Bo Daly has seen a lot in game development. He started straight out of university, worked at Rockstar on the Red Dead games, founded studio Super Evil Megacorp and developed mobile hit Vainglory. He’s now CEO and founder at Bazooka Tango and is making a blockchain game called Shardbound, a card-based tactical battler with blockchain elements. In this Key Characters interview, Hal Crawford asks Daly what it was like picking up Shardbound as a game half-built by somebody else, and how the game appears on Steam despite that platform’s ban on blockchain content. Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

The founder of the studio behind Blocklords, David Johansson, is refusing to back down and hide the blockchain like many other game developers in the space. In the face of intense mainstream gamer hostility against crypto and NFTs, many developers are removing references to blockchain in their marketing materials and either hiding, delaying or outright removing crypto integrations in their games. In this interview Johansson explains why this isn’t the path he is taking, and why he thinks his medieval strategy game can sign up a million gamers by the end of next year. He also discusses his eclectic career in LA, China and now Sweden. Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

When Chandler Thomlison began developing a game seven years ago, he had no idea how long and hard the road would be … and he’s not done yet. In this interview with Hal Crawford, Thomlison lays out what he’s learned, including how difficult it is to raise money as an independent game studio, the dynamics of crypto funding, and how that blockchain connection has turned out to be a problem when it comes to gamers. Thomlison’s game is called Sparkball. Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

Jerry Singer leads business development on Metalcore, a mech shooter with blockchain integrations. He is also a former professional firefighter, college baseball player, and closet World of Warcraft fanatic. In this episode of Key Characters, Jerry discusses the change in attitudes towards gaming – moving away from stigma to mainstream commercialisation – the difficulty of building games, and Metalcore’s decision to de-emphasise the blockchain in order that “the gameplay experience feels native to whoever”. Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

Volkin is a YouTube content creator and former web3 enthusiast, who has stepped back from the blockchain because of the lack of games. The former electrician from Melbourne built his substantial following (>100k) on mobile gacha games like Honkai Star Rail, and has a deep curiosity around gaming tech, including blockchain. He still believes in projects such as Illuvium, but is waiting for the big games. “Every project in web3 … I don’t think anyone’s ever met a deadline, so I just think whitepapers are just fluff and I just don’t look at them anymore. I didn’t want to be a speculator, I just wanted to play games. I’ll go back to playing my games that are real games.” Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

Sarah West is the head of marketing at 1980s-themed trading card game The Nemots. She’s also a powerful advocate for women in web3, and a kind of ground-wire back to gaming’s universal roots. In this Key Characters interview she talks about nostalgia, owning a ZX Spectrum, the psychology of games, and how blockchain gaming pushes people away in the very act of attempting to reach them. Subscribe to Key Characters on your favorite podcast app or listen directly on the Polemos website.

Yan Liberman, co-founder at Delphi Digital, knows as much as anyone about how to pick the highest potential blockchain games. He is backing his “bets” with hard cash – his own, and other peoples’. In this interview with Hal Crawford, he talks about unfairness in gaming, why pay-to-win is not a binary state, the importance of experience for game developers, and how to ride the volatility of the crypto market. Note that the web version of this podcast is accompanied by a pixel art image of Liberman that bears little relation to reality. The scene is an invention.

Katy Drake Bettner and Paul Bettner are the force behind Wildcard, an arena battler hybrid game that has been in development for six years. In this rambling, entertaining discussion with Hal Crawford, they explain their vision of creating a spectator experience with all the hooks of broadcast TV sport. Their intention is to use the blockchain to not only attract audiences, but also distribute profits among the players.

Polemos co-CEO Sascha Zehe struggled with explaining what he does to his family … and that was before he got into blockchain gaming. In this interview he tells Hal Crawford his tactics for making BG relatable and comprehensible, and also talks about his lightning conversion to blockchain belief in 2021. Check out polemos.io for blockchain gaming news, past episodes of Key Characters, and also to sign up to our weekly newsletter.

Aaron Warwick is one of the key characters behind mega blockchain game project Illuvium, the brainchild of four Sydney brothers. In this interview he gives insights into game economy and development, and goes into his childhood growing up as the son a professional tennis player. Despite loving maths, puzzles and “the nerdier elements of life”, Aaron always thought he would be a professional sportsman.