{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/688b7c60c6d705dd3a3f0853/69aaed1a6ffdcd81888fe4f7?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Story 8: Three days from bankruptcy - the story of King Art","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/688b7c60c6d705dd3a3f0853/1772809437572-a1cfb1ff-b056-4438-99d8-b5bbcfe27f43.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>What happens when your breakout hit collides with a publisher’s sudden bankruptcy—and your runway shrinks to three weeks? For Jan Theysen of KING Art Games, the HMH collapse turned a million‑euro royalty forecast into frozen projects and an urgent scramble to avoid layoffs—until Gameforge’s Klaas Kersting stepped in with a fast, no‑nonsense browser game deal that bridged the gap and saved the studio.</p><p>In this episode, Jan traces the whiplash arc from Leipzig triumph to legal limbo: the hard lessons of rights recovery for The Book of Unwritten Tales, the “never one partner” rule that reshaped KING Art’s strategy, and why trailer‑driven development and Kickstarter discipline later became compounding advantages. He opens the black box on negotiating amid insolvency, building a deterministic RTS netcode from dusty papers, and how Iron Harvest’s long tail set the stage for Dawn of War 4.</p><p>You will learn:</p><ul><li>How to secure IP and ship an add‑on when your publisher goes under</li><li>How a single decisive ally (Klaas Kersting) can de‑risk a studio at the edge</li><li>How diversifying across three projects, partners, genres, and platforms hedges failure</li><li>How trailer‑driven development sharpens focus and pitch clarity under pressure</li><li>Why resilient pipelines turned a crisis into momentum—culminating in landing a top RTS franchise</li></ul><p><br></p>","author_name":"Triberg Media"}