The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 on GeForce NOW, launching with GeForce RTX 5080-power.Members can sink their teeth into the action role-playing game from Paradox Interactive as part of nine games coming to the cloud this week, including NINJA GAIDEN 4.Be among the first to play The Outer Worlds 2 with early access available in the cloud starting tomorrow, Oct. 24.https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/gfn-server-rollout-map-sofia-server-light-up-16x9-1.mp4Atlanta is the latest region to get GeForce RTX 5080-class power, with Sofia, Bulgaria, coming next. Stay tuned to GFN Thursday for updates as more regions upgrade to NVIDIA Blackwell RTX. Follow along with the latest progress on the server rollout page.The Night Belongs to the CloudDont invite them in just stream.Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, Paradoxs sequel to the cult classic, invites fans to sink their fangs into Seattles dark nightlife, putting players in the immortal boots of Phyre the newly awakened Elder vampire with a mysterious voice in their head. In every dark corner hides a new alliance or a rival, and every choice carves a path through the bloody politics of the night.Master Seattles secrets and the supernatural abilities of any chosen clan shadow hunting with the Banu Haqim, blood bending with the Tremere or going fists first as a Brujah. Every story twist and council drama is shaped by dialogue, alliances and whispers from both friends and the ever-present stranger in the protagonists mind.Every neon-lit block streams beautifully on GeForce NOW, with GeForce RTX 5080-class power rolling out for the highest frame rates and sharpest graphics in the cloud no waiting for downloads or mortal PC specs required.Where Shadows Fall, Legends RiseSlice first, ask questions never.NINJA GAIDEN 4, a lightning-fast action-adventure title from Team NINJA, slices its way back into the spotlight, packed with brutal, razor-sharp combat and featuring a new protagonist, Yakumo. Known for its intensity, precision and stylish flair, the game demands focus and rewards mastery.This new entry throws Yakumo into a deadly conflict blending myth and modern chaos. Explore sprawling levels filled with relentless enemies, cinematic boss battles that punish hesitation and a fluid combat system that chains combos together like a storm of steel. Every encounter feels like a duel where speed, timing and finesse define survival.On GeForce NOW, NINJA GAIDEN 4 reaches its sharpest edge. No installs or massive downloads stand in the way gain instant access with cloud-powered performance that keeps every slash crisp and every dodge responsive. Whether running on a high-end rig, a laptop or even a mobile device, the action always hits at peak intensity with GeForce NOW.Boarding Pass to ChaosSpace has a new HR problem.Early access for The Outer Worlds 2 is reaching the cloud, bringing all the offbeat charm, sharp wit and spacefaring chaos the series is loved for. From Obsidian Entertainment, the masters of branching stories and immersive worlds, this sequel leans even harder into meaningful choices and unexpected consequences.On GeForce NOW, hopping into early access means instant boarding with no installs or waiting around. Every quip, shootout and twist in the storyline streams smoothly, no matter the screen. Its the perfect way to jump into space mischief before the game fully launches in the cloud on Wednesday, Oct. 29.Roaring Good GamesLife finds a way again. Frontier Developments returns with Jurassic World Evolution 3, the next installment of the park-management series that lets players design, build and wrangle their own prehistoric paradise. Bigger storms, smarter dinosaurs and even bolder decisions keep every moment thrilling because in this world, control is just an illusion.In addition, members can look for the following:NINJA GAIDEN 4 (New release on Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Oct. 20)Jurassic World Evolution 3 (New release on Steam, Oct. 21)Painkiller (New release on Steam, Oct. 21)Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 (New release on Steam, Oct. 21, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)The Outer Worlds 2 Advanced Access (New release on Steam, Battle.net and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Oct. 24, GeForce RTX 5080-ready)Tormented Souls 2 (New release on Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Oct. 23)Super Fantasy Kingdom (New release on Steam, Oct. 24)VEIN (New release on Steam, Oct. 24)Tom Clancys Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Steam)What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.What anime would you want to turn into a video game, or vice versa? NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) October 22, 2025

By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of MAPPA.In most cases, an anime project is based on an original manga, but MAPPA decided to take a different approach from Chainsaw Man and Hells Paradise: Jigokuraku and come up with their own IP called Zenshu. The title translates to redo everything, which is a term often used in the anime industry, and is appropriate given that the story revolves around wunderkind animator and director Natsuko Hirose struggling to meet expectations and deadlines for her latest production, only to find herself becoming a character within her favorite movie A Tale of Perishing. The instrument of magic is not a wand or a sword but a peg bar used to keep animation drawings aligned, which allows the protagonist, Natsuko Hirose, to literally bring her illustrations to life. The Isekai series, streaming on Crunchyroll, consists of 12 episodes and was created by Mitsue Yamazaki and Kimiko Ueno. The original character designs were by Yoshiteru Tsujino and subsequently adapted for animation by Kayoko Ishikawa, who has previously worked on Saraznmai,Aikatsui! and Uchitama?! doing everything from storyboards, prop and costume design, color coordination and direction.Key attributes of Natsuko Hirose are her hoodie, long black hair and big blue eyes.[The animation style] also expresses the trials and struggles, the sincerity and joy experienced by the new generation of creators as they try to shape the future of animation; that spirit itself is reflected in the animation style. At its core, I believe these feelings are something that can resonate across different countries, eras, races and professions.Kayoko Ishikawa, Character Designer & Chief Animation DirectorSince we already had Tsujino-sans original character concept design, I didnt feel there was that much freedom in designing the characters, states Kayoko Ishikawa, Character Designer and Chief Animation Director of Zenshu. Yamazaki-san requested designs that would feel in line with todays anime style, so I aimed for a manga-like look that wouldnt come across as too realistic. Colors were part of the design process for both the costumes and characters. I felt my experience [as a costume and character designer] helped me when I was thinking of the balance between colors and individual design elements. Especially with Natsukos hair, since its very dark, long black hair. If you dont create gaps to it when its flowing in the wind, the silhouette becomes too heavy, and it makes it look like a big, heavy, black mass. Also, the highlights on the hair stand out, so if they are placed in an unnatural way, it immediately feels off to the viewer. I had not worked on a project that required this much care when