Gus Viegas

Finale: Let's wrap up the week with some news headlines.No, not the unity runtime fee - something bigger: A new model from OpenAI. One of the biggest flaws of AI so far has been its logic and math performance.The previous model, 4o, scored 13% on the math olympiad problems.The newest one just released, scored 83%.(Funny enough, similar to the math olympiad score I had back in high school 🤓 )This is probably the Q* project they've been teasing (or being leaked).But what's the significance? Why is this relevant? Don't we already have calculators?The thing is, predicting words is one thing, logic is a completely separate pattern that can lead to better chain-of-thought reasoning that can answer tasks more effectively.The current model is said to perform as well as PhD students in physics, biology, and chemistry.Let's tinker around and see what […]

Part 4: Now let's talk about mobile game marketing These are going to be based on very anecdotal data from talks with different market leaders in Europe and sprinkled with personal opinion. Take them with a grain of salt.Challenge me on them, so we all learn. 1. The difference between which are the top iOS UA networks and the top Android networks is increasing. Networks that you wouldn't see on the top 5 of one being top 2 on the other. Not naming names, but DM me and I can provide what I've been seeing. The key point here being that ever since the IDFA deprication it was different, but never this much. It might be that learnings from Android don't translate to iOS as much anymore - which would make me wonder: how are you doing creative tests on […]

Alright enough pleasantries, let's talk insights.Part 3: Some revenue tactics and trends 1. Did you know some networks are claiming a "DMA tax" on top of their reported spend? Effectively distancing their reported gross ROAS further from the actual Net value? -> Remember to keep updating your net revenue tax tables every quarter with your finance team, the numbers on your dashboard might be outdated, which will lead you to make bad judgment calls.2. Ad skip-its seem to be on the way out versus VIP no-ads subscriptions. It kind of makes sense, it's a bit of a mechanism to convert hypercasual games to hybrids rather than a feature thought with UX in mind from the ground up. It's a bit overly complex of a concept to teach. The real question then becomes: Is a VIP no-ads subscription the end-all-be-all for […]

What causes the gaming industry layoffs? Part 2 - "Interlude - The Ebbs and Flows of a Game Project." Thank you John Wright for giving me the idea of making this a series rather than one giant post.And thank you Carlos Salvado 🔜 GDC for having me go deeper on this.Part 1 in the comments.So we realized it isn't AI - because it's just a tool, just like Photoshop was a tool.We need people to use the tools.Do some people quit or get fired for not adapting?Sure, I've actually heard stories already.But it's a handful of people in comparison with the thousands laid off.I talked about R&D, new games, being essential to gain sustainability as a business. But why? What happens in the standard cycle of a game studio?A game and it's ideas, most of the times, come from previous […]