From Extracting Resources To Building Games | Inside Look

is market intelligence, determining where where there's a gap in the market and what would work best for us and then which partners to work with. I think that's a really big thing, especially when you're a small studio.
It's one of those days at the show where you meet someone and you say, I just got to talk to him and get to know him better. And that's what happened when I met you, Cameron, because I thought, CFO, Off-Road Games, I get it. But then you start telling me about your background and what you do and I have to say CFO maybe it shouldn't be the title for you. What do you think Cameron?
Uh thank you very much Peggy. Yeah, it's been great meeting you too. Um I don't know if I am a CFO. I'm bit of a jack of all trades. I um
run I run everything but the game I suppose. So the team runs the game and I run most of the backend stuff. Um I have I run the finance, HR, a bit of legal contracts, uh office manager I suppose. what are the plants as well? So,
so a bit of everything. But I think that's what makes it interesting because

the CFO is supposed to be more hands-on. That's what I was hearing when I met you originally at the uh mobile finance collective. So, it is about CFOs stand up, be counted, and and be more than the bean counter.
100%. That is that's largely what what's led me to enjoy the company so much is getting really involved. And the more you know your product, the better you can you can work with it. So um I get like 100% involved in all game tests. If you're going to play the game, I'm on it. Whatever it is, I really get to know the product really well because then you know exactly talking about when you're discussing it at a later stage.
So that's just it. You know, sometimes that's where it falls down is the CFO is off way somewhere and you're very hands-on. So I think there's some lessons or maybe even some best practice about you know getting involved with the product getting involved with the team bringing people together so that you know your financial savvy is maybe the single source of

truth at the end of the day but you know we need to rally around the right metrics the right goals the right KPIs getting that to the team that's your job how do you think you've done translating that
there's so many different KPIs there's so much data at the moment So knowing what to look at and where to look at it and being a CFO and looking at the numbers is sometimes not easy but that's a safe space because you can just look at numbers and understand them but then translating into something that the team understands is often more difficult. Um if you're talking about KPIs they can make sense to you but to your UIUX or your dev team that might not translate into um something that drives them or motivates them. Uh so just knowing what motivates the team and something that we've done really a lot at offer games is we've been very transparent. We've just I speak to the team very honestly and openly and explain to them exactly where we are, what we're doing, why we're doing it. Um and I think it's built trust. Um it's one of the hard things. Often you go to

work, you don't know how much longer the company's going to be running for. Um it's a difficult industry and uh we're just very transparent of the team. like a team knows to a large extent where we're going and how we're doing and what what our bands are for the long term.
Now, that is very interesting because you have to dive into the data. You have to mind the data, pun intended. And then I learned that your background is not in mobile games, uh, which is often the case for people in the gaming industry. You don't wake up and say this is what I want to be, but mining started in mining in South Africa and comes to off-road games. Tell me about that journey. That is astounding.
Thanks. Yeah. So I I landed in mining uh living in South Africa and being in finance you will often end up in mining. Mining is one of the major industries in South Africa. I was at Deoid at the time and spent a lot of time on mining clients. spent a lot of time in the DRC uh and South Africa on mines and um moved to London and came out to travel

and see the world a bit and then I decided I'd stay within the mining industry as well. Yeah. And I joined a mining company here and worked in mining
for the first eight and a half years of my career. Um so
there's parallels though to gaming, right?
There's so many parallels. I mean a lot of it's volume and pricing. So it's how many players you have in the game and what cost they are to to get the player. um to an extent you are mining your players. You're going out and looking for them and exploring for them and then you're trying to tap that market and make it work. Um and then you're trying to develop them and make sure that they last as long as possible within the game. Similar to mine, you you're exploring for that for the for the old body. And once you have the whole body, you're developing a and trying to monetize that or body and then hopefully getting as much finding new bodies around it to process through your plants where there's little capital being um deployed as possible in the beginning of both in both situations. So yeah, it was a really interesting background. I love the mining industry. It's a really funny

fun but very different fun compared to the gaming industry. Gaming industry is like it's
absolutely buzzing. Um it's way more enjoyable at the end of the day.
That's true. I mean it's buzzing here as well and even at the end of the day there's still a high level of excitement and optimism about the industry. I was surprised today a lot of people who were saying you know last year around this time it was like oh there are no new launches there is no new game it's all it's all Candy Crush and we can all go home now but no not at all and you are actually thinking about new games new launches new things happening at off-road tell me about
there's always new ideas in the pipeline nothing concrete uh it depends where we're going we've got some titles that haven't been launched but we will see if we ever launch them again uh or launch those titles or create new games from scratch the markets really moves really quickly. So
yeah,
um that's one of the similarities like there's market intelligence determining where where there's a gap in the market and what would work best for us and then which partners to work with. I think that's a really big thing especially

when you're a small studio.
Well, you know, that was just it. You did find a gap because I remember when you came out originally with the game, it was like look match three for men it works. Um and that was astounding and everyone was blown away by that. So I mean it is about finding that gap and serving that. Um how's it been since then? I mean you know it is a game with legs. It has a number of I don't play it myself. My husband does but um because it's an instant match three game for band. It is indeed.
Remember anybody wants to play it.
Yes.
Uh it's a games running a running a company is difficult. Um it's not as easy as you think it is. It's challenging but it's really enjoyable. Um the game has done extremely well. Uh the game is performing better than we expected it to perform without giving too much away. Um we managing to expand the game in different areas. So our live ops has done really well. We we've created and developed and released new features um that have performed as we