handling black hair, so it was a great learning experience.The design of Luke Braveheart is based on the classic strait-laced hero found in old-school video games.Being a chief animation director influenced the approach towards the character design. Id say its all about striking a balance between the visual appeal and how easy the characters are for animators to draw, Ishikawa notes. I felt that finding the right mix of relatability and sophistication in a design is quite difficult. I dont want the designs to turn out self-indulgent, but with so many internal conflicts, its something I really struggle with. During weekly script meetings, Mitsue Yamazaki and Kimiko Ueno discussed the story and characters. I gradually started to get a sense of what Yamazaki-san and Ueno-san wanted to do, and what they liked. Each week, I would create image boards and character sketches, and wed keep adjusting and aligning our visions little by little.All of the character designs were created using Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom pen display tablet. I chose this style because it allows me to easily create and adjust variations in colors and details, Ishikawa remarks. I used the same approach in Zenshu as well; however, since we aimed for an analogue feel for the scenes where characters drawn by Natsuko appear, I drew the characters that appear on these scenes on paper with pencils.Exploring the moment when the peg bar becomes activated enabling Natsuko Hirose to turn her ability to illustrate into a superpower.Certain things need to be kept in mind when designing characters. I focus on capturing each characters unique personality as well as organizing the details for both close-ups and long shots, Ishikawa explains.By capturing characters personality, I mean drawing expressions and poses that convey the characters traits clearly. Organizing details means adjusting the amount of visual information on the screen so the workload of the many different artists doesnt become excessively difficult. And also preventing lines from clustering so much that the characters form becomes unclear. For close-up shots, the character fills the screen, so I add detailed elements to enhance the visual appeal. For long shots, I simplify the designs by omitting fine details.Mitsue Yamazaki wanted modern-looking designs. I explored and adopted a stylized character design that would appeal to people in their 20s and 30s, Ishikawa explains. I researched trending illustrations, films and animations. Since the world that the heroine enters resembles a medieval European fantasy world, I took inspiration from films like The Three Musketeers and The Lord of the Rings. The animation style honors the pioneers of animation. It also expresses the trials and struggles, the sincerity and joy experienced by the new generation of creators as they try to shape the future of animation; that spirit itself is reflected in the animation style. At its core, I believe these feelings are something that can resonate across different countries, eras, races and professions.The peg bar used by animators to ensure that their animation papers stay aligned when drawing takes on the magical qualities of a wand inside the fantasy world of A Tale of Perishing.The child, teen and adult designs of Natsuko Hirose were driven by her character arc. The current Natsuko has a strong sense of self and speaks in a direct manner, so her stance is confident, Ishikawa states. Hands on her hips, feet firmly apart. While shes earnest, she also has a playful side, which is why Ive actively incorporated comical and quirky poses and facial expressions. In her childhood, theres an unrevealed backstory. Natsuko was raised by a single mother who worked long hours as a nurse and didnt have much time to spend with her. Because of this, Natsuko matured faster than other kids and often wore hand-me-down clothes from neighbors. By junior high, with stricter teachers around, she started paying more attention to her appearance by cutting her hair neatly and wearing a headband, but her assertive personality only grew stronger. In high school, she found a clear goal and lived with a laser focus on the shortest path to achieve it. You can clearly see the evolution of her character by lining up her designs and comparing how shes portrayed at each stage of her life.Its all about striking a balance between the visual appeal and how easy the characters are for animators to draw. I felt that finding the right mix of relatability and sophistication in a design is quite difficult. I dont want the designs to turn out self-indulgent, but with so many internal conflicts, its something I really struggle with.Kayoko Ishikawa, Character Designer & Chief Animation DirectorDetermining the directionality and shot design of a stopwatch, animation paper and drawing pencil swirling around in a fanciful manner.Often obscuring the entire face of Natsuko Hirose is her long black hair, which is character in its own right. I was taught that when people look at someone, the first thing they focus on is the eyes, Ishikawa remarks. So, I wondered how we can convey the characters emotions to the audience when the eyes are completely or almost completely hidden. Even if only one eye is visible, if the pupil is even slightly hidden, the emotions become difficult to read. I made guidelines for creating the animation. The pupils must never be completely hidden. Its okay if hair falls over them when the character is moving! Another guideline I had was that emotions should be conveyed through exaggerated reactions. At first, the audience was clearly confused because they couldnt read emotions from her face and therefore didnt understand what kind of a character Natsuko was. But that actually mirrored Natsukos own state; her attempt to hide her true feelings. As she gradually opened up, she transformed her bangs into a palm tree, put her hair up in a bun and hid her face again when she started feeling down. Natsukos hair turned out to be more expressive than I had imagined. Its rare to see a character whose hair carries so much emotional weight.A chair appears that propels Natsuko Hirose towards a desk where all of the required tools to animate are culminating.Audience members have preconceived notions as to what unicorns, dragons and elves should look like despite never ever actually seeing one in real life. Im used to drawing ordinary humans, but when it comes to animals or dragons, I find them harder to draw, Ishikawa admits. Since many animators will be involved in drawing these characters, I aimed to make them easier to animate by giving them human-like proportions and clothing, and by keeping the designs simple while still aiming to create characters with the kind of cuteness that Tsujino-sans characters have. Justice is the former dragon member of the Nine Soldiers who has been grounded by a damaged wing and has become a drunk. Since the character is androgynous, I was careful not to lean too much toward either masculinity or femininity in the design. Justice has an exclusive, slightly melancholic kind of sexiness, but they also have an earnest personality and are loyal to their friends, so I tried to capture that contrast in their gestures and expressions. This was the most challenging character to work on. It took me a long time to grasp the three-dimensional structure of Justice and figure out how best to draw them.Luke Braveheart is the tragic male lead of A Tale of Perishing and the first love of Natsuko Hirose. The design of