Matthew DiRienzo’s Post

HAPPENING TOMORROW IN PERSON AND VIRTUALLY! Abel M. will be joining us for a fireside chat during the C-Tribe x Gaming Festival at the end of the month. Visit https://lnkd.in/gjqTisVm for more details. Abel co-founded Backtrace, an error management software for gaming studios with the tooling they need for cross-platform crash reporting. He helped incubate the idea all the way to an exit, and the platform is now used by 18 out of the top 20 gaming companies in the world. Jordan numbers 👀 Yes, if you played Robolox this weekend, Backtrace was probably running on the backend. What makes his journey extra special is that he didn't stop there. In a few short months, he was called up to be the CTO at Sauce Labs and helped lead the organization through incredible stages of growth. Now that his tenure is complete, he did admit that there was a little bit of an identity crisis he experienced. How would he spend his time now post-exit? What's the true purpose of his existence? How would he pursue a greater purpose? During this fireside chat, we'll discuss the above and more. Abel will shed light on his team's process in defining a need, building a proof of concept before iterating and gaining product market fit, strategic pivots, raising money, and creating an opportunity for exiting (selling) the business. What do we hope you take away from the C-Tribe x Gaming Luncheon? 1. Life is never a straight path. We must learn from every one of our experiences and connect the dots to build a body of lessons that will give us leverage in the future. 2. The gaming industry is undergoing a rapid set of changes, and there are many opportunities that exist for innovative and creative people. 3. Iteration and execution of an idea is far more valuable than the idea itself 4. The Art of life proliferates when one applies constraints. You can learn more about the C-Tribe x Gaming Festival and register for the session by signing up here: https://lnkd.in/gRRXNje8 A big shoutout to our sponsors and partners that are helping bring this initiative to life: Edmonton Unlimited Edmonton RIN City of Edmonton ChreativeGaming . . . . Adaeze Hubbard Laura Domínguez Tessa C. Sid Jha Kaitlyn Eaton Janvi Patel Dharan Padhiyar Gueshly Masson Carina Kom CK Dhaliwal Derek Kwan Madison Côté Mohsen Dalir Black Business Ventures Association Prairies Economic Development Canada I Développement économique Canada pour les Prairies Global Taproot Edmonton Innovate Calgary Calgary Game Developers Association Product Calgary NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) University of Alberta eHUB Entrepreneurship Centre - University of Alberta

A couple of months back, Supercell announced their Spark program for evaluating and greenlighting teams. Not games, teams. If the teams passed the rigorous evaluations informed by science and psychology which looked at attributes such as team culture, leadership qualities, entrepreneurial spirit- they could then go on to conceptualize and develop the game(s) they see fit. At first blush, this may seem radical. And maybe it is- I'd love to know more about the experts they're working with and what sort of frameworks/ theories they're leveraging. But there's definitely been a number of studies across various parts of tech that drill into what makes a high performing team, well, high performing (Google's Project Aristotle comes to mind). If done effectively, it could be really interesting to see if they do indeed increase their chances of building and launching hit games- and kill a lot less. I'd venture to take this one step further: Once you find the core principles of what a high performing team's secret sauce is- can you then create an academy to teach this? Sure, you'd need to start with a baseline of a pretty great team (let's say they'd score a B+ or A- on your tests). And they show strong signals of willingness to learn... could they find ways to nurture more A+ developers? Does this then level up healthy, happy, psychologically safe teams across the games industry as a whole? I can't wait to see how this unfolds over the next few years! And kudos to Supercell for trying something pretty wild and cool. https://lnkd.in/gJS4qmEU

Again, different context perhaps but, the flexibility and scalability of the Bedrock platform lends itself to more specific use cases - like those I'm seeing that are coming up at Higher Ed and Tertiary institutions. Exciting times ahead - look in the next few days for news of upcoming events where we will be digging deep into use cases and practitioner work #Imagine

🚀 When Failure Meets Fun: My Journey with "Fail Forward" 🎲 Continuing the series on negative yet inspiring things that fuel learning 📚 , we’ve gone from boredom 🥱 (the surprising spark for creativity) to its equally chaotic cousin: failure 🕳️ . Both seem unwelcome at first, yet they push us into spaces where real growth happens. 📈 A few months ago, I had the absolute joy of conducting my game Fail Forward for the amazing team at AxonIQ – a company that’s as forward-thinking as they are fun! We laughed, we learned, and most importantly, we embraced the glorious chaos of failure. 🌪️ But here’s a little secret… 🤫 I had a cheat code while designing the game: Townscaper by @oskarstalberg. Its mesmerizing graphics and intuitive design inspired me to craft a world (okay, two islands: Failure Island and Growth Island 🌴➡️🌳) that turned failure into an adventure. Who knew building tiny colorful towns could spark game mechanics? 💡 Now, fast forward to this week. I stumbled upon the brilliant Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmondson via the Offbeat newsletter, and BOOM 💥—my brain is buzzing with new ideas. Intelligent failure? High standards meet psychological safety? A matrix of blameworthiness? I’m like a kid in a candy store of concepts 🍭 (except this store serves piping hot lessons on embracing failure). So, what’s next? Reinvention. I’m reimagining Fail Forward with these insights to make it even more powerful, reflective, and fun! Stay tuned for updates because, this game is about to get a major upgrade. 🛠️ And hey, big thanks to Offbeat for the eye-opening read and to AxonIQ for being the co-adventurers (I mean, players 🐹). The only failure here would be not sharing this journey. 🙃 #FailForward #LearningFromFailure #Gamification #Townscaper #AxonIQ #RightKindOfWrong #OffbeatNewsletter

