Gamemakers พอดคาสต์

Epic's Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) potentially presents a huge new platform rivaling Roblox. Why are some of the most experienced developers in the world like Alex Seropian (founder of Bungie and Industrial Toys/EA) and Pete Hawley (100 Thieves) so excited by UEFN? What does a former Roblox developer, Arthur Trusov, think about the platform e…

IDFA deprecation and the end of fingerprinting *in theory* would end targeting and the ability to do user acquisition as well as in the past. What is the current state of the market and what will the impact of new changes - meaning the end of fingerprinting - have on mobile game companies?We talk to Matej Lancaric, mobile user acquisition specialis…

The Pixel bros are joined by Eric Kress from the Deconstructor of Fun podcast to talk everything Take-Two Interactive!OUTLINE:0:00 Intro2:45 Take-Two Fundamentals6:25 The $5.5B to $8B guidance in bookings7:12 What could be driving $8B in bookings 10:30 Comparing King acquisition vs. Zynga13:07 Rockstar and 2K Overview15:38 Kress’ take on T2 busines…

Mukul Deora is a modern-day Renaissance man. He has found success in business, music, movies (as the producer for The White Tiger), and today he's tackling tech entrepreneurship in social media.The White Tiger movie encapsulates many of my personal beliefs and aspirations of what people are capable of if they change their mindset and are given the …

OUTLINE:0:00 Intro1:13 3x3 format explanation2:40 To JK: How to balance work and family between SF and Bangalore?11:00 How do you evaluate sacrifice to the potential gain?15:06 To Mishka: Thoughts on entrepreneurial journey. Biggest highlight and lowlight? 30:00 To JK: What has been the hardest part of your journey? What did you not expect? 43:55 T…

How do hit games use persona analysis to optimize feature design, do product validation, live ops, etc.Josh Rivers used data-oriented persona analysis while working on Eve Online at CCP. Nick Reinhart used persona analysis on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes.Even if you prefer other methodologies, the persona analysis using the data-oriented approach by …

Does a gaming smartphone make sense? Can a gaming publisher or other company launch a successful phone that competes with iPhone or Android phones?What do you think?OUTLINE:0:00 Intro2:30 Existing gaming smartphones3:01 Argument for a Nintendo smartphone9:15 Argument for a Tesla smartphone👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Pixels & Profits Play List: https://www.y…

Welcome, everyone; this week, we are doing a new format called What If? We want to speculate on several scenarios and evaluate the pros and cons and potential strategic and financial implications based on these hypothetical scenarios.In this episode, we discuss the potential and hypothesize the impact of an Xbox console business carve-out from Micr…

I spoke with Brewed Games, an 8-person indie PC game dev studio based in Bangalore, India, making a souls-like action RPG game.We cover their origin story, challenges, and future opportunity. Check it out!👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Brewed Games: https://www.brewedgames.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/mes…

Feedback and performance evaluation for employees is one of a company's most challenging, political, and sensitive topics.However, without this practice done well, it will be tough to hold performance standards or see improvement in a team or company.I would argue that if you are not doing this well, your team/company is doomed over the long term.I…

We speak to Serkan Toto to get his take on the top Japanese and Korean game companies. Serkan is considered by many to be the foremost expert on the Japanese video games space.Check out more from Serkan:- https://www.serkantoto.com/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/serkantotoOUTLINE:0:00 Intro1:25 Key Asian gaming trends, including crypto4:45 Serkan’s…

From Wargaming, Anton Kolkovskiy founded Bulberry Studio to build mid-core F2P mobile games. As war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, Anton was unable to raise a follow-on round of funding and eventually shut down the studio he had spent so much time, energy, and effort into.What were the lessons he learned from the start to launch to attemptin…

Everyone's saying mobile is dead. Then how do you explain these 5 blow-out mobile game launches over the past year? Lol.Matej Lancaric from 2.5 Gamers and I reviewed the data, launch strategies, and more for each of these Top 5 mobile game launches over the past year.OUTLINE:0:00 Intro6:30 Honkai Star Rail14:49 Monopoly Go27:00 Survivor!.io36:03 Ma…

The market dynamics, strategy, and future outlook of console gaming: Sony vs. Microsoft vs. Nintendo.Microsoft is all in on Game Pass. Is this the last generation of Xbox? OUTLINE:0:00 Intro0:56 Impact of PC gaming to console gaming market4:51 Why Microsoft's console business is in danger6:26 Microsoft may not care about Xbox and hardware, Starfiel…

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #2.Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/fi0RCUiCnfESUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/message

