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Clash ⚔️ Clash ⚔️ CLASH!

Supercell broke the newswire last week announcing not one, not two, but THREE new mobile games themed around its marquee Clash IP: Clash Quest, Clash Mini, and Clash Heroes. Clash Quest seems to take heavy inspiration from Legends of Solgard, Clash Mini from the autochess/autobattler genre (which is quite popular in China), and Clash Heroes from more hardcore ARPG titles that are usually developed by Chinese studios.

Interestingly, Clash Mini and Clash Heroes are both developed out of Supercell's relatively new Shanghai studio, led by Nan Duan and Fan Fang, both ex-Rioters from the League of Legends: Wild Rift team. Before leaving Riot to go to Supercell, Nan actually wrote a fantastic blog post in early 2019 highlighting Supercell's business challenge maintaining its small team structure in an increasingly globally competitive environment for mobile gaming as their Chinese counterparts are working with teams an order of magnitude or more larger than in Helsinki. It will be incredibly interesting to see how Supercell's strategic bet on its Shanghai studio plays out in the coming years.

Also, Andreessen Horowitz hosted a fireside chat on Clubhouse with Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen several weeks ago, and the recording can be found here. Some great transcripted highlights of the conversation can be found on our friend Joakim Achrén's Elite Game Developers website, which has a really helpful newsletter for gaming entrepreneurs.

Headlines 📣

DoF TWIG #127 Podcast

TWIG #127: Clash of Clans 3 New Games, Tencent Timi $10B in 2020, Manticore Raises $100M

The Dos and Don'ts of Cross-Platform Development

Podcast: The Dos and Don'ts of Cross-Platform Development with Maxwell Zierath
How do you approach cross-platform development? Do you focus on one platform? If so, which one? Do you start with the hardest or the easiest? Do you do it all internally or use partners to make ports? Do you have a dedicated team to work on tools for cross-platform development? What happens when your game goes live? How do you make updates?

News 📰

📈 Business

Epic Games raises $1B for long-term metaverse plans, with $200M from Sony
Epic reportedly set to lose at least $330m in efforts to compete with Steam
Play Ventures raises $135M for second fund to invest in game startups
Roblox, Hasbro Climb on Deal for Toys Based on Gaming Platform

📱 Mobile

Sensor Tower: Mobile game spending hit $22.2B in 2021 Q1, up 25% from 2020
Tencent's Timi Studios reportedly earned $10bn in 2020
Tripledot Studios raises $78 million
Apple Arcade just got a huge update of new games, including some mobile classics
Netmarble and Kung Fu Factory launch NBA Ball Stars mobile puzzle game
Microsoft adds touch controls to Xbox Cloud Gaming titles

📡 Livestreaming & Esports

Grid secures $10m in Series A funding
Valkyrae and CouRage are now co-owners of 100 Thieves
Twitch Will Ban Users for ‘Severe’ Offline Behavior, Including Terrorism and Sexual Assault
With Iceland event nearing, Riot thinking about ‘Valorant’ co-streaming, regional slots, match-fixing inquiry

GLHF 👾

E3 will take place virtually June 12 to June 15 — for free
Roblox is so lucrative that it has attracted professional studios like Gamefam
New research reveals growing number of older gamers
Brazil launches inquiry to ban loot boxes
FBI investigating match fixing in CS:GO
Netflix lands streaming deal for Sony films, including Uncharted
U.S. State Department announces new video game diplomacy program

Tweet of the Week 🗣️

Jobs 💼

Mountaintop is an independent, fully-remote studio founded by industry veterans from Oculus, Naughty Dog, Double Fine, and Hidden Path.

Games are a reflection of the teams that make them. So to make the best games, we’re building a studio that puts the team first — one that’s collaborative, anti-crunch, diverse, and inclusive.

We’re assembling a small, veteran group of devs passionate about creating experiences that inspire others. We’re 20 folks today, and we’re growing across all disciplines for our first title.

If this resonates with you, check out www.mountaintop.gg to learn more!

Current Openings:
Senior Game Designer
Senior Engine/Systems Engineer
Senior Gameplay Engineer
Senior Graphics Engineer
Senior Multiplayer Engineer
Senior Platform Engineer
Senior Sound Designer
Character Technical Director
Tech Artist

Our partner ironSource builds technologies that help game developers take their games to the next level. They boast the industry’s largest in-app video ad network, a robust mobile ad mediation platform, and a data-driven user acquisition platform. In other words, everything you need for game growth!

About Us ✍️

Kenny Liu: CEO & co-founder of new studio TBA. ex-Riot & ex-Goldman alum. @kliuless

Joseph Kim: LILA Games CEO. GameMakers YouTube. @jokim1

Jeff Witt: Founder of Funzio & Storm8. Mobile F2P game design consultant. @jwittsf

Miska Katkoff: CEO at Savage Game Studios. Deconstructor of Fun founder. @m_katkoff

Vishnu Kalugotla: Product Manager at Google. Formerly at Riot Games, Privacy.com, and Evercore. @VishnuKal