# Grayhat Blog Author: Talal Ahmed Khan

> Expanded public blog context for posts by Talal Ahmed Khan.

## Page

- [Talal Ahmed Khan Author](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/author/talal)
- [Talal Ahmed Khan Author LLM Context](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/author/talal/llms.txt)
- [Root LLM Context](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/llms.txt)
- [Root Full LLM Context](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/llms-full.txt)
- [Author API](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/api/public/v1/authors/talal)

## Author Details

- Name: Talal Ahmed Khan
- Location: Islamabad, Pakistan
- Website: Not provided
- Post count in current snapshot: 4
- Bio: Associate Software Engineer at Grayhat

## Current Posts

- [Our struggles (and minor wins) with Rive for character animation in 2025](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/our-struggles-and-wins-with-rive-2025) - Inspired by Duolingo, we also gave the beta Rive Editor a try to make our AI virtual friends in MindChat come alive. TLDR; It didn't go too well.
- [Grayhat Summer Internship - 2025](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/grayhat-summer-internship-2025) - Ready to build the future (and present) with us? The Grayhat Summer Internship 2025 is officially open! If you're a university student eager to learn, build, and solve real-world problems with a passionate team, this is your chance to jump in and grow.
- [Wrap-up: Web Social Party Game Jam!](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/web-social-party-game-jam) - Grayhat's first national game jam was an absolute blast! Over 65 developers from 10 universities battled it out to create the best multiplayer card games using PlayroomKit—and the results were wild. Here's the full behind-the-scenes breakdown.
- [Mastra MCP AI Hackathon, and the Illegal Agents pivot](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/mastra-mcp-ai-hackathon-and-the-illegal-agents-pivot) - We kicked off April with the first-ever Mastra MCP Hackathon, focused on creating custom MCPs with Illegal Agents. This lead to Illegal Agents pivoting towards the metaverse.

## Child Route Content

### [Our struggles (and minor wins) with Rive for character animation in 2025](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/our-struggles-and-wins-with-rive-2025)

- Slug: `our-struggles-and-wins-with-rive-2025`
- Published: 2025-11-06T14:00:03.000+05:00
- Updated: 2025-11-19T23:03:41.000+05:00
- Reading time: 5 min
- Tags: Animation, Design, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Flutter, Developer Tools, Design Tools
- Authors: Saad Bazaz, Abdurrehman Subhani, Aniqa Sadaf, Talal Ahmed Khan, Wasif Sadiq, Muhammad Usama Rashid
- Visibility: public

Grayhat first met the Rive team at GDC 2024. Early startup energy, cool booth, tons of hype. At the time, we already knew about Rive, but we hadn’t actually battle-tested it in any real production scenario. It looked promising, and we filed it away as a “maybe one day” tool.

*Fast forward to this year... We finally decided to give it a real shot.

## **Solly, Our First Rive Experiment**

Our first test was simple. We built an animated mascot named **Solly** for MindChat. Just a cute, lively animation. It turned out pretty solid.

*An animated Solly, the mascot for MindChat.In our hubris, we decided to go big. Not just animated characters. We wanted **full lip-sync and animated avatars reacting in real-time during video calls**.

That’s when our rabbit hole journey began.

## **Research and Learnings**

To understand what “good” looks like, we researched teams already doing this at scale.

We studied Duolingo’s approach to visemes and character speech, which instantly made them our north star. We also pored over Guido Rosso's breakdown of how Duolingo uses GenAI and Rive for more technical insight. It's an excellent blend of art and tech, I highly recommend watching it:

*For character structure and workflow inspiration, we found Tolan’s process incredibly useful, detailed in their post on designing their character.

We also dove into the broader concepts of phonemes and visemes, looking at established solutions in the 3D space like Reallusion's iClone for AI-powered lip-sync.

Enough theory, let's build.

## **Intersecting art and tech (Rive + Flutter)**

To get hands-on, we learned the basics through foundational tutorials like this Rive in Flutter video and this more advanced follow-up. Community tips, like this Reddit thread on a better way to animate, and the official Rive best practices guide were essential reading.

Then we got our hands dirty by running our first interactive test. We replaced the Interacting Bear Demo from GitHub with the Monster Mouth (found on the Rive Marketplace), and lipsynced it.

*At this point, we were feeling pretty confident. We started exploring Rive's marketplace for rigs, especially mouth rigs and lip-sync templates:

- Mouth Movement Rig
- Custom Talking Avatar Lip Sync
- Karaoke with Zari
- Monster Mouth
- Wave, Hear and Talk
- Mouth Rig

We built our own character in a flat, simple style so iteration would be fast.

## **Nested Artboard Hell**

Then came the pain. Nested artboards. Calling inputs inside nested rigs from the parent board. This should have been trivial, as most of our designers came from an Adobe After Effects and Sony Vegas background. Instead it became a multi-day excavation.

We even built a minimal reproducible Rive file just to understand the problem first, with data binding and nested artboards.

We searched everywhere for answers. We scoured Stack Overflow for solutions, read through Reddit threads where users lamented broken nested animations, and followed a critical GitHub issue in the rive-flutter repository that highlighted our exact problem. The Rive community forum had a thread on passing input values that never got a definitive answer.

Finally, we found a random deep-internet video that solved it. From Rive, but not on the surface. Not from official docs. Just some obscure YouTube video that succeeded where the actual product failed to explain itself.

*And that’s when it hit me.

