Today we’re talking with Eli Allen of Wild Blue Studios. Eli is a unique guest for our show in a few ways. Wild Blue has been operating for 7 years, where many of the guests I’ve had so far are still in the first few years of their company. Wild Blue is also an art service provider rather than a dev studio, as well as a worker co-operative. We talk a lot about what each of these differences mean for Eli’s founding journey and what he’s had to learn and been challenged by along the way. What I was struck by though is how many similarities and lessons there are here for founders of any stripe. I’m hoping you feel the same way. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking with Pavel Afanasiev of Northern Lights Entertainment. Pavel’s founding journey is a fresh one, starting during student protests in Hong Kong, through to a paper written on his way to a Master’s degree in economics and business. And all of this was built on experiences in forums for a large web strategy game, and a passion for bringing political systems to players inside of games. Along the way, Pavel met his cofounder, built a team, got funding, and found that Karaoke, and the community he found there, was important to his sanity as a founder. I really enjoy when folks find their way to founding a studio from fresh perspectives, and found Pavel’s to be incredibly compelling. Let’s jump in.

On today’s episode, we talk with Bernard Yee, founder of Windup Minds. Bernie has a long history in the games industry working at such places as SOE, Atari, Bungie, Popcap, and more. But immediately prior to starting Windup Minds, he was working at Oculus building early VR experiences. It was through that journey that he found the seed of what he wanted to continue as he started Windup Minds. He shares how he found his cofounders and thought about all the assets he did and did not have, as he went on his startup journey. I loved so much of how Bernie thinks about his journey and reflects on it, I hope you will too. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re talking with Caerie Houchins of Wicked Fox Games. Caerie had what I think is a quintessential experience post-layoffs at Riot, where a bunch of well meaning folks were encouraging her to do a startup. This happens whenever there are big layoffs or downturns in the industry — surely those folks can just start their own studios! As you’ll hear, Caerie went on this journey with curiosity and learned more about what that path entailed. She ultimately found a co-founder and embarked, but it was not a sure thing. I hope anyone who is getting similar advice can learn from Caerie’s journey, and all the episodes of Founder’s Quest. Let’s jump in.

Michael Chu, founder of Treehouse Games, is a dear friend of mine. We worked together at Riot Games a decade ago now and have helped support each other on our founding journeys since. He was a graduate of the USC games program where he led a project and met his co-founder. While he spent the next few years learning at Riot, his co-founder went on several entrepreneurial journeys. Michael shares how those two different set of experiences come together to create their journey at Treehouse and how that's gone. Michael is one of the humblest and kindest people you'll meet so it was a treat to get him to open up about his journey and share lessons.

Stephen MacDonald, founder of Magic Potion Games, is my first guest who self-described as a serial entrepeneur. He’s done two prior startups, pushing hard along those journeys, and in between has worked at places like Disney, EA, and Relic. Each startup brought with it new lessons and experiences, which Stephen was quite introspective about and has carried forward on this journey. It’s really inspiring to hear someone who has that level of thoughtfulness break down prior journeys and how its shaped their current one.

In this episode we talk to Cole Clifford from Pickford AI. This is a little bit out of our normal zone as Pickford is more in the broader entertainment space. However as I’ve gotten connected to Cole and his co-founder Stephen, I found their journey one that share a lot in common with other game industry founding stories. And while its hard to replicate a founding after a successful exit, the path Cole has navigated to learn how to go from “first engineer” to “founder” to be full of great lessons and reflections.

This year I hope to continue to broaden the conversations I have to find more and more interesting and insightful founding journeys in and around games and entertainment that we can learn from and enjoy.

Welcome back to Founder’s Quest here in 2025. Our first episode of the year is with Heather Cerlan, founder of NEARstudios. After seeing the announcement of their game Hawthorn last year, I wanted to learn more about Heather’s journey to that moment. An artist being the galvanizing founder of a team is on the more rare side and learning how Heather found the spark to start a studio and navigated that journey was both interesting and inspiring.

I hope you enjoy hearing her story as much as I had recording it.