Aaron Pulkka

A fun anecdote / learning on the occasion of Assistant's launch out of beta: Like many product teams, we were internally debating some new functionality for Assistant earlier this year - is it valuable?, is it reliable?, who is it for?, etc etc. In the midst of this, some flags got mixed up and we accidentally shipped it to beta. Our insanely creative and curious users picked up on this *immediately*, and the dramatic distribution shift of their queries is what actually clued us into the "bug." Lesson 1: Don't obsess about GTM and product marketing. If your product is incrementally valuable, users will find it. Lesson 2: The real learnings are from shipping, not from thinking. Looking forward to many more learnings in the coming months!

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Do you know what multi-modal means in Machine Learning? I caught up with Craig Barr about that and much more on the role of #GenAI in Product Design. Watch the full interview 👇👇

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My heart tonight goes out to the Archiact team, shut down after over a decade, and the 5 folks affected at Payload Studios. Both instances were reported by the companies themselves. There is not an official estimate for cuts at Archiact but a trusted industry source, Obsidian Game Industry Layoffs, suggested this number might be around 35. --- FOR THOSE AFFECTED - WELCOME TO AMIR SATVAT'S GAMES COMMUNITY We will not rest until every gamer is employed. OUR TOOLS WORK - We reach over 400,000 unique viewers monthly and nearly 4,000,000 unique viewers annually across all platforms. - Our games community has facilitated over 2,400 jobs and 45,000 coaching conversations, the largest impact of any games individual or community in the universe. - Our data shows that we can double your job-seeking success from 6% to 12% on average for those who engage with all our tools over a multi-month period. - Over 20% of all trackable games jobs found touch some part of our community. - Always free (nothing wrong with those who charge; just our choice), always with love, and always without ulterior motives. AMIRSATVAT.COM - Our main hub offers 18 resources for games employment assistance with an uplifting, easy-to-use design. - Use our template for Games Org Support Posts (Category 4, Resource 10) to maximize the visibility of those affected at your games company. We have completed 105 posts highlighting over 2,500 candidates. Discord - Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, a complementary, live, games career support community with over 5,000 members. Currently open to new members. LinkedIn - Follow me and join the discussion here on LinkedIn, with over 94,000 members and 1-3 daily posts providing support and career assistance in the games industry, the largest Top Voice games community on the platform. How the Games Community Can Help - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments increase resource visibility. - Join Our Movement: Choose one or several of the 16 ways to help gamers on AMIRSATVAT.COM under "How You Can Help," or provide advice on Discord.

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It had been a while I had not been impressed by an AI breakthrough (you know, the "my LLM is bigger than your" race in the tech bro space before they realize size is not everything), but this one got my attention : 👇 https://fugatto.github.io/ As there are few examples linking Audio and instructions to create it in order to train a model, they focus on a dataset generation method. Excerpt from the paper (link in the comment) : "(...) audio data does not inherently contain the instructions that were used to generate it. To overcome this challenge, we introduce a specialized dataset generation approach optimized for producing a wide range of audio generation and transformation tasks, ensuring the data reveals meaningful relationships between audio and language" "We focus on building as large and diverse a dataset in order to collect demonstrations of as many audio tasks and contexts as possible. We emphasize that our ultimate goal is not to just excel on such tasks, but to drive, as a community, towards a future where unsupervised multitask learning emerges from data and model scale." The resulting demo suggests a very versatile audio synthesis and transformation engine. Still, let's be sure it's not "one more tech demo". Thanks Olivier for the link !

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We recently started a weekly column called "Hard Boiled Software". It covers the social and technical intersections of product and engineering. A common theme in our work at Nerd/Noir is bringing these worlds into closer harmony. (The hard boiled bit is a nod to the film noir genre, so you can expect a bit of grit and cynicism in the posts.) Basically, we got tired of pushing out a sales and marketing-focused newsletter. Boring! Instead, we've refocused on sharing learnings, tools, thoughts, and occasional rants... into actually useful content. It's also much more enjoyable to write :) We'd love to have you join the conversation. Just click the "Subscribe to newsletter" link in my profile above. Hope to see you there! #leadership #strategy #product #engineeering

