Jordan Blackman

Lots of people changing jobs or on the hunt at the minute. Some useful tips to be mindful of from Amanda here. Even though you'll understandably be focused on landing the new role as smoothly as possible, these aren't unreasonable expectations at all and much easier to tackle up front than to deal with after the fact.

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Sony's VP Sadahiko Hayakawa recently noted, "single-player titles remain a strength due to predictability in hits, while live-service games bring a higher upside but also increased release risk." This is where everyone's headed. We've all had the publisher conversations in which they're look to derisk their portfolios. There is more DLC coming out. Newer IP needs to be much further along in production (your risk) and market tested (their job). Having medium budgets is the right choice. It's not all doom and gloom though. Building IP will make future success let's "hits driven". Sequels make more money. Just look at Nintendo. So, with the next game you're making - ask yourself: "Will this be a franchise?" https://lnkd.in/dW6ENays

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When I started Combat Waffle Studios I didn’t have a roadmap, just a vision and a relentless drive to make it a reality. I raised $1.2M from a single investor—non-ownership shares—and got to work. Two years later, we’ve turned that into $20M in sales, and I still own 100% of my company. Call this cliche; but success isn’t about taking the easiest route. It’s about betting on yourself when no one else will. It’s about refusing to sell your soul for the promise of “easy money.” Stop taking “dumb money” from investors looking for a quick buck in a rising industry. I’ve turned down two acquisition offers for insane amounts of money because I refuse to let someone else dictate my future. I didn’t work this hard to build someone else’s dream—I built mine. If you’re grinding right now, wondering if you’ll ever break through, let me tell you this: keep going. The path isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. The reward isn’t just in the money or the numbers; it’s in knowing you stayed true to yourself, your vision, and your values. Be your own boss. Write your own story. Take the risks that matter and stop selling your soul to people who don’t understand your worth. Whether you succeed or fail, make sure the story is yours. No one else can live your dream but you. You’ve got this. Keep pushing. #Motivation #BetOnYourself #Entrepreneurship #BeYourOwnBoss

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Come learn about Xsolla's strategies to improve your mobile games revenue.

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This is a MUST READ article on how Meta is leveraging Generative AI. Apple's removal of IDFA devastated mobile gaming profitability and dismantled deterministic mobile app advertising. Apple's draconian ATT solution seemed custom designed to punish Facebook for user privacy concerns - but did it punish Facebook? This article offers a compelling view on how Meta has turned the tables and regained profitability leveraging Generative AI and aggressive cost cutting. Meta's advertising business is powered by personalizing content from over 3.07 billion users’ consumption. Clearly Meta has a tremendous amount to gain by offering easy-to-use Generative AI advertising tools and content generation. Here is ChatGPT's summary of key points from this long and interesting article. - Meta's advertising business faced significant negative impacts due to Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policies. - ATT limited Meta's ability to track user activity across apps, reducing the effectiveness of ad targeting and measurement. - In response, Meta began leveraging Generative AI and probabilistic modeling to mitigate the effects of ATT on its ad revenue. - Meta now uses AI to improve ad measurement and attribution in a privacy-compliant manner, addressing ATT challenges. - Short-term strategies include using AI to enhance contextual advertising based on in-app user behavior. - Mid-term plans involve developing AI models that generate synthetic data to compensate for the loss of third-party tracking data. - Long-term goals focus on integrating Generative AI into ad creation tools, allowing for personalized and dynamic ad content. - Meta released open-source AI models like LLaMA and LLaMA 2 to accelerate AI innovation and collaboration. - Collaboration with Microsoft enables the distribution of LLaMA 2 through Azure, expanding access to AI tools. - Generative AI helps Meta improve ad targeting by creating richer data models without infringing on user privacy. - AI-driven enhancements in natural language processing allow for better understanding of user intent and preferences. - Investment in computer vision AI aids in analyzing visual content, improving ad relevance and engagement. - AI-powered recommendation systems enhance the personalization of content and ads on Meta's platforms. - The company utilizes AI for content creation to customize and personalize a user's experience - potentially incorporating pictures of the users in Generative AI ads and experiences. - Ethical considerations in AI development are emphasized, focusing on privacy, bias reduction, and transparency. - Integration of AI into augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) opens new avenues for immersive advertising. - Meta develops AI tools to assist advertisers in creating more effective and engaging ad campaigns. - Specialized AI infrastructure investments ensure scalability and efficiency for advanced AI operations.

