Rise and Play Podcast

The third season of the podcast is in the making!!!I would love to get your feedback and suggestions (2-min survey): https://www.surveylegend.com/s/47al---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Simonetta joined GameHouse as their new CEO in October last year, to fulfill the mission of becoming the leading provider of casual mobile games for Women. In this episode, Simonetta shares her vision and execution plan to own the "me-time" of the female audience.Prior to joining GameHouse, Simonetta spent the last several years as Head of Spin Master Studios in Los Angeles, and the President, CEO, and Chairwoman of the Board at Woozworld in Montreal. In her earlier career, she was SVP at Sulake, developers of Habbo, the biggest online virtual game for teens where among other roles she led global marketing, community, advertising, and user growth.We are discussing in this new episode:- The new vision and mission of GameHouse under Simonetta's leadership- Why Simonetta, as a female CEO, has a competitive edge in executing the mission of owning the "me-time" of the female market- Simonetta's vision of building a great company culture based on: ownership, flexibility, and data-informed decisions- Why it is important to break the bias about female CEOsEnjoy this new episode!More about GameHouse openings: 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

The third season of the podcast is in the making!!!I would love to get your feedback and suggestions (2-min survey): https://www.surveylegend.com/s/47al---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Devon has always been drawn to building heartfelt experiences that captivate everyday people and result in long-term value. During her 15-year career including working at Big Fish Games and GSN games, she’s explored the capabilities of UX research and UX design methods within free-to-play mobile game development, resulting in engagement-boosting gameplay optimizations while supercharging her team’s efficiency by aligning the team around the needs of their target audience. Devon is committed to the well-being of players, which is what drew her to Solsten where she’s leading the design of services that empower companies to craft solutions that fully resonate with people.In this episode, Devon debunks all the myths and misconceptions about UX:- What is actually UX Design- The limits of designing game experiences based on demographic and group generalizations- Why having a deep understanding of human behavior and psychology is fundamental in UX design- What is the difference between UX Design, UI art, and a UI designer, and why the overused acronym UX/UI is misleading.- When do you need to think about UX? at the very start or at the very end of the design process?- Can we calculate the ROI of UX?I hope you'll have more light on what UX is and how to make better UX-related decisions, after listening to this episode.Find more about Solsten--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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

Ksusha Zito is the CTO and Co-Founder of Superbloom, a new studio focused on mobile lifestyle games. Before starting on the journey of a founder she was a Director of Mobile Engineering at Dots, and a Senior Engineering Manager at the NY Times Games. Ksusha has over a decade of experience in shaping highly scalable and efficient systems that power games played by millions of daily users. In this episode, Ksusha shares her vision for building the next generation of lifestyle games for the female audience: Why product matters before tech, at the founding stage What should be your focus as a CTO in the early days of your gaming startup How Ksusha juggles between her family life and her role as a CTO. Disclaimer: It is possible! You don't have to choose between being a mother or having a career. What is her vision with Emily (her co-founder) on company culture and the opportunities of being a full-remote teamEnjoy this new episode!More about Superbloom and their open positions. 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

Laura Taranto has 10+ years of experience in the games industry. She previously worked at Scopely, King and Wooga where she worked on multiple titles including Farm Heroes Saga, Pearl’s Peril, and Diamond Dash! While most of her experience is running and growing live titles, she has worked on games in all phases of development. She recently joined Big Fish Games last year and is sharing in this episode her exciting challenges of growing the hit title Evermerge.In this episode, Laura is sharing:- The Product Managament challenges switching from Match3 and Hidden Object games to Merge games- How they operate the Live Ops on the hit title Evermerge at Big Fish Games- The inherent challenges of growing merge games and specifically a game like Evermerge- The compound effect of investing in people before the productI loved Laura's energy and honesty in sharing her experience, with no filter and BS. Enjoy this new episode!Book referenced from David Rock: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6516173-coaching-with-the-brain-in-mind 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

