Who does what at TentuPlay (Sentience, Inc.)?
We have prepared interviews with members of TentuPlay (Sentience, Inc.).

Marcus, the CTO of TentuPlay, is in charge of designing the behavioral economics AI engine, developing algorithms, and converting data into services. As you know, CTO stands for chief technology officer. Now, let’s hear more from Marcus.

Q. Hi, Marcus! Please share more about your role as a CTO at TentuPlay (Sentience, Inc.).

TentuPlay is a tool that has to continuously integrate and utilize new technology. I conduct research on new technology, such as AI, blockchain, and NFT. Based on my findings, I propose measures for utilizing new technology in the business division and overseeing the product design for commercialization.

I provide mentoring and advice to help the R&D team, whose members have successfully passed the coding assessment and interview, identify, and resolve problems. By the way, the coding assessment is a test of creativity and practical capacity.

Q. How did you join TentuPlay, and why?

After earning my Ph.D. in economics, I performed big data analysis at several companies before TentuPlay. I realized that my analysis stopped at being reports, and was not reflected in service improvements. For larger companies, it takes a much longer time for recommendations to be adopted in actual services or functions. They seemed to be moving incredibly slow considering how trends were changing on a weekly basis in the modern world.

I saw a possible solution in AI, which could promptly transform the results of data analysis into services. And so, I decided to develop an end-to-end service that covers all stages from data collection and analysis to AI store operations.

That’s when I partnered with Hyeyon, the CEO, to develop TentuPlay. We faced many challenges along the way, and the journey was not a short one. Recently, we were very pleased to hear that one of our clients saw a 15% increase in users making their first purchase after receiving recommendations from the TentuPlay AI.

Q. I heard you developed a coding assessment test for the company to recruit talented individuals. Tell us more about why it was developed and how effective it has been.

What startups need more than anything else is a talent to “grow together.” It is desirable for startups to follow a J curve. Unlike large companies that implement mature technology, startups have to compete by adopting and commercializing new technology ahead of others. In particular, tech startups have to compete globally regardless of their physical locations.

While it’s possible to work with those who lack the potential for growth, what we truly want is to achieve mutual growth with employees. Without the same vision, we would end up going different ways. Sentience’s coding assessment was developed to assess the potential of candidates.

After introducing the coding assessment, we have recruited talent who are unafraid of adventures and have tremendous potential. They quickly learn new concepts and connect the dots between multiple platforms, stacks, and programming languages. Whenever the team completes a milestone, they switch to a new stack for the next milestone. For example, if they relied on Unity / C# for the previous milestone, they would switch to AWS Lambda / Go.

This is why Sentience does not have developers specializing in a single field, such as Python developers, web developers, and data engineers. We are comprised of multi-role developers equipped with a broad set of skills.

Since the developers come from around the world, our meetings are naturally held in English, giving us a valuable opportunity to practice and improve ourselves.

Q. What are the unique benefits of joining TentuPlay’s development team?

Have you met agents like James Bond who are proficient in four languages and overcome unprecedented crises without trying too hard?

If you join our development team, you can become a James Bond developer! (laughs)
You will be able to quickly pick up new technology and computer engineering skills, and apply your knowledge to create amazing products. Training will be provided for you to gain mastery of various programming languages and stacks. You also become part of the global network of outstanding developers!

You will find great satisfaction in expanding the startup, working under the young, charismatic CEO, and cooperating with the business team. This, along with individual growth, is one of the greatest joys that can come with joining the team.

Q. What do you see as the biggest problem of the gaming market? What is TentuPlay (Sentience, Inc.) doing to technically address the problem?

A game service is a service in which users enjoy and consume content by interacting with it. Users who play a game wish to create their own adventures and become the central character in a new world.

The problem is that users have different personalities and preferences, and creating “their own adventures” is more difficult than you can imagine. Generating customized content for all users and making personalized suggestions can be costly. This is why most games are designed to satisfy the needs of the majority and overlook individual preferences. At least, that’s how it was before TentuPlay!

TentuPlay performs an aptitude test on users based on criteria and methodologies rooted in behavioral economics. Personalized content is suggested based on the results. TentuPlay has developed various algorithms to determine user preferences. It has one U.S. patent and one more pending. Four domestic patents have been registered, and another is on its way.

In 2021, TentuPlay opened an AI in-game shop service that integrates client services to make recommendations to users. An upcoming service this year is Dynamic Content Generation, which creates or adapts content according to users’ tastes. This will be applied to games being developed by TentuPlay.

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Q. Can you briefly introduce the games you are developing at the moment?

The reason why I’m developing games is simple. While applying TentuPlay to the games of various clients, I began to wonder, “What if we made our own game?”

It’s similar to how you feel like playing an instrument when listening to music, and want to make your own movie when watching one. That’s the essence of startups. There’s a famous motivational quote that goes, "We have a “strategic” plan. It’s called doing things." (laughs)

I can’t go into the details of the games being developed, but the Steam tags that I can reveal are 2D, Roguelike, Strategy, RPG, and Story Rich. We plan to develop new technology capable of impacting the entire game industry into a minimum viable service.

Q. What do you hope to achieve at TentuPlay (Sentience, Inc.)?

I see the world of games like the original metaverse. I dream of a future economic community where participants freely create unique content, art, products, and services in the metaverse.

TentuPlay will help you to enjoy Second Life, filled with adventures and romance catered to individual needs.

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This brings us to the end of the interview with Marcus, TentuPlay’s CTO. Marcus described the development team as the company’s engine of innovation. It’s amazing how unified the team is. Thank you for your time, Marcus. Do look forward to the next post of TentuPlay People! 🤗

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