Naavik Gaming Podcast Naavik

The New York Times is one of the world’s most recognized newspapers and has been in circulation since 1851. With 10 million subscribers, the Times has a huge audience and an even larger cultural impact. But the Gray Lady isn’t content to just rest on her laurels and focus on news - other verticals in which the Times operates are product reviews (The Wirecutter), sports (through their 2022 acquisition of The Athletic), cooking, and, of course, games. In addition to their home-grown casual titles, the Times famously acquired viral sensation Wordle in early 2022 and since then has launched hit games Connections and most recently Strands (in beta).

To learn more about the Times’ games strategy, your host Niko Vuori talks with Jonathan Knight, Head of Games at The New York Times. 

New York Times Games: https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/games. You can find Jonathan Knight on LinkedIn.

We’d also like to thank Lightspeed Venture Partners for making this episode possible! With its dedicated gaming practice, "Lightspeed Gaming," the firm is investing from over $7B in early- and growth-stage capital — the by far largest fund focused on gaming and interactive technology. If you’re interested in learning more, go to https://gaming.lsvp.com/.

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.
 
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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Quality assurance is one of the most crucial aspects of game development to ensure the game functions as intended and to provide a positive player experience. Around $300M in funding has been directed towards AI “efficiency tools for creators” and Christoffer Holmgard, Founder of Modl.AI, and Nathan Martz, Founder of Agentic, are pushing the frontier of how AI can enhance and streamline QA processes.
From “players as a service” to functional load testing, your host Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, and guests discuss the history of QA, the various methods developers use to access it, the different types of testing in the ideal test pyramid, and where AI can realistically plug.-in. Agentic and Modl.AI are production-ready and share stories of successful partnerships with AA and indie studios to improve their testing processes. Tune in for a fascinating episode on the evolution of QA testing and a window into the future where collaboration between humans and AI agents is a developer's everyday life.   

Also, big thanks to ZBD for making this episode possible! ZBD provides a plug-and-play API and SDK for seamless integration of instant, borderless, and low-fee payments using the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Want to better engage and monetize your global user base? Start for free at http://zbd.gg/

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.
 
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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Yuga Labs, the heavyweight behind some of the biggest Web3 IP, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Meebits, made its first foray into games just over a year ago with its toilet-themed infinite runner, Dookey Dash. Now Yuga is here with a sequel called Dookey Dash: Unclogged, and there are a lot of innovations from the original - the most important of which are that it is not token-gated, and it is mobile. The game was developed in partnership with one of the earliest Web3 game studios, Faraway Games, best known for its shooter Mini Royale: Nations. In conjunction with this release, Yuga and Faraway have announced that Faraway Games is acquiring a subset of Yuga’s IP portfolio and that Yuga Chief Gaming Officer is joining Faraway as Chief Product Officer. 

In this episode your host, Niko Vuori, dives into Yuga’s and Faraway’s strategy, how the partnership came to be, what acquiring some of Yuga’s IP means for Web3 gaming more broadly for the ecosystem, and what learnings Yuga took from Dookey Dash to the sequel. 

Learn more about Yuga Labs and Faraway Games. You can find Spencer Tucker on LinkedIn.

We’d also like to thank Nefta for making this episode possible. Nefta has created an advertising network that pays game publishers higher eCPMs on their iOS opt-out users and drives better results for advertisers. Learn more about how Nefta can boost your results at http://nefta.io/ 

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.
 
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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Krafton is one of the world’s premier video game publishers. After experiencing the explosive success of PUBG in the late 2010s, Krafton rebranded in 2018, went public in 2021, and has since been working to not just extend the PUBG brand to new games, platforms, and regions but also kickstart new IPs with innovative playstyles and partner with emerging developers around the world.

To dig into the details, host Aaron Bush is joined by Maria Park, who currently serves as Head of Corporate Development at Krafton and previously was Head of Strategy at PUBG Corporation. In our conversation, we explore what strategically changed after going public, what it was like to navigate PUBG during the heights of battle royale, and the ins-and-outs of Krafton’s growth strategy. We cover lessons learned in taking IPs multiplatform, why Krafton is “scaling up creative,” how the company manages its investments, and how Krafton is leveraging emerging technologies like UGC and AI.

We’d also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.

Who’s On:
Guest - Maria Park: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chicago/ 
Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ 

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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Roblox is approaching 350M monthly active users. It’s a platform that generated $3.3B in bookings last year and paid $740M to its developers and creators. The low barriers to entry for developers and immediate access to an audience of 350M players has made it an appealing proposition for indie developers. 

According to Roblox’s most recent estimate, however, there are over 5M developers on Roblox, which makes it incredibly competitive and difficult to stand out. Furthermore, the nuanced player expectations have left many professional developers scratching their heads wondering why their Candy Crush-inspired game mechanics never gained traction.
Today, host David Taylor sits down with Janzen Madsen (aka Jandel) and Nathan Clemens (aka UndoneBuilder) to share their learnings from over eight years developing successful games on Roblox. Janzen is the creator of breakout hits such as a dusty trip, Field Trip Z, Wacky Wizards, and Gunfight Arena, which collectively have 100,000 concurrent players at the time of this recording. If Janzen were a game, he would be the eighth most popular game on Steam right now. Nathan has launched 24 Roblox games including The Survival Game, City Life, and War Simulator, which have garnered over 850M play sessions. 

These two understand the Roblox meta better than anyone else, so this is an episode you won't want to miss.

This episode is brought to you by CleverTap Gaming, the all-in-one platform for creating personalized player experiences. Visit https://clevertap.com/gaming/ for more details. 

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.
 
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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In an era of games where the financing sources are slim and marketing and community can make or break your game launch, your host Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, welcomes Tim Morten and Cara LaForge, CEO and Director of Business Operations respectively at Frost Giant Studios, to discuss their experiences in running a widely successful crowd financing campaign on Kickstarter ($2.4M, 2280% over target, with >$28K backers for an average wallet size of $85) and a crowd equity campaign on StartEngine. We talk about the differences between a crowd equity and crowd financing campaign, the dos and donts of Kickstarter as a platform, the planning and strategy behind the Stormgate campaign specifically (marketing beats, Founder’s pack design, and timing), as well as lessons learned if they were to do it all again. Tune in for a fun episode, and, if you’d like to contribute to Stormgate, they’re running an extension campaign on Indiegogo here due to demand!  

Big thanks to GRID for making this episode possible. GRID is a game data platform providing esports data infrastructure, analytics, and distribution solutions to leading game publishers including Riot Games, Ubisoft, and KRAFTON. If you're a fan, developer, or entrepreneur with an idea for a live data-powered project, make sure to apply for GRID Open Access, get free access to official data, and start creating today! To learn more, visit https://grid.gg/?utm_source=naavik.co&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=Naavik

If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.
 
Watch the episode: YouTube Channel
For more episodes and details: Podcast Website
Free newsletter: Naavik Digest
Follow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website
Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.