Today Daryl Ogden and Mike Merrill speak with Lizzie Mintus, founder of the boutique placement firm Here’s Waldo, now celebrating their 4-year anniversary.  Lizzie explains how an off-handed conversation led her to a career in recruiting and to eventually founding her own firm, one based in the deeply customer-centric experience that she learned in her early work at Nordstroms.  

Daryl and Mike explore with Lizzie what she’s seen in the four years of Here’s Waldo’s existence:  From incredible growth during the height of the COVID pandemic, to a slowing market now, and why and how she stays optimistic about the future.  They discuss evergreen themes of recruitment:  For example, how a studio needs to carefully define what they are looking for, but stay open to a variety of people. And they speak as well to current considerations:  Notably, how RTO affects both applicants as well as employers.  Finally, they consider what new technologies mean for the job market today.

To learn more about Here’s Waldo:  https://hereswaldorecruiting.com/

To download Valued Cultures’ report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-pandemic Era”: https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

Kicking off a new year of pods, Daryl Ogden speaks with Tanya Short, the co-founder and creative director of Kitfox Games. Tanya and Daryl dig into how her team accomplishes so much with limited resources, notably a very tight team of studio members.  In addition to developing games like “Streets of Fortuna” & “Boyfriend Dungeon”, Kitfox serves as a publisher for other small studios. As you'll hear, that's the result of a relentless eye on efficiency, the deployment of resources for multiple purposes, and judicious use of procedural generation.

Level up Games:

Against the Storm

Crypt Master

When you take on the head role of a studio in the wake of the founders departing, how do you not only maintain the “DNA” of the studio, but even build upon it?  That is the challenge that Ninja Theory Studio Head Dom Matthews explores with our own Daryl Ogden.

Dom started out thinking he wanted to be a sports agent, but quickly found himself pursuing a marketing career within the games industry.  How did he end up leading a studio that would go on to win 5 BAFTAs for "Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice"?  And what does it take to lead a studio filled with unparalleled technical and artistic talent?  Finally, how do you keep that “Ninja” DNA alive as part of a broader Xbox portfolio?

To download our report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”:  

https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

How does a gamemaker’s gamemaker transition to being a builder of an organization that cultivates studios?  That is the story of Matt Booty, a veteran gamemaker–starting with pinball machines at Midway in Chicago before he moved on to Xbox in Seattle.  He now serves as President of Game Content & Studios at Xbox where he oversees the dozens of games that constitute the Xbox portfolio.

To download our report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”:  

https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

We’re back for Season 2 of the Valued Cultures Podcast, and we’re welcoming Julian Maroda, co-Founder and CEO of Norsfell, a Montréal studio with a mission to forge new genres that bring people together.  The studio’s best-known game, Tribes of Midgard, is enjoyed by over 4.5 million players.

Julian speaks with our co-Founder, Daryl Ogden, about his youth in Belgium, an impactful trip to Australia, and his immigration to Québec–all with a focus from his earliest day on making games.  Julian and Daryl dig into the values that define the quality of Norsfell games, including: a focus on learning and mentorship; a deeply iterative philosophy that informs everything from weekly sprints to evaluation grids; as well as Julian’s own (productive) stubbornness and impatience!

Finally, Julian and Daryl discuss the broader macroeconomic trends affecting the game industry today–and where they see it going in the near future.  Join them as they navigate the golden, smokey halls of dancing bear warriors!

Today our co-Founder Daryl Ogden speaks with Turtle Rock Studios’ President, Steve Goldstein.  Steve talks about what it was like to transition from serving studios as an attorney to working in-house and ultimately leading one.  He also discusses his experience with leading a studio during an acquisition and the implications of what this means to the studio being acquired.  You’ll hear about Turtle Rock's rising ambitions, and the role Daryl and Valued Cultures has been playing in helping the studio pursue these heightened goals. 

To download our report, "Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era":  

https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

On this week’s pod, Rory McGuire, President of Blackbird Interactive (“Hardspace”, “Homeworld”, “Minecraft Legends”) speaks with Valued Cultures Co-Founder, Daryl Ogden.  Rory and Daryl discuss how very concrete initiatives like skunks works and 4-day weeks can be animated by core studio values such as empowerment, autonomy, and respect.  Daryl and Rory also dig into a finding from Valued Cultures’ recent report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”:  Why are studios in Western Canada even more focused on the shift to remote and hybrid work than those in the rest of North America?

Level Up Game: Balatro

To learn more about Valued Cultures’ recent report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”, click here.

“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.” Tattooed on the arm of today’s guest, Mitch Gitelman, most recently of Harebrained Schemes, this personal motto reflects the lessons he learned in his training and apprenticeship in theater and improvisation. Speaking with Valued Cultures Co-Founder Daryl Ogden, Mitch explores the stamp his early work in these disciplines has imprinted on his approach to making games.  

Citing his Harebrained Co-Founder Jordan Weisman, Mitch explains that in both theater and games, “You can tell when they’ve made it with a smile.”  And Mitch explains how his improv training influences everything from how he thinks about scaling a studio to how he hires new talent.

“Level Up Games”:  

Baldur’s Gate 3

Batman: Arkham 

How do you create a vibrant workplace culture in a “remote only” studio?  Very intentionally says our guest today, Jen Oneal Co-Founder and Head Chef of Magic Soup Games. 

Jen explains to Valued Cultures Co-Founder Daryl Ogden that when Jen and her Co-Founders J. Allen Brack and John Donham set out to found a new studio in 2022, their first step was talking about the types of games they loved, the values that animated them, and the studio that they wanted to build.  And at each step they’ve taken, they’ve drawn upon those intentions, bringing on talent deliberately with an eye always toward those initial inspirational conversations.

As Jen insists, they’re still learning, of course!  But she shares some of the most revealing hard-earned lessons she and her team have faced along the way.

Valued Culture’s Senior Advisor Shannon Loftis joins Co-Founder Daryl Ogden to share her first impressions of our forthcoming report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era.”  Their focus falls on the “intentionality chasm”:  How the leaders of game studios know that they should bring more attention to studio talent and studio culture, but in the pressure of the moment, find themselves time and time again falling back on solving technical problems instead.  Shannon and Daryl go on to discuss how the pandemic exacerbated this problem, and how a post-pandemic studio landscape dominated by remote and hybrid work presents both a challenge and an opportunity for those looking to build values-driven studio cultures.