Stealth is Overrated — Building in Public #1
This week has been a turning point for our studio. After months of balancing client projects and internal experiments, we made a bold decision: to pivot our entire focus toward creating and developing original intellectual property (IP) as well as partnering with established IP. It’s a shift from service-based work to world-building at scale; a move that feels risky, exciting, and absolutely necessary.
Here’s a full breakdown of what we did and learned this week.
Why the pivot?
For a while, our studio operated mainly through client projects involving AI-powered creative services. While these gigs taught us invaluable lessons about technology, workflows, and market needs, we realized that if we want to create a completely new medium we have to take matters into our own hands.
Original IP lets us create worlds, not just one-off outputs. It gives us assets, stories, and systems that can be reused, expanded, and monetized across multiple formats — film, games, interactive experiences, and beyond.
This week, we committed fully to that vision.
What we accomplished
Shifted the company focus
We agreed as a team to pivot 100% toward IP creation and development. This means reprioritizing our time, talent, and budgets to build proprietary worlds with unique characters and narratives, rather than mainly servicing external clients.
Advanced promising commercial conversations
Despite the pivot, we kept moving on some high-potential opportunities that align with our vision:
AI for cinema advertising: exploring how AI-generated ads can transform the pre-movie experience in theaters.
Faceswap tech for an interactive museum: prototyping tech that blends visitor engagement with AI face manipulation.
Development for both Mexico and Uruguay based IPs: projects where we will be fully partners.
Ran an internal workshop on Rapid Prototyping
Our CEO, Yves, led a deep dive on Rapid Prototyping principles: how to frame hypotheses, keep scope minimal, and focus on time-to-signal instead of polish. This is our new operating system for testing ideas fast and learning even faster. More on this soon.
Began designing narrative frameworks using role-playing mechanics
We started developing story structures that incorporate role-playing game (RPG) elements: characters with stats, constraints, and choice-driven outcomes. This lets us prototype how stories unfold dynamically, making the IP flexible and interactive by design.
Dealt with a tough client decision
A music-video client we’d been working with decided not to use AI in their project. While disappointing, this was a critical learning moment: not everyone is ready, and adoption varies widely. We’re repurposing the work done into an internal project that’s shaping up to be something exciting.
Key lessons from the week
Focus is everything: Pivoting means saying no to many opportunities that don’t align, which frees energy for what truly matters.
Prototyping beats planning: Fast experiments teach more than long debates. Shipping something rough is better than perfect paralysis.
AI adoption is uneven: Different industries and clients have wildly different comfort levels with AI; our demos and value props need to reflect that.
Failures compound: Even “failed” projects generate assets, knowledge, and momentum we can reuse.
What’s next?
We are heading next week on an offsite retreat to the Uruguayan countryside where we will do a deep dive onto bringing our next IP to live.
Build a playable prototype of our IP’s role-playing framework — something minimal but tangible that stakeholders can interact with.
Develop a faceswap demo to pilot the interactive museum concept and test real-world performance.
Deliver our last service-based projects and start creating
Tools we loved this week
WAN 2.2: Freaking amazing open-source video generation tool. Awesome community (shoutout to the Banodoco discord)
Echoshot: Wan 2.1-powered. Consistent multi-shot generation.
Multitalk: AI-driven speech synthesis - mind blown with the quality.
OmniAvatar: Realistic avatars for storytelling.
Moonvalley Marey: Part of our team became completely fans of this new product.
Everyone in the content creation space should check out all of these tools.
How you can help
Are you connected with cool IPs and brands open to experimenting with AI-driven pilots?
Interested in collaborating or sharing insights on blending RPG mechanics with narratives?
We’d love to connect. Reach out!
Final thoughts
Posting regularly is never easy. It takes courage, honesty, and a commitment to embrace vulnerability. But we truly believe in the power of building in public; sharing the messy, real journey to learn faster and connect deeper. This week is our start in that mindset, and we’re excited to keep showing you how we build worlds that matter.
