This week on Demystifying IT, Bhopi Dhall & Saurajit Kanungo welcome Robert M. Atkins to the podcast. With over 30 years of experience shaping iconic interactive entertainment franchises including Quake, Tomb Raider, and Counter Strike, Robert has been at the forefront of gaming and technology. As CEO of BALANCED Media | Technology, Robert leads with vision, purpose, and compassion. He believes in leveraging the power of AI, gaming, and interactive technologies to create positive change. His pioneering work continues to push the boundaries of what's possible, accomplishing innovative breakthroughs across the industry. Robert's remarkable vision, pioneering spirit, and commitment to purpose exemplify extraordinary leadership. In this episode, listeners will explore his triumphs and insights on the evolving landscape of gaming and technology, what it takes to create hugely successful franchises, the importance of leading with purpose, pioneering new frontiers in entertainment and AI, and the ingredients for inspired, compassionate leadership. Join us for an eye-opening conversation with this game-changing pioneer. Discover Robert's captivating vision for the future and how we can all unleash our inner pioneering spirit to create positive change.

About Robert M. Atkins: As a founding member of five interactive entertainment companies, Robert has contributed to some of the interactive industry's highest acclaimed franchises including Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, SiN, Heavy Metal, LUXOR, 7 Wonders, Glowfish, 25toLife, Tomb Raider, Star Trek, Metal of Honor and Counter Strike.During his 30+ year career, Robert has been highly involved in Product Design, Creative Direction, Company Management, Brand Building and Marketing. Over 50 titles contributed and credited, including 30 first-party in-house products, while a leadership role was held during development. Robert’s companies and titles have won dozens of industry awards and worldwide acclaim.In 1996, Robert co-founded his first development company Ritual Entertainment, managing and developing original & 3rd party content under this label for over a decade. At the largest stage, the company employed nearly 100 team members who worked on multiple AAA titles for the industry’s top publishing companies simultaneously.
Shortly thereafter in 1998, Ritual co-founded the first of its kind developer-owned publisher, Gathering of Developers. The publisher launched dozens of new franchises including Nocturne, Heavy Meatal: F.A.K.K.2, Kiss Psycho Circus, Railroad Tycoon and Max Payne, also new studios, PopTop, Edge of Reality and Remedy Entertainment. Notably, Robert directly helped create core standards for developer/publisher relationships in interactive entertainment which are still the gold-standard today.Additionally, Robert's experience includes a long line of casual and mobile gaming successes. In 2007, after a successful acquisition of Ritual Entertainment to the leading Casual Games Retailer in the world MumboJumbo, Robert spent three years as a director on their core design team while also guiding the Brand Management for all in-house franchises including: Elements, Little Farm, Square Logic, Discovery, Midnight Mysteries, Samantha Swift, LUXOR 3, LUXOR: Adventures, and LUXOR: Quest For The Afterlife to name a few. He also helped lead the prototyping of numerous other titles that became the product roadmap for years after his departure from the studio. Simultaneously, he oversaw the Marketing team's creative effort for Branding and Design for all retail products, advertising and packaging.Departing MumboJumbo in 2009, Robert has founded a number of development studios, including Happy Muffin Top in 2010, which focused on casual gaming including the Fallen Shadows franchise with Adrian Carmack, formally of id Software.In 2012 also co-founded Green Eye Games, a tabletop gaming company, which to date as raised over $5million on Kickstarter with the Cthulhu Wars franchise. The Cthulhu Wars product is one the all-time money makers on Kickstarter and has re-defined the Lovecraft gaming genre.Robert has advised other successful campaigns, with millions raised over nearly a dozen projects on Kickstarter.After a formal invitation in 2012, Robert joined the accomplished ranks as a mentor to graduate students in the role of Adjunct Professor at SMU Guildhall in Dallas Texas, teaching Game Design, Professional Development, Focused Study and Industry Ethics. In 2017 & 2018 the school was named the number 1 Game Design Graduate program in the world by Preston Review.Starting in 2016, as CEO of BALANCED Media | Technology, Robert is focused on inspiring a culture of innovative technology design, compassionate capitalism and community entertainment brands with genuine purpose, while improving the lives of users. BALANCED is redefining what it means to engage interactive entertainment, with the mission to empower communities to use the resources they have to make impact on the world around them. The BALANCED mission will entertain the gaming culture while connecting them to purpose. Robert is driven to create unique interactive experiences which have a quantifiable impact on the world.