Learn from Leaders Podcast
Jun 15, 2023
#46: Servant Leadership and collaborative project management for AAA games
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Guest: Alan McDairmant is Head of Studio Operations at Fuse Games, a former member of the Criterion studio leadership team, worked for EA for over 17 years as a leader on the Need For Speed games. He moved into leadership project management roles quickly and has always embraced a collaborative, servant leadership approach to working with teams to help enable people and projects achieve their goals.
More episodes from Learn from Leaders Podcast
Nov 22, 2023
#51: The future of games marketing
Past, present, and future: what are the significant changes in marketing strategies in the gaming industry?
Matthew talks about the transformative journey of games marketing, a decade's shift from skepticism toward influencer culture to fostering authentic collaborations. The conversation delves into the widening divide between indie and AAA games due to faster marketing cycles, balancing creativity with the potential of AI to augment creative workflows rather than replace human input.
Listen and learn more about the crucial role of marketing in embodying a game's fundamental essence amidst the dynamic evolution of game development approaches.
Guest:As the founder and CEO of NoodleHaus, Matthew Stainner is responsible for the small army of writers, art directors, animators, editors, and artists required to light up screens around the world. Over the past 30 years, Matthew has consistently created entertaining visual content. His credits and awards span a vast array of games, marketing, and events. The brands that have benefitted from his contributions include some of the most successful video games and franchises in the world, like Call of Duty, World of Tanks, Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater, Assassin’s Creed, Rocket League, and Fortnite to name a few. His work has been an integral part of countless events and shows, from Comicon, to GamesCom, from LA Live to Liverpool he’s literally traveled the globe to produce the content our audiences love.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, and deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility. Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
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Nov 15, 2023
#50: The state of production practices in the gaming industry
Why does the games industry still have big issues in production management and what can be done about it?
Ben and Aaron discuss typical issues related to how game companies are managed today, specifically leadership in production.
They advocate for how a paradigm shift in leadership can help studios bring better games faster to the market at a lower cost.
Listen to learn more about how to embrace uncertainty, encourage a more adaptive, collaborative approach, and how producers can go from being stuck with task management to being facilitators of alignment.
The discussion also addresses why studios get stuck in old practices at a time when increased live services make the evolution of management more needed than ever.
This episode is truly great for both new and senior game industry leaders who want to take their production practices, team leadership, and studio management to the next level.
Guests:
Benjamin Carcich has spent the last few years helping leaders at studios of all sizes, and recently led the creation of training for game producers called "Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught". Before that, he spent almost a decade at Riot Games shipping champions, tools, maps, and various platform and backend systems, and ended up leading discipline efforts around hiring and the role of production while teaching agile fundamentals around the world. His first job after college was as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army.
Aaron Smith got his film degree in southern California and started doing production work, only to realize this wasn't his tribe. He joined a tiny company called "Riot Games" and worked his way from intern to director over a decade- shipping dozens of products small and large. Now, he's a Co-Founder of Building Better Games - a company focused on helping studios scale and ship unique products by instilling leadership and quality production practices. BBG also serves game leaders looking to build their game production skill set.
Building Better Games Newsletter: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/newsletter
Building Better Games Podcast: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/podcast
"Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught" course link: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/succeeding-in-game-production
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Sep 14, 2023
#49: Empowering game developers culturally and technologically
Guests:
Josiah Kiehl, with a background in software engineering, started his career at Oracle, focusing on business software, before transitioning to Riot Games. There, he played a crucial role in scaling the delivery of the viral game League of Legends to a global audience, working extensively on automation and infrastructure software. After a successful stint at Riot, Josiah briefly worked at Google on large-scale distributed systems before realizing his passion for game development once again, leading him to co-found Sprocket Games.
Andrew Woo, Head of Production at Sprocket Games, began as a software engineer in financial services at companies like Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Seeking a more fulfilling path, he transitioned to game development at Obsidian Entertainment, working on titles like Neverwinter Nights 2. After continuing at Riot Games, Andrew's experience as a C++ gameplay engineer and game producer brought him valuable insights into the industry. His decision to join Sprocket Games after 15 years at Riot was motivated by the exciting opportunity and innovative project presented by the studio.
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