E139: Why an Ad-Tech Insider Says Ads Will Help Game Devs
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Is the video game industry being kept afloat by tech giants willingly lighting billions of dollars on fire—and what happens to your studio when the subsidy stops? In this episode, Ben sits down with Colan Neese, SVP of Gaming at Screen Engine/ASI and author of the Patch Notes newsletter, to deconstruct the shifting macroeconomic tectonic plates of gaming. They dive into the reality of platform economics, why Microsoft is losing an estimated 64 cents on every dollar invested in gaming, the likely rise of ad-supported models in the PC/console ecosystem, and the...
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E138: He Gambled His Last $500K on a Roblox Game!
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Does hyper-scaling your game studio actually destroy the soul of your product? When outside capital flooded into WonderWorks Studio following Roblox’s IPO, founder Zach Letter did what every investor screamed for: he scaled his three-person team to nearly 100 employees, built a massive physical studio, and hired a traditional AAA C-suite. The result was a toxic corporate culture, a mountain of high-maintenance work-for-hire contracts, and the near-death of their original IP. In this episode, Ben sits down with Zach Letter to deconstruct the grueling reality behind...
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E137: Why AAA's $200M Games Keep Failing
Building Better Games
Which of the 7 AAA mistakes are you struggling with? Find out here: Game budgets are skyrocketing to $200M+ while hit rates are actively going down. The games industry is spending more money than ever, on the biggest teams it has ever had, over the longest timelines in history, using a playbook that was out of date a decade ago. In this episode of Building Better Games, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the systemic flaws currently sinking AAA studios. You'll discover how shifting portfolio math has fundamentally changed the business and why relying on rigid project management over true human...
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E136: AI Won't Save Your Game, Here's What It Actually Does.
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: What if the secret to leveraging AI in game development isn't about just writing code faster, but getting your team to be more rigorous before a single line is even written? In this episode of Building Better Games, Ben talks with Landon (CTO) and Jean-Eric (Product Lead/Producer/Tech Artist) from Believer. Together, they pull back the curtain on how agentic coding tools and custom internal bridges like Claireon didn't just accelerate their systems development from months to a single week—they completely flipped their production pipeline on its head. They dive deep...
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E135: Why Big Game Dev Plans Never Succeed
Building Better Games
Access the Calibration Test: When every team in your studio tells you they’re 80% confident in their timeline, why does the final project almost always miss its deadline? In this episode of Building Better Games, Benjamin Carcich exposes the mathematical trap that undermines and then wrecks well-planned game development projects. When multiple teams average their confidence instead of multiplying it, a studio's actual probability of shipping on time can plummet from a perceived 80% down to a brutal 1%. Ben breaks down why humans are naturally overconfident estimators, how dependencies...
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E134: Why "Don't Rock the Boat" Fails Game Dev Teams
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Is keeping your head down killing your game? Many game dev leads survive by following a simple, unwritten rule: don't rock the boat. But staying silent when you see a broken system isn't "playing it smart,” it’s dodging your responsibility. True leadership isn't about having a perfect record or a flawless game plan; it’s about having the courage to stand in the public square, plant a flag, and risk being wrong for the sake of your team. In this episode, Benjamin Carcich breaks down the uncomfortable reality of what it actually means to lead in an agency-based...
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E133: Everyone Said Dispatch Would Fail. 4 Million Players Disagree.
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Can you defy the industry experts by refusing to compromise on your creative vision? When the entire gaming industry declares a genre dead and claims nobody is buying narrative-driven games anymore, most studios pack up and pivot. But the team at Adhoc Studio did the exact opposite; they stuck to their guns, bet on their passion, and shattered every single expectation. Their debut game, Dispatch, blew past the skeptics to achieve a 97% overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam and over four million copies sold worldwide. Bridging the gap between two fiercely distinct...
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E132: Why Helping Every Team Is Making Your Game Studio Worse
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Is your calendar a graveyard of back-to-back “team rituals” for 4 different orgs while your actual strategic work gathers dust When you are a game dev leader straddling multiple layers of a studio, it is incredibly easy to fall into the "comfort trap" of doing what you already know how to do: running local team meetings, fixing immediate processes, and trying to play hero for every unstaffed team underneath you. But when you try to be everything to everyone, you aren't actually helping—you are stretching yourself to a breaking point and starving your...
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E131: The Efficiency Trap That’s Killing Your Game
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Are you running your game studio fast, or are you actually moving it forward? In this episode, we break down one of the most destructive traps in modern game development: confusing efficiency with effectiveness. It’s incredibly easy to measure velocity, count assets, or point to a rising graph on your screen. But if your team is flawlessly hitting its milestones and the game still isn't any fun to play, your chosen metrics are a farce. We explore why game dev is uniquely unsuited for pure manufacturing efficiency, how localized optimizations choke your pipelines,...
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E130: Why Releasing More Often Actually Takes Less Time
Building Better Games
Level up your leadership: Is your release schedule a desperate race or a smooth commute? If every quarterly milestone feels like chaos and stress, you don’t have a talent problem, you have a Bus Problem. In this episode, Ben explores "The Bus Problem," a concept inspired by the unpredictable transit systems of Egypt 20+ years ago versus the reliable cadences of the London subway. He breaks down why infrequent milestones actually create more work and higher stakes, and explains why the counterintuitive secret to a calmer studio is actually releasing more often. What you’ll learn in this...
info_outlineIf 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: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6
Is your corporate strategy killing your "Golden Goose"?
It’s the nightmare scenario for every creative leader: You catch the wave, your game is a runaway success, and then—the "adults" enter the room.
In this episode, we react to Jeff Kaplan’s candid interview with Lex Fridman, where he reveals the internal fractures that derailed Overwatch, from "miscommunication by PowerPoint" to the soul-crushing moment a CFO leveraged a thousand jobs against a revenue target.
What you will learn in this episode:
- Why putting arbitrary dates in an executive deck hurts you
- How a money-focused lens creates efficient organizations that forget the player
- The danger of "bolting on" a league for monetization
- Why one bad decision by a senior executive can lose you twenty years of top-tier talent.
- Why leaning into live events and player happiness is often a better ROI than rushing a sequel
You may listen to the full audio podcast:
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/493-jeff-kaplan-world-of-warcraft-overwatch-blizzard/id1434243584?i=1000754728791
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44oTEHDZdB7ITCB5dx88mB?si=6d45a2506a794ee8
Lex Fridman's YouTube Channels:
Original Video: https://youtu.be/5imgkwupzAQ?si=cR8_WMo3eNmmks7d
Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9rF1CSSh-w
If you are a creative leader tired of "walking towards the abyss," a developer who feels their autonomy is being eroded by spreadsheets, or anyone who wants to understand why the most successful games in the world can still fall apart from the inside, this episode is for you.
Connect with us:
🔗Ben’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
🔗BBG’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
🔗Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
🔗Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
🔗YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw
If you want me to help producers or studios build better games through effective systems and leadership, you can reach me at: info@valarinconsulting.com
#GameDevLeadership #Overwatch2 #JeffKaplan #GamingIndustry #CreativeAutonomy #BuildingBetterGames