Insights
AI in games, measured.
What we learn building heroes that keep playing when their player is away: data from our playtests, how agentic AI changes games, and what matters when judging AI game companies.
- Investing in AI gaming startups: what actually mattersA practical framework for judging an AI game startup: usage data over demos, unit economics, defensibility, team and risk. Metashift Labs is the worked example throughout.
- Agentic AI in games: characters that act for the playerGame AI is moving from characters that talk to characters that act. What agentic AI in games is, where it already appears, and what is still hard.
- What happens when heroes play alone: playtest dataOriginal data from the August 2026 Dominus Automa playtest: who played, how long, and how much of the game AI-driven heroes played without their player.
- AI NPCs vs AI player agents: what's the difference?Most game AI makes non-player characters smarter. A player agent acts for the player's own character. How the two differ, where each is used, and why it matters.
- Dominus Automa: the game built to prove the techWhy we built Dominus Automa, an automated MMORPG where your hero keeps playing while you're away, and what 12,500+ playtesters showed about agentic AI in games.