Mari Aizawa Burns is a multi-media Producer currently working as the Development Director for Tetris® on mobile.  She started with live-action television Production, but really built her foundation through 15 years of Production in CG film at Pixar Animation Studios. She moved to games in 2014, first at Telltale Games as Studio Production Manager for IP projects ranging from Game of Thrones, Minecraft and The Walking Dead.In this episode, Mari is sharing her journey transitioning from animations studio to games production: What did she learn at Pixar Animation studios and could translate into her work making games? What is the role of a Development Director, and the fundamental skills you need to thrive in this position? How her experience as being a first-class waitress has shaped her producer skills in her career? How to refresh an iconic franchise such as Tetris on mobile? How to build an effective working and remote culture at N3twork?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

Sarah has over 20 years of experience making games. For the past 12 years she has been focusing exclusively on mobile. Most recently she was the VP and GM of the #1 Fashion game, Covet Fashion. Prior to that Sarah worked on The Sims Mobile, various mobile titles at Ngmoco and DeNA as well as Spore, X men- the official game, The Sims 2, The Godfather and James Bond Everything or Nothing. Sarah could have continued her career path at big companies. But instead, she decided to start her own initiatives and work on projects that give her meaning and allow her to make a bigger impact on the industry.In this episode, Sarah is sharing with us: How she led her team on Covet Fashion and built her Leadership team with 90% women How the Covet Fashion team addressed the sensitive topic of racial diversity in the game How she made the switch from Glu Mobile to invest her time on  meaningful and impactful projects such as WINGS mobile Why is it hard(er) for women and marginalised communities to get funding, and what we can do about itEnjoy this new episode.If you want to support WINGS interactive mobile and join the initiative of supporting more diverse games and teams in the market, reach out to us: https://wingsfund.me/ 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

Delphine has a unique story on how she brings her athlete mindset to her practices of leadership and building creative teams at King. Delphine is the Head Of Experimentation on Candy Crush and shares her challenges of bringing novelty to an iconic game such as Candy Crush, while satisfying the most loyal players from over a decade.In this episode, Delphine shares her leadership tools to lead large creative teams (50+ people): Why Energy is one of your most important resources as a Leader, and how to nurture it 3P approach: People, Product and Process How to run large teams of 50+ people and break the silos How to build a solid long term vision for large teams Managing upward Why it is important to build your personal branding with intention, for your career progressionHere are the links of the resources mentioned in the episode: Multipliers book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8310410-multipliers Why Great Leaders Take Humour Seriously (TED talk): https://youtu.be/uJKDipbCzdcEnjoy 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

Maya Hofree is the VP of New Games at Product Madness. She counts 10 years of industry experience, starting as a Product Manager at Jelly Button Games and later became the Product director on big titles such as Pirate Kings, Board Kings and World Series of Poker, when Jelly Button was later acquired by Playtika.In this episode, Maya shares her new challenges in building the New Games Strategy and Teams at Product Madness. We are covering in our discussion: How to build a strategy for new games from scratch? What should be the focus and priorities as the VP of New Games? Maya's experience leading small teams in a family-friendly environment at Jelly Button to leading a 400-people team at Playtika How does Maya approach building her long-term vision and career?Enjoy this new episode!More about the job openings at Product Madness: https://www.productmadness.com/join-us/or contact directly Maya if you would like to join her team: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maya-hofree-416a3b2/ 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 second episode, I am speaking with Maryna Iaremenko, a Lead Game Designer specialised in system design with 10 years of experience in F2P. She is currently the Lead Designer (and the one only) at GameHouse and has an amazing career track record. She previously worked at King, Social Point and Gameloft.In this episode, we tackle: How to build design processes when you are the only designer in house? How to approach the design of new concepts? What are the current game design trends to watch? What are the challenges of working abroad and in a very different culture from yours? Why are there so few women in Senior Design positions, and what can we do about it?Enjoy this new episode!More about GameHouse and open positions: https://talent.gamehouse.com/ 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

Welcome to the second season of Rise and Play podcast, where we are focusing on Portraits of Women in Games. In this first episode, I am talking to An Vu, Chief Marketing Officer at Small Giant Games.In this episode, we will cover the following questions:- What does a CMO do?- How did An build a small and effective UA team of 11 people at Small Giant Games?- How does she lead her team? What is her strategy with UA and creatives, and how do these two parts are collaborating together?- What was her career journey from a UA associate to a CMO position? How did she create these opportunities for herself?Enjoy this new episode!More about Small Giant Games: https://www.smallgiantgames.com/More about the UA Society: https://uasociety.com/ 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