Brace yourself. Golden TWIG voting is open!

https://forms.gle/b4HFZkaeczN41BsBA

This isn’t a participation-trophy awards show. Nor some thinly veiled promotion of paid sponsors. Golden TWIG is the industry mirror we all pretend not to look into.

Vote now and help us separate the gold from the garbage.

00:00 Welcome 00:24 Golden Twig Award Nominations00:58 Mishka of Arabia02:43 Upcoming Events and Shills03:48 Podcast Highlights and Industry Insights20:31 Correction of the Year24:53 Most Damage Received31:06 Most Disappointing Game of 202533:07 Disappointing Game Releases34:41 Split Gate 2: A Major Letdown36:21 Underrated Games of the Year39:46 Ubisoft's Surprising Hits44:10 Skeptical Moves in the Gaming Industry49:29 Brilliant Moves in Gaming01:01:04 Limping Donkeys: Gaming's Biggest Failures01:06:01 Golden Twig Nominations Wrap-Up

What actually happens after the hit games, the acquisitions, and the “success”?

In this episode, Simon Hade, co-founder of Space Ape Games, walks through the uncomfortable middle of game company building: from Playfish → Space Ape → Supercell → NextBeat → Duolingo.

This isn’t a victory lap. It’s a post-mortem on genre mastery vs. exploration, lean LiveOps, why copying the Supercell playbook breaks most studios, and why Simon ultimately left games to help build Duolingo’s music and learning products.

00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene

00:43 The Birth of Space Ape

03:26 Fundraising Challenges and Successes

07:48 Innovations and Strategic Moves

13:27 Lean LiveOps Philosophy

16:51 Supercell Acquisition and Cultural Shifts

18:50 Reflections and Lessons Learned

38:59 Spinning Outta Supercell

40:26 Exploring Duolingo Partnership

44:37 Relentless Optimization at Duolingo

49:13 Transitioning to Duolingo

55:42 The Price of Being a Founder

01:03:05 Reflections on Success and Future

FNaF 2 crushes box office expectations, proving (again) that game IP owns Hollywood. We break down Matthew Ball’s take on the EA/PIF deal, why 93% ownership signals a sports-media empire play, not an LBO, and why the press got the story wrong.

Then: the Nex Playground, a $200 kids’ console that quietly outsold PS5 in November. Is this the next underserved frontier in family gaming?

We also tear into UA financing schemes masquerading as “cohort funding.” Spoiler: the effective interest rates rhyme with credit-card debt, and studios have died using them.

Call of Duty launches an apology tour for Black Ops 7 and vows to stop annualized crunch. We assess the odds.

And we close with AppLovin beating Google on Android e-commerce ads, inside Google’s own OS. A massive signal for the future of UA as e-comm competition starts eating the gaming pie.

The dynamics of co-founder relationships, featuring Appcharge co-founders Roei Barassi and Maor Sason. They share insights on building a robust team, the significance of mentorship, and the importance of celebrating success. Learn about the challenges and strategies of scaling a company, raising capital, and maintaining a strong culture across global offices. Whether you're a first-time founder or a seasoned entrepreneur, this episode is packed with invaluable lessons on leadership, teamwork, and innovation.00:00 The Importance of Co-Founder Relationships02:56 Handling Conflicts with Respect09:39 Balancing Personal Life and Startup Demands24:40 Raising Funds and Building Momentum31:57 Navigating Early Rejections and Negotiations32:28 Turning Nos into Yeses33:25 The Importance of Positive Mindset34:52 Hidden Risks of Too Much Capital35:44 What Founders Should Avoid Between Rounds38:52 The Evolution of Web Stores41:56 App Charge's Unique Value Proposition51:32 Building a Global Team53:40 Scaling and Maintaining Company Culture57:45 Leadership Challenges in Rapid Growth01:01:58 Final Advice for Founders01:05:15 Conclusion and Farewell

This week in games, the money moves got messy: Dream Games recalibrates everyone's ambitions while the Saudi shopping spree continues. We take a look at Where Winds Meet and what it really says about China’s next wave of global ambitions, and ask the uncomfortable question: how are indie studios actually surviving right now? Finally, we zoom out to the battlefield of 4X strategy, the genre’s current health, the growing wave of female players, and whether a fresh face like Tile Survive can rewrite the rules.

