I spoke with Jussi Kemppainen about the future of game development, from the standpoint of a veteran game developer and VFX artist. Jussi has worked at game publishers including Rovio and Remedy. He's currently at Mainframe Industries, working on Pax Dei--a next-gen MMORPG with deep sandbox mechanics in the spirit of Eve Online.

My conversation with Edward Saatchi (CEO, Fable Simulation) is about his vision for virtual beings: digital characters that not only have conversations, but act within virtual worlds: living, playing, creating and forming communities. We covered the birth of all the new art forms and media resulting from generative AI, agent AIs, conversational vs. action-oriented characters, the integration of virtual beings into live games and immersive experiences, and inspiration from science-fiction such as the Culture series and the Holodeck from Star Trek.

Emmanuel de Maistre ("Emm") is leading Scenario, which is a platform for creating the art for games using generative AI. One of their unique approaches is to focus on helping developers build their own fine-tuned models based on their own art style--helping to establish aesthetic consistency. During this conversation we spoke about the future of the game industry (across many forms of generative AI beyond art), Emm's background as an entrepreneur, and even got into some generative applications within the sciences & biology.

Hilary is CEO of Hidden Door, a gaming startup that is using language models to create new types of play. Previously, Hilary was head of machine learning for Cloudera; the founder of independent research lab Fast Forward Labs; Chief Scientist of Bitly; and was a professor of computer science at Johnson & Wales.

Do you want to learn more about scaling customer acquisition for an online product? The lessons here will apply whether you are shipping a game, a metaverse experience or any type of mobile application.  Eric Seufert worked at legendary game publishers like Rovio, Wooga, and Digital Chocolate--where he literally wrote the book on Freemium Economics for games. Eric's concern for several years has been scaling games by optimizing unit economics and accessing scalable user acquisition channels. In this conversation, Jon and Eric talk about how the market for mobile user acquisition has changed; how the market for advertising networks has evolved; and even how the strategy for game marketing has shifted from the "Harry Crane" measurement paradigm to the "Don Draper" paradigm which is all about audience resonance. We cover the differences (or lack thereof) in performance vs. brand marketing; how new privacy rules such as ATT (App Tracking Transparency) have impacted the user acquisition markets; and how to staff a user acquisition team at your publisher.  If you're looking for an overview of how to gain access to the mass market of consumers on mobile--both the history, present and possible future--this is the conversation you'll want to hear!

Three-way conversation between Jon Radoff and two amazing technology experts: Keith Adams was Chief Architect for Slack--the pervasive chat platform used by hundreds of millions of people every day (fun fact: did you know that Slack started as a game company?) Ali El Rhermoul works with Jon at Beamable, where Ali is CTO. We covered engineering philosophy, and new technologies like serverless and microservies as paradigms that live games can use to scale up. We also talk about team dynamics, agile approaches, high-velocity iteration, reaching product-market fit, and the values that an engineering team can incorporate to bring curiosity and success to a product endeavor.

Alexander Brazie has built a career working on the design of some of the largest online games: World of Warcraft and League of Legends. We start with the inspiring story of how Alexander landed a career in game design, starting as a teenage game developer. Along the way he's learned how to create amazing, engaging, sustainable game businesses--as well as how the business models to support them have evolved. We talk about MMORPGs, MOBAs, free-to-play (f2p), subscriptions and NFT-based games.

Avatars are a way for you project your identity into virtual space. In the metaverse, this will also mean the ability to transport your identity from place to place, or to take on different identities as your mood or the experience calls for. Along with that is the rise of digital fashion: both a new form of self-expression and a boon to the creator economy for artists and designers. Cathy Hackl and I discuss Roblox, avatar platforms including Ready Player Me, as well as digital fashion platforms such as Fabricant and others who are building within the blockchain/NFT ecosystem.

The metaverse is opening up a new range of opportunities for online jobs: one of these is in the realm of online performance. Emma (known online as "Swebliss") is a Twitch streamer and TikTok personality who has assembled an audience approaching a million people by streaming her gameplay and artistry. How did she do it, what are the opportunities in streaming, and how does one "break in" to this business?  What are some of the challenges and problems with being a streamer today? We also cover the challenges women face around online toxicity. If you're curious about the personal and business side of the live-streaming business, this is your chance to learn more about one of the original "play to earn" businesses in gaming.

Finn is the founder of VR, AR and video game production company Chicken Waffle (creator of VR games including Baby Hands and Shadow of Valhalla); co-founder of virtual music concert company The Wave XR; and VR-based comedy club Failed to Render. I caught up with Finn before he headed down to Art Basel Miami where he planned to show off some of his work in metaverse art.  This conversation covers a lot of ground: we cover how far virtual reality (VR) has come in the last few years, and the opportunities as it expands into AR and new hardware like smartglasses (e.g., Snap Spectacles)--and then get into some of the new experiences that involve art, music and even comedy. We talk about video games, and applications for the blockchain and NFTs to support creators across this ecosystem.  This is a conversation I know you'll enjoy if you are intrigued by any of these topics.