Our company recently moved into a cozy old building in central Copenhagen. As we are a small and young start-up, we can’t afford a whole building, a whole floor nor a whole room for ourselves, so we’re sharing. In fact we’re sharing three floors with 6 – 8 other game developers (depending on how you count).

You could argue that the other companies are our competitors. You could argue that they could steal our know-how, our IP and our honour.

The fact is that yes, in some cases they are, and yes, in some cases they may. But up until that happens we all have a lot to gain from living door to door with the others in terms of sharing problems, ideas, tips, experiences and beer.

The benefits of sharing can however expand far beyond beer.

Small production units don’t need and small start-ups can’t afford much full-time administration and sales staff. Why not share producer, accountant, marketeer and sales resources? Why not in-source publishing?