Mobile Mavens

Our panel of experts drawn from all sectors of the mobile gaming industry

Featured

What do the Mobile Mavens think of Nintendo's mobile debut Miitomo? HELLO WORLD Apr 12th, 2016

What do the Mobile Mavens think of Nintendo's mobile debut Miitomo?

Mario or Luigi?

Christoph Safferling Head of Game Analytics Ubisoft Blue Byte
Christopher Kassulke CEO HandyGames
Jared Steffes Co-founder Muxy
John Ozimek Co-founder Big Games Machine

John is co-founder of PR and marketing company Big Ideas Machine. Also an all-round nice guy...

Nicolas Godement-Berline Head of Operations Asmodee Digital
Oscar Clark Chief Strategy Officer Fundamentally Games

Oscar Clark has been a pioneer in online, mobile, and console social games services since 1998. He is also author of the book, Games As A Service – How Free To Play Design Can Make Better Games.

Shintaro Kanaoya CEO Chorus Worldwide

Founder and CEO of Chorus Worldwide, a publisher for Western mobile developers seeking success in the Asian markets, Shintaro has over 20 years' experience within the gaming industry.

He has worked in various roles from game production, localisation, marketing and business development at companies such as EA, SCEE, Rare and Microsoft.

Tony Gowland CEO Ant Workshop

Tony’s career has covered the whole spectrum from AAA console to handheld, mobile and flash titles, working on huge franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and Call of Duty.

In 2015 he founded Ant Workshop to develop his own titles and to offer his experience as a design consultant.

Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio

Recent articles

Mobile Mavens reflect on GDC trends and highlights VR EVERYWHERE Mar 25th, 2016

Mobile Mavens reflect on GDC trends and highlights

Back from San Francisco

Dave Castelnuovo Owner Bolt Creative
Jared Steffes Co-founder Muxy
Jason Della Rocca Co-founder Execution Labs

Jason Della Rocca is the co-founder of Executions Labs, a first-of-its kind, hybrid game incubator and go-to-market accelerator that helps independent game developers produce games and bring them to market.

Formerly, Jason was a game industry consultant focused on business and cluster development, working with game studios and organizations all over the world.

Prior, he served as the executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for nearly nine years, and was honored for his industry building efforts with the inaugural Ambassador Award at the Game Developers Conference.

In 2009, Jason was named to Game Developer Magazine’s “Power 50,” a list which profiles 50 of the most important contributors to the state of the game industry.

As a sought after expert on the game industry, Jason has lectured at conferences and universities worldwide. He also serves on various advisory boards and volunteer roles, such as co-chairing IGDA-Montreal, as an advisor to the ICT Practice of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, and serving on the research management committee of the GRAND Network Center of Excellence

Oscar Clark Chief Strategy Officer Fundamentally Games

Oscar Clark has been a pioneer in online, mobile, and console social games services since 1998. He is also author of the book, Games As A Service – How Free To Play Design Can Make Better Games.

Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Shintaro Kanaoya CEO Chorus Worldwide

Founder and CEO of Chorus Worldwide, a publisher for Western mobile developers seeking success in the Asian markets, Shintaro has over 20 years' experience within the gaming industry.

He has worked in various roles from game production, localisation, marketing and business development at companies such as EA, SCEE, Rare and Microsoft.

William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
10 years of Pocket Gamer: Mobile Mavens discuss where we've all come from TIME FLIES Mar 10th, 2016

10 years of Pocket Gamer: Mobile Mavens discuss where we've all come from

Remembering a decade of mobile gaming

Ben Vu CEO SkyVu Entertainment
Christopher Kassulke CEO HandyGames
Harry Holmwood CEO Marvelous Europe

A games programmer before joining Sony’s early PlayStation team in 1994, he then founded developer Pure Entertainment, which IPO’d and launched a free-to-play online gaming service way back in 1999.

He was also a director of pioneering motion gaming startup In2Games, which was sold to a US group in 2008.

Along the way, he’s been a corporate VP, troubleshooter, and non-exec to a variety of companies and investors in and around the games sector.

Harry was European CEO of Marvelous AQL, a Japanese developer and publisher of social, mobile and console games, known for console games like No More Heroes and Harvest Moon, but now highly successful in the free-to-play mobile and web space in Japan and Asia.

Harry is CEO of Magicave.

