Building a Creator-Focused 3D Engine with Hiber

Sep 3, 2024

Sean Kauppinen, Chief Strategy Officer at Hiber, shares insights on the rise of user-generated content in gaming, emphasizing the democratization of 3D world creation. HiberWorld is making it easy for anyone, regardless of age or skills, to build virtual spaces. The discussion highlights Hiber’s rapid growth, innovative platform Hiber3D, and the balance between creativity and moderation in gaming communities. Kauppinen also delves into the evolution of AI in gaming and the changing landscape of player engagement, emphasizing the importance of analytics for creators.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

Democratizing Game Development with Hiber

02:21 • 18min

Navigating Nostalgia and Moderation in Gaming Communities

20:21 • 21min

The Evolution of AI in Gaming: Toward Personalized Experiences

41:34 • 2min

The Evolution of Personalization and Analytics in Gaming

43:20 • 3min

Rethinking Player Terminology and the Rise of User-Generated Content

46:02 • 4min

Metrics of Success in Creator Engagement

49:33 • 2min

Navigating Metrics and Marketplaces

51:20 • 4min

Cloud Concerns and Gaming Innovations

55:01 • 4min

Navigating Bandwidth and Gaming Industry Insights

58:49 • 3min

UGC is hot, hot, hot right now. Roblox is on track to pay out half a billion USD to creators - annually - and never has it been more possible for young, individual creators to make a meaningful living as “game developers.” But is Roblox the only place for such creators?

HiberWorld, a platform that's empowering anyone to build and share their own 3D worlds, is trying to change that by making making it as easy possible for anyone, at any age, and anywhere in the world to build their own virtual worlds. HiberWorld has already achieved some impressive milestones, reaching 1 million worlds in 2021, 5 million in 2023, and 6.5 million at latest count. Underlying everything is Hiber3D, Hiber’s web engine, which is trying to make it as easy as possible for anyone to build their own HiberWorld.

In this episode your host, Niko Vuori, sits down with Hiber’s Chief Strategy Officer Sean Kauppinen to discuss Hiber’s story, what growth strategies it has used to grow, and what differentiates it from Roblox.

Check out Hiber on the web. You can find Sean Kauppinen on LinkedIn. For more information about some of the topics discussed in this episode, check out Dive Analytics for outsourced games BI, Nir Eyal’s excellent book “Hooked” about building habit-forming products, and The New York Times’ “Hard Fork” podcast for all things tech and particularly their excellent coverage of developments in AI.

We’d also like to thank nSure.ai for making this episode possible! In the gaming industry, protecting revenue from fraudsters is crucial. That’s where nSure.ai comes in. As a proven industry leader, nSure.ai provides scalable payment fraud prevention that’s not just effective but tailored specifically to your needs. To learn more, visit https://www.nsure.ai/contact

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Sound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.