Deconstructor of Fun
596 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 days ago - ★★★★★ - 84 ratingsDeconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis.
Hosts:
Michail Katkoff @mkatkoff www.linkedin.com/in/michailkatkoff/
Eric Kress @ekress
www.linkedin.com/in/erickress/
Laura Taranto @laurataranto www.linkedin.com/in/laurataranto/
Phillip Black @econosopher www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-black-economist/
Jen Donahoe @Jen_Donahoe www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdonahoe
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
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Episodes
TWiG 218 - Everdale's Metacore Move / Death of E3 / EA Abandons Mobile Shooters
February 02, 2023 11:20 - 1 hour - 91.4 MBIt's a newspacked and unfortunately negative news cycle this week for the games industry. This week opens (as always) with a non apology apology from Kress. Laura talks about the let down of the promising looking Forspoken. Phil reads Supercell's offloading of Everdale to Metacore as a bad portent and Ethan defends the strategy. We lament the death of E3, the death of Apex Mobile, the death of Battlefield Mobile and rumored lackluster PSVR2 pre-orders. We discuss Embracer and the Amazon acqu...
Phoenix Labs CEO Jesse Houston on Building a Forever Company
January 31, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBBefore he took the entrepreneurial leap to found Phoenix Labs, CEO Jesse Houston had an enviable collection of gamedev experiences across Ubisoft (Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six), BioWare (Mass Effect) and Riot (League of Legends). With such a depth of experience, the success of breakout hit Dauntless feels almost inevitable. In this week's spotlight interview, Jesse sits down with Ethan to talk about building Phoenix and how a well designed culture has been its secret superpower. With Phoenix, ...
TWiG #217 - Playtika makes a move for Rovio / Why have gaming SPACs performed so poorly on the stock market?
January 26, 2023 08:00 - 1 hour - 87 MBIn a week chock full of games industry news, we've got a full house as Ethan returns from paternity leave and new face Phillip Black makes his second appearance on the pod. We discuss Playtika's unsolicited offer to acquire Rovio and how we expect they'll respond. We discuss the many gaming SPACs of 2021 and 2022 and learn that Ethan bought into many of them and why they've been so disastrous for his retirement savings (wamp wamp). We cover the frayed NetEase/Blizzard relationship, the new s...
TWIG #216 Ubisoft Staff Threatens to Strike over 4-Day Work Week / Laying out the Bull case for Mobile
January 19, 2023 10:27 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBTWIG has a special guest: Phillip Black! Phillip joins the usual mötley crew of Eric Kress, Eric Seufert, and Laura Taranto, to cover: Marvel Snap’s performance, roughly 3 months post-launch; Ubisoft CEO’s email to employees; Voodoo’s $3m privacy slip-up; Apex Legend’s Matchmaking as well as a few other smaller updates. REMINDER: The Deconstructor of Fun x Google Istanbul conference is coming up on March 8-10th, 2023, mark your calendars! Signups liver January 25th! --- Support this podc...
5 Secrets Behind Mr. Autofire's $40M Success with co-Founder Miikka Ahonen
January 16, 2023 08:00 - 49 minutes - 67.3 MBIf you've triggered a rewarded video ad anytime in the past few years, you have most likely seen a captivating, easy to understand advertisement for Lightheart Entertainment's hit game Mr. Autofire. With over $40m in lifetime revenue and still growing, Mr. Autofire is an understated and indisputable success story. In today's interview, Ethan sits down with Lightheart Co-Founder Miikka Ahonen about the founding of the company and the birth of Mr. Autofire. Most importantly, Miikka reveals the...
Lightheart's 5 Key Questions Behind Mr Autofire's $40m+ Success
January 16, 2023 08:00 - 49 minutes - 67.3 MBIf you've triggered a rewarded video ad anytime in the past few years, you have most likely seen a captivating, easy to understand advertisement for Lightheart Entertainment's hit game Mr. Autofire. With over $40m in lifetime revenue and still growing, Mr. Autofire is an understated and indisputable success story. In today's interview, Ethan sits down with Lightheart Co-Founder Miikka Ahonen about the founding of the company and the birth of Mr. Autofire. Most importantly, Miikka reveals the...
