The Gaming Founders Podcast

In this episode, Eden and Kevin speak with Stirling Rank, COO and co-founder of Void Interactive. Stirling had an unconventional journey from high school filmmaking to creating the indie game hit Ready or Not. In the discussion, he recounts how he and friends Ryan and Stuart transformed their passion for art and gaming into a successful game development company. The challenges they faced on their first project, Code 10, laid the groundwork for Ready or Not. Stirling highlights the team's decision to avoid traditional crowdfunding, opting instead for a supporter program and a captivating trailer to garner community support. He reflects on the balance of innovation with familiar gaming elements, the importance of community involvement, and the organic success that followed. You’ll hear about Stirling’s challenges scaling a remote team, and his views on the integration of AI in game development and the broader landscape of the gaming industry.   Discussion points: * (00:00) Background and introduction - Stirling Rank and Void Interactive * (06:35) Divvying up responsibilities, creating a game from scratch, understanding team dynamics, knowing when to start over, and making sacrifices for passion * (15:14) The birth of Ready or Not, funding and investor support, lessons learned * (19:20) Creating and promoting Ready or Not without traditional crowdfunding, using early gameplay trailer and cinematic approach to stand out * (26:35) Near-death release experience, the tumultuous journey of developing Ready or Not, transparent development, and the game's timeline * (31:43) Successful launch, organic appeal, pricing, and community support * (41:05) Scaling a game development company from a small team to a larger organization, with a focus on maintaining a remote and flexible work environment and expanding the game's story through DLCs * (47:44) AI's multifaceted role in creative industries and game development, including ideation, meeting notes, limitations, in-game development, and industry challenges * (52:25) Indie game development and creative fulfillment, the gaming industry's tension between familiarity and innovation, the importance of personal passion and authenticity, and advice for developers (and your younger self) * (57:00) Lightning round questions * Send us your comments, like and subscribe so you won’t miss an episode! The Gaming Founders Podcast is brought to you by Eden Chen, CEO of Pragma, and Kevin Zhang, Partner at Upfront Ventures. Pragma is a venture-backed backend game engine founded by the engineering leaders who built the platforms for some of the largest live service games including League of Legends, Fortnight, Destiny 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Pragma powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. Eden Chen is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Pragma, Fishermen Labs and Lightmark Capital, and started his career in investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA and SF, Upfront Ventures has backed startup teams across all technology sectors, with about half in Southern California, and the rest across the US and Europe. Kevin Zhang is an avid gamer and former neurobiology researcher who leads gaming and healthcare investments at Upfront Ventures, including Pragma. Resources: Stirling Rank LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stirling-r-62b40b103/?originalSubdomain=au] Void Interactive [https://voidinteractive.net/] Gaming Founders Podcast [https://pragma.gg/gamingfounders] Eden Chen LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/edechen/] Kevin Zhang LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinyzhang/] Upfront Ventures [https://upfront.com/] Pragma [https://pragma.gg/]

The Gaming Founders Podcast Episode 10: From Passion to Palia: Unraveling the Gaming Industry with Aidan Karabaich of Singularity 6 In this episode, Eden and Kevin speak with Aidan Karabaich, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Singularity 6, as he shares his journey in the gaming industry. From an early passion for video games (playing Pac-Man and never being able to beat his grandmother) and experiences at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy to his pivotal role in Riot Games' Research & Development department, Aidan provides inspiring insights into game development and design. The conversation also delves into his collaboration with Anthony Leung on their new venture, discussing their unique hiring strategy, focus on team diversity, and the decision-making process for design. Discussion points: * Background and introduction - Aidan Karabaich * Aidan’s experiences at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy * Discussing project cancellations and career pivots in gaming * Tenure at Riot Games and its impact * Playtesting in game development * The concept of 'hygge' (Danish for comfort and coziness) in the Community Sim space * Karabaich and Anthony Leung's journey starting the company * Hiring strategy and the emphasis on team diversity * The use of critical thinking interviews to assess design talent * Discussing the challenges and validation processes in game development * The decision-making process for design * The role and importance of intuition in the gaming industry * Discussion on the challenges of founding a gaming startup * Don’t try to do it all, or be a hero, as a founder - it’s a marathon not a sprint * The anticipation and preparation leading up to launch The Gaming Founders Podcast is brought to you by Eden Chen, CEO of Pragma, and Kevin Zhang, Partner at Upfront Ventures. Pragma is a venture-backed backend game engine founded by the engineering leaders who built the platforms for some of the largest live service games including League of Legends, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Pragma powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. Eden Chen is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Pragma, Fishermen Labs and Lightmark Capital, and started his career in investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA and SF, Upfront Ventures has backed startup teams across all technology sectors, with about half in Southern California, and the rest across the US and Europe. Kevin Zhang is an avid gamer and former neurobiology researcher who leads gaming and healthcare investments at Upfront Ventures, including Pragma. -- Aidan Karabaich LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidankarabaich -- Singularity 6: https://www.singularity6.com/about -- Gaming Founders Podcast: pragma.gg/gamingfounders -- Eden Chen LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/edechen -- Kevin Zhang LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinyzhang -- Upfront Ventures: www.upfront.com -- Pragma: pragma.gg [https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpragma.gg%2F&token=955565-1-1689167178777]