Luke Braveheart is based on the classic strait-laced hero that Tsujino-san drew, one that youd see in an old-school video game, Ishikawa states. He stands tall and serious with a strong and dignified presence. At the same time, Luke also has age-appropriate cuteness and sexiness that shows in the way he panics and fumbles after suddenly falling in love for the first time. I included little details like loose strands of hair, well-defined muscles and a smile thats both cute and cool. I also gave him expressions that would make Natsukos heart skip a beat. Memmelin is the Elven member of the Nine Soldiers. Although she looks like a child, shes actually the oldest member of the group, Ishikawa observes. Thats why her stance and facial expressions have a calm, mature confidence. For the Harvest Festival, she wears a sexy, grown-up mermaid-line dress. But, in the dance scene with the Ultimate Exister, they wear a floral dress covered in frills, the kind of outfit Memmelin probably dreams of wearing but would be too shy to choose herself.Conceptualizing the moment when Natsuko Hirose sits at her desk and creates illustrations that literally come to life.Key animation sketch of the unicorn character of Unio paired with a final still, which has a stuffed toy aesthetic.A highly-stylized approach was adopted for Memmelins unicorn colleague Unio. Tsujino-sans design was already great, so I pretty much kept it as it was. Yamazaki-san wanted the joints to be soft and floppy like a stuffed animal, so I made them soft and floppy. I also wanted to add unicorns fanciful charm, so when he runs through the sky a rainbow appears and when we zoom in on his eyes, you can see sparkling rainbow reflections. The robot design for QJ remained close to the original one as well. Since I wanted him to have a bit more of a mascot-like feel, I made him look slightly cuter. For the Harvest Festival, his outfit is inspired by Jomon-period clothing decorated with natural stones and ropes for a dressed-up, festive look.Planning out what would become a signature image for the series.Sketching and animating the emotional turmoil that threatens to engulf Luke Braveheart.Memmelin finds herself falling in love with Ultimate Exister, who is one of the living illustrations created by Natsuko Hirose.Treated as character as in its own right is the long black hair of Natsuko Hirose that often obscures her face.Although Memmelin looks like a child, she is actually the oldest member of the group, which is why her stance and facial expressions have a calm, mature confidence.The robot design for QJ remained close to the original, which gave him a mascot look.Often hidden behind the long black hair are the big beautiful blue eyes of Natsuko Hirose.Going through a major physical transformation is Destiny Heartwarming, the daughter of the mayor of The Last Town. I built on Tsujino-sans original concept adding plump curves, pouty lips and big, droopy eyes, Ishikawa describes. I packed her to the brim with both cuteness and sexiness. For the muscular version, I wanted it to also have grace, so I aimed for something between a bodybuilder and a pro wrestler. Even with all the muscles, her pose keeps a distinctly feminine touch. The heroine of Zenshu went through the most iterations. Natsuko originally had short hair, but partway through the project, both the story and her character took a major turn; she turned into a Natsuko straight out of Japanese horror. The design with long hair covering her face added a sense of mystery, not only deepening her character, but also expanding the range of the story. Both her personality and appearance ended up with a much greater variety. A significant aspect in finding the correct character design involves adjusting facial features and trying different color variations. Its sometimes hard to keep working when nothing feels quite right, but when everything finally comes together and I get the feeling of This is it! I feel joy that nothing else can compare to. I also really enjoyed working on the many comical characters.

Ghost of Ytei has been a labor of love for Sucker Punch, and were happy to have it out in the world for everyone to play. Now that players have gotten a taste of the game, we thought this was a good opportunity to talk a little bit about the technology that helped get us here.Coming off of what we achieved with Ghost of Tsushima, the project vision for Ghost of Ytei put a stronger emphasis on a players sense of freedom in an untamed wilderness. This meant striving for less intrusive ways to guide players, beautiful environments with longer sightlines, more flexible weapon combat, memorable characters with personality, and emotional story moments. Trying to do all this while maintaining a good frame rate is clearly a challenge.So, lets dig into a few aspects of the technology we used to create Ghost of Ytei!Wandering a wild worldIn prototyping our vision for free exploration, we found it most effective if players could gaze across a beautiful landscape and follow their curiosity to find the game. From a technical perspective, landing that feeling required longer sight lines, meaning better rendering for grass, terrain and mountains into the distance.We improved the appearance of distant mountains by baking models and detailed terrain materials into textures that we could display at higher detail. We also doubled the amount of grass and renderable items our GPU compute renderer is allowed to produce. In this shot, the distant mountains with over one million trees, rocks, and bushes are culled down to about sixty thousand individual items that we render to generate our G-buffers to build the final image.We use procedural assisted authoring techniques and lean heavily on GPU compute to process all of these instances efficiently without CPU involvement. This involves sequences of compute jobs to perform occlusion culling, memory allocation, fill out draw records before we readback that information on the CPU to stitch into the final command lists for the frame. Heres an animation of a similar shot with all GPU drawn geometry animating into place to give you a sense of the scale involved. We use these techniques for runtime generated data as well like our broad fields of flowers, and even occasionally for things like ropes and chains.To give each area of the world a unique flavor, we built interaction systems that help emphasize their themes. Much of the world has grass or small plants, and in addition to deforming with wind and character motion, we added a system that renders weapon sweeps into a cut buffer. This buffer is then sampled by cuttable geometry and is used to spawn particles with the geometry above the cut. This allows Atsu to cut most grass, flowers and small plants in the game.Hokkaido has Japans most extreme winters, so we wanted to realistically portray the interaction of characters with deep snow. To support that, we built a terrain tessellation system that both increases the amount of detail that can be represented by the terrain, and which can be dynamically deformed at runtime. To achieve this, particles and geometry are rendered to a displacement buffer as characters walk, roll and fight through it. This was flexible enough that we extended it to allow characters to knock snow off of trees and bushes, spawning snow particles in the process. When we combine that with a new snow sparkle effect using stable screen-space noise, it ends up looking like this.Tall mountains like Mt. Ytei are often covered by clouds, so