A Spark Of Awareness

You just inherited or built a new team. You've made a mistake of judgment, communication, or decision with the team. Now, the team doesn't like you or trust you but you still need to achieve an outcome together. What do you do? How do you come back from that situation and rebuild trust? It is unfortunately a common leadership story in everyday business. ---- Thank you to our sponsor! Visit...

In this episode, we deconstruct with Marina Barthélémy how to make sound financial decisions for your company when things are going well, instead of making those decisions when things are going wrong. Marina has an impressive track record in gaming and finance. She previously worked as the CFO at Amplitude Studios , which SEGA later acquired in 2016. Marina and her co-founder Arthur, recently laun...

Today is a special episode as we're witnessing an intimate leadership conversation between Maria Sayans and Daniel Gray, respectively CEO and Chief Creative Officer at Ustwo Games. What is it to be a leader at Ustwo Games? ---- Thank you to our sponsor! Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠ go.solsten.io ⁠⁠⁠⁠ and mention Rise x Play for a demo and receive a free feature, theme, and art style study included with your Nav...

How do you build the perfect teams based on psychological and motivational traits? How do you create those magical teams at different stages of growth of a company? The people who brought you from 0 to 1 may not be the same ones who help you bring the company from 1 to 10. How do you update your human systems while scaling your company? We will deconstruct in this episode those questions with Bast...

It is difficult to launch and scale a new casual game these days. However, a few studios found a way to survive the turbulences of the market and become antifragile. Hear the business success story of FunCraft, a lean and small casual studio founded in 2019 by ex-EA and Zynga Product Leader Michael Martinez and his co-founder Jason McGuirk . Learn how after failing their first startup Juicebox, th...

How often do we look back and share openly what led to a studio's closing? While we can learn from success, we can learn as much from failures. And we should, especially given how many studios are unfortunately closing these days. In this episode, we go back to the story of Skunkworks Games, the makers of Merge Friends , a notable successful merge game released in 2019 during the rise of other...

In this episode previously streamed on 27.04 in partnership with Evolution Nordics, I will share my expertise on the principles of non-violent communication and how they can be applied in a leadership role. Watch the full online workshop here: https://youtu.be/GDRPJL5Sm30 ---- Thank you to our sponsor! Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠ go.solsten.io ⁠⁠⁠⁠ and mention Rise x Play for a demo and receive a free feature, the...

We are following up on the previous episode recorded with Miska Katkoff ( How To Become A Stoic Leader And Control Your Emotions ) to continue our applications of Stoicism to leadership and business. We invited this time, Arseny Lebedev, co-founder and CEO of Original Games and ex-Head of Studio at Machine Zone to talk about applying Stoic principles to business decisions. We all have our internal...

What is the most fundamental human need: to be seen and recognized for who we are? When holding a management position, how is being yourself a realistic expectation? We discuss in this new episode with Miska the limitations of being truly yourself as a leader. It is easier and even recommended to be yourself when you're part of a game team (i.e. Product Manager, Producer), to build trust and c...

Maverick Games is a brand-new AAA studio formed by the ex-Forza Horizon Directors. We interview today Harinder Sangha , their COO who shares the foundational journey of the company. Harinder has worked 20 years in tech, and 16 years in the games industry, including building successful studios with a great culture. Sangha is an award-winning studio leader who previously helped form SEGA HARDlight a...

How did you start your career in games? Did you also think that working hard, hustling, and reaching "success" at work would bring happiness and fulfillment? How do you reflect on those earlier years of sacrifice for work, that you will never get back? Hear the candid and personal story of the successful Game Designer and Executive Producer Ethan Levy (ex-EP at N3twork and Bioware), also...

Getting into an emotionally charged conversation at work is one of the most uncomfortable feelings. As a leader, you cannot really get away from it. You start to feel uncomfortable and anxious about the hard conversation you need to have (i.e. dismissal, reassignment, negative feedback, project canceled, conflict resolution...). Your report can feel it too, so everyone feels uncomfortable. It does...