Jani Kahrama Founder Secret Exit
Jared Steffes Co-founder Muxy
John Ozimek Co-founder Big Games Machine

John is co-founder of PR and marketing company Big Ideas Machine. Also an all-round nice guy...

Kadri Harma CEO GameFounders

Kadri Harma has supported the games industry for years, being the co-founder of GameFounders, getPegasus and GoBeyond Capital, among others. She is an entrepreneur, mentor and investor with extensive experience in fundraising and launching startup ecosystem initiatives globally. Since 2021 she headed Nine66, part of the Savvy Games Group in Saudi Arabia before returning to venture capital in 2023 as CEO.

Oscar Clark Chief Strategy Officer Fundamentally Games

Oscar Clark has been a pioneer in online, mobile, and console social games services since 1998. He is also author of the book, Games As A Service – How Free To Play Design Can Make Better Games.

Paul Farley CEO / Founder Firestoke Games

Since founding Tag Games in 2006 Paul has built the studio from humble beginnings to become one of the most respected and successful mobile and handheld developers in Europe.

He began a long, and some might say, distinguished, games industry career at legendary developer DMA Design, playing a key role in the development of the GTA series

Richard Hazenberg CEO Lunagames
Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Shintaro Kanaoya CEO Chorus Worldwide

Founder and CEO of Chorus Worldwide, a publisher for Western mobile developers seeking success in the Asian markets, Shintaro has over 20 years' experience within the gaming industry.

He has worked in various roles from game production, localisation, marketing and business development at companies such as EA, SCEE, Rare and Microsoft.

Thomas Nielsen Osao Games
Wilhelm Taht Executive Vice President, Games Rovio
William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
VR, console brands, paid, Apple TV... Indie Mavens on the trends they expect to see in 2016 INDIE MAVENS Mar 3rd, 2016

VR, console brands, paid, Apple TV... Indie Mavens on the trends they expect to see in 2016

What does the future hold?

Ahmed Samea CEO / Founder Amidos Games
Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Kepa Auwae Business / Design RocketCat Games
Leanne Bayley Developer We Heart Dragons
Mike Rose PR Manager and Developer Relations Ripstone
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Pavel Ahafonau Co-founder Happymagenta
Pontus Lunden CEO Double Zero One Zero
Is Clash Royale guaranteed to provide Supercell with another Clash of Clans-scale success? MOBILE MAVENS Feb 25th, 2016

Is Clash Royale guaranteed to provide Supercell with another Clash of Clans-scale success?

Our Mobile Mavens chew over Supercell's latest

Adam Telfer Consultant MobileFreeToPlay

Adam has been in the mobile game industry since 2007, creating games independently. He's since grown into a full 50+ person studio manager.

Recently he's taken a position at Wooga in Berlin to sharpen his design skills and work with the world's best to create amazing, well-crafted products onto the mobile marketplace.

Harry Holmwood CEO Marvelous Europe

A games programmer before joining Sony’s early PlayStation team in 1994, he then founded developer Pure Entertainment, which IPO’d and launched a free-to-play online gaming service way back in 1999.

He was also a director of pioneering motion gaming startup In2Games, which was sold to a US group in 2008.

Along the way, he’s been a corporate VP, troubleshooter, and non-exec to a variety of companies and investors in and around the games sector.

Harry was European CEO of Marvelous AQL, a Japanese developer and publisher of social, mobile and console games, known for console games like No More Heroes and Harvest Moon, but now highly successful in the free-to-play mobile and web space in Japan and Asia.

Harry is CEO of Magicave.

Kevin Corti Principal Spidershed Media
Nicolas Godement-Berline Head of Operations Asmodee Digital
Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Shintaro Kanaoya CEO Chorus Worldwide

Founder and CEO of Chorus Worldwide, a publisher for Western mobile developers seeking success in the Asian markets, Shintaro has over 20 years' experience within the gaming industry.

He has worked in various roles from game production, localisation, marketing and business development at companies such as EA, SCEE, Rare and Microsoft.

Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
as Indian Mavens discuss what they want to see at Pocket Gamer Connects Bangalore 2016 COMING SOON Feb 25th, 2016

Indian Mavens discuss what they want to see at Pocket Gamer Connects Bangalore 2016

Speaker submissions open, tickets on sale

Abhinav Sarangi Co-Founder All in a Days Play
Ankush Madad Co-Founder and Creative Head Dropout Games
Mithun Balraj Founder / Editor The Game Scrawl

Mithun works towards building the indie development community of India and popularizing game culture by providing coverage of local events and hosting meet-ups, game jams and talks.

