Mobile Mavens

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

Featured

Is the $10 billion mobile game franchise inevitable? THINKING BIGGER Aug 31st, 2015

Is the $10 billion mobile game franchise inevitable?

Our Mavens ponder big numbers

Andreas Vahsen CEO / CCO / Game Economist MachineWorks Northwest
Dan Gray Chief Creative Officer Ustwo games
Dave Castelnuovo Owner Bolt Creative
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.

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...

Jon Hare Owner Tower Studios

Jon Hare is one of Europe's best known creative directors and game designers with over 10 international number one games to his name and nearly 30 years of experience in the games industry.

Jon co-founded and managed the legendary 1980/90s development company Sensible Software, creating games such as Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Wizball to great critical acclaim and commercial success and has also worked in senior posts in two of the UK's biggest games developer/publishers Codemasters and Jagex.

Since 1999 Jon has been one of the top game design and business development consultants in Europe working for many different publishing and development clients.

His own new company Tower Studios specializes in developing, publishing and licensing games on mobile and digital formats enjoying recent international success with the release of Speedball 2 Evolution and Word Explorer across numerous mobile and digital platforms.

Jon has also been a full BAFTA member for over 10 years, serving on the BAFTA Games Committee and is a regular Chairman of juries for BAFTA Games awards, as well as acting in a mentor capacity for both BAFTA and NESTA.

Kevin Corti Principal Spidershed Media
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

Ricardo Flores Executive Producer/Co-Founder B5 Studios

Sports and Action Sports games related with Brands have been his mantra, having worked at Biodroid for 7 years he had the opportunity to develop Skate, BMX, Surf, Olympics and football games.

Early in 2015, he started his own Studio, B5 Studios, a real mix approach to game dev from truly indie games to physical/hardware interaction experiences that combine mobile with external interfaces because games are made to make people happy.

Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Shanti Bergel General Partner Transcend Fund

Shanti Bergel brings a career-long passion for Web and mobile entrepreneurship to his role as Senior Vice President of Business & Corporate Development at GREE.

Building upon 20 years of experience, he is recognized as an expert on freemium monetization and digital distribution.

Prior to joining GREE, Shanti oversaw publishing, international expansion, monetization, and corporate development at social game developer Playfish.

He also led business development at Three Rings, an early pioneer in free-to-play MMOs, and ran console, PC, mobile, online, and casual game development for The Sims and FIFA at Electronic Arts.

Shanti is now General Partner at Transcend.

His global operating experience spans every major platform and business model transition of the last several decades and is animated by a career-long fascination with how changes in technology and distribution affect products, services, and communities.

As an investor, Shanti is proud to work alongside some of the most ambitious and talented founders in the business. He is a recognized member of the Techcrunch List, speaks fluent Japanese, and is a frequent speaker on early stage investment, M&A, and strategic partnerships in digital entertainment.

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
William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality

Recent articles

What's the point of the IGF Awards anyway? AND THE WINNER IS? Aug 21st, 2015

What's the point of the IGF Awards anyway?

The Indie Mavens ponder its value

Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Jyri Kilpelainen Designer Jyri Kilpelainen
Kepa Auwae Business / Design RocketCat Games
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
How important is playing other people's games for indie developers? LETS PLAY Aug 7th, 2015

How important is playing other people's games for indie developers?

Indie Mavens on balancing work and play

Chris Savory Designer Savory Games
Dave Gilbert CCO Wadjet Eye Games
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Justin Smith Developer Justin Smith
Kepa Auwae Business / Design RocketCat Games
Leanne Bayley Developer We Heart Dragons
Niels Monshouwer Business Developer WeirdBeard
Pavel Ahafonau Co-founder Happymagenta
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Vadim Starygin Founder Elite Games
as What's ideal price point for mobile games in India? BITE OF THE APPLE Jul 21st, 2015

What's ideal price point for mobile games in India?

Our India Mavens sift through the pricing labels

Abhinav Sarangi Co-Founder All in a Days Play
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.

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.

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.

Who are your game industry heroes? SHOULDERS OF GIANTS Jul 17th, 2015

Who are your game industry heroes?

Indie Mavens spread the love

Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Constantin Graf Designer Rebus Mind
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Jon Ingold Creative Director Inkle Studios

Jon's focus is on content, working from the initial outline, through the development of the authoring tools, to the writing and scripting of final content.

Previously, Jon was a lead designer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and before that a secondary school teacher, so he loves to talk. He's a published author of short stories and over a decade's worth of award-winning interactive fiction.

 

Justin Smith Developer Justin Smith
Kepa Auwae Business / Design RocketCat Games
Lucy Morris Artist Group Pug
Mike Rose PR Manager and Developer Relations Ripstone
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Is Super Evil's longterm approach to Vainglory monetisation coherent? MOBA OR MOBA$$$ Jul 15th, 2015

Is Super Evil's longterm approach to Vainglory monetisation coherent?

Our Monetizer Mavens look ahead

Ben Cousins Vice President, Studios FRVR

Ben is a 15-year veteran of the games industry - he's worked as a senior executive, studio head, project lead, creative director and game designer at companies like DeNA, EA, Sony and Lionhead.

