UE5 Rig Physics š¦¾, Game Engagement š, RAM Prices š¾
š Industry & Engagement Insights
Beyond Installs: Why Engagement Metrics Now Rule Mobile Games
Mobile game success canāt be judged by installs and CPI alone anymore. This article explains why engagement metricsāretention, session length, LTV, and viralityāare now the real indicators of game health and profitability. It outlines concrete post-launch tactics like tuning progression, running smart live ops, and fixing analytics-identified friction points to boost long-term value. Teams that pivot from vanity metrics to engagement will build more resilient portfolios in todayās high-cost UA landscape.
No Law and Neon Giant: Small Team, Big Cyberpunk Ambitions
No Law is Neon Giantās new ācybergrungeā FPS: a grounded, neon-lit open world inspired by 80s action heroes, chunky tech, and tongue-in-cheek violence. Built by a deliberately small 30ā40 person team, it leans on the studioās Wolfenstein roots, strong internal tools, and Unreal Engine 5 to deliver big-budget impact. The devs explain how staying lean lets them cut scope, move fast, and stay passionateāwhile Krafton handles the business and largely leaves creative control to the team.
š§ AI & Emerging Tech
Decoding Qwen, Llama and GGUF: What LLM Filenames Really Mean
If youāre browsing Hugging Face or LM Studio and model names look like random code soup, this guide is for you. The author shows how those strings actually encode the modelās origin (Qwen, Llama, etc.), size, what āteacherā it mimics (Claude, GPTā4), how itās fineātuned, and how itās packaged for your hardware. Youāll also learn the tradeāoffs behind quantization schemes like GGUF and 4ābit. Itās a quick mental checklist for picking the right openāsource LLM.
When 64GB Costs More Than a 5070 Ti: RAM Prices Explode
RAM prices are surging so fast that some 64GB kits now cost more than new GPUs like the RTX 5070 Ti and RX 9070 XT. The article notes a 250% jump in November alone, followed by another 25% rise, with certain models increasing 3ā4x in under two months. Adding fuel to the fire, Micron is shifting its RAM supply toward AI companies instead of PC users. For anyone planning a new build or upgrade, memory just became the real budget killer.
š® NextāGen Game Dev Tools
Build NextāGen Quest VR in Unity: Tools, Tips, and $1.5M Incentives
If youāve wondered how to turn your Unity skills into compelling Quest VR/MR games, this session is a practical roadmap. Metaās advocates explain why VR demands new design thinking, then dive into concrete tools: Meta XR SDKs, dragāandādrop interaction building blocks, desktop XR simulation, immersive debugging, and performance analysis. They highlight sample projects and upcoming AI + passthrough integrations for smarter mixed reality. The talk culminates in an invite to Horizon Start and its $1.5M developer competition for new and upgraded VR experiences.
From Ragdolls to Reins: Control Rig Physics in UE5 and The Witcher 4
Physically simulated characters in Unreal no longer have to mean scattered Blueprints and fragile setups. In this Unreal Fest session, Epicās Danny Chapman demoes new Control Rig Physics components that turn physics into first-class rig elements, with parent-space āmuscleā drives and simulation-space āpuppetā controls. He illustrates the workflow with a mech demo, then goes behind the scenes of the Witcher 4 UE5 horse: reactive mane and tail, jostling saddlebags, and reins that dynamically follow Ciriās hands. The result is more expressive, performant characters that still stay under animator control.