Episode highlights: - 0:30 How did Daniel Kammerer get into games? - 3:26 What exactly is level design? - 5:20 What would the level building process look like for a match 3 game like Candy Crush Saga? - 8:11 How much should a level designer be playing the level to ensure it is correct? - 9:28 Designing a level with procedurally generated landscapes. - 12:57 Handcrafted design vs procedurally generated design. - 17:37 Should level design be a server side push or should that be built into the clie...
Jul 07, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 38
On today's episode of the Mastering Retention show, we have our first artist: Riana McKeith! She is the Art Director at TreesPlease Games and has an incredible amount of experience in game art not only in the corporate setting but also in the startup environment. Episode notes: Going from a corporation to a startup Work between art and product team Art influencing KPIs The idea of content treadmill Creating quick content Thinking about your game in a global context Her retention tip...
Jun 30, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 37
in today's episode of the Mastering Retention show, Tj’ièn Twijnstra the Game Director at Story Giant Games joins Tom to talk about how to create strong enough meaningful narrative connections in your games and how to implement gameplay into that narrative. Episode highlights: How he got into games Narrative in casual games Elements that make up a good story Adding gameplay to the game narrative Target audience research Having a good narrative on your brand new game His retention tip Follow Tj’i...
Jun 23, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 36
In this episode of the Mastering Retention show, Mădălina Vlădău the Live Ops Manager at Ubisoft RedLynx talks to us all about LiveOps tools! From what LiveOps tools are to how should they be implemented. Episode highlights: Games she’s currently testing What is a LiveOps tool? Designing user experiences How to prevent more errors from happening Commercial tools vs building your own tools Making your game meaningful to increase retention...
Jun 17, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 35
On today’s episode of the Mastering Retention show, Tom talks to Keeley Bunting, the Executive Producer at Outplay Entertainment. When the episode was recorded, she was transitioning from being a lead game designer to being the executive producer at Outplay and she tells us how the transition is going and how she got there. She’s the lead on the Gordon Ramsay, Chef Blast free-to-play mobile game. Episode highlights: What it means to be a lead game designer How to manage feedback? What it's like ...
Jun 02, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 1
In this episode of the Mastering Retention show, Hadrien Carpentier, the Game Lead at Oh BiBi joins us to talk about their game, FRAG Pro Shooter, and having an audience-first approach. He also goes over how they are doing without a game designer! Episode highlights: How Hadrien got to his current position When should you innovate the art style of a game FRAG Pro Shooter and having an audience-first approach Game engagement How to stay up to date in the industry How his team goes about not havin...
May 27, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 33
In today’s episode of the Mastering Retention show, Niek Tuerlings, the senior game designer at Voodoo, tells us all about the new game they are working on: Plantopia. He tells us all the things they’ve learned, how they got to where they are and what they are expecting. If you are currently designing a game, you don’t want to miss this episode! Episode topics: The development process of their first game, Plantopia How to know when to kill a game What does it mean to test a game? What they saw o...
May 19, 2021•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 32
In today’s episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Alex Clark, Game Designer at Nitro Games, talks to Tom about everything mobile shooter related! Episode highlights: Definition of mobile shooter Why do people like shooters on mobile What kind of audiences like shooters? Tom pitches Alex a mobile shooter game idea and they dissect the development process! First-time user experience in mobile shooter His retention tip!...
May 12, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 31
On today’s episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom talks to Benjamin Charbit the Co-Founder of DareWise about his most recent game development: Live Beyond. He and Tom talk all about the experiences he and his team are building for this game and some of the things they’ve learned and discovered in the process. Episode notes: How did he develop DareWise The current game/experience they are developing: Live Beyond What type of experiences will there be in the game What does LiveOps look li...
May 05, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Jason Schklar is the founder of UX is Fine! and has led teams and provided product, design, and UX direction both as a sought-after consultant and as a studio leader at Amazon, Big Huge Games, Disney, Microsoft, and Zynga. In today's episode, he talks about the importance of UX in game design. Today's highlights: How he started UX is Fine! What is quantitative data and what is qualitative data? Comparison between the start of Instagram and games What is UX and how important is UX? Some examples ...