Rituraj Behera Co-founder Cympl

My name is Rituraj Behera and I am Co-founder of Cympl, an Indie game studio started back in November 2012.

I had begun my career as an application developer but I always loved playing games which attracted me to the fast growing mobile games industry.

I had started the organization with a vision to create high quality mobile games and an attitude to learn & improve everyday.

Yadu Rajiv Game Designer and Developer

I've wanted to make games since I was in school and I've tried to learn and do as much as I could ever since. I studied English literature in college ( to free up my time for games) and then went on to do graduate studies in Design for Digital Experience at National Institute of Design. In between, I taught design, worked as a ux guy, and co founded a start up - called Hashstash (http://hashstash.in) where I made games. I left Hashstash some time ago and is currently teaching Game design, development and UX at Srishti Institute of Design, Bangalore. I also help with the IGDA Bangalore chapter and other community initiatives across India.

as Indian Mavens predict 2016's mobile gaming trends WHAT'S NEXT? Jan 21st, 2016

Indian Mavens predict 2016's mobile gaming trends

Quality and creativity on the rise

Ankush Madad Co-Founder and Creative Head Dropout Games
Chirag Chopra Founder Lucid Labs
Mithun Balraj Founder / Editor The Game Scrawl

Mithun works towards building the indie development community of India and popularizing game culture by providing coverage of local events and hosting meet-ups, game jams and talks.

Poornima Seetharaman Director of Design Zynga

Poornima has been part of the gaming industry for over 15 years and undertaken roles varying from Game Designer to Producer to Studio head and Entrepreneur.

She has been part of companies like Indiagames (Disney India), Jumpstart, GSN Games etc.

She is currently a Director of Design at Zynga.

She has worked on franchises like BioShock Mobile, How to Train your Dragons, Neopets, and FarmVille 2: Country Escape to name a few.

She is a Women in Games Ambassador and also a Hall of Fame Inductee at the Global WIG Awards 2020, making her the first Indian game developer to receive such an honour.

Raoul Nanavati CEO BYOF Studios
Roby John CEO SuperGaming
Shailesh Prabhu Founder Yellow Monkey Studios

Shailesh Prabhu is an Indie Game Designer from India who has been designing games for over ten years. Seven years ago he founded Yellow Monkey Studios and is the recipient of numerous game design and entrepreneurship awards around the world. Socioball, HUEBRIX, It’s Just a Thought are some of his recent games. Shailesh is also an excellent cook, loves playing tennis, gardening and DIY projects apart from sporting facial hair.

Siddharth Sivaraman Co-founder Dastan Games
Vaibhav Chavan CEO and Founder underDOGS Gaming Studio

7+ years of experience in Gaming Industry. Currently spearheads underDOG Gaming as a Game Designer, Business and Product Guy.

as Indian Mavens reflect on the events of 2015 and reveal fave games of the year SEE YOU NEXT YEAR Dec 23rd, 2015

Indian Mavens reflect on the events of 2015 and reveal fave games of the year

Remembering a year of milestones

Abhinav Sarangi Co-Founder All in a Days Play
Anila Andrade Producer 99Games Online Private Ltd.
Ankush Madad Co-Founder and Creative Head Dropout Games
Deepak Madathil Founder Pixel Ape Studios
Joel Johnson DigiKhel
Manish Agarwal CEO Nazara
Rituraj Behera Co-founder Cympl

My name is Rituraj Behera and I am Co-founder of Cympl, an Indie game studio started back in November 2012.

I had begun my career as an application developer but I always loved playing games which attracted me to the fast growing mobile games industry.

I had started the organization with a vision to create high quality mobile games and an attitude to learn & improve everyday.

Shailesh Prabhu Founder Yellow Monkey Studios

Shailesh Prabhu is an Indie Game Designer from India who has been designing games for over ten years. Seven years ago he founded Yellow Monkey Studios and is the recipient of numerous game design and entrepreneurship awards around the world. Socioball, HUEBRIX, It’s Just a Thought are some of his recent games. Shailesh is also an excellent cook, loves playing tennis, gardening and DIY projects apart from sporting facial hair.

