EGD News #17
Before we cover this week’s article, podcast and book recommendation, I want to share three items with you.
I wanted to share a video with you. This is Joseph Kim, from the Deconstructor of Fun podcast, interviewing me last summer on his Youtube channel. In this video, we cover a lot of fundraising topics. This is a great warmup for our webinars.
You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DNTY0bXito
UX Reviewer — Playrix titles
This was a really insightful article! The UX Reviewer is looking at the Playrix games and where all those mechanics originate from. The cover really important questions when it comes to innovation, like:
”What precautions or change in design if any, did you have to make to ensure these base-building mechanics were not too overwhelming for casual players?”
You can read the full article by clicking here.
Piloting the Online Course
I’ve recently spent time building and piloting the “Games Company Identity” online course with several gaming companies. We’ve done workshops in Helsinki, Tampere, and Oulu, where the main focus has been to find the purpose, the identity, for the games companies.
The online course launches in April 2020, and the pilot workshops have revealed the following details:
- There is a need for this, people want to know why they are doing the company. It can’t be because of a game idea. Especially mobile games are so hard, that if the game fails, you might have an existential crisis in your hands
- When you are focused on building a company and not the game, you can see further than the first games that you are going to make. You can see five years or ten years further.
- Most of the workshop participants are gaming companies who are looking for investor funding. The teams have immediately started to apply their workshop material to their pitch decks, to build a better story about their company. One that isn’t only about the games they will make, but what kind of a company they are building.
The online version will become available during April 2020. In the meantime, you can check out our existing courses here.
Our Latest Article
Gaming Startup Cashflow — Loads of startups are formed every year by founders who are building a business for the first time. I had this experience in 2005 and I’m now sharing the learnings from my experiences of founding two games companies.
Key takeaways that I explore in this article are:
- How to prepare for money running out?
- What to do if you are already in trouble?
- I’ve created a useful template that you can download. Here’s the link.
Our Latest Podcasts
Learning From Serial Entrepreneurship — Jani Penttinen started in gaming almost 25 years ago. He developed games first in Finland and then moved to the States to work at Westwood Studios. After a while, Jani ventured outside of gaming to start working on a social networking startup. Now, he’s back to building games companies.
You can listen to the episode by clicking here. Topics that we cover include:
- Talk about your experience at Westwood, and how it compared to working in Finland?
- How do you think that doing a startup with people you already know personally, helps at the start of the journey?
- What is your leadership style like?
- How do you apply empathy to your leadership style? And can others learn to become emphatic leaders?
A Book Recommendation
Ego Is The Enemy (Ryan Holiday) — After the Daily Stoic, I couldn’t wait to jump into another Ryan Holiday title. The book Ego Is The Enemy, was a continuation in my transformation that the Daily Stoic started. A transformation towards a suppressed ego, where I can approach my aspirations with peace.
Here are a few of my reading notes:
- ”Be prepared to focus on the long term” and ”forgo validation and status”
- The imaginary audience
- George Marshall and ”who cares about the credit for an accomplishment”
- “When we are wealthy, we are told that we are important and powerful. Ego tells us that meaning comes from activity, that being the center of attention is the only thing that matters.”
I hope you have a great weekend!