He started working on traditional games, but has been focussed on the free-to-play business model since 2006 - an extremely long time by western standards. During that time He's worked on a total of ten separate free-to-play games across five different platforms reaching over 50 million users.

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.

Dylan Tredrea Head of Publishing ZeptoLab
Jero Juujärvi Founder Acquire, Engage & Monetize

Jero is a very business oriented and entrepreneur-spirited game developer focusing on combining game design, business and marketing.

CAUTION: If you engage this person with topics of game marketing or monetization, just clear your schedule for rest of the day.

Mark Robinson CEO DeltaDNA

With over 15 years’ data mining experience, Mark co-founded deltaDNA, formerly GamesAnalytics, to unlock big data to drive player understanding, introducing the concept of Player Relationship Management to build better games.

Mark Sorrell Consultant
Michail Katkoff Founder of DeconstructorofFun.com
Nicholas Lovell F2P consultant Gamesbrief
Halfway through: Mobile Mavens rate 2015 so far GLASS HALF... Jul 13th, 2015

Halfway through: Mobile Mavens rate 2015 so far

Their hopes and fears

Alexey Sazonov CEO Panzerdog
Kevin Corti Principal Spidershed Media
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
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.

William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
How is Oculus Rift shaping up compared to Morpheus and Vive? RANKING THE VISION Jul 10th, 2015

How is Oculus Rift shaping up compared to Morpheus and Vive?

Our VR Mavens discuss if it still has first mover advantage

Barry Meade Commercial Director Fireproof Games
E McNeill Indie game designer

In November 2012, I quit my job, moved across the country, and started working full-time as an indie game designer. My second commercial title was Bombball for Ouya, Mac, and PC. In late 2013, I won the Oculus VR Jam with a prototype called Ciess. Now, I’m working on turning Ciess into a full game called Darknet, set to release alongside the Oculus Rift. It’s by far the largest project I’ve ever worked on.

So far, this whole game development thing has been awesome.

Guy Ben-dov Executive Vice President Business Development, HD games Anzu
Paul Colls Creative Director Fierce Kaiju

Co Founder & Creative Director of Fierce Kaiju Ltd. Formerly of The Blast Furnace and Rockstar Games.

Sergio Hidalgo Designer and Programmer White Door Games

Founder of White Door Games, currently working on VR game Dreadhalls.

Tom Beardsmore Creative Director Coatsink Software

After co-founding Coatsink Software Ltd in 2009, I've worked on over 10 successful mobile (iOS / Android / Windows Phone / Blackberry) game / app projects and (more recently) 3 console (PS4, PS3, Vita, Xbox One, Wii U) / PC games and 2 games for Oculus VR / Samsung Gear VR. I'd describe my primary roles as Lead Producer / Creative and Managing Director.

Tomas Mariancik Designer

VR game developer.

App Store, Google Play or Steam? Our Indie Mavens debate which store has the best approvals process GOING LIVE Jul 8th, 2015

App Store, Google Play or Steam? Our Indie Mavens debate which store has the best approvals process

Horses and courses

Arnold Rauers Designer Tiny Touch Tales
Constantin Graf Designer Rebus Mind
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Francois Alliot Designer Nerial
Heikki Repo Co-Founder and Creative Director Cornfox & Bros.

Heikki Repo is a Co-Founder and Creative Director of the game company Cornfox & Brothers Ltd. The company established in 2010 is best known for their adventure game Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas (2013) and the Death Rally (2011, 2012).
Heikki enjoys plotting stories and making videogame art. He is a huge fan of storytelling and believes that every element of a videogame can be used to evoke emotions and deliver drama. Because of his non-stop creative nature, he works in many roles in game development.

Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Peter Akehurst Developer
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Sebastian Gosztyla Designer Sebastian Gosztyla
Vanessa Gratton Designer Yakuto
Why the immediate success of Fallout Shelter can't be sustained SHELTER OR SHANTY? Jun 23rd, 2015

Why the immediate success of Fallout Shelter can't be sustained

Our Monetisation Mavens think long-term

Ben Cousins Vice President, Studios FRVR

Ben is a 15-year veteran of the games industry - he's worked as a senior executive, studio head, project lead, creative director and game designer at companies like DeNA, EA, Sony and Lionhead.

He started working on traditional games, but has been focussed on the free-to-play business model since 2006 - an extremely long time by western standards. During that time He's worked on a total of ten separate free-to-play games across five different platforms reaching over 50 million users.

Dylan Tredrea Head of Publishing ZeptoLab
Jon Walsh President Upsight
Mark Robinson CEO DeltaDNA

With over 15 years’ data mining experience, Mark co-founded deltaDNA, formerly GamesAnalytics, to unlock big data to drive player understanding, introducing the concept of Player Relationship Management to build better games.

Mikkel Celinder Owner, AppCrimes.com
Two months on, our Wearable Mavens debate if Apple Watch has a killer app? TIME TO JUDGE Jun 22nd, 2015

Two months on, our Wearable Mavens debate if Apple Watch has a killer app?

