Founder’s Quest
Welcome to Founder’s Quest, a podcast about different individual’s journey of founding a game studio. Our conversations are focused on the founder’s journey for startup game studios, learning more about what it took for different folks to make the jump into their own company and what they’ve learned along the way. We’ll end up talking to founders at all different stages of their journey, what advice they’d have for others going on that path, and how they support themselves along the way.
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Episodes
11 hours ago
11 hours ago
This episode I sit down with Emily Greer who co-founded Kongregate in 2006, and then went on her second founding journey with Double Loop Games in 2019. We talk about how her first journey led to her second, and how both were learning experiences in different ways.
I think we often over-mythologize successes like Kongregate - which defined web based games for a generation - and (for very human reasons) under-discuss journeys that end with studio's closing their doors. I'm endlessly appreciative of Emily for being open about the challenges of both kinds of founding journeys, and successes within both, and her personal story of navigating them.
Thursday Oct 03, 2024
Thursday Oct 03, 2024
This week we sit down with Paul Sage who founded Ruckus Games in 2021 after spending most of his career in larger, and notable, AAA studios. It was a real learning journey going from someone who didn't really believe he would ever start his own studio to starting one with seven cofounders.
I really loved how Paul took on this challenge, researched, and dove into going from a game developer to CEO. He also shared a ton of how he did that and I hope you find it all useful. As a note, he mentioned a book early on, which he couldn't remember the name of: It was Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson -- a very well regarded and seminal book for anyone going down the VC path.
Thursday Sep 26, 2024
Thursday Sep 26, 2024
Jessica Murrey didn't set out to start a game studio, but instead change the world. I've met many for whom that claim would be a bit of lip service, but Jess is the real deal -- starting out in non-profits with a focus on creating the next generation of activists and advocacy. Her story of going from that world to commercial game studio is a fun one, filled with learnings and grit. I feel inspired every time I've had the chance to talk with Jess, and I hope you get that after this episode as well.
Wednesday Sep 18, 2024
Wednesday Sep 18, 2024
Welcome to the first episode! Founder's Quest is a podcast about the journeys of folks building game studios. It's really aimed at the journey itself, and the individual on it, more than the company. We're trying to help show how different a varied it can be, and the commonalities. Bring a sense of connection to all of us who are on it.This episode we talked to Derek Reese, one of the founders of Chronicler, who started this founding journey in 2023. You can learn more about Chronicler at their website https://www.chroniclersoftware.com/ and more about Derek on his LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/reesederek/