games:net Berlin Europe introduces: Stratosphere Games 

Stratosphere Games is a nearly 70-person strong game development studio formed by gaming veterans from Splash Damage, Wargaming, Huuuge Games, Nexon, Smilegate and Ubisoft. They deliver AAA-quality MMO games for mobile devices, backed by their own development architecture, FRAMEWORK. They create next-gen experiences for your pocket, with a strong focus on high-end production values, leading-edge multiplayer features, innovate engagement and retention elements. 

With CEO Kristian Metzger, Lead Game Designer Matthias Isenmann and Senior Producer John Förster, we introduced you to the studio and the games they develop. As always, André Bernhardt, Managing Director of Indie Advisor, hosted the interview on February 22 via Zoom. 

Kristian Metzger 

Kristian Metzger has been a computer game enthusiast since childhood. Whether as a successful e-sports veteran, games editor or director, Kristian has been an integral part of the industry for over 20 years. After many years working as a journalist and editor-in-chief for games magazines such as EuroGamer, he moved to the side of development and publishing. Until he founded Stratosphere Games in 2015, he gained experience as an executive in product, communication and business development in well-known companies such as Splash Damage, Warchest and Infernum. Today, as CEO of Stratosphere Games, he looks back on seven years of successful ventures, productions and partnerships with several investment rounds. Among others, the well-known investors Skycatcher, Riot Games Investment and 1 Up Ventures put their trust in him. The investments, as well as successful productions such as Homeworld Mobile, allowed him to make a significant step towards becoming an internationally known provider of high-quality games and to grow the studio to over 60 employees by now. 

Matthias Isenmann 

Matthias started in the industry in 2012 at Infernum Productions AG, a publisher of MMOs, in the game improvement department. At Mobile Heroes in Dresden, he worked on several mobile games until he co-founded the developer studio Storm Chaser in Berlin in 2016. There he was the sole responsible for the game design of Survival City, among others. 

In 2020, he left Storm Chaser as an active employee and became independent. Under the banner Isenmann Games, he published three casual card games and a children’s board game in 2020/2021. Additionally, he worked as a freelancer/advisor. This is how he gained his first insights into the world of blockchain gaming, among other things. 

Since 2022, he has now been working at Stratosphere Games as a lead game designer on Project Shade.  

John Förster 

John started at Stratosphere Games in 2016 as QA Manager and Game Designer. He helped finish and release Stratosphere Games’ first game, “Nemesis: Air Combat”, then moved on to be a Producer for “Warzone: Clash of Generals” and “Idle War: Heroes”, and is now working on Stratosphere Games’ biggest project to date: “Homeworld Mobile”, which is being developed in partnership with Gearbox Publishing. 

Having been part of the Stratosphere family since the early days, John has seen the company change and grow tremendously over the years like few others – from a small room of 6 people to the 60+ employees of today. 

André Bernhardt 

André Bernhardt has run IndieAdvisor & Company for nine years. He offers external business development and consulting for indie developers, curates the devcom Indie Expo, teaches at different colleges and hosts panels, talks and other events.