this time that few people possess, often opting to not take paychecks just to keep the company afloat.

     Their prayers were opportunely answered when Guha simply happened to bump into a professional skateboarder by the name of Tony Hawk at a gaming trade show. The Balas formed a business relationship with Activision, who were working with Hawk, and with approval and support they developed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for the Game Boy Advance.