‍About Upland

Unveiled in 2019, Upland is the leading immersive Web3 gaming platform for mobile, mapped to planet Earth with a mission to build the world's largest digital open economy.

Through strategic alliances with FIFA, the NFLPA, Stock Car Pro Series, UNICEF, The SANDBOX Bitget and others, Upland offers diverse activities, including virtual property trading, world-building, car racing, virtual shops, and rich, immersive social experiences. Upland has a strong creator and developer focus with a platform that connects to both Web2 and Web3 applications. $SPARKLET is Upland's native utility token powering world building and value creation.

Taking a unique approach to gaming

AAt Upland, game design is an iterative, collaborative journey where generative experimentation is always welcome, guided by a single principle: AI should amplify creativity, not replace it. This approach allows us to explore ideas more broadly and rapidly, freeing up time to focus deeply on making the product the best it can be.

That’s why Upland turned to Layer. Layer provided the perfect balance - allowing the team to scale their creative output without compromising quality. It became a game-changer, especially for Upland’s beloved mascot, Miles. Thousands of iterations of Miles were generated quickly, maintaining high standards for both marketing and operations. With Layer, Upland was able to experiment faster, create more efficiently, and let designers focus on the creative aspects that matter most.

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Layer has saved us countless hours. What used to take days now happens in mins. It’s like turning the volume up on production.
_{Jason Festa, Creative Director at Upland}

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Custom styles for Miles🦙

Layer’s impact on Upland’s game development process has been transformative across multiple fronts - enhancing creative consistency, streamlining workflows, and allowing the team to scale without additional resources. Through the use of Custom Styles, Upland can maintain a cohesive visual identity while quickly generating new game assets. Layer’s purpose-built tools have also redefined how the team collaborates, making each stage of production - from concept art to live operations - more efficient.

Layer’s ability to scale production without compromising quality has saved Upland on both time and costs, allowing them to meet growing player demands without outsourcing or expending resources.

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Custom style training

Incorporating Layer's Custom Styles was a game-changer for Upland, especially in maintaining consistency across their creative assets. Upland was able to upload a library of previous artwork featuring their iconic mascot, Miles, to train an AI model specifically tailored to their brand. This allowed the team to generate countless variations of Miles while ensuring that every new iteration remained true to the original style and vision.

The process was quick and efficient—training their custom model was seamless, integrating smoothly into their existing workflow, so the entire team could utilize it without disruption.

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Custom styles are awesome! Training a custom Miles LLM took no time at all, and Layer fit into our workflow seamlessly, making it easy for the whole team to benefit from it.
_{‍Jason Festa, Creative Director at Upland}

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Building faster artist workflows

Layer has significantly improved Upland’s workflows with a purpose-built platform that enhances every stage of game production - from character design sketches to live ops content. This all-in-one approach keeps Upland’s workflows professional and efficient, enabling the team to generate, edit, and export assets all within a streamlined system. 

What sets Layer apart from other tools is its focus on enterprise-level workflows tailored specifically for game studios. The platform allowed Upland’s team to iterate quickly, using Layer to draft and refine concept art, character designs, and marketing assets, all while collaborating at a project level. The ability to generate high-quality content, make instant edits, and export layered PSD assets ensured the team stayed agile without jumping between multiple tools.

This streamlined process has been particularly valuable for live ops, where rapid content creation is crucial to keeping up with the demands of an active community. By centralizing workflows in Layer, Upland has increased its efficiency and collaboration, enabling them to focus more on innovation and less on the logistics of content production.

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We use Layer for everything from character design sketches to live operations. It allows us to iterate quickly and collaborate across the team, keeping us efficient and creative.
_{‍Jason Festa, Creative Director at Upland}

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Scaling live ops pipelines

Layer has played an essential role in helping Upland scale the technical demands of live operations (live ops) content development. In the world of live ops, timely updates, seasonal events, and new features need to be deployed rapidly to keep players engaged. Layer’s AI-powered tools allow Upland’s team to quickly create and iterate live ops content - like limited-time offers, new property designs, or fresh challenges - delivering a more dynamic experience for players.

What makes Layer particularly powerful for live ops is the ability to automate repetitive tasks such as resizing assets, applying custom styles across multiple formats, and quickly adjusting visuals for different platforms or regions. This allowed the Upland team to stay responsive to the fast-paced needs of their game, where quick turnaround times and content precision are critical.

This meant the team can push out live ops content faster, while maintaining consistent quality across all touchpoints, from in-game assets to marketing materials. 

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Advice for AI

Upland’s integration of Layer into their creative process has revolutionized the way they scale content, streamline workflows, and maintain brand consistency, all without the need for external resources. By embracing Layer’s AI-powered tools, Upland has drastically cut production time while keeping quality high - a crucial advantage in the fast-paced (and often margin-thin) world of maintaining a live game.

For game studios looking to adopt AI, Upland’s Creative Director, Jason Festa, offers a key piece of advice: “Treat AI tools like early Photoshop - experiment, tinker, and don’t be afraid to break things. Good designers will figure out how to bend AI to their will. Just remember, it’s a tool, not a magic wand.”

The takeaway? AI can be a powerful asset when used thoughtfully, as a complement to creativity rather than a replacement for it.

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