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Apple is up to their monopolistic tricks again. I have no idea how this isn’t anticompetitive. More importantly, why does Apple continue to penalize mobile app advertisers by making iOS advertising even more inefficient. Why don’t they launch a functional and scalable ad network that is advertiser friendly and double blind to protect consumer’s privacy while allowing for robust tracking and targeting? As of July 1st, when businesses use the Facebook or Instagram app on their iPhone or iPad to boost a post, advertisers will have to pay a 30% additional fee that goes to Apple. This fee isn't charged by Meta, but by Apple due to their in-app payment rules.

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Sumo Digital announced a 15% cut in its workforce, roughly impacting 250 individuals. Among these 250 individuals was the team of Timbre Games, which also confirmed that the studio was being shut down. Timbre Games was founded in 2021 and made a part of Pipework Studios. Although Timbre had yet to launch any games, its website indicates that it was in the middle of two game projects. Unfortunately, game developers face more loss than the parent company when something like this happens. Who knows how Timbre's team might be coping after putting in millions of efforts to build the games and losing everything in a single blink? In their support, this is list 2 of some of the Timbreeos who were impacted by the closure. Every bit from the community counts, so requesting you all to help this reach recruiters and game studios currently hiring. Sophie Mallinson — In 2017, she was Arkane Studios' (Lyon) Narrative Designer who worked on Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. By 2019, she had become a Principal Narrative Designer for Arkane's Deathloop. It is quite interesting to note that after Arkane, she went on to work for EA on Star Wars and later for EA's own studio - Maxis Studios on The Sims Series. Nadia Lohan — With over a decade's worth of experience in Production, before Timbre, Nadia was a Producer at Blackbird Interactive and worked on Minecraft Legends. Notably, she has experience in the VFX industry and coordinated for blockbusters like Mulan, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Maleficent. Vivek Ramkumar — Here's a talented Game Designer who has worked on titles like Sleeping Dogs and Tryst, built his own first-person indie game, and has experience in LiveOps Design. Prior to Timbre, he was a senior Technical Designer for Relic Entertainment. Gerritt Turner — Before Timbre, Gerritt worked at Wizards of the Coast on a lot of Magic: The Gathering's writing, designing and overall creative. They even have an experience in Brand Writing for Hasbro. Yuliia Bocharova — Prior to Timbre, she was a Lead 3D Artist for Blackbird Interactive and worked there for 3+ years. You should check out her ArtStation portfolio: https://lnkd.in/gKEwykG5 Vincent-Gabriel Canadian — A talented VFX Artist who has worked for Studios like Frima, Behaviour Interactive, and Nesting Games. Vincent specializes in real-time VFX for video games! #layoffsupport

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Some insight into the Annapurna implosion. https://lnkd.in/gd-Sszj2

Worried your voice casting is slowing down production and falling flat? Do this: Work with vendors who deliver speed, quality, and a personal touch. Too many game producers rely on large agencies with overbooked studios and slow communication. The result? Frustration, delays, and missed opportunities. Instead, choose partners who: Plan proper setup time so sessions run smoothly. Offer direct, responsive communication—no layers of PMs. Provide scalable options, like a studio network for flexible booking. The right approach saves time, avoids headaches, and creates unforgettable performances. Struggling with voice casting? Let’s talk.

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Epic Games is doubling down on being the destination for all developers. The addition of Fab to Unreal and UEFN increases the intensity of Unreal's desire to best Unity. Unity is the market share winner by a large degree, but the constellation of developer ecosystem resources that Epic has put together is showing the lens through which developers of the future—from massive AAAs to indies to brands to a rag-tag group of friends—will be making decisions. Here's how things shake out in Epic's growing developer solutions landscape: - Unreal Engine: the de facto toolkit for many AAA PC/console developers, Unreal is the choice for the DIY dev who needs to build from the ground up. - UEFN: Don't want to start from scratch? Build on top of Fortnite, make whatever you want, and tap into an existing audience of Fortnite players. UEFN works for a group of friends as much as it works for professional dev shops building lands for consumer brands. The caveat? You mostly live and die by Fortnite, and whatever rev share schema Epic wants to put in place. - FAB: Fab's aggregation of Unity tooling doesn't mean that Epic is suddenly going to scoop up Unity players (much of that happened with Unity's pricing change debacle), but it does mean that Epic increasingly becomes the destination for developer exploration and education. And then, hey, while you're there, maybe check out UEFN or Unreal? This is part of a growing trend that we're seeing as a large part of gaming continues to consolidate and the commoditization of tooling gives way to increased focus on new ways for developers to get to market more quickly and leverage new revenue streams (like a UEFN). Of course, Unity has answers to a lot of this as well and is generally more established in revenue solutions for developers, but what Unity doesn't have is a title like Fortnite (and its UEFN offshoot) to dogfood its own tech and also give developers the land on which to build more quickly and leverage existing audiences. Fab isn't going to shake up the engine landscape over night, and obviously showing off Unity tooling doesn't directly benefit anything in the Unreal world, but the ethos of bringing more and more developers under the Epic umbrella is fully on display with this move. https://lnkd.in/geNXjMp4

