Deconstructor of Fun

Welcome to TWIG #97!

This week we cover:

#1. Amazon is good at so many things. Why is it bad at games?

#2. Take-Two Interactive acquires mobile studio Playdots for $192 million

#3. Tencent takes minority stake in French casual games maker Voodoo

#4. Video Game Creators Are Burned Out and Desperate for Change

SHOW LINKS:

Guest Host: Dan Bailey, Actor/Voice Actor and Video Game Producer 

THE GREATEST LIVE OPS CONFERENCE EVER, SIGN UP NOW: https://liveops.splashthat.com/ 

FEEDBACK?:

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

SPONSOR:

This episode is sponsored by Beta Hat (www.betahatMR.com)

Host: 

We are joined by the founders and CEOs of 3 recently funded game studios:  

1. Antti Hattara, CEO of StarBerry  ($1.3M led by Play Ventures)    

2. Emily Greer, CEO of Double Loop ($2.5M led by London Venture Partners)   

3. Travis Boatman, CEO of Carbonated ($8.5M led by Andreessen Horowitz)    

Today we’ll be talking about what it takes to start a games studio and also how to get funding for your studio. 

So more specifically we’ll talk about:      

Welcome to TWIG #96!

This week we cover:

#1. Next-Gen Gaming: State of the Industry, Unreal Engine Blog site

#2. Opinion: The Apple/Epic battle has four possible outcomes, and Epic can’t lose, 9to5 mac

#3. Wildlife Scores Vulcan-led $120M Series B Financing To Propel Mobile Game Platform, Crunchbase

SHOW LINKS:

FEEDBACK?:

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

SPONSOR:

This episode is sponsored by Beta Hat (www.betahatMR.com)

Game companies (with some exceptions like Nintendo) don't last! They are not long-term defensible. In tech, the FAANG companies are massively defensible. In fact,  Amazon today is the most valuable and most defensible company in the world.   

In the video games industry, we don’t see the same level of long-term defensibility that we see in those industries.  

After lots of great feedback and discussion after posting a blog post about this issue, we decided to bring some smart folks to talk about this.  Here's the written blog post 

So the topic of our discussion today is as follows:    

 - #1. What are the current defensibility strategies of game companies today?     

- #2. How defensible are gaming companies?      

- #3. How can game companies build greater long-term defensibility?      

- #4. How should management teams be thinking about building greater defensibility into their companies?     

- #5. Which game company has the greatest defensibility in the market today?  

And with us today to speak to all of these issues and more are:      

- #1. Lloyd Melnick, GM of Chumba Casino at VGW   

- #2. Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Super Evil Megacorp

- #3. Mark Sottosanti, SVP at Riot Games

Your host/moderator:

- Joe Kim, CEO of LILA Games, YouTuber at GameMakers, and DOF Podcast Co-host/Producer, Twitter/Insta: @jokim1

Welcome to TWIG #95!

This week we cover:

#1. Apple blocking Project xCloud and Stadia because it can't review every game (gamesindustry.biz)

#2. Zynga acquires hypercasual game maker Rollic for $168M (Mobile Marketer)

#3. Why Indies are struggling to be seen on the Switch eshop (MCV/Develop)

SHOW LINKS:

Guest Host: Kenny Liu from ggDigest, now DOF Digest!

FEEDBACK?:

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

SPONSOR:

This episode is sponsored by Beta Hat (www.betahatMR.com)

Indie mobile game developer WildCard Games has been developing mobile card games for the past 7 years launching games like Ultimate Cribbage, Cribbage, and Backgammon.   How does this 2 person studio get to the next level in growing their mobile game products?  

Let's DIVE DEEP! We review mobile marketing strategy and discuss channels, campaigns, creative types. 

Deep discussion on using Facebook's AEO and VO relative to other forms of marketing.  

Great discussion with WildCard's Josh Chandley their Chief Operating Officer. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshchandley  

Expert UA Advisors:

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

Welcome to TWIG #94!

This week we cover:

#1. Could Halo: Infinite be the last ever Halo title, as 343 calls it a “platform for the future”

#2. EA Just had its best june quarter for Sales in 38 year history

#3. Blizzard shows off new Diablo Immortal gameplay

SHOW LINKS:

Guest Host: Kenny Liu from ggDigest, now DOF Digest!

FEEDBACK?:

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

In today’s episode, we ask a very important question - how to build a studio that can make genre-defining hit games. Even though game mechanics are powerful forces, what can truly drive massive and sustainable growth are culture, processes and teams that comprise high-performing studios - a perspective that I’m excited to dig into today. I’m truly thrilled to get Mishka’s insights distilled from hundreds of games from tens of studios in our interview today.   

Key Highlights: 

🤔 Why is it important to know and understand how to build a successful studio, versus, say how to make successful game mechanics? 

🎮 The seven elements that make for a great studio.  

✅ Why ‘right sized’ teams are important to a great studio. 

👨🏻‍💻 Why Mishka values software and art over presentations. 

🎨 Why Mishka considers an art director a key early hire. 

❌ The one common characteristic of unsuccessful games.

📐 How engineers, designers and business people on teams look at problems from very different perspectives. 💭 Why a PM or businessperson-driven culture can find it hard to release anything genre-defining. 

✌️ How to change the composition and leadership of studio teams as a game matures. 

💯 How to think about being design driven vs. metrics driven.

Welcome to TWIG #93!

This week we cover:

#1. The 7 RPG player personas

#2. Over half of US kids are playing Roblox, and it’s about to host Fortnite-esque virtual parties too

#3. Microsoft Showcase

#4. The Imminent Ragnarok of M&A in Mobile Gaming Space

SHOW LINKS:

Guest Host: Brett Nowak, CEO of Liquid & Grit

FEEDBACK?:

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

If the Metaverse is the next frontier? How should the economy be designed to help support a healthy and vibrant ecosystem for all players?

Today we are joined by Tim Sweeney CEO of Epic Games 

The focus of the discussion is how do we build an efficient and fair economy for this new platform.