Rive is not designed for professionals yet.

Rive is built for early adopters, vibers, Behance-Dribbble motion designers, landing page razzle dazzle, and social media loops. Not structured engineering-grade animation pipelines.

Anyone doing real character systems will eventually hit architecture problems. Rive isn’t there yet.

But we were too deep in this to give up.

## **Building Our Own Playground**

Once we finally got our rig working, we wanted to test it with our custom lip-sync algorithm.

We tried using the third-party playground, rive.rip. Cool idea, but feature-limited. Not useful for live algorithmic testing.

So we built our own playground in Flutter, specifically for real-time lip-sync with AI voices and Rive characters. You can find the source code for our Rive Playground on GitHub.

And here is the deployed version you can play with:

  *
  Drag to resize ⤡

  Open in new tab

(function(){
  var box = document.getElementById('rive-resize');
  var iframe = box.querySelector('iframe');
  var handle = document.getElementById('rive-resize-handle');
  var minW = 200, minH = 200;

  // If Ghost gives width:100% (or if you want it to *look* full-width initially),
  // set a pixel width equal to the parent's computed width so the element can be resized.
  function setInitialWidth() {
    try {
      var pw = box.parentElement.clientWidth || document.documentElement.clientWidth;
      // Use parent's width but not less than minW
      box.style.width = Math.max(minW, Math.min(pw, 700)) + 'px';
    } catch(e) { /* ignore */ }
  }

  // Initialize
  setInitialWidth();

  // Recompute if window changes (keeps sensible starting width)
  window.addEventListener('resize', setInitialWidth);

  var dragging = false;

  function startDrag(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    dragging = true;
    // allow mouse events to reach document while still interacting with iframe
    iframe.style.pointerEvents = 'none';
    window.addEventListener('mousemove', onDrag);
    window.addEventListener('mouseup', stopDrag);
    window.addEventListener('touchmove', onDrag, { passive: false });
    window.addEventListener('touchend', stopDrag);
  }

  function onDrag(e) {
    if (!dragging) return;
    e.preventDefault();
    var clientX = (e.touches && e.touches[0]) ? e.touches[0].clientX : e.clientX;
    var clientY = (e.touches && e.touches[0]) ? e.touches[0].clientY : e.clientY;
    var rect = box.getBoundingClientRect();
    var newW = Math.max(minW, clientX - rect.left);
    var newH = Math.max(minH, clientY - rect.top);
    box.style.width = newW + 'px';
    box.style.height = newH + 'px';
  }

  function stopDrag() {
    dragging = false;
    iframe.style.pointerEvents = '';
    window.removeEventListener('mousemove', onDrag);
    window.removeEventListener('mouseup', stopDrag);
    window.removeEventListener('touchmove', onDrag);
    window.removeEventListener('touchend', stopDrag);
  }

  handle.addEventListener('mousedown', startDrag);
  handle.addEventListener('touchstart', startDrag, { passive: false });

  // optional: double-click handle to snap back to parent's width
  handle.addEventListener('dblclick', setInitialWidth);
})();

## **Final Result**

We managed to make our animation work, with nested artboards and lip-sync. Check it out here:

*It's still a work-in-progress, but we continue to learn and improve.

## **The Rive Reality Check**

After this entire journey, here’s the honest breakdown.

### **The Cons**

- The interface is unintuitive and tries too hard to cosplay as Figma without earning it.
- Features like components and preview mode feel half-baked.
- Pricing is preposterous, especially when they suddenly made exports paid mid-project.
- Performance is unoptimized and multiplayer is buggy.
- Browser sync pauses make it feel clunky instead of modern.

### **The Pros**

- It works, at least in Beta terms.
- Web-based.
- Collaborative.
- Fun for simple animation use cases.

### **My Verdict**

If you already have working pipelines in Blender, After Effects, Spline, or your own tooling, stick with them. Rive is cool, but it is not ready for serious production beyond funky assets, splash animations, and loading screens.

I still believe Rive should eventually be acquired by Figma and merged into a full pipeline. But if I see them pull a “we’ll stay independent forever” move like Figma did with Adobe, my remaining hope will evaporate.

To anyone from the Rive team: If you're reading this, I'd love to talk and have a feedback session on our team's experience on the Paid plan. Maybe we can find a better way out!

Peace ✌️

*Credits to:*

- Umayma binte Saleem, our Web, Interactions and Graphics intern, for the first Solly animation
- Ayesha Aamir (UI/UX Designer) for her research, character design and animation implementation
- AbdurRehman Subhani (Lead Engineer) for building the open source Playground, and developing the lip sync algorithm with AI
- Aniqa Sadaf (Product Designer) for world-building

### [Grayhat Summer Internship - 2025](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/grayhat-summer-internship-2025)

- Slug: `grayhat-summer-internship-2025`
- Published: 2025-05-12T01:45:54.000+05:00
- Updated: 2025-05-20T16:34:09.000+05:00
- Reading time: 11 min
- Tags: Announcements, Internship, Company Culture, Upskill
- Authors: Talal Ahmed Khan
- Visibility: public

Every summer at Grayhat, we open our (virtual) doors to a group of curious, driven, and collaborative university students who are excited to build real-world projects, solve meaningful problems, and grow in an environment that values experimentation and impact.

This year, we’re back—and better than ever!

Join our Discord in the meanwhile: https://discord.gg/xcBpqMDP2E

## Are we all you want in an internship?

At Grayhat, our summer internship program offers a dynamic experience designed to help you thrive in your career endeavors. Our challenging work environment will support and nourish both your professional and personal growth. We look for interns with fresh ideas, insights, and a knack for growth. The experience is all serious work with a pinch of fun!

If you want to work for a company that challenges you and recognizes your contributions, Grayhat is the employer for you!

## Who is she?

Grayhat? Oh, she’s full of wonders.

Offers services. Has her own product. Open-source contributions.

Beyond her product Omni, she is dramatically expanding into services in AI, Game Development, Web Dev and Mobile Dev, you name it!

                Work
                **

            Upon arrival at Grayhat, interns are given meaningful work assignments that have a direct impact on the business. Interns set a personal development goal as well as professional development goals with their managers on their first day. These goals allow interns to drive their own career development and experiences while at Grayhat.

We give interns the autonomy to create, get involved, make mistakes, and get a chance to tug on the turbulent industry ropes.

                Grow
                **

            We believe in individual growth. Therefore, intern growth is not only encouraged, it is the expectation! We have both formal and informal programs designed to mentor our interns and help them advance their personal and professional journeys from good to GREAT!

                Experience
                **

            If you ask any of our past interns, they will tell you that no day is ever the same! In between working on your project goals, you would have the opportunity to participate in team brainstorms, attend company meetings led by our Senior Leadership, collaborate, break bread together, and even enjoy our activity days!

        ## Open Positions

                UI/UX
                **

            Join our dynamic design team as a UI/UX Design Intern and contribute to creating user-centered and visually compelling digital experiences. This internship offers the opportunity to be involved in the full spectrum of the design process, from understanding user needs to crafting intuitive interfaces. If you are passionate about both the science of user experience and the art of user interface design, and eager to create impactful digital products, we encourage you to apply!

**Requirements**

- A strong portfolio showcasing your understanding of both UI and UX principles and your design process.
- Proficiency in design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD (or similar).
- Familiarity with user research methods and the ability to translate insights into design decisions.
- Experience in creating user flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.
- Solid understanding of visual design principles, typography, color theory, and layout.
- Knowledge of usability and accessibility best practices.
- Strong knowledge of human-computer interface (HCI)
- Strong knowledge of User Experience techniques
- (bonus) Familiarity with Design Sprints
- Strong communication and collaboration skills.
- A user-centric mindset with a passion for creating effective, enjoyable, and aesthetically pleasing digital experiences.

                Product Design
                **

            Become an integral part of our product development team as a Product Design Intern, contributing to the creation of user-centered and innovative products. This internship offers a unique opportunity to be involved in the entire product lifecycle, from ideation to iteration. If you have a passion for understanding user needs, solving complex problems through design, and creating impactful and user-friendly products, we encourage you to apply!

**Requirements**

- A strong portfolio showcasing your design process and problem-solving skills.
- Familiarity with user-centered design (UCD) principles and methodologies.
- Strong understanding of the product design lifecycle (or Industrial Design life cycle)
- Proficiency in design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD (or similar).
- Basic proficiency in 3D modelling tools like Sketchup.
- Understanding of user research methods and the ability to translate insights into design decisions.
- Experience with creating wireframes, prototypes, and user flows.
- Basic understanding of visual design principles, usability, and accessibility.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills.
- A curious and empathetic mindset with a passion for creating meaningful products.

                Web, Interaction and Graphic Design
                **

            Join our creative team as a Web, Interaction, and Graphic Design Intern and contribute to crafting engaging and visually appealing digital experiences. This internship offers a unique opportunity to blend your passion for aesthetics, user-centered design, and web functionality. If you have a strong visual eye, an understanding of user interaction principles, and a desire to create impactful digital products, we'd love to hear from you!

**Requirements**

- A portfolio showcasing your design skills in web design, graphic design, and/or interaction design.
- Proficiency in design software such as Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, and Figma (or similar), OR proficiency in web design tools like Framer, Webflow, Wordpress
- Understanding of animation design and implementation
- Basic understanding of web design principles, including layout, typography, and color theory.
- Familiarity with user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) concepts.
- Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is desirable.
- Understanding of responsive design principles.
- Strong understanding of graphic design principles.
- Strong visual communication skills and attention to detail.
- Ability to work collaboratively and incorporate feedback.
- A passion for creating user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing digital experiences.

                Artificial Intelligence (AI)
                **

            Join our cutting-edge AI team as an intern focused on the exciting intersection of Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). This unique opportunity will allow you to contribute to the development, deployment, and optimization of intelligent systems that understand and process human language. If you have a strong foundation in programming and a keen interest in both the engineering aspects of AI and the fascinating world of language, this internship offers a valuable chance to gain hands-on experience in two critical and rapidly growing areas of artificial intelligence.

**Requirements**

- Solid understanding of fundamental programming concepts.
- Familiarity with machine learning concepts and workflows.
- Basic understanding of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques (e.g., text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, language modeling).
- Exposure to or a strong interest in learning about MLOps principles, including model deployment, monitoring, and version control using tools like MLflow or similar.
- Familiarity with data versioning concepts and tools like DVC (Data Version Control) is a plus.
- Familiarity with relevant libraries and frameworks in both ML (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn) and NLP (e.g., NLTK, spaCy, transformers).
- Understanding of data manipulation and analysis using libraries like Pandas and NumPy.
- Basic understanding of containerization technologies (e.g., Docker) and cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) is a plus.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Excellent communication and a proactive approach to learning and contributing to a dynamic team.
- Familiarity with version control systems like Git.

                Game Development
                **

            Join our programming team as a Game Development Intern and contribute to the core mechanics and systems that drive our games. If you have a solid foundation in programming, enjoy tackling complex technical challenges within a creative context, and are eager to see your code bring game worlds to life, this internship offers a unique opportunity to hone your programming skills in the exciting field of game development.

**Requirements**

- Strong proficiency in at least one relevant programming language (e.g., C#, C++).
- Basic understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles.
- Familiarity with game engine architecture and scripting (e.g., Unity's MonoBehaviour, Unreal Engine's Actors).
- Understanding of fundamental concepts in game programming (e.g., physics, AI, animation).
- Experience with version control systems like Git.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- A passion for video games and a desire to contribute to gameplay and technical implementation.

                Game Tools Engineer
                **

            Join our dynamic team as a Game Tools Engineering Intern and contribute to the development and maintenance of tools that support our game developers and enhance our game development pipeline. This internship offers an exciting opportunity to learn about the game development process and gain hands-on experience in creating solutions that empower other developers. We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with a foundational understanding of Unity and C#, a passion for problem-solving, and a strong desire to learn about game development tools, software architecture, networking principles, and low-level programming concepts.

**Requirements**

- Basic understanding of Unity and C# programming.
- Familiarity with the C# syntax and a willingness to write clean code.
- Interest in learning about algorithms and their application in game development.
- Eagerness to learn the design, development, and maintenance of custom Unity Editor tools and plugins.
- Interest in understanding how tools can improve workflows for asset management, level design, data visualization, and debugging.
- Willingness to learn about maintaining custom packages within Unity.
- A desire to identify potential bottlenecks in the development pipeline and explore tool-based solutions.
- Basic familiarity with version control concepts, ideally Git.
- Developing debugging skills and a willingness to learn how to identify and resolve issues in Unity projects.
- Interested in backend development.
- Interest in understanding the game development life cycle (GDLC) or SDLC.
- Ability to work collaboratively within a team and contribute to tool development tasks.
- Strong communication skills and a willingness to ask questions and learn from experienced developers.
- Currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field with coursework in Computer Networks and Software Architecture.
- Basic understanding of networking concepts and socket programming is a plus.
- Above average grades in introductory programming, software development, computer networks, and software architecture coursework are a plus.

                Web Development
                **

            Join as a Web Development Intern to assist in building and maintaining engaging and functional web apps. If you have a keen interest in front-end and back-end technologies, enjoy problem-solving, and are ready to work on real-world projects, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

**Requirements**

- Knowledge of HTML, JavaScript, and relevant web development frameworks.
- Basic understanding of server-side languages such as React.js, Next.js, or Node.js.
- Familiarity with version control systems like Git.
- Strong problem-solving abilities and a proactive mindset.
- Experience with responsive and adaptive design is desirable.

                Software Engineering
                **

            Join our team at Grayhat as a Software Engineering Intern, contributing to the successful planning, execution, and delivery of our software development projects. If you have strong organizational and communication skills, an interest in technology, and a desire to learn about the structured processes that drive software creation, this internship offers a valuable opportunity to gain hands-on experience in managing complex technical projects.

**Requirements**

- Strong organizational and time-management skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication abilities.
- Basic understanding of project management principles and methodologies.
- Familiarity with different Software Development Lifecycles (SDLCs) such as Agile, Waterfall, etc.
- Interest in learning about project planning tools and techniques.
- Ability to work collaboratively within a team environment.
- Proactive attitude and a willingness to learn about the software development process.
- Proficiency in basic office software (e.g., Google Workspace, Microsoft Office Suite).
- Any prior exposure to software development concepts is a plus.

                Quality Assurance (QA) and Testing
                **

            Become a crucial part of our engineering process as a QA and Testing Intern. You'll contribute to ensuring the quality and reliability of our software and applications through meticulous manual **and automated** testing and analysis. If you possess a sharp eye for detail, enjoy identifying and resolving issues, and are passionate about delivering high-quality products, this internship offers a fantastic opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the world of software quality assurance.

**Requirements**

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail.
- Basic understanding of software testing principles and methodologies, **including automated testing concepts**.
- Familiarity with different types of testing (e.g., functional, usability, regression), **and an interest in learning about test automation**.
- Ability to clearly document and communicate test results and identified defects.
- **Exposure to or a willingness to learn automation tools and frameworks.**
- Experience with bug tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Bugzilla) is a plus.
- A proactive approach and a desire to learn and contribute to a quality-focused team.

                Business Operations
                **

            Join our Business team as a Business Operations Intern, where you'll gain valuable experience in HR operations, account executive operations, marketing, social media, and more. This role is perfect for individuals with excellent interpersonal skills, a passion for people management, and a desire to learn about HR, marketing and sales practices in a dynamic environment.

**Requirements**

- Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
- Basic understanding of HR or Sales or Marketing principles and practices.
- Excellent organizational and time-management abilities.
- Proficiency in Google Office Suite (or Microsoft).
- Prior experience or coursework in HR is beneficial.

        Click Here to Apply for Summer Internship 2025## Wait, there's more!