TWIG #215 THE 2023 PREDICTIONS 🎉🥳🥁🏆
January 12, 2023 10:27 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBTWIG’s 2023 Predictions. This week, the fearsome trio Eric K, Eric S, and Laura go through their 2023 Predictions: Eric K makes a call on the mobile & console markets, blockchain, China, and AppLovin; Eric S on content, M&A’s, brand advertising, and a few “too hot for TV” surprises; Laura on Apple & VR, monetization and innovation in mechanics. Until next week. thanks to our sponsors: www.xsolla.com > www.applsflyer.com > www.data.io --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify....
How to Find a Unified, Single Source of Truth for your Marketing Team with Yevgeny Peres, EVP of Product Strategy @ Appsflyer
January 09, 2023 10:10 - 56 minutes - 78 MBIn a recent episode, Yevgeny Peres, the EVP of Product Strategy at Appsflyer, returned to the podcast to reveal and cure Ethan of his ignorance of many critical parts of the user acquisition side of game development. One of the big takeaways from this interview was the importance of a measurement framework that provides a unified, single source of truth for your marketing team. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
TWIG #214 (The Unofficial) Deconstructor of Fun 2022 Gaming Awards
January 04, 2023 20:04 - 1 hour - 56 MBHappy New Year! Erik, Eric, and Laura kick off 2023 by reviewing the TWIG 2022 Awards. The team discusses how last year fared with respect to web3 games and investors, talks about a host of acquisitions, gives thoughts on big moves from the biggest players, and, of course, debates about the best and most disappointing games launched. Until next week! thanks to our sponsors: www.xsolla.com > www.applsflyer.com > www.data.io --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sho...
In a Privacy-Centric World, Creative is More Important Than Ever
December 18, 2022 19:50 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MBWith privacy becoming more important to mobile players and the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) in-app advertising inventories, the quality of your creatives has never been more critical to the success of your games. This was one of the key takeaways from our recent discussion with Sandro Gelashvili, Head of Creative Works at Google, and Rau Dosymbetov, Creative Producer at Nexters, on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod...
TWIG #213 THE SEASON FINALE!
December 14, 2022 17:45 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MBThis is the last TWIG of 2022! Closing out the year, Seufert, Kress, and Laura discuss the 2022 Game Awards and what game launches to look forward to in 2023, Apple’s concessions on outside the app store payments, a brief FTC vs MSFT update, Playtika’s layoffs and Brawl Stars removing Loot Boxes. Have a great end of the year and we look forward to delivering all your game-related news in January. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Veteran Technical Director James Marr Answers: What Makes A Great Game Engineer?
December 13, 2022 14:42 - 1 hour - 117 MBJames Marr has been a Technical Director at studios including DeNA, Zynga and N3TWORK Studios. His work includes Eliminate, which was not only the first 3D, competitive shooter on the App Store, but its first free-to-play game as well, as well as top-grossing hit Legendary: Game of Heroes. In this wide ranging discussion, he goes deep on the qualities which separate Good vs Great when it comes to Game Engineering. He blows Ethan's mind talking about why it's not the hard skills like math and...
TWiG #212 - Apple's New Price Points / Game Genre Taxonomy pt 2 / Nintendo's Mobile Strategy
December 08, 2022 17:41 - 1 hour - 87.9 MBEric Kress, Ethan and Laura gather this week to tackle Nintendo’s mobile strategy, the importance of taxonomy and game classification (part 2 to “Hybridcasual”), an Apple update on pricing and NFTs and Rovio’s newest character to their long successful Angry Birds franchise. Eric also shares his short but sweet second career as a basketball coach. Until next week. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Kress's Corner #3 - How to discover and manage Licensing?
