The Valued Cultures Podcast

Matt Booty: From Game Developer to Xbox Portfolio Leader

How does a gamemaker’s gamemaker transition to being a builder of an organization that cultivates studios?  That is the story of Matt Booty, a veteran gamemaker–starting with pinball machines at Midway in Chicago before he moved on to Xbox in Seattle.  He now serves as President of Game Content & Studios at Xbox where he oversees the dozens of games that constitute the Xbox portfolio.
Matt speaks with our own Daryl Ogden, who has worked with Matt over many years at Xbox.  Their conversation provides hard-earned insight into gaming then and now. Ultimately, Matt addresses a challenge that many in gaming (and really any creative or technical endeavor) have to face:  How do you build up your management and leadership skills while maintaining the creative juices that established you in the craft in the first place?  
Level up Game: Luigi’s Mansion 2
 
To download our report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”:  
https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

"Mentorship, Iteration & Stubbornness": Julian Maroda of Norsfell

We’re back for Season 2 of the Valued Cultures Podcast, and we’re welcoming Julian Maroda, co-Founder and CEO of Norsfell, a Montréal studio with a mission to forge new genres that bring people together.  The studio’s best-known game, Tribes of Midgard, is enjoyed by over 4.5 million players.
 
Julian speaks with our co-Founder, Daryl Ogden, about his youth in Belgium, an impactful trip to Australia, and his immigration to Québec–all with a focus from his earliest day on making games.  Julian and Daryl dig into the values that define the quality of Norsfell games, including: a focus on learning and mentorship; a deeply iterative philosophy that informs everything from weekly sprints to evaluation grids; as well as Julian’s own (productive) stubbornness and impatience!
 
Finally, Julian and Daryl discuss the broader macroeconomic trends affecting the game industry today–and where they see it going in the near future.  Join them as they navigate the golden, smokey halls of dancing bear warriors!
Level up Game:  Trombone Champ

Steve Goldstein of Turtle Rock Studios: Advocacy & Leadership

Today our co-Founder Daryl Ogden speaks with Turtle Rock Studios’ President, Steve Goldstein.  Steve talks about what it was like to transition from serving studios as an attorney to working in-house and ultimately leading one.  He also discusses his experience with leading a studio during an acquisition and the implications of what this means to the studio being acquired.  You’ll hear about Turtle Rock's rising ambitions, and the role Daryl and Valued Cultures has been playing in helping the studio pursue these heightened goals. 
 
To download our report, "Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era":  
https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

Living your Studio Values: Rory McGuire of Blackbird Interactive

On this week’s pod, Rory McGuire, President of Blackbird Interactive (“Hardspace”, “Homeworld”, “Minecraft Legends”) speaks with Valued Cultures Co-Founder, Daryl Ogden.  Rory and Daryl discuss how very concrete initiatives like skunks works and 4-day weeks can be animated by core studio values such as empowerment, autonomy, and respect.  Daryl and Rory also dig into a finding from Valued Cultures’ recent report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”:  Why are studios in Western Canada even more focused on the shift to remote and hybrid work than those in the rest of North America?
 
Level Up Game: Balatro
 
To learn more about Valued Cultures’ recent report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era”, click here.

"Improvise. Adapt. Overcome" with Mitch Gitelman

“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.” Tattooed on the arm of today’s guest, Mitch Gitelman, most recently of Harebrained Schemes, this personal motto reflects the lessons he learned in his training and apprenticeship in theater and improvisation. Speaking with Valued Cultures Co-Founder Daryl Ogden, Mitch explores the stamp his early work in these disciplines has imprinted on his approach to making games.  
 
Citing his Harebrained Co-Founder Jordan Weisman, Mitch explains that in both theater and games, “You can tell when they’ve made it with a smile.”  And Mitch explains how his improv training influences everything from how he thinks about scaling a studio to how he hires new talent.
 
“Level Up Games”:  
Baldur’s Gate 3
Batman: Arkham 
To download our report “Winning Game Studio Culture”:  https://www.valuedcultures.com/game-studio-culture-report/

Founding a Remote Studio Culture with Jen Oneal of Magic Soup Games

How do you create a vibrant workplace culture in a “remote only” studio?  Very intentionally says our guest today, Jen Oneal Co-Founder and Head Chef of Magic Soup Games. 
 
Jen explains to Valued Cultures Co-Founder Daryl Ogden that when Jen and her Co-Founders J. Allen Brack and John Donham set out to found a new studio in 2022, their first step was talking about the types of games they loved, the values that animated them, and the studio that they wanted to build.  And at each step they’ve taken, they’ve drawn upon those intentions, bringing on talent deliberately with an eye always toward those initial inspirational conversations.
 
As Jen insists, they’re still learning, of course!  But she shares some of the most revealing hard-earned lessons she and her team have faced along the way.
“Level Up” Game:  The Lamplighters’ League

Shannon Loftis' first impressions of our "Winning Game Studio Culture" report

Valued Culture’s Senior Advisor Shannon Loftis joins Co-Founder Daryl Ogden to share her first impressions of our forthcoming report, “Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era.”  Their focus falls on the “intentionality chasm”:  How the leaders of game studios know that they should bring more attention to studio talent and studio culture, but in the pressure of the moment, find themselves time and time again falling back on solving technical problems instead.  Shannon and Daryl go on to discuss how the pandemic exacerbated this problem, and how a post-pandemic studio landscape dominated by remote and hybrid work presents both a challenge and an opportunity for those looking to build values-driven studio cultures.
For the latest on our report:  https://www.valuedcultures.com/wp-content/uploads/Game_Studio_Survey_latest.pdf

Chris Chancey of Manavoid and Indie Asylum: "Live together or die alone!"

In our inaugural podcast, Chris Chancey of Manavoid Entertainment and Indie Asylum joins Valued Cultures Daryl Ogden to discuss vibrant studio cultures.  In briefly sketching the history of Manvoid, Chris and Daryl determine how a focus on ensuring market fit led Manavoid to pursue a strategy of hybridizing game genres.  They go on to discuss how Chris and his partners evaluate candidates for Indie Asylum, an Montréal-based incubator/accelerator that supports nascent game studios.  Finally, drawing upon research from the soon-to-be-released "Winning Game Studio Culture in the Post-Pandemic Era," Chris explains some of the differences Valued Cultures found in how Québec studios--in comparison to the broader range of North American studios--find the promise of remote work as well as the relative importance of the global talent pool.
 
"Level Up" game recommendations:
Baldur's Gate 3
Inscryption