We often confuse the role of a manager and of a leader. Being a good manager doesn't imply that you are a great leader. Referring back to the episode "How To Lead With A Coaching Mindset" we recorded with Ben and Aaron, a manager's focus is to optimize the outcome of an existing system while maintaining or improving the status quo. A leader's focus is to influence others towa...

In this episode, we continue on the topic of boundaries ⁠ with Maria Maunula Senior Producer at Rovio Entertainment Corporation , and Sophie Vo GM at Savage Game Studios , and how to apply those in the role of Producer. Everyone comes to you for every day's requests and problems when you are the Producer. How do you master "Saying no" more often? Learn the communication tools on how...

“Neurodiversity ” explains the unique ways people's brains work. While everyone's brain develops similarly, no two brains function just alike. Being neurodivergent means having a brain that works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person. ADHD, Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Tourette's syndrome are all examples of neurodiverse conditions. They&#39...

You know it, you need to drastically pivot your company otherwise it will go bankrupt. So, what do you do, and how? Nicolas Godement, Managing Director at Twin Sails (previously known as Asmodee Digital) shares the exciting transformation journey of a company that started as a board game IP publisher to a PC and console game publisher. When Nicolas joined the company in 2018 to support the CEO, th...

What is the one thing that the best CEOs do? They manage themselves and their time, above all. It is easy to get distracted by the everyday buzz, people's requests, emergencies, and life in general. How do C-suite and Executives manage their time and life, to make sure they keep the focus on the few important things? Managing your time guarantees a healthier and more fulfilled life. In this ep...

UX design is still a misunderstood field in games. Therefore, it is hard to hire great UX designers who understand games or game designers who deeply understand UX. How do we solve this human and skills puzzle? In this episode, Olga Marushchak, UX Director at King , will deconstruct what makes a great UX designer. Olga will share practical tools on how to hire and identify great UX designers, when...

In this new segment of Rise and Play, I sit down with my business partner Miska Katkoff, CEO at Savage Games, and the founder of Deconstructor of Fun In those episodes, we will share with Miska our reflection thoughts on our leadership work at Savage Games. What can you gain from being more Stoic as a leader? As leaders, we tend to believe that we are responsible for everything that happens around...

Saara Bergström is the COO at Next Games, a Finnish mobile game developer recently acquired by Netflix, known for their successful IP mobile titles such as Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales and The Walking Dead: No Man's Land . Saara has had a close to a 15-year career in advertising, product marketing and public relations. At Next Games, where she has worked for nearly 10 years, she pivoted from...

Carol Miu is the CEO of PeopleFun known for the casual hit game Wordscapes. The company has seen tremendous growth from $100MM in annual revenue in 2018 to over $300MM currently. Carol shares her whole journey from joining the company in 2018 as the product leader on Wordscapes to becoming the CEO. Learn how Carol approached scaling an organization of 17 people to a mature organization of 100+ emp...

For the occasion of International Women's Day , I want to celebrate with you all the virtue of Courage . The courage to be ourselves, the courage to change our lives when something is not right, the courage to listen to ourselves and to respect our needs, first.  A month ago, I did something I was really afraid to do: tell a personal story on stage.  The story you are about to hear is a performanc...

A proven way to build a strong company culture starts from the top, with the leadership. Is this the only way?  Today, we discuss with Jussi Tähtinen, CEO and co-founder of Nitro Games, a Finnish mobile mid-core games studio, on how to build a culture bottom-up. How do you start the process when you want to involve your people in reevaluating your culture? How do you define company values bottom-u...

What is managing up? While there are plenty of books about how to be a good Leader, there are few to none about how to be a good follower. Why is that? Wherever you are in this world, you will always report to someone, your boss, a stakeholder, or an investor. Making those relationships work is as important as the relationships you build in your team. How can you apply your empathetic superpowers...

In this episode, we cover the journey of Celine Pasula , Managing Director at Ubisoft RedLynx , on the evolution of the studio after the acquisition from Ubisoft. Being a game studio acquired by a big company is no longer a single story these days. So how do you manage this transition to preserve the DNA of your studio, people, and culture? Is this a realistic outcome to expect? We will cover in t...