The Pixel & Profit bros discuss the long history of the console market and the primary players in the market today: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.We trace back the history from the 6th generation to today and talk "profits." Meaning the key games and market history and dynamics thus far and outlook into the future.OUTLINE:0:00 Intro1:05 Console mar…

Taken From: Mobile Growth: IDFA Deprecation Scapegoat or Reality? Podcast YouTube --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/message

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1.Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/2G539NGHfVISUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1• TWITTER → @jokim1• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT —🤑 Economy of the Metaverse w…

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1.Watch the full discussion here: • Where is the Game... SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1• TWITTER → @jokim1• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT —🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with T…

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1.Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/2G539NGHfVISUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1• TWITTER → @jokim1• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT —🤑 Economy of the Metaverse w…

Like the rest of the world, the games industry has undergone many changes!The impact of the end of ZIRP, global macro trends, and the end of the age of excess leads to many changes.We discuss where we are today, the M&A outlook, and the outlook for major public game companies.M&A discussion- Scopely/Savvy- Rovio/SEGA- Activision/MicrosoftPublic Com…

Let's be real. Everyone is blaming IDFA! Listen to the top 3 reasons why any game failed over the past 6 months; it's always IDFA. How real is this? There is a narrative today that IDFA deprecation has destroyed mobile marketing growth and made new game launches dramatically more difficult to even impossible. The counter-narrative more often whispe…

Sarah Thomson is a long-time games industry veteran, having had an extremely successful career in business development at companies like IUGO, Gree, Sony (PlayStation), Google, and most recently at Bad Robot Games.We discuss her experience and thoughts on female diversity in the gaming industry. Get ready for a real discussion where we try to addre…

I'm back after a few months. Here are some recent thoughts on dealing with adversity that has come up this year. I really thought 2023 was gonna be easy! Lol. FORTUNATELY, I'm still struggling with challenges which is making me a better person. As my wife recently told me: "Don't focus on what we can't do or can't have, let's focus on what we can d…

Mayur Bhimjiyani is the CEO and co-founder of Hypernova, an India-based F2P games studio building a GTA-like game focusing on the Indian market. Mayur speaks about his background, the history behind Hypernova, and why they are building Mayanagari, a game Mayur hopes to become as successful as GTA.OUTLINE:0:00 Intro1:02 Why do so many Indian game de…

OUTLINE:0:00 Sequoia Capital India introduction0:49 Intro to Shailesh Lakhani and Prachi Pawar 3:29 Type of investments and founders they seek 4:36 Surge pre-Series A program5:30 Specific opportunities and trends in India9:04 Gaming opportunity in India13:51 Specific gaming investment opportunities they seek14:59 Why did Sequoia India invest in Lil…

OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 0:33 The "brutal" game dev environment 2:11 Current market environment vs. before 3:50 More about Funcraft and the business situation 8:15 Funcraft's biggest challenge 9:40 How do you determine what game to make? 11:52 Biggest lessons and challenges of startups vs. big companies to achieve success 14:54 Challenge of new game dev…

OUTLINE: 0:00 Bloomberg article on stack ranking at Blizzard 1:01 Introduct to speakers: Matthew Kanterman, Drew Levin, and Brett Nowak 1:48 High level thoughts on stack ranking as a practice 5:33 Stack ranking poll results - Majority are against 7:30 JK hypothetical situations to use stack ranking 25:40 Character vs. cruelty in stack ranking durin…

OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 0:50 Jordan Phang self intro 1:35 Mobile shooter game market size 2:53 Competitive concentration in mobile shooter and Asia 4:25 Success in China 5:40 US market and games to watch out for 6:50 Adapting games for specific markets like Japan and China 8:25 Naavik's shooter taxonomy and problems with classification 12:52 Explanatio…

Moritz Baier-Lentz is a partner at Lightspeed Gaming, heading up their gaming investment practice. Today we discuss viewing life as a game and how to optimize your own goals towards life by thinking about life as a game and how to break the meta. You won't want to miss this unique and interesting discussion, so check it out! SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS…

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm in India this year and had a Mexican burrito bowl in the office by myself. Lol. As I sat in the office late at night, I recorded another cringe and weird video for my kids. Too many people undervalue opportunity! I just wanted to let you know that I'm grateful this Thanksgiving for the opportunity to try to build something m…

We deep dive on eSports. Current market and growth projections, what kinds of games do well, business model, structure, prize pools, key trends, geographic differences, and more! Join us with our esteemed group of speakers: Ilaria Caputo (EA), Matthew Kanterman (Ball Metaverse Research Partners), and Hugo Tristao (Newzoo). Speaker links below. 👇 EP…

