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Welcome to the Metaverse research guide! This guide will help you get started with finding resources on the topic. It includes links to key library subscription resources, including article databases, journals and books, as well as open web content.

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  • 2024 Game Development Trends: Opportunities & ChallengesThis link opens in a new window The game industry is enduring a tumultuous period — but amidst the layoffs, the technological acceleration, the new platforms and shifting business models — there is also enormous opportunity… But only if one invests wisely.Visit: Game Development Trends in2024: Crisis and OpportunityHere is what I cover in my recent substack article:📈 Revenue is down, while costs are up: this is why layoffs are happening. But what can teams do to navigate the next year?🎮 “This Game is Fun, Bro” — the divide between the mainstream gaming markets and what vocal groups claim on social media; the importance of a great game.😎 What spatial computing will and won’t do for gaming🤖 The disruptive effect of creator-led platforms such as Roblox🍎 Longer-term impact of Apple’s adversity towards developers💰 The Web Renaissance — what’s going to happen due to WebGPU, and the relative disadvantage of native mobile marketing, and other technological innovations🕹 Cracks in the 3D Engine market — developer willingness to switch engines🎮 Next-gen rendering pipelines (Unreal 5 innovations, Gaussian Splats, etc.) and what they mean for developers in the short-to-medium term💻 The strength of PC Gaming👩‍🔧 The growth of UGC within PC games⚔ The importance of IP, and how it’s shifting towards game-first IP🤖 Impact of Generative AI on both production and in-game experienceImportance of decentralized AI💰 The state of open-economy (blockchain and other) games📈 The growing cost of Live Operations — and how to make it capital-efficientPlease visit the complete article on Metavert Meditations for my complete coverage of these topics.2024 Game Development Trends: Opportunities & Challenges was originally published in Building the Metaverse on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Jan 30, 2024
  • Converging to SubstackThis link opens in a new window Now Publishing on SubstackThank you for following me here on Medium. I’ve been here for a long time — and so are many of you.I’m writing in a few different places, and have decided to continue my online writing journey on Substack. It is a better environment for creators to connect with their communities.The inaugural post is a learning guide for generative AI — from the basic concepts, its impacts on business and culture — all the way through the math and theory:The Generative AI CanonI hope you’ll join me there, and consider continuing your subscription from Metavert Meditations, where I’ll continue to talk about how the internet is evolving towards real-time connection and creativity.Converging to Substack was originally published in Building the Metaverse on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Jun 14, 2023
  • Generative AI and Virtual WorldsThis link opens in a new window A few days ago, my team won grant prize the LA AI Virtual Worlds hackathon during the a16z Tech Week by creating a roleplaying game in one day.This is the result of me spending the last few years obsessed with accelerating game development. A big part of that is generative AI — as well as the work we’re doing at Beamable to enable you to get the servers set up for entire worlds setup on “day zero.”Along the way I’ve done a number of experiments, as well as conversations with hundreds of people (including a dozen recorded conversations for my video podcast, Building the Metaverse).Read on for a summary of the most relevant articles and conversations I’ve had in the last 3 months.By the way, did you know that I’m mostly writing on my Substack, Metavert Meditations? Please link over there to see the latest!Semantic Programming and Software 2.0This is the article that covers the programming methods that allowed my team to win the LA AI TechWeek Virtual Worlds hackathon, building a playable RPG in 1 day. We used Anthropic’s Claude LLM (with 100K context), Blockade Labs, Scenario, Beamable and Unity as the key technologies. Learn how we did it:Open Source Experiments in Generative GamingSome of the earlier experiments — which we’ve open-sourced — by myself and my team at Beamable. This demonstrates the use of GPT into the development and real-time operation of games, as well as use of generative images from Scenario:75 Lessons from Learned from Live Game DevelopmentThis isn’t strictly generative AI, but it is my own hard-won lessons from building and shipping games to over 20 million players — as well as some of the failures and learnings I collected along the way. If generative AI can accelerate development velocity, it supports one of the most important pillars of my thesis: more “shots on goal” to get your game right for your audience.Digital Identity and the Evolution of CreativityI presented at the MIT Media Lab’s Metaverse course, discussing how virtual worlds started as a place to manifest our digital identity — and are now a platform for our creativity… and soon, our will. The latter is enabled by generative AI agents.Building the MetaverseOn this season of Building the Metaverse (Metavert.tv), I’ve been speaking with builders and leaders using generative AI to build their business. There’s a focus on games and virtual worlds, but many of these technologies could be applied to a wide range of use cases.I provide direct links to the YouTube conversations below, but if you click on the titles, you’ll go to a summary article that contains supporting materials and show notes.Text-to-WorldMy conversation with Kayla Comalli was about her startup that is using a text prompt to spawn an entire world to explore. We took a look at her product and the supporting technologies like Sloyd, Polyhive and Unreal Engine 5.https://medium.com/media/c543b53583b81fcdba6995d5b2b26843/hrefCreative Technology and Generative AI with Bilawal SidhuBilawal Sidhu is doing some of the most interesting