### Do your Final Year Project/Thesis with us

Grayhat has built strong ties with academia for the past two years. We've collaborated with:

- GIKI (Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology) - Swabi
- FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences - Islamabad
- NUST (National University of Science and Technology) - Islamabad
- MAJU - Karachi
- NEDUET - Karachi
- Beaconhouse National University - Lahore

With students and faculty from the above universities, we've supervised multiple Final Year Projects to fruition, out of which 80%+ receive an A grade (or better).

This year, we plan to engage **Final Year students **from **all universities across the world, **and also plan to onboard **MS Thesis **students with our program.

So if you're an undergraduate or postgrad student looking to spend your year building something impactful, fill out the form below.

Click Here to Apply for FYP/MS Thesis Supervision## Previous Final Year Projects

### 2024-2025 (latest)

###

                Babelfish
                **

            As part of our continued movement to push the boundaries of human communication, Grayhat supervised ****Babelfish, ****a real-time voice translation engine, in a collaboration with BIOMISA.

*****BIOMISA *******is a lab at College of EME, NUST leading the research in BioMedical Image and Signal Analysis. It's led by *******Dr. Usman Akram *******who is one of the youngest PhDs of Pakistan, working in AI in healthcare. **

                ActorDB
                **

            After struggling with introducing Omni to professional video editors, we found it necessary to build an open-source video-indexing engine which could later be ported to Adobe Premiere Pro.

                WorkStack
                **

            Grayhat self-hosts most of its digital infrastructure, on its on-premises server systems. To make work smoother, we have a "stack" of tools we use. This project aimed to make that stack more deeply integrated with one another.

                Deepfake Detection Dashboard
                **

            Where we build deepfakes (for good), we also needed a protection and tagging verification for our generations.

        ### 2023-2024

                DubLingo
                **

            We rebuilt our original dubbing engine for Urdu, in our collaboration with UrduX.

*****UrduX *******is a lab at FAST NUCES leading the research in Natural Language Processing. It's led by *******Dr. Mehreen Alam******* who is a dedicated researcher and a proud Pakistani who wants to push the boundaries of AI in Pakistan. She is truly aiming for academic and industry collaboration. **

Learn more: LinkedIn post

        ### 2022-2023

                Dublr
                **

            Our original pipeline was rebuilt with more modern components, in collaboration with students from GIKI, Topi, Swabi.

## FAQs

                What do we look for?
                **

            Above all, we look for individuals who are willing to commit to learning and growth. It can get rough, but you come out polished.

                Will the internship be paid?
                **

            Yes, internships at Grayhat are paid.

                What is the duration of this internship?
                **

            2 months.

                What is the selection process?
                **

            We receive all applications directly through our website and review each by hand. Our recruiting team will reach out to further discuss application materials if we find a relevant match in skillset and experience.

                How long until I'll get a response?
                **

            It usually takes a week or 2.

                Where is Grayhat located?
                **

            https://g.co/kgs/qdGj2mZ

                Is the FYP/Thesis program paid?
                **

            Depends. Grayhat has a policy of hiring part-time people only from their FYP/Thesis groups.

                How does supervision work? Is it done entirely by the Grayhat team, or in collaboration with our university supervisor?
                **

            Your academic supervisor is your primary supervisor. They will guide you in terms of:

- - Timelines with the university
- How to conduct academic research
- They will review your academic submissions
- Q/A and technical details/guidance on deliverables

A Grayhat representative would be your secondary supervisor. They will guide you in terms of:

- - Conducting product market research
- Properly structuring your team
- Running the SDLC (or equivalent)
- Product mindset
- Drive to deploy to market

Note that neither of them are project managers. We don't manage projects, we just enable students to be the best they can be. It is up to them to learn the professionalism and delivery. We allow them access into our networks so they can interact with academia across Pakistan, our engineers and our designers.

                Do we need formal approval or permission from our faculty to do the FYP with you?
                **

            Yes. But first fill out the form, let's talk, and we can figure out the details with your university afterwards.

                Further Queries?
                **

            You can contact us at talal.ahmed.khan@grayhat.studio.

He's our DevRel, so if you have any queries related to Grayhat, he's got the answer!

### [Wrap-up: Web Social Party Game Jam!](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/web-social-party-game-jam)

- Slug: `web-social-party-game-jam`
- Published: 2025-04-28T18:41:28.000+05:00
- Updated: 2025-04-29T01:03:14.000+05:00
- Reading time: 7 min
- Tags: Events, Game Design, Gaming, Unity, Playroom, PlayroomKit, Announcements, Multiplayer Gaming
- Authors: Talal Ahmed Khan
- Visibility: public

ℹ️This is just the beginning for us.Picture this: **65 game developers**, **10 universities**, and **48 chaotic hours** to build multiplayer card games from scratch. Why did we do it? Simple—**to break things at scale.**

At Grayhat, we’ve been building **PlayroomKit for Unity** for months—testing mechanics, debugging sync issues, taking the SDK to production (finally! 🥲) and pitching wild ideas to Little Umbrella. But why keep the fun to ourselves?

