Rumble Entertainment chief on the agony and ecstasy of making hardcore mobile games (interview)

Rumble Entertainment has grown up in the age of digital games. A well-funded startup with a veteran game crew, it started making social games for Facebook and the web a few years ago, and then it expanded to mobile games in the past couple of years. Chief executive Greg Richardson has learned a lot of lessons on the way about making hardcore games for both mobile and web interfaces.

Earlier this month, the San Mateo, Calif.-based Rumble launched its iOS version of KingsRoad, a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) with a ton of content and high-end production values. It is one more test whether hardcore games will make it big on mobile devices and whether it’s still possible to crack into the top ranks of the highest revenue-producing games. Richardson believes that assembling a great team, making awesome games, and a little bit of luck, is the secret formula. We talked with Richardson, a former game investor at Elevation Partners and former CEO of hardcore game studio BioWare/Pandemic (now EA’s BioWare division), about the mobile game business and what will happen in 2015. Here’s an edited transcript of our talk.