The Martial Arts Mindset That Won 2 Million Players

Recorded live on-site at GDC, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Justin Graysmark, founder of Eplay Studios, to unpack the unlikely path from teaching English in Poland to building a portfolio of 25 competitive games and driving 2 million installs on the Skillz platform.Justin didn’t come into games through the usual route. He started with a love of competitive trivia, a serious winning streak on the leaderboard and the conviction that real rewards could make skill-based games even more compelling. In 2016, that spark became Eplay Studios.What followed was not overnight success. It was persistence, testing, missed shots, hard lessons and a lot of getting back up.As Justin puts it, game development has plenty in common with martial arts: you get your butt kicked, you learn, you try again. That mindset helped him move from early misses to games players actually wanted to play.In this episode, Peggy and Justin get into:How Justin turned a competitive trivia habit into a full-time indie studioWhy fairness, balance and trust are make-or-break in real-money competitive gamesWhat 25 games and 2 million installs taught him about working backward from the playerHow Skillz helped Eplay focus on gameplay while handling matchmaking, payments and competitive infrastructureWhy the Skillz and Beamable combination gives small studios more tools to build, test and iterate fasterWhy Justin started sharing his journey on YouTube to show other developers that success is possibleThe big takeaway: competitive games are not won by one great idea. They are built through persistence, player feedback and the willingness to keep testing what flies and what fails.If you are building your first game, your tenth or your next shot at something bigger, Justin’s story is a reminder not to give up too early. In his words: “When you stick with it long enough, that’s where the magic happens.”Chapters00:00 – Martial Arts Discipline00:38 – An Unconventional Path02:54 – Starting Eplay Studios04:17 – Milestone: 2 Million Installs05:27 – The Importance of Fairness06:31 – Infrastructure for Small Studios08:02 – The Skillz/Beamable Bundle09:21 – Documenting the Journey11:07 – Future of Competitive VR12:45 – Advice: Don't Stop EarlyLet's Connect👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz 👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk 👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event