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Ahh, it was going to be a game time decision if I could make it up to Unreal Fest Seattle 2024...but alas, I won’t be able to attend in-person after all. 😞 ...But good news!!! 😄 I just saw that they will be having an extensive slate of FREE livestream programming over all three days! Tuesday, Oct 1 thru Thursday, Oct. 3! You can check it out with the link here: https://lnkd.in/gYVquUYq This includes the opening session which starts at 9am PDT, Tuesday, Oct. 1. to find out what’s coming up in UE 5.5 and opportunities in the Epic ecosystem. ...and some notable sessions that caught my eye! TUESDAY, October 1 11:00am-12pm • Livestream 2: From Bland to Grand: How VFX Elevates Game Immersion in UEFN 12:15pm-1:15pm • Livestream 1: Future Features in Unreal Engine: 5.5 and Beyond • Livestream 2: State of Virtual Production 2:30pm-3:30pm • Livestream 2: Cinematics Are Dead, Long Live TVmatics: A Revolution in Real-Time Entertainment 4:15pm-5:15pm • Livestream 2: The Bundle: How Reality Capture, Twinmotion, and Unreal Engine all work together • Livestream 3: Building A Real-Time Strategy Game in UEFN WEDNESDAY, October 2 9:00am-10:00am • Livestream 1: Anatomy of a MetaHuman Rig 10:30am-11:30am • Livestream 1: Women in Games: Finding Mentorship & Support in the Industry • Livestream 2: 10 Tips for Developing a Real-Time App in UE5 11:45am-12:45pm • Livestream 1: Content Any Way, Anywhere: Shaping Transmedia Content for Distribution on Any Device, in Any Media 2:00pm-3:00pm • Livestream 2: 20 Years of Visualization: How Real-time Technologies Revolutionized Hollywood 3:30pm-4:30pm • Livestream 3: Unreal for Mobile: Building AAA Cross-Platform Open Worlds 4:45pm-5:45pm • Livestream 2: Exploring Conceptual Narratives with Unreal Engine • Livestream 3: How Magnopus Brought "Fallout" to Screens with Virtual Production Powered by Unreal Engine THURSDAY, October 3 10:00am-11:00am • Livestream 3: Modular Character Tools in Unreal Engine 11:45am-12:45am • Livestream 2: Expanding the Traditional Linear CG Pipeline with Real-Time 2:00pm-3:00pm • Livestream 3: Marketing Your Islands with Influencers: Deep Dive on the Creator Economy and Scaling Your Marketing Excited to catch up with everyone after next week and hear the latest! Jacqueline Cooper Edward Dawson-Taylor Michael Baron Scott Rosekrans Greg Edwards David Ethan Sanders Tamara Abas Erik "Wolfie" Wolford Matthew Skurow Alex Pearce #EpicGames #UnrealEngine #CGPro #gaming #enterprise #entertainment

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Very much like the term “software driven spaces”. The real advances are being made in what drives the experience, not just the presentation layer. 

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Mixed reality glasses are the future of computing. We're gonna have the PC at home, the phone in the pocket and the MR glasses on our nose. I mean, think about it, 60-70% of the things you do on your phone can be EASILY done on glasses (changing volume, checking notifications, messages, replying and so on). And this is, basically, the thesis that we had when we raised money for MixRift. The article linked below is the confirmation of the thesis by Meta. It might not work, I agree. But at this moment, I'm more bullish then ever on the future of Mixed Reality. #mixedreality #mr #metaorion #meta https://lnkd.in/dAtDA-qj

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DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue Amids “Hoa Hoa Hoa” Season 🍂 Game of Vampires: Twilight Sun, an empire-building RPG, is the ultimate vampire fantasy brought to life. 🌘 Gothic castles, luxurious dark interiors, a spooky atmosphere — and a ton of pop-culture references! From Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Blade and The Addams Family — this game is packed with nostalgic nods that resonate with players through its ASO, ad creatives, and character design. 🧛‍♂️🏰 The right timing and a touch of luck drive this success even further: with the game’s global launch, the unexpected revival of the Twilight franchise came into play! Millennials are fueling it with nostalgia, while Gen Z is having fun with those cringy moments the old movies have. ✨🧛‍♀️ For a deep dive into this phenomenon and the insights game developers can draw from it, check out Diana Levintova's fantastic article for AppMagic. Halloween couldn’t be a better time to dive into the industry insights, spooky vibes, and, of course, “hoa hoa hoa” 🎃👻 Link in the comments! 👇

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🌪 Fast Tips to Enhance User Feedback: Independent studios are often time and money restricted. One easy change that can instantly make a game better overall is to improve its user feedback. This involves providing immediate, clear, and satisfying responses to player actions. Here are (relatively) easy and inexpensive ways to enhance user feedback: 🎆Visual Effects: Add particle effects, animations, and screen shakes for significant actions or events, like scoring points or defeating an enemy. 🎵Sound Effects: Use high-quality sound effects for player actions, ambient sounds, and background music to create a more immersive experience. ✅HUD and UI: Ensure the user interface is intuitive and provides instant feedback for player inputs, like changing colors or highlighting buttons when interacted with. Also ensure rewards are clearly stated. 🎮Responsive Controls: Make sure controls are tight and responsive, so players feel directly connected to the game. Ensure players don’t ever feel like they are failing by “accident” ⚠️Feedback for Errors: Clearly indicate when and why something went wrong, helping players understand where they went wrong and empower them to improve their gameplay. Is there additional items I am missing or that should and could be added to the list?

