Today’s guest is Johan Tjäder, the CEO and founder of RankOne, the top platform for gamers and creators to share their passion for games. Johan has grown RankOne into a platform trusted by gamers and developers alike, with over 1.5 million games analyzed thanks to player-driven insights. His platform helps game companies understand their audiences better by offering authentic, cross-platform data that tracks player behavior across time. By empowering players to contribute their experiences,...

Today’s guest is Pontus Mahler, co-founder of Agora Gaming Partners, a global investment bank and advisory firm focused on video gaming. With over a decade of experience in creating, managing, and driving projects within gaming & esports, he's now focused on creating business opportunities in the video game industry and aiding talented gaming startups in reaching the next levels with guidance, and collaboration with investment & publishing partnerships. In this podcast, he dives...

Today's guest is Callum Godfrey, the Head of Third Party Publishing at nDreams. With over 20 years in the gaming industry, Callum has worked with major players like Activision, EA, King, and Wargaming. He’s been involved in everything from AAA titles to mobile games and now focuses on the fast-evolving world of VR. These days, he’s back to being hands-on with game teams, leading third-party publishing at nDreams, and pushing the boundaries of VR gaming. In this podcast, he shares his...

Today's guest is Chris O'Connell, a renowned recruitment mentor and host of The Purpose-Led Leadership Podcast. Chris is a former global top biller at SThree and the founder of a £25M recruitment business, which he successfully scaled and sold. With over 75,000 LinkedIn followers and a track record of mentoring over 50 businesses, Chris now helps recruitment leaders build purpose-driven, high-performing companies. He specializes in leadership coaching, talent management, business...

Today’s guest is Christina-Marie Drake, a leading recruiter at Ghostpunch Games and founder of Moms in Gaming. With nearly a decade of experience in HR and recruitment, including five years in the gaming industry, Christina-Marie has helped connect top talent to game studios through her expertise in social networking, leadership, and strategic initiatives. A former recruiter at Naughty Dog, she transitioned from contract work to full-time roles, driven by her passion for candidate experience...

Today's guest is Simran Whitham, founder and CEO of FORMAT, the award-winning events production and creative agency. With over 8 years of experience in marketing and production across the events, video games, and digital creative industries, Simran has co-founded and worked as Head of Marketing at Tri-Heart Interactive, Head of Player Engagement at Milky Tea, Lead Social Media Manager at The Lowry Theatre, and marketing executive at VR/AR studio XR Games. Along the way, he gained invaluable...

Today's guest is Tarak Ford, Head of Development at Kwalee, a leading mobile game publisher and developer that also creates games for PC and consoles. With over 12 years in the industry, Tarak started in external QA and quickly moved into leadership roles at studios like Lionhead and Crytek. At Kwalee, he’s been key in growing the team from just 20 people to over 400, opening offices around the world, and helping the company publish games on almost every platform, reaching over a billion...

Today’s guest is… me, Harry Phokou. I was invited to join Andrew Pappas on the Indie Game Movement podcast to discuss business development. In this episode, I shared my journey of launching a ghostwriting business back in April and offered practical tips on leveraging LinkedIn for growth in the gaming industry. We covered personal branding, optimizing LinkedIn profiles, starting meaningful conversations, and creating content that attracts leads. I also explored consulting opportunities and...

Today’s guest is Raphael Colantonio, President and Creative Director at Wolf Eye Studios. Raphael Colantonio has been a prominent figure in the game industry since 1993. He founded Arkane Studios in 1999 and brought us classics like Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah, Bioshock 2 (co-development), and the Dishonored series. With hundreds of awards to his name, Raphael co-founded WolfEye Studios in 2019, releasing Weird West in 2022. Besides his expertise in creative direction and game mechanics,...

Today's guest is Kshiraj Telang, a seasoned artist and Art Director at Moon Active. With over 20 years in the entertainment industry, including over a decade in mobile games, Kshiraj has worked at 11 gaming studios worldwide, gaining a unique perspective on diverse environments. He began his career as a cartoonist, evolving into roles as an animator, web artist, and flash game designer. Now, Kshiraj leads a talented team at Moon Active, providing vision for the company and its products. He...

Today’s guest is Selim Ozturk, founder and director of The Pixel Movement a global gaming recruitment agency. Over the last 12 years, he transitioned from sales to recruitment, excelling not only in finding the right candidates but also in building long-term partnerships. In the last four years, he focused on gaming recruitment and founded 2 agencies having placed 100s of candidates. The Pixel Movement now supports game developers, publishers, gaming VCs and gaming service providers...

Today’s guest is Ferran Punti García, The Breach Studios co-founder and CEO. With extensive experience in the gaming industry and beyond, he was a pioneer in organizing eSports championships for Starcraft and Counter-Strike1.6. He created a successful franchise of PC cafés in Spain and then pivoted to game development, working on Java and early Unity games. Later, he co-founded Kerad Games with famous footballer Gerard Piqué, serving as CMO and overseeing Golden Manager. After 7 years, he...

Today’s guest is Jeremy Stein, the Co-Founder of TTFN Games and a mobile product leader with specialties in design and production. With nearly 18 years in the gaming industry alone, he's contributed to such well-known titles like Madden NFL, Subway Surfers, and Merge Dragons, transitioning from hands-on game development to strategic leadership and co-founding a gaming studio. In this episode, he shares valuable lessons on starting a gaming studio, product management, team empowerment, and...

Today’s guest is Yahsir Qureshi, the VP and Head of Studio at Sandsoft Games, also an accomplished advisor and investor in the tech industry. He has more than 14 years of unique experience across both AAA Console and F2P mobile games building some of the most successful franchises ever released including Need for Speed, FIFA Ultimate Team, Dawn of Titans, and CSR Racing 2 in Production, Product, and Business Development Roles. In this episode, he shares his journey in the gaming industry,...

Today's guest is Alexander Rehm, a seasoned Live Ops Director and a mentor with over 16 years of experience in the gaming, banking, and B2B/B2C industries. In this episode, he shares his invaluable insights on transferable skills, navigating layoffs, mentorship, and the challenges posed by recent changes to the LinkedIn algorithm. Discover how he has supported the gaming community through job support and mentoring helping over 120 professionals find jobs. If you're a game developer,...

Today's guest is Alexis Gresoviac, a veteran of the gaming industry. He has been in the gaming industry for 25 years and served as Managing director of Blizzard Korea, VP of Gameloft, and General Manager of Huuuge Games. He leverages his executive leadership experience to advise C-Suite teams on expansion strategies, evaluation of M&A deals, effective internal operations, and organizational structure. If you aspire to be a managing director, C-level executive, or founder of a gaming...

Lara Acosta has helped 100s of people get unstuck using LinkedIn and personal branding. She grew from 0 to 140k+ followers in just 2 years and is now the #1 UK Female Creator. If you are looking to post more on LinkedIn then this podcast is for you. Connect w/Lara Acosta (guest): LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laraacostar Youtube: youtube.com/@Laraacosta Twitter/𝕏: twitter.com/Laraacostar Instagram: @laraacostar Connect w/ Harry Phokou (Host) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hphokou/ Youtube:...

Thomas Lemesle is the Talent Acquisition manager at Gamehouse closing in on 20 years in the games industry. Having been a hiring manager for 25+ years starting at Nintendo in QA before moving on to product management/Production and then recruiting 10 years ago. This duo perspective of the recruiter and producer gives him a unique perspective of the industry which we dove into. We practically explored what recruiters and producers can learn from each other, improving the diversity of thought...