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E84: The Real Cost Of Founding A Game Startup with Joseph Kim

Building Better Games

Release Date: 03/11/2025

3 Leadership Mistakes Quietly Crippling Your Game Studio show art 3 Leadership Mistakes Quietly Crippling Your Game Studio

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Are you leading a team that has plenty of people but can’t seem to get moving? You care deeply about your team and your game, but projects crawl and decisions drag in the. It's almost never just a talent problem. Instead, it's three quiet leadership mistakes that choke momentum. In this episode, you’ll learn what those three mistakes are, how they’re showing up in your studio, and what you can do instead so you...

info_outline E107: Stop Hiring “Testers.” Start Doing QA. show art E107: Stop Hiring “Testers.” Start Doing QA.

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: You can't just test quality into a game at the end. You have to build it in from the start. Ignoring your Quality Assurance team's full value is a fast way to lose millions. The state of game development is at a challenging inflection point, characterized by high-risk live service ambitions and a brain drain of senior talent. Host Ben Carcich sits down with Nathan Tiras, former Game Dev veteran (Riot Games,...

info_outline E106: Why Jira Hurts Game Studios show art E106: Why Jira Hurts Game Studios

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Are you inadvertently forcing your team to serve a tool, instead of letting your tools serve your team and game? In a recent conversation with Clinton Keith, Ben asked how Clint would help all of game development. Clint’s response? “Delete Jira” - and Ben laughed to keep from crying. Jira is a powerful tool, but in the hands of uninformed game...

info_outline E105: Your “2-Day” Task Takes 2 Months. Here’s the Fix. show art E105: Your “2-Day” Task Takes 2 Months. Here’s the Fix.

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: How much is your bad code costing you, and how much is your team's suffering just a ritual of amateur theatre? In this episode, Engineering and Agile expert Tim Ottinger and Ben challenge the core belief systems that plague software development, from the focus on individual productivity to the self-inflicted wounds of long release cycles. They break down...

info_outline E104: Game Dev Leaders: Save Weeks of Thrash in 20 Minutes show art E104: Game Dev Leaders: Save Weeks of Thrash in 20 Minutes

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: How do you save weeks of thrash when your team is busy and perhaps even crunching, but your key goals aren't moving? This solo episode with Ben reveals the hidden cost of avoiding difficult conversations and the simple, 20-minute fix that can unblock your entire game development team. The problem isn't your process, your backlog, or lack of...

info_outline E103: Leadership Under Fire: Surviving a $100M Game Studio Crisis show art E103: Leadership Under Fire: Surviving a $100M Game Studio Crisis

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: What happens when doing the right thing could get you fired? Every game dev leader faces this nightmare: being held accountable for results but not empowered to make the decisions needed to achieve them. That tension creates chaos, burns out teams, and kills great games. In this powerful episode, Ben sits down with Clinton Keith, author of Agile Game...

info_outline E102: 5 Game Dev Delusions That Kill Studios show art E102: 5 Game Dev Delusions That Kill Studios

Building Better Games

Stop leaving reality behind and ship better games! If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Is your studio living in a delusion that will only end in pain? Seemingly great teams burn millions of dollars only to shut down because they left reality behind. This episode breaks down the five game dev delusions that kill studios, which I've seen in well-funded, 100+ person teams, unfunded indies, and...

info_outline E101: How Layoffs Go Wrong—and the Right Way to Do Them show art E101: How Layoffs Go Wrong—and the Right Way to Do Them

Building Better Games

Ready to take your game development career to the next level? Join the Game Dev Leadership Accelerator: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6 Do layoffs mean studio leadership is bad?  While the popular answer is often "yes," the truth is more complex. Layoffs can reveal many things, from bad times in the market to failures to manage finances to corporate greed. But if you’re a leader, the real test is how you behave when your company’s survival is on the line. Trent Kusters, the co-founder and Studio Head of League of Geeks, joins Ben Carcich for a deeply personal and frank discussion...

info_outline E100: Don’t Hire Until You See These 3 Signs show art E100: Don’t Hire Until You See These 3 Signs

Building Better Games

Ready to take your game development career to the next level? Join the Game Dev Leadership Accelerator: In this special Q&A episode for Episode 100, we're answering your most pressing questions from the Game Production Community Discord! Join Ben Carcich as he dives into critical topics that every game development leader faces, from navigating project pivots to building a healthy team culture. We'll explore: ✅ When to scale your team up (or down) ✅ How to prepare for meetings and ensure they are actually valuable ✅ Why "safe" project pivots don't exist and what to do instead ✅ The...

info_outline E99: Stop Using 2-Week Sprints - Here's Why They’re Failing You show art E99: Stop Using 2-Week Sprints - Here's Why They’re Failing You

Building Better Games

Stuck in slow loops and broken systems? The Game Dev Leadership Accelerator can help you make lasting change. Sign up to learn more:   Why do most teams default to two-week sprints, even when they're wrong? In this episode, Ben Carcich breaks down a simple model with three dials that you should use to tune your iteration length. He explains why iteration length is a product lever, not a calendar convenience for your leadership, and how choosing the right rhythm for your team can reduce thrash, increase learning speed, and improve value delivery. What you’ll learn in this episode: The...

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The gaming industry is changing rapidly, and the global landscape is shifting in ways many studios aren’t prepared for. Are Western game studios becoming too complacent? What role will international development play in the future of game creation?

In this episode, Joseph Kim, CEO of Lila Games, shares hard-earned lessons about building a game studio in India, the challenges of hiring and leading globally, and the realities of making tough business decisions in game development.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Complacency Problem – Many Western studios lack the urgency and work ethic to stay competitive in today’s game industry.
  • Why Small Teams Outperform Big Teams – Large studios often have unresolved issues that everyone knows about but no one addresses. The key to success is a strong culture of accountability.
  • Experience as a Team Matters More Than Individual Talent – A well-coordinated team that has worked together for years will almost always outperform a group of "rockstar" hires.
  • The Reality of Game Development in India – The country has talent, but cultural perception, technical challenges, and legal hurdles create unexpected difficulties for game studios.
  • The Pre-Production Trap – Everyone knows pre-production is critical, yet studios repeatedly rush through it, leading to costly inefficiencies.
  • People and Culture Define Success – A game studio doesn’t fail because of a lack of ideas—it fails due to misaligned leadership, poor hiring decisions, and weak company culture.
  • Hard Conversations Matter – Many studios suffer from unspoken problems. Addressing issues early is the difference between success and failure.
  • Decision-Making Should Be a Science – Too many game studios rely on gut feelings rather than structured, first-principles thinking when making critical decisions.

Connect with Joseph Kim

GameMakers Newsletter: https://www.gamemakers.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim

Website: https://lilagames.com/

Expert Profile: https://www.liquidandgrit.com/expert-directory/joseph-kim/

Check out this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjBIXbN6h_E

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lilagames

Join the Community

Our Discord community is live! Join the conversation with game developers, producers, and industry leaders committed to improving the future of game development: https://discord.gg/ySCPS5aMcQ

Looking to level up your game production skills? Explore our online course designed to help you become a more effective game producer: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/succeeding-in-game-production

Stay ahead with game development insights delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/newsletter

Connect with Us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BBG_Podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames

Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BuildingBetterGames


If you're a game developer, leader, or someone looking to start a game studio, this episode provides essential insights into the future of game development. Like, comment, and subscribe for more industry discussions.