Product partnership · Custom AI Transformation

Expertise that flexes to your problem.

Games were always about the people who made them and the people who played them. We work with studios on long-lived titles — from in development and early market test through live — through senior product partnership, and through Custom AI Transformation that amplifies commitment, people experience, and craft no model can invent.

15+ yrs · 50+ titles EA · Ubisoft · SYBO · Spil · Nazara

In development Near market test Finding fit Live

How we work

Two ways in. Same standard.

Make something wonderful for makers and players. Models amplify; they do not invent commitment or taste.

With your team

Product partnership

Senior craft on loop, economy, live plan, and talent — for titles meant to last. Workshops through longer arcs, hands-on with your team, capability left behind.

Built for your studio

Custom AI Transformation

Studio and team applications that amplify commitment, people experience, and craft expertise you cannot train a model on — humans in the loop, wonderful as the bar.

Teams that remember teammates for decades. Companies that become communities. Players that become family. That is the humanising heart of both offers.

Product partnership

Where partnership craft goes deep

Practice areas studios bring us in for — product, live, analytics, talent.

PM

Product

Loop ownership, roadmaps, economy, prioritisation — player value and commercial truth together, including year model and sustenance before scale.

LP

Live production

Build to live, soft launch, and seasons after: cadence and ops so events sit inside a longer plan.

AX

Analytics & research

Metrics that force a decision this week — in test with real people and in live — cohorts, AFITMRR™ lenses, commercial honesty.

TR

Talent

Product and live hires who own loops — role design, bar, and interview judgment. Product talent can also embed on the plan in a focused partnership.

For Custom AI Transformation — service page · Building with AI essay.

Custom AI Transformation

What studios ask us to build

People first — then applications your room can run. Decision support, population intelligence, live briefs, principle-led analytics, workflow agents — scoped to a real studio problem, with care as the standard.

Adaptive systems and live ML stacks are useful history. The spine is still making something wonderful for people you may never meet.

What transformation builds

  • People first — makers and players before models
  • Applications scoped to a real studio or team problem
  • Commitment, people experience, and craft no model replaces
  • Humans in the loop; capability left behind — not a black box

Custom AI Transformation → · Building with AI

How we engage

Shape fits the problem

Expertise stays constant. Depth and horizon adapt.

Workshops

Focused days: shared language, economy/live-plan review, decisions not only slides.

Short term

Days to weeks on one lever — onboarding, economy, cadence, or year honesty.

Fixed term

A quarter or launch window with clear outcomes and capability left behind.

Consulting & longer arcs

Advisory or embedded over months — strategy, live health, talent. Exit designed in.

Often: conversation → workshop or short diagnostic → deeper term. Limited on purpose — senior craft for a focused window, without forcing permanent overhead. Why that shape exists.

How we show up

Domain expertise. Lockstep with your goals. Professionally delivered.

Live-game judgment, aligned to what you’re building — not generic process. Frameworks and practice tools help; delivery is professional and clear.

Domain

Multi-title live craft — MRM, AFITMRR™, economy and player populations shaped for games.

Lockstep

Free tools sample the craft; partnership applies it to your roadmap and live plan — year model, economy, and scorecard where they help the product.

Delivered

Clear scope, hands-on work, capability left behind. Decisions stay with your team.

Paul Dutta, Founder of Yardstick Games

Founder

Paul Dutta — Founder, Yardstick Games. Ownership through the full cycle — from inside the team to transformational growth. Will never settle without serving excellence.

15+ yrs · 50+ titles EA · Ubisoft · SYBO · Spil · Nazara

1. Reach out

Stage, platforms, what hurts. A short note is enough.

2. Align

Name the product goal. Shape the engagement to it.

3. Run

Hands-on in lockstep — craft stays when we leave.

First step

Tell us where the game is. We’ll say how we’d work. For what partnership means day-to-day — talent, how we start, FAQ — see how partnership works. Free-to-play and live services in more depth: F2P & live services. Custom AI Transformation: service page · essay.

Authorship. Page content and design expression © Yardstick Games Private Limited (Paul Dutta, Founder). Where AFITMRR™ appears, it refers to Yardstick’s player-value framework — a trade mark of Yardstick Games Private Limited. All rights reserved.