Simon Hade’s career spans some of the most notable developments in mobile gaming, offering insight into how studios grow, pivot, and adapt to changing markets. In a recent Deconstructor of Fun podcast, Hade detailed his journey from co-founding Space Ape, through its acquisition by Supercell, attempting a spinout with NextBeat, and eventually joining Duolingo. His experiences reveal both the opportunities and complexities founders face in the gaming and tech industries.
Hade’s early career benefits from a foundation built at Playfish and EA, where he and his co-founders had already shipped successful titles together. This shared history formed what Hade calls a “ready-made team,” giving Space Ape an immediate advantage that many studios spend years trying to achieve. With this team in place, Space Ape could focus on developing live operations for competitive players and adopting Unity early to reach Android before some competitors, leading to games like Samurai Siege, Rival Kingdoms, and Transformers Earth Wars, which achieved significant revenue milestones.
Experimenting Within Supercell
After Supercell acquired Space Ape, the London studio became a hub for experimentation across multiple genres, from puzzles and music games to MOBAs and shooters. During this period, the team developed 25 games, learning from each project even when they did not reach global launch standards. Hade emphasizes that this approach fostered a culture of pivoting, but it also presented challenges, as not every idea aligned with Supercell’s strict commercial benchmarks.
Focusing on fewer, more refined projects eventually led to successes such as Beatstar, Chrome Valley, and Transformers Earth Wars. These titles showed that disciplined experimentation, combined with an understanding of user engagement, could produce strong results, even if the studio’s work remained behind the scenes in the broader Supercell portfolio.
The Challenges of Spinning Out NextBeat
Following Space Ape’s integration into Supercell, Hade attempted to spin out NextBeat, a studio focused on music games. Despite initial optimism, the process highlighted the often-unseen difficulties of founding a company. Over six months, Hade and his team navigated a complex network of 72 stakeholders, including labels, publishers, and investors. The cumulative operational, legal, and licensing challenges ultimately made the spinout impractical.
In his interview with Deconstructor of Fun, Hade refers to this as the “founder tax,” the ongoing burden of responsibility and complexity that comes with ownership. The experience demonstrates how even promising projects can falter due to external pressures and intricate operational demands, providing a realistic view of the difficulties that founders often face in specialized gaming markets.
Transitioning to Duolingo
Hade’s move to Duolingo came after years of informal collaboration. In the interview with Deconstructor of Fun, he remarks that initially he was unsure how his games experience could translate to a language learning platform. That perspective changed when he examined Duolingo’s engagement data. The platform now boasts around 50 million daily active users, a significant increase from 10.1 million at its 2021 IPO. Even more striking are the over 10 million users maintaining streaks of 365 days or more, a level of retention rarely seen in games.
Duolingo’s growth is supported by hundreds of A/B tests each week, totaling several thousand annually. Hade highlights this as a key factor in the platform’s ability to sustain user habits over time. He also observed that Duolingo’s product teams operate with game-style autonomy, particularly in areas such as Chess, where progression, matchmaking, and competitive elements mirror game design discussions. This combination of structured growth and independent development offered Hade a unique perspective on engagement beyond traditional games.
Lessons for Game Developers
Hade’s career illustrates how engagement strategies from gaming can inform other types of apps, and vice versa. His experience raises questions about how modern users interact with products, what long-term engagement looks like, and how companies can balance experimentation with operational discipline. For game developers, Hade’s journey underscores the value of team cohesion, pragmatic experimentation, and the need to anticipate complex founder responsibilities when pursuing new projects.
Source: Deconstructor of Fun
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who is Simon Hade?
Simon Hade is a former co-founder of Space Ape, which was acquired by Supercell, and later co-founder of NextBeat. He currently works at Duolingo, focusing on user engagement and product development.
What is Space Ape known for?
Space Ape is known for mobile games such as Samurai Siege, Rival Kingdoms, and Transformers Earth Wars, with a focus on competitive live operations and player engagement.
Why did NextBeat not succeed as a spinout?
NextBeat faced operational and licensing complexities, along with the challenge of aligning multiple stakeholders, which made the spinout impractical despite the potential of its music-focused games.
What did Simon Hade learn at Duolingo?
At Duolingo, Hade observed unprecedented user engagement, with over 10 million users maintaining 365+ day streaks. He noted the company’s use of thousands of A/B tests to drive growth and retention, showing how gaming principles can apply to education apps.
How can game developers apply these lessons?
Developers can focus on building cohesive teams, adopting a pragmatic approach to experimentation, understanding engagement metrics deeply, and preparing for the operational complexities that come with scaling or founding a studio.
Does Duolingo use gaming principles?
Yes, Duolingo applies game-style design elements such as progression, matchmaking, and competition within a structured educational platform, enabling high retention and daily engagement.