### **Get the bread**

✅ **Massive Playground for Experiments**
We set the *exact same challenges* we face in client projects—multiplayer sync, turn systems, state management—and let **10x more developers** crash into them. The result? A goldmine of feedback, failed prototypes, and genius workarounds. (*Jou cheez hum kar rahay hain, wohi in say karwa kay dekho!*)

✅ **Direct Firehose of Talent & Ideas**
No theory, no hypotheticals—just **raw, unfiltered game dev chaos**. Our team (@Talha, @Saad, @Talal, @Zohair) got to mentor, troubleshoot, and *be inspired by good ideas* (shhh) from jammers. Some of these concepts? **Mindstorm-level potential.**

✅ **Side Perks**

- HR training? Check. (*Nothing teaches like a room full of panicked devs.*)
- Marketing boost? Check. (*Nothing sells like screaming students.*)
- PlayroomKit partnership leveled up? **Big check.**

### **Why NaSCon?**

- **Lesser (not zero) logistical nightmares** (Islamabad = home turf)
- **FAST-NUCES host team = instant synergy**
- **Recruitment pipeline?** (*Hello, future Grayhat hires.*)

Bottom line? **We didn’t just run a game jam—we weaponized it.** And this was just **our first time.**

### **The Game Judging Panel 👁️**

The Game Jam’s submissions were evaluated by **Tabish Ahmed** and **Aaron (aka @swagshaw on Discord)** from **Playroom/Little Umbrella**, two key figures in the multiplayer gaming space.

**Tabish Ahmed**, a co-founder of **Little Umbrella**, has been instrumental in shaping Playroom’s vision for accessible multiplayer game development. His background in product strategy in various FAANG companies (Google, Meta, Adobe) and developer ecosystems made him the perfect judge for assessing both technical execution and creative design.

**Aaron (@swagshaw)**, Playroom’s Developer Advocate, is a well-known voice in indie game dev circles—especially on Discord, where he helps run the **Boss Rush Game Jam**. His deep understanding of gamejamming and hands-on experience gave him unique insight into how teams could leverage the SDK’s multiplayer features to build unique games.

*(Next up: The full story of how 65 devs survived 3 days of multiplayer madness.)* 🚀

## **Day 1: Learning, Brainstorming & Chaos**

📍 **Venue:** FAST-NUCES, Islamabad

- **9:00 AM:** The FAST-NUCES host team arrived, setting up projectors, decorations, and (most importantly) water bottles.
- **12:00 PM:** Participants rolled in—some confident, some nervous, all excited.
- **Problem Statement Drop:** "Build an original multiplayer card game. No Uno clones!" (We had to enforce this *multiple* times.)
- **Workshop Time:** The Grayhat team, spearheaded by **Talha Momin**, ran a **PlayroomKit deep dive**, explaining multiplayer sync, game states, and how to avoid disasters.
- **Most Chaotic Moment:** A last-minute Wi-Fi firewall problem forced some teams to **hotspot from their phones**.

By evening, teams had rough prototypes—some functional, some… *experimental*.

*****The "How to use PlayroomKit" Workshop, delivered by Talha Momin (Software Engineer 1)

## **Day 2: Build Day**

🕒 **9:30 AM:** Host team arrived
🕒 **10:30 AM:** Teams returned, looking slightly more tired but determined.

- **The Great Multiplayer Struggle:** Many teams hit roadblocks with PlayroomKit syncing.- *"Why does my card disappear when I play it?"*
- *"Why is my opponent seeing a different hand?!"*

- **Grayhat to the Rescue:** Volunteers ran from table to table, fixing bugs and calming nerves.
- **Underdog Story:** Team *"Anicards"*—who had zero Unity experience before the jam—somehow built a working animal battle card game. Legends.

By **2 PM**, exhausted but hopeful, teams left to polish their games overnight.

****Day 2 was mostly about coding, and collaborating

## **Day 3: Judgement Day**

🏆 **8:00 AM:** Final sprint—some teams arrived **early**, frantically fixing last-minute bugs.

- **9:00 AM:** Judges arrived (Grayhat on-site + Playroom online). The pressure was *on*.
- **Judging time:**- *5th Ace* had judges super impressed with a well thought out genre-blender game.
- *Anicards* – Well, at least it worked!
- *Others – *mostly submitted half-baked designs and implementations. But understandable given the duration of the event.

- **Winner Announcement:**- **🥇 1st Place:** *5th Ace* (PKR 50,000) – "A genius social deception game!"
- **🥈 Runner-Up:** *Anicards* (PKR 30,000) – "Simple, polished, and fun!"

- **Most Emotional Moment:** The *Anicards* team (all first-time Unity users) **celebrated like they’d won the lottery**.

## **What Participants Said**

Here's the real, unfiltered participant feedback from the Game Jam, presented clearly and honestly:

### Participant Testimonials: The Good, The Bad, and The Real

The Frustrations*"PlayroomKit is not good - it doesn't make game dev easy. We spent hours just trying to get basic multiplayer working."*

*"My cards remained static and unplayable even though I made sure they were copied prefabs from the original. After analyzing the code for hours, I had to change my entire strategy."*

*"The introduction of PlayroomKit was a surprise that threw us off. We needed at least a week to properly learn it before competing."*

The Technical Challenges*"Biggest struggle? Definitely PlayroomKit integration. The initial setup was confusing and we lost valuable time."*

*"We're newbies and making a multiplayer game without prior experience is hard. The documentation wasn't enough for beginners."*

*"The Discord activity integration was unclear. A short tutorial would have helped immensely."*

The Positive Experiences*"The mentors were incredibly helpful. When we were stuck, they came to our table and solved our issues personally."*
("Anicards" team member)

*"Despite the challenges, I'm now fully entering game dev because of this event. The hands-on experience was invaluable."*
(Enthusiastic participant)

*"Card designing was the most enjoyable part for me. Seeing our creations come to life was rewarding."*
(Anonymous artist)

Suggestions for Improvement*"Don't limit developers to specific tools. Let us use what we're comfortable with."*
(Anonymous developer)

*"Announce required SDKs at least 3 days before the jam. Learning new tech during competition is stressful."*
("Doctor vs Virus" team)

*"More time! Two days isn't enough, especially when learning new tools. A 5-day jam would be better."*
(Multiple participants)

The Real Talk*"Nascon management was terrible. But the Game Jam organizers themselves were great - responsive and helpful."*
(Blunt participant)

*"There's nothing a student enjoys more than staring at Visual Studio for 3 hours, taking a break, then staring for 3 more. 10/10 would do again."*
(Sarcastic but dedicated participant)

*"The competition felt like 50% game dev and 50% wrestling with external tools. More focus on actual game creation would be better."*
(Experienced participant)

The Silver Linings*"Even though we didn't finish, we learned so much about multiplayer sync that we couldn't have learned in classes."*
("Cards Clash" team)

*"The Q&A session at the end was super helpful for understanding what we did wrong."*
(First-time jammer)

*"Seeing our simple animal battle game actually work in multiplayer was magical. Worth all the frustration."*
("Anicards" team)

📉 **Biggest Struggles:**

- **Multiplayer sync issues** (of course)
- **Confusing PlayroomKit setup** (npm + Unity = headaches)
- **Time pressure** (many teams couldn’t finish in the short duration)

## **Key Takeaways**

✅ **PlayroomKit is dope but needs better docs & templates.**
✅ **Multiplayer is HARD.** (But rewarding when it works.)
✅ **Original ideas win.** (No Uno clones made it to finals.)
✅ **Mentors = heroes.** (Shoutout to the Grayhat squad.)

## **What’s Next?**

🔜 **More Jams, More Games:** We’re already planning the next one—bigger prizes, smoother onboarding, and maybe even a **Discord integration challenge**.

🚀 **For Playroom/Little Umbrella:**

- **Better Unity docs** (please!)
- **One-click starter templates** (save us from npm hell)
- **Native build support?** (WebGL is cool but limiting.)

🎮 **For Participants:** Keep polishing those games—some of these deserve a real release!

### **Final Words**

Huge thanks to:

- **FAST-NUCES** for hosting.
- **Playroom/Little Umbrella** for the SDK + judging.
- **All participants** for the chaos, the memes, and the awesome games.

**Missed this one? Don’t worry—we’re just getting started.** 🚀

## **Play the Winning Games**

### The 5th Ace (Winner 👑)

**Team:** Neva

**Playable Demo:** https://5thace.playroom.gg

**Concept:**

- A **social deduction card game** blending bluffing and strategy.
- Players alternate roles: *Liar* (creates false card combos) vs. *Detective* (calls out bluffs).
- Power-ups add meta-layers to deception.

**Why Explore Further?**

- Proven fun factor with minimal assets (Minecraft-inspired UI).
- Scalable for Discord’s social ecosystem.
- Potential to expand with themed decks (e.g., cyberpunk, fantasy).

Unity WebGL Player | 5th Ace*5th Ace### **Anicards** (Runner-Up 🥈)

**Team:** Red Team

**Playable Demo:** https://anicards.playroom.gg

**Concept:**

- Animal-themed **asymmetric battle game** where cards represent creatures with unique powers.
- Lightweight but functional multiplayer sync via PlayroomKit.

**Why Explore Further?**

- Simple core loop ideal for quick sessions.
- Easy to reskin for educational/children’s markets.
- Could integrate NFT-style collectible animals.

Unity WebGL Player | ANICARDS*ANICARDS### **Other Game Jam Submissions (Non-Winners)**

- **Doctor vs Virus** *(Learning Squad)*- Asymmetric card game: Doctor (heals) vs. Virus (infects organs).

- **MCards** *(Usama)*- Multiplayer solitaire-style card game.

- **Solo Leveling: Hunters Unleashed** *(Lada)*- Fast-paced boss-battling card game with gear/summon mechanics.

- **2Q (Monster Duel)** *(2Q Team)*- Turn-based monster battle with elemental strengths/weaknesses.

- **Cards Clash** *(Ziki Team)*- Unfinished card combat game (concept only).

- **Unnamed Card Game** *(NebrasAssad)*- Attempted dynamic card system with prefab issues.

### [Mastra MCP AI Hackathon, and the Illegal Agents pivot](https://grayhat-company-blog.grayhatstudio.workers.dev/blog/mastra-mcp-ai-hackathon-and-the-illegal-agents-pivot)

- Slug: `mastra-mcp-ai-hackathon-and-the-illegal-agents-pivot`
- Published: 2025-05-10T10:49:00.000+05:00
- Updated: 2025-05-19T02:02:01.000+05:00
- Reading time: 5 min
- Tags: AI, Events, Agents, LLMs, Innovation, Artificial Intelligence, Announcements
- Authors: Saad Bazaz, Talal Ahmed Khan
- Visibility: public

The first **Illegal Agents AI Hackathon** was a groundbreaking success, with **70 developers** from 13+ universities competing to build the most innovative AI agent systems. After intense judging rounds, we're proud to announce the winners who pushed the boundaries of what's possible with MCP technology.

