A conversation with Thao Khuc, COO of The One Game Studio

Vietnam gaming has its household names: iKame, OneSoft, Bravestars, Lihuhu - the ecosystem builders. The “we made it” stories.

And don’t get me wrong. Those stories of course matter. They built the industry that Vietnamese game makers are standing on today.

But, if you ask me what’s actually exciting right now?

It’s the next wave of studios - led by founders and operators who grew up inside the industry. People who didn’t inherit easy growth or hypercasual tailwinds, but learned in a much tougher market. Fewer shortcuts. More pressure. Faster learning curves. And a mindset that goes beyond just making games.

This conversation with Thao Khuc, COO of The One Game Studio, is a really good window into that shift.

A Career Built on Love for the Craft

Thao didn’t enter gaming with a grand leadership plan.
She stayed because she loved the work.

A young Gen Z, yet she’s already spent more than 10 years in the industry - starting as an animation intern at OneSoft straight out of high school, later leading teams at Icetea Labs, to eventually co-found The One Game Studio.

What I love about her story is how un-glamorous it is in the best way possible.

She didn’t jump roles for titles. She stayed long enough to actually understand:

• How games are built
• How teams behave under pressure
• How products survive (or don’t) in the market

At one point in our interview, Thao said:

“I don’t just love one part of game making. I love everything about it.”

In an industry known for burnout and churn, that kind of longevity quietly becomes an unfair advantage.

Thriving as a Young Female Leader

Today, Thao leads a team of over 60 people - many of whom are older than her.

If you’ve worked in Vietnam (or most East Asian cultures), you know age still matters. 

Seniority influences credibility. Hierarchy is real. And being young - especially as a woman - means you’re constantly being evaluated. (Speaking from personal experience 😅).

What stood out to me was how intentionally she handles this.

Instead of downplaying her background, she does the opposite.

Her rule is simple: spend the first 5-10 minutes establishing clarity the first time you meet someone.

Not to impress - but to reduce uncertainty.

She talks openly about:

• What she’s done
• What she knows
• How she makes decisions
• And, even things she doesn’t know

Something Thao said that really stuck with me:

“If you asked me this two years ago, I would say this was one of my biggest pain points.
But most people don’t want to block you. They’re just afraid of taking risks working with you.”

That reframing matters.

For Thao, leadership isn’t about asserting authority. It’s about managing other people’s risk perception.

From Specialist to COO: Everything Suddenly Matters

The move from individual contributor to COO, to Thao, was not a promotion. It was a fundamental mindset shift for her.

As a specialist, the focus was execution and output quality.
As a COO, everything becomes your responsibility: People, Product quality, Finance, Risk

“Every minute matters. Every decision has a cost.”

She sees the COO role as something you grow into, not something you “arrive at.” It’s about judgment, breadth, and learning to sit with uncertainty - not perfection.

Startup Culture Is Not a Slide Deck

In leading her team, Thao is deeply skeptical of “culture statements.”

At The One Game Studio, culture isn’t written, it’s observed. Thao takes this to heart and leads by setting examples: in giving feedback, handling pressure and treating her team members under pressure.

“At startups, it is extremely difficult to just ask people to dedicate more, and work overtime…
Culture starts from what you do - not what you say.”

When teams scale beyond 30 - 40 people, this becomes existential. Without culture, execution simply breaks down.

Pivoting to Hybrid: Structure Over Hype

As outsourcing became harder post-2023, The One had to pivot decisively toward building games in-house, self-publishing and hybrid-casual..

What stood out in our conversation was not the direction, but how the pivot is executed.

While most are trying to chase the hype, The One focuses on doing fewer things, but better. In the past 2 years, they’ve transitioned from purely outsourcing or co-dev with publishers, to now publish 80% of their games. 

On transitioning to hybrid-casual, Thao and her BoD structure teams intentionally to optimize speed and agility, with one group focusing on the art (Core Game-play), and the other focusing on Meta, Live-ops features, and analytics - the science behind scaling.

Hybrid, in Thao’s view, isn’t a trend but a system of discipline.

Ambition Beyond Building Games: Vietnam as a Gaming Tech-Hub

Perhaps the most forward-looking part of our conversation was the discussion around Playable Labs - a playable solution that Thao had built under The One umbrella in 2025.

Playable Labs wasn’t created just to diversify revenue. It reflects a bigger ambition:

“We don’t want to just make games. We want to build technology around games.”

Playable Labs now enables large publishers like: OneSoft, VooDoo to automate customized playable ads - with plans far beyond gaming.

To me, it’s an important signal:

Vietnamese studios don’t have to stop at being creators. They can become solution builders.

A Message to Young Women in Games

Thao doesn’t position herself as someone “who has figured it all out.”

Her advice is simple and grounded:

• Do things even when you’re scared
• Put your best effort into every task
• Find mentors who help you see further than you can alone

“You could be young. But with the right people guiding us, we can go much further.”