In the latest podcast episode, I have Derek Lau (LinkedIn, Twitter) from Immutable, talking about his journey into web3 gaming and how they are building the blockchain game Guild of Guardians at his company Immutable. Guild of Guardians is a mobile RPG where players can turn their gaming passion into assets. Once launched, the game is a multiplayer fantasy action RPG game, where players build their dream team of ‘Guardians’ and compete in a guild to earn rewards. In this discussion, we talk...

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Alexander Bergendahl, who is the co-founder and CEO of LootLocker, a games backend solutions company from Stockholm, Sweden. Alexander is a repeat founder, who's been doing games companies for a while now. With Alexander, we talk about his founder journey, learnings from doing his companies, and how Alexander is still learning to be a better founder.

In today's episode, I'm talking with Neil McFarland and Matthew Ryan from First Light Games, a game studio based in London, UK. The founders started the company a few years ago, to work on free-to-play games for mobile, but last year, decided to pivot to web3 gaming. In this episode, we talk about the funding models that the founders have used in web3, what the challenges our in getting the tokenomics right, and how to build a core team in web3 gaming.

In this podcast episode, I have Adam Jaffe on the show. Adam is the founder and CEO of Mega Studio, a gaming outfit based out of Barcelona, Spain. Adam has a broad scope of knowledge from the gaming space, having worked at companies like Playtika, Moon Active, Jam City, and Social Point, before founding Mega Studio. In this discussion, we talk about advising startups, how to build games that make money, and what unconventional solutions should game developers apply to create success in gaming.

In this podcast episode, I talk with Nick Kneuper and Nat Eliason who are building Crypto Raiders, which I believe is one of the best web3 games out there. Both Nick and Nat haven't been in crypto for that long, but as long-time entrepreneurs, they've channeled their skills in creating products to take on blockchain gaming. In this episode, we talk about how Crypto Raiders got started, how they've grown the player base, how they manage their cryptocurrency treasury and how they see things...

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Are Mack Growen, a General Partner at London Venture Partners, a VC firm focused on investing in founders in the game sector at the seed stage. In this discussion, we talk about Are's extensive background in gaming, his journey to VC, what kind of learnings he is sharing, and how Are approaches risks, luck, and other challenges in gaming.

In this week's episode, I'm talking with Mika Tammenkoski, who is the co-founder and CEO of Metacore Games, the company that is well known for their hit game Merge Mansion. In this discussion with Mika, we talk about his long journey in gaming, what he has picked up on leadership and startups from all the projects he's been involved with, and what Mika thinks about building teams, pivoting, and increasing the likelihood of finding a hit game

In this episode, I'm talking with the co-founders of Trailblazer Games, Alex Arias, and Andreas Risberg. Trailblazer Games is a new web3 games company, founded in 2021 and recently they've announced a seed round of $8.2m raised from investors like Makers Fund and Play Ventures. In this discussion, we talk about the founder's background, how they both worked at King and brought learnings to their own startup, and what kind of games the founders are now building with blockchain technology.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Andrew Sheppard, who is the Managing Director at Transcend Fund, a venture capital firm investing in the future of games and digital entertainment. In this discussion with Andrew, we talk about his move from being an operator in gaming to becoming an investor, what has been hard about being an investor, and what Andrew thinks will changes and stay the same as new platforms emerge.

In the latest podcast episode, I have Christian Facey and Wilfrid Obeng from Audiomob, talking about their journey of building their company, which enables audio ads for mobile games. In this discussion, we talk about Wilfrid's and Christian's journey to team up and make audio ads happen, how they are learning to be company builders and what challenges they've faced in starting and fundraising for a company during the pandemic.

In this week's podcast episode, I'm talking with Hugo Obi, who is the founder and CEO of Maliyo Games, a mobile games studio based out of Lagos, Nigeria. In this discussion, we talk about the gaming ecosystem in Africa, how are things developing on the consumer side and the development side. We also talk about Hugo's founder journey in gaming and what Hugo sees as the next steps in growing the games industry in Africa.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Alexander Krug and Andre Krug, the co-founders of SOFTGAMES, an instant games company from Berlin, Germany. In this episode, we talk about the founder's journey from a small startup to having 100 people in your company, what instant games look like in 2022 and where the founders see their company going next.

