Blog
I publish new articles every week. Don’t miss a single one by signing up for our newsletter.
Building a games company
- How to run a team meeting
- Reward-centered leaders
- Ideal games company culture
- How to structure a management team in gaming
- Organizational health of game studios
- Reference checks for gaming startups
- Why team matters so much?
- 50 Principles for Gaming Startups
- Board Meetings For Gaming Startups
- Co-Founder Equity Split
- Working With Advisors in Gaming Startups
- Stock Options in a Gaming Startup
- Cap Table Modeling
- Why I wrote the Long Term Game
- “Start with Why” for gaming entrepreneurs
- Gaming Startup Cashflow
- How To Avoid Risks In A Gaming Startup
- No Gaming Co-Founder Left Behind
- Auditing the Gaming CEOs calendar
Game Development
- How To Evaluate Mobile Game Ideas
- Daily Events in Free-to-play Games
- Scenarios for Soft launch
- Double Loop Learning in Game Development
- Pre-mortems, and why your game will fail
- Retention Metrics in Free-To-Play
- Sales Projections For Premium PC Games
- Magical Pairs In Game Development
- Product Strategy For Early-Stage Gaming Startup
- 7 Ways A Gaming Startup Can Show Traction
- How to make a video game
- 4 ways hyper-casual games have benefited the gaming industry
Fundraising
- Getting meetings with investors
- Priced Rounds for Gaming Startups
- Convertible Notes for Gaming Startups
- 20 Reasons Why Investors Say NO
- The B-team: When are you ready for an investment?
- Gaming investors on EGD Podcast
- 10 questions to start angel investing in gaming
- How VC works — Investment Memo on Twitch
- How To Pitch Over Video Calls
- 9 lessons on understanding gaming investors + Q/A
- VC podcasts and VC Twitter
- Games startup funding during a pandemic
- How Should Gaming Investors and Founders Find Alignment
- How To Be An Angel Investor In The Games Industry
- How To Keep Investors Updated On Your Gaming Startup
Growth, Learning and Mental Health
- Annual Review 2021
- Annual Review 2020
- Burnout Recovery
- 6 Reasons Why Founders Should Have Side Projects
- 10 Favorite Books of 2021
- 10 Favorite Books of 2020
- 10 Favorite Books of 2019
- 10 Favorite Books of 2018
- Gaming Founder Meditations
Webinar Recordings
- Integrate Bitcoin into your games with ZEBEDEE
- Games industry numbers for H1 of 2021
- Building a Successful Merge Game in 8 Weeks
- How to Create a Game Studio Pitch Deck
- Validate Your Game Before You Build It
- Innovation in Mobile Game Ads
- 2020 review – M&A and Investments in Gaming
- Tales from Playtesting webinar
- Deep Dive In Gaming Investments and M&A
- Joakim’s Keynote at IGDA Leadership Day 2020
- How to Raise a Seed Round with Julia Palatovska (Dorian)
- Audience-first game development
- Sales Projections For Premium PC Games
- How To Finance Your First Game Project
- Long-Term Engagement in Hybrid Casual Games
- Work From Home For Game Teams
- How To Minimize Risks In A Games Business
- Beginner’s Guide To Investor Money
- Inside the gaming VCs brain
- How to get investor money for your gaming startup
Notes and deep-dives
- DoF Bookclub: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- Hiring for game studios — Masterclass review
- Building teams for the long term: Antifragile teams — Masterclass review
- Stillfront: Understanding Gaming’s Dark Horse
- Articles Worth Reading
- Rahul Vohra on Twenty Minute VC (April 2020)
- Matthew Ball on Invest Like The Best (Aug 2020)
- Gigi Levy Weiss on Venture Stories (Apr 2020)
Newsletter archive
- EGD News #163 — More game devs should start games companies
- EGD News #162 — Scale yourself from founder to leader
- EGD News #161 — On walking
- EGD News #160 — Feedback for gaming entrepreneurs
- EGD News #159 — Founder travel policy
- EGD News #158 — Interview with designer of Brawl Stars, Hay Day and Boom Beach
- EGD News #157— 5 must-haves to retain players
- EGD News #156 — Saying No and Opting In
- EGD News #155 — Game Studio Foundation
- EGD News #154 — The Godfather Types
- EGD News #153 — A pre-seed raise: Extra Dimension Games
- EGD News #152 — Mitch Lasky interview
- EGD News #151 — Switch off the startup life
- EGD News #149 — Questions to ask founders in a job interview
- EGD News #148 — Industry life cycles in gaming
- EGD News #147 — 4 things you need to know about VCs
- EGD News #146 — Your core game isn’t enough
- EGD News #145 — Eight lessons from building EGD
- EGD News #144 — Most popular on EGD
- EGD News #143 — Pitch decks revisited
- EGD News #142 — 10 Favorite Books of 2022 so far
- EGD News #141 — How I get the most out of books
- EGD News #140 — How I help founders
- EGD News #139 — Level 5 leaders
- EGD News #138 — Make your own luck
- EGD News #137 — Five things on being a founder
- EGD News #136 — Freshman teams and senior teams
- EGD News #135 — How an ecosystem produces startups
- EGD News #134 — “Braintrust” greenlight
- EGD News #133 — Six lessons from 25 investments
