Designer Notes

Soren Johnson

Booking Overview

This is a long-form game-design interview show centered on notable designers, developers, and game-industry executives discussing their careers, creative decisions, and business models. Credible pitches include established game designers, studio founders, publishing or platform executives, and experts on game development economics; booking is likely high difficulty because recent guests have been prominent industry leaders and veteran creators.

Metrics

Episodes: 97

Frequency: Monthly

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Male

Location: USA

YouTube: 7.8k subscribers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

biz@idlethumbs.net

questions@idlethumbs.net

Looking for the right person? Join Podseeker to find direct host and producer contacts and manage your podcast outreach.

Host

Soren Johnson - Game designer and founder of Mohawk Games, known for his work on Civilization IV and for creating Offworld Trading Company.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

high

Typical Credentials:

Established game designers, veteran developers, studio founders, and senior executives with substantial experience in game creation, publishing, distribution, or free-to-play business models.

Required Achievements:

Founded or led a game studio, Created or shipped notable commercial games, Held senior leadership roles at major game companies, Built expertise in game design, publishing, or distribution

Recent Guest Discussions

Owen Mahoney - Free-to-play Game Design, Shareholder Strategy, And Nexon's Consideration Of Acquiring Riot Games.

Seth Sivak - Building A Game Studio, Financial Challenges, And Whether Free-to-play Remains A Viable Model.

Charles Cecil - Adventure-game Design, Digital Distribution, Publishing Relationships, And The Development Of The Broken Sword Series.

Charles Cecil - The History Of Adventure-game Development, Game Design Education, And The Development Of The Broken Sword Series.

Recent Topics

Gaming, Game Design, Game Development, Free To Play, Game Business

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

Designer Notes

Designer Notes 97: My Perfect Console - Soren Johnson

September 02, 2026

Designer Notes is hosting a special guest episode from Simon Parkin’s excellent podcast My Perfect Console, in which he interviews Soren Johnson about his career and his favorite games. In each episode, Simon asks the guest to choose five games to compose their version of a perfect console or, in Soren’s case, a perfect personal computer. Check out the show at myperfectconsole.com.

Designer Notes 96: Owen Mahoney

July 06, 2026

In this episode, Soren interviews Owen Mahoney, who served first as the CFO and then as the CEO of Nexon. They discuss what the transition to free-to-play meant for game design, how to make sure your company has the right type of shareholders, and how close Nexon came to buying Riot. This episode was recorded on March 11, 2026, and was engineered by Michael Hermes.

Designer Notes 95: Seth Sivak

June 06, 2026

In this episode, Soren interviews Seth Sivak, best known as the co-founder and CEO of Proletariat, makers of World Zombination and Spellbreak. They discuss how he invited hover doobers, the many times Proletariat almost went out of business, and whether free-to-play still makes sense. This episode was recorded on September 13, 2025, and was engineered by Michael Hermes.

Publicly listed emails

biz@idlethumbs.net

questions@idlethumbs.net

Looking for the right person? Join Podseeker to find direct host and producer contacts and manage your podcast outreach.

Get your clients booked on top podcasts

Try us risk free with a FREE 3 days trial.

Start Your Free Trial

Join hundreds of PR teams using Podseeker to pitch and land bookings