A Spark Of Awareness

In this episode, I am debunking with Steph all the misconceptions about narrative design, and why this field remains so misunderstood in the gaming industry. - What is narrative design, and why it is not just "writing" for games? - Why narrative design is essential from the concept phase to build long lasting IPs - Why and how diversity enables to create impactful and meaningful stories for player...

In this episode, we are tackling with Kegan all the burning questions you could have about the history and development of the Diablo Franchise: What is the Product Management approach to Diablo IV, and why is this is a new approach in AAA development? The important differences in Product Management between F2P mobile and AAA development What can we learn from the advanced Player Research methods a...

Anette Staloy is CMO at the Norwegian games studio Dirtybit . The studio focuses on social multiplayer games, and have grown organically to close to 140 million downloads for their games in the Fun Run series. Dirtybit was founded almost 11 years ago, and Anette has been part of the team for the last 7 years. Anette is also the co-founder and chair of Women in Games Norway. In this episode, Anette...

1 - YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EPISODE I often ask other leaders in my podcast interviews: “What keeps you up at night?” When I ask myself this question, I cannot think of anything but “How do I keep my team together on our mission to create something bigger than ourselves?” This question keeps me busy all the time. I previously wrote why if you’re looking to achieve in life and business, you first...

Noemie has been working in international digital marketing and mobile gaming for the past 10 years. She has led performance marketing teams for startups like PlayQ and also has experience with bigger companies like Jam City where she led the user acquisition strategy for the launch of the top mobile game Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery .  She is now the CMO of Air Console, an online video game conso...

The third season of the podcast is in the making!!! I would love to get your feedback and suggestions (2-min survey): https://www.surveylegend.com/s/47al --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simonetta joined GameHouse as their new CEO in October last year, to fulfill the mission of becoming the leading provider...

The third season of the podcast is in the making!!! I would love to get your feedback and suggestions ( 2-min survey): https://www.surveylegend.com/s/47al --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Devon has always been drawn to building heartfelt experiences that captivate everyday people and result in long-term valu...

Ksusha Zito is the CTO and Co-Founder of Superbloom, a new studio focused on mobile lifestyle games. Before starting on the journey of a founder she was a Director of Mobile Engineering at Dots, and a Senior Engineering Manager at the NY Times Games. Ksusha has over a decade of experience in shaping highly scalable and efficient systems that power games played by millions of daily users.  In this...

Laura Taranto has 10+ years of experience in the games industry. She previously worked at Scopely, King and Wooga where she worked on multiple titles including Farm Heroes Saga, Pearl’s Peril, and Diamond Dash!  While most of her experience is running and growing live titles, she has worked on games in all phases of development. She recently joined Big Fish Games last year and is sharing in this e...

Mari Aizawa Burns is a multi-media Producer currently working as the Development Director for Tetris® on mobile.  She started with live-action television Production, but really built her foundation through 15 years of Production in CG film at Pixar Animation Studios. She moved to games in 2014, first at Telltale Games as Studio Production Manager for IP projects ranging from Game of Thrones, Minec...

Sarah has over 20 years of experience making games. For the past 12 years she has been focusing exclusively on mobile. Most recently she was the VP and GM of the #1 Fashion game, Covet Fashion. Prior to that Sarah worked on The Sims Mobile, various mobile titles at Ngmoco and DeNA as well as Spore, X men- the official game, The Sims 2, The Godfather and James Bond Everything or Nothing .  Sarah co...

Delphine has a unique story on how she brings her athlete mindset to her practices of leadership and building creative teams at King. Delphine is the Head Of Experimentation on Candy Crush and shares her challenges of bringing novelty to an iconic game such as Candy Crush, while satisfying the most loyal players from over a decade. In this episode, Delphine shares her leadership tools to lead larg...