Stoffer Touborg was a lead game designer on Eve Online at CCP, led Wild Rift at Riot, and currently acts as Executive Producer on Bitcraft Online for Clockwork Labs. Stoffer is one of the most thoughtful game industry executives I know, and I regularly ask Stoffer for advice on leadership, organizational principles, and recruiting. Today we talk ab…

I speak to Rahul Chowdhri, an investor at Stellaris Venture Partners, about the venture capital market in India, the current state of investment here, and his outlook on investments in gaming in India. OUTLINE: 0:00 General landscape of venture capital in India 2:20 Specialist vs. generalist VCs, the definition of micro-VC 3:35 Sudden investment in…

Predicting a game's success during concept or development is an incredibly difficult problem. What are typical ways companies, especially big companies think about and manage their green light process? What kinds of corporate nonsense occurs that hurts game outcomes? SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podca…

Today's focus will be on the F2P game design discipline. How it’s evolved, what does it take to be successful as a game designer, the tools and practice of a F2P game designer, and where does John think the future is headed for F2P game design. 👇 EPISODE LINKS: - PlaySimple Games: https://playsimple.in/ - John Kelly LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.c…

I interview Matthew Emery aka "The Games Consultant" about what it means to build a F2P liveops "Playbook." Listen to this Q&A between me and Matt! SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://…

Drew Levin is currently Director of Product at Riot Games and before that a Director of Product Management at Zynga. Zynga vs. Riot: two companies with wildly different approaches to game development, decision-making, and a culture of debate and discussion. Even more, Drew worked as a political campaign manager before game development. I believe Dr…

I talk about why I'm sacrificing so much to try and make Lila Games a successful company. Also, how much of my thinking was influenced by the Clayton Christensen essay (there's a book as well, which I haven't read yet) "How Will You Measure Your Life?"--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/message…

Get the data and read the more in-depth take here: https://gamemakers.substack.com/p/will-dislyte-be-liliths-next-big We talk about Lilith Games' latest mobile game: Dislyte. It's a "team battle" (game sub-genre) based mobile game that started strong but has recently slowed down. What are the chances of success? We bring on two experts who recently…

Coming off of one of the toughest months in my career, I reflect on how lucky I am to be faced with problems. It's only through problems and major challenges that you can learn how to get better. Adversity, therefore, is a gift! As Ray Dalio wrote in Principles: Pain + Reflection = Progress It's tough, but I hope you realize as I have that we are f…

Oh damn, I actually made another Vlog. Well, today I talk about the importance of discipline, drive, and details in execution and achieving successful outcomes. Further, I talk about how mental strength magnifies the 3Ds and how you can train for mental strength like a muscle. SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spo…

Oliver Jones is an OG game maker in India having worked at 2 of India's biggest companies like Zynga and co-founded Moonfrog (sold to Stillfront for $100M). He has now co-founded a new games studio called Bombay Play focusing on a new breed of games called "hyper social" games. Why did Oli come to India in the first place? How were companies like Z…

Are you a workaholic grinder like me? Well, it finally got the best of me and totally jacked up my back and face. Health is critical! I talk about a big problem, trying to fix my health, and the results of my plan to get better in this video. SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpy…

Today I speak to Seb Park regarding how startups should incorporate "Bayesian Thinking" into their strategic decision-making process. This means how to incorporate new information for a startup best and how to use that to gain a massive competitive advantage. SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: http…

When you're at the office super late and hella tired, you do weird shit like starting a Vlog. I'm Joseph Kim, CEO of Lila Games and we are trying to build a mobile gaming studio out of Bangalore, India. SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.sub…

Mobile free-to-play game design experts from Naavik - Thomas Baker (former lead game designer at Electronic Arts and lead on Real Racing 3) and Eva Grillova (former game designer from Wooga and SocialPoint) - have written a super in-depth analysis on Garena Free Fire. Find out how Free Fire was able to achieve success to become the world's most dow…

We talk about a lot of hot topics people have been discussing in the games industry. Topics: #1. The dramatic decline in user acquisition marketing - UA Apocalypse #2. Impact of global recession #3. Employee compensation SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: http…

Joseph Kim and Brett Nowak talk about cultural installation (not just conveying or communicating culture) and about how to create incentive systems for employees. SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Yo…

Will Harbin was CEO at Kixeye during the early 2010s when the company launched some of the most innovative games to the market at that time: Desktop Tower Defense, Backyard Monsters, War Commander, and Battle Pirates. The company was poised to become the next big gaming juggernaut but did not quite make the transition to mobile. Today Will is makin…