To end the second season of Game Dev Diary, Arslan Kıran was my guest for this week’s episode. He is evangelizing Web3 games and educating people about them as the head of growth at Sandbox and also working on a midcore game as the founder of Hungri Games. He has been in the mobile F2P industry since the early days and now is aiming to do the same with the Web3 games ecosystem.

We discussed the importance of staying up to date with the market, why it matters to pick the winners in an industry that you personally believe in, and how embracing a multi-disciplinary career can boost your growth.

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Connect with Arslan on LinkedIn

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

My guest at Game Dev Diary this week was Ilya Buber who joined the podcast from the other side of the world. He is currently working at Tripledot’s Australia office as the Associate Product Director, collaborating with other offices around the globe to bring new games to millions. He has quite the background in games development as he worked at Glu and EA previously.

Our discussion covered topics such as how to transition to new roles, why you should understand the fundamentals of the business that you are in, and what happens if you display your passion on top of that business knowledge.

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Connect with Ilya on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

As a person with a truly multidisciplinary background, I had a great guest this week as I sat down to chat with Diego Labajos. He is currently a Lead Product Manager at Scopely, working on the roadmap for Star Trek Fleet Command. Previously, he worked at Socialpoint as a part of the product team and he also has quite the technical experience working as a developer in different teams and even being CTO at one point.

As we chatted about his career journey with quite some pivots, we got to discuss how to leverage your past experience, why you should provide value from the first day you join a team, and the importance of understanding your current self and setting targets to continuously grow.

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Connect with Diego on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

This week’s guest at Game Dev Diary was Aaron Morley. He is currently working as the Lead Product Manager at Sumo Leamington and he previously worked at companies such as SEGA, Ubisoft, and TreesPlease Games.

We discussed the importance of persisting through sacrifices, why being flexible with working on different roles can help you grow, and how you should start reflecting on your successes even when everything seems perfect.

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Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

My guest for this week’s episode on Game Dev Diary was someone that truly radiates passion about everything related to games. Harshal Karvande joined me to discuss his gaming journey and the things that helped him along the way. He is currently working as a Game Design Lead at Rovio and he previously worked at Zynga.

We talked about the importance of having a supportive network of friends, how helpful it will be to understand the ever increasing standards of the gaming industry, and why you always should assume best intentions especially when you communicate virtually.

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Connect with Harshal on LinkedIn 

Follow him on YouTube for the latest puzzle gameplay videos

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

My guest this week was another fellow podcaster, Kshiraj Telang. He is currently working at Moon Active as an Art Director and he worked at some of the biggest gaming companies such as King and Rovio. He also has a great setup for recording podcasts which made me a little embarrassed if I’m being honest.

We chatted about the different ways you can showcase your work, how to take calculated risks based on your situation, and the perks of being proactive for continuous growth.

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Connect with Kshiraj on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

Having non-PM guests will likely be a strong trend for the second season of Game Dev Diary as I talked to Tom Hunt for this week’s episode. He is currently working as an Art Lead at Space Ape Games and he previously worked at companies like King and Rare.

We talked about the importance of building your portfolio early in your career, not being discouraged by not fulfilling a job description 100%, and how being honest with yourself can help you grow continuously.

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Connect with Tom on LinkedIn 

Reach out to him via email

Follow him on Instagram

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

For this week’s episode at Game Dev Diary, I sat down with Alexandre Salem to discuss his gaming journey. Alex is currently working as the SVP Operations at Stillfront Group and worked at some great companies like King, Google, and Huawei.

We chatted about how people can find their way into the games industry in the current market, the importance of surrounding yourself with mentors, and the value of assessing culture fit before taking a job.

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Connect with Alex on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

Second season of Game Dev Diary continues with non-PM guests as I sit down to talk with Emilio Jéldrez. He is currently working at King as a Creative Lead and previously worked at companies like Behavior Interactive and DeNA for some of the biggest IPs like Star Wars and Transformers.

We talked about the importance of being prepared for the opportunities in life, how to apply to open positions, and why everyone needs to get a mentor to continuously grow themselves.

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Connect with Emilio on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.

Despite his busy schedule with everything that an acquisition brings, Luis de la Cámara was kind enough to join me this week to talk about his journey in gaming. He worked for a lot of big names in the industry such as 2K, Gameloft, King, and Scopely. He is currently working as the VP of Marketing at Rovio at a very crucial time where they recently got acquired by SEGA.

We discuss how to expand your network, what to do when there are opportunities that other people are not using, and the importance of being willing to make sacrifices early in your career to grow faster and stronger.

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Connect with Luis on LinkedIn 

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⭐If you enjoyed this episode, you can rate it on Spotify or share it with your friends!

📺Do you prefer watching the episode rather than listening to it? Then you can watch the whole discussion on YouTube.

📝Do you wish you took down notes while listening to the conversation? I already did it so you don’t have to! You can read my notes from this episode on Substack.