Deconstructor of Fun

Welcome to TWIG 109.

Today we cover:

#1. Apple is astonishingly confident in its new M1 Mac processors

#2. Virtual Influencers Make Real Money While Covid Locks Down Human Stars

#3. The argument for simpler games, in an industry obsessed with complexity

Further, we are joined by guest host Ernest Wong to discuss Bringing more franchises to mobile is Activision Blizzard's biggest opportunity, says COO (from TWIG 107)

Hosts:

Hey people, LILA Games is hiring for a badass new F2P shooter game for mobile.

The Chinese mobile market is expected to reach 21 billion Dollars in 2020 growing a staggering 17% year-over-year. In addition to having this massive - and from the Western perspective nearly impenetrable - home market, Chinese publishers have been having ever more success in the West. 

Deconstructor of Fun podcast is joined by Daniel Ahmad, Yang Liu, and Eric Kress to discuss the characteristics of the Chinese mobile games market and how Western developers could better compete against their Chinese counterparts.

The topics covered are: 

Valorant's Game Director, Joseph Ziegler, and Lead Producer, Paul Belezza join the Deconstructor of Fun podcast to spill the beans on Valorant's origin story - from an idea to a game played and streamed by millions of fans around the World.

We dive deep into Riot's creative process from the developer's perspective, talk team sizes, launch strategies, live services, community, and working with and for the passionate community.

The game is growing and the team has an awesome pipeline of new content. They're looking for folks to help them realize the full potential of the game. And rumor says that listening to this episode can get you a step closer to working on one of the best tactical shooter ever made...

Ok people, this episode is just me (JK) and Miska. We lost some of our co-hosts when we very last minute audibled a change in news coverage.

Anyway, as always, we sometimes may say things for dramatic effect. Hopefully none of you take things too personally as we are, in the end, fans of all game companies.

Here are the specific news items we covered:

What are the key challenges and issues with respect to hiring during pandemic?  

While hiring has actually not slowed down in these crazy times despite coronavirus, we discuss challenges and issues due to current circumstances and best practices to help ensure great hires!

Host:     

     - Joe Kim, CEO LILA Games: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ 

Guests:

     - Simone Heard, Talent Acquisition, Jam City: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoneheard/

     - Moses Sison, Talent Acquisition, Unity: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosessison/

     - Neil Warlicht, Executive Recruitment, Stepping Stone: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilwarlicht/  

Topics Covered:

Yo! Btw, Joe Kim here and my company LILA Games is hiring. We will be in Bangalore, India. Positions we're looking for right here: 

Today we’re here to talk about the biggest challenges and mistakes early stage companies have in order to scale their companies and achieve success.  

To speak to these issues we have arguably 3 of the best people in the world to talk about this:

#1. Travis Boatman: Travis has held senior leadership positions at a bunch of major gaming and mobile gaming companies including Mattel, JAMDAT, EA, and Zynga. And most recently Travis founded Carbonated Inc. a mobile and PC games studio located in Southern California. Carbonated also raised an $8.5M seed venture financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz. https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-boatman-3bb593/

#2. Gigi Levy-Weiss: Gigi has been a founder, senior executive, and investor in like a billion companies.But some notable companies in particular includes Playtika and Plarium. And Gigi today is a general partner at one of the most exciting venture capital firms NFX (https://www.nfx.com/).  https://www.linkedin.com/in/gigilevy/  

#3. Kristian Segerstrale: Kristian was a co-founder of Glu mobile, CEO of Playfish acquired by EA, was a seed investor in Supercell, was a senior exec at EA, and now is the CEO of Super Evil Megacorp which will soon release their new MOBA shooter called Catalyst Black (https://catalystblack.com/). https://www.linkedin.com/in/segerstrale/  

Topics Covered:

Welcome to TWIG #107!

This week we cover:

#1. If You Play Videogames, China May Be Spying on You

#2. Mobile Games Company Scopely Boasts Of ‘Significantly Profitable Business’ As It Raises $340M

#3. "For Descenders, it has been immense. Sales across all platforms increased after we went into Game Pass" – What does Game Pass mean for indies? | Business News | MCV/DEVELOP

#4. Bringing more franchises to mobile is Activision Blizzard's biggest opportunity, says COO

Hosts: (Twitter)

In many (perhaps most) companies, so many corporate processes, policies, and work flows WASTE TIME!   

Meetings are a huge culprit but in this discussion we talk about what are the biggest time wasters and how to stop wasting time.

Learn more about how to make your company more efficient RIGHT NOW!  

With us to talk about all of this are the "Love Bros":  

1. Filippo DeRose, Chief Growth Officer, Traplight: https://www.linkedin.com/in/filippoderose/ 

2. Matej Lancaric, UA/Marketing Consultant, Lancaric.me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matejlancaric/ 

3. Brett Nowak, CEO, Liquid & Grit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-nowak-8920675/  

Host:  

- Joseph Kim, CEO, LILA Games: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

Ron Ashtiani has spent a career in art and as an art director. Ron's had an over 25 year career in art and has served as an art director in multiple game studios including at Midway Games. He also co-founded Atomhawk in 2009 and currently starting a new adventure.  

In today's discussion with Ron we discuss the role of an art director (AD), the different kinds of ADs, how to determine an art style for a game, documentation best practices, biggest lessons/mistakes, art differences for mobile vs. PC/console, and much more!  

Find out more about Ron Ashtiani here:

Welcome to TWIG #106:

Today we cover:

#1. The Problem With Tech Monopolies, From Both Sides of the Political Aisle

#2. Stadia creative director says streamers should pay publishers

#3. Facebook’s cloud-gaming offering focuses on free-to-play mobile games

Your hosts for today: