The Last 20% Is Worth $100 Million

<p>AI is making it cheaper to build games. It&#39;s doing nothing for the cost of building the right game. That distinction is about to crush more studios than any technology shift in the past decade.                                   </p><p>Ran Mo is the CEO of Proxima and creator of Suck Up — arguably the first commercially successful game to use AI at runtime. The game generated over 100 million YouTube views with zero marketing spend. Before founding Proxima, Ran led product teams at EA on The Sims franchise and spent time at YouTube and BCG. </p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Ran live demos AI-assisted coding in Unity, breaks down his &quot;trunk and leaves&quot; framework for where AI helps (and where it destroys your codebase), and makes the contrarian case that AI in actual gameplay is overhyped — even though he built the first game to prove it works.                                   </p><p><br></p><p>We go deep on: why vibe-coded games are architecturally unusable at scale, the power law that&#39;s about to eliminate mid-tier studios, why Ran hired a marketer with 1M TikTok followers, and the Taoist philosophy that keeps him sane while Silicon Valley burns out around him                                                                        </p><p><br></p><p>Whether you&#39;re a game dev, studio head, or just trying to understand where AI actually moves the needle in creative industries, this conversation will sharpen your thinking. </p><p><br></p><p>🔗 Ran Mo&#39;s newsletter: newsletter.ranmo.me                                              🔗 Proxima: proxima.gg                                                                                  </p><p><br></p><p>Outline:</p><p>0:00 Intro</p><p>1:15 Ran Mo&#39;s background and founding Proxima</p><p>4:38 How Suck Up actually uses AI                                                                     </p><p>8:49 Why Proxima won&#39;t use AI for art or design                                      </p><p>12:32 Live demo: AI coding in Unity                                                                    </p><p>22:33 Vibe coding gone wrong — the Stardew Valley test</p><p>25:14 The trunk and leaves framework</p><p>29:24 Real productivity numbers (not Twitter hype)</p><p>34:57 The technically capable designer                                                  </p><p>38:58 Power law distribution is coming for games                                 </p><p>43:48 Suck Up&#39;s $0 marketing playbook</p><p>46:04 The Courage to Do Nothing</p><p>52:35 The velocity trap                                                                                 </p><p>58:13 Hot take: AI in gameplay is overhyped</p><p>61:01 Ran&#39;s personal story                                                                              </p><p>66:15 Go your own way                                                                                   </p><p>69:15 Final advice: slow down to speed up </p>