December 06, 2022 16:22 - 38 minutes - 52.3 MBEric sits down with Rachit Moti at Layer Licensing to discuss how to discover and manage licenses and how his technology works. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Tokenomics #21 - Former Covet Fashion GM Sarah Fuchs on Muus Collective and Bringing Fashion Gamers to Web3
December 02, 2022 18:57 - 1 hour - 89.9 MBSarah Fuchs's background and success in game development is formidable to say the least. With a career spanning James Bond, The Godfather, Spore, We Rule, serving as the Head of Production for The Sims Mobile and the GM for Covet Fashion, Sarah's experience leading top-grossing mobile games is hard to match. Now, she has red-pilled on Web3 and teamed up with Amber Bezahler to bring fashion gamers to Web3. With $5m in funding from Griffin Gaming Partners and an all-star team, Muus Collective ...
TWiG #211 - ATT's Effects on the Industry / Loot Box Legislation / Boom Beach Frontlines Shuts Down
December 01, 2022 17:20 - 53 minutes - 73.3 MBEric Seufert, Kress and Laura cover 2 major headlines this week: an update to Loot Box legislation down under and looking back at the effects of ATT on mobile gaming from Mobile Dev Memo. Smaller updates include the ATVI & MSFT deal, Boom Beach Frontlines’ sunset, a PocketGamer sponsored piece wanting to coin a new genre, Wildlife Studios layoffs and Supercell’s first hire in Austin. Until next week. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
TWiG #211 - ATT's Effects on the Industry / Loot Box Legislation / Boom Beach Frontiers Shuts Down
December 01, 2022 17:20 - 59 minutes - 81.1 MBEric Seufert, Kress and Laura cover 2 major headlines this week: an update to Loot Box legislation down under and looking back at the effects of ATT on mobile gaming from Mobile Dev Memo. Smaller updates include the ATVI & MSFT deal, Boom Beach Frontlines’ sunset, a PocketGamer sponsored piece wanting to coin a new genre, Wildlife Studios layoffs and Supercell’s first hire in Austin. Until next week. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deconstructoroffun/message Support this po...
Guest Host Trio Debates Marvel Snap
November 27, 2022 19:25 - 1 hour - 83.4 MBGuest host trio Javier Barnes, Philip Black, and Matej Lancaric discuss Marvel Snap's present and future. The crew dives into the launch, marketing strategy, gameplay, and systems of the hit title. They also discuss what we can expect from developer Second Dinner in the future. Shoutout to our sponsors: AppsFlyer, Data.ai, and Xsolla --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
TWiG #210 - Blizzard & NetEase Break Up / 10 Years of Candy Crush
November 24, 2022 08:00 - 1 hour - 87.2 MBEric, Eric and Laura are joined by guest David Nelson, former head of the experimentation group at King, to discuss the last 10 years of Candy Crush Saga and the Blizzard and NetEase divorce. Seufert shares his experience at Slush last week in Helsinki and Kress blames the switch hardware for the lackluster performance of the otherwise interesting new Pokemon game, Scarlet and Violet. And lastly, it wouldn’t be an TWIG episode without at least 1 mention of Netflix. Until next week. --- Su...
Esports Superstar 100 Thieves Started A Game Studio! COO John Robinson and Chief Game Maker Pete Hawley Tell Us Why.
November 21, 2022 08:00 - 54 minutes - 75.3 MBIn Esports giant 100 Thieves, Nadeshot, John Robinson, Valkyrae and their army of competitors, streamers and content creators have built one of the most impressive lifestyle brands and marketing superpowers in all of gaming. Now, they've brought on industry legend Pete Hawley to run their brand new game studio. Just a few weeks into development and they've already released the initial footage and play test of Project X. In this week's spotlight, John and Pete sit down with Ethan to tell us a...
TWIG #209 What is going on with games in China???
