We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon Egolf and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Ever since I was 9 years old I somehow new I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Between the 2008 recession, my parents struggling to make ends meet / working multiple jobs, and me getting the old family computer as my own, I really took it upon myself to start a company so I could help my parents. I remember feeling so guilty that I couldn’t help them even though all my life they had never asked a single thing of me. So, I got my start in online server hosting when I was 10 with games like TF2 and Gmod with what little savings I had. Eventually when Steam trading came out in 2011 I really went all in on trying to make it my job and had a full Steam based company marketing I ran for 7 years.

Over a decade later and I’m still working in the games industry. I joined a startup called Spectrum VR Arcades as the Marketing Director in 2018 and eventually became an owner. After Covid hit was when I founded Clique Games. During lockdown I had built a very popular Minecraft server with over 600k followers and wanted to bring my marketing skills back to my newly formed VR roots.

Having spent years seeing so many VR games being loved by our customers at the arcade only to find out those same games had basically no traction in the home market really frustrated me. I set out to create a publishing studio that would ensure any good VR game wouldn’t go unnoticed. The best way to do that? Make the VR Publishing process Easy.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Clique Games started in 2020 as a personal marketing project based around a Minecraft server. I wanted to create a TikTok account to learn more about the platform and how I could use it in future projects. Only 3 months after I started the account I was nearing 500k followers and launched the Minecraft server to pretty large success. After the summer of 21′ I decided I wanted to go back to my roots in VR from my time working for and owning Spectrum VR Arcades. I took my followers, my previous marketing experience, and VR background into my new idea for Clique Games — Becoming a Publisher!

Our growth to where we are today came from my team. Without my right hand Waylon Fisher (The original owner of Spectrum VR Arcades) and our Marketing Director Jon-Luke Ratliff this company wouldn’t exist. They’ve taken on the massive responsibility of taking all my crazy ideas, direction, and ambitions and making them an organized reality. I have zero ability to organize a company this large for other people to understand — I usually keep track of everything in my head and on random documents thrown around. Having ran my own companies for over a decade, it was very hard to let go of that control and let my team really dig into organizing everything. With all that being said, I’m all about making sure this company grows and thrives, if that means a new organization system then I’m all in.

Publishing games is a heavy burden for me a lot of the time haha. I try and take on each game with the same zeal and excitement as its creators, fully devoting myself to its success. I believe that you invest in people in this industry, so my biggest challenge is making sure the developers I publish can see and quantify my investment in their game. I hope that the work myself and our incredible team has done shines through.

If there was anything I’d want someone to walk away knowing about Clique Games it’s this: Clique Games is all about making the publishing process easy. Just as I had to bring in an amazing team behind me to build this company, developers need that same help too. Too often that help comes at a steep price, loads of paperwork, tons of waiting, and an uneasy feeling that who you’re working with cares more about money than the project. I founded Clique Games to make sure from day one you don’t have to worry about that.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Indiana is often overlooked for being boring, flat, and uneventful — as it should be. I’ve road tripped all over the US in the last 4 years and I can tell you that anyone unlucky enough to land in Indiana for too land should make it priority 1 to get out.

But on a serious note, we’re based out of Fort Wayne and the city is on quite an upswing with a newly growing economy, revitalized old building, and a younger demographic moving in. I’d always recommend visiting our Fort Wayne Zoo since it’s one of the best in the country. There is an incredible amount to see and interact with for any age.

If you’ve got kids Science Central is a must visit for awesome hands on science exhibits, shows, and a traveling area where we once hosted a VR Apollo 11 experience for multiple months!

For food, Zianos Italian Eatery is my #1 recommendation. There are only 3 in the country and they’re all in Fort Wayne. The best breadsticks on the planet, best pasta, and amazing service every time. Cannot recommend them enough!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would not be where I am without my parents. My parents raised me as if I was an equal, plain and simple. They talked to me like an adult and didn’t hide tough conversations from me. They let me explore the world and internet at my own pace because they knew they had instilled in me a strong moral compass / conscious that would know right from wrong or when I needed to talk to them about something.

I never had to do anything I didn’t want, they never set massive expectations I had to overcome, and they were always there to support the craziest dreams. That freedom to learn, explore, grow, and form my personality at such a young age was invaluable. Despite the struggles they were facing financially or with jobs or with some horrible deaths in our family, they were unwavering in their love and support.

They couldn’t give me everything they wanted to, but I never wanted anything more than what they did. I can never repay them for the foundation they gave me.

Website: www.clique.games

Instagram: @cliquegamesllc

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cliquegames

Twitter: @cliquegamesllc

Facebook: @cliquegamesllc

Youtube: @cliquegamesllc

Other: TikTok: @cliquegamesllc

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.