GameMakers GameMakers

If you were going to start a new games studio, how would you design the organization, the work environment, and work culture and values for the company?

We speak with the co-founders of Gardens, who are building a shared fantasy adventure game from a veteran team that has worked on games such as Journey, Spider-Man, Skyrim, and many others.

Gardens has recently announced an over $30M series A round, and we discuss how they are starting.
- How are they designing their organization? Why did they make specific decisions on how to work and operate?

Also joining us, is veteran game industry veteran Kristian Segerstrale. Co-founder of Glu Mobile, early investor in Supercell, cofounder and CEO of Playfish acquired by EA, senior exec at EA, and currently CEO of Super Evil Megacorp.

OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
1:38 How to deal with cofounder relationships?
2:35 Meeting Lexi for the first time and starting the company with lots of preparation
6:06 How do you fight and disagree with each other?
8:54 Most important issues to figure out as an early startup - need to resolve disagreements in a good way and personal motivations
12:42 Industry trends over next 5-10 years vs. focusing internally - strategic product decisions (platform) and fundraising strategy
20:08 Validating assumptions and asking for help
20:50 Gardens game: “an online PVPVE fantasy action adventure survival sandbox”
23:53 How to green light/validate game concepts at Garden and convincing investors of funding from Seed to Series A through prototyping
29:00 How did they think about designing their organization and establishing company culture and values?
34:06 Will Garden’s employee-centric focus and support of “work-life-balance” hurt their ability to succeed? Is hard-core necessary?
40:50 How to be successful without working in office and without hardcore work ethic?
47:20 What are key concerns for success? Scaling/hiring
49:37 Hiring from 3 to 20
51:53 Objectives from Series A funding and overall ambition for the game project

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

😃 —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


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There's a lot of context behind Unity's recent run-time fees and the big changes they rolled out on pricing. Find out more about Unity's business, issues & problems, and future outlook.

OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
0:52 High-level overview of Unity’s business: 1. Create and 2. Grow
5:40 Financials overview: Create vs. Grow, revenue growth, impact from Ironsource
12:04 The new world requires a different management approach & dollar-based net expansion rate
21:30 The Unity China business - context behind JV
25:38 Unity management’s egregious stock-based compensation (SBC)
34:44 Overview of Unity M&A activity
38:40 Unity Run-time fees/pricing changes discussion
42:48 Understanding the historical context behind the Unity pricing changes
46:18 Impact of pricing changes to Unity’s business
52:30 Winners & losers
54:18 Applovin impact
55:27 Future outlook for Unity
1:05:43 Final words: Change or die!

👇 EPISODE LINKS:
- JK's podcast on Twitter:    • Speculative Bull Case for Twitter: So...  
- Matthew Kanterman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-k...
- Joseph Kim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/
- Brian Peganoff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-peg...

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —
• MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1
• TWITTER → @jokim1
• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

— POPULAR CONTENT —
🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney    • Economy of the Metaverse | Fortnite C...  
ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies    • Building the Amazon of Game Companies...  
🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021    • Mobile Gaming Trends in 2021 | Joe Ki...  
🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming    • Future of PC Gaming | David Brevik, S...  
🔴 Games Industry M&A    • Games Industry M&A: Keys to Success w...  
🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games    • Netcode for Multiplayer Games | Glenn...  
🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact    • Apple IDFA Deprecation: Product & Too...  
🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score    • Trip Hawkins | The New High Score (Pa...  
🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices    • LiveOps - F2P Sales Best Practices 2020  


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Epic's Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) potentially presents a huge new platform rivaling Roblox. Why are some of the most experienced developers in the world like Alex Seropian (founder of Bungie and Industrial Toys/EA) and Pete Hawley (100 Thieves) so excited by UEFN? What does a former Roblox developer, Arthur Trusov, think about the platform especially in comparison to Roblox?

Find out now!

OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
1:45 Why UEFN? How big is this opportunity?
8:30 Leaving Roblox and comparing Roblox to UEFN as a dev platform
11:35 Technical limitations of UEFN
12:50 Veterans going creator platforms, young guys going to professional development platforms
13:19 Potential developer economics from UEFN
16:16 Alex on the longer term opportunity with UEFN
17:57 Pete on the difference between console vs. UEFN development, how 100T ties UEFN + AAA dev together
22:00 developing around UEFN’s challenges
24:07 Arthur on how Roblox devs would think about UEFN economics
27:19 What are the good parts of developing on UEFN vs. Roblox
31:30 What improvements to UEFN should Epic work on next?
37:37 Did UEFN launch too early?
40:34 What is keeping Roblox devs to jump to UEFN?
43:05 Future predictions for UEFN
48:07 Team sizes and time for UEFN games
50:18 Company intros and final message

👇 EPISODE LINKS:
- Pete Hawley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petehawley/
- Alex Seropian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander...
- Arthur Trusov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurtru...