## 🏆 Meet the Champions

### 1st Place: Omni Recruiter by Hashim Muhammad Nadeem

**The Ultimate HR Automation Suite**

*
This end-to-end recruitment system combines **7 custom MCP servers** to:

- Screen resumes from Google Drive
- Analyze LinkedIn profiles (posts/likes/activity)
- Conduct AI phone interviews with voice synthesis
- Create GitHub repos for technical assessments
- Send follow-up emails autonomously

*Judges' note: "A staggeringly complete implementation that demonstrates MCP's potential in enterprise workflows."*

### 2nd Place: AI Software Engineer by Talha Ali

*An autonomous coding assistant that:

- Writes and tests production-ready code
- Pushes to GitHub repositories
- Updates Supabase databases
- Sends Slack notifications with test results

# All Projects Showcase

Here are all the projects with a valid, working submission.

### SummitAI by Abdullah Ashfaq

*Revolutionizes meeting management by:

- Extracting action items from notes/docs
- Creating structured summaries
- Sending alerts to Discord channels
- File management automation

## GitHub-Slack-Zoom Connector by Hamas Akram

*Connects development workflows by:

- Integrating GitHub with Slack
- Enabling Zoom meeting interactions
- Automating team collaboration

## Excalidraw Agent by Abdullah

*Visualizes ideas by:

- Programmatically interacting with Excalidraw
- Creating/updating visual diagrams
- Saving drawings automatically

## YouTube Analyzer by Muhammad Zubair

*Enhances video consumption by:

- Extracting key information from YouTube links
- Generating summaries and notes
- Enabling video Q&A
- Finding specific content

## Discord Moderator by Kaleemullah Younas

*

Automates server management by:

- Scanning and moderating messages
- Enforcing community rules
- Managing roles/channels
- Issuing warnings and alerts

## Vision Buddy by Anas Khan

*Supports student success by:

- Planning educational journeys
- Finding scholarships/opportunities
- Preparing for interviews
- Creating study roadmaps

## n8n Workflow Manager by Mubashir Hamad

Create and Share Interactive Product Demos for Free | SupademoShowcase your product with interactive product demos and guides that can be easily shared as a link or embedded in your website and blogs. Drive product adoption, increase engagement, and boost retention.*Supademo*Automates workflows by:

- Managing n8n automation workflows
- Editing/updating workflows
- Syncing with GitHub repositories

## Instagram Post Automator by Samiullah

*

Simplifies social media by:

- Generating post content from descriptions
- Auto-publishing to Instagram
- Sending completion notifications

## GitHub Repo Creator by Shozab Mehdi

*Accelerates development by:

- Creating GitHub repositories on command
- Simplifying project setup
- Handling repository initialization

## Workflow Automation Scout by Muhammad Usman

*

Enhances productivity by:

- Analyzing repetitive tasks
- Providing automation guidance
- Implementing workflow solutions

## GitHub-Slack Manager by Abdullah Faisal

Built a Slack-based Dev Assistant in 24 hours. Watch the demo. | ABDULLAH FAISAL posted on the topic | LinkedInJust dropped a quick demo of our Slack-based Dev Assistant built during NaSCon AI Hackathon.💻 Platform used: illegalagents.ai Talk to it like a human — it reviews PRs, creates repos, writes docs, edits code & even notifies your team. All from illegalagents. No tab switching. No drama.
Check it out 👇*LinkedInMUHAMMAD AHMED*Streamlines development by:

- Managing GitHub functions
- Providing Slack notifications
- Keeping teams informed

## The Sentinel by Sohaib Sarosh Shamsi

*Improves code quality by:

- Generating unit tests automatically
- Identifying untested API endpoints
- Analyzing endpoint functionality
- Integrating with CI/CD pipelines

## Discord Time Scheduler by Shah Faisal

AI agent schedules and reschedules on Discord | Faisal Azmat posted on the topic | LinkedInImagine your calendar saying: 'Hold up... you can’t be in two places at once.'" Meet a Discord-native AI agent with a mind of its own — it schedules, detects overlaps, and negotiates your time like a personal assistant that never sleeps (and never asks for a raise ☕). Built during my first AI hackathon using Illegal Agents website, this isn’t just AI on Discord — it’s AI in sync with you. In this short demo:
💬 Natural conversation
⚠️ Smart conflict detection
🔁 Real-time rescheduling
All happening inside your server. 🎥 Watch it in action — because calendars should be more than just boxes and dates. #AI #HackathonProject #SmartScheduling #Automation #DiscordAgent #CreativeTech #StudentInnovation #illegalagents.ai*LinkedInAlexander Mejia*Organizes time by:

- Creating events from natural language
- Detecting scheduling conflicts
- Suggesting resolution options
- Updating schedules dynamically

## Omni Swap by Muhammad Etisam Ul Haq

*

Supports developers by:

- Providing code analysis/review
- Offering debugging assistance
- Suggesting architectural designs
- Recommending best practices

## Code Scribe by Muhammad Etisam Ul Haq

*

Automates documentation by:

- Analyzing code files
- Generating structured docs
- Saving to project directories
- Maintaining documentation

## By the Numbers: Hackathon Impact

***Developer Feedback:**

- 92% said MCP concepts were clearly explained
- 10/10 recommendation score from winners
- "Super easy to make AI agents quickly!" - Hashim M. Nadeem (1st Place)

## What We Learned

### The Good:

✅ **Rapid Prototyping Works**
Teams built complex agents like YouTube Analyzer and Instagram Poster in View LinkedIn announcement
- Join our Discord to continue building

**