🤑 The current investment landscape for mobile gaming 🎮 Recap of the investment panel Martin Macmillan moderated at the HIT Games Conference in #Berlin with Maximilian Seeburg ⇒ 1Up Capital and Uluc Yuca ⇒ VitalPlay. 🤖 Inevitably #AI dominated the discussion. Opportunities for cost savings and shorter time to market of both gaming content and infrastructure are huge. Automating repetitive manual tasks like QA, asset generation etc enables product to be shipped more quickly and has both tangible (cost) and less tangible (speed) benefits 🧠 For content investments - While investors don't necessarily want every investment to be an "AI first" company, everyone is looking for AI to be cerebrally implemented into all parts of the development/release process giving #games a better chance of success. 👷♂️ Infrastructure plays are favoured over content plays. Investors prefer tools and other infrastructure plays vs individual content plays to derisk their investment. BUT there will always be good content opportunities - early stage #funding for great games remains hard but possible. 🤓 When seeking #investment for gaming-related companies, keep focused on the investors who really understand the industry. They are a much better long-term partner than the generalist FOMO investors who find gaming a hot sector. 🙌 Thanks for a great event Eugene Lavrinenko, Olga Marchenko and the HIT Games Conference team.

💥 The Wait is Almost Over! 💥 You’ve seen the teaser, now get ready for the big reveal! 🚀 Boomlytics is here to change the game, and we’re counting down the hours until you can explore everything we’ve been working on. 👀 Want to be the first to know? Head over to www.boomlytics.com and get ready to experience a new level of growth and success. Stay tuned—this is just the beginning! 🔥 #Boomlytics #bigreveal #comingsoon #marketinginnovation #digitalmarketingexperts #businessgrowth #gamechanger #staytuned #newbeginnings

🎉 Thrilled to disclose Yooldo's first investors and grant funding sponsor list! Also, being part of Consensys scale program and Google for Startups program, alongside our powerful partners, helps us reach new heights. A heartfelt thank you to our phenomenal investors and grant sponsors who contribute not only capital but also invaluable knowledge and ideas. Our investors include: - Bedrock Ventures - double jump.tokyo, Inc. - Edimus - Hyperithm - Klaytn Foundation - Manta Network (MANTA) Token - NEOPIN - Planetarium - Presto Labs - VISTALABS And our generous grant sponsors: - Aptos Foundation - BNB Chain Innovation - Immutable X - Oasys These are a catalyst in our journey, enabling us to enhance our technology, expand our gaming offerings, and grow our vibrant community. At Yooldo, we are at the forefront of the gaming revolution. We're not just about games; we're building a sustainable, enjoyable, and fair gaming universe. 🕹️ Our Flagship Game: "Trouble Punk: Cyber Galz" Our in-house game, "Trouble Punk: Cyber Galz," exemplifies our commitment to quality and fairness in gaming. Recognized for its AAA quality and innovative token economy, it's a clear indicator of our dedication to creativity and fairness in the gaming world. #Yooldo #Web3Gaming 👉 Follow us for more updates and be part of our exciting journey! 🚀🎮💡 https://lnkd.in/gdvvr5XM

Some insights from the first day at #ethdenver - VCs: Witnessing a positive and vibrant atmosphere, with private rounds experiencing a frenzy in valuations. - Hot narratives: Real World Assets and DePin are dominating discussions - Web3 Marketing: Safary 🦁 / @saisoncapital event was the most interesting so far. Kudos to Justin Vogel for organizing it! Key takeaways from the web3 growth conference: - Exiting the bear market. Last year saw a contraction in the web3 growth sector, resulting in dozens of startups throwing the towel. Time for a rebirth - Airdrops remain relevant, evolving into a more continuous and iterative design. - Evolution of quests: Yield Guild Games designs quests to attract genuine users, focusing on authentic learning experiences - LinkedIn Content Insights. Learning valuable content advice from Marc Baumann. Write non-opinionated and in-depth content. Lists can really be a viral format Will write more notes about ethdenver in the next few days. Happy to connect if you are here! #web3marketing #ethdenver