Fandoms, Writing Moats, and the Future of Interactive Fiction

In this episode, host Kalie Moore sits down with Terry Lee, CEO of Fusebox Games, to unpack one of the most overlooked but powerful business models in mobile gaming: interactive fiction built on licensed IP. While much of the industry chases scale through mechanics or ads, Fusebox has quietly built a $30M+ business by turning hit TV shows like Love Island into living, evolving games with some of the highest payer conversion rates in mobile. Terry shares how the studio transformed from a one-season-per-year content cycle into a high-frequency content machine, why writing (not tech), is their true competitive moat, and how they’ve engineered a system where narrative, data, and monetization continuously inform each other in real time. They also explore what makes fandoms move seamlessly between TV and games, how Fusebox approaches community (including its complicated relationship with Reddit), and why the team is expanding beyond romance-driven gameplay into broader storytelling formats with IP like Big Brother and The Traitors. Along the way, Terry offers candid insights on leadership, scaling under pressure, and navigating the role of AI in creative industries - arguing that the real advantage won’t come from replacing talent, but from amplifying it. We’d also like to thank modl.ai for making this episode possible! Using a combination of computer vision, reasoning models, and feedback loops, modl:QA+ autonomously explores builds, detects bugs, and generates actionable reports that sync directly with your existing workflows. To learn more, visit modl.ai. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co . Who’s On: Guest - Terry Lee: Host - Kalie Moore: Watch the episode: YouTube Channel For more episodes and details: Podcast Website Free newsletter: Naavik Digest

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Fandoms, Writing Moats, and the Future of Interactive Fiction is an episode from The Metacast by Naavik.

This episode is 57:58 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

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