00:00 Welcome

00:22 Introduction and Shills

04:26 Dream Games Budget Correction

14:06 Bite Dance's Mobile Investments

19:22 Arc Games Independence

20:52 Where Winds Meet: A New Chinese Game

29:17 The South Korea Deal and Blizzard's Business Model

31:21 Success and Challenges of Indie Game Studios

33:38 VC Investments in Gaming: A Tough Landscape

36:12 PlayerUnknown Productions and Their New Game

47:37 The State of 4X Strategy Games

51:24 The Rise of Female Gamers in 4X Strategy

55:48 Tile Survive: A New Contender in 4X Strategy

59:56 Conclusion and Future Topics

Loyalty platforms have evolved from sideline UA channels to commanding 25-50% of major studios' media budgets. In this deep dive, VYBS founder Ido Raz breaks down everything game developers need to know about loyalty apps—from the basics to advanced strategies for maximizing player quality and LTV.

We cover the biggest misconceptions about incentivized traffic, why casual games benefit the most, and how to avoid the common mistakes that kill campaigns. Plus, Ido shares the single most overlooked KPI that changes how you evaluate traffic quality.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

02:39 How Loyalty Apps Differ from Offerwalls

03:33 Business Model: From CPI to ROAS Optimization

05:28 Can Loyalty Be a Primary UA Channel?

11:25 Best Genres for Loyalty Platforms

12:29 The Magic Myth: Why Loyalty Requires Specialization

13:45 Are Loyalty Users Different from Traditional Players

17:20 When Should Studios Start Using Loyalty Apps?

18:54 The Cash Flow Advantage: 4 Months vs 2 Years

21:00 Timeline to Success: 1 Week to 7 Weeks

22:35 Patience vs Pressure: Learning Cycles

26:30 Using Loyalty to Amplify Live Events

27:53 Common Mistakes Studios Make

29:52 The Unrealistic KPI Problem

34:58 Loyalty vs App Store Competition

36:07 AI's Impact on Loyalty Platforms

40:36 Best Way to Spot Low-Quality Users

44:46 What's Next for VYBS?

Call of Duty’s worst launch in a decade collides with the rise of extraction shooters, and the balance of power inside the genre shifts. We dig into why Black Ops 7 cratered, how Battlefield 6 stole the spotlight, and why Arc Raiders is suddenly the most important new IP in shooters. Chris Sides and Feras return to map the fault lines, spar over SPMM, and weigh whether Tarkov’s disastrous Steam debut marks the ceiling for the genre’s original heavyweight.

We discuss:

• Black Ops 7’s collapse and why marketing, futurism, and CPI pressure all converged

• Battlefield 6’s surge, the RedSec flop, and why innovation is still missing in BR design

• The extraction boom: Arc Raiders as the “PUBG moment” and its long-term retention risks

  • PvE as the emerging driver of mainstream extraction demand

• Skill-based matchmaking as an economic problem, not a matchmaking one

• Tarkov’s failed 1.0 launch and what its country-mix reveals about stagnant reach

• Whether Embark should kill The Finals and move every resource into Arc Raiders

The DoF crew break down everything: from Ubisoft’s endless identity crisis to Unity and Epic’s unexpected “Make the Metaverse Great Again” alliance.We get into Roblox CEO David Baszucki’s tense appearance on Hard Fork, the baffling randomness of The Game Awards nominations, Saudi Arabia’s PIF liquidity challenges, and why Turkey’s red-hot gaming scene may finally be overheating.

Plus: a disagreement for Nordic tax schemes and a dispatch from Helsinki’s Slush Conference, home of the world’s most optimistic founders in a country with no economic growth.