November 18, 2022 13:34 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MBEric and Laura cover their respective trips and dig into a few positive updates on Landmark’s funding and new game. The two rehash Nintendo’s partnership with DeNA, discuss releasing games in China, and rant on Newzoo’s mobile market update. Kress offers an update on Microsoft and Activision Blizzard acquisition. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Tokenomics #20 - Why MystenLabs Raised $300m to Build a Better Layer1 for Web3 Gaming
November 15, 2022 14:35 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MBIt's big #20! In this latest episode of Tokenomics, Ethan sits down with Koh Kim, Head of Ecosystem at Sui maker MystenLabs. The company, formed by ex-Meta veterans, has raised a $300m treasure trove to build a new and better Layer1 blockchain purpose built for Web3 gaming. Koh tells us about her history in gaming, how she red-pilled on Web3 and why she joined up with Mysten, and how the Sui blockchain is the Layer1 that will allow gamedevs like you and me to build better Web3 game experienc...
TWiG #208 - Layoffs, Earnings Reports, FTX Collapse & NFT Royalties Explained
November 10, 2022 15:23 - 46 minutes - 63.4 MBEthan and Eric S are in the house to talk about all the dramatic news this week! We're talking about massive layoffs across the tech industry and gaming in particular, new mobile game studios from NetEase and Nintendo, Playtika's latest earnings report, the dramatic and sudden collapse of FTX and the ongoing creator royalty debate going on in the world of NFTs. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Kress’s Corner #2 How do gaming Venture Capitalist really work?
November 07, 2022 20:03 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MBKress’s Corner - I sat down with Jason Chapman at Konvoy to discuss how VC’s really work.. How they invest, why they invest and most importantly how much money they make… We also explore how VCs navigate the booms and busts in the business cycle --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
TWIG #207 Is the Microsoft Xbox really Pass profitable?
November 04, 2022 11:03 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBLaura, Seufert, and Kress discuss TikTok's standalone gaming channel and evaluate whether the Xbox pass is profitable. The team also discusses Modern Warfare II topping $800M in sales, Rovio's new Barcelona studio, and Netflix's acquisition of SpryFox. TWIG wouldn't be what it is without a public apology. In this episode, Eric Seufert walks back his statements on Marvel Snap after being bombarded by product managers and designers around the world. Kress hit a D 365 of not drinking. Send him a...
Kress’s Corner #1 Is influencer marketing hype or reality?
October 31, 2022 12:46 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBKress sits down with Robin Astrom at Wehype to discuss how influencer marketing can be an alternative/supplement to traditional marketing and how it can help products and brands find audiences in a hostile user acquisition market. And how is it working with these Gen Z influencers… --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Eric’s One on One with Robin Astrom at Wehype
October 31, 2022 12:46 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MBKress sits down with Robin Astrom at Wehype to discuss how influencer marketing can be an alternative/supplement to traditional marketing and how it can help products and brands find audiences in a hostile user acquisition market. And how is it working with these Gen Z influencers… --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deconstructoroffun/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/deconstructoroffun/support
TWIG #206 Xbox Store for Mobile / Marvel Snap's BIG launch / Apple's SKAdNetwork 4.0
October 27, 2022 08:13 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBThis week, the team talks about Microsoft Xbox' plan on having their store on mobile, Snapchat's parent company's uphill battle after IDFA depreciation and the upcoming launch of Age of Empires Mobile. Your hosts Eric Kress, Laura Taranto and Eric Seufert also discuss the launch of Marvel Snap by Second Dinner and dive into the implications of Apple's SKAdNetwork 4.0. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Tokenomics #19 - Sebastien Borget Gives Us a Tour of The Sandbox
October 24, 2022 07:00 - 49 minutes - 68.6 MBAnimoca Brands owned Sandbox is an undisputed pioneer and leader in the blockchain gaming space. That's why we are beyond excited to have Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget speaking with Ethan on the podcast this episode. Sebastien tells takes us through the history of Sandbox, which started as a mobile, free-to-play game, and explains how the Sandbox team saw the early potential in blockchain gaming lightyears ahead of most other established players in the space. From the token, to the land sales...