we had to come up with a way of rendering clouds in front of world geometry, which wasnt possible in Ghost of Tsushimas engine. We also wanted to give the impression of stormy, unsettled weather by increasing the speed at which clouds could move. To enable faster cloud motion without objectionable artifacts, we store the average visible depth of each texel in the cloud map (measured from the camera), which allows us to use parallax mapping techniques while scrolling each cloud frame. (We also blend three cloud frames instead of just two, which results in even smoother motion.) By also storing the average visible squared depth in the cloud map, we are able to reconstruct a simple statistical distribution of the cloud opacity along each ray, and this lets us compute how much the clouds should obscure world geometry like mountains.Fog and atmospheric scattering was an important focus when establishing the art style of Ghost of Tsushima, and for Ghost of Ytei we wanted to build on that by adding support for local fog volumes. These are computed efficiently by using the PS5s expanded 16-bit floating point GPU instructions. As a side effect of our cloud optimizations, we compute a light-space cloud shadow map, and this enables crepuscular rays (god rays) to be visible in our volumetric fog, even far from the camera. We also let artists place god ray targets in the world so that they are more frequently lit by a hole in the clouds.Character and movementOne of our primary goals was to make the world of Ghost of Ytei feel alive. We want everything on the screen to move with the wind, including all the clothing characters wear, the tassels on weapons, and all of the hanging cloth in settlements. When you roll around and fight, we want to kick up dust and leaves while leaving you muddy and bloody, to really anchor you in the world.Atsus complex costumes can only move realistically thanks to the new layering support we built into our high-performance GPU compute cloth system. In addition to adding support for multiple layers of simulated cloth (seen below), we support cloth collisions, and use a set of carefully tuned heuristics to simulate large numbers of individual cloth simulations efficiently. Here is an example of Atsu in one of her more complex costumes, surrounded by moving cloth.GPU particles have been a strong suit for Sucker Punch since Infamous Second Son. In Ghost of Ytei we continue to add to our bag of tricks, allowing particles to sample terrain material, deformation and water flow. For example, this shot shows particles landing on and flowing down river.In addition to affecting the world, we anchor characters by having the world punch back. We do this by splatting information into a directional grid deformed around the character which we then use to layer in texture effects to make the character wet, bloody, muddy or snowy.We also leverage our particle systems to allow the player to swap to the past to explore Atsus family history. To swap between past and present, we change the skeleton and geometry of Atsu while keeping her character state and animation consistent. Elements of the background and lighting are also changed instantly thanks to the speed of the SSD with some carefully chosen prefetching. This is done behind a curtain of animating particles which sample a copy of the frame buffer from just before the transition.Ray Tracing and PS5 Pro enhancementsAs a native PS5 game, we knew we wanted to improve image quality by leveraging some of the platforms newer technology. With the release of the PS5 Pro, we also wanted to push in a direction that would help us with future games. Based on the solid support from the PlayStation central technology teams, we invested in two big areas: ray tracing, and image upsampling with PSSR.Since Ghost of Ytei takes place in the wilderness of 17th century Hokkaido, there are few mirror-like surfaces that lend themselves to ray-traced reflections. Instead, we decided to use ray tracing to improve the fidelity of our global illumination solution. We attacked this from two directions: first with a more automated, improved baked lighting model, which we could then augment with short-range ray-traced global illumination (RTGI). This required significant changes to our mesh streaming format, allowing us to dynamically decompress the acceleration structures used by the ray tracing hardware. By using the PS5 Pros more efficient ray tracing hardware, players can enable RTGI targeting 60 frames per second on Pro consoles.For Ghost of Ytei we rebuilt our frame to use a more general dynamic resolution algorithm, with upsampling, partly so we could take advantage of PSSR. PSSR works very well for us with only a few tweaks, including running conservative rasterization for small particles. By comparison, our standard upsampling algorithm requires significantly more hinting and authoring help to achieve good results. Heres a side-by-side look. If you zoom in very close (16x before gif compression), you can see that PSSR does a better job reconstructing fine details on architecture and foliage. It is also more stable under motion.Loading speedFor a long time, Sucker Punch has prided itself on getting players into our games as quickly as possible. In Ghost of Ytei we continued this tradition by doubling down on fast load times.We optimize loading by preprocessing data so that it requires only a handful of SSD reads and patching operations per location or terrain tile to load gameplay-relevant data. We then compute and load only the texture mips and mesh LODs needed to render the first frame, with one read per element. Heres what loading from the far south to the far north looks like without the screen faded out. (Note that this is somewhat slower than it would be if we didnt have to render the world the whole time.)Throughout development we dog food these systems rather than using a different loading model for shipping builds. Dog fooding is programmer-speak for every programmer, artist and designer testing what we ship to improve its quality.ConclusionThis is a small peek into some of the technical work we do at Sucker Punch. Making games is more than that though its a huge team effort with art informing technology and technology informing art throughout.When we began this project five years ago, our goal was to build a game world that players would love getting lost in. Many of our technical decisions were anchored around the core fantasy of Ghost of Ytei that of a wandering warrior coming to terms with events from her past. Were thrilled to see this vision coming to life with players sharing their experiences and posting incredible in-game screenshots and videos using Photo Mode.Were certainly proud of the result and we hope everyone enjoys wandering the wilderness in Ghost of Ytei.If youre interested in more info on Sucker Punchs technology and development process, take a look at our past presentations at conferences like GDC and SIGGRAPH. We expect to share more in 2026.Special thanks to Jasmin Patry, Doug Davis, and Eric Wohllaib who helped me edit and prepare content for this post, as well as all the Sucker Punch folks whose work I am representing here.

At the turn of the century, after films like Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and The Matrix reshaped pop culture, early-2000s maximalism was at its peak. Darth Mauls double-sided lightsaber and Neo and Trinitys lobby gunfight where theyre each firing two guns simultaneously, one in each hand became instant teen obsessions.

