There have been two big appointments at Supercell in the last week: former King game lead Sabrina Carmona is now in charge of Clash of Clans, while ex-Moon Active GM Ishai Smadja is the firm’s new head of business and operations.
Carmona moves over to Supercell after over nine years at King, where she was general manager on Farm Heroes Saga. Carmona also worked as executive producer on Candy Crush Friends Saga and Candy Crush Jelly Saga at King, and previously held production roles at Goodgame, Behaviour and Square Enix, among others.
Supercell’s new head of business and operations, Ishai Smadja, moves over from Moon Active, where he was general manager. He also previously served as product VP and product director during his six years at the Coin Master maker. Prior to that, he was a product manager at King.
The Clash of Clans maker also recently hired former Niantic PM Jessica Jung to lead its new ‘AI innovation lab’ in San Francisco. It is working on “AI companions that live in Discord and play Minecraft with you”, an Animal Crossing-like game with AI NPCs and a game in which character classes and weapons are generated during play, according to Supercell.
Bossman Ilkka Paananen recently called for the company to ‘take bigger risks‘ in an interview with the BBC, while also talking up the potential of AI to change gaming.
Former Space Ape product lead Charmie Kim also told us in July that the firm could be described as being in a new, more experimental era. Kim is now working on a new title at Supercell, one not aimed at the “typical Supercell demographic”.
