After 10 years in elementary education, I decided I no longer wanted to be a teacher.I wanted a more flexible job that allowed me to stay at home with my kids.When time allows, I'm able to make more money than I did as a teacher and have a better work-life balance. When I went into education, I did so with the best intentions. Being a male elementary school teacher was sort of like being a unicorn. It is extremely rare for a man to be teaching early elementary. There were plenty of single-mom families in the area where I lived, and I knew many students didn't have a male role model at home to inspire them, so I thought I could fill this void. I took the responsibility seriously.But after ten years in the field, I had to tap out for a few reasons. None of the reasons really had to do with the students themselves. The pay wasn't great (after 10 years of teaching I was still taking home just around $3,000 a month) and I didn't enjoy the politics of teaching. But, the most important reason was probably that my wife and I were ready to start a family. She often works long hours and I didn't want someone else to raise my children. I thought I could find a way to contribute financially and still be home with the children.Becoming a freelance writerBefore I went into education, I had been a journalist for a few years. It wasn't something I really enjoyed at the time and I didn't see myself wanting to cover mundane board meetings forever. If you ever suffer from insomnia, just drop in on these meetings occasionally. It's like an instant sleeping pill.Still, I thought I was a decent writer. I've certainly read worse over the years from people who made their living as professional writers. So while I was still teaching, I joined Upwork, a website that connects freelancers with those looking to hire contract workers. Upwork allows people or companies to search for a specific type of writer they are looking for to complete their project at hand. You are competing against other writers who are also applying, but Upwork is a great tool to use when you are first attempting a freelance career. To begin, I set my fees low to get my foot in the door. Then it wasn't long before I had clients who were asking me to write for them on either a weekly or monthly basis. As an unexpected bonus, most of the topics I covered genuinely interested me. Health and fitness, education, and even ghostwriting children's books were all things I enjoyed writing and I was getting paid to do it.Fast forward four monthsAs I was wrapping up my last weeks in the classroom before the school year ended, I realized I could go give my notice that I would not be coming back to teach the following August.I had just made $6,000 in one month from freelancing and that was while I was still teaching. I would definitely miss my students and all the friends I had made, but being able to set my own schedule, work from home, and raise my kids was something I could not pass up. My wife and I were having children later on in life, and the math showed me I would probably not get the chance to spend as much time with my kids as other fathers, so I switched careers.My plan is mostly working wellI'll admit, I underestimated how much time I would have to write while taking care of two babies at home. I've really had to narrow down my client list over the last five years, picking the ones that are truly worthwhile. Now I only accept writing assignments I can get excited about. Though I only have about 15 hours of free time at home a week where I can focus on writing, I have made the most of it. In fact, you can find my two children's books "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Ghost Hunters," and "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Vampire Hunters," on Amazon and other sites. I always wanted to write children's books, and after helping thousands of children become better readers over the years, I think I have a pretty good idea on the types of stories they love to read. Weaving my teaching past into my current career has been a joy.With one child getting ready for kindergarten and the other just a couple of years away, it won't be long before I will have more time to write once again.

Infrastructure cools off, apps soarYoung people can feel pressured to keep up with every fashion trend they see on social media. pixdeluxe/Getty Images Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Ventures: "A larger number of 'application layer' companies will have a breakout year with several crossing $100 million in revenues. I predict 50 companies will cross $50 million ARR while still growing 60%+, and at least 10 will hit $100 million ARR. A lot of these companies will be prosumer companies, but there will be several business application companies as well."Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau: "When you get the cost of compute going down as quickly as it has, and the number of options in terms of foundational models growing as it has, you end up with a really interesting time for the application layer to thrive. If you're a startup, you can go with the flavor of the month not just a ChatGPT wrapper, or a Claude wrapper, or a Gemini wrapper, or you name it but some combination of all of them to optimize functionality, results, and the cost of those results." Lower rates kick the IPO market into gear Uwe Krejci/Getty Images Sofia Dolfe, partner at Index Ventures: "2025 is the year we will see the IPO market opening back up. There are already signs that this is on the horizon: we're seeing gradual recovery, rates have started to come down, and there are many later-stage companies with the financial profiles to go public."Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "Two kinds of companies will go public as the IPO window opens back up next year. First, the truly great businesses that are really scaled and have forecastable growth and would've gone public earlier if the IPO market was more favorable, and second, companies that entered into structured financings with dirtier terms that need to go public for timing reasons."Nima Wedlake, managing director at Thomvest Ventures: "The IPO market will remain closed for most tech companies, with a high bar for entry $300 million-plus ARR, fast growth, and cash-flow breakeven or better." As crypto prices surge, founders return to the drawing tableCoinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Nihal Mehta, general partner at Eniac: "Guidance on what the regulations could be for crypto and AI would encourage founders to build productively within those areas."Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Ventures: "The new administration is crypto-friendly, bringing with it an expected acceleration of crypto-based business models (especially those using stablecoins). I predict we'll have another crypto mania in 2025."Some venture funds go belly-upA woman walks on a beach blanketed with dead sardines in Tolten, Temuco, Chile. AP Photo/Felix Marquez Wesley Chan, cofounder and managing partner at FPV Ventures: "In 2025, I predict a lot of contraction for VCs, except for top funds. We're still in a downturn. Some firms shut down, a lot of firms are not doing new deals, and you will see a lot of junior-mid level employees leave." The great funding bifurcation continues iStock, BI Molly Alter, partner at Northzone: "The 'sexiest' deals will continue to raise at sky-high valuations, but for the rest of the pack, companies will need to show very specific metrics to command a strong valuation. There will be a great bifurcation into the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.'"Don Butler, managing director at Thomvest Ventures: "Startup shutdowns will increase, particularly at the seed stage, as companies run out of cash. This will influence valuations, with investors likely focusing on startups that have shown resilience or achieved meaningful milestones."Matt Murphy, partner at Menlo Ventures: "Valuations will rise as growth rates and market multiples recover, but many companies still might not grow back into their ZIRP valuations. People are over that and won't let it get in the way of pursuing opportunity. Valuations for GenAI companies will continue to be outliers based on any historical metrics." Robotaxis cover new terrain Mario Tama/Getty Images Brian Walsh, head of Wind Ventures: "2025 will be the year that we enter the age of 'robo taxis' with, first, Waymo now well along its adoption S-curve in San Francisco and expanding quickly, and, second, Tesla favorably positioned with quickly maturing best-in-class autonomy technology (no human in the loop) and an existing large fleet to scale it."Kasper Sage, managing partner at BMW i Ventures: "Autonomous fleet deployments will gain traction in controlled, high-density environments such as for applications like campus environments and logistics for heavy industries." Trump policy heralds return of megadealsMark Zuckerberg. David Zalubowski/ AP Images Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "With the change of administration, I expect the return of mega M&A deals. We are going to see a 'WhatsApp' like $20 billion-plus M&A outcome for a leading AI company."Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "Big Tech will be back at the M&A table with a new administration and regulatory regime in place. They've been quieter in recent times but should be chomping at the bit to capitalize on what is still a buyer's market."Funding rounds become even more fluid Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images Sasha McKenzie and Van Jones, both deal leads at Wellington Access Ventures at Wellington Management: "The concept of letter rounds in VC is becoming more amorphous. We're seeing $30 million and $100 million seed rounds, raising questions about what seed even means anymore. The model is shifting towards evaluating how quickly founders can run and how disciplined they are with results, rather than hitting historically stated milestones (e.g., $1 million in revenue to raise a Series A). There will be more nuance in how VCs evaluate progress, focusing more on the operator and their ability to balance vision with execution, based on the capital they have." Multi-agent systems take center stage iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "Chatbots are overhyped. Agents are under-hyped. Enterprises will move beyond the low-hanging fruit of 'GPT-wrappers' to deploy digital workers that can reason and take action to make a real business impact."Praveen Akkiraju, managing director at Insight Partners: "If 2024 was the year of LLMs, we believe 2025 will be the year of agentic AI where highly capable state-of-the-art reasoning LLMs are combined with orchestration frameworks like memory, tool calling, and user-in-the-loop processes to build AI agents that can address progressively complex business workflows."Seema Amble, partner at Andreessen Horowitz: "In the short term, human workers will be the reviewer in the loop; in the future, as trust is established over time, I expect many data-derived actions will shift toward being entirely a set of narrowly defined task-driven agents."S. Somasegar, managing director at Madrona: "The world where we each have a digital assistant that works with a collection of AI agents is probably five to ten years out. But having AI agents that can do specific tasks really, really well is happening sooner and I think we will see a ton of progress on this in 2025." Tender offers grow for a selective group of companiesElon Musk SpaceX Saul Martinez/Getty Images Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner at NewView Capital: "The venture secondaries market will continue to be an important source of liquidity a trend we think is here to stay due to structural dynamics of the venture asset class."Simon Wu, partner at Cathay Innovation: "The size of tender offers has grown from millions to billions as the desire to own top-performing names by mutual funds and VCs increases, thus allowing some of the best names to stay private longer. Tenders are likely to get bigger to a selective group of companies in tandem with a more active IPO market next year." Industry-specific software takes overMark Bordo works alongside his dog Riley at Vetster, an online platform to connect people with vets. Paige Taylor White/Toronto Star via Getty Images Molly Alter, partner at Northzone: "Vertical SaaS will become more highly valued than ever, due to the increasing difficulty of differentiating a product in horizontal categories."Cathy Gao, partner at Sapphire Ventures: "Vertical software will evolve rapidly as AI moves to the agentic phase, enabling