Mobile Mavens

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

Featured

Primed with a Twitch: Will Amazon ever be a serious gaming company? MOBILE MAVENS Aug 29th, 2014

Primed with a Twitch: Will Amazon ever be a serious gaming company?

Our Mavens go Prime

Christopher Kassulke CEO HandyGames
John Golden Senior Director of Marketing PlayPhone
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...

Johnny Coghlan CEO Ayopa 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.

Thomas Nielsen Osao Games

Recent articles

Love your game vs. Hope you die: Is Twitter worth the hate? MOBILE MAVENS Aug 25th, 2014

Love your game vs. Hope you die: Is Twitter worth the hate?

The Mavens think personal about social media

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...

Patrick Liu Senior Product Owner, Spotify
Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Thomas Nielsen Osao Games
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
Monetizer Mavens on their best games of 2014 so far MONETIZER MAVENS Aug 19th, 2014

Monetizer Mavens on their best games of 2014 so far

Learning from the best

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.

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

Ethan Levy Monetization design consultant, writer of FamousAspect.com
Giordano Contestabile VP, Product Management and Revenue Tilting Point
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.

Kevin Oke F2P Design and Production Consultant
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
Mikkel Celinder Owner, AppCrimes.com
Wes Leviton Lead Designer Adrian Crook & Associates

Wesley Leviton is a lead designer and producer with a 15-year history of creating successful games across mobile, social, and console spaces. Wes is an early innovator in mobile gaming with a history of identifying, innovating, and incorporating emerging gaming trends.


Wes has worked for many major companies including Disney, Majesco, Sony of America, A&E, Hasbro, Warner Bros, and Ubisoft. His specialties include monetization strategies, live operations, game systems and mechanics, data driven design, user acquisition, and social game design.

Our Mavens ponder whether King will 'do a Zynga?' MOBILE MAVENS Aug 18th, 2014

Our Mavens ponder whether King will 'do a Zynga?'

Or can it sustain 'peak' Candy Crush Saga?

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.

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.

John Golden Senior Director of Marketing PlayPhone
John Griffin CMO GameSparks
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...

Blue-sky thinking: What's the future of mobile games? MOBILE MAVENS Aug 11th, 2014

Blue-sky thinking: What's the future of mobile games?

Time for our Mavens to tell us what's next

Adam Green Managing Director / Owner Assyria Game Studios

Adam is an indie developer who works on own-IP and work-for-hire, both inside and outside the games industry. He formerly ran iOS promotion service Daily App Dream, before going on to sell the business in November 2012.

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.

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

John Griffin CMO GameSparks
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.

Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
Rise of the YouTuber: An opportunity too good for developers to turn down? MOBILE MAVENS Aug 5th, 2014

Rise of the YouTuber: An opportunity too good for developers to turn down?

Our experts on the pros and cons of the new media wave

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...

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.

Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
Free-to-play free-for-all: Is the EC's F2P clampdown a farce? MOBILE MAVENS Jul 30th, 2014

Free-to-play free-for-all: Is the EC's F2P clampdown a farce?

We ask our experts

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
Was the ASA right to call out EA on F2P? MOBILE MAVENS Jul 23rd, 2014

Was the ASA right to call out EA on F2P?

And how many acronyms can we get in one headline?

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.

On the balance F2P designers tread between encouraging players to pay and manipulation MONETIZER MAVENS Jul 10th, 2014

On the balance F2P designers tread between encouraging players to pay and manipulation

The Monetisation Maven ponder ethical boundaries

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.

Ethan Levy Monetization design consultant, writer of FamousAspect.com
Justin Stolzenberg Director, Product & Monetization Flaregames
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
Mikkel Celinder Owner, AppCrimes.com
What is the key area of monetisation in which most F2P games underperform? MONETIZER MAVENS Jul 2nd, 2014

What is the key area of monetisation in which most F2P games underperform?

The Monetization Mavens debate low-hanging fruit

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.

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

Ethan Levy Monetization design consultant, writer of FamousAspect.com
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
Mikkel Celinder Owner, AppCrimes.com
Nicholas Lovell Director Gamesbrief
Tom Farrell Marketing director Swrve
The geography game: Is the UK's toxic attitude to F2P holding developers back? MOBILE MAVENS Jun 30th, 2014

The geography game: Is the UK's toxic attitude to F2P holding developers back?

Our experts give their view

Adam Green Managing Director / Owner Assyria Game Studios

Adam is an indie developer who works on own-IP and work-for-hire, both inside and outside the games industry. He formerly ran iOS promotion service Daily App Dream, before going on to sell the business in November 2012.

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.

Jas Purewal Lawyer & Partner Purewal & Partners
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
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

Sara Lempiainen Community Manager Unity Technologies
Scott Foe Chief Product Officer Ignited Artists
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
To 3D or not to 3D: Amazon's Fire phone struggles to ignite developers MOBILE MAVENS Jun 23rd, 2014

To 3D or not to 3D: Amazon's Fire phone struggles to ignite developers

Our experts give their take

Adam Green Managing Director / Owner Assyria Game Studios

Adam is an indie developer who works on own-IP and work-for-hire, both inside and outside the games industry. He formerly ran iOS promotion service Daily App Dream, before going on to sell the business in November 2012.

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.

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...

Julia Lebedeva Business Development Director Nevosoft

Julia joined Nevosoft as a public relations manager in 2009 and took a fresh look on interacting with the casual games audience. She has a master’s degree in linguistics and more than three years of experience in the entertainment industry, working as a morning show hostess and as the program director at a radio station. Her current role at Nevosoft sees her responsible for the company’s B2B connections and for searching out new ways of growing the business.

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.

Vladimir Funtikov Co-Founder Creative Mobile
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
How should developers respond to Apple's shifting of the goalposts on ad incentivisation? MOBILE MAVENS Jun 16th, 2014

How should developers respond to Apple's shifting of the goalposts on ad incentivisation?

Our mobile experts give their view

Charles Chapman Director / Owner First Touch Games
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...

Wilhelm Taht Executive Vice President, Games Rovio
iOS 8: Industry experts on the good, the bad, and the downright dangerous MOBILE MAVENS Jun 10th, 2014

iOS 8: Industry experts on the good, the bad, and the downright dangerous

More questions than answers?

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
Jas Purewal Lawyer & Partner Purewal & Partners
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.

Wilhelm Taht Executive Vice President, Games Rovio
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
Is there any place in the F2P designer's toolbox for energy-based economies? MONETIZER MAVENS Jun 6th, 2014

Is there any place in the F2P designer's toolbox for energy-based economies?

Fuel for thought

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.

Ethan Levy Monetization design consultant, writer of FamousAspect.com
Justin Stolzenberg Director, Product & Monetization Flaregames
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.

Michail Katkoff Founder of DeconstructorofFun.com
Mikkel Celinder Owner, AppCrimes.com
Nicholas Lovell Director Gamesbrief
Cracking the code: Will Apple's promo code push for IAPs help or hinder developers? MOBILE MAVENS Jun 2nd, 2014

Cracking the code: Will Apple's promo code push for IAPs help or hinder developers?

Our experts give their take

Alexey Sazonov CEO Panzerdog
Eli Hodapp VP of business development GameClub
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...

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.

Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
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