Virtuos on Co-Dev, Custom Tools, and Staying Ahead of Performance Problems

Perforce

Mar 25, 2026

In this episode, Jase chats with Marios Michaelides, Engineering Director at Virtuos Labs, one of the largest co-developers in the world. Marios shares hard-won lessons from working across multiple AAA projects—and reveals how his team built tools to prevent the performance disasters that derail schedules and burn out developers.

Here's what you'll learn:

Why co-developers are building more tools than ever before—and how proprietary-to-commercial engine migrations are driving this shift.

How the painful cycle of performance optimization leads to crunch, overtime, and massive late-stage team scale-ups.

How Virtuos Labs' Goliath dashboard integrates with Unreal Insights to surface performance trends across every build.

When to prioritize performance (hint: not at the very start, but earlier than you think).

Real horror stories: the million-triangle elevator button and other asset validation nightmares.

Why players are more performance-aware than ever—and what that means for your studio.

Timestamps:

00:01:42 Meet Virtuos Labs
00:04:41 Tool Stack and Frameworks
00:07:02 Tracking Work Across Partners
00:07:46 Generalists vs Specialists
00:08:59 Performance Pain Cycles
00:11:47 Asset Validation Horror Stories
00:14:20 Goliath Performance Dashboard
00:18:38 How the Tool Started
00:19:56 Reusable Tools and Industry Shifts
00:22:45 What Goliath Reveals Over Time
00:23:58 Responding to Regressions
00:25:18 Build Metrics Every Day
00:26:15 Optimize Versus Find Fun
00:27:52 Scaling Up With Guardrails
00:28:42 Asset Validation Pipelines
00:31:53 Dashboards and Tooling Roles
00:33:38 Budget Reality of Tools
00:35:41 Players Notice Performance
00:36:42 Advice from Co-Dev Lessons
00:38:57 Embrace Uncertainty and Iterate
00:40:21 Experimenting With New Tech
00:42:19 AI NPC Voice Interaction
00:45:10 Choosing the Right Approach
00:45:29 Closing Thanks and Wrap