creative work with generative AI, neural radiance fields (NERFs) and photogrammetry. Some of his examples have been widely shared — and he has over 100M downloads of his augmented reality filters for TikTok. Learn about his work and methods in our conversation:https://medium.com/media/d7531bce0f4dded079488f978a13b66e/hrefGenerative AI and Voice Synthesis with Zach JohnsonI recorded a conversation with Zach Johnson about how generative AI will change the way we incorporate voices into games and simulations. We also show off some amazing demos of using Zach’s voice synthesis technology inside a flight simulator. We also talk about the nature of art, and the evolving creator economy around AI.https://medium.com/media/aedb441de929b8ed3eacf083d9c3bca6/hrefGenerative Emotes for AvatarsExpression through avatars is one of the most complex frontiers for generative AI: it covers everything from modeling to rigging to animation. In my conversation with Yassine Tahi, we discussed how Kinetix is bringing together all of these elements and simplifying access through text prompting and a creator economy.https://medium.com/media/d03775a3d79956a0d8ff6088ee99d5c9/hrefAI Storytelling and Narrative with Linus EkenstamLinus Ekenstam is creating a storytelling product using generative AI. We talked about how artificial intelligence is changing product design — and civilization itself.https://medium.com/media/d791ab70fe6690a4b8e18499f9884b44/hrefChatGPT and Game Development with Cameron WillsCameron Wills created the most-downloaded AI tool on the Unity Asset Store. We discussed his journey as an indie game developer, and what led him to make a generative AI tool to speed development:https://medium.com/media/c706fa1f378b2ba80ccd5656bbe40576/hrefAI Art, Creativity & Copyright with Kris KashtanovaKristina Kashtanova obtained the first copyright for an AI-generated work, her comic book: Zarya of the Dawn. We discussed her journey from photographer to AI artist, and what she’s learned from her quest to obtain copyright on her work.https://medium.com/media/266414425d496ae10095f56fe553f96c/hrefGenerative Graphics Workflow for Games with Jussi KemppainenJussi-Petteri Kemppainen is building an indie game using generative AI. He’s created — and documented — a workflow involving tools that take art from Midjourney, creates projection maps, sets them up in Blender and then into Unity. Watch this video if you’re an artist or game developer who wants to learn how to get generative concept art right into your game engine.https://medium.com/media/bc178da3a3f8c32eb4f940838c5142e2/hrefVirtual Beings and Edward SaatchiInspired by the Culture Series by Iain Banks, Edward Saatchi’s vision is to create a virtual society with millions of AI-powered virtual beings. We discuss the importance of created simulated environment in which virtual beings take actions — not simply engage in conversations.https://medium.com/media/4f08050b91e0a33c14ebff9b59d37f14/hrefGenerative Art Assets for Games: Emmanuel de MaistreScenario is creating generative AI tools that let you create game assets by training your own generators — and text-prompting individual assets into existence. We discuss how Scenario works, Emmanuel de Maistre’s vision for the future of game development, and his entrepreneurial journey.https://medium.com/media/08ca808ac99218b3146cc908b7b76dc8/hrefGenerative Games with Language Models: Hilary MasonHilary Mason leads Hidden Door, a startup building multiplayer games built around large language models (LLMs). Before Hidden Door, Hilary led machine learning for Cloudera — and was previously a professor of computer science. We discussed how language models will enable whole new categories of games. Some of the language models that may be put into practice may be simpler, CPU-driven models rather than the ChatGPT-style huge models you might be acquainted with. Learn more:https://medium.com/media/b4b83c12718a5243aa1f4237fdbf90ee/hrefFurther ReadingFor the latest from me, please visit my Substack, Metavert Meditations.Generative AI and Virtual Worlds was originally published in Building the Metaverse on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Jun 14, 2023
  • Conversations with Generative AI PioneersThis link opens in a new window I have started a new series of conversations with pioneers in generative AI: the creators, builders and entrepreneurs who are shaping the future.The first just went live on Metavert.tv. Here’s the first episode, with Hilary Mason — CEO of Hidden Door, who is doing amazing things with language models and games.I’ve also recently updated my Market Map of Generative AI for Virtual Worlds (games, simulations, real-time experiences). You’ll want to check it out here:All of my articles and content are now being actively maintained on the Metavert Meditations Substack. All of my older Medium content is also available in the Substack archive, although I plan to keep all of these articles around too.Conversations with Generative AI Pioneers was originally published in Building the Metaverse on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Apr 13, 2023
  • The Risks of AI SafetyThis link opens in a new window The Risks of Too Much AI SafetyIn the last week we saw a thousand people call for a six-month pause on AI experimentation — and even one person call for international treaties banning them, who is willing to commit countries to airstrikes against GPU clusters to enforce compliance.I thought it was important to look at what a six-month pause might mean: a 6-month delay in discovering some of the methods that could be important to solving some of the most important challenges facing the human species: nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, biotechnological risks. I also include other existential risks that are frequently brought up, such as asteroids, super volcanoes and cosmic-doom scenarios.That’s the topic of my new Substack article, Existential Threats and Artificial Intelligence Solutions. Please read and enjoy!The Risks of AI Safety was originally published in Building the Metaverse on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Apr 2, 2023
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