GameMakers

We talk about game studio fundraising and specifically Series A funding - what that means - and lessons, best practices, and mistakes based on my own experience with this current financing round.   Understand the difference between Seed and Series A.   Make sure you don't make the same mistakes I did. Don't be a lame CEO and make sure you take funding seriously!   SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:  - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio  OUTLINE:  0:00 Introduction  1:43 Funding Environment  13:13 What is a Series A?   21:16 Investment Models  34:59 Ideal Startup Profile  44:01 Amount of Funding  56:07 Investor Value Add  59:16 Post vs. Pre-Money  1:04:44 Investor Communication   1:13:45 Having a Defined Process  1:26:49 Biggest Mistake & Advice  1:31:15 Wrap-Up & Contact   👇 EPISODE LINKS:   - Jobs at LILA Games: https://www.lilagames.com/jobs/ 💰  LOOKING FOR FUNDING?:  - BITKRAFT: https://www.bitkraft.vc/ (Led LILA's Seed and invested in Series A)  - Galaxy Interactive: https://www.galaxyinteractive.io/ (invested in LILA's Seed and Series A)  - Rainfall Ventures: https://www.rainfall.com/ (Led LILA's Series A)   😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —   • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1  • TWITTER      → @jokim1  • LINKEDIN      → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

Mr. Product Growth Guy himself Aakash Gupta and I discuss the details behind our recent report on the growth and Rise of Gaming in India.   Check out the full written analysis here: https://gamemakers.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-indian-gaming-market  SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ - Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio  😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —   • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1  • TWITTER           → @jokim1  • LINKEDIN           → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

How should companies think about retaining employees?  1. How much to invest in employees when they may wind up just leaving?  2. How to retain employees besides just wage escalation?  3. What should the attitude of employers be regarding the loss of employees?  4. How to think about matching competitive compensation vs. letting employees go?  5. Thinking about redundancy or building an anti-fragile company?  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  😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —   • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1  • TWITTER      → @jokim1  • LINKEDIN      → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/    — POPULAR CONTENT —  🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6ClJxjuRvw ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies https://youtu.be/bkd2TOpKt4I 🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021 https://youtu.be/NejFzHtpiZI 🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming https://youtu.be/_QT7O3Wxi2s 🔴 Games Industry M&A https://youtu.be/65nyPk6WNrs 🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games https://youtu.be/tHq3PzmjhLw 🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact https://youtu.be/Ojec4wGKpso 🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score https://youtu.be/5egTSQ6AiRA 🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices https://youtu.be/tmzqqnYbjNY

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/