Rise and Play Podcast

In this new season, I am kicking off a series of episodes in the format of coaching discussions, with experts on leadership and self-development themes. Today, I am sitting down with Tamara Rose, the Founder of Berlin Boss Babes, and a High-Potential and Leadership Coach for women.Berlin Boss Babes' mission is focused on accelerating female advancement across career, business, and money. Prior to becoming a coach, Tamara was a top executive with 10+ years of experience in corporates and start-ups as a talent consultant.In this episode, we tackle one of the most challenging life questions: What Do I Want In Life? Why is this question so hard to address?A lot of our life scripts come from our childhood, education, and culture. If we never had the chance to examine those, we run on auto-pilot until we hit the wall. Tamara will share in this episode some practical tools on how to start to examine those questions for yourself:- The 5 Whys- Reconnecting with your inner child's dreams- Prototype your new life- Work with a Coach!Thank you to our sponsors. Game Refinery: https://info.gamerefinery.com/riseandplay to get a free product tour. Build better games + live events with leaner teams. Appodeal: https://appodeal.com join the all-in-one growth platform for mobile app creators of any size.Don't forget to subscribe to Rise and Play: https://www.riseandplay.ioIf you liked Tamara, reach out to her for a coaching trial session at tamara@berlinbossbabes.coMore info on her website! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

I am kicking off a new season for Rise and Play with our special guest Maria Sayans, the CEO at Ustwo Games.Maria has been helping games companies succeed in the digital space, build great brands, launch games and engage players for nearly two decades. She spent 14 years at EA building online functions and on marketing leadership roles for franchises like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Dead Space, Star Wars, Mirror’s Edge and Battlefield. In 2015 she joined CCP Games, the Icelandic developer of EVE Online, as their Chief Customer Officer. Since she joined Ustwo games, she has been helping the company evolve beyond their Monument Valley heritage and expand into new platforms and business models.Among the notable success of Ustwo games: Monument Valley and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure.In this episode, we are discussing what it takes to build a purpose-driven company culture and create games with meaning.- What are the core values at Ustwo games, and how do they translate those values into team culture and game development?- What is Ustwo's magic recipe for creating meaningful IPs such as Monument Valley and Alba?- How Ustwo made a real impact in the world planting 1M+ trees with the success of AlbaMaria sets the example for a new generation of CEOs who are people and culture-focused. She enables the teams to create at their best, and she walks the talk!More info about their B-corp certification and Alba's initiatives to plant trees.Thank you to our sponsors. Game Refinery: https://info.gamerefinery.com/riseandplay to get a free product tour. Build better games + live events with leaner teams. Appodeal: https://appodeal.com join the all-in-one growth platform for mobile app creators of any size.Don't forget to subscribe to Rise and Play: https://www.riseandplay.io This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

This episode is all about how to build a culture attractive for A-players dedicated to achieving big goals. You don’t want to miss it!I am talking to Valerie Alfimova who is the CRO at Appodeal Stack, a mobile AdTech and gaming group of companies. Appodeal Stacks’s mission is to enable creators to start and scale successful mobile app businesses. Valerie is a global sales and marketing executive with more than ten years of experience leading media, mobile AdTech, and gaming ventures. Over the last five years, Valerie has been instrumental in driving the company’s transition from a single product startup to a multi-subsidiary company serving 100K+ mobile app developers worldwide.Valerie shares her perspective on the role of a strong culture in a company’s success and on what it takes to scale a company from a few employees to a team of around 150 people.In this episode we will also talk about:- A sports team mindset vs we-are-a-family-here- The role of cultural alignment in a long-term company’s strategy- Skin in the game and how to get your team genuinely invested- How to keep it lean by promoting business units’ mobilityThank you to our sponsors. Game Refinery: https://info.gamerefinery.com/riseandplay to get a free product tour. Build better games + live events with leaner teams. Appodeal: https://appodeal.com join the all-in-one growth platform for mobile app creators of any size.Don't forget to subscribe to Rise and Play: https://www.riseandplay.ioWhere To Connect with Valerie Alfimova: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-alfimova This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

Bakyt Aidaralieva is a product management and player experience executive with 9+ years of experience supporting players, leading teams and building tools in companies like Supercell, EA, PlayRaven and Rovio in the Finnish Games Industry. Among the hit mobile games Bakyt has worked with are Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Boom Beach and Simcity Build It. She has built player support and community functions in two startups, the latest company being PlayRaven which was acquired by Rovio Entertainment, the creator of the Angry Birds brand. Bakyt is driven by learning new things, taking risks, and learning from failures. She shares in this episode her journey starting from Kyrgyzstan to international politics to working in games, to becoming a business coach. Among the highlights of our conversation:-  What makes a great empathic leader?- About the importance of finding a balance between personal and professional life. How developing your personal relationships makes you a better leader.- Bakyt's approach to building automated tools for player support, saving the precious full-time of 5 backend developers.- Bakyt's learnings failing a startup, and why the most life important life lessons happen with failure.- What led Bakyt to the path of becoming a life and business coach, helping leaders to be more "whole" in workplaces.Thank you to our sponsors. Game Refinery: https://info.gamerefinery.com/riseandplay to get a free product tour. Build better games + live events with leaner teams. Appodeal: https://appodeal.com join the all-in-one growth platform for mobile app creators of any size.Don't forget to subscribe to Rise and Play: https://www.riseandplay.io This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

