Raphael van Lierop
Narrative Designer at Ubisoft Montreal

"Warren was instrumental in helping me get my game dev career off the ground. Even when I was a (mostly) clueless aspirant with ambitions that far eclipsed my experience, Warren was extremely generous with his time, knowledge, and contacts. In fact, I can draw a pretty direct line between Warren's support of my early career, to where I am today. Passionate about games, helpful, selfless, professional, and deeply honest -- these are some of the ways I would describe Warren. Warren is a rare gem and truly one of the 'good guys' in the industry. If I someday achieve great things in this field, it will largely be because of Warren's support in the early days. Thanks for everything, Warren.” 

Raphael van Lierop, Narrative Designer at Ubisoft Montreal

Nathan Sorenson
Nathan Sorenson Inc.

I first met Warren at the Game Developer's Conference 2002. I had finished my first game, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Luckily, I decided to work with Warren to find a publisher for 'Take-out Weight Curling' and, with his contacts and negotiating experience, he got me a great deal. Warren always has given all his energy into making my work a success, and treats it almost as if it were his own. I'm glad I had the privilege to be one of his first carried titles. I highly recommend Sherpa Games to anyone considering an agent.

Adam Bullied
Photon Soup

Hello, I am a president of an independent game developer from Vancouver Canada called Photon Soup Entertainment. We are a group of veteran developers who decided that we wanted to strike out on our own and make a distinctly different, original concept title, and try to get it published. While we had lots of experience in making games, with the least experienced member of the team having shipped 4 titles. However, none of us is a business person, nor are we particularly 'connected' in the business side of the industry.

When I started working on financing the company, I was contacted by Warren Currell of Sherpa Games. Warren claimed that we had met before (I didn't remember him), and had heard through the grapevine that I was starting something. I showed him my design documents and he said that, despite the fact that it was far too early in the process for me to need his services, he wanted to help out.

While I worked on financing over the next year, Warren offered advice and feedback. Over this period I was contacted by several agents, none of whom impressed me. Warren was interested in the whole process of getting the company funded, setting up a studio, and making our prototype which stood in contrast to the "call us when you have a prototype finished" attitude I encountered elsewhere.

While I am not a business man by nature, it is not my practice to let someone else make the core decisions about my company. Rather, I have had the benefit of having several key advisors to help me fill in the gaps in my knowledge. In addition to the standards, my lawyer is my legal and contract advisor, my accountant my money and financial advisor, etc, Warren serves as the advisor who guides us through the publisher relations side of the industry. In this sense, Warren is exactly what (IMHO) a game agent should be. He's not someone who grabs your game and disappears into a publishers office and then comes back out with a contract and says "here, sign this". Rather, Warren acts as an advisor in the truest sense; he introduces us to and promotes the game with publisher reps, sets up and gives feedback on pitches, and advises on the advantages and disadvantages of various possible business scenarios.

We are currently still shopping for a publishing deal, and we have several promising options. It remains to be seen how things will pan out, however I know we would not have gotten as far as we have towards getting our game signed with a publisher without Warrens advice and his tireless efforts. I am quite grateful, and very happy about the relationship that Photon Soup has built with Warren and Sherpa Games.

Thanks Very Much
Adam Bullied

Lora Ricci
Oceanus Communications

Hi there,

I'm with Oceanus Communications Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. We have worked and are continuing to work with a game agent, Warren Currell--Sherpa Games, based in Toronto. He played a key role in securing us a deal with Sega.com, for our mmog Legacy Online (previously Star Peace). It can be difficult navigating the world of publishers, both in trying to find an opportunity and secure the best deal -- esp. for a small development company. Having an agent like Warren, not only meant we had his expertise and contacts, we gained a partner... someone to provide us with advice and guidance (and this aspect is ongoing). The bottom line is you want to find an agent with integrity, who believes in your game--because they are going to be representing it and your company. (We actually had one agent want to represent us without ever even trying our game.) Integrity comes into play from a business perspective, it provides a dev. company with peace of mind, when they know someone with extensive industry experience is working through all the details involved in a deal (and there are many) or even during a deal (long after the ink has dried) their are issues and concerns and Warren can step in and handle that on your behalf.

I could answer specific questions if you like, or even elaborate, just let me know.

Regards,
Lora Ricci

Scott Rubin
Sega.com, Inc.

I have been working closely with a game agent, Warren Currell from Sherpa Games, for almost a year now, and I have to say, it has absolutely been a pleasure working with him. Sega.com's focus is on everything mobile and network related with regards to gaming, and with that said, Warren has played a key role in the introduction of a new publishing program here at Sega.com, Inc., called our 'Online Developer Program'. This program was created with the purpose of Sega.com partnering with developers to bring their mobile and networked games to the world. 'Legacy Online' (www.legacyonline.net) is a real time massively multiplayer online game developed by Oceanus Communications, Inc., and was the first title published under our new program. It was a pleasure to work out the business arrangement and terms with Warren, allowing Oceanus and our Product Development team to focus on the actual game itself. Warren is professional, easy to talk to, and has an exceptional understanding of our industry - not only about gaming itself, but about both the needs of Sega.com, the publisher, and Oceanus, the developer. Again, it was and still is a pleasure working with Warren and Sherpa Games, and my experience to date has given me a very positive impression of working with game agents.

Sincerely,

Scott Rubin
Director, Business Development
Sega.com, Inc.

Patrick Pligersdorffer
Cyanide

Our game studio, Cyanide, has worked with Warren Currell of Sherpa Games to negotiate a publishing deal in North America for our horse racing sim called Horse Racing Manager. We had been trying to deal with US publishers but it is very difficult for European developer to get the attention of US decision makers, especially if none of your games has been released there so far. Warren did an amazing job using his network of contacts to look at the game and get some feedback. Some publishers that we contacted directly and said they were not interested were suddenly seeing the game in a different light and found the idea interesting!!! That's the difference a good agent can make.

Warren also handled all the contract negotiations which can prove extremely valuable too. I think having a middle-man helps in the negotiations especially when there is some tension between the developer and the publisher on some key points. In our case, Warren managed to get some concessions from the publisher while we also had to make some trade-offs. Since we didn't handle the negotiations ourselves, these tensions were completely forgotten when we started working with our publisher after the contract has been signed.

Basically, we had an excellent experience with Warren, who was always available for questions, suggestions,... And we'll keep working with him on our future projects.

Frank DeLise
Trauma Studios

Hi, My name is Frank DeLise from a small studio called Trauma Studios. We recently developed a mod called DesertCombat, http://www.desertcombat.com. It has currently be downloaded over a 1 millon times and is considered one of the top 3 online games with up to 10,000 players at any given moment. Because of this, we have been approached by various publishers to publish this or produce new titles. Thanks to Sherpa Games, they have been making this all become a reality. The main person I deal with is Warren Currell. He is truly amazing, he know every publisher in the industry and everyone loves to talk to him. I couldn't be happier with my agent and I recommend him to any game studio. Another quality I find in Sherpa is that they truly understand the game development process.