Alternate Worlds Podcast

Henry Stern

Henry Stern is a storied game designer who has delivered in many mediums — TCG, board gaming, web2 gaming & mobile gaming. Early on, he left a career -- that he enjoyed -- as a rocket scientist, to go after his passion instead and never looked back. Gaming is that passion. I was lucky enough to work with Henry on Magic: the Gathering, which he helped steward on the game development side for over a decade, and then again at pre-IPO Zynga, where Henry materially muscled up Mafia Wars & Zynga’s chances of a successful IPO. Today, Henry lives on the Monopoly Go side of the house at Scopely, continuing his legacy of making high impact on major game franchises. Chase your passion, indeed. :) Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe [https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Jake Theis

Jake Theis is an INFJ, who, while I was at WotC, was a Brand Manager for Magic: the Gathering. After that, he went off to work on Gencon, became Head of Marketing at Ravensburger, then functioned as VP of Games at Wizkids. Jake has deep knowledge of the hobby gaming industry & working with great IPs (think Lorcana) & also has a fertile knowledge of the cultural influences that inform the products we design. Jake is an excellent person to talk with to understand how to position, craft & market all things game & entertainment. Very fun chat. :) Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe [https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Justin Gary

The Justin Gary Gaming Journey: Justin Gary is the CEO of Stoneblade Entertainment, the author of Think Like a Game Designer, the designer of Ascension, SolForge (w/ Richard Garfield) & Solforge Fusion (w/ Richard Garfield) and also happened to be a Pro Tour Winner & US National Champion at Magic: the Gathering. Today he travels around the world, helps people launch great projects, and continually refines who he is and how he operates -- to help others grow, bond, etc. Justin & I met when we were asked to play in a Pro Tour team event together (ahem, coming up on 30 years ago now), and have been good friends ever since. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe [https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Arthur Parsons

Arthur Parsons didn’t invent your LEGO childhood, as Substack has creatively suggests, but he did have a hand in designing all of the highly-popular LEGO video games that came out over the last two decades, graduating to Head of Design for the franchise at Traveler’s Tales. More recently, Arthur serves as Head of Production for 10:10 Games, who earlier released Funko Fusion, and appropriately loves to bring IPs to life. Arthur crackles with creativity & wit, so I was looking forward to this call. May you enjoy it, and may we not be sued for anything we said. We behaved (we think). Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe [https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Nina Dobner

Nina Dobner joined the games industry 25+ years back, working to translate & publish Riven (the sequel to Myst) in the UK, then migrated to Electronic Arts & San Francisco as an IP-related game producer in the early 2000’s. While there, she worked on some of the biggest IPs and EA video game titles of the era — Star Wars (Battlefront), The Lord of the Rings, Batman & The Godfather. As the 2010’s ramped up and gaming was changing course (to social platforms), Nina joined Zynga during its growth period & helped stand up the design culture across the studios with an eye to building external studios that could succeed, fast. Today, Nina has gravitated to a business development/strategy focus at the intersection of IP & games. Which just makes sense. :) Nina is the most San Francisco person I know, which is a good thing. Extra credit: The steps to Nina’s place in San Francisco are somewhat famous — and for good reason. See below! Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe [https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]