152. Unpacking AI: Finding Your USP in Asset Generation with Julia and Burcu

7 factors of success for game studios

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In this episode Tiffany Keller welcomes Julia Zhan, CPO of Series Entertainment, and Burcu Hakguder, the CRO of Layer AI who celebrates their recent close of their seed round for over $6M. Burcu Hakguder started Layer after half a decade at Unity Technologies spearheading new business development initiatives that contributed to the company’s successful IPO. Today Layer AI is embraced by top studios like Zynga, SciPlay, Huuuge Games, and over 200 others to revolutionize game production powered by inferences across many models optimized for 2D, 3D assets and video generation.

Julia Zhan is Chief Platform Officer at Series Entertainment, a company revolutionizing game creation through generative stories & worlds after raising over $35M and acquiring Pixelberry and Netflix as a distribution partner. Previously, she managed League of Legends production and operations for China and helped pioneer Valorant at Riot Games. After that, Julia led the game vertical & developer success at Snap, empowering 3P developers to build hyper-social gaming experiences.

We break down the AI x Games market today from the founder perspective- how they successfully raised and delivered on investor and customer expectations despite taking very different sides of the AI platform and gaming market. Julia and Burcu share their methodology for finding their “unique selling position” in the market and how that has shaped their advice to game makers looking to integrate AI tools.

We discuss a bit of 4D chess on the future of gaming AI platforms and how both large and small companies will need to adapt to remain competitive. For every studio facing a build vs buy question with AI, Julia and Burcu break down how game makers can draw from their USP to define their next steps in harnessing AI. Expect some spicy while incredibly thoughtful takes that reveal how many ways there are to succeed as a game studio armed with the right AI workflows.

Try Layer AI today to 5x your game content creation productivity

Play Series Entertainment’s new game, Single’s Inferno, on Netflix Games today to see what Rho, their AI engine, and their acquisition Pixelberry can do together

🇪🇸 Barcelona. June 2 — Not your Princess, Just my Own Hero: Innovating for Women in Mobile Gaming

Join us for an inspiring afternoon celebrating the impact and innovation of women in mobile gaming. Speakers are from Gamehouse, Scopely, Rise & Play, Funcraft, Appsflyer & Appcharge!

​Stick around — the evening wraps up with a lively party to continue the conversation and connections.Welcome - Claire Rozain, Founder Rzain Society

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