A focus on AI.
I don’t like Kool-Aid.
As a technologist, new breakthroughs always come with swells of excitement that often overinflate what the technology can accomplish, with true innovations coming from disciplined discoveries of actual applications rather than endless chasing of the latest fad-driven cycle. Few things live up to the hype.
That said: I am deeply excited by AI.
New Kinds of Games
As an engineer for games, I love getting to tell designers “yes” instead of “no.” When a designer wants to make something happen in the game, I want to build the tools that enable them to fulfill their aspirations. It’s always frustrating when the engine constrains creative vision.
Generative AI has the potential to be an incredible new tool.
And it’s not just about productivity. Incremental improvements in games have happened throughout the past, allowing us to speed up certain parts of production. Generative AI will certainly do this. But far more exciting is the new kinds of things it allows us to build. The shift from deterministic to probabilistic outcomes unlocks so many possibilities and design spaces.
Our team has been having far ranging brainstorms sketching out and exploring the limits of what’s possible, and it’s thrilling for the challenge not to be “what can’t we do,” but rather to be “what do we not want to do, because so much is now possible.”
Always Serving the Player
When there’s a shiny new tool, sometimes it’s easy to fixate on how to use it everywhere, because you want to show off the Brand New Thing. And while GenAI is central to our vision and architecture for our flagship game, we also are leveraging all our tools and tricks we’ve learned (and built) over our careers in developing our game. We’re keenly aware of the difference between building a demo, and making a game that players can fall in love with. While the technologist in me is excited for genAI on a technical level, the game dev in me is most excited and focused on how it empowers us to deliver unforgettable, playful experiences you can share with your friends, old and new.
—Aaron