In the early days of my career, I believed that nothing wins an argument more effectively than strong and unbiased research. Surely facts speak for themselves, I thought.If I just get enough data, just enough evidence, just enough clarity on where users struggle well, once I have it all and I present it all, it alone will surely change peoples minds, hearts, and beliefs. And, most importantly, it will help everyone see, understand, and perhaps even appreciate and commit to what needs to be done.Well, its not quite like that. In fact, the stronger and louder the data, the more likely it is to be questioned. And there is a good reason for that, which is often left between the lines.Research Amplifies Internal FlawsThroughout the years, Ive often seen data speaking volumes about where the business is failing, where customers are struggling, where the team is faltering and where an urgent turnaround is necessary. It was right there, in plain sight: clear, loud, and obvious.But because its so clear, it reflects back, often amplifying all the sharp edges and all the cut corners in all the wrong places. It reflects internal flaws, wrong assumptions, and failing projects some of them signed off years ago, with secured budgets, big promotions, and approved headcounts. Questioning them means questioning authority, and often its a tough path to take.As it turns out, strong data is very, very good at raising uncomfortable truths that most companies dont really want to acknowledge. Thats why, at times, research is deemed unnecessary, or why we dont get access to users, or why loud voices always win big arguments.So even if data is presented with a lot of eagerness, gravity, and passion in that big meeting, it will get questioned, doubted, and explained away. Not because of its flaws, but because of hope, reluctance to change, and layers of internal politics.This shows up most vividly in situations when someone raises concerns about the validity and accuracy of research. Frankly, its not that somebody is wrong and somebody is right. Both parties just happen to be right in a different way.What To Do When Data DisagreesWeve all heard that data always tells a story. However, its never just a single story. People are complex, and pointing out a specific truth about them just by looking at numbers is rarely enough.When data disagrees, it doesnt mean that either is wrong. Its just that different perspectives reveal different parts of a whole story that isnt completed yet.In digital products, most stories have 2 sides:Quantitative data What/When: behavior patterns at scale.Qualitative data Why/How: user needs and motivations. Quant usually comes from analytics, surveys, and experiments. Qual comes from tests, observations, and open-ended surveys.Risk-averse teams overestimate the weight of big numbers in quantitative research. Users exaggerate the frequency and severity of issues that are critical for them. As Archana Shah noted, designers get carried away by users confident responses and often overestimate what people say and do.And so, eventually, data coming from different teams paints a different picture. And when it happens, we need to reconcile and triangulate. With the former, we track whats missing, omitted, or overlooked. With the latter, we cross-validate data e.g., finding pairings of qual/quant streams of data, then clustering them together to see whats there and whats missing, and exploring from there.And even with all of it in place and data conflicts resolved, we still need to do one more thing to make a strong argument: we need to tell a damn good story.Facts Dont Win Arguments, Stories DoResearch isnt everything. Facts dont win arguments powerful stories do. But a story that starts with a spreadsheet isnt always inspiring or effective. Perhaps it brings a problem into the spotlight, but it doesnt lead to a resolution.The very first thing I try to do in that big boardroom meeting is to emphasize what unites us shared goals, principles, and commitments that are relevant to the topic at hand. Then, I show how new data confirms or confronts our commitments, with specific problems we believe we need to address.When a question about the quality of data comes in, I need to show that it has been reconciled and triangulated already and discussed with other teams as well.A good story has a poignant ending. People need to see an alternative future to trust and accept the data and a clear and safe path forward to commit to it. So I always try to present options and solutions that we believe will drive change and explain our decision-making behind that.They also need to believe that this distant future is within reach, and that they can pull it off, albeit under a tough timeline or with limited resources.And: a good story also presents a viable, compelling, shared goal that people can rally around and commit to. Ideally, its something that has a direct benefit for them and their teams.These are the ingredients of the story that I always try to keep in my mind when working on that big presentation. And in fact, data is a starting point, but it does need a story wrapped around it to be effective.Wrapping UpThere is nothing more disappointing than finding a real problem that real people struggle with and facing the harsh reality of research not being trusted or valued.Weve all been there before. The best thing you can do is to be prepared: have strong data to back you up, include both quantitative and qualitative research preferably with video clips from real customers but also paint a viable future which seems within reach.And sometimes nothing changes until something breaks. And at times, there isnt much you can do about it unless you are prepared when it happens.Data doesnt change minds, and facts dont settle fights. Having answers isnt the same as learning, and it for sure isnt the same as making evidence-based decisions. Erika HallMeet How To Measure UX And Design ImpactYou can find more details on UX Research in Measure UX & Design Impact (8h), a practical guide for designers and UX leads to measure and show your UX impact on business. Use the code IMPACT to save 20% off today. Jump to the details. Video + UX TrainingVideo onlyVideo + UX Training$495.00 $799.00Get Video + UX Training25 video lessons (8h) + Live UX Training.100 days money-back-guarantee.Video only$250.00$395.00Get the video course25 video lessons (8h). Updated yearly.Also available as a UX Bundle with 2 video courses.Useful ResourcesHow to Present Research So Stakeholders Sit Up and Take Action, by Nikki AndersonWhat To Do When Data Disagrees, by Subhasree Chatterjee, Archana Shah, Sanket Shukl, and Jason BresslerMixed-Method UX Research, by Raschin FatemiA Step-by-Step Framework For Mixed-Method Research, by Jeremy WilliamsThe Ultimate Guide To Mixed Methods, by Ben WiedmaierSurvey Design Cheatsheet, by yours trulyUseful Calculators For UX Research, by yours trulyBeyond Measure, by Erika HallUseful BooksJust Enough Research, by Erika HallDesigning Surveys That Work, by Caroline JarrettDesigning Quality Survey Questions, by Sheila B. Robinson