- EGD News #132 — Right people on the bus
- EGD News #131 — Removing uncertainty
- EGD News #130 — Q1 2022 in review
- EGD News #129 — Founder dilution
- EGD News #128 — Deep work
- EGD News #127 — Confront the brutal facts
- EGD News #126 — Hidden Benefits of Player ID
- EGD News #125 — Startup Advisors
- EGD News #124 — Moment-to-moment gameplay
- EGD News #123 — Fundraising in 2022
- EGD News #122 — 80% proven, 20% innovation
- EGD News #121 — Put your investors to work
- EGD News #120 — Be paranoid and stay in the game
- EGD News #119 — First year of Joakim Syndicate
- EGD News #118 — Building a big game
- EGD News #117 — The perfect teaser deck
- EGD News #116 — 2022 predictions for gaming startups
- EGD News #115 — Vacations
- EGD News #114 — Annual Review 2021
- EGD News #113 — 10 Favorite Books of 2021
- EGD News #112 — The hottest thing in gaming
- EGD News #111 — The Magic Of Retention Day-30
- EGD News #110 — Surround yourself with truth-tellers
- EGD News #109 — Success in fundraising
- EGD News #108 — Inquire for intelligence
- EGD News #107 — The right investor
- EGD News #106 — A series of silver bullets
- EGD News #105 — Creating a billion-dollar games company
- EGD News #104 — Long-term player goals
- EGD News #103 — Your financial safety in startups
- EGD News #102 — Looking for the game that works
- EGD News #101 — Fear-setting
- EGD News #100 — From pre-seed to seed
- EGD News #99 — Game depth
- EGD News #98 — How to fundraise
- EGD News #97 — Gaming CEOs calendar
- EGD News #96 — Start a games company on the side
- EGD News #95 — Jobs to be done
- EGD News #94 — Helsinki gaming exits
- EGD News #93 — No hierarchy at a game studio
- EGD News #92 — M&A experiences
- EGD News #91 — 10 Favorite Books of 2021 so far
- EGD News #90 — Bull Case for Brawl Stars
- EGD News #89 — Accountability for independent teams
- EGD News #88 — Bullets, then cannonball
- EGD News #87 — Dealing with uncertainty
- EGD News #86 — Startup lessons learned
- EGD News #85 — Designing a merge game
- EGD News #84 — Reward-centered leaders
- EGD News #83 — To have a startup is the fastest way to learn
- EGD News #82 — There’s not enough full-time angel investors in gaming
- EGD News #81 — Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- EGD News #80 — Founder Meditations
- EGD News #79 — Antifragile game team
- EGD News #78 — Parallel game projects
- EGD News #77 — It’s all about the players
- EGD News #76 — We greenlight teams
- EGD News #75 — Niche games
- EGD News #74 — Soft launching an IP based game
- EGD News #73 — CAC to LTV Ratio
- EGD News #72 — Overfishing
- EGD News #71 — Games industry work from home
- EGD News #70 — You don’t want to pay minimum
- EGD News #69 — Remote work and investor updates
- EGD News #68 — We don’t need your greenlight process
- EGD News #67 — Keeping the player in mind
- EGD News #66 — Game Industry Parenting
- EGD News #65 — Asymmetric Opportunity
- EGD News #64 — How Public Companies Grow?
- EGD News #63 — Predicting Success
- EGD News #62 — How Much Should I Be raising?
- EGD News #61 — Experiments
- EGD News #60 — M&A talk and EGD Annual Review
- EGD News #59 — You can’t keep game ideas you don’t use
- EGD News #58 — Investor feedback on the game
- EGD News #57 — Why Startups Fail
- EGD News #56 — Batting average
- EGD News #55 — Killing a game
- EGD News #54 — No One’s Crazy
- EGD News #53 — What Is Vulnerability
- EGD News #52 — Adding more co-founders
- EGD News #51 — Difficult experiences are transformative ones
- EGD News #50 — Startup closes down. Then what?
- EGD News #49 — Problems with old mid-core games
- EGD News #48 — Envy, Circle of Competence and more
- EGD News #47 — You’re never too old to start a games company
- EGD News #46 — Elevating game developers
- EGD News #45 — InvestGame.net, startup trenches, and more
- EGD News #44 — EGD Manifesto
- EGD News #43 — Epic the Usurper
- EGD News #42 — Underdogs
- EGD News #41 — Long Term Sustainability
- EGD News #40 — Accessible VC
- EGD News #39 — Gaming VC Panel
- EGD News #38 — M&A, creative and data-driven game development
- EGD News #37 — Motivations to Play
- EGD News #36 — Investing In Gaming
- EGD News #35 — Stillfront is going places
- EGD News #34 — a16z and gaming
- EGD News #33 — Helsinki’s gaming ecosystem
- EGD News #32 — Peak acquisition and founder psychology
- EGD News #31 — Pitch “What we do? What’s our secret?”
- EGD News #30 — Games Company Pitch Deck Breakdown
- EGD News #29 — Analyzing 10 Learnings From 10 Years
- EGD News #28 — Deconstruction of Supercell (EGD thoughts)
- EGD News #27 — The Truth On Game Design
- EGD News #26 — Kristian Segerstrale lecture from 2011
- EGD News #25 — Getting active on Twitter
- EGD News #24 — Pocket Gamer panel on Company Culture
- EGD News #23 — Being remote-native
- EGD News #22 — Our Youtube channel is live
- EGD News #21 — The Long Term Game is out
- EGD News #20 — Learning to build a games company
- EGD News #19 — Pitch Your Games Company