TWiG #205 - Meta's Haphazard Horizion / Playdot's Closure / Overwatch 2's Battlepass
October 20, 2022 12:08 - 58 minutes - 79.7 MBThis week, the crew goes back to the metaverse to talk about the many stories coming out of Meta's Horizon Worlds. From lower than forecast engagement numbers to stability issues to low team morale to doctored footage of legs, it seems like Horizon just can't catch a break. Your hosts Eric Kress, Laura Taranto and Ethan Levy also discuss Take Two's shutdown of Playdots studio and why you should expect more as Zynga gets integrated into its new parent company, player response to Overwatch 2's...
Diablo Boss Rod Fergusson On What Makes a World Class Videogame Producer
October 18, 2022 13:20 - 1 hour - 87.2 MBToday we have a true legend of game production on the podcast! There are few in the game whose CV even comes close to Rod Fergusson, who currently serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Diablo franchise. With credits including Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade, Bulletstorm, BioShock Infinite, Microsoft Train Simulator and now Diablo, few producers have had a lead role in as many big name franchises as Rod. In this spotlight interview from Eth...
TWiG #204 - "The Metaverse" Book Club
October 13, 2022 16:02 - 48 minutes - 66 MBThis week, the crew does their first ever book club on Matthew Ball’s headline making book “The Metaverse.” What is the Metaverse? Do we believe in it? Can Ball’s vision for the Metaverse ever be achieved and adopted in our lifetime? Or will the laws of nature prevent this Metaverse dream from ever becoming a reality. Your hosts Eric Kress, Eric Seufurt, Laura Taranto and Ethan Levy discuss. We also talk Overwatch 2’s launch, Meta’s expensive new headset, and Playstation studio Haven’s manda...
Tokenomics #18 - Aqua CEO Sean Ryan on Building a Better Web3 NFT Marketplace
October 10, 2022 19:09 - 49 minutes - 68.6 MBSean Ryan has a deep history in gaming, from his highly innovative involvement in Sega's early online plays to a decade long stint overseeing gaming partnerships at Facebook. But as this is Tokenomics, of course he's here because he's red pilled on Web3 gaming as the CEO of NFT Marketplace AQUA. In this episode, Ethan talks to Sean about his history in gaming, how Ethan is a verified Sega Boi, and the opportunity he sees that brought him to AQUA to build a new, gaming focused NFT marketplace...
TWiG #203 Google Stadia shutdown and the new world order of user acquisition in mobile
October 06, 2022 15:29 - 53 minutes - 49 MBThe Two Erics and Laura discuss the end of cloud gaming with the shutdown of Stadia and an update on CD Projekts’ PR shenanigans. Eric Seufert discusses the new world order of user acquisition in mobile. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Practical Advice for Growing Games in Diverse Markets with Nancy Huang (Head of UA @ East Side Games) and Ludovic Thevelin (Growth Consultant @ Google)
October 02, 2022 08:52 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBAs games progress through their lifecycle, many games experience increased costs and stalls in growth over time. An excellent way to unlock growth is to find new pockets of players outside of English-centric countries. But what’s the optimal way to find these markets? How do you decide whether to make that investment decision? How much should you localize versus culturalize? What is the potential of these emerging markets? To answer these questions and more, Nancy Huang and Ludovic Thevel...
IGN Publisher John Davison on Justin Roiland's High On Life and How Games Get Covered in 2022
September 30, 2022 14:42 - 53 minutes - 73 MBThis week, we get a peak behind the curtains of how videogames are covered in the enthusiast press, thanks to IGN VP & Publisher John Davison. A veteran of games media, game development and entrepreneurship, there is no one better positioned than John to explain how games are covered in the current multimedia era. We use John's recent piece explaining how Squanch Games' High on Life unexpectedly won the Gamescom coverage competition thanks to easily digestible humor and the power of Tik Tok....