Nathan Warkentin has tried his hand at a number of artistic pursuits, from photography to music, but he felt a pull to go in another direction, and so interiors became that space for him to explore. Its the most immersive and dimensional creative process Ive found, he says. It has a bit of everything I have done in the past, yet feels limitless.Warkentin founded his eponymous firm in 2023, noted for a refined, strategic approach. With offices in New York and Los Angeles, he captures the essence of both coasts in hospitality and residential settings. Warkentin also seamlessly integrates originality with functionality to build spaces that resonate on a deeper level.Nathan Warkentin \\\ Photo: Anna ArnetThe designer doesnt have to go far to find inspiration because he has a research library that is filled with books. Covering an array of subjects, some of his favorites are on fashion and Japanese design. He always adds to the collection, too, checking out used bookstores when he travels or is looking for rare finds.Theres not really a separation between life and career for Warkentin. Instead of trying too hard to compartmentalize, he embraces all facets. Whatever he chooses to consume though, whether food or mass media, it will eventually serve as an influence for him in one way or another.Change is constant in the field, and while some people find this stressful, Warkentin thrives. Every project brings a new set of conditions: different city, different scale, different client, he notes. What I enjoy most is the variety.Today, Nathan Warkentin joins us for Friday Five!Photo: Nathan Warkentin1. Homage to Josef Hoffmann by Shiro KuramataI got to see this piece in person at M+ in Hong Kong earlier this year. Kuramata started with a Josef Hoffmann bentwood chair, wrapped it in steel wire, then set it on fire. The wood burned away, leaving only the steel-wire silhouette like a ghost of the chair. I love how it layers reference, materiality, and transformation. Finding the line between functional design and art object is always interesting to me.Photo: Nathan Warkentin2. 90s Music and Fashion MagazinesI love old 90s magazines like Interview and Raygun. Theres something about it that feels so raw. The layouts are always a little chaotic in the best way. I also love the little ads for obscure nightclubs, record shops, or galleries in NY or LA. You dont really see that whole underground culture in print anymore. Does it still exist?Photo: Nathan Warkentin3. Museo Tamayo in Mexico CityI always stop through Museo Tamayo when I am in Mexico City. I love the architecture, the simplicity of materials, the volume, and how it all feels bold but restrained. Its really well balanced, where you can appreciate the building without it ever distracting from the art.Photo: Nathan Warkentin4. The View Out My WindowOur studio is in the Orpheum building in downtown L.A., where the street outside is never boring. From my desk I get a front-row seat to the chaos and charm of L.A. (K-Pop fans wrapped around the block, amateur photo shoots, or the occasional character on a soapbox). Its unpredictable, sometimes a little wild, but always entertaining and a welcome distraction when I am working late.Photo: Nathan Warkentin5. The Color Brown or Variations ofNot many kids would pick brown as their favorite color, but I keep coming back to it or some variation (sienna, ochre, caramel, amber, rust). These warm neutrals have so much depth and versatility, and they age beautifully in a space. More and more, I find myself swapping black for brown for the warmth it adds.Works by Nathan Warkentin and Warkentin Associates:Photo: Yoshihiro MakinoThe Lighthouse VeniceThe Lighthouse is a creative campus we designed in Venice Beach in the old 1939 Venice Post Office. We reimagined the historic building with a Bauhaus spirit. The idea was to keep things really simple, functional, and honest. The spaces flow between analog and digital work, encouraging both focus and collaboration. I think this backdrop allows the people and ideas to really come through.Photo: Anna ArnetEcho Park ResidenceThis hillside home in Echo Park takes inspiration from Ray Kappes Rustic Canyon house, where light and materiality really shape the space. Our interiors build on that spirit with moments of playfulness and unexpected color layered in. Since it was a new build, we really wanted to create a lived-in feel that was achieved by mixing in vintage pieces with custom site-specific design. The dramatic double height volumes also allowed for an interior bridge with suspended sculptural lighting. The home was designed in collaboration with Bunch Design as architect.Photo: Anna ArnetNoun Coffee and WineNoun is a new cafe and lounge we designed in Marina del Rey. Its meant to work as an all-day spot, coffee in the morning and natural wine at night. We leaned into the concept of eclectic comfort, drawing from 90s coffee houses with seating that feels more like a living room than a caf. Vintage pieces, postmodern touches, and some DIY elements give it the charm of an artists loft. Its relaxed, personal, and a little unexpected.Photo: Austin LeisEagle Rock ResidenceOur Eagle Rock home has a simple, open plan that connects to the outdoors and makes the most of the view. We gutted it when we first moved in and then just kept layering over time with art, furniture, and objects collected from estate sales, thrift stores, and travels. Pieces are always moving around or getting swapped out, so the house never feels finished. Its constantly evolving, which keeps it fun.Photo: Yoshihiro MakinoLos Angeles ResidenceThis mid-century home in Mt. Washington hadnt really been touched since the 60s, so we wanted to bring it forward without losing its soul. We looked to Japanese and Chinese principles about light and empty space and avoided the usual mid century cliches. I love the warm and calming feeling of this home.

