Logan Ye is the founder of Metabox Labs, a game studio pioneering a massive new entertainment genre - casual games supercharged with generative AI. Their debut game, What's This Arti?, is in open beta with 1000+ DAUs and over 40% seven-day retention.
👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?
My job is to make our games simple, beautiful, and profitable. I do a bit of everything from creating content for the game, optimizing marketing, writing code specifications, and reviewing design.
🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?
We throw out over 90% of our draft content and features! With gaming and generative AI, there are always more ideas than time, so we prioritize relentlessly.
🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?
Shortly after we debuted the Instagram version of our game, it crashed because so many players were playing right at release time!
🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?
Obviously, I'm bullish on generative AI for gaming, but honestly, there are more direct applications on the B2B side. I'm really interested to see how the application level will advance in industries like healthcare, law, and logistics, among others.
💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?
Be curious and think small to start! As with all products, you only need to get 1 or 2 core things right that users love. Everything else can be added later. It's really hard to make good and complex games.
🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?
The subtle and not-so-subtle ways Canadians are different from Americans.
🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?
The Star Wars Animated Series
🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?
Chocolate!
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