The Gaming Founders Podcast Episode 9: The Art of Game Creation: Slim and Trevor of Valorant and Raid Base Live from LA Tech Week Welcome to our first-ever episode with a live audience coming to you from LA Tech Week. Our special guests are the co-founders of Raid Base - Stephen “Slim” Lim, Product Director, and Trevor Romleski, Game Director. Slim was a product designer and VP of R&D at Riot and is known for always doing right for players. Also at Riot, Trevor was a Game Designer and worked on League of Legends. The duo were the co-founding team at Valorant, then 3 years ago started a new studio called Raid Base. Slim and Trevor discuss their approach to finding target audiences, ensuring game design decisions resonate with players, and using player motivation to create games catering to various skill sets, knowledge levels, and mechanics. Additionally, they explore the importance of trust and alignment in their startups, both in terms of hiring and funding decisions, to maintain a supportive environment. The guys offer valuable lessons for aspiring game developers, founders, and gaming enthusiasts alike. Discussion points: * Background and introduction of Slim and Trevor * Slim and Trevor's gaming origins and influences * The importance of community engagement at Riot * Merging teams and deciding game direction * Developing the thesis for Raid Base's game * Balancing game features and team resources * Prioritizing and clarifying game design decisions * Aligning team visions for a cohesive product * Slim's focus on high-level vision, Trevor on execution * Prototyping and resolving design ambiguities * Navigating challenges in the gaming industry * Balancing work, gaming, and personal lives * Closing remarks on passion and creating games The Gaming Founders Podcast is brought to you by Eden Chen, CEO of Pragma, and Kevin Zhang, Partner at Upfront Ventures. Pragma is a venture-backed backend game engine founded by the engineering leaders who built the platforms for some of the largest live service games including League of Legends, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Pragma powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. Eden Chen is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Pragma, Fishermen Labs and Lightmark Capital, and started his career in investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA and SF, Upfront Ventures has backed startup teams across all technology sectors, with about half in Southern California, and the rest across the US and Europe. Kevin Zhang is an avid gamer and former neurobiology researcher who leads gaming and healthcare investments at Upfront Ventures, including Pragma. Resources: -- Stephen Lim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slimborama/ -- Trevor Romleski LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorromleski/ -- Raid Base: https://www.raidbase.com/ -- Valorant: https://playvalorant.com/ -- Gaming Founders Podcast: https://pragma.gg/gamingfounders -- Eden Chen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edechen/ -- Kevin Zhang LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinyzhang/ -- Upfront Ventures: https://upfront.com/ -- Pragma: https://pragma.gg/

The Gaming Founders Podcast Episode 8: 2x Founder Chris Scholz of Free Range Games and Upcoming Blockbuster: Return to Moria Today’s guest is Chris Scholz, CEO of Free Range Games. The company’s mission is to make video games that people find meaningful, memorable, and fun. Established in 2009, and headquartered in Sausalito, California, Free Range Games was founded by veteran game developers and longtime collaborators. Game projects have spanned across PC, console, mobile, web, VR, and AR platforms. Free Range will be releasing their own fully developed game The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™ in 2023. In this episode, you’ll hear Chris’ journey from a spate of temp jobs that he hated and wasn’t very good at, the ‘youthful exuberance’ that led him to start his first company, Shaba Games, and his later successes when Shaba was acquired by Activision, and finally leaving again to start Free Range Games. Chris talks about the early days of Free Range, their culture, their dedication to games that delight people, and the upcoming release of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria™. Discussion points: * Chris’ journey from ‘bad’ temp employee to focused gaming designer at Toys for Bob * Youthful exuberance led Chris to leave to start his own company * Sony, Activision, and Tony Hawk * Activision and its interesting characters * Starting Free Range Games in 2009 * Past learnings that were useful at Free Range * The current state of things at Free Range * The license for LOTR and its many properties * Free Range’s organizational balance, culture * Advice for other founders - Stay small until you’re sure of what you’re doing The Gaming Founders Podcast is brought to you by Pragma, a venture-backed backend game engine founded by the engineering leaders who built the platforms for some of the largest live service games including League of Legends, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Pragma powers services like accounts, matchmaking, and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. CEO of Pragma Eden Chen was also the founder of Fishermen Labs and Lightmark Capital and was previously an investment banker at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Kevin Zhang leads the healthcare and gaming practices at Upfront Ventures. Upfront has backed standout teams across all technology sectors with a current focus in healthcare, fintech, consumerization of enterprise software, gaming, computer vision, and AgTech/ sustainability. Resources: -- Christopher Scholz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-scholz-12470b16/ -- Free Range Games Website: https://www.freerangegames.com/ -- Gaming Founders Podcast: https://pragma.gg/gamingfounders -- Eden Chen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edechen/ -- Kevin Zhang LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinyzhang/ -- Upfront Ventures: https://upfront.com/ -- Pragma: https://pragma.gg/

The Gaming Founders Podcast Episode 7: SuperJoost - The Entrepreneurial Journey of Professor and Author Joost van Dreunen Today’s guest is Joost van Dreunen, the former CEO & Co-Founder of SuperData Research, a games market research firm that was acquired by Nielsen. Joost is now an academic and entrepreneur, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, and author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games. In addition to being an investor and advisor for funds and firms active in interactive entertainment, Joost publishes a weekly newsletter on gaming, tech, and entertainment called SuperJoost Playlist. He received an MA from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. In this episode, you’ll hear how Joost became fascinated with games at a young age, how he pitched and hounded his professors to allow him to write his Ph.D. thesis on the business of games, his experience prepping and selling his company SuperData to Nielsen, and how he sees the future of the gaming industry changing in the next five to ten years. Discussion points: * How Joost got into games as a kid, studying games in the early 2000s, pitched games to professors as a PhD thesis, earned money as an analyst to start a company * Founding of SuperData in 2010 and the state of the industry at the time * Fundraising - appealing to a network of colleagues and friends, the new landscape of large VC firms, having all your paperwork and numbers in order * The process of selling SuperData to Nielsen and advice for others going through that process * The book - One Up - the new business models - innovation and strategy in today’s gaming industry * The outlook for the future of gaming - from product to service, and from fringe to mainstream - business models will change in the next 5-10 years * Reducing barriers to entry, tech vs. creativity, monetizing, marketing, and distribution * Advice to your younger self - focus on yourself and your own business, not everyone else’s. Your money is to buy you more time, not foosball tables The Gaming Founders Podcast is brought to you by Eden Chen, CEO of Pragma, and Kevin Zhang, Partner at Upfront Ventures. Pragma is a venture-backed backend game engine founded by the engineering leaders who built the platforms for some of the largest live service games including League of Legends, Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Pragma powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. Eden Chen is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Pragma, Fishermen Labs and Lightmark Capital, and started his career in investment banking at Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA and SF, Upfront Ventures has backed startup teams across all technology sectors, with about half in Southern California, and the rest across the US and Europe. Kevin Zhang is an avid gamer and former neurobiology researcher who leads gaming and healthcare investments at Upfront Ventures, including Pragma. Resources: -- SuperJoost Video Game Playlist: https://superjoost.substack.com/about -- Joost van Dreunen NYU Faculty: https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/joost-vandreunen -- Joost van Dreunen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joostvandreunen/ -- The Book: One Up: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/one-up/9780231197526 -- Gaming Founders Podcast: https://pragma.gg/gamingfounders -- Eden Chen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edechen/ -- Kevin Zhang LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinyzhang/ -- Upfront Ventures: https://upfront.com/ -- Pragma: https://pragma.gg/