Siddharth Sivaraman Co-founder Dastan Games
Indie Mavens discuss the biggest news and their best games of 2015 THE YEAR IN REVIEW Dec 21st, 2015

Indie Mavens discuss the biggest news and their best games of 2015

How was 2015 for you?

Andrew Armstrong Founder Fermenter Games
Arnold Rauers Designer Tiny Touch Tales
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Justin Smith Developer Justin Smith
Mike Rose PR Manager and Developer Relations Ripstone
Niels Monshouwer Business Developer WeirdBeard
Pavel Ahafonau Co-founder Happymagenta
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Vadim Starygin Founder Elite Games
as Does Chhota Bheem Race's chart-topping success prove the potential of Indian-developed games for the Indian market? INDIAN MAVENS Dec 9th, 2015

Does Chhota Bheem Race's chart-topping success prove the potential of Indian-developed games for the Indian market?

Our Indian Mavens discuss Chhota Bheem Race's #1 spot

Abhinav Sarangi Co-Founder All in a Days Play
Ankush Madad Co-Founder and Creative Head Dropout Games
Manish Agarwal CEO Nazara
Rakesh Kumar Principal Designer Gamillus Entertainment
Rituraj Behera Co-founder Cympl

My name is Rituraj Behera and I am Co-founder of Cympl, an Indie game studio started back in November 2012.

I had begun my career as an application developer but I always loved playing games which attracted me to the fast growing mobile games industry.

I had started the organization with a vision to create high quality mobile games and an attitude to learn & improve everyday.

Roby John CEO SuperGaming
Shailesh Prabhu Founder Yellow Monkey Studios

Shailesh Prabhu is an Indie Game Designer from India who has been designing games for over ten years. Seven years ago he founded Yellow Monkey Studios and is the recipient of numerous game design and entrepreneurship awards around the world. Socioball, HUEBRIX, It’s Just a Thought are some of his recent games. Shailesh is also an excellent cook, loves playing tennis, gardening and DIY projects apart from sporting facial hair.

Vaibhav Chavan CEO and Founder underDOGS Gaming Studio

7+ years of experience in Gaming Industry. Currently spearheads underDOG Gaming as a Game Designer, Business and Product Guy.

Is a 200 basis point increase for Dawn of Titans' 30-day retention significant? LONG-TERM PLAYERS Dec 1st, 2015

Is a 200 basis point increase for Dawn of Titans' 30-day retention significant?

Monetizer Mavens get numerate

Dimitar Draganov Director Product BoomBit Games

A game design and monetization analyst with professional gaming background and degrees in Social Sciences, Economics and Probabilities and Statistics, Dimitar also writes the Freemium Game Designs blog.

Eric Seufert UA consultant

Author of Freemium Economics, published by Elsevier in 2014: http://amzn.to/19zaPQB

Owner / Editor at Mobile Dev Memo: http://mobiledevmemo.com

Jordan Blackman CEO Bright Black Associates

Jordan Blackman is a lead designer and producer with over ten years of experience designing, producing, and managing hit content for companies like Zynga, Ubisoft, NovaLogic, & Disney.

Over 80 million people have played games that Jordan worked on as either a producer or designer.

Jordan’s credits include Lead Designer on FrontierVille & CastleVille, Senior Producer and Original Concept on CSI: Crime City (Facebook), Producer on Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, and Writer on Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising.

Nicholas Lovell F2P consultant Gamesbrief
Indie Mavens on the opportunities of making lots of small games BIGGER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER Nov 27th, 2015

Indie Mavens on the opportunities of making lots of small games

Can you be true to yourself while still turning a profit?

Arnold Rauers Designer Tiny Touch Tales
Constantin Graf Designer Rebus Mind
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Francois Alliot Designer Nerial
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Justin Smith Developer Justin Smith
Leanne Bayley Developer We Heart Dragons
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Shawn Allen Founder Nuchallenger
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Tom Fry Co-founder PagodaWest Games
Indie Mavens discuss livestreaming as a marketing tool LIVE ON AIR Nov 20th, 2015

Indie Mavens discuss livestreaming as a marketing tool

The next big thing

Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Francois Alliot Designer Nerial
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Mike Rose PR Manager and Developer Relations Ripstone
Pavel Ahafonau Co-founder Happymagenta
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
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