GameMakers

Like the rest of the world, the games industry has undergone many changes!

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?

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.

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 do." LFG everybody. Hope you're all killing it!

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:

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 from big companies 

17:20 Lessons for mobile gaming startups in current market environment 

19:50 Focus vs. "don't bet the farm" 

22:12 Keep going or do you tap out? When to pivot or quit? 

26:55 The benefit of just being alive 

28:20 Current primary challenges 

31:45 Thoughts around selling your company  

34:10 Advice to new entrepreneurs in F2P gaming 

36:30 Thoughts on current marketing challenges 

39:40 Future trends and opportunities 

41:50 Final thoughts on state of market and overall market outlook 

43:05 How to reach Michael

👇 EPISODE LINKS:

- Michael Martinez, CEO of Funcraft: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinezmichaelj/

- FunCraft: https://www.funcraft.com/

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://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

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 during recruiting

36:30 Management rationale behind stack ranking

39:27 Should the Blizzard manager have been fired?

47:10 Stack ranking ties to capability of management layer

50:45 Stack ranking for performance evaluation

1:07:10 Why employees should get close to company value creation to avoid layoffs

1:08:40 JK's crazy stack ranking performance evaluation idea - investing virtual $ in co-workers

1:26:40 Final thoughts on getting canceled

👇 EPISODE LINKS:

- Matthew's reference to The Office Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wqQXu13tLA

- Matthew Kanterman, Director of Research at Roundhill Investments: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-kanterman-cfa-b6345133/

- Drew Levin, Director of Product at Riot Games: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-levin-7a225626/

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

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://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —

• MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1

• TWITTER → @jokim1

• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

— POPULAR CONTENT —

🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6ClJxjuRvw

ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies https://youtu.be/bkd2TOpKt4I

🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021 https://youtu.be/NejFzHtpiZI

🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming https://youtu.be/_QT7O3Wxi2s

🔴 Games Industry M&A https://youtu.be/65nyPk6WNrs

🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games https://youtu.be/tHq3PzmjhLw

🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact https://youtu.be/Ojec4wGKpso

🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score https://youtu.be/5egTSQ6AiRA

🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices https://youtu.be/tmzqqnYbjNY

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 Explanation of extraction shooter sub-genre 

14:15 Current extraction shooter games: Lost Light, Arena Breakout 

15:22 The thesis behind extraction shooter as the next big subgenre in mobile shooters 

17:18 Monetization of shooter games 

21:50 The future mobile shooter games to watch out for 

23:38 Warzone Mobile 

24:38 Players looking for something new 

27:00 Problems with Apex Legends Mobile (we recorded this in Jan 2023, before the shutdown announcement) 

28:15 Outlook for 2023: Get excited!

👇 EPISODE LINKS:

- Get the free Naavik Pro report on Mobile Shooters here: https://naavik.co/deep-dives/genre-report-shooter-preview?rq=mobile%20shooters

- Jordan Phang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-phang-8137b710/

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:

- 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://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

OUTLINE:

0:00 Introduction, the concept of life as a meta game

1:16 Explanation of "meta" and viewing life as a game

6:32 Moritz's background, career history

12:15 What are current metas for success in life? Breaking the meta

15:26 Breaking conventional wisdom, play as experimentation: work vs. play

23:00 Cross-combining different skills or industries to build a new meta

29:20 Approaching life as quest objectives, Moritz's framework for life

34:00 Details on Moritz's life framework

37:10 Examples of interesting life initiatives from Moritz, achievement by discipline

41:55 Using being "extreme" to accomplish goals, how to stand out

45:34 JK's weird dating example

46:45 How does someone pursue extremism?

52:30 The next chapter at Lightspeed Gaming for Moritz

55:55 What will become of Moritz's LA gaming parties?

👇 EPISODE LINKS:

- Moritz Baier-Lentz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moritzbaierlentz/

😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —

• MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1

• TWITTER → @jokim1

• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

— POPULAR CONTENT —

🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6ClJxjuRvw

ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies https://youtu.be/bkd2TOpKt4I

🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021 https://youtu.be/NejFzHtpiZI

🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming https://youtu.be/_QT7O3Wxi2s

🔴 Games Industry M&A https://youtu.be/65nyPk6WNrs

🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games https://youtu.be/tHq3PzmjhLw

🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact https://youtu.be/Ojec4wGKpso

🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score https://youtu.be/5egTSQ6AiRA

🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices https://youtu.be/tmzqqnYbjNY