"Those then, who resist a confirmation of public order, are the true Artificers of monarchy—not that this is the intention of the generality of them. Yet it would not be difficult to lay the finger upon some of their party who may justly be suspected. When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may 'ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.'"
Interesting quote.
Imagine a place where you did real life quests, sung in a bar, and met actors who were characters in a continuous story. That was Evermore park. It was inspiration for my job, and one of the few Theme Parks that was known in the Pacific Northwest. It has been declared over
There appears to be two parts to this story. One, the person who owned the land had no idea how to run it and wants to build something he understands. Two, the people who did know how to run it were caught up in their own SJW hug box they couldn't see outside of their own problems.
The creator of Evermore also created the Void VR experience company. They did well, but had terrible financial planning. The company has gone into different hands since then, but the original idea is great. Players wear VR gear and walk through actual hallways with props. Everything feels like what is being seen through the visor. It's a genius thing, and way ahead of it's time. They even had a location at Disney world
Bretschnieder now runs the Grid, which is a giant interactive FEC. Mixed reality go karts, smaller VR experiences and more.
- www.thegrid.com
It's not only sad to see it go, but also shows signs of innovation being crushed by bad management and people who prey on these organizations.
VR AR MR XR
Mannequin is a prop hunting multiplayer game
Promotional article for TV show 3 Body Problem that reviews the headset in the show.
Interaction has to change for XR to actually work.
VR Chairs are coming to theaters.
Taskmaster VR lets you make your own tasks
Gundam VR preview
Blue Wave uses of XR equipment may be a new open spot for attack. Blue Wave is the equipment that works within the military to follow each member. Tech heads have wanted to have a full UI for servicemen for a long time. Attacks could make the equipment cause nausea.
Myst sequel Riven coming to VR
XR and education, an argument for more
Companies are trying to find a way to make money off of XR in the public space
Arcade experience via VR
Zero Latency is a location based VR company
A two year old article about how VR hasn't risen to the heights expected. It's a good look at the problems VR is having, and the solutions being used.
XR: Vision Pro
Review of the Vision Pro by Wired. It's nice, but has problems and doesn't work very well. They sold tech, not an experience
The Matrix is viewable through an app
https://youtube.com/shorts/O6le7WFtmuQ
Vision Pro 2 could launch sooner than expected.
NVidia Omniverse now available on Vision Pro
VR: PSVR 2
Review of PSVR2 one year in.
Games coming to PS VR 2
PSVR2 has stopped being manufactured. The games haven't been exclusive and the competition too strong
Is this the next Vita?
XR: Meta
Meta has a funding program for designers
Amnesia gets a fan remake for Quest 2 and 3
Meta has an XR program that labels, measures, and documents things it sees.
Oculus accounts being deleted
_M: LG and Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg visited LG To discuss VR hardware. The article was read by AI translation. .
Another article about the visit
XR: Quest 3
This article talks about the popularity of the Quest series and how the Vision Pro will change the use of XR devices to much more expensive upper middle class workers. Personally I think it doesn't matter, because you need a good use for either and neither company really does that.
Why Quest 3 could be the next Wii experience. That article is paid for.
Quest 3 is more powerful than expected. It can mimic a low level gaming rig.
Film TV
Why Dark Crystal and Labyrinth couldn't be made today, by the Hensons themselves.
A new live action edition of City Hunter is being made. Jackie Chan dressed as Chun Li will not be present.
The movie that inspired Resident Evil is getting a remaster
There is a horror movie universe based on old Disney animated movies. It's being worked on right now and is called the Poohniverse. So we getting some Poohn Tang here.
Spiderwick Chronicles Reboot. Exact changes expected happens.
Deadpool and Wolverine is a reboot of the MCU. Speculation ensues
I love the scene in Dune 2 when Kevin Bacon shows up
Super Mario Bros 2 announced
Picard season 2 was rewritten because it felt too star Trek says writers
Kaiju Pangolin vs Giant Snake is being made by a Chinese company
The Netflix Film executive who left the company is now producing a movie about Bruce Springsteen
Why Harry Met Sally is sexist. The term high maintenance is seen as sexist.
The movie Starship Troopers was never about the book, and the director just wanted to complain about fascism
The 3 Body Problem is a terrible adaption of the book, here's why it's a good thing. This was a book that caused a huge during the sad puppies protests, because each side liked the book.
An article about the relevance of the Matrix today. It mentions red pill
San Harmon's latest show is about blue aliens from Strange Planet
Warner Bros Animation gets new leadership from Netflix and others
Madame Web died by committee not the Message says actress
Using Unreal Engine to make Dune 2
Film Noir classic Night of the Hunter is getting a remake.
Can Warner Bros Uncancel JK Rowling? Does it matter?
Star Trek Reboot movie 4 is still being made, but it could be the last.
FTV: Videogames
Earthbound documentary about fans of the game
Rooster Teeth is no more
Starfield animated story
FTV: Disney+
Disney is making an aliens movie between the first two movies. The director loves the films and has the blessing of the two major creators. He's using a lot of practical effects and wanted it to look natural. It's coming out for Disney+.
Disney+ is getting Macross
Star Wars Acolyte is about sith before Palpatine. It's mostly women.
Theme Parks and Experiences
Area 15 by Meow Wolf is coming to Orlando.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1u2pcGvQ73/
The story of the terrible Willy Wonka experience in Scotland has gotten the creator a new name, Willy Wanker. He has done worse things in the past it seems.