TWiG #202 - The Battle for Twitch's Soul / Gabe Leydon's Limit Break Explained
September 28, 2022 18:19 - 59 minutes - 82.3 MBA packed house for this week's TWiG as we delve into some juicy topics. Quick updates on Netflix Games latest hires (of course), Cyberpunk 2077, Apple's platform ruling on NFTs, the GTA VI hacker and more. For our headline topics, we discuss The Battle for Twitch's Soul following their announcement of deprecating the 70/30 revenue split for top streamers. We also go deep on ex-Machine Zone CEO Gabe Leydon's newest company, Web3 outfit Limit Break games, and how they're making waves with thei...
Tokenomics #17 - Mighty Bear's $10m Pivot from Butter Royale to Blockchain Games
September 26, 2022 07:00 - 55 minutes - 76.4 MBBorn from the ashes of a studio closure, Mighty Bear Games was founded by an experienced team of F2P veterans whose work crossed browser and mobile games. Having built up their studio and tech stack with Butter Royale and Disney Melee Mayhem, the studio's pivot to Web3 has seen it secure a $10m investment to build games for the blockchain. With Mighty Action Heroes nearing its initial mint, Ethan speaks with Might Bear CEO Simon Davis about his studio, his experience in F2P and his transitio...
TWiG #201 GTA Leaks, Nintendo Brings the Heat and Kim MacAskill vs Rocksteady
September 23, 2022 07:00 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MBLaura gives off strong American Psycho vibes with her choice of recording venue. Eric makes us all jealous with his recap of the BITKRAFT conference. Ethan makes mood boards. But more seriously, we talk the latest Call of Duty reveal, Sims 4 going F2P, the big Grand Theft Auto 6 leak and how it will have no negative impact on the product’s eventual sales dominance. We go deep on Nintendo direct and Laura amazes us with her commitment to completing lengthy JRPGs. Ethan tells the story of ex-R...
Tokenomics #16 - Top Gaming VCs On Investing During Crypto Winter
September 20, 2022 07:00 - 57 minutes - 52.2 MBTokenomics is back and what an absolute treat of an episode. This week, we're joined by two of the top VCs in the Web3 gaming space, Anton Backman of Play Ventures and Nico Vereecke of BITKRAFT, who are here to give us an inside look of how VCs are approaching investing during the latest Crypto Winter. Good news for all the gaming entrepreneurs out there, we learn that the VCs are still investing in worthy projects. In fact, they have an obligation to keep seeking out and investing in the be...
The Unofficial Clash Quest Postmortem
September 18, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 103 MBAfter 16 months in soft launch, Supercell’s Clash Quest has reached the end of its run. The game has not achieved the business objectives set by Supercell and the game will shut down. Following an excellent postmortem by Laura Taranto, Javier Barnes and Anette Staloy, host Ethan Levy sits down with the writers to discuss what went right and what areas of improvement for Clash Quest. We discuss the writer’s experience playing and interacting with the Clash Quest community over the past year a...
TWiG #200 Joseph Kim is BACK as the team talks Microsoft vs. Sony and Netflix + Ubisoft
September 14, 2022 19:58 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MBEric Kress and Laura Taranto celebrate the 200th Episode of TWIG with a special guest, Joe Kim. In this episode, we take a walk down memory lane remembering the start of TWIG, how and when the hosts joined, discuss Scopely’s acquisition of Stumble Guys, and a recap of Ubisoft’s most recent announcement on mobile games and Netflix, and complete with a rant from Eric. Our headline covers Microsoft and Sony and the battle of exclusivity on platforms… or not. Oh, and here's the episode Joe Kim ...
TWIG #199 How Apple can build a $30 billion ad business, the BIG wave of gaming layoffs and Tencent's grab of Ubisoft
September 08, 2022 08:18 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBEric Kress, Laura Taranto, and Eric Seufert discuss Apple’s growing ambitions with its advertising business, the latest wave of layoffs that hit companies like Snap and Bytedance as well as Tencent's investment into Ubisoft's parent company. Most importantly, in this episode you'll hear about Seufert's latest Uber debacle, an update on Kress' son's thriving basketball career, and find out which continent Laura is recording the podcast this week. --- Support this podcast: https://podcaste...
