LevelUp

Sally Lu, Director of Customer Success at Unity, joins Melissa Zeloof to discuss the role of Unity and gametech more generally in the games industry, and what we might expect for the future.

Simon Davis, Co-Founder and CEO at Mighty Bear Games, joins Melissa Zeloof in our "What I wish I knew when..." series to talk about his process for identifying and evaluating new game concepts, the learning curve he's experienced, and how to avoid bias

Host Melissa Zeloof is joined by Nate Morgan, Global Gaming Lead at Facebook Audience Network, to discuss the rise of in-game ads and the key innovations in this space, the shift to hybrid monetization models, and the opportunities in-app bidding opens up for developers.

Melissa Zeloof is joined by Spike Laurie, Venture Director at Hiro Capital, and Mario Lu, VP at Barclays and Lead Analyst for video game stocks. We’ll be talking about the game investment landscape, the gaming industry and its relationship to gametech, and how gametech is spilling over to other industries.

This is the second episode in our series for indie developers called, “what I wish I knew when.” Host Melissa Zeloof welcomes Antti Hattara, the CEO and co-founder of Starberry Games, the developer behind the hit idle game, Coffee Corp, and winner of ‘Best Indie Developer’ Award at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards in 2019. We’ll be talking about what he wishes he knew when first pitching to in...

Oliver Kern, Chief Commercial Officer at Lockwood Publishing, who are behind the hit mobile game Avakin Life, joins Melissa Zeloof to discuss the challenges of building a “virtual world” game (how does one integrate a live music concert from a real life pop star into a mobile game?!), how they scaled their daily active users to 1.5M, the metaverse, and games as the new social media.

Melissa Zeloof is joined by Ric Cowley, Editor of PocketGamer.biz, and Shannon Liao, reporter at CNN Business, to discuss the key happenings and trends in the gaming industry and in the gametech ecosystem behind it. As journalists covering gaming, they have a special inside-outside view of the industry, which made this a fascinating discussion. We cover gaming’s role in the entertainment world, ho...

Eitan Reisel, former lead in Google’s gaming division and founder of VGames, an investment firm focused specifically on unearthing the next generation of Israeli and Eastern European gaming unicorns, joins to discuss the investment opportunities in these ecosystems, the biggest trends in gaming, the importance of gametech, and much more.

This is the first episode in our new series for indie developers called, “what I wish I knew when.” Host Melissa Zeloof welcomes Gabriel Coriiu, Co-Founder of Seenax Oy and the developer behind the hit game, Hide and Seek. Gabriel will be talking about what he wishes he knew when choosing a publisher and about his journey to launching a hit hyper-casual game.

Newzoo's CEO Peter Warman, and Market Lead of Game Developers and Publishers, Tyler Long, discuss the rapidly growing gametech ecosystem, how they mapped it out, and where it's headed.

Melissa Zeloof welcomes Noa Eckstein, Director of Creative Performance at ironSource Luna, to discuss all things in-ad data, including Playworks' process for optimizing ad creatives for some of the industry's biggest names.

Elad Gabison, Creative Lead at ironSource Luna, discusses his process for sparking ideas and producing ad creatives for world class mobile games. Read the transcript: https://www.ironsrc.com/podcasts/how-to-be-a-creative-sponge/

Dan Greenberg, Chief Design Officer at ironSource and founder of its in-house ad creative studio Playworks, discusses the world of ad creatives in the gaming industry, where it is headed, and how he built a world-class creative team that’s produced over 4,000 creatives for games ranging from Call of Duty Mobile to Homescapes. Read the transcript: https://www.ironsrc.com/podcasts/how-to-build-a-wor...

This is the fifth episode in our Emerging Markets mini-series, co-hosted with Tom Wijman, Senior Games Market Analyst at Newzoo. Founded in 2007, Newzoo is an intelligence provider for the games and eSports industries, providing data across both global and local markets. Our guest this episode is Douglas Ogeto, Co-Founder and CEO at LudiqueWorks, Africa’s fastest-growing game publishing company. L...

