I Play, Therefore I Am

Of Intuition, Creative Freedom and Finding Your Place

Fernando Ferero's life led him from Columbia to Poland, from Germany to the US and back to Germany. It also took him to renowned gaming companies such as CD Projekt Red, Goodgame Studios and Blizzard Entertainment. As a Senior UI Artist he worked on prestigious projects like The Witcher 3 and Diablo IV.

While talking about this incredible life path, we also go into the distinction of hope vs. reality in the games industry, how to generate trust and freedom for yourself, and enjoying what you have.

Of Leaving the Shire, Overthinking and Another Kind of Leadership - with Jasmin Ostreicher, CEO of Instinct3

What better way to decide things than ask oneself: What would Commander Shepard do? Like the main character in Mass Effect, Jasmin Oestreicher chose different paths along the way of her career, leading her from the Shire to Mordor and back, meeting different kinds of leaders and learning from them what counts: empathy, listening, and putting your team first. How she implements these traits in her role as CEO of the successful influencer marketing agency Instinct3 while overcoming her introvert and overthinking tendencies, she tells Simon and Florian in this episode.

Of Lightsabers, RPGs and Looking Through the Right Lens

Patrick "PJ" Esteves' long journey to Berlin took him from almost being a rockstar, over wanting to be a Jedi to asking himself how the hell he ended up in Villingen-Schwenningen. The CEO and Co-Founder of Fire and Forge Studios paints a vivid picture of his life in the games industry which is captivating and, most importantly, has a lot to do with the Roman Empire.

Boris Johnson hasn’t played Suzerain, otherwise he would have been a better prime minister. This is only one thing you will learn from this podcast with Ata Sergey Nowak, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Torpor Games. Other things include: how the formation of Torpor Games depended on a lottery ticket, why Ata advises you not to take advice, and what advantages it has to be born “in the middle”. 

If you’re not hyped, something’s not right – Founder and Creative Director of Fableware Narrative Design, Arthur Protasio, knows that you need to be in the right vibe to get things done. But how do we establish a good vibe? And how do you go from studying Law to being the narrative designer and multiplatform director of Emmy-nominated content? And what does that have to do with cheese? Listen to this #IPTIApodcast episode and follow the cheese crumbs into the world of storytelling and – you guessed it – a real good vibe.

Of Relentlessness, Slow Disruption and Finding Confluence

From the moon landing to Age of Empires 4 in under two hours: with Kate Edwards everything seems possible. We welcome you to the first episode of our second season of our renamed podcast I Play, Therefore I Am. And what an episode it is!

Listen to Kate, an award-winning 30+ year veteran of the game industry, principal consultant of Geogrify and the former Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). With her, we talk about the geopolitical strategy at Microsoft, why we don’t have to fix everything now, and what all this has to do with Steve Buscemi and his skateboard.

In our final episode for now, we spoke with Sophie Vo, founder of Rise and Play and CEO of Savage Game Studios, about playfulness, clear communication, and self-awareness. From her own podcast through her view on leadership to her desire to influence those around her as positively as possible, Sophie gives us insight into her work and the way she approaches life.

Give yourself the chance to have chances! Derk de Geus, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Paladin Studios, believes that persistency is the key for success. Take full ownershop of what you can control, but have the trust in your team that they will do the rest. In this episode he talks about his way in and out of burnout and how spirituality drives him to find both himself and the best way to lead his studio.