Ep 37: Jon Selin, Low Drag Labs

Today we’re talking with Leah Hoyer of Level Headed Games. Leah’s founding moment was a bit thrust upon her — and is perhaps emblematic of a story I often heard told in the industry. A team that was laid off, coming together and striking out on their own as a startup. As you’ll hear, its not all smooth sailing especially as often the market conditions that created the layoffs also create challenges in the funding environment. That said, there is a path through that Leah and her team have walked, and it was great to hear her reflections on that journey so far. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking with Jon Selin of Low Drag Labs. Jon shares his journey of moving away from mobile games back to his first love of mmo-like multiplayer experiences, and taking the leap into a fully bootstrapped dev team. For awhile, Low Drag was a solo effort, now its a duo, and Jon talks about that journey and how it compares to the idyllicized zeitgeist version of solo development.   I found Jon’s reflections on the industry, the journey, and startup life really great to dig into. And behind the scenes, I’m also a huge fan of what they’re working on so it was great to hear how Jon got there. It’s a great conversation, let’s jump in.

Today we're talking with Jason Coleman, founder of Sparkypants Studios. Jason has been making games for a long time and honestly is a bit of a legend for myself, as I have played many of his games through the years from some of his earliest like Civ 2, Alpha Centauri, and Rise of Nations, to his latest Mind Over Magic. I got to know Jason through 1UP Ventures, a community we're both a part of, and was finally able to get time to have him on. This is a bit of a unique one as Sparkypants is one of the longest running journeys we've had on the show at almost 15 years, but also one that is coming to an end. Sitting down and talking with a founder about the end of the journey is something I've long wanted to do, but for obvious reasons can be hard to find someone willing and able to talk through it. Jason shared a lot of great perspective and thoughts, and I'm really grateful he chose to do so. This is a great one, let's jump in.

Today we're talking with Ichiro Lambe, founder of Totally Human Media. This is a bit of a different journey for Ichiro, who previously founded Dejobaan Games and Worlds Apart which would become SOE Denver, in that rather than focusing on building games he's focused on the problem of Game Discovery. I've been digging into game discovery as a problem recently and thinking a lot about it, and what started out as sitting down with Ichiro to learn more about his thinking there, led quickly to bringing him on the pod to talk about his founding journey and what's unique (and what's not) about it. I really enjoyed talking with Ichiro. I think you will too. Let's jump in.

Today we’re talking with Tina Merry, of Simply Sweet Games which was founded in 2023. Tina has worked previously at King and EA and spent the last few years working as a consultant specializing in cultural intelligence. We talk a lot about her journey of bootstrapping a studio after finding the right co-founder in part through her consulting work, and launching their first title onto mobile markets, and what she’s learned about herself along the way. I really enjoyed my time with Tina, and hope you’ll find her reflections insightful. Let’s jump in.

Today, we’re talking with Shifaz Sikkander, of Stone Lion Games. Shifaz shares how he grew up being obsessed with founding a company that made an impact on the world, and how that ended up shaping his career, including making the leap into entrepreneurship. While he was initially not targeting games, both his love of games and seeing an opportunity pushed him that direction. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking with Matthew Manarino of SUMMONER, a game focused creative agency founded in 2023. Matt talks about how he realized he needed to make some major shifts in his life and career to get the fulfillment that he was looking for, and how that led to taking a big leap into founding. Matt burned the ships behind him as he jumped in, selling his house and cars and moving his life to a lower cost of living area in Europe to ensure he had the runway to build the company. As he says “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” Let’s jump in.

Today, we talk with Thea Chow of Redly Games, founded in 2024. Thea’s career has spanned some big names in mobile games: Supercell, Kabam, and prior to that Next Level Games. After her time at Supercell she really wanted to dive into the founding journey and ended up solo-founding Redly Games. We talk a lot about that solo-journey and what its meant for her, both good and bad. Let’s jump in.

Today’s guest, Ben Carcich of Building Better Games, is a bit different than our normal. He’s a production and leadership consultant in Games who got started on this path after leaving Riot Games in 2020. He shares what led to this journey, choosing to go into consulting rather than development, and what he’s learned along the way. We talk about how many of the challenges are similar to the other founding journeys we’ve talked about along the way.   It was a fascinating look about how things that can look very different, can share many things in common. Let’s jump in.

Today, we’re talking with Eamonn Glass, founder of Maggie’s Farm Studio. Eamonn has had a pretty diverse career both in and out of games, most recently an 11 year stint at Electronic Arts. As he was considering what he wanted to do next, searching for his next purpose, wildfires in British Columbia claimed the town of Lytton, completely wiping it from the map. He had been a regular visitor of Lytton, with his family often going there to camp each summer. This sparked a focus on building games to help educate and address the need for change in wildfire management, awareness, and prevention, and the start of his founding journey. From there, Eamonn has had his shares of ups and downs and dealing with the realities of founding, which he shares with us. Let’s jump in.