GameMakers

Today we speak to Shahar Sorek to answer a core and fundamental question behind video games. We will discuss the question: Why do people play video games? JK discusses how Shahar's concepts are very similar to the Japanese game design concepts around "user needs": basically that players will play games to fulfill some latent psychological need or desire manifested through playing games.

Tom Kalinske has had a career as the King of Brands. Tom first became well known for marketing Flintstone vitamins and then reviving Barbie and Hot Wheels at Mattel and then Launching Masters of the Universe. In the games industry and perhaps most famously Tom’s efforts to turn around SEGA of America were chronicled in the book and recent CBS documentary Console Wars. Tom famously turned around the SEGA console business growing SEGA of America from $72M to more than $1.5B in revenue. Learn the lessons of how Tom revitalized the old, and created new massive hit brands. 

Riz Virk is Executive Director of Play Labs @MIT. Prior to that Riz has had a very successful entrepreneurial career as part of the founding team of TapJoy and CEO and co-founder of GameView Studios (makers of TapFish) that was sold to DeNA. More recently in addition to his work at MIT Riz has written three books: #1. Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success #2. Startup Myths and Models: What you Won’t Learn in Business school #3. An MIT computer scientist shows why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics all agree we are in a video game In addition to his books, Riz writes articles including most recently a piece for NBC News titled “Trump uses TikTok and WeChat to challenge China. Welcome to a new conflict: The app wars.” In this far ranging discussion we talk about App Wars, why Riz believes we live in a simulation/video game, and critical start-up lessons and how they can apply to game start-ups today.

In today’s episode, Randy Nelson from Sensor Tower interviews me (Joseph Kim) about gaming trends in 2020 and potential impacts for the future including 2021 specifically. In this discussion we talk about not only the defining trends of 2020 and what will be the longer term impacts from 2020 into 2021 and beyond but in addition: The nature of the firm Building not only product, but also organizational advantage How to think about and build structural advantage How we view India from the perspective of LILA Games Release schedules Remote work How to think about Multiplayer games How to pick game markets and knowing a secret Impact of gaming on kids and future opportunity Changes to game studios in 2021 including the adoption of better scenario analysis and building framework to deal with unexpected events, and a potential rationalization of the market Trends to midcore games Game communities and influencers Facebook gaming So a SUPER wide ranging conversation... don't miss it!

In this episode Joseph Kim, Paul Leydon, and Avinash Pandey the three co-founders of LILA Games talk about each of their personal reasons for wanting to create the new company.

In May of 2019, I (Joseph Kim) got fired (practically, although not "technically") from NBCUniversal as SVP of Games & Digital Platforms based on a mismatch of values, culture, and approach. This was the beginning of a long road that eventually led to the formation of LILA Games with my co-founders Paul Leydon and Avinash Pandey. A week after I was fired, my good friend Miska Katkoff hosted a podcast interview with me which we published on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast. In this episode, I re-publish that interview from May 2019 to give you context on the initial stages of why I wanted to start a new company which eventually became LILA.

In which, Joseph Kim aka Joe Kim aka JK aka J-diggity-dog discusses the objective of starting this podcast. Also catch: The GameMakers YouTube Channel The Deconstructor of Fun podcast Your host: Joe Kim (Twitter = @jokim1)