Tokenomics #15 Kongregate's Web3 ambitions, their $40M fund and the Immutable partnership
September 06, 2022 13:27 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBWhether you know it for its role as a hub of the Flash game development scene or in its later incarnation as a F2P mobile publisher, you are likely familiar with Kongregate. They have been making a lot of moves in the blockchain space recently, between their extension of The Bitverse into Web3, the announcement of NFT-powered game Blood Vessels, and the announcement of their $40m Web3 developer fund in partnership with Immutable. In this week’s episode, Ethan talks to Kongregate CTO Max Murp...
TWiG #198 Bittersweet Goodbyes / Embracer's Lord of the Rings play / reflections on Zynga 10 years later
August 31, 2022 19:32 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBDespite the goodbyes, as both Mishka and Adam exit TWiG, this episode is filled with laughter and good times. Or maybe it is because the two fellas from the North are taking a hike? hosts: Eric Kress, Ethan Levy, Laura Taranto, Eric Seufert --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Eric Kress on being misrepresented, pissing off sponsors, and why he can't be canceled
August 28, 2022 22:04 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBRight before heading out for our party at Gamescom, our very own Eric Kress sat down with Mishka Katkoff to talk about his long career in games, his biggest regrets, where his independency stems from, and why you can't really cancel him. Show Eric some love by sending him a DM on Linkedin. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
TWiG #197 Can 4-day work weeks actually work? What is Embracer going to do with Lord of the Rings?
August 25, 2022 19:08 - 59 minutes - 54.6 MBWhile Kress, Laura, and Mishka were hosting a banging party at Gamescom, Ethan and Seufert carried the TWiG torch. The guys discussed 4 -day work weeks, flexible hours, and culture building for early-stage start-ups. They also talked about Embracer rolling up Lord of the Ring and The Hobbit into their vast portfolio. And they made sure to cover Diablo 4 live service plans, which were detailed in the quarterly report. hosts: Ethan Levy & Eric Kress --- Support this podcast: https://podcas...
Tokenomics #14: How a Design Legend Found Web3 Success
August 21, 2022 18:32 - 1 hour - 57.8 MBThis one is a treat! This week our stalwart host Ethan Levy interviews Graeme Devine, a true game design legend. From his groundbreaking work on 7th Guest and 11th Hour to Doom 3, to Age of Empires III and Halo Wars, to Magic Leap, Graeme has found success across many different platforms. Now, as a co-founder of QXR Studios, Graeme has added another notch to his belt with WAX-powered blockchain CCG Metropolis Origins. In this episode, we cover some of the highlights of Graeme’s illustrious c...
TWiG #196 Debate: What’s the right role of market research in early game development?
August 18, 2022 11:45 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBThe crew starts off by recapping Unity's rejection of AppLovin and why it went the way it did. Adam does an update on Supercell's games in soft launch now that Clash Quest became yet another could-be-hit in the company's soft launch graveyard. Finally, the guys debate what’s the right role of market research in early game development. Hosts: Laura Taranto, Adam Telfer, Eric Seufert --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deconstructoroffun/support
Tokenomics #14 How Design Legend Graeme Devine Found Web3 Success with Metropolis Origins
August 12, 2022 18:06 - 1 hour - 60 MBThis one is a treat, y'all! Our stalwart host Ethan Levy interviews Graeme Devine, a true game design legend. From his groundbreaking work on 7th Guest and 11th Hour to Doom 3, to Age of Empires III and Halo Wars, to Magic Leap, Graeme has found success across many different platforms. Now, as a co-founder of QXR Studios, Graeme has added another notch to his belt with WAX-powered blockchain CCG Metropolis Origins. In this episode, we cover some of the highlights of Graeme’s illustrious care...