Salone Sehgal is the world's first female General Partner of a games and interactive VC fund. She co-founded Lumikai Fund, India's first early-stage interactive media and gaming VC, anchored by the world's largest games and media conglomerates. She has 15+ years of experience as a global games & new media investor, games entrepreneur, and former M&A banker. Previously, she was Principal at London Venture Partners (LVP), Europe's pioneering seed-stage gaming VC (with a track record of backing 40 companies delivering $14Bn in shareholder value).My conversation with Salone is very insightful and debunks misconceptions about venture partners, investing, and why does venture capital still repeatedly fail female founders?- How and why Salone decided to start her own fund, focusing on India as an underserved market, and female founders- How Salone approaches her team building and managed to hire 40% women to join the fund- Why there is still a barrier for women to join the venture partners world, and what we can do about it- Why the lack of women and diversity among investors is a huge missed opportunity? Even when a female-led team makes it to the deal flow evaluation meetings of VC funds, they often don't progress. Lack of female decision-makers in VC is often cited as a cause for this. There is often no one to champion the deal or resonate with the product (particularly if it's female focused).- Salone's lessons being both a founder and an investor, and how being a founder helps to be a better investor- How Salone overcame the challenges of being the "only woman" or person of color in the rooms of the corporate financial worldI hope this conversation will inspire you to take a step forward in the venture world and be part of the change to have more women as investors.Thank you to our sponsors. Game Refinery: https://info.gamerefinery.com/riseandplay to get a free product tour. Build better games + live events with leaner teams. Appodeal: https://appodeal.com join the all-in-one growth platform for mobile app creators of any size.Don't forget to subscribe to Rise and Play: https://www.riseandplay.ioMore resources about venture capital: #NoVenture$ForWomen: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/noventureforwomen-salone-sehgal/ Morgan Stanley statistics: https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/trillion-dollar-blind-spot-infographic This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

In this episode, I am debunking with Steph all the misconceptions about narrative design, and why this field remains so misunderstood in the gaming industry.- What is narrative design, and why it is not just "writing" for games?- Why narrative design is essential from the concept phase to build long lasting IPs- Why and how diversity enables to create impactful and meaningful stories for players- What is the ROI of narrative design? (bring those insights to your stakeholders)- Fun fact: Steph shares why Chess is a great example of what conceptual narrative design isSteph is a Canadian working as the Global Narrative Director at Gameloft. Steph started her career in games at Stardoll, a metaverse style sandbox game with tens of millions players, mostly women and girls. Then she joined King in 2014 and worked as the first narrative designer there and eventually global narrative lead there, before she eventually joined Gameloft to lead the Narrative Design team.I enjoyed so much Steph's passion on narrative design through our conversation. I hope you will learn as much as I did about narrative design.Enjoy this new episode!Don't miss out on more leadership content by subscribing to the monthly newsletter at https://www.riseandplay.io/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

In this episode, we are tackling with Kegan all the burning questions you could have about the history and development of the Diablo Franchise: What is the Product Management approach to Diablo IV, and why is this is a new approach in AAA development? The important differences in Product Management between F2P mobile and AAA development What can we learn from the advanced Player Research methods at Blizzard? The challenges of aligning between PM and Development teams on Diablo, and how Kegan is adding the PM mindset to the creative development process Learn how Kegan tackled with professionalism and wisdom the situations of "being the only woman in the room" at companies like Blizzard and Riot GamesI deeply enjoyed the authentic and genuine conversation with Kegan, sharing her passion working on Diablo franchise and her personal journey in gaming.Kegan Clark is the current Director of Product on Diablo IV at Blizzard Entertainment, former head of Business Intelligence on League of Legends Franchise at Riot Games. Enjoy this new episode! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

Anette Staloy is CMO at the Norwegian games studio Dirtybit. The studio focuses on social multiplayer games, and have grown organically to close to 140 million downloads for their games in the Fun Run series. Dirtybit was founded almost 11 years ago, and Anette has been part of the team for the last 7 years. Anette is also the co-founder and chair of Women in Games Norway.In this episode, Anette shares her journey growing a small independent studio in Norway, building on top of their Fun Run series success: How Anette's role has evolved as the CMO of the company over the past 7 years The challenges of maintaining a big IP versus launching new successful games The perks and challenges of remaining as an independent studio: ownership vs growth? How Dirtybit managed to bring their leadership team to full parity and 40% of employees being women. It is possible! How the work-life balance is at the heart of the culture at Dirtybit, without compromising on execution and deliveryEnjoy this new episode! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

1 - YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EPISODEI often ask other leaders in my podcast interviews: “What keeps you up at night?”When I ask myself this question, I cannot think of anything but “How do I keep my team together on our mission to create something bigger than ourselves?”This question keeps me busy all the time.I previously wrote why if you’re looking to achieve in life and business, you first need a great team. Without a team, you’ve got no product — and without a product, no business. (Re-)building a great team takes time, lots of energy, and financial backing. Naturally, I often think about the threats that can endanger the most precious thing I have built over the years: a high-performing, well-functioning, and fun team to work with.So, what can we do about it?In this special episode, I reflect my key learnings from the past 3 years building a casual studio from scratch at Voodoo.Enjoy this new episode!You can read the full article here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com

Noemie has been working in international digital marketing and mobile gaming for the past 10 years.She has led performance marketing teams for startups like PlayQ and also has experience with bigger companies like Jam City where she led the user acquisition strategy for the launch of the top mobile game Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery. She is now the CMO of Air Console, an online video game console for friends and family to play together from TV and their mobile devices.Topics we discuss: Why Noémie joined Air Console, moving her marketing focus from the product to the player experience Noémie's vision of leading lean UA and creative teams in different organization sizes How Noémie innovated in the marketing launch of Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery, at Jam CityEnjoy this new episode!More about Air Console here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit riseandplay.substack.com