Apps SDK, design principles, and the future of contextual UX.Current ChatGPT app integrations like Zillow, Booking.com, and Canva, illustrating seamless in-chat access. Source: OpenAIIntroducing Apps inChatGPTDo you remember how Tony Stark talked to JARVIS in IronMan?He simply said what he wanted to do, and JARVIS got it done. There was no need to open menus, switch applications, or decide which interface to use next. Every option that could have slowed him down was already resolved for him, so his attention stayed on the taskitself.The scene captures J.A.R.V.I.S. natural-language interface giving Tony instant access to multiple suit configurations and diagnostics with a singlecommand.That kind of experience is exactly what OpenAI is now reaching for. In Brad Lightcaps recent interview with Bloomberg, he shared a vision where third-party apps could work together seamlessly inside ChatGPT. Users would never have to leave a conversation to get something done.Its the contextual aspect of Im doing X or I need YIm on a road trip and I want to know what playlist would go well with thisthat allows you to use ChatGPT to solve higher-level tasks and integrate apps contextually, said Brad Lightcap in a Bloomberg interview.For designers, the real challenge lies in understanding what this shift implies. When conversations become the new interface and tools can appear contextually, how should we design the flow, timing, and handoff between chat and visual elements?Evolution from plugins, MCP, toSDKTo understand what this shift truly means for design, we first need to look at how the systemevolved.In the early days of plugins, tools lived in separate spaces. Users had to switch between apps, browser extensions, or new tabs to complete even the simplesttask.Then came the Model Context Protocol, or MCP. It created a standard way for ChatGPT to talk with external tools and data sources. MCP allowed the model to call a tool and pass structured information through a single, consistent channel. It was an invisible bridge between the model and the outsideworld.Building on that foundation, OpenAI introduced the Apps Software Development Kit (SDK), a toolkit that makes this bridge visible and interactive. It determines when a tool appears, how it looks, and how people can interact with it directly inside the chat. With the SDK, users can engage directly with apps through buttons, cards, or widgets without leaving the conversation.Image from OpenAIs Apps SDK Design Guidelines illustrating how integrated apps visually coexist within ChatGPTs conversation interface. Source: OpenAIApps SDK Design GuidelinesHow the apps SDK boosts efficiency and productgrowthAt this point, designers can probably already imagine how the Apps SDK begins to reshape the user experience. In essence, the SDK embodies the logic behind Hicks Law and Fittss Law: it reduces the visual noise that slows decision-making and shortens the physical distance between intention and completion.Take Coursera for example. Previously, a learner exploring UX courses might spend minutes choosing which platform to open, typing UX design into a search bar, scrolling through long lists, and clicking in and out of pages to check ratings or instructors. Every choice added a moment of hesitation, fragmenting attention and stretching the time it took toact.Image from Courseras page illustrating how users face a complex, multi-step interface when searching for UX design courses. Source: CourseraUniversity of Michigan UX DesignSearchHowever, Courseras integration with ChatGPT illustrates a successful application of Hicks Law principles, significantly reducing decision complexity. A learner can simply ask a question with natural language inside ChatGPTs text field. A video preview of relevant courses then appears directly within the chat, reducing the number of immediate choices presented to the learner. Learners no longer needs to spend time filtering or comparing endless options in a long, scrolling list, thereby simplifying the selection process and dramatically decreasing the reaction time required to commit to acourse.Image illustrating how users can search for and explore UX design courses on Coursera directly within ChatGPT using natural language prompts. Source: OpenAIIntroducing Apps inChatGPTSome in-house designers might wonder what is the impact on their products. If users can complete tasks entirely inside ChatGPT, would they still visit the originalapp?This concern is reasonable because the SDK might reduce users page-level engagement within the native environment. Yet the same decreased friction of opening the app can also widen the apps reach. By allowing users to call the app directly within ChatGPT, the SDK raises visit frequency among existing members and opens the door for non-members to try it for the firsttime.The experience no longer depends on downloading, logging in, or navigating to a separate website. Each interaction inside ChatGPT becomes an entry point that can lead to higher engagement and new conversions, expanding the apps reach without adding extrasteps.Designing experiences that belong in a conversationAfter understanding the broader impact of the Apps SDK, designers can start thinking about how to shape these experiences in practice.Designing for the SDK means clearly defining who the users are, what their goals look like in context, and which parts of their workflow feel most natural to complete through conversation. The task must be specific enough for ChatGPT to assist, yet simple enough to avoid overwhelming the interaction.OpenAI offers several guiding questions to help designers identify good use cases, each of which can also be viewed through the lens of Hicks Law, showing how the SDK minimizes the number of decisions users need to make. Ask yourself:How do your user task fit naturally into a conversation? (for example, booking, ordering, scheduling, quicklookups)Is it time-bound or action-oriented? (short or medium duration tasks with a clear start andend)Is the information valuable in the moment? (users can act on it right away or get a concise preview before divingdeeper)Can it be summarized visually and simply? (one card, a few key details, a clearCTA)Does it extend ChatGPT in a way that feels additive or differentiated?Designers should also avoid designing interfaces that:Display long-form or static content better suited for a website orapp.Require complex multi-step workflows that exceed the inline or fullscreen displaymodes.Use the space for ads, upsells, or irrelevant messaging.Surface sensitive or private information directly in a card where others might seeit.Duplicate ChatGPTs system functions (for example, recreating the input composer).From most of these principles, we can notice that OpenAI encourages designers to avoid tasks that involve too many steps, or think about what information is valuable to show on the interface.Take Figma SDK for example. The workflows like converting a short piece of text into a user flow represents a much stronger use case. It is easier for users to describe with natural language, and this information can immediate be summarized into visual feedback that users can act on rightaway.Image demonstrating how users can generate a complete user-flow diagram in Figma through a simple natural-language request and sketches inside ChatGPT. Source: OpenAIIntroducing Apps inChatGPTIn contrast, designing a complex design system with ChatGPT may not be a good user case. Because it require both users and computers to access complicate information on multiple design pages, and users have to constantly make fragmented decisions and repeatedly step in to guide the AI, which interrupts the flow of interaction and increases the overall time to complete atask.For designers, building for the Apps SDK starts with defining a clear, focused task. ChatGPT favors apps that serve a single, well-scoped purpose, something users can complete in one short interaction. Try to describe your users key goal in plain language, outline its input and output, and make sure it fits naturally into a conversation.Designing Interfaces that belong in a conversationOpenAI also provides a set of UI guidelines that can be examined through the lens of Hicks and FittssLaw.For example, designers should display only the most relevant information and present it in a simple visual form, such as a clean card with a short list of three keyitems.The guidelines also suggest limiting each card to a maximum of two primary