Catch Melissa Zeloof chatting with VP Growth Yevgeny Peres all about Step 3 of the Growth Loop - optimizing monetization and maximizing LTV. Yevgeny explains which KPIs are important to track and when, best practices for optimizing engagement and revenue, a better way to look at ad monetization products (hint: it's not all about the money), and guidelines for setting up meaningful A/B tests. Liste...

This is the fourth episode in our Emerging Markets mini-series, co-hosted with Tom Wijman, Senior Games Market Analyst at Newzoo. Founded in 2007, Newzoo is an intelligence provider for the games and eSports industries, providing data across both global and local markets. Our guest this episode is Etienne Guebriant, Head of UA at Gazeus Games, a top gaming company in Brazil. Etienne’s been in the...

This is the third episode in our Emerging Markets mini-series, co-hosted with Tom Wijman, Senior Games Market Analyst at Newzoo. Founded in 2007, Newzoo is an intelligence provider for the games and eSports industries, providing data across both global and local markets. Our guest this episode is Emre Tas, CEO of Alictus, a top hyper-casual gaming company in Turkey. Listen to the podcast or skim t...

This is the second episode in our Emerging Markets mini-series, co-hosted with Tom Wijman, Senior Games Market Analyst at Newzoo. Founded in 2007, Newzoo is an intelligence provider for the games and eSports industries, providing data across both global and local markets. Our guest this episode is Tejas Shah, Head of Distribution and Revenue at Games2Win, a leading Indian mobile games publisher wi...

This is the first episode in our Emerging Markets mini-series, co-hosted with Tom Wijman, Senior Games Market Analyst at Newzoo. Our guest this first episode, which is all about the Southeast Asia gaming market, is Rahul Ravindranath, Monetization Specialist at Amanotes, a music gaming company located in Vietnam. Listen to the podcast below or skim the edited highlights: https://www.ironsrc.com/po...

In this episode of LevelUp, Guy Bar Sade, co-founder and CEO at Simpool, breaks down everything around building in-game economies. Guy offers tips to balance the game economy, how game teams should define their KPIs, and common mistakes he sees from game developer companies, and how to create a company culture based on data. Read the edited highlights here: https://www.ironsrc.com/podcasts/how-to-...

In the third episode of LevelUp’s Growth Loop mini-series, ironSource’s VP Growth Yevgeny Peres walks us through Stage 2 of the Growth Loop: Monetization. Yevgeny explains to us that the Growth Loop is just as valuable for IAP-based games as ad-based games, best practices for setting up rewarded video and interstitials, and key metrics to keep track of and monetization tests to conduct. Read the e...

Getting people to your app store page is just half the ASO battle. How do game marketers make sure they’re also setting up their app store page for conversion. Lexi Sydow, Senior Market Insights Manager at App Annie, sits down with Melissa to discuss everything app store optimization, including best practices, common mistakes game marketers make, and the difference between optimizing for discovera...

In the second episode of LevelUp’s Growth Loop mini-series, ironSource’s VP Growth Yevgeny Peres walks us through Stage 1 of the Growth Loop: User Acquisition. Yevgeny argues why game developers should start the cycle with user acquisition as opposed to game monetization, offers best practices for maximizing key metrics like IPM, and shares how game development teams can increase production by imp...

Benoit Vatere, CEO and Founder at Mammoth Media, joins ironSource's Melissa Zeloof on LevelUp to talk everything Gen Z. Who are they? What do they care about? How can game developers and brands appeal to them? And what sort of content do they love? Tune in to find out, or read the edited highlights here: https://www.ironsrc.com/podcasts/creating-mobile-content-gen-z/

Adi Shalom, Ad Monetization Team Leader at Playtika, joins ironSource’s Melissa Zeloof to discuss all things monetization, including how his team is structured, their weekly habit for success, tips for optimizing the waterfall, and more. Read the edited highlights here: https://www.ironsrc.com/podcasts/how-a-single-studio-monetizes-multiple-game-genres/