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —
• MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1
• TWITTER → @jokim1
• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

— POPULAR CONTENT —
🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney    • Economy of the Metaverse | Fortnite C...  
ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies    • Building the Amazon of Game Companies...  
🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021    • Mobile Gaming Trends in 2021 | Joe Ki...  
🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming    • Future of PC Gaming | David Brevik, S...  
🔴 Games Industry M&A    • Games Industry M&A: Keys to Success w...  
🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games    • Netcode for Multiplayer Games | Glenn...  
🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact    • Apple IDFA Deprecation: Product & Too...  
🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score    • Trip Hawkins | The New High Score (Pa...  
🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices    • LiveOps - F2P Sales Best Practices 2020  


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IDFA deprecation and the end of fingerprinting *in theory* would end targeting and the ability to do user acquisition as well as in the past. What is the current state of the market and what will the impact of new changes - meaning the end of fingerprinting - have on mobile game companies?We talk to Matej Lancaric, mobile user acquisition specialist and podcast host on 2 and a half gamers for his take on what is going to happen.
OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
2:00 History of UA spend
3:00 UA spend data points - growth vs. profitability
6:15 UA terms explanation: Payback period, ROAS, bad modeling, AEO/VO
9:00 Will the end of fingerprinting kill off event optimization?
11:24 Max and why Applovin has a major advantage as an ad network
14:44 Back to the history of UA spend - current day
15:55 Current market comps for UA spend - G5
17:00 Current UA strategies
21:30 Demand vs. supply side explanation
22:50 Applovin vs. Ironsource
24:14 End of fingerprinting: Will changes in UA cause publishers to push games now?
28:28 What is the impact of end of fingerprinting?
29:57 Is Apple’s ad network good for industry?
31:49 How does web shops impact UA?
33:05 Typical UA budgets for new game launches
35:55 What’s driving success for games Matej is pushing?
38:10 Asia gamedev strength before the rest of the world
39:30 Last words from Matej

👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Matej Lancaric: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matejlancaric/, www.lancaric.me- Matthew Kanterman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-kanterman-cfa-b6345133/- Joseph Kim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/- Brian Peganoff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-peganoff/

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

😃 —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


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The Pixel bros are joined by Eric Kress from the Deconstructor of Fun podcast to talk everything Take-Two Interactive!

OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
2:45 Take-Two Fundamentals
6:25 The $5.5B to $8B guidance in bookings
7:12 What could be driving $8B in bookings
10:30 Comparing King acquisition vs. Zynga
13:07 Rockstar and 2K Overview
15:38 Kress’ take on T2 business
20:57 Zynga Overview
23:15 Eric: Why Zynga was the worst acquisition ever
29:50 Why some investors ignore T2 longer-term risk
30:40 Bull case for T2
31:38 Why GTA6 will not sell as much as GTA5
32:48 The PC case for GTA6
33:38 Product portfolio strategy discussion: broad vs. focused
37:49 Overall outlook
38:25 T2 acquisition scenarios
40:25 Growth opportunities
46:52 Why did T2 buy Zynga and what are the ramifications?
53:37 Conclusions

👇 EPISODE LINKS:
- Eric Kress: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serkantoto/
- Matthew Kanterman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-kanterman-cfa-b6345133/
- Joseph Kim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/
- Brian Peganoff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-peganoff/


SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.com/

😃 —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


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Mukul Deora is a modern-day Renaissance man. He has found success in business, music, movies (as the producer for The White Tiger), and today he's tackling tech entrepreneurship in social media.

The White Tiger movie encapsulates many of my personal beliefs and aspirations of what people are capable of if they change their mindset and are given the opportunity.

In this discussion with Mukul, we discuss: #1. Living a life well-lived, #2. Mukul's journey and how he's found success in diverse areas, and #3. the future of opportunity for India.

Definitely check out this conversation and let us know what you think!

OUTLINE:
0:00 Intro
0:55 What does it mean to live a life well lived?
1:20 The concept of the rooster coop
2:30 JK’s interpretation of a life well lived: an interesting story and achieving potential/meaning
4:37 The story that we tell ourselves
5:49 Interpreting the rooster coop
8:10 Learn about yourself by doing
10:10 How does Mukul value his life?
11:52 Mukul’s religious views
13:40 Not living with regret
15:10 How has Mukul been successful in many different industries
22:55 Summarizing Mukul’s entrepreneurial lessons
26:35 Being an “unreasonable man” and persisting in making The White Tiger movie
32:00 Being a dreamer that persists and succeeds vs. just dreaming
38:15 The Rise of The White Tiger: The future of opportunity in India
40:45 Opportunity lies with the yellow skin man and the brown skin man
46:25 Rich men are born with opportunities they can waste
52:10 JK’s thesis behind India based on Nvidia’s success

👇 EPISODE LINKS:
- Mukul Deora on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mukul-deora-8234bbb6/

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:
- Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i
- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

😃 —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


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gamemakers/message