From Zero to
Global: Founding
Ikemu Games

In 2010, I moved to New Zealand in search of new opportunities. While brainstorming with two friends, an idea took shape: what if you could play a branded game — say, for KFC — win, and have a prize sent straight to your door? That simple question became the seed for what would eventually grow into iKEMU.

We decided to put the idea to the test in New Zealand. Between the three of us we had complementary backgrounds — mine in gaming, theirs in business and advertising — giving us the range of skills needed to actually build something from it.

We started by approaching clients directly and building one-off branded games for them. Over time, the model evolved: rather than building every game ourselves, we built a platform connecting advertisers who wanted branded games with developers who were already building games and looking to monetise them.

Over the seven years I spent at iKEMU, we ran large-scale campaigns across Japan and New Zealand for clients including Pita Pit and KFC. The company was eventually sold and later rebranded as Gamify.

Alongside product direction, I was responsible for hiring and finding external companies that could help us build. With limited funding, we needed delivery capacity that matched our ambitions and release expectations.

I issued tenders to companies in India, the Philippines, Russia, and Jordan. I defined the guidelines and selection criteria, assessing whether each partner's proposed approach could meet our timeline and quality expectations. This made supplier selection part of the product strategy: our delivery commitments depended on the capabilities we brought into the business.

I also contributed to our fundraising efforts while leading product and delivery. My founder responsibilities extended from deciding what we should build to assembling the people and partnerships needed to deliver it.

iKEMU served three distinct user types simultaneously: game developers who built and uploaded HTML5 games, brands who sponsored and customised those games for campaigns, and end users who played on brand microsites and mobile. Designing for all three required a platform that could flex without fracturing.

Before any wireframe was drawn, the team mapped the full journey for each user type through storyboards. The developer flow covered game submission, the DAP (Developer Approval Process), art reskinning via the asset library, and publication. The brand flow covered campaign creation, game selection, art upload, preview, and go-live.

The platform had three distinct product surfaces, each with its own IA: the consumer games platform (main page, game page, profile, rewards, mall), the games library dashboard (browse, search, wishlist, my games), and the brand client dashboard (current campaigns, game history, client information).

Retention required more than good games. The team designed a full XP and levelling system, a badge taxonomy across seven categories, a friends and challenge mechanic, and an onboarding flow that introduced each mechanic progressively. Every parameter — coins per session, time to level, badge unlock conditions — was modelled before being built.

Wireframes were produced across all three platform surfaces. The developer dashboard covered game overview, analytics, community review, and published history. The games library covered browse, search, and reskin flows. The brand client dashboard covered campaign management, engagement reporting, and reward configuration.

The consumer-facing mobile app went through multiple rounds of design. The initial concept established the navigation model and visual language. Round 1 wireframes refined the game listing, brands page, and search flows. The final design introduced a bold colour system, a badges screen, a game detail page, and a public player profile.

One of our most consequential decisions was whether to expand into Japan or continue growing within New Zealand's smaller market. We saw an opportunity in Japan's established gaming industry, digital infrastructure, and appetite for games. Pursuing it required building a local operation and learning how to work effectively with Japanese customers and colleagues.

As a co-founder, I helped establish the company in Japan and led its product and design direction. I hired UX designers who understood the local market and could bring that knowledge into the experience.

I also changed how I worked with the team. We needed more precise direction and detailed briefs, with requirements and edge cases worked through explicitly. I adapted our briefing and planning to support that level of preparation.

Customer meetings remained part of my role. Understanding requirements directly helped me connect commercial expectations to what our designers and delivery partners needed to build. Our work in Japan included campaigns for KFC and Kao.

KFC Japan used iKEMU to build awareness for a new shrimp product. The brief called for a game that matched the campaign narrative — shrimp staging a takeover of the chicken-dominated KFC world. The team customised an existing game into an edo-period battle scene, reskinned it to the brand's aesthetic, and launched it on the campaign microsite.