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Crunch is a bad practice. Mandating 19 continuous days work is positively wrong. Crunch like this is almost always due to poor planning, over commitment on features while setting impossible deadlines and without the required resources. The team - people - pay the price, with the expectation of a big push resolving the shortcomings. The team are rarely rewarded for all their additional hours. At a prominent developer I was told to TELL my team to crunch to hit a manufactured deadline - I refused and I'm thankfully no longer working there. Video Games are creative ventures, but we need to get better at planning and execution, we need to learn from the many years experience we have .. there are better ways than crunching the team to solve a problem. https://lnkd.in/gG7fMMQr

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Creating games is very difficult. And building games is challenging. The process of build requires to compile the code and all the data required in the game in a specific sequence involving many dependencies. As such monitoring the outcome is essential, but not sufficent. What if we were able to predict the outcome of a build ? What if we were able to decrease the required computing resources while increasing our iteration capability ? #Ubisoft #Ubisoftlaforge #innovation

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Cloud game is growing!!

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Sony's candid reflection on Concord's launch (shared in this recent IGN article: https://lnkd.in/gGVbSTuk) resonates deeply with conversations we've been having with teams across the industry. Sony's COO/CFO Hiroki Totoki specifically highlights the need for earlier user testing and internal evaluation - a challenge we've heard echoed by developers of all shapes and sizes. This is our mission at LIVE AWARE LABS - to help teams implement those "earlier gates" Totoki-san mentions, making it easier to capture, understand and take action on real player experiences from the earliest phases of development. When devs are empowered to effortlessly manage their feedback workflows they're better positioned to make critical adjustments early, when changes are most impactful and least costly. To all the developers out there taking bold creative risks and pushing boundaries - we see you, we support you, and we're committed to building tools that help you create experiences players will love. Our respect and best wishes go out to everyone impacted by Firewalk Studios recent closure. Every launch, every lesson improves our collective understanding of the ever changing nature of our craft. #GameDev #GameDesign #LiveService #GameDevelopment #Playtesting

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Painfully long is right. 😲 It look 8 years to build Concord and about 2 weeks for Sony to axe it. This is a strong example of what's wrong with the games industry, especially in the AAA space. How can a game remain relevant and feel innovative to audiences when it takes that many years to develop? And exactly how high of a bar do you have to hit in terms of quality and scope to meet player expectations after that length of time?! Indie studios can continue to lead the way in demonstrating 'what good looks like' for an industry that desperately needs a re-write. I firmly believe we can deliver outstanding experiences for our audiences by combining sustainable development with scalable growth strategies. In summary, we need to be embracing shorter, iterative and more cost effective development times, and identify scalable strategies to maintain Live Services. #indiegames #gamedevelopment #gamedev #innovation Sony Simply Sweet Games #gameindustry #videogames

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Paradox Interactive announced today that Double Eleven, the developer behind Prison Architect 2, will be stepping away from the project after nine years with the Prison Architect franchise. Good news first, construction on Prison Architect 2 isn't being halted! Co-development studio Kokku, who's been working on the game since 2023 and previously collaborated with Double Eleven, will take the lead in bringing the sequel to completion. The news comes with a hint of complication. While Prison Architect 2 passed certification, negotiations between Paradox and Double Eleven for continued development reached an impasse. Technical hurdles, particularly with memory usage and minimum specifications, emerged during final testing. Paradox, likely wary of past performance issues (think Cities: Skylines 2), emphasizes their commitment to delivering a high-quality sequel that honors the Prison Architect legacy. Kokku, a Brazilian studio with a history of co-development and outsourcing on major titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, is now at the helm to ensure Prison Architect 2's smooth launch. The Prison Architect series, which began in 2015 with the original simulation/management game, is still on track for a 2024 release with Prison Architect 2. While the development team has shifted, fans can rest assured that work on this highly anticipated sequel continues. (source: https://lnkd.in/dWtBvDhN)

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