Maya Hofree is the VP of New Games at Product Madness. She counts 10 years of industry experience, starting as a Product Manager at Jelly Button Games and later became the Product director on big titles such as Pirate Kings, Board Kings and World Series of Poker, when Jelly Button was later acquired by Playtika. In this episode, Maya shares her new challenges in building the New Games Strategy and...

In this second episode, I am speaking with Maryna Iaremenko, a Lead Game Designer specialised in system design with 10 years of experience in F2P. She is currently the Lead Designer (and the one only) at GameHouse and has an amazing career track record. She previously worked at King, Social Point and Gameloft. In this episode, we tackle: How to build design processes when you are the only designer...

Welcome to the second season of Rise and Play podcast, where we are focusing on Portraits of Women in Games. In this first episode, I am talking to An Vu, Chief Marketing Officer at Small Giant Games. In this episode, we will cover the following questions: - What does a CMO do? - How did An build a small and effective UA team of 11 people at Small Giant Games? - How does she lead her team? What is...

To kick off the New Year, I wanted to share some thoughts for 2022. In this special episode, I am sharing the journaling methods I have been using at the transition of each year, and key moments of my life. Instead of focusing on your BIG goals one time a year, conduct regularly self reflection work and journaling instead.  Enjoy this new episode. I wish you a great start for 2022! This is a publi...

Follow the second season of my MasterClass on building teams for the long term, what I call: Antifragile teams. In this episode, I share the mindset required as a Lead to build an Antifragile team. How do you build long-term trust in a group, and how can you influence it as the Team Lead? Show vulnerability as a Leader, and what does it look like to act vulnerable? At last, to become Antifragile,...

Follow the second season of my MasterClass on building teams for the long term, what I call: Antifragile teams. What is your main responsibility as the Team Lead? The 4 steps to build a great environment in a team How do you create a strong culture with certain values in your team? Where do you start?  Link to the full masterclass video: https://www.riseandplay.io/video/how-to-create-your-studio-c...

Follow the second season of my MasterClass on building teams for the long term, what I call: Antifragile teams. What is an Antifragile Team? Why does it matter? How do you become Antifragile? Link to the full masterclass video: https://www.riseandplay.io/video/what-is-an-antifragile-team This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episo...

From building your vision to the methods to find, screen and select the best candidates for you - I will share my full hiring framework with you. Hiring makes up 50% of the success of your studio, so it is important to get it right! It is worth investing heavily upfront to build a sustainable studio for the long term. My best practices on running phone screening interviews from 100+ interviews. -...

From building your vision to the methods to find, screen and select the best candidates for you - I will share my full hiring framework with you. Hiring makes up 50% of the success of your studio, so it is important to get it right! It is worth investing heavily upfront to build a sustainable studio for the long term. Crystallise your Team Vision - Who do you need, how many people, which skills fo...

From building your vision to the methods to find, screen and select the best candidates for you - I will share my full hiring framework with you. Hiring makes up 50% of the success of your studio, so it is important to get it right! It is worth investing heavily upfront to build a sustainable studio for the long term. Define your Studio Mission and Vision - Before you hire, get clarity about your...

From building your vision to the methods to find, screen and select the best candidates for you - I will share my full hiring framework with you. Hiring makes up 50% of the success of your studio, so it is important to get it right! It is worth investing heavily upfront to build a sustainable studio for the long term. Start with Why - Your Why is your North Star for every single decision you make....

In this last episode of the Season 1 of Rise and Play Podcast, I am thrilled to have the one and only Mishka as a guest. Mishka is the CEO and founder of Savage Game Studios and the founder of Deconstructor of Fun.  We are addressing several topics in this episode: - How Deconstructor of Fun started from an accident and a discovery process - Why and how should you start to create your own content...

Georgina is the COO & Co-founder of Talewind, a studio with a mission to create incredibly fun and engaging gaming experiences for the metaverse, starting with Roblox! At Talewind she is responsible for the operational running of the business and is typically known as the Head of Happiness! The health and wellbeing of the team are always a top priority and she has her finger constantly on the...