In this podcast episode, I'm chatting with Eitan Reisel, Managing Partner of VGames, an early-stage gaming VC from Israel. Eitan and his team have been operating for a few years now with two funds raised. They've already have been investing in dozens of gaming companies worldwide. In this discussion, we talk about Eitan's approach to helping founders, how he makes investment decisions, and what the future looks like for both mobile and crypto gaming.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking Piers Kicks, an Investor at Delphi Digital and at BITKRAFT Ventures, investing into crypto gaming. In this discussion, we talk about how the gaming community is embracing blockchain, what are the differences between gaming teams and crypto teams making these games, and how Piers evaluates investments in blockchain gaming.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Salone Sehgal, who is a General Partner at Lumikai Fund, which is a seed-stage gaming fund focusing on the Indian market. I had Salone on my show in 2020, but since so much has been happening in the games industry, I wanted to bring her back to the show. We talk about what has been happening in India during the pandemic, what has been funneling the growth of startups in the region, and what Salone has learned from helping founders build companies.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Ismet Gökşen, who is a General Partner at Ludus Ventures, a venture firm that is investing in early-stage games companies, with many deals done in their home country of Turkey. In this discussion, we talk about the Turkish gaming ecosystem, why things are going so well for the companies there, what the future looks like and what Ismet has learned about investing in gaming.

In this podcast episode, I’m talking to Carolin Krenzer, who is the co-founder and CEO of TrailMix, a mobile games studio well known for their hit merge game Love & Pies. Caro has an extensive background in free-to-play and mobile, and she has been doing her startup now since 2017. We talk about so many things, like what Caro learned from working at Playfish and building the London studio for King, then on hiring, team building, and how execution on your core gameplay matters so much...

This is the eighth Ask Me Anything episode, where I answer people’s questions related to game studios, fundraising, and all other entrepreneurship-related stuff. I will be recording another episode quite soon, so please submit your questions by filling out this form. Questions that I answer include: Can you have two lead investors if two VCs are interested in you? How much is too much for Seed round? And how a hyper-casual studio should approach blockchain gaming.

In this episode, I talk with Jere Partanen and Erik Gloersen from Sisu Game Ventures, an early-stage gaming venture fund. Both Jere and Erik are newcomers to venture capital investing, although both have a background from working with gaming startups. In this discussion, we talk about the competitiveness of early-stage games investing, how a fund like Sisu can win deals and how the partners at Sisu are helping the founders they've invested in.

In this episode, I'm talking with Corentin Selz, Publishing Manager at Voodoo. Corentin has overseen the publishing activities at Voodoo for the last few years and has worked with over a hundred external studios to develop hyper-casual games. In this discussion, we talk about the optimal way to test hyper-casual games, about the characteristics of teams that can repeat their success, and how the rapid development and testing procedures could be brought outside of hyper-casual games.

I'm talking with Alon Grinshpoon, who is the founder and CEO of Echo, a cloud platform for 3D, AR, and VR assets. After realizing that the metaverse and other platforms were going to become huge, Alon and his brother started the company a few years ago, and now they've just raised a VC round for the top gaming investors. In this discussion with Alon, we talk about his founder journey, how they validated the 3D platform as a business idea, how Alon approaches founder/investor fit and how...

2021 was a big year for the Elite Game Developers podcast, with 53 new episodes going live. I wanted to share my own highlights from the show from the past year and created this highlights episode. Enjoy!

In this week’s podcast, I’m doing my seventh Ask Me Anything episode, where I answer listener questions. If you have any questions you’d like me to answer, please submit them by filling out this form. These are the questions that I cover in this episode: How can an inexperienced shooter team raise funding? I want to build a web3 game. What should I do first? Are there angel investors dedicated to gaming? How should I create late-game coin sinks? Have you thought about doing another games...

In this podcast episode, I talking with Oskar Burman, who is the co-founder and CEO of Fast Travel Games, a VR game studio based out of Stockholm, Sweden. Oskar has a long career in gaming, all the way from the 90s, and recently he as the managing director of Rovio’s Stockholm studio, makers of Angry Birds 2. In this discussion, we talk about Oskar’s learnings from building studios, what he would do differently, and how people in gaming can manage expectations to improve their work.

In this podcast episode, I'm talking with Tatiana Kondratyeva, the co-founder and CEO of Play Pack, a mobile game studio based out of Berlin. Tatiana has an interesting career in gaming, recently being Executive Producer at Etermax, and before that having product and producer roles at Wooga and Game Insight. In this discussion with Tatiana, we talk about how to get past the fears of starting a company, how to succeed in the competitive mobile games industry, and what have been takeaways from...