Deconstructor of Fun

Hiring is the most difficult and crucial part of building up a studio. What makes it easier is having a great employer brand. With a big name like Supercell, Activision or EA you’re more likely to attract great employees and retain your current ones. Your job ads produce an abundance of applicants, which in turn reduce your recruitment costs. And as you get those great hires in, they will refer their coworkers allowing you to scale up faster. But how do you build an employer brand that can compete for employees against the established talent magnets in the market? I had the privilege to reconnect with Joe Nickolls, who recently founded Timbre Games in Vancouver. Setting up a AAA studio in one of the most talent hungry gaming clusters in the World is not something you do without carefully strategizing how will you be able to attract talent. In our conversation Joe discusses his very unique approach to building an employer brand that can stand out from the magnificent gaming companies in the city. Links: Joe Nickolls Timbre Games Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Host: Mishka Katkoff Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, Xsolla

Topics covered: New World — Amazon’s Rollercoaster Hit Social media company Snap falls as much as 23% after a blow to its Q3 earnings from Apple privacy changes and supply-chain disruption 5 Reasons Why I Became Bullish on Blockchain Gaming Links: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff, Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Eric Seufert Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, Betahat, Xsolla Image: AppLovin

Topics covered: New World — Amazon’s Rollercoaster Hit Social media company Snap falls as much as 23% after a blow to its Q3 earnings from Apple privacy changes and supply-chain disruption 5 Reasons Why I Became Bullish on Blockchain Gaming Links: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff, Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Eric Seufert Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, Betahat, Xsolla Image: helpmykidlearn.ie

While we all know of Playrix, we also know very little about the company. There are almost no English-speaking articles on how they make games or what is their organizational structure. I don’t remember ever reading about their culture nor hearing about their future plans. The company prospers behind an iron curtain. And if you don’t speak Russian, you’d likely be clueless, until now… I had the privilege to sit down with Maxim Kirilenko, Playrix’ Chief Business Development Officer, and ask all the questions that I wanted about the company. We talk about: Playrix 17 year journey to date and their aspirations to one day beat Tencent on mobile How the company is organized around clusters of excellence located far away from each other the infamous war between Homescapes and AppLovin’s Matchington Mansion Playrix’ M&A strategy saw investments in the likes of Nexters and Vizor, which both grew into unicorns a company culture that is transforming from purely Russian to more of a hybrid Topics above and more in the first-ever English-speaking podcast with a member of the Playrix leadership team from the link below. Links: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Host: Mishka Katkoff Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, 

Topics covered: Steam Bans and Epic Allows NFTs Kixeye shareholders sue Stillfront for $30M over earnout dispute AppLovin SDK Re-Routed Apple’s SKAdNetwork Postbacks To Itself Ironsource will buy mobile ad and app monetization firm Tapjoy for $400M Unity reveals Ad Mediation and Bidding coming to its Dashboard Links: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff, Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Eric Seufert Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, Betahat Image: makeuseof.com

I think we can all agree that Deconstructor of Fun is pretty good at predicting the mobile games market. Well, here's another prediction: FunCraft is going to be one of the rising stars of 2022. I got to sit down with my good buddy Michael Martinez to talk about his company's path to finding early success and how they are planning to feed the fire and grow. If you're savvy, you'll join this fun rocket ship as soon as possible. Because its going to be a ride for the stars you'll regret on missing out. Links: Michael Martinez FunCraft Get in Touch: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable

Topics covered: How to be a Great Product Manager (by Joe Kim and Brett Nowak) EA promotes Laura Miele to COO, making her one of the most powerful women in gaming NFTs, Ultima Online, and player-run game economies (by Eric Seufert) Links: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff, Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Eric Seufert Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable, Betahat Image: paxful.com

Audio ads. It's not a new thing. In fact, audio ads is the oldest way to deliver an ad from one human to another. So in this podcast we discuss the thesis behind audio ads on mobile in the post IDFA era, go into the weeds on how audio ads work and of course discuss the monetization potential they offer. Links: ODEOO Case Study in Hypercasual games Amit Monheit Get in Touch: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Michail Katkoff (twitter) & Eric Seufert (twitter) Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable

Seemingly every week a crypto gaming company raises a monstrous amount of capital for a game that not so many of us in the industry are even familiar with.  These are staggering numbers seem to make very little sense. So what better way to understand what's going on than asking an investor, who invests into blockchain gaming, and a founder who has just recently raised a massive investment rounds. Whether you're tuning in to learn or to roll your skeptical hippo eyes, this podcast is for you! Links: Aleksander Leonard Larsen Anton Backman Get in Touch: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable

Netflix entry in the games business has been rapid, methodical and diverse.  In this episodes we'll discuss what has happened till date, review Netlix' strategy and offer predictions of what could happen next.  Links: Chris Heatherly Ethan Levy Get in Touch: Send us Questions and Feedback Deconstructor of Fun Newsletter Deconstructor of Fun Slack Group Hosts: Mishka Katkoff Sponsors: Facebook Gaming, ironSource, Appsflyer, Beamable