end-to-end automation of complex, industry-specific workflows that were once beyond the reach of software. By pairing deep domain expertise with intelligent automation, vertical AI will unlock new use cases, deliver outsized ROI, and become table stakes for staying competitive." Fintech roars back blackred/Getty, PM Images/Getty, Tyler Le/BI Alexa von Tobel, managing partner at Inspired Capital:"Given the new political climate, we, of course, expect to see less regulation across the board. I think we'll see acceleration in a few core categories, including fintech."Marlon Nichols, managing partner at MaC Venture Capital: "Fintech is an area I'm excited to invest in, particularly fintech startups leveraging AI to create transformative personal finance tools."Sydney Thomas, general partner at Symphonic Capital: "We are watching the regulatory environment towards fintech ease which has enabled massive speculation on what asset class will win. This also means, many startups will be required to regulate themselves, which isn't always an easy thing to do." Robots join societyOptimus, also known as Tesla Bot. Tesla Claire Yun, investor at Piva Capital: "Generative AI will continue to accelerate and supercharge robotics; simultaneously, we will see a choke point in human labor as an aging domestic workforce and protectionist policies create a sharp supply and demand imbalance. The result will be a colorful Cambrian explosion of robots as they step in to fill this gap."Bob Ma, partner at Wind Ventures: "Urban areas will have fleets of robots on sidewalks, while drones will manage suburban and rural deliveries. Enhanced speed, cost-efficiency, and sustainability will redefine retail and e-commerce, with regulations supporting wider adoption and innovation."Yuri Lee, partner at IVP: "As AI advances enable robots to move from structured, repetitive tasks to more complex and dynamic real-world applications, we'll see rapid progress in robotic perception, manipulation, and decision-making capabilities." Small language models rise in popularityMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft Tasneem Dohadwala, partner at Excelestar Ventures: "Small language domain-specific models are starting to show more value. Instead of using vast swaths of the internet to train large models, these smaller models can be trained on specific datasets, such as medical journals, newspapers, or email collections. As a result, they are highly tailored and more accurate in reflecting a user's particular constraints and voice.Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "If 2024 was the year of the LLMs, 2025 will be the year of small language models (SLMs) and proprietary data sets spawning the next generation of enterprise SaaS applications. Companies have realized that data in their midst can be harnessed in new and better ways than the 'structured workflow apps' of old and by leveraging targeted SLMs, they can do work differently, more efficiently." Founders flock to private equityThoma Bravo founder and managing partner Orlando Bravo. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Brad Bernstein, managing partner at FTB Capital: "Despite the IPO market showing better performance in Q3'24 with proceeds already surpassing 2023 totals, structural issues like regulatory burdens and governance challenges still pose obstacles for small and mid-cap companies. Private equity markets are stepping in to fill the gap, with growth equity deals comprising a larger share of activity and providing opportunities for startups in high-growth sectors like insurtech and healthcare tech."Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Partners: "With the new administration, I predict we will see an uptick in exits, and much more tech M&A activity. We'll also see PE firms buying up a lot of companies once boards and management teams realize these businesses won't be able to grow at 30% at scale and ultimately, IPO." Open-source foundation models come for OpenAI and xAI's lunchElon Musk and Sam Altman Michael M. Santiago/Getty, Nordin Catic/Getty, Tyler Le/BI Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "Open-source foundation models will close the gap with the leading proprietary models. On top of this we will see a significant shift away from pre-training models from scratch to fine tuning OSS models and distilling them to smaller models for faster performance."Mo Jomaa, partner at CapitalG: "I predict that in 2025 we will continue to see open source technologies consume the infrastructure layer in software. We have seen this trend play out in several categories already, including data and analytics (which led to our investment in Databricks) and observability (which drove our investment in Grafana). Enterprises will continue to adopt open source because it helps them save money, avoid vendor lock-in, and shape the product roadmaps of the technologies that they procure." Record deals and dollars flow to cyber and national securityWiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch Andrew Schoen, partner at NEA: "We will see a surge of investment into technologies critical to restarting the US industrial base and enhancing national security. A record number of deals and dollars will go into AI, automation, cybersecurity, and frontier technology serving manufacturing, supply chain, and defense markets."Jake Seid, general partner at Ballistic Ventures: "Over the next 18 months, we're going to see a lot more cybersecurity exits. While this may include an uptick in M&A activity, I expect we'll see cybersecurity companies go public in 2025 and in the first half of 2026 given how large the market for cyber products has become." Trump's tech advisors bend his earTrump's AI and crypto Czar David Sacks. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Samir Kumar, general partner at Touring Capital: "We should expect a lot less regulatory headwinds in 2025 for AI given David Sacks will be the AI and crypto czar for the new administration. This is likely to even result in the repeal of President Biden's executive order on AI."Francesco Ricciuti, associate at Runa Capital: "In the US, Trump is bringing prominent people from the startup and VC world in the government, and I wouldn't be surprised if the regulatory landscape will evolve towards entrepreneurship and technology."

Superman has never been done justice in video games (Warner Bros.)Enthused by the new movie trailer, a reader hopes for a Superman video game that can use the character and his villains to their full potential.As a big fan of DC Comics I was overjoyed to see the new Superman teaser trailer this week. Not only was it really good but it seems to have been very popular, with lots of views that suggest the film will be a big hit. This pleases me, as people have been saying for years that an optimistic, happy Superman would never be successful anymore, but hopefully this new film will be proof that is not true.With the terrible state of the world at the moment, we need a film that celebrates hope and goodness and while the film might not end up doing everything I want it to, it sure seems a major improvement on the awful Zack Snyder films.Naturally though, Im not here to talk about Superman films, but games. This is another thing that people like to tell you can never work, because Superman is too powerful, but most video game characters are invulnerable and grossly overpowered compared to their opponents. Theres no reason a game couldnt work, and I really hope Warner Bros. is going to give it another go.Superman has stared in dozens of games over the years, going all the way back to the Atari 2600 in the 70s. None of them have been very good, in fact the one on the N64 is famously one of the worst video games ever made. But just because nobody has made it work so far doesnt mean the ideas no good.The most recent big budget attempt (if you dont count the fun Lego Batman games) was a Superman Returns game from EA in 2006. This one was frustrating because it did a lot of things right, with a big open world to fly around and the very clever idea that while you dont take damage the city does, and if it takes too much you lose.Unfortunately, the game was pretty boring, with bad combat and samey enemies. But the damage idea is definitely something that could be used in a better game, as making sure other people arent hurt is Supermans whole thing and would be a great thing to focus on and make the gameplay feel different.Another complaint about Superman is that people say he has no good enemies, but this is nonsense. In my opinion he has one of the best rogues galleries in all comics. Because Superman is very powerful so too are his enemies, so youve got A-listers like Darkseid, Brainiac, Doomsday, Zod, Ultraman, Mongul, and Bizarro.Not only are all of them as powerful, or more so, than Superman (without needing kryptonite or magic) but two of them are so iconic their names are regular words in the dictionary, as is kryptonite. People might not realise it, but thats where the phrases brainiac and bizarro world come from.Then youve got Lex Luthor one of the most well known supervillains of all time and painfully relevant in todays world, where billionaires have more power than governments. Then theres lesser but still powerful villains like Cyborg Superman, Metallo, Parasite, Toyman, and Atomic Skull. Oh, and Mister Mxyzptlk, who is a reality-bending fifth dimensional imp that Superman has to beat by using his brains, not his fists.Some of these guys are just good at punching but others have weird gimmicks and abilities that would offer a lot more variety than the average supervillain line-up. We see in the teaser trailer that Superman is bleeding and any of the seven characters I first mentioned couldve done that to him, and probably others beside.A Superman action game absolutely could work but it shouldnt just be about fighting, it should be just as much focused on saving people, with things like runaway trains, broken dams, sinking ships cliched superhero stuff but things weve never seen in a game before, not even good ones like the Spider-Man ones.More TrendingI would love to find out that Rocksteady, or someone else, has been secretly working on a game for years but I think thats probably not likely. The problem with games today is that even if they started tomorrow, we wouldnt see it for six years or more. Thats a shame but all the more reason to start now and prove that Superman can fly as a video game as well as a movie.By reader PhantomZTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5videoUp NextThe readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Project Files: https://www.patreon.com/posts/118404399 . This is the 152nd episode of the new tutorial series on Action RPG game using Gameplay Ability System. Today we are going to add a charging effect to the sword before performing the AOE ground slam radial attack. Here we will attach a Niagara effect to the sword which attract energy from the surrounding before releasing the energy through the attack. This will be handled through a gameplay cue. But here we cannot simply use a gameplay cue and define which particle to use. We will have to override OnBurst event and add a Niagara component to the weapon. Then only the Niagara effect will be able to sample the static mesh surface locations of the sword. Animations are sponsored by: https://www.ramsterzanimations.com/ https://www2.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/greatsword-anims Full Playlist : Action RPG series with gameplay ability system: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTm9yU0zou7XnRx5MfBbZnfMZJqC6ixz // ! https://www.patreon.com/codelikeme Patrons will have access to project files of all the stuff I do in the channel and other extra benefitsJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClb6Jh9EBV7a_Nm52Ipll_Q/join Like my facebook page for more content : https://www.facebook.com/gamedevelopersclub/ Follow me on twitter : https://twitter.com/CodeLikeMe2 Follow me on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/codelikeme #CodeLikeMe #unrealengine #ue5 #ue4 #indiegamedev

Baldur's Gate 3 has many customization options when it comes to building an intimidating character that can slice, smash, lockpick, freeze, or burn through any enemy or obstacle in their way. Creative or ambitious players can take advantage of these possibilities and create characters that are stronger than the average adventurer.

Fans of The Elder Scrolls have been waiting for years for more news on The Elder Scrolls 6 since Bethesda dropped its initial teaser trailer in 2018. In the years since then, the studio has released a new IP, Starfield, and continues working on The Elder Scrolls 6, which is likely the studio's focus until the game's launch. With Bethesda's focus on The Elder Scrolls 6, many players are anticipating news on it at some point in the near future, although it's unclear when that might be.

Temtem is a prime candidate for fans looking through good games in the monster-taming sub-genre. Temtem throws out 2 Temtem at a time, and these creatures moves can actually change depending on their teammates. This comes in the form of synergies. Players will want the best early team for the first few Dojos, and they can get all the Temtem they need right on the first island.

Introduction:Hi everyone,Im an indie game developer working on an ambitious 2D sci-fi sandbox game. The game features multiplayer support, procedural generation, and innovative mechanics, built entirely using C#, MonoGame, and LiteNetLib. This is a passion project that Ive poured countless hours into, and Id love to share my progress with you.

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.You've probably seen or heard about Sony's headphone WH-1000X series. The series has been around since 2016, with a new version of the series released every year or two. The WH-1000XM4 headphones are the fourth in the series, and they're currently $198 (originally $348), matching the record-low price on Amazon, according to price-checking tools. And if you order the black or silver color, you can get them delivered before Christmas. Sony WH-1000XM4 Headphones Premium Noise Canceling Overhead Headphones with Mic for Phone-Call and Alexa Voice Control. $198.00 at Amazon $348.00 Save $150.00 Get Deal Get Deal $198.00 at Amazon $348.00 Save $150.00 The WH-1000XM4 headphones came out in 2020 to an "outstanding" review from PCMag and were eclipsed by the WH-1000XM5 (which are also hitting their lowest price right now) in 2022. Although the WH-1000XM4 are four years old already, they are still one of the best value wireless headphones for audio quality you can get today. Unlike phones, headphones don't need security or software updates to stay relevant as time goes by. Excellent audio stays excellent no matter how many years go by.If you like to have conversations but don't like to take your headphones off, the WH-1000XM4's automatic conversation feature will pause your audio and turn on an ambient mic when you talk, letting sound from outside pierce through the headphones. They also have that fancy AirPod feature that resumes playing or powers off when taking them on or off.Although these headphones are renowned for their audio quality, their active noise-canceling feature is also top-notch. The app lets you customize and adjust the ANC to your liking. You can also find the right EQ so you can listen to your music how you please. These headphones will give you about 30 hours of battery life with a full charge. For the price, you won't find a better combination of audio and ANC quality than the WH-1000XM4. If you're looking for the best ANC headphones, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra are currently at Prime Day prices and are considered one of the best headphones of 2024.