Apr 28, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 29
On today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, our host Tom Hammond talks to hyper-casual guru Michal Tomcany! He is the Chief Gameplay Scientist at Studio Slovack and has a lot of experience with hyper-casual games. Episode highlights: What is hyper-casual? Types of hyper-casual games What can mobile free-to-play games learn from hyper-casual? The role onboarding tutorials play in retention KPIs to take into account His retention tip! Connect with him on LinkedIn...
Apr 21, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 28
On today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Riley Andersen, Co-Founder and CEO of Umami Games, joins Tom to talk all about hyper-casual games! Umami Games is a hyper-casual games startup in Copenhagen, Denmark. Riley always been a passionate gamer but found her light with hyper-casual games. Topics from today: How being a social media manager shaped her way of thinking now How she started Umani Games What are hyper hyper-casual games? Who is the target audience for hyper-casual games?...
Apr 14, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 27
In today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom talks to Francisco Andrada, the lead World Game Economy Designer at Gameloft. Francisco has always been very passionate about games and about helping other game economy designers in their career paths. During today’s episode, he discusses with Tom what makes a great economy, the GED school and the top 5 mistakes to avoid while designing your game economy. Key topics from today’s episode: What is game economy design? Francisco’s 4 pillars...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 26
On today’s episode of Mastering Retention, Kaitlyn Kincaid, lead economic and monetization designer at Rovio Entertainment Corporation joins today’s episode to talk all about game economy design. From what is a game economy, how to build it correctly to how to better use your data to improve your game. Key topics from today’s episode: What is the game economy? The importance of understanding the psychology of players How to design a game from the beginning to have a good economy Things that ever...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Adam Zelenay is an avid listener of the Mastering Retention show so we are happy to have him on as a guest! Adam is the Live Ops manager at ZeptoLab and today he goes in-depth about crucial aspects that game teams should take into account about LiveOps Today's highlights: How he went from being a lawyer to a game developer The balance between copying and creating new features in the game Recommendations about types and numbers of live ops? Getting feedback from the community Tools and processes ...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 24
Jamar Graham, publisher operations partner at Unity technologies joins today's Mastering Retention episode to talk about ad monetization in games. He tells us how he got to his current role at Unity, some of the common mistakes on ad monetization strategies and the right balance between in-app purchases and ads. Episode highlights: Common mistakes on ad monetization strategies The balance between in-app purchases and ads Examples of really successful ad ideas Where do ads fall into a LiveOps str...
Mar 10, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 23
For today’s episode, we bring you two experts on what there is to know about gaming product teams: Patrik Wilkens & Chris Balazs. Listen to everything there is to know about gaming product teams, from how do you build it to what should it look like on different stages of your game and company sizes. Guests: Patrik Wilkens – VP of Mobile at Azerion and Founder of Game industry Networking Chris Balazs – Game Director at SYBO Episode highlights: What is a gaming product team? What is needed to ...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 22
On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Oscar Clark the Chief Strategy Officer at Fundamentally Games and one of the pioneers of games services since 1998, joins us to talk about the core principles of LiveOps. He goes in-depth about the three core aspects of games as services: capturing data, configurations and selling. Today's episode key talking points: What games as a service mean to him The difference between live ops and games as services What would be the first step to start running Li...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 21
On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Harshal Karvande , Game Design Lead at Rovio , joins us to talk about how he started in India and ended up in Finland, what it means to create a LiveOps strategy based on player behavior and how to align yourself to the flow of your audience. During the episode, he provides several real-life examples that make his concepts and logic very fun and easy to understand. Highlights of today's episode: Getting a masters in New media design in India Why are Fin...
Feb 17, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Today's guest for another episode of the Mastering Retention podcast is Rachel Ansell—senior producer & product owner at PerBlue. After getting her degree in arts, she got an internship that showed her what she wanted to do with her career: be a producer! She joins today's episode to talk to Tom about the different roles and responsibilities that fall under a game producer, some of the life lessons she’s learned along the way and her experience with live games. Key highlights of today's epis...
