I Play, Therefore I Am

CEO and Founder of Normalum Mixed Realities, Herwig Egon Casadoro-Kopp's fascination with the human brain and its abilities of pattern recognition and learning through meaningful stories, is highly contagious. He takes us on a wild ride through his mind and speaks of the architecture of language, the thrill of the unknown and what that has to do with games.

Steffen is an explorer - a title he has given himself for his current position at Volkswagen Group’s digital transformation subsidiary diconium but that holds also true for the rest of his life. We talk about the strange turns of Steffen's career, travel in all it forms and how health and mobility have always played a role in his life since the very beginning.

Jenni Wergin is the gamers’ gamer. She is currently a product manager for Thunderful Games, and was previously a part of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Booster Space (gamesweekberlin, Womenize). She is also a moderator and a let’s player on her YouTube channel “Two into Indie”. We speak about our shared experiences in games like WoW and StarCraft, her career, her love for the games industry, how we can facilitate easier entries into the industry, the big numbers she is collecting, and her ambitions as an artist.

In this episode, we speak with Ingo Horn. Ingo is a games veteran, marking 27 years of activity in the German industry. He is currently the Communications Director Europe for Wargaming, the chairman of LetsPlay4Charity, and, since 2022, a jury member for DCP (German video game award). He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his charity efforts. We speak about the early days of the games industry, how communication has changed over the years, studio acquisitons and his charity work.

In this episode, we speak with Ieva Benecke. Ieva is a game designer and team lead at Estoty in Vilnius, Lithuania. That’s where she is from as well, and we spend a lot of time exploring the Lithuanian connection between Ieva and Florian and the game development landscape there. We also cover questions on (game) design and living as a lone wolf, and, of course, video game cocktails.

In this episode, we speak with Johanna Pirker. Johanna is a game designer and researcher, and does a million things. She tells us about her research work, moving her lectures to Twitch, and immersion into online spaces. Later, we share techniques and experiences on how to live well and effectively as a person with many interests, which at times might feel scattered.

In this episode, we speak with Marius Winter. Marius is an artist and game designer. His last title was “Say No! more”. We cover the topic of saying no, of course, and Marius’ bold ways of acquiring high profile internships - and much more!

In this episode we speak with Sebastian Stamm, Co-Founder of Black Pants Game Studio, about funding a studio during the first wave of indie games in the late 2000s. We dive into the depths of game studies in Germany, comparing different university types. As always, we also cover his career, his life and his background.

In this episode we speak with Philomena Schwab, Co-Founder of Stray Fawn Studio, about her studio and the games industry in Switzerland. We zoom in on how her studio works with regards to community building and role coverage. As always, we also cover her career, her life and her background.

In this episode, we speak with Fedor van Herpen about life. We cover his youth, favorite games, growing up with “3 moms” and an unusual internet side-hustle in the 90s. Fedor also shares his secret recipe to living a good life.