The Vice President of Top Games Inc., Benjamin Gifford, is primarily responsible for game design, marketing, and business strategy.

Benjamin Gifford explains how his team created such a successful MMO title.

Evony has grown from a modest flash browser game into one of the top 4X strategy games on the web.

Typically, development teams focus on achieving perfection and won’t release a product to the market unless it’s 100% perfect. However, Top Games Inc. realized that this pursuit, while understandable, can leave a development team far behind the competition. That’s why Top Games has made excellence—not perfection—the ideal and primary focus throughout development.

Details of the Interview

How long have you been in this industry, and what is your impression of Top Games Inc. so far?

I’ve been in the games industry since 2009. Before that, I was involved with intellectual property commercialization in collaboration with industry and universities.

What sets Top Games apart from its peers is the focus on excellence rather than perfection or trying to be everything to everyone. We use data science to overcome personal bias and OKRs to push ourselves toward improvement. We focus on the elements that can make the biggest impact on our players. The culture that David created is part of what makes Top Games unique. Others in the industry can adopt the best parts of what we do, raising the bar for delivering terrific game experiences, from acquisition to retention.

What I like most about Top Games is that, no matter where I am in the world, the team can always reach me. We can collaborate, and I can support them. If something is important to them, I am a resource that’s immediately available.

What is your role in the company, and what traits should a game developer or marketing professional possess to succeed?

I handle a bit of everything, from game design to marketing, business strategy, and more. Often, when an issue is identified, we create a Tiger Team to address it. I’ll join the team to resolve the issue and implement a solution to ensure it stays fixed.

For aspiring or current game developers and marketing professionals, I offer the following advice:

1. Focus excessively on users: Start with the end user as your main focus and work backward from that perspective. By earning and keeping their trust, everything else will follow.

2. Move fast, but be responsible: Speed allows you and your team to learn from experience, build more, and ship solutions quickly. This keeps your products improving. Efficiency leads to product excellence, while responsibility ensures that end users are well cared for. Don’t fall into the trap of perfection.

3. Focus on impact: The best way to make a significant impact is to focus on solving the most important problems. Challenge yourself and your team to identify the most critical issues and address them effectively.

4. Seek excellence, not perfection: Aim for loyal users by delivering product excellence. Continuously raise the bar, ensure defects are resolved, and maintain high-quality standards. Be dissatisfied with the status quo.

5. Do the right things: Have clear purpose and values. Avoid decisions that preserve personal biases and instead focus on self-improvement and team growth. Encourage your team to speak up if they see something wrong.

How does Top Games Inc. develop talent?

Technology insights, product excellence, data science, and positive user experiences are key to staying relevant in the internet and metaverse era. Speed is essential to achieving product excellence. We invest significant effort upfront to hire only the best, ensuring cultural and values alignment.

New team members undergo an Exploration Bootcamp, a training method developed by our CEO David Guo. This program empowers creative instincts and encourages contributions to service, design, and gameplay. It promotes critical thinking and testing innovative ideas within focus groups in a controlled environment.

By using OKRs, we encourage staff to stretch themselves beyond their normal capabilities. This helps the team grow by working on big challenges, learning through failure, and ultimately achieving excellence.

What are the next steps for Top Games Inc.?

Our CEO, David Guo, has cultivated a unique and powerful culture at Top Games Inc. We aim to leave our mark on the gaming industry as a whole. In 2023, we’re exploring opportunities to take Top Games Inc. to the next level.