Rise and Play Podcast

Kam Punia started his career in the games industry at Konami working with IP’s such as Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill before leading the Yugioh Brand in Europe. He is now the founder and CEO of Pixion Games (new unannounced game launched soon).In this new episode, Kam shares how he found at 14 years old his passion to create games to connect meaningfully people together. Kam also shares how he established the SUPREME Culture at his studio: Supportive, United, Positive, Respectful, Efficient, Merry and Encouraging. To him, his role as the CEO is not to control the team but to enable and encourage the team to succeed. Enjoy this new episode!More about Pixion games at: https://pixiongames.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

In this special episode, I share about my personal journey on what led me to a career path as a Leader in games, my life "drivers" and what led me to create Rise and Play early 2021.The story I am sharing is not something I have shared publicly anywhere before. I feel comfortable to share it in this podcast as the result of my own reflection work, to also give more light of what's behind the curtains of leaders who seem to "have it altogether".I hope this episode will inspire you to look inwards, and be brave to share the findings with your safe circles.Enjoy this special 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

In this new episode, I am talking to Annina Salvén, CFO at Next Games. Annina has an impressive and inspiring journey, starting as a Chef to later become the CFO of Next Games which went public in 2017.Annina walks us through her journey as a CFO and how she handled the difficult times of the company during the layoff wave in 2019. Annina shares openly her personal experience as a female leader in a male-dominated environment and the shocking bias she is going through with her high position. Beyond her C-level responsibilities, Annina has been publicly active advocating for Diversity and Inclusion and championing it at Next Games too. 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

Ivanna Pogrebniak is the Executive Director at AB Games (who released the successful title: Hidden City). Ivanna has an impressive career of 12 years working in IT, plus 3 years in the gaming industry. After working as a corporate lawyer just for half a year at AB games, Ivanna got offered the position of CEO of the company. She shares her career debut as a female CEO in an industry where she had little experience, the challenges she faced, and how she overcame them. Ivanna shares her mental models and routines to handle her busy life between the family (married, with 3 children), her CEO responsibilities, and her own needs. One thing she will never compromise on is to continue to learn and develop herself.Additionally, Ivanna is an active member of the Ukrainian IT and Gamedev community and a driver of the Ukrainian Gamedev Association with initiatives such as the AB library that she is leading.More about AB games: https://ab-games.com/en/More about AB library: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKj2OS1lj8lwMTmdaf9roPQ 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 talking to Audrey Leprince who has an impressive background in gaming. Audrey started in the industry as a game designer and producer for Ubisoft and Quantic Dream on AAA games. She is now the co-founder of the indie studio The Game Bakers, behind games like Haven or Furi. Audrey is advocating for diversity in the games industry: she co-founded WINGS in 2019, an international mini-fund only focusing on funding games by women and marginalised genders developers and founded Women in Games France. She’s also on the board of the French Video Game Trade Association.Through the episode, we talk about the culture of freedom and flexibility they created at The Game Bakers, a self-funded studio. We also talk openly about how being a mother led Audrey to take a leap into funding WIG France and WINGS. You can apply your game at WINGS: 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

In this episode, Joakim and I cover how Elite Game Developers started: how the platform grew up to 3,000+ subscribers in 2 years, what was the reasoning behind the content creation, and what is the ambition with the platform going forward.Joakim shares few pieces of wisdom about his life values and priorities, why he decided to not start another company to create Elite Game Developers instead, a great platform of content for founders to not repeat the common mistakes and pitfalls in the industry. We also touch on the topic of angel investing, and why it is important to continue to support the ecosystem of founders.Joakim Achrén is a gaming entrepreneur, with fifteen years of experience from two venture-backed gaming startups, including Next Games, which IPO-ed in 2107. Joakim is now running Elite Game Developers, a company that helps entrepreneurs start their first games company. He's also an angel investor in Skunkworks Games, Lightheart Entertainment, Savage Game Studios, and more. Joakim recently took on the role of Venture Partner at Play Ventures.More about Elite Game Developers: https://elitegamedevelopers.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

In this episode, I am tapping into Tara's motivations who moved away from her long experience in the game industry as a designer, to build her own coding school to support a new generation of game creators.Tara Mustapha (she/her) is an award-winning, seasoned game designer and producer. Her experience in gaming is vast, as she's worked with Backbone Entertainment, Microsoft, and EA on titles such as the Skate series, Monster Lab and Death Jr. Her bewitching work doesn't stop at game design and production, as she and Code Coven have been recognized for their work by The Game Awards: Future Class, Women in Games Global Awards and MCV/Develop Awards.She founded Code Coven in 2019, with the aim of making careers in the games industry achievable and nurturing for marginalised communities. She's passionate about amplifying underrepresented voices, and through her educational work with Code Coven seeks to give them the building blocks to make their magic happen.Learn more about Code Coven at: https://codecoven.co/ 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, Drussila Hollanda (ex-Supercell) takes us through her journey which led her to start her recent company Papukaya (backed by Supercell). She shares with us her vision of a world where everyone, regardless of their background or age, would have a great game to play. She will also share her mental models in making tough decisions, how she built the culture in the new company and the origins behind the mysterious name "Papukaya"...Enjoy this very first episode of Rise and Play!More about Papukaya at https://www.papukaya.com/ Open positions: https://www.papukaya.com/careers 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