00:00 Welcome

01:52 Slush Conference Insights

05:06 Tax Benefits for Expats in Europe

08:29 Shills

09:24 Ubisoft and Tencent Deal

12:28 Epic Games and Unity Partnership

18:30 Roblox CEO's Podcast Appearance

30:11 Game Awards Nominationss

32:19 Most Anticipated Games Discussion

34:23 Controversial Mobile Game Nominations

39:22 Saudi Arabia's Gaming Investments

47:12 Turkey's Booming Gaming Ecosystem

54:43 Steam Machines and Market Challenges

01:01:51 Concluding Thoughts and Thanksgiving Wishes

This isn't your typical "we raised $50M and exited" story. This is what happens when you have no choice but to figure it out yourselves. When the tripod refuses to fall. When you run out of everything except ideas. This is the story of Heroic Labs.
About Heroic Labs: Core infrastructure for game studios. If you've played games from Zynga, Gram Games, or dozens of other studios, you've used their tech without knowing it. That's by design.
📱 Follow for more founder stories that break the mold: www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog
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"The road you're in is a graveyard, full of skulls of previous dead companies." - Bing Gordon, Kleiner Perkins
Timestamps:
00:00 Heroic Safari Adventures
01:24 Switching to Open Source
04:14 Journey to Y Combinator
09:44 Life at Y Combinator
26:01 Demo Day and Investor Meetings
33:03 Heroic Bootstrapping
37:40 Remote Work and Team Dynamics
43:01  Founder Dynamics
50:19  Advice for Founders
01:03:55 Team Pride & Retention
01:13:04 Rapid Fire Questions

Call of Duty tanks so hard that even Battlefield feels bad for it. Valve unveils a cube that may or may not be the future of PC gaming, depending on which half of the internet you ask.Sexy cozy games are quietly eating the West, which sounds ridiculous until the revenue charts come out. Now everyone’s worried… And the triumphant return of a special guest.

00:51 Episode Overview

04:43 Amazon Game Studios Layoffs

06:11 Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Analysis

22:39 Valve's New Steam Machine

32:56 Xbox's Struggles and Market Position

34:38 Valve's Strategy in China

37:34 Ubisoft's Uncertain Future

39:17 EA's Strategic Moves

45:28 Zelda Live Action Adaptation

46:32 Eastern Games' Success in the West

56:45 The Rise of Cozy Games

01:02:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

What if your company stopped chasing quarterly goals and spent an entire month training every employee on AI? That's exactly what AppsFlyer did, and it completely transformed how they approach innovation.

In this episode, AppsFlyer down with Barak Witkovsky, Chief Product Officer of AppsFlyer, to discuss one of the boldest AI transformation experiments I've ever heard of.

For four weeks, they paused regular business objectives and put all 1,300 employees through an AI builder course. Not on top of their work. AS their work.

What We Cover:

1. Why AppsFlyer stopped chasing OKRs to invest in AI education across the entire company

2. How AppsFlyer's CEO and CPO learn about AI from their own employees (including marketers who know more than developers at other companies)

3. How AppsFlyer evolved from a measurement platform into a modern marketing cloud with autonomous AI agents

4. How do you get marketers to trust AI when they're deploying tens of millions in ad spend?

5. Why AppsFlyer is betting on an open AI ecosystem with MCP and Agent Hub

6. Are marketers becoming obsolete or are they about to become "bosses of agents"?

7. Why executives are bullish on AI while directors and managers feel anxious (and what to do about it)

Timestamps:

00:00 AI Integration at AppsFlyer

04:15 The ROI of AI Investments

05:14 Evolution to a Modern Marketing Cloud

16:30 Challenges of Omnichannel Measurement

22:26 AI Agents in Marketing

27:01 Becoming an AI-First Company

31:29 The Role of AppsFlyer in the AI Ecosystem

44:38 The Ultimate Growth Machine Vision

47:18 Final Thoughts