Or does lack of battery life trump all

Adrian Hon CEO Six to Start
Aki Jarvilehto CEO Metacore

Previously EVP at Remedy Entertainment, Mr. Järvilehto has 17 years of industry experience working in operative, executive and board positions in software, technology and games companies.

He also serves as board member in organisations such as Neogames and IGDA Finland.

Bard Hole Standal Designer and Illustrator
Christopher Kassulke CEO HandyGames
John Passfield Owner Red Sprite Studios

John Passfield is the owner of Red Sprite Studios and program manager of Right Pedal Studios, a mobile game accelerator.

He is a veteran of the computer games industry with more than 20 years professional experience on numerous titles.

John is also credited as a founding member of the Australian games development community having founded some of the first development houses in the early nineties including Gee Whiz! Entertainment and Krome Studios.

John also worked as Creative Director at Pandemic Studios, and was Co-Owner/Creative Director of 3 Blokes Studios before selling it to RockYou in 2011.

John is passionate about wearable gaming and developed a launch title, Snappy Word, for the Apple Watch. He has two other Apple Watch games scheduled for launch.

Liam Patton CEO Big Imagination Games
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 Virapen CEO WearGa

A veteran of the games industry with over 15 years experience, Paul has previously held roles as Head of Games at The Walt Disney Company, and CEO of Big Pixel Studios.

He is currently the CEO and co-founder of WearGa, a London based startup focused 100% on games designed for smartwatch.

Sarah and Mark Co-founders Wearlynx
William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
Is E3 the place for mobile games and indie developers? INBETWEEN BLOCKBUSTERS Jun 19th, 2015

Is E3 the place for mobile games and indie developers?

Do our Indie Mavens measure up

Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Francois Alliot Designer Nerial
Greg Dawson PR PagodaWest 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
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Can mobile games head successfully to the movies? SILVER SCREEN OR FOOL'S GOLD? Jun 16th, 2015

Can mobile games head successfully to the movies?

Our Mavens settle back with a large cup of popcorn

Andreas Vahsen CEO / CCO / Game Economist MachineWorks Northwest
Christoph Safferling Head of Game Analytics Ubisoft Blue Byte
Dan Gray Chief Creative Officer Ustwo games
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...

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

William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
Is there still a mass market for pixel art games? CURVY FUTURE? Jun 12th, 2015

Is there still a mass market for pixel art games?

Indie Mavens debate blocky glories

Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Ian Sundstrom Designer Ian Sundstrom
Kepa Auwae Business / Design RocketCat Games
Pavel Ahafonau Co-founder Happymagenta
Richard Perrin Owner Locked Door Puzzle
Shawn Allen Founder Nuchallenger
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Are we still treating Android as a second class mobile gaming citizen? TIME FOR PARITY? Jun 9th, 2015

Are we still treating Android as a second class mobile gaming citizen?

Our Mavens circle the age old iOS-versus-Android debate

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.

Dave Castelnuovo Owner Bolt Creative
Jared Steffes Co-founder Muxy
John Golden Senior Director of Marketing PlayPhone
Kevin Corti Principal Spidershed Media
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.

William D. Volk Chief Futurist Forward Reality
Is the success of Google Cardboard good or bad for the future of VR? STEALING A MARCH? Jun 8th, 2015

Is the success of Google Cardboard good or bad for the future of VR?

Our VR Mavens see strengths and weaknesses

Barry Meade Commercial Director Fireproof Games
E McNeill Indie game designer

In November 2012, I quit my job, moved across the country, and started working full-time as an indie game designer. My second commercial title was Bombball for Ouya, Mac, and PC. In late 2013, I won the Oculus VR Jam with a prototype called Ciess. Now, I’m working on turning Ciess into a full game called Darknet, set to release alongside the Oculus Rift. It’s by far the largest project I’ve ever worked on.

So far, this whole game development thing has been awesome.

Guy Ben-dov Executive Vice President Business Development, HD games Anzu
Paul Colls Creative Director Fierce Kaiju

Co Founder & Creative Director of Fierce Kaiju Ltd. Formerly of The Blast Furnace and Rockstar Games.

Stan Kuhn Founder Live Game Board

Live Game Board is a physical printed board for playing game. It is a gate batween real and virtual world of games. Games played on our game board are control in unique way. You can see game from all angles which you normally can't.

Controlling the game using phones camera brings new way of playing. Imagine you had Angry Birds in your living room all in 3D. Or carts on your table without having to unpack and assemble track.

You can have monsters fighting in your room. Imagination is endless here.

Tom Beardsmore Creative Director Coatsink Software

After co-founding Coatsink Software Ltd in 2009, I've worked on over 10 successful mobile (iOS / Android / Windows Phone / Blackberry) game / app projects and (more recently) 3 console (PS4, PS3, Vita, Xbox One, Wii U) / PC games and 2 games for Oculus VR / Samsung Gear VR. I'd describe my primary roles as Lead Producer / Creative and Managing Director.

Tomas Mariancik Designer

VR game developer.

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