Playmakers - The Game Industry Podcast Jordan Blackman

Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon. As one of the most successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the gaming world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming experience. Now CEO of Intellivision, Tommy has worked as a designer, product manager, producer, writer, hardware executive, games tester, and heads of both music and video departments over the span of his 32-year long career in the gaming industry.

Listen in to this inspiring rollercoaster of an episode as we discuss:

- Tommy’s incredible journey from homelessness to launching a brand new gaming console
- How Tommy approached the music in Prince of Persia.
- How to get to climb any “mountain” you want in your career.
- Tommy’s strategy to return to the golden age of co-op gaming with the Intellivision Amico
- How Intellivision is helping small developers succeed.
- The pitfalls of distributed game production

Are you a developer with a fun, family-friendly game that’s easy to pick up and play? Intellivision wants to hear from you! Email developers@intellivision.com.

For more resources head to www.playmakerspodcast.com

Named by Fortune as one of the “Top 10 Influential Women in Games”, Amy Jo Kim is a game designer, community architect, and innovation coach. Her design credits include Rock Band, The Sims, eBay, Netflix, nytimes.com, Ultima Online, Covet Fashion, & Happify. Amy Jo helps entrepreneurs & innovators bring their ideas to life at gamethinking.io. She pioneered the practice of applying game design to digital services and is well-known for her books “Community Building on the Web” (2000) and “Game Thinking” (2018).

Open up your notes app and get ready to use it as we discuss topics like:

- “Super Fans” and why they are critical to getting a “beachhead” in the market
- Why the “Fast Follow” method limits growth potential
- How to find your Super Fans quickly
- How to create innovative projects that scale in a BIG way
- How to join Amy Jo’s free Superfan Challenge

For more resources head to https://www.playmakerspodcast.com/

Jon Radoff is the founder of Beamable, the creator-centric platform for building live games in Unity. Before founding Beamable, Jon built one of the first commercial games on the Internet, took a web content management company public, grew a game advertising network, and launched mobile games played by millions of people including Game of Thrones Ascent and Star Trek Timelines. He fights for the game makers of the world by helping make it possible for creative people to make the games they envision without the technological hurdles that normally stand in their way.

Listen in to gain some incredibly valuable insight spanning topics like:

- How his company evolved into what Beamable is today
- Tips and techniques for getting your game off the ground
- How to balance time iterating a game and the time and budget to move on to a new project
- Why it’s important to get user feedback before you even have a playable version of your game
- How to know when it’s time to throw in the towel on a project
- The future of the metaverse

For more resources head to www.playmakerspodcast.com

Joakim Achrén is a gaming entrepreneur, with fifteen years of experience from two venture-backed gaming startups, including Next Games, which IPOed in 2107. Joakim is now running Elite Game Developers, a company that helps entrepreneurs start their first game company. He's also an angel investor in Skunkworks Games, Lightheart Entertainment, Savage Game Studios, and more. Joakim recently took on the role of Venture Partner at Play Ventures and hosts his own podcast, Elite Game Developers Podcast.

Join us in this fascinating discussion with topics like:

- How Joakim caught “the bug” for helping other founders
- What comes between the early validation phase and obtaining data from user behavior within a playable version of your game
- The most common trap mobile developers fall into
- The biggest takeaways you should be gaining from your metrics
- The key to building mobile games that make players want to come back
- The balance between “stealing like an artist” and innovating
- What the gaming industry can learn from Pixar’s creative process

For more resources head to www.playmakerspodcast.com

Tadhg Kelly is a highly experienced consultant in augmented reality, virtual reality, and video games. He has a deep background in game design and production, as well as partner and developer relationship management. Since the early 90s, Tadhg has worked on all sorts of game projects, from board games and live-action roleplaying games to multi-million dollar PC projects. He has served as lead designer, senior producer, and a number of other roles at several companies including BSkyB, Lionhead, and Climax.

We get deep on this episode with topics spanning:

-The transition from game designer to consultant and the lessons he learned along the way
-What is the “Sexy / Worthy Trap” and how do you use it to your advantage?
-Balancing speed-to-market against adding more features
-The benefit of the games industry opening up to more diverse skillsets
-Simple mistakes made at the beginning of a project that can cost you in the long run
-The value of letting your game developer do their job

You can work with Tadhg by visiting www.mobilegamedoctor.com, For more info and resources head to www.playmakerspodcast.com!

Travis is CEO and co-founder of Carbonated, an LA-based mobile games studio. A 25-year veteran of the game industry (with over 20 years in mobile), Travis has also served as SVP Mobile at both Zynga and Electronic Arts, where he led global studios and mobile game strategy. Travis quickly rose in the ranks from producer to Senior VP, and now runs his own studio. We’re sitting down to chat about the keys to his success with topics like:

- The three pillars of the game industry
- Following the customers’ lead toward success
- How the game industry is similar to standup comedy
- The importance of continuing to embrace new technologies
- What sets apart a truly successful live ops game

For more resources head to www.playmakerspodcast.com