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.

Today we’re talking with Dru Erridge, co-founder of Gamebreaking Studios.

Dru ended up walking down a path of a co-development studio, initially focused on multiplayer game tech, but the reasons he got there are quite unique. Co-founding with folks that he had built and shipped an indie game on the side of full-time jobs at larger studios, deciding to not take money and so doubling down on the skills at hand with a three engineer co-founding team, then viewing that as giving them a level of freedom to pursue their passion and diversify.

It’s been a journey full of lessons on mindset and motivation that I think can help many other folks think about what kind of founding journey they want to pursue — especially in the current market which limits where funds can come from. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking with Stephan Cotichini, founder of 81monkeys. We talk about his path from owning a restaurant in his 20s, to working at a fast-scaling game startup, and ultimately choosing not to relocate for a AAA role, instead launching his own studio. That path included work-for-hire gigs, financial risk, Kickstarter, and a brand partnership that came about because fans of that kickstarter spoke up inside a company outside of games.

Stephane speaks candidly about what it means to be a solo founder . He’s open about the emotional challenges, the financial rollercoaster, and the loneliness that can come with being a creative founder acting as a CEO. I found this conversation full of wisdom, vulnerability, and inspiration. Especially for anyone navigating the journey as a solo founder. Let’s jump in.