Layer 2025 Offsite: Defining the future of AI-powered game content
Last week, our team gathered in Napa, California for Layer’s first major offsite. After months of rapid growth, product launches, and new team members joining from across the globe, we took a moment to step back, align, and plan what’s next for our platform.
Between team-building activities, awesome food, and a few inevitable wine tastings, we went deep into the strategy, values, and company DNA that will define Layer in 2025 and beyond.
#TeamLayer Coming Together
This was the first time many of us had met in person. Over the past few months, we’ve grown fast - bringing on a wave of new engineering hires and very recently a new Director of Customer Success. Each new teammate has brought fresh energy, perspective, and industry experience to the company, and the offsite gave us a chance to connect beyond Slack threads and Zoom calls.
We spent time not just aligning on what we’re building, but how we want to build it…. and who, ultimately we’re building it for. From engineering values to customer success strategy, and even the tone of our marketing, the offsite helped us crystallize the kind of company we’re building - and the kind of partner we want to be for game studios.
Aligning on the Future of Game Content
A major focus of the week was our product roadmap. We had working sessions across multiple teams to map out our priorities and the problems we’re solving for game studios today - and tomorrow.
One theme came up again and again: studios need more flexibility and less friction. They don’t want to jump between ten tools to get their work done, and they definitely don’t want to be locked into a single model or pipeline. We also know that familiar tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Blender, Maya, etc are not going away anytime soon, which means new AI tools need to support those workflows. Likewise, the eventual endpoint is pretty established, with assets almost always making their way into engines like Unity, Unreal, or Godot - or into marketing channels for campaigns.
When you think along those lines, a model-agnostic future becomes clear. With the pace of innovation in AI, the best solution tomorrow might not exist today. That’s why Layer has made it a priority to support a growing library of models across 2D, 3D, and Video - giving studios choice, creative control, and adaptability.
We also talked about the next wave of features that will define our platform, especially around scaling workflows. From batch generation and template-driven creation to powerful new capabilities in video, like lipsync and audio generation, we’re focused on building tools that let teams scale without sacrificing quality or control. We don’t want to give too much away here yet, but the majority of our features are mapped heavily to what we’re seeing from big studio partners like Zynga, SciPlay, Huuuge Games, Machine Zone and more. We want to focus on solving real development challenges studios are facing today.
Our product workshops included hands-on sessions inside Layer itself - pushing on new UX concepts, testing asset creation flows, and exploring what more streamlined studio tooling could look like.
We were joined by creative leader and Layer advisor Matt Omernick, who asked us to imagine Layer as a wine brand. The result? Team imagination turned into real wine labels waiting for on last day. As wine gets better as it ages - more complex and interesting. Our goal is for Layer to mirror that as a brand that’s enjoyed by leading creative teams for years to come.
Some of those ideas will hit the roadmap in the future. Others sparked entirely new conversations about where Layer could go next.
Staying Artist-First
As AI tools evolve, so do the conversations around them. One of our most meaningful discussions at the offsite was about our core philosophy: Layer is here to enhance creative production - not replace it.
We know game development is a deeply human craft and games are art. Our tools are designed to give studios leverage, speed, and new capabilities, but never to remove the role of artists, designers, or creative leads. We want to make it easier to produce more, maintain quality, and scale teams across live ops and marketing. That means giving game creators the right tools - not more complexity.
We also spent time defining our most important use cases. While Layer is used across production, concepting, and live game development, we’re seeing huge traction in areas like user acquisition and marketing. We’re building features specifically designed to help studios scale these pipelines - especially video assets - faster, with more control and less overhead.
Looking Ahead
There was a lot to celebrate in Napa, and even more to look forward to. We left with a clearer vision, stronger connections, and a renewed excitement about the impact we can make together.
And while we can’t share everything just yet, let’s just say… stay tuned for some big updates.
Stay tuned.
#TeamLayer