Feb 10, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In today’s episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, we are joined by Creative Game Lead Sophie Vo. She’s French- Vietnamese but currently resides in Berlin where she helps run Voodoo . In today’s episode, she talks to Tom about some hiring practices, her definition and implementation of cognitive diversity, and how she nourishes work culture—especially during Covid-times! Highlights of today's episode: The process of building a new studio and team How she developed the WHY of Voodoo How she d...
Feb 03, 2021•53 min•Ep. 18
On today’s episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom talks to Renee Gittins, ED of the International Game Developers Association and CEO of Stumbling Cat. Renee is a leader in the field and she is passionate about advocating and connecting game developers in the industry. In today’s episode, she talks about her role at the IGDA, the future of Stumbling Cat and gives some tips to those who want to start their own studio. Today’s episode highlights: How she got into games Running her own stu...
Jan 25, 2021•50 min•Ep. 17
On today’s episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, narrative game designer, Isaac Phoenix, joins us to discuss everything NARRATIVE related! Games are nothing without an appealing storyline. If you are starting a game or are having questions about what are key aspects in your game to craft a good storyline you don’t want to miss today’s episode. Highlights of today’s episode: Why games should have a narrative Defining a storyline to a game Examples of how games implement narratives and Recom...
Jan 18, 2021•54 min•Ep. 16
On today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, we have a special visit from the Mobile Game Doctor! Dave Rohrl has 25 years of experience in design, production, and studio leadership that has allowed him to lead several groups of people to grow his business and help others with their design challenges. Because of Dave's incredible journey, today's episode is one you'll want to listen to the very end. Some of today's key topics were: How he started the Mobile Game Doctor What he looks for...
Jan 07, 2021•50 min•Ep. 15
On today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom talks to the first woman to join the podcast, Antanina Livingston! She's an accomplished product manager originally from Belarus, that is currently working at Activision. Some key topics for today's episode: How living in different places and speaking different languages has helped her approach live ops and content that is tailored to people in different locations What it means to be a product manager and the difference between being a p...
Dec 17, 2020•50 min•Ep. 14
In today’s episode of the Mastering Retention Podcast, Tom has a conversation with Karan Khairajani, cofounder of independent studio Firescore on all there is to know about hyper-casual games. From starting a gaming company to what KPIs are important. Some of the highlights of today's episode are: How he got into gaming and his entrepreneurial spirit What it takes to start up a gaming company CPI, LTV, and ROAS as KPI’s in gaming The importance of working with publishers as an independent studio...
Dec 04, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom interviews MURKA's COO Barak David, who went from a technological background to leading a company's business strategy. Some of the key topics from today's episode: Why he decided to open an accelerator division within MURKA How some of the Social Casino features can transfer to other genres Pushing MURKA to be a more data-driven company but letting creativity thrive His take on 100% personalization The process they recommend for planning...
Nov 23, 2020•48 min•Ep. 12
In today's episode of the Mastering Retention podcast, Tom talks with Fawzi Mesmar, Head Designer at DICE, and winner of the Game Dev Heroes award in 2020 for the category of Game Design! Key takeaways from today's episode: Thoughts on Genshin Impact How his computer science undergrad impacted his career in games Why he is getting and MBA The balance between business and development Lessons learned while overlooking the Candy Crush franchise Designing casual games and understanding how consumers...
Nov 13, 2020•32 min•Ep. 12
On today’s episode of Mastering Retention, Tom is joined by Ethan Levy, Executive Producer on Tetris Mobile! Ethan is an experienced game designer and producer that has worked on several cool projects from several different angles. Ethan is also the founder and lead consultant at Famous Aspect in regards to free-to-play monetization. Some of the key takeaways of today's episode are: How Ethan started in the gaming industry Balancing between game design (his core pillar) and production The benefi...
Nov 04, 2020•50 min•Ep. 10
On today's episode of Mastering Retention, we get a gaming history lesson from Alex Ronald from Clanet.io! Alex has been in the gaming industry for a long time and is very knowledgeable about how human behavior has been impacted by the gaming industry and vice-versa. Some of the topics touched on today's episode: How he got into gaming His experience in China and building his own company there His experience at Twitch and how he helped them with communication Interesting facts and information ab...
Oct 27, 2020•24 min•Ep. 9