intended and often better than we intended which has been really good. Um and we're looking to grow the game further. So our our main priority for the year is to grow growers.
Okay. I'm I'm intrigued because live ops that's always so important and uh what was an innovative approach in live ops maybe even surprised you and and maybe you with your CFO hat on you said whoa wait a second let's see if this really flies and guess what it does
learning from your mistakes and acting quickly like when we've found something that works we've worked we've run with it we've taken chances um we've looked at what's working for us and then we've doubled down on that a lot of the time um
I think really Cool. I mean, I I'm not following like the events and what you offer and how you keep the game going because I mean, that's the secret, isn't it? It's like you have a great game and then to your mining background, you keep it alive, relevant, fresh as long as possible. And that's certainly been the case here.
We have run our mini games back to back. Uh that's been that's been quite a

something we started since we we took over. Um releasing new content the whole time. uh keeping the game fresh, adding new features to the game, making the game feel new. Um that has really helped because we've got a lot of players that are an older cohort. Um so making sure that they well looked after and have got new content and suppose we've also trying to make sure our new content is better than the content was in the past as well. We just trying to improve the whole time.
But at the end of the day, it always has to balance out. I'm just curious because you said with your partners and I talked with a number of people in MSC, right? So I know that some of them feel rather I want to say lonely but it's a it could be a lonely job, right? Um and you want to have the right partnerships or you want to approach the ecosystem which is evolving and so vast. I mean are there um different relationships that you're looking forward to forging this year that are different from others? you play such an central role in the publisher

and the publisher has to branch out. I mean I was just talking to someone said you know this is going to be the pivotal year for DTOC. So that means you might have to be talking to payments providers or other providers other partners. What does that look like for you?
DTOC is an interesting one. We implemented it and it isn't as easy as you think. It's gone really well for us. We have a great partner that we work with um and it's going well with them. There's loads of challenges this year. Finding good partners where you can both benefit from the partnership, that is really pivotal. When you both feel like you're winning and if you can find an agreement and a contract and make something come to an agreement that feels like you're both working really well together and when you win, they win.
That's those are the type of partnerships.
So, is there a new category of partnership? I'm trying to understand like the next level of relationship that a studio like yours has to have or will be pursuing to just go that one step further. How are you monetizing your

game?
We monetize through IPS mostly. Majority of our monetization is IP and then ad revenue. Really low hanging fruit for us is monetizing our ad revenue
better. Um we don't monetize we're not very aggressive in our in ad revenue space. Um,
we don't show ads that early. Um, we probably will bring that forward. It helps the user to progress in the game faster as well, just to help the user have a more enjoyable progression and enjoy their time and have more powerups of along the way and more more lives.
That makes sense.
Um, to give them to help them more, I suppose, is not to not necessarily to generate more revenue. I mean, that's definitely part of it, but to also help the player have a better experience in the game. Um, and to keep them playing longer. Yeah, that's the point. It has to be a good experience. So, yeah, you might be one of those companies I'm talking with that are saying, "Yeah, you know, the ad experience, we're going to rearchitect that. Find the balance, find the right formats,
find the right partners." So, I do want to keep tabs on you, Cameron, and you

are a very interesting person for me to do that because you you bring together a different dynamic in the in in what I would expect in a publisher, you know. Um, just curious how you keep that dynamic yourself, you know, it has to be real. Has to be real about the numbers. Um, but you're also very hands-on. Maybe because of the mining background, I don't know. But there's there's something about what you do to do your job better. What would you say that is? What would what can you share?
I think I wake up excited most days. Um, running your mo own mobile gaming studio is like really enjoyable. Um, and we've got a great team. Like we really have a great team. So, I enjoy going to work. I genuinely enjoy being in the office. Just being honest and true to yourself, I suppose. Like there's you're not going to get everything done. Your list is going to be longer at the end of the week than it was at the start of the week. Just doing the most important things on your list. That is and finding out what is most important. Often you can share the load. Like there's ways to you'd be surprised what different

members in your team can and are willing to do and are capable of doing. Um when you give people responsibility, they often embrace [clears throat] it and rise to the top really well. And when you're honest about the forecasting, I think is always really key. I mean, being saying like this is where we are. This is where we need to go and everyone's on the same page.
It is it's it's also very scary. Um, if we aren't in the position where we we don't have a runway, but telling the team member we don't have much of a runway, that would be a very daunting day in my life. I I don't want to be there. So, I want to make sure that that's always protected and we've looking into it well before it becomes reality. Um, but my number one priority is making sure my team has a job like and is well paid. Uh, so that is but that is like I'll that's what keeps me up at night. I suppose if I everything anything does it's making sure that I'm looking after the team and then if the game does well that's great. I mean that helps the team but my team is our number one.
Yeah.
And
we look after them well looking after them. And then I suppose that's why we

haven't got a staff of 20 people while we still do have contractors. It's not because we don't want to hire the whole, but it's growing responsibly. We'd like to grow and treat people as as well as we can and look after everybody that we can as well as we can. Well, I admire that because that's the whole idea with sustainable growth, profitable growth. We've already seen what happens when you don't think that way. Um, and you won't be there tomorrow, but you most certainly will, and I will look forward to chatting with you again, Cameron, and wishing you all the best in what you do. Um, and above all, you know, the the spirit and the interest in the team. I think that's very very key because it is team effort. Yeah. And uh I'll be looking for possibly for another iteration of what comes out of off-road games.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Peggy.
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