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Navigating the complexities of porting to Apple Vision Pro? Unity's guide offers 6 essential tips to streamline the process, from leveraging Unity's AR Foundation to optimizing your app's performance on Vision Pro. Check out the full guide for expert insights and practical advice to ensure your app shines on Apple's latest platform - https://lnkd.in/dCcxYKem. #AR #VR #AppleVisionPro #Unity #realtime3D

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The new “Dragon Age": Veilguard game trailer feels like a marvel superhero movie instead of an epic. Doesn’t feel like it’s targeting adult RPG anthusiasts, seems to be made for children or teens. In comparison, look at the badass vibes and feel you get when watching the original "Dragon Age: Origins" trailer from 15 years ago, linked below. From the character, to the music, to the unapologetically brutal depiction of blood and violence. In comparison, Veilguard looks like its made for children. Children generally play free and casual games like Fortnite and Minecraft. Adult men are the ones generally spending money on premium titles. And as an adult male gamer myself, your game from 15 years ago was much more appealing. In a sense, the franchise seems to be regressing rather than maturing.

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Crossing neurons and streams: - https://lnkd.in/gxbe62rU Meta opening up their OS to OEM. My take -> next step of what Zuckerberg saw in 2014. Metaverse is still on and full steam, thanks the hype is dead now. - https://lnkd.in/d2-VfgKE Next step of 3D Gaussians Splats My take -> Mixed reality (Passthrough and See-through needs more enhancements to be something really useful to the general audience. Including fiction and simulations! The interactions between acquired-“real” and virtual needs less friction. Scan “reality” is a thought task, not just what we see, listen and feel, but also what we perceive as “reality” too; the sensation amalgama, the cognitive biases, the body restrictions. To augment you need a plausible base to depart from.

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Disturbance in the Force: Paradox Tectonic (Paradox Berkeley) California studio announced in 2019 with a former EA and Linden Labs studio head. Game announced in 2023. Game cancelled in 2024. 5+ years in development? Here's the problem. Competing with The Sims is NOT a Double A budget. Ever. Paradox Interactive likes to do Double A budgets. The Sims 4 was Quadruple A. There was like 500 people on that, and I'm noit talking aboout the army of later sourcing for DLC. A competitor to The Sims will need to be Triple A at least. "Life By You" was held captive by outdated expectations. Paradox liked to do three genres: Simulation, Strategy, and RPG. And going through the pandemic they had the albatross of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. That effectively killed RPGs at Paradox. So then they're down to Sims and Strategy games. But competing with the EA's Maxis' The Sims is no small task. They wanted to fund double A budgeted small scale simulations but Life By You was not that. And after 5 years they gave up an incomplete game. ----- Life by You | Announcement Trailer Paradox Interactive Mar 21, 2023 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ge--Jk_S ----- The Verge: Sims competitor Life by You has been canceled/ Its early access launch had already been pushed several times. Life by You, Paradox Interactive’s in-development competitor to The Sims, has been canceled, the company announced on Monday. The game, which was first revealed in 2023, sounded impressive: it was designed to allow for the entire town to be simulated in real-time and have no loading screens. However, based on a forum post by Paradox’s deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, the game had some issues that may not have been easily fixable even with additional time for development. “A few weeks back, we decided to hold off on an Early Access release in order to re-evaluate Life by You, as we still felt that the game was lacking in some key areas,” Lilja says. “Though a time extension was an option, once we took that pause to get a wider view of the game, it became clear to us that the road leading to a release that we felt confident about was far too long and uncertain.” Lilja says that the game “had a number of strengths,” but the company realized that “when we come to a point where we believe that more time will not get us close enough to a version we would be satisfied with, then we believe it is better to stop.” The game’s initial early access launch had been set for September 2023, but it was pushed to March 2024, then June, and then delayed indefinitely in May before being officially canceled. The Life by You team hasn’t been the only one trying to make a new take on The Sims: former XCOM developers recently launched Midsummer Studios to develop a new life sim game of their own. But EA is hard at work on more Sims as well, developing a new free-to-play Sims game codenamed Project Rene. The Verge: https://lnkd.in/gGhWaVnx #gameindustry #gamelayoffs #disturbanceintheforce #paradox #thesims

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