Mobile Mavens

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

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Could all F2P mobile games benefit from a Battle Pass like Clash of Clans has? MONETIZER MAVENS May 9th, 2019

Could all F2P mobile games benefit from a Battle Pass like Clash of Clans has?

A new technique for all

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.

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
Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame

Recent articles

Monetizer Mavens on what Apple Arcade needs to do to be successful RETHINKING PAID Apr 3rd, 2019

Monetizer Mavens on what Apple Arcade needs to do to be successful

A new way to play and pay

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.

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.

Nicholas Lovell F2P consultant Gamesbrief
Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame
What does Apple Arcade mean for indie games developers? THE FUTURE IS NOW Mar 29th, 2019

What does Apple Arcade mean for indie games developers?

The Indie Mavens have their say on the new subscription service

Aaron Fothergill Co-founder Strange Flavour
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Matthew Annal MD Nitrome
Molly Heady-Carroll Co-founder & Lead Artist Arcane Circus
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Simon Joslin Creative Director The Voxel Agents
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Game IP versus entertainment IP: Which is best for mobile games? EXISTING FANS Mar 18th, 2019

Game IP versus entertainment IP: Which is best for mobile games?

We ask our Monetizer Mavens

Alex Gray Vice President, Solutions Consulting Swrve
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.

Brian Truman Head of Digital Ad Monetization GSN Games
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.

Jeff Gurian VP of Marketing and Ad Monetisation Kongregate
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.

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.

Tim Rachor Creative Director Evil Grog Games GmbH
Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame
Yaniv Nizan CEO SOOMLA
Monetizer Mavens discuss the future of innovation in the maturing mobile games sector THE ROAD AHEAD Feb 26th, 2019

Monetizer Mavens discuss the future of innovation in the maturing mobile games sector

Changing trends

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.

Brian Truman Head of Digital Ad Monetization GSN Games
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
Jeff Gurian VP of Marketing and Ad Monetisation Kongregate
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
Tim Rachor Creative Director Evil Grog Games GmbH
Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame
Yaniv Nizan CEO SOOMLA
What industry trends do mobile indies see on the horizon for 2019? WELL?! Feb 1st, 2019

What industry trends do mobile indies see on the horizon for 2019?

Our mavens weigh in

Aaron Fothergill Co-founder Strange Flavour
Astrid Refstrup CEO Triple Topping Games
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Pierre-Luc Vettier CEO Zero Games Studios
Simon Joslin Creative Director The Voxel Agents
The mobile games that stood out most to indie developers in 2018 INDIE MAVENS Jan 1st, 2019

The mobile games that stood out most to indie developers in 2018

Our indie mavens weigh in

Aaron Fothergill Co-founder Strange Flavour
Astrid Refstrup CEO Triple Topping Games
Diane Landais Co-founder / Programmer Accidental Queens
Molly Heady-Carroll Co-founder & Lead Artist Arcane Circus
Pierre-Luc Vettier CEO Zero Games Studios
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Where do indies and innovative ideas fit in the current mobile games market? INDIE MAVENS Dec 7th, 2018

Where do indies and innovative ideas fit in the current mobile games market?

Our indie Mavens weigh in

Aaron Fothergill Co-founder Strange Flavour
Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Matthew Annal MD Nitrome
Molly Heady-Carroll Co-founder & Lead Artist Arcane Circus
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Pierre-Luc Vettier CEO Zero Games Studios
How can we tackle the games industry's crunch problem? OVERWORKED Oct 26th, 2018

How can we tackle the games industry's crunch problem?

The Mobile Mavens have their say on working conditions

Christopher Kassulke CEO HandyGames
Dave Castelnuovo Owner Bolt Creative
Ella Romanos Commercial Director Strike Gamelabs
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.

Reginaldo Valadares General Manager Rovio Stockholm

Reginaldo started his career in games 16 years ago when he founded Jynx Playware – a pioneer in online multiplayer games in Brazil. In 2010 he took the lead of Glu Mobile’s studio in Sao Paulo where he released Blood and Glory, first and only Glu’s title to date to secure a 5 stars rating.

Reginaldo moved to Berlin in 2012 for a brief passage at Wooga and later on at Aeria Games, where he learned the game business from the publishing side. Last fall Reginaldo realised Germany was not cold enough and moved to Finland to be Head of Production for Rovio Stars.

Tom Kinniburgh Consultant MobileFreeToPlay
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.

Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
Is Telltale's closure part of a wider industry trend or a cautionary tale? MOBILE MAVENS Oct 3rd, 2018

Is Telltale's closure part of a wider industry trend or a cautionary tale?

The mobile mavens offer their opinions

Dan Gray Chief Creative Officer Ustwo games
Dave Castelnuovo Owner Bolt Creative
Devin Nambiar Head of Product and Partnered Development Electronic Arts
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...

Thomas Nielsen Osao Games
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
as Should indie developers release their games in Asia? INDIE MAVENS Sep 28th, 2018

Should indie developers release their games in Asia?

Our Indie mavens weigh in

Molly Heady-Carroll Co-founder & Lead Artist Arcane Circus
Nathan Fouts Founder Mommy's Best Games
Pierre-Luc Vettier CEO Zero Games Studios
Tanya X. Short Creative Director Kitfox Games
Why is the Nintendo Switch so popular among indie mobile devs? INDIE MAVENS Sep 6th, 2018

Why is the Nintendo Switch so popular among indie mobile devs?

Our Indie Mavens weigh in

Aaron Fothergill Co-founder Strange Flavour
Ben Murch Co-Founder Perchang
Dan Menard CEO Double Stallion
Matthew Annal MD Nitrome
Pierre-Luc Vettier CEO Zero Games Studios
Simon Joslin Creative Director The Voxel Agents
Is it time for the App Store and Google Play to ditch the 70/30 revenue split? IS IT WORTH IT? Aug 10th, 2018

Is it time for the App Store and Google Play to ditch the 70/30 revenue split?

The mobile mavens offer their opinions

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
Devin Nambiar Head of Product and Partnered Development Electronic Arts
Jani Kahrama Founder Secret Exit
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...

Nicolas Godement-Berline Head of Operations Asmodee Digital
Richard Hazenberg CEO Lunagames
Tom Kinniburgh Consultant MobileFreeToPlay
Torulf Jernström CEO Tribeflame
Will Luton Founder/CPO Village Studio Games Village Studio
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