actions: one main call to action and one optional secondary choice. These approach helps users find what they need without navigating through layers of menus or dense tables, allowing them to act morequickly.Image from OpenAIs Apps SDK Design Guidelines emphasizing that ChatGPT app interfaces should avoid complex navigation and redundant elements. Source: OpenAIApps SDK Design GuidelinesPrimary actions are usually placed at the bottom of the card, effectively reducing the distance the thumb-pointer musttravel.Image from OpenAIs Apps SDK Design Guidelines illustrating how different UI components are organized consistently within ChatGPTs in-chat interface. Source: OpenAIApps SDK Design GuidelinesWhen a card contains richer media such as images, maps, or interactive diagrams, the expand option can open a fullscreen view. This action significantly increases the effective target width, allowing users to work within a larger, more precise area and improves control when interacting with detailed visualcontent.Image from OpenAIs Apps SDK Design Guidelines demonstrating how full-screen views allow immersive map-interactions directly inside ChatGPT. Source: OpenAIApps SDK Design GuidelinesIf youre interested in the details of how to design user experiences and interfaces, please check out the Apps SDK Design Guidelines and the Figma component library.The future of agents and UX designers roleAs Brad Lightcap mentioned in his Bloomberg interview, the future of ChatGPT will begin to behave more like an operating system (or Jarvis, your personalagent).It will not only execute commands but also integrate information across multiple apps, anticipate user needs, and determine when to act and when to ask for confirmation.Similar directions are already being explored or developed in products like Gemini and Google Suite products, signaling a shift toward more unified, context-aware environments.For UX designers, this evolution expands the scope of design beyond screens and buttons. The focus moves toward designing flows, contexts, and systems that help users think clearly and act confidently. Designers must learn to define how an AI communicates, makes decisions, and aligns with humangoals.Yet no matter how advanced the system becomes, there will always be a need to clarify what people truly need, and bringing that clarity to complexity to just simple interactions.References:Bloomberg Originals. (2025, May 14). OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap talks whats next for OpenAI [Video]. Bloomberg Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNY2HVBIZ6IJohnson, J. (2021). Designing with the mind in mind: Simple guide to understanding user interface design guidelines (3rd ed., Chapter 13: Our handeye coordination follows laws). Morgan Kaufmann.OpenAI. (2024). App design guidelines: Design guidelines for developers building on the Apps SDK. https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/concepts/design-guidelinesOpenAI. (2024, September). Introducing apps in ChatGPT and the new Apps SDK: A new generation of apps you can chat with and the tools for developers to build them. https://openai.com/index/introducing-apps-in-chatgpt/Soegaard, M. (2020, August 15). Hicks Law: Making the choice easier for users. Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/hick-s-law-making-the-choice-easier-for-usersDesigning the Jarvis moment was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This week, OpenAI released ChatGPT Atlas, the company's first AI web browser. Atlas lets you surf the web like any other browser, but, as you might expect, comes with ChatGPT integration. You can log into your account and tap into the assistant via the sidebar menu, which will remember not only past conversations, but your browsing history as well. Like other AI browsersnamely Perplexity Cometthe browser has an "agent mode," which can take actions on your behalf. You can ask it to order you food through DoorDash or buy you plane tickets on Kayak instead of doing those things yourself.While that might sound useful to ChatGPT fans, I had trouble recommending the browser to people, considering the security vulnerabilities AI browsers are currently facing. Any browser that has agentic features is vulnerable to prompt injection attacks: Bad actors can lace websites with hidden malicious prompts that the AI accepts as if they were written by the user. It might therefore take actions on behalf of the hacker, like opening a financial site or rooting through your email. Seems like a large risk just to outsource some basic internet tasks to an AI bot.But prompt injections aren't the only vulnerability Atlas currently faces. According to a new discovery, the browser may put the user's clipboard at risk as well. How Atlas's clipboard injection vulnerability worksAndroid Authority spotted a post on X by the ethical hacker known as Pliny the Liberator. According to Pliny, ChatGPT Atlas is vulnerable to clipboard injection, a type of attack that allows a bad actor to access your computer's clipboard. The idea is this: A bad actor can add a "copy to clipboard" feature to a button on their website. When you click the button, a malicious script runs in the background, which allows the bad actor to access your clipboard and add whatever they want to it. Maybe it's a URL to a website designed to install malware on your devices; maybe it's a URL to a site impersonating a financial site. Whatever the case, you don't know your clipboard has been hacked, so you might open a new tab and paste what you think was the last thing you copied, falling into the trap. The particular risk with ChatGPT Atlas is its agentic features: When in agent mode, Atlas might click a malicious button like this on its own, without you even knowing it. One moment, you've asked Atlas to order you lunch; the next moment, the browser accidentally set you up to be hacked.Pliny says that OpenAI has evidently trained Atlas to recognize prompt injections, but the core "copy clipboard" function is hidden away from the AI's sights. It's a clever trick: The bot can hover over the button without knowing anything is wrong with it, so it "clicks" it without triggering any red flags. For anyone that copies and pastes items frequently throughout the day, this could be quite dangerous. You might copy something in one app, then ask ChatGPT Atlas to do something on your behalf. But without knowing it, the browser clicks a malicious link that adds something to your clipboard. You then paste in your browser window, thinking you still have the original item copied, but you're taken instead to a website that claims your banking session has expired, and you need to log in. If you're multitasking quickly, you might "sign in" without thinking, handing over your bank credentials and 2FA codes without realizing it. These are hypotheticals. At this time, there haven't been documented cases of this type of malicious activity affecting ChatGPT Atlas. At the same time, ChatGPT Atlas is two days old. To me, the risk here doesn't seem worth the executionespecially since I have no issue using the internet on my own.

A teaser shared at the end of the Indie Horror Showcase this week gives us a better idea of what the upcoming found footage Paranormal Activity game will be like. In the short trailer for Paranormal Activity: Threshold, we're introduced to an unfortunate couple who has purchased a home that not only needs some serious work, but is also very much haunted. Cue creepy faces appearing in doorways and around corners.While yet another installation in the Paranormal Activity franchise may not be what everyone is clamoring for, the fact that Threshold is being developed by solo dev Brian Clarke (DarkStone Digital), the creator of The Mortuary Assistant, is pretty promising. Per the game's Steam page, you'll be able to "Play in multiple timelines; hunt and communicate with entities; perform demonic rituals to alter your fate;" and "discover multiple endings and expand the story." Each playthrough will be unique, thanks to the "Paranormal Engine," it adds.As of now, there's no release date, but you can wishlist it on Steam. It was previously said the game would be released in 2026 on multiple platforms, but the Steam page only says it's coming soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-our-first-look-at-the-paranormal-activity-game-from-the-maker-of-the-mortuary-assistant-210657767.html?src=rss

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