Eljayem 🗡️

This is your unfair advantage for live streaming. Introducing Meld Spark ✨

Meld Studio has finally announced its new feature, Spark, and after spending some time with it... I understand why the lead-up to its announcement was kept a secret. It's generative AI. That's the big reveal. They have created a way to destroy the creative ecosystem. Not only that, but like all generative AI, it is trained on IP that it does not have the rights to. How do I know this? Well, I've recorded a few examples found above: First, a Sub Overlay (Sound Element was created in Meld by Spark) Second, a Chat Widget (sound element was corrupted. Added my own) Third, a Follow Overlay (sound element was corrupted. Added my own) The prompt was to create these three elements using a classic Final Fantasy 7 aesthetic, both in sound and visuals. Each fully formed element was created in 30-40 seconds. Full disclosure: the Chat Widget sound and the Follow Sound were implemented by me because the sound they produced was unusable. However, the Sub Overlay Sound is what I want you to really pay attention to. Now, if Spark is not trained on or pulling from an IP that it does not have the rights to, how does it generate this? Sure, the leveling fanfare with the Sub Overlay isn't the exact composition, but it clearly knows the correct fanfare in order to change the notes to protect against copyright while still giving you the feel of Final Fantasy fanfare. Is it easy to use? Yes. Is it soulless? Also, yes. Meld Studio's Spark is a feature designed for people who don't want to put in the work of being a Content Creator and feel completely okay stepping on the backs of countless artists in this industry... that it clearly has been trained on. (There are pre-loaded chat widgets that look incredibly similar to popular widgets sold on Etsy.) That's not what being a creator is. Sure, you can have overlays and cool effects play during events, but Spark is not going to teach you comedic timing. Spark is not going to give you the gift of gab and hold the attention of a large group of people for 5+ hours. You're just playing dress-up and wearing the uniform of a creator expecting success. They say that Spark is going to change the game, but in reality, all it really does is separate the true creators and artists who work with them from the pretenders who feel like they don't need to pay their dues. Still, I'd like to thank Meld Studio for giving me an early preview of the feature. As disappointing as it was, it was eye-opening to see an open disregard for the ecosystem of streaming in exchange for personal profit.

Hot take: Everyone would be miserable if we went back to the old style of Let's Plays. Mr. Beast has nothing to do with why people don't make them anymore. The real reason is that nobody wants that content, and if they do, they go to Twitch and watch a livestream

LOTS of discourse at the moment about how “100 days ruined minecraft videos” tbh the longer youtube has been a thing, naturally everything has became “higher budget” not JUST minecraft, when you tell people to “stand out” to succeed, casual lets plays will always be overtaken

I keep seeing everyone post about Next Fest at a professional level; they keep saying, why you need to post a demo soon. And yes for better chances in previous Fests that would've definitely mattered. This time around I haven't seen a difference for developers that I talked to. Especially as the Top Demos tracks the trend happening then for daily players, if you launch the demo early and it dies down, there is a whole other discussion to be had there and there is no right or wrong. My take this time, before you fully commit to being in Next Fest, check who is in there beforehand. A lot of people didn't stand a chance this time for the charts. The top of the charts were a couple of games with Wishlist in the millions. The popular games were friendslop, so if you made a singleplayer it was already harder to get into the top demos (1 singleplayer install is 1 person, playing friendslop with your friend group equals ~4 people per install) whereas previously we had games reach the top 3 with a couple of tens of thousands wishlists.

What's does "good retention" actually look like? The director of the YouTube algorithm, Todd Beaupre, revealed this chart in a private YouTube meeting :) Save this!