Joe Rohde, a retired imagineer, is visiting his old office to give lectures on design
Mattel is getting a full park in Kansas City. Disney once had a Barbie park, but it lasted a week at best.
TPE: Universal Epic How to Train your Dragon
They are slowly revealing information about the new Epic Universe Park. This month is the Island of Berk from How to Train Your Dragon. It is kid friendly with a play park, and water cannon target ride. Check out the website
Have the fly through video
USA today has a nice article on it. The park looks like fun for a day.
A good overview of Berk using the concept art posted.
Have a generalized article about Epic Universe
TPE: Disney
Disney changed Splash Mountain. They made it look like it was a response to criticism. Instead, the critics were likely hired to promote a new ride by talking about how racist the old one was.
Star Tours will get a new lease on life and be inspired by the universe the Mandalorian created
Disney is getting a drone show
Parts of the Star Cruiser hotel are headed to California for events at Disneyland
TPM: Sim Racing Theme
An F1 Sim Racing experience is getting popular
The Lego Ferrari experience is coming to Legoland Florida
Pagani has a Sim Racing setup for the Huayra. This could also be in cars.
TPE: Digital Immersive Experiences
The term means projections, actors, and interactive programs that let a guest become part of the experience, instead of passively viewing it. Here is an interview explaining the idea. Lots of buzzwords, but some good ideas.
Arcades have something for this called Immersive Gaming Rooms. I tried to build one for a class for my masters, but could only get one wall to work. It was a headache.
It's showing up for dinning experiences as well.
This article says VR at a pub, but it's actually a small immersion room.
TPE: Kevin Williams Articles
Investment for entertainment is pivoting to a more digital interactive scene.
EAG rundown
Arcade FEC Social Gaming
A retro arcade that took 10 years to make burnt down
Most iconic pinball tables
The story of namco slowly leaving the arcade business. They made an all time favorite while trying to make money during this time.
VR is in a lot of trouble. The PlayStation VR2 is not doing well.
VR: PSVR 2
Review of PSVR2 one year in.
Games coming to PS VR 2
PSVR2 has stopped being manufactured. The games haven't been exclusive and the competition too strong
Is this the next Vita?
The Quest line is actually doing somewhat good.
Why Quest 3 could be the next Wii experience. That article is paid for.
Quest 3 is more powerful than expected. It can mimic a low level gaming rig.
But it's sales are not doing Switch or PlayStation style numbers. Mark Zuckerberg has been talking to other companies about releasing headgear without as much internal investment by Meta.
_M: LG and Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg visited LG To discuss VR hardware. The article was read by AI translation. .
Another article about the visit
Which leaves us to the Apple Vision Pro. This is expected to bring an upper middle class treatment for VR to continue.
This article talks about the popularity of the Quest series and how the Vision Pro will change the use of XR devices to much more expensive upper middle class workers. Personally I think it doesn't matter, because you need a good use for either and neither company really does that.
It is a popular idea with people lining up to help it move forward.
NVidia Omniverse now available on Vision Pro
By this Wired review it's more tech than actual experience.
Review of the Vision Pro by Wired. It's nice, but has problems and doesn't work very well. They sold tech, not an experience
VR as a home use just has a lot of problems with no real answers. The hype for it seems to be based on videogame console sales, but nothing is reaching those heights.
However the out of home market seems to be finding ways to use it. First off, it's not VR, it's mixed reality or MR. A wall has a projector, with sensors watching your movements. Headgear can be involved, but is not necessary.
Themed Experiences do this all the time with companies like Meow Wolf.
Area 15 by Meow Wolf is coming to Orlando.
Or the F1 Simulator experience.
TPM: Sim Racing Theme
An F1 Sim Racing experience is getting popular
The Lego Ferrari experience is coming to Legoland Florida
Pagani has a Sim Racing setup for the Huayra. This could also be in cars.
Using the new tech for an experience creates a Digital Interactive Experience.
TPE: Digital Immersive Experiences
The term means projections, actors, and interactive programs that let a guest become part of the experience, instead of passively viewing it. Here is an interview explaining the idea. Lots of buzzwords, but some good ideas.
Arcades have something for this called Immersive Gaming Rooms. I tried to build one for a class for my masters, but could only get one wall to work. It was a headache.
It's showing up for dinning experiences as well.
This article says VR at a pub, but it's actually a small immersion room.
Investment for entertainment is pivoting to a more digital interactive scene.
Companies are trying to find a way to make money off of XR in the public space
It really does look like the out of home experience is more likely to make enough than the in home experience. The problem is this takes away from the aim of the companies for the home use VR. They want VR to replace your work desk and home theater. If entertainment is pointing away from that, their take over of those household areas does not win.
There are arguments that the stay at home method will take over.
XR and education, an argument for more
Arcade experience via VR
There was a fairly open secret that XR was ring funded for military use, but now it has problems.
Blue Wave uses of XR equipment may be a new open spot for attack. Blue Wave is the equipment that works within the military to follow each member. Tech heads have wanted to have a full UI for servicemen for a long time. Attacks could make the equipment cause nausea.
VR not making it big at the home is not a new conversation either.
A two year old article about how VR hasn't risen to the heights expected. It's a good look at the problems VR is having, and the solutions being used.
Meanwhile movie theaters are getting VR chairs set up for group viewing
VR Chairs are coming to theaters.
VR is not making it to the home, but the ideas are working for themed experiences out of the home.
It's amazing how much retro gaming has been used to sell games. The first part is articles written about nostalgia.
VG: Classics
Mech RTS games
Best Rare Games. This list includes games like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. It's multiple pages and I have archived all of them.
Tetris Sequel for Gameboy found
Elder Scrolls turns 30, and PC Gamer celebrates
Grandia Collection coming out
Yuji Naka learned to port and make games by porting Ghouls and Ghosts to the MegaDrive. This gave him the skill to program Sonic.
The 32x Castlevania that became Symphony of the Night
How the PS2 totally beat everyone else. It's a short read. It's also wrong.
10 Sega Classics on the Switch
A look back at European magazines talking about consoles
A look at Shigeru Miyamoto’s thoughts on game design 17 years ago.
Trip Hawkins talks about how he nearly got various companies united against Sony in the 90’s.
The best games for MegaDrive by year
Every game in the videogame hall of fame
_C: Konami
Top 10 Konami characters. I wish there was a Goemon collection with translations for the Japanese only games.
Best Konami games
Castlevania Bloodlines is 30 years old
10 Konami arcade games
The classics are told with a bit of nostalgia. Look at how the PlayStation is given a narrative of dominance. They did sell more consoles, but no where near the amount claimed. But this is the narrative, and it must be told this way.
But it gets deeper as you realize that this nostalgia is big money. Museums are being made to tell stories about videogames.
_C: Museums
The Strong Museum has 12 candidates for their hall of fame this year. Games like Myst, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and Metroid are up for the vote.
Nintendo museum is delayed
There is an entire industry selling games and products for classic gaming.
VG: Classic Indies
Grind is a Doom FPS style game for Amiga
Earthion is being released on modern consoles, PC, and MegaDrive. A SHMUP that pushes the console to its limits.
Super Mario if the CD Drive was real
Castlevania Revamped is a PC edition of the game with various upgrades.
Super Metroid port to MegaDrive is called Space Hunter
Virtual Reality from the N64
A ROM hack of Light Crusader gives the player a double jump.
Otogorisou has been translated to English. It's a Famicom visual novel game by chunsoft.
A Sega fan game maker is making his own game.
Breath of Thunder is coming out for several consoles including Virtual Boy
A rogue squadron style star wars game for the Dreamcast
An NES edition of SEGA Bass Fishing
Hard Knight and Haragon are new games for the Commodore 64
Toaplan games are heading to Steam. Truxton 2!
Sunsoft shows off games on Switch
CI: Classic Ports
You can now watch movies from the Atari 2600
Demons of Asteborg was made for the MegaDrive. It's being ported to the GBA and Neo Geo
Surprise Attack, the Konami arcade game, is being released to Switch and PS4
Check out that videos on Atari. I saw a similar set up for the TI99 a few years ago and was blown away. The guy showing it owned a retro computing store, and knew tons of people making ports and physical parts for old computers.
It's really hard to differentiate fan made fun stuff from people doing it professionally. For example, the company that made a game is releasing an open source version of it.
_CI: Freestars from Star Control
Star Control II is being released for free with a new name
Here is a Tweet about it.
Then we have a fan making ports of games, and then his own game which may or may not be sold.
_CI: FPS Dungeon for MegaDrive
Guy who created the Final Fight Mega Drive edition is making an FP RPG for the console
We have footage now
There are companies like Atari and Nightdive studios which only make modern ports for games.
_CI: Atari
Interview with the CEO of Atari. He wants to under promise and over deliver
Talk about Atari buying Nightdive and Digital Eclipse and how it's worked out
_CI: Nightdive
An interview with Nightdive studios and their CI port work
Dark Forces Remaster!
Nightdive studios publicly asks to port No One Lives Forever
I really want that port of No One Lives Forever. I had the demo, but never bought it. So a modern port would be great.
Physical stuff like toys, and computer remakes blur the lines just as quickly as the software side.
_CI: Physical bits
Commodore 64 keyboard revamp
Virtual On is getting a pedometer
What do you do with your mini console? Play it on a mini monitor!
How to modernize your console collection in a really convoluted way
You can now add a second screen to your steam deck. DS games will be much easier to emulate.
A look at the Atari 400 Mini
Altered Beast gets a toy line
That's a fan based company making toys for sale. The Atari 400 mini is especially cool to me because a friend is really into it. I got him a full sized XL once through my retro convention connections. He lost his 400 in a fire and still missed it.
If I taught videogame history I would include a class where students had to make games for old school consoles. Sure they start at QBASIC but Assembly, C, and C++ would be taught along with using level editors and stuff like SCRUMM. Let them slowly build up to the modern engine to see and understand the history.
There is so much Classic Indie work being done that it would be easy to set up and begin working.
VG: Opinions and Propaganda
Phil Spencer may be the one that destroys Xbox.
A lawsuit is coming for game makers that accuses them of making addictive practices to make more money. The response has been, “you can't sue us for making good games”.
This could be in AI or XR, but it starts about Videogames. Basically, you can predict things based on how it happened with videogames. Since tech and entertainment tend to be ahead of the market, and videogames are both, you can see what happens years ahead of what will happen with the general public.
Interview with women who work at Mojang. Buzzfeed article says diversity will help us all.
Why I stopped being a framerate snob… advert for Steam deck
33 games not on Switch
How Sweet Baby Inc ruined a game called Flintlock
A business model designed to milk small amounts of players, rather than selling well overall. Comparison to the Cable channel model.
Peter Moore doesn't think consoles should be a thing anymore. He should know, he killed the Dreamcast and led XBox. At the moment he leads Unity. The guy who looks like Satan should totally be believed.
VG: Business
Toys for Bob is making their own game. They usually make them by assignment, and have been very successful at it. The NFC toy games were started by them, and they created Tony Hawk Downhill Jam.
Nintendo restructures it's testing department
Gearbox started firing people as soon as it was bought by Embracer
Skull and Bones is slashed by $25 after three weeks on sail
Monopoly Go had a nearly half a billion promotional budget.
Activision QA has a large union now
Yellow Brick hints at the game they are making.
BioWare had an online game store that could have sold the Witcher and other big games. They didn't, and feel dumb now.
I don't know where to put this one, PC Rig news. It's all too expensive for me.
Valve created an orb for video making using steam decks they had lying around. Half Life 3 is still not released.
Falconeer is actually part of a game trilogy where each game is a different type, and they all tell the same story.
Capcom raises salaries in tough times
More Remedy games are planned
New MMO allows you to Bot the game, so every player has bots and the bot becomes part of the game.
Relic entertainment sold by SEGA
Russia wants to make it's own home console.
_B: Sony
Sony does not rise to the victory expected
You can own a bobblehead of Jim Ryan, the boss at PlayStation
PS5 was the top seller in February, but that's after console sale shrinkage. Helldiver's 2 is the best selling game.
_B: Warner Bros keeps on losing path
Warner Bros Gaming would rather commit suicide squad than make another successful Harry Potter game.
They really want that Fortnite style money
_B: XBox Exclusives and ports
Phil Spencer speculates about exclusives actually being needed anymore. He even wants Epic on Xbox
Some publishers and designers don't feel like making games for XBOX anymore. It's an attempt to create controversy.
_B: Unreal Engine Payment
Epic Games will start charging companies for use of their movie making and architecture displays.
More on the changes to the payment system
ESports to have a lot more consolidation
_B: EA Losses
EA drops star wars games and fires 650
EA is looking away from licensed games
_B: Saber Sold
Embracer sells Saber interactive along with other companies. This includes Metro series and new Warhammer 40k Space marine game
Space Marine is still being made
It's being delayed though
VG: Rumours
The Switch 2 could be announced in June
PS5 Pro
Dead Space 2 Remake
Handheld Xbox?
_R: SEGA
Streets of Rage and Virtual Fighter getting new games.
Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi are unreal engine remakes
VG: Design
A bit of detail on why Agent by Rockstar was dropped. They just didn't have the manpower to do it.
Free beginners course for Unreal Engine
Square Enix translators used Shakespearean English to make it feel more medieval. He was late Renaissance and was very flowery.
_D: Princess Peach and Goemon
The director of Princess Peach hasn't directed a game since Mystical Ninja Goemon for the N64.
The last classic Goemon was made a long time ago, and for the PlayStation
https://youtu.be/B_tcVhXyMLw?si=CAD77UGZXWkrU4ie
But, there is a spiritual successor by the same company that made the Princess Peach game.
_D: GDC
When to make your own game engine. A GDC speech
Subscription trends for World of Warcraft
How to promote a game through steam
Graphics discussions and how they are implemented
Level Design mentorship
Web3 Games Suck is a great way to get attention for your Web3 games
How to survive the gaming hell scape as an indie. Be small and adaptable.
Artsy indie games at GDC
_GDC: Wrap up Articles
Look at GDC after it ends
5 takeaways from GDC. It's a good article and does show the problems the industry is dealing with.
Almost 30,000 visited GDC
_GDC: Scream
A group go together to start
Screaming in a park
_GDC: Zelda
Nintendo told the director of Breath of the Wild his game was coming to Switch in an email
How they had to create multiple physics engines for Tears of the Kingdom. This meant the game had sounds not created by anyone.
_GDC: AAA and Creativity
It costs too much to be creative in the AAA field.
Maybe AAA deserves to die. Corporations are greedy! Become an indie!
_GDC: Unity
An overview of the Unity Presentation
The Unity Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9AGkB9nnkc
_GDC: Unreal
Unreal Engine 5.4 presentation
Here's the entire speech for Unreal Engine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVoQ5AH_wxI
The official webpage talking about it
Major optimizations
Elon Musk made an appearance
Fortnite will be from a nerfed unreal engine, fans are disappointed
Another outline of the presentation
_D: avid Lynch
David Lynch’s influence on videogames. He made Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Dune, and Eraserhead.
The influence of Twin Peaks on Zelda. The one where Link is in a dream world, the entire set up was based on the ideas from the show. Bob was no present.
Videogames
Remnant Protocol is a flight battle game that lets you upgrade and fund research for better rigs.
A colony building game called First Dwarf lets you play a dragon.
Artifact Seeker is designed to challenge Vampire Survivors
Outer Terror is a horror horde shooter with references to classic monsters. It can be played co-op or solo and has characters to choose from.
Marvel Rivals is a 6v6 character battle game
Build a city with actual equipment and design knowledge in The Constructors
Starship Simulator is exactly what it's named with some nice graphics to boot
Wild Bastards is a rogue like multi character FPS strategy game. It has colors, characters, and a bit of insanity
Empire of the Ants is an RTS game about ant wars
Luna Abyss is a Bullet Hell FPS
The Sinking City 2 has been announced
Sworn is a co-op for up to 4 players in a dark Arthurian legend styled rogue like
Project Birdseye is a twin stick action shooter set in the Callisto Protocol universe.
Dustborn gets some praise for its demo.
Zoochosis is a first person puzzle solving horror game.
Sixty Four is a computer designing game that can absorb your soul.
The Night Wanderer is a dark exploration game.
Gameplay overview of Judas by Bioshock creators
Unreal Physics is purely to show off Unreal Engine 5 Physics in a game
Weird Indie game Animal Well took years to make.
The Hayseed Knight is a beautiful visual novel with hand drawn looks
Tales of Iron 2 is a sequel and a 2D RPG side scroller
Raw Metal is a stealth fighting game. That's a weird description and weirder game. If you can get the drop on your opponent, you have their health. If they get the drop on you, they will be twice as hard.
Hellgate London gets a sequel after a few decades
A Metroidvania by CERN physicists called Exographer
Pixel Primal is about a caveman protecting his family from dinosaurs and aliens. It's a single creator game, and falls into the Metroidvania flavor.
Uforia: the saga 2 is a sequel of a game that came out in the 80’s. The style is Yoshi Story 64 and has a lot of interesting tricks.
VG: Old School Racing
Old School Racer has PS1 style graphics and feel
Yellow Taxi goes Vroom is an N64 like platformer with no jump button.
VG: Multi game articles
A bunch of articles on new games. The titles are Far Cry meets Fuzzle Wuzzle in this perfect metroidvania RPG. Good games, bad sensationalist titles. Games are Sand, Ashfall, Rooted, A Silent Desolation, and Serum.
Another set of articles on multiple games. Bitcraft is a an adventure explorer. Once Human is an open World exploration shooter. Enshrouded is a multiplayer survival game. Ashfall is a robot world fallout game. The Night Wanderer is a souls like action RPG.
Several articles on Witcher game series. Apparently Witcher 4 may not have Geralt, but most articles talk about a new adventure for him.
15 favorite games at PAX East
VG: Updates, DLC, Remakes
Enshrouded gets more dungeons and characters
Max Payne is getting a remake
KeeperRL is a fortress dungeon maker that just hit 1.0
Age of Empires 2 gets DLC. It's about vikings and samurai.
Team Fortress 2 allows 100 players
Star Ocean game gets tons of added material for 1.1
No Man’s Sky gets an orbital update
Militsioner is a game where you are trying to escape a giant police man. An update adds flooding that increases with time
Call of Duty gets Space Marines from 40K
Vampire Survivors gets two new characters and a few new weapons
VG: Felix the Cat Collection
Felix the cat gets a collection
It's only two games, and they aren't the greatest.
VG: Creatures of Ava
Creatures of Ava is a nicer PalWorld
Another article on the cozy PalWorld
VG: Industria 2
Industria 2 looks more like a mod
More on the graphics of the game
VG: Europa Delay
The game is an open world exploration game about a boy exploring a terraformed moon. The art style is beautiful so it's on a lot of radars
Sadly the game was delayed till this summer
VG: V Uprising Castlevania
Uprising gets Castlevania Add On
https://youtu.be/rPrINI85szg?si=CKv5O1TGKNcpEVfp
Here is an article for the DLC
VG: IGN Fan Fest
_IGNFF: Cartoons
IGN is having a big show for games called FN Fest. The games separate between dark and gritty, then cartoon like. The Noble Squire let's the player do levels in a cartoonist picture book, and then jump out into the real world
Bō is a hand drawn Metroidvania based on Japanese culture.
#Blud is a dungeon crawler life sim with the look of an afternoon cartoon show
GI Joe beaten up game
Hintenberg is a life sim dungeon explorer. It reminds me of the show Hilda.
Turbo Kid is a Metroidvania game about a kid on a bike. It's dark, but cartoonish.
_IGNFF: Dark
The other one is dark, horror, and has a high chance of shooting a gun. Survival is important. Harvest Hunt has you survive in a land haunted by monsters
Once Human gets another awesome trailer. It's a horror hunting game with friends. I've written about it before.
Outbreak Island is a survival horror game where you can update your car.
The Forever Winter is a dark swarm shooter
Kingmakers is a medieval battle RTS sim that lets you choose a warrior to play in the middle of the battle. Then it throws tanks, trucks, and attack helicopters in as well.
VG: Nintendo Direct
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is another story of the series
Contra: Operation Galuga. I played the demo. It has an arcade and story mode. There are extra moves and options for the players. The graphics are fun, and you have infinite continues.
Endless Ocean is a relaxing exploration game under the ocean. If you fall asleep while playing, you are doing it right.
Disney Epic Mickey is getting a remake. Hopefully the controls work better this time.
Penny’s Big Breakaway is a Sonic Adventure style game with collecting and high air movements. It was released as the Nintendo Direct was being presented.
Star Wars Battlefront collection is the first two games, plus some mods. These were awesome games back in the day, and I am happy they are hitting Switch.
The Nintendo Direct has Mother 3 released in Japan only. So, there are tutorials on how to play it on your American switch. Step one, have a Japanese account…
_ND: Rare
Rare Software games are being released for the SNES, Nintendo, and N64 apps on Switch. I hope Donkey Kong 64, Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark get released soon. There were already a few games, but Microsoft is just giving up now.
There are 6 games made by Rare that aren't released for the Switch N64 app.
Another list of rare games released
_ND: Ender Magnolia
Ender Lilies gets a sequel
An article praising the news
The state of the industry does not look good, especially in the AAA world.
Gearbox started firing people as soon as it was bought by Embracer
Nintendo restructures it's testing department
Skull and Bones is slashed by $25 after three weeks on sail
Relic entertainment sold by SEGA
_B: EA Losses
EA drops star wars games and fires 650
EA is looking away from licensed games
_B: Saber Sold
Embracer sells Saber interactive along with other companies. This includes Metro series and new Warhammer 40k Space marine game
Space Marine is still being made
It's being delayed though
They don't seem to care either.
Valve created an orb for video making using steam decks they had lying around. Half Life 3 is still not released.
Activision QA has a large union now
_B: Warner Bros keeps on losing path
Warner Bros Gaming would rather commit suicide squad than make another successful Harry Potter game.
They really want that Fortnite style money
This has made them lean into the DEI money like Sweet Baby Inc
How Sweet Baby Inc ruined a game called Flintlock
Interview with women who work at Mojang. Buzzfeed article says diversity will help us all.
It also means companies leaning into milking the existing player base Instead of trying to grow it.
A lawsuit is coming for game makers that accuses them of making addictive practices to make more money. The response has been, “you can't sue us for making good games”.
Why I stopped being a framerate snob… advert for Steam deck
A business model designed to milk small amounts of players, rather than selling well overall. Comparison to the Cable channel model.
This has meant the Game Developer Conference has some awkwardness.
_GDC: AAA and Creativity
It costs too much to be creative in the AAA field.
Maybe AAA deserves to die. Corporations are greedy! Become an indie!
_GDC: Scream
A group go together to start
Screaming in a park
Meanwhile Monopoly Go has a huge publicity budget.
Monopoly Go had a nearly half a billion promotional budget.
And Toys for Bob is finally making their own game
Toys for Bob is making their own game. They usually make them by assignment, and have been very successful at it. The NFC toy games were started by them, and they created Tony Hawk Downhill Jam.
Also, Capcom has raised the pay of their employees.
Capcom raises salaries in tough times
So there is a silver lining.
I'm posting info I found interesting while making my link list last month. This article corresponds to Sony and Microsoft talking about going third party, and the GDC article I will be writing later this.
Phil Spencer says he wants Epic marketplace on the XBox.
XBox Exclusives and ports
Phil Spencer speculates about exclusives actually being needed anymore. He even wants Epic on Xbox
Some publishers and designers don't feel like making games for XBOX anymore. It's an attempt to create controversy.
Phil Spencer isn't looking that good in general though
Phil Spencer may be the one that destroys Xbox.
But it's not like the guy he replaced has any better opinions.
Peter Moore doesn't think consoles should be a thing anymore. He should know, he killed the Dreamcast and led XBox. At the moment he leads Unity. The guy who looks like Satan should totally be believed.
It's not like Sony is doing any better.
Sony does not rise to the victory expected
You can own a bobblehead of Jim Ryan, the boss at PlayStation
PS5 was the top seller in February, but that's after console sale shrinkage. Helldiver's 2 is the best selling game.
Meanwhile Nintendo is getting more games for the Switch. Even old Rare games are showing up on the console. In a Nintendo Direct they announced even more
_ND: Rare
Rare Software games are being released for the SNES, Nintendo, and N64 apps on Switch. I hope Donkey Kong 64, Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark get released soon. There were already a few games, but Microsoft is just giving up now.
There are 6 games made by Rare that aren't released for the Switch N64 app.
Another list of rare games released
In fact, the biggest complaint is that the Switch needs even more games.
33 games not on Switch
It does look like the console wars are going cold.
AI: Business
Jeff Bezos and other big names are investing in a humanoid worker bot company. This could be in tech, but all of the claims are based on AI.
How AI is helping eco tourism. It's more about tourism in general.
NVidia gives blueprint for data centers of the future
Microsoft Copilot will be in regular PCs next year. Intel confirmed it.
OpenAI decides to keep Brockman after review
Several companies are going after NVidia software to stop their own decline.
AI may interview you for a job soon
Tumblr is making deals to use art from its website for AI
_B: Stability Inc
MidJourney bans Stability AI workers from its servers because they were stealing stuff to improve their own AI
Stability AI has major people leaving it. The article reads like it was paid for by Open AI.
The CEO of stability is leaving. He wants the company to go into the black and hates centralized AI
More stories on the company not doing well. This is a big AI imaging group, and it looks like others are trying to destroy them.
A long article about Stability falling apart.
AI: Papers
Diffusion World Models is an attempt to create a standard for training data on how the world looks
ASCII art hacks AI
How about an AI that insults you and does what it wants? A paper proposes making one
Adversarial Attacks on LLMs
A long article explaining how diffusion models work
AI teaching other AI is now possible
Fine-tuning LLM by pruning layers
Emergent Behavior by LLMs is predictable
LoRa Hub is a cross task AI
New matrix systems maths discovers easier way to analyze in AI
Single step creation
LLMs are so complex, most people don't know how they are doing what they are doing. There is new research studying it as a natural phenomenon instead of a constructed one
Transparent Layers!
https://arxiv.org/html/2402.17113v1
LLMs use linear functions to decide what to use.
_P: Fun Names
ZigZag Mamba is a more efficient diffusion model
StableDrag let's you move characters with a mouse in AI images to do what you want. The lion will turn it's head, or the building will swivel based on use.
SDXS is a Diffusion Model designed to make images in a second
SwitchLight has better physics and training for human lighting
_P: Chemical Design
Dual Diffusion systems in creating new chemical drugs
Machine Learning for Beer design
Using ChatGPT for RNA sequence analysis
AI: 3D
CSM AI lets you create and edit 3D creations using AI. Then you can animate and even render them using the same website. This link is the best I could find on the subject. The announcement is huge, but getting to it is hard.
Vast Gaussian for large model creation
3D point cloud systems and Blender. Could be in general 3D
A quick intro to NeRF studio
Kiri engine turns Gaussian Splats into PLY models
RadSplat is an updated efficiency system using Gaussian Splatting.
Stability AI has a new image to 3D system that can be run on your computer. Not mine, it's a potato, but yours would be great.
A long list of 3D AI projects
3D AI has gotten a lot more control for it, including changing the textures.
Latte3D makes a character in seconds
AI: Video
HUGS Human Gaussian Splatting lets you make a rendered version of yourself or others for a 3D character
Haiper is a new video creator.
Motion Latent Decomposition
Stability AI video creation
TRIP, pretraining images for video
A long article on the future of AI Video
_V: Sora
The good and bad of Sora
People can't tell the difference between AI and real videos
Best videos so far from Sora
More videos from Sora
Other companies are working to make better videos. Ethics is questioned in what will happen next
OpenAI admits it doesn't know how Sora makes videos.
Videos made by outside artists using Sora
A really long article explaining how Sora and most AI creators work
How will Sora affect the rendering scene?
_S: Outside Testing
Artists are now trying Sora out
Another article on those artists
First impressions from those artists
_S: Hollywood
Sora is being shown off to Hollywood types
OpenAI is trying to convince Hollywood that Sora will help, not destroy. Just let it in, just a little.
AI: Sound
New Google AI creates music by prompt
Adobe has a new sound creation program
AI
Meta has an AI called Emu that looks impressive, but is not open to the public
A human prompt reference library for MidJourney
Llama 2 is given a workout by mlperf to see how it does.
Procyon is a new AI Benchmark test
An article about the usefulness of digital twins
There's a special prompt to get better responses from Google AI programs. Take a deep breathe and go slowly.
Some guy promoting his AI by showing famous businessmen working at McDonald's
OpenAIs hidden image creator. Note the age of the article.
MidJourney may expand into an open world creation program
Gemini will use Google Maps automatically, and even give directions
NVidia is investing in robotics AI
AI: Adobe Firefly
Firefly turns 1 year old
Firefly 2 I produced to all Adobe products
Have the official announcement. They have a structures system so you can control the image more.
An introduction to Adobe Illustrator AI. You got AI in your AI
This will be a safe AI for marketing
The ability to alter the image to get the look you want is a new type of prompt
AI: DBRX
This is an open source giant AI model. Wired si ga it's praises
It cost millions and isn't beating ChatGPT 4. Paid for by OpenAI.
AI: Spotting AI images
How to spot AI images.
An article about the X post. Anti AI leaning at points
AI: MidJourney Consistent Characters
MidJourney allows consistent characters. Give it a reference, and then choose the style.
This means being able to tell a story with the same characters in each image.
Have a tutorial on the subject
Have another article about it.
AI: Stable Diffusion 3
Here is the official announcement
AI: Creations
Books with perfect lettering
The burnt look makes the camera nearly burn the image. Cool prompts
Minimalist movie posters
Videogame visual prompts
AI: Lists
Free AI courses by NVidia
MidJourney 6 vs Stable Diffusion 3 vs DallE 3
AI: Tutorials
Prompts for lettering in MidJourney
Creating a bespoke LLM
Notion templates from ChatGPT
Using Photoshop and Krea AI for images
An introduction to LTX Studios Storyboard making AI.
Tinting images using color prompts in MidJourney
How to build a RAG powered chatbot
Someone put ChatGPT 2 into an Excel sheet to teach how it all works.
Shadows in MidJourney
AI: Videogames
The animations for this spider bot are procedurally created in Unreal Engine
Creating a procedural AI creation tool for game engines
_VG: Game Creator
A new AI can create games from scratch. The problem is it's one frame a second.
Another article that talks about it with more depth
AI: Propaganda
AI will solve scientific problems
Students aren't learning and using ChatGPT instead
AI companies would sooner destroy the world! Grr argh Twitter rant
It would be impossible to control a super intelligent AI
Chinese national arrested for stealing state secrets from Google… wait!?
How to overcome AI Anxiety in three paragraphs
Deep fakes are happening to thwart the election… in one direction only… yeah…
A fascinating article talking about AI growth and a possible fall. A detail I caught was that as a thing rises, it needs fewer and fewer people working it, so it appears like it's less work
Right before Sam Altman was fired from OpenAI, a new considered dangerous AI was created.
Elon Musk is investing in AI and NVidia. Why is this in Propaganda? Because suddenly Elon is an anti Semite and needs to be punished.
Demystifying AI for artists is a needed task says former MIT professor
_P: Ethical AI
Ethical AI should be praised
Should we fear woke AI?
We should be afraid of AGI because it means more investment into right thinking companies!!!
_P: Atlantic Articles sponsored by Google
The Atlantic has a series of articles all about AI and how Google will save the world. If you remember the Donald Trump is Evil article series you get the gist. It's mostly interviews. This one is about creativity and how AI helps with that.
Google will save us by being properly restricted by Google
Capitalism will die and be reborn through AI. Google will lead the way.
_P: Psychology
Psychology says AI is too realistic
AI Generative Synesthesia
Is AI changing the way we think?
_P: Google Health and the FDA
Google Health is an AI connected to Google devices that monitors your health. It's sort of scary because it could predict someone's health issues, and be abused by the company.
Any medical tech that could improve lives has to get FDA approval. So AI is screwed up til it's powerful enough.
_P: School
A teacher talks about using ChatGPT in his classroom.
An AI put an ad for this article into my Facebook feed. I think I archived it a year ago. Schools are responding to all the ways AI is making them useless.
_P: Gemini 2 Racist pictures
Google Gemini does not show the native people of a land, but only for Europeans.
The program was taken down to get fixed.
Then it was discovered the AI couldn't tell the difference between Hitler and Elon Musk in who was worse. Nate Silver tried to save his reputation by complaining about it
AI has gotten into 3D in a big way. It has been coming to this point for a year now, and several cool things have been made. Stuff like Gaussian Blurs, Splats, and NeRF has been a major talking point, but actually generative 3D has been difficult.
AI 3D
Vast Gaussian for large model creation
3D point cloud systems and Blender.
A quick intro to NeRF studio
Kiri engine turns Gaussian Splats into PLY models
RadSplat is an updated efficiency system using Gaussian Splatting.
But being able to prompt has been a lot slower going. I have tried to get an image Into 3D and then place it into Unreal Engine, but it is generally a bad creation.
However, now the ability to control and edit the 3D creations has been introduced
3D: Prompted Creation
CSM AI lets you create and edit 3D creations using AI. Then you can animate and even render them using the same website. This link is the best I could find on the subject. The announcement is huge, but getting to it is hard.
Stability AI has a new image to 3D system that can be run on your computer. Not mine, it's a potato, but yours would be great.
A long list of 3D AI projects
3D AI has gotten a lot more control for it, including changing the textures.
Latte3D makes a character in seconds
There is also a game creator that makes each frame based on AI not actual programming.
_VG: Game Creator
A new AI can create games from scratch. The problem is it's one frame a second.
Another article that talks about it with more depth
The full link list will be published, but this is to show cool ideas I've noticed while making the list. Feel free to find other info and make your own post or copy it to the AI forum.
I'm trying something new with my lists. This one is entirely about AI and how it is viewed.
First off, Adobe is celebrating their own AI creation.
AI: Adobe Firefly
Firefly turns 1 year old
Firefly 2 I produced to all Adobe products
Have the official announcement. They have a structures system so you can control the image more.
An introduction to Adobe Illustrator AI. You got AI in your AI
This will be a safe AI for marketing
The ability to alter the image to get the look you want is a new type of prompt
It's a nice enough AI, but compared to stuff like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion it's nothing. Heck, I still have a stable diffusion add on to my Photoshop so I can prompt better if I want.
But the company that works on Stable Diffusion is going through a lot of problems.
Stability Inc
MidJourney bans Stability AI workers from its servers because they were stealing stuff to improve their own AI
Stability AI has major people leaving it. The article reads like it was paid for by Open AI.
The CEO of stability is leaving. He wants the company to go into the black and hates centralized AI
More stories on the company not doing well. This is a big AI imaging group, and it looks like others are trying to destroy them.
A long article about Stability falling apart.
A major focus of Stability was to decentralize AI. If you have a powerful enough GPU, you should be able to make videos and images on your own. Even using cloud computing I have several websites that I use to do things since my computer is a potato for AI needs.
There are several pushes for the idea of a centralized AI. One place where we get our AI and it is controlled and monitored by the governments of the world.
AI Propaganda
Students aren't learning and using ChatGPT instead
AI companies would sooner destroy the world! Grr argh Twitter rant
Deep fakes are happening to thwart the election… in one direction only… yeah…
Elon Musk is investing in AI and NVidia. Why is this in Propaganda? Because suddenly Elon is an anti Semite and needs to be punished.
_P: Ethical AI
Ethical AI should be praised
Should we fear woke AI?
We should be afraid of AGI because it means more investment into right thinking companies!!!
At the same time companies like Google and OpenAi are paying for articles about how ethical their AI is. Suddenly AI is to be trusted.
_P: Atlantic Articles sponsored by Google
The Atlantic has a series of articles all about AI and how Google will save the world. If you remember the Donald Trump is Evil article series you get the gist. It's mostly interviews. This one is about creativity and how AI helps with that.
Google will save us by being properly restricted by Google
Capitalism will die and be reborn through AI. Google will lead the way.
At the same time, Google is introducing AI like Gemini and Google Health
_P: Google Health and the FDA
Google Health is an AI connected to Google devices that monitors your health. It's sort of scary because it could predict someone's health issues, and be abused by the company.
Any medical tech that could improve lives has to get FDA approval. So AI is screwed up til it's powerful enough.
_P: Gemini 2 Racist pictures
Google Gemini does not show the native people of a land, but only for Europeans.
The program was taken down to get fixed.
Then it was discovered the AI couldn't tell the difference between Hitler and Elon Musk in who was worse. Nate Silver tried to save his reputation by complaining about it
Meanwhile Open AI is showing off their video maker Sora, which is amazing to see.
