GameMakers

The Russia Ukraine war has had a dramatic impact on many people’s lives. Huge impact to society, to our economies, and to various industries in different ways.   How has video game development been impacted by the war?   Boris Kalmykov, CEO of Hypemasters is a Russian living in the UK but with most of his company formerly located in St. Petersberg.  - How have his company and other companies with employees in Russia and Ukraine been impacted?  - What about the impact on big companies with employees in Russia and Ukraine like Playrix and Plarium?  - What is the impact of sanctions and how much worse can it get?  - What is the potential for Ukrainians and Russians to work together in the future?  - What is the outlook for Ukrainian and Russian game development companies?   SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:  - Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/34hfOtv - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio  👇 EPISODE LINKS:   Crisis Management at Hypemasters: https://medium.com/hypemasters/crisis-management-at-hypemasters-eb80518c1f74  🤝 GOOD NEWS! LILA Games just hired our first Ukrainian, hired by our Russian Art Director.  If you are Ukrainian or Russian apply to LILA: https://www.lilagames.com/jobs/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —  •  MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1  • TWITTER      → @jokim1  • LINKEDIN      → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

Today I’m here with my co-founder and CTO of LILA Games, Avinash Pandey.  Having a frank discussion about the games industry here in India and what it’s going to take for India to become a place where world-leading games studios emerge.   If China and Turkey can do it, why not India? SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:  - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/  - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

We breakdown the mobile marketing activities of both Garena Free Fire Max and PUBG: New State, comparing and contrasting the user acquisition initiatives deployed in both games.    We first start with a high-level overview of the top 3 mobile shooter games: PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, and Garena Free Fire.   Joining to review, discuss, and add meaningful insights to the presentation from SocialPeta we have 2 of the best mobile marketers in the world.   SPEAKERS:  - Matej Lancaric, current UA consultant but formerly from SuperScale and a bunch of other companies, has launched a ton of mobile games throughout his career  - Nebo Radovic,  formerly from a bunch of really great game companies that did mobile marketing but currently at Zynga   Note: SocialPeta examined the UA activity in both games and they created the report covered in the video.   👇 EPISODE LINKS:   - SocialPeta: https://socialpeta.com/ - Matej: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matejlancaric/ - Nebo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nebojsaradovic/ SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:  Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

What are the skills and kind of personality required to be a winning product manager?    In particular, what do you need to become a "needle-moving" PM instead of a minor cog that doesn't actually make much of a difference?   High-level outline  1. Organizational differences we often see in different gaming studios and talk about some of the ways in which, therefore - certain skills and personality traits would be more critical than others.    2. General discussion about what are the kinds of skills PMs should have in order to be effective.   3. Talk about personality. In particular, specific traits good PMs should have.    4. Just for fun, we talk and potentially argue about what is most critical if we’re prioritizing different skills or personality traits for a PM to be #winning  SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:  - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

We discuss the current state of mergers & acquisitions in the games industry.   Topics:  0:00 Introduction  4:13 Activision to Microsoft  12:16 Zynga to Take-Two  25:30 Current M&A Landscape  39:25 Potential Targets  48:17 Playtika Acquisition  51:52 Carve-Out Opportunities  1:01:03 Predictions   Speakers:  - Saad Choudri, CEO at Miniclip  - Michael Metzger, Partner at Drake Star Partners  - Chris Petrovic, Chief Business Officer at FunPlus   👇 CHECK IT OUT   Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ GameMakers Podcast: https://anchor.fm/gamemakers  😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —   • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1  • TWITTER → @jokim1  • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

Some context:  - IDFA deprecation has created a -30% margin compression for many game studios against their game revenue  - With the deterioration of lookalike audiences CA submits that contextual and interest-based targeting will be more performant  - Consumer Acquisition performed over 25,000 multivariate tests on Facebook, Google, Tiktok, and Snap and have learned that 85-95% of new creative concepts fail to outperform the best ad in an existing portfolio. Hence you may need 20-50 new concepts to find your next winning creative.   To address the current market, Zynga's Creative Director Bradly Bifulco and Consumer Acquisition CEO Brian Bowman discuss how a structured process to creative development is absolutely critical to generating performant ad creatives.   Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ EPISODE LINKS: - Malcolm Gladwell on "Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce"

A deep discussion on how we think about employee motivation to work. How should we think about it?    We cover topics such as key factors that contribute to higher motivation, the importance of desperation, how it's important to help some employees tie potential outcomes to the work they do, and the importance of creating the right incentive systems to align work motivation.   Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

We discuss the best and worst of game dev in 2021.   Our awards crew:   Javier Barnes, Lead Game Designer at King  Josh Burns, Founder at DigitalDevConnect  Shannon Chang, Head of Operations at Trading.TV  Niklas Herriger, Executive Coach at 8 Bit Coaching  Matthew Kanterman, CFA, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bloomberg LP  Eric Kress, Principal at Gossamer Consulting Group, LLC K en Landen, Lead Product Manager at Scopely  Brian Peganoff, Ex. Senior Director, Corporate Development & Strategy at Glu Mobile   AWARDS CATEGORIES:   Biggest winner: Which games industry company was the biggest winner in 2021?   Biggest loser: Which games industry company was the biggest loser in 2021?   Best Game (HD or mobile)   Worst Game (HD or mobile)   Biggest Surprise    Biggest Comeback   Biggest Missed Opportunity   Biggest News   Game or Big Game Update You're Most Looking Forward To

We talk about some of the biggest trends and lessons of 2021:   1. Rise of Personal Brands (and everyone now jumping on)  2. Power and Importance of Relationships  3. The Duality of Existence and Human Nature  4. The New New Thing   Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter

Today we discuss one of the most important topics for the success of a games studio, especially for startups and those working on new game projects: RECRUITING!   GUEST:  - Tayber Voyer, VP of Product - A Thinking Ape HOSTS:  - Joseph Kim, CEO at LILA Games - Brett Nowak, CEO at Liquid & Grit Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter