Connect with us

Latest News

Escape Studios partners with Epic Games and leading European animation schools to deliver world’s largest training programme in Unreal Engine

Published

on

 

Mark Flanagan, Education Partner Manager, Epic Games said: “The Summer of Unreal is an incredible opportunity that is open to professionals in animation and VFX all across Europe, and we couldn’t be happier to invite the industry to participate. Escape Studios is a wonderful partner who, along with a number of Europe’s best animation schools, are running this programme, which is set to be the biggest Unreal Engine training that we’ve undertaken to date. We’re excited to help all learners find new ways to tell awesome stories and express their creativity using Unreal Engine.”

Saint Walker, Deputy Dean of Escape Studios, said: “The Summer of Unreal is a fantastic opportunity for animation and 3D CGI professionals across Europe to discover more about the cutting-edge technology on offer with Unreal Engine.

“We’ve worked with top animation companies to create a novel animation-centric way of teaching Unreal Engine, in one of the most ambitious training programmes that Escape Studios has been involved with – our vision of a pan-European festival of learning in Unreal Engine has gained us amazing academic partners in the form of some of the best animation schools in the world. We invite learners across Europe to join us. Make your summer staycation Unreal!”

The Summer of Unreal will be taught online in English and is free-of-charge to professionals working in the animation, motion graphics and VFX industry who want an informal group experience of learning Unreal Engine over the holiday period. The course will feature daily workshops covering all the major aspects of using Unreal Engine interspersed with practice time, teamwork, as well as demonstrations and masterclasses from some of Europe’s premiere companies and artists showing how they use the platform in their work.

Mark Spevick, Escape Studios’ Head of 3D VFX will be the main ‘showrunner’ for the Summer of Unreal. The unique role used in Escapes’ larger courses ensures that tutors get to hear and address the most important questions from the online shop floor through Mark’s advocacy. Mark combines teaching and programme design with senior industry experience, having worked at Peerless Camera, the production house co-owned by Terry Gilliam.

Partner quotes

Timothy Leborgne, Head of Talent & Skills Development, The Animation Workshop/VIA University College
“A course such as Summer of Unreal is very welcome. Whether you look at film, animated series, or games we can all see a growing demand for rapid development and competent animators. And Unreal Engine is one particularly advanced tool and software we can’t avoid as professionals in the future. So, I am excited and happy we bring such a valuable course to professionals in our industry. By partnering with such competent institutions and studios across Europe, we have ensured that the course will deliver the best training.”

Gilbert Kiner, President, ARTFX
“Since its creation in 2004, ARTFX has been dedicated to training students using the latest technology and software. Beyond using this engine for our Games courses, Unreal has also been integrated into the previz pipeline for our VFX programs. We are very happy and proud to have been chosen as the exclusive French partner for this collaborative initiative.”

Felix Balbás, Area Director of Animation & VFX at La Salle-URL
“Unreal Engine is a reality we can’t ignore. No longer only in videogames and recently virtual production, now more than ever the future of any visual content creation and in particular animation and VFX, must take this evolution into account. Not only in previs stage, but also in full production. This is why La Salle-URL’s commitment towards promoting state-of-the-art training along with leader institutions at a European level is reflected in the Summer of Unreal.”

Miljana Jovović, Executive Director, Crater Training Center
“We are happy to join the Summer of Unreal as partners for Southeastern Europe, as we see this project as a great chance to upskill and connect professionals across the continent. We have spent the first part of 2021 educating university professors in Serbia in Unreal Engine so they could implement the newly-gained knowledge to their study programs and introduce the software to their students.”

Katja Schmid, Visual Effects and Post Production Professor, Hochschule der Medien
“Many artists in the industry have been waiting for this course. Now the time has come. At the moment, Unreal is one of the most in-demand tools in the industry. The response to the course announcement has been fantastic. It’s just an amazing opportunity not only to get trained for free but also to be part of a most inspiring community! We are very impressed by this large-scale project and excited to be contributing.”

Gareth Lee, Screen Skills Ireland Manager
“Screen Skills Ireland is hugely excited to be part of the Summer of Unreal. This is a unique opportunity for Irish screen sector professionals to learn about the powerful capabilities of Unreal Engine from industry experts, as well as connect with their peers across Europe.”

Continue Reading
Advertisement

AI

SoftConstruct unveils RecSys AI game recommendation system at AIBC Eurasia

Published

on

softconstruct-unveils-recsys-ai-game-recommendation-system-at-aibc-eurasia

In an iGaming Real Talk interview in Dubai, the firm says the tool reads player emotion and context to guide operator actions.

SoftConstruct AI has unveiled RecSys, an AI Game Recommendation System, during an exclusive iGaming Real Talk interview recorded at AIBC Eurasia in Dubai on Thursday 30th April.

Mushegh Khachatryan, Chief AI Officer at SoftConstruct AI, said RecSys is designed to move beyond traditional recommendation models by interpreting player emotions in real time and accounting for context, with the goal of suggesting “the next best action” for operators. “You can understand your customer’s emotions in real time and suggest the next best action. We are building intelligent systems which can reason and act.”

Khachatryan said SoftConstruct built an AI Center of Excellence by hiring talent from outside the iGaming sector, and described RecSys as part of “production-ready agentic AI” intended to support personalised campaigns and decision automation. Surya Palli, host of iGaming Real Talk, said: “SoftConstruct is essentially building a Netflix-style personalised experience for the iGaming industry, where every player gets a lobby made just for them.”

Responsible gaming was also discussed, with the company claiming AI can detect risky behaviour faster and more consistently than human teams, and recommend timely breaks while balancing player protection with sustainable growth.

Khachatryan also stressed the need for explainable, controlled deployment. “AI should help teams perform five times better rather than replace them… Without proper boundaries, short-term momentum boosts with AI can actually hurt your company in the long term.” The company said operators can manage campaigns, personalisation and risk through chat interfaces, with at least 85% accuracy “from the first interactions,” and directed viewers to the full interview on the iGaming Real Talk YouTube channel.

More relevant data as follows:
  • SoftConstruct; https://softconstruct.com/ Company background and official information on SoftConstruct and its business units.
  • iGaming Real Talk YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/ Source location for the full interview referenced in the announcement (editor can add the specific video URL once identified).
  • AIBC Eurasia; https://aibc.world/ Event organiser site to corroborate the conference setting and provide context on AIBC Eurasia.

The post SoftConstruct unveils RecSys AI game recommendation system at AIBC Eurasia appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Continue Reading

API integration

Reliability in Motion: Why Modern Digital Businesses are Abandoning the Single-Vendor Model

Published

on

reliability-in-motion:-why-modern-digital-businesses-are-abandoning-the-single-vendor-model

In the fast-paced environment of digital businesses, communication isn’t just a utility – it’s the heartbeat of the business. Whether it’s a high-stakes trade confirmation or a time-sensitive user’s notification, a lost message is often a direct precursor to lost revenue. Today, we sat down with Bohdan Bulatsan, CTO at CommsHub to discuss why the industry is shifting away from traditional messaging setups toward a more resilient, “strategic redundancy” approach. We explore how CommsHub is redefining delivery standards through intelligent routing and financial transparency.

In the high-stakes world of digital businesses, we often talk about “guaranteed delivery,” but the reality of infrastructure is that things break. From a technical leadership perspective, why is the “Single Vendor” model becoming a terminal risk for modern enterprises?

That’s right. No technical system is infallible. Downtime and glitches are inherent to infrastructure; the real differentiator is how you manage those failures to protect the business. Relying on a single vendor creates a “Single Point of Failure.” If that one provider goes down, your entire operation grinds to a halt.

At CommsHub, we address this by implementing a sophisticated provider cascading system. This architecture ensures that if one path is blocked, the traffic finds another. By eliminating the reliance on a single provider, we transform communication from a financial gamble on uptime into a stable, predictable business process.

CommsHub moves the conversation from “sending messages” to “strategic redundancy.” Can you walk us through the logic of your automated routing – how does the platform decide which path a message takes in milliseconds to ensure the highest delivery rate?

Our cascading logic functions as an intelligent safety net. When our system detects a failure signal from a provider, it triggers a reaction in milliseconds. The mechanism immediately consults a predefined routing roadmap and reroutes the message through the next optimal path in the chain.

Crucially, we allow clients to configure response wait times in both static and dynamic modes. This is a game-changer for businesses where speed is as vital as the delivery itself. Ultimately, our system is built for flexibility; we don’t just send messages – we architect a logic that supports virtually any messaging scenario a business requires.

Integration speed is often a bottleneck; you’ve managed to cut the industry standard from 45 days down to just 10. How does this technical agility impact a brand’s ability to scale into new, unpredictable international markets?

In the modern economy, standing still is the same as moving backward. Our clients are constantly expanding into new geographic territories and they need a partner that moves at their speed. By shrinking integration time to around 10 days, we allow businesses to respond to market opportunities almost instantly.

Our priority is the continuous onboarding of validated providers. This doesn’t just give our clients access to new GEOs; it gives them the power of choice within their existing markets, ensuring they always have the most competitive and reliable options available.

We’ve seen that “lost messages” translate directly to “lost revenue.” How does CommsHub’s unified dashboard bridge the gap between technical delivery logs and the financial transparency that C-level executives need?

Data is only useful if it’s actionable. C-level executives need to see the “why” behind the spend. The CommsHub analytics module is divided into two pillars: Performance and Finance.

The Performance section allows teams to monitor delivery rates and message statuses by country in real-time. Meanwhile, the Financial section provides total visibility into spending, broken down by provider and region. This bridge between technical performance and cost-efficiency allows Finance and Marketing departments to make data-driven decisions rather than educated guesses.

Looking at the mission of CommsHub – to make communication “simple, clear and predictable” what is the one technical myth about bulk messaging you want to debunk for businesses currently struggling with delivery stability?

The most dangerous myth is the belief that finding one “perfect” or “premium” provider is enough. The reality is that no provider – regardless of their size – is immune to regional outages, regulatory shifts or sudden performance drops.

If you want stability, stop looking for the perfect provider and start building a resilient strategy. True reliability comes from intelligent routing, multi-vendor redundancy and the ability to adapt to changing conditions in real-time. That is the mission we fulfill at CommsHub.

As we’ve discussed, the transition from a single-vendor dependency to a diversified, intelligent routing system is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity for survival in high-growth sectors. CommsHub continues to lead this charge, proving that when technical agility meets financial transparency, businesses can scale without the fear of silence. For those looking to turn their communication infrastructure into a competitive advantage, the path forward is clear: prioritize resilience over the illusion of a “perfect” single source.

 

The post Reliability in Motion: Why Modern Digital Businesses are Abandoning the Single-Vendor Model appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Continue Reading

iGaming

In-App Creatives in iGaming: How to Lower CPI and Scale Campaigns with Moloco Ads

Published

on

in-app-creatives-in-igaming:-how-to-lower-cpi-and-scale-campaigns-with-moloco-ads

Traffy, a performance marketing agency specializing in in-app traffic, together with Traffy media buyers, prepared this material to share practical insights, testing experience, and scaling strategies in the iGaming vertical.

iGaming Campaign Overview: Scaling Strategy and CPI Optimization

In the gambling vertical, the Traffy team faced a typical growth challenge: how to scale campaigns without losing control over CPI and without sacrificing traffic quality.
The main goal was to reduce CPI while maintaining conversion rates to registration and deposit. Special attention was given to the scaling phase and subsequent campaign relaunches, where performance most often begins to degrade.

Before implementing the new strategy, single-format, unique gameplay creatives were used. While effective initially, this approach started to limit scaling potential as volumes increased.

How to Scale iGaming Campaigns Without Increasing CPI

As advertiser conditions allowed for active scaling, the task was to reduce CPI in order to improve conversions and lower deposit costs on the offer. CPI is unstable when using single-format creatives — it increases when scaling active ad accounts. If you rely on only one format, there is no real optimization, which leads to faster creative burnout and makes it harder to find new references that perform as well as previous ones.

Intraday dynamics were quite illustrative. In the morning, CPI could increase by up to 100%, then partially stabilize by midday, and rise again in the evening, adding around 20–25% to daily values. At the same time, campaigns continued delivering — they didn’t break, but efficiency gradually declined.

The main reason was not classic audience saturation. This was not a typical scale → saturation → CPI growth scenario. The problem was deeper: the single-format approach itself was limiting the algorithm. Creatives burned out faster, and the optimization system became less effective due to the lack of alternative signals.

Format burnout also occurred because there are limited in-app ad intelligence tools, and only a small number of teams have access to them due to their high cost. As a result, the overall pool of proven working creatives is relatively small. When only one creative format is used, it quickly burns out, forcing the search for new references — but often there is nothing left to scale further.

Why Single Creatives Formats Lead to Higher CPI and Instability

During testing, the team reached an important insight: CPI growth and instability were directly linked to using only one type of creative.

In practice, the algorithm was constrained by a single format — it had no ability to redistribute budget or optimization signals. This increased CPI volatility and accelerated burnout.

This understanding came empirically through a series of tests. It also became clear that some formats, such as news-style creatives and playable formats, were underutilized, which limited scaling potential.

Creatives Testing Strategy to Reduce CPI in iGaming Campaigns

The team shifted focus toward creatives diversification.
They decided to run multiple creatives types simultaneously, giving the algorithm more flexibility. Three key formats were introduced:

  • interview
  • gameplay
  • social gameplay

The main share of traffic was allocated to interview creatives (50%) with a CPI of about $8.58, while gameplay accounted for 25% with a CPI of ~ $6.5, and social gameplay — the remaining 25% with a CPI of ~ $10.23 (Moloco Ads).

Scaling was primarily achieved through relaunching campaigns with increased budgets.
The team tested 4 to 6 creatives per campaign with a $250 budget. If performance was strong, the campaign was relaunched with a higher budget, and its behavior was closely monitored.

How campaigns were launched:
If new campaigns included only new creatives, they were kept and scaled alongside existing active campaigns, or relaunched when needed.

Testing was conducted in parallel: different formats were launched simultaneously, and the decision-making cycle took 2–3 days. The primary evaluation metrics were CPI and cost per registration, followed by CPA.

Results: Lower CPI and More Stable Campaign Scaling

Switching to a multi-format strategy delivered a noticeable impact. Previously, overall CPI ranged between $13–18, but after implementing the new approach, it decreased to approximately $8.4.

The key improvement was scalability: campaigns could be scaled without sharp CPI spikes. Although CPI growth with increased volume remains inevitable, it became much more controlled and predictable.

From a performance perspective, different formats showed varying CPI levels. The best result was achieved by social gameplay, while other formats demonstrated higher CPI. However, this did not reduce their importance in scaling.

For scaling, social-style formats and interview creatives performed best. Interview creatives tend to burn out faster, while social gameplay creatives — being bright, visually engaging, and highly informative — scale more effectively.

No format proved to be universally best for growth. All three formats scaled effectively, and their combination gave the algorithm more opportunities for optimization.

Best Practices for Launching and Scaling iGaming Creatives

In practice, the most effective approach is straightforward: launch 4–6 creatives across 2–3 formats (interviews, social approaches) and run them either sequentially or simultaneously, as done at Traffy.

A specific recommendation from a Traffy buyer: use playable elements in the end card — this can significantly reduce CPI. Creating a unique end card for each creative in the same style also lowers CPI and increases engagement with the creative itself.

At the same time, it is important to understand that there are no “dead” formats: over time, any creatives will burn out regardless of their type.

Conclusion: Multi-Format Creatives Strategy for Predictable iGaming Scaling

Creatives format diversification proved to be the key factor for stable scaling. Instead of trying to control CPI within a single format, the team expanded the optimization space. This allowed for better traffic redistribution, slower creative burnout, and reduced performance volatility.

As a result, scaling became not only more efficient but also more predictable — without the sharp CPI spikes typical of single-format strategies.

If you have any questions or would like to apply these strategies to your campaigns, feel free to submit a request via our website or reach out directly at [email protected].

The post In-App Creatives in iGaming: How to Lower CPI and Scale Campaigns with Moloco Ads appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Fresh slot games releases by the top brands of the industry. We provide you with the latest news straight from the entertainment industries.

The platform also hosts industry-relevant webinars, and provides detailed reports, making it a one-stop resource for anyone seeking information about operators, suppliers, regulators, and professional services in the European gaming market. The portal's primary goal is to keep its extensive reader base updated on the latest happenings, trends, and developments within the gaming and gambling sector, with an emphasis on the European market while also covering pertinent global news. It's an indispensable resource for gaming professionals, operators, and enthusiasts alike.

Contact us: [email protected]

Editorial / PR Submissions: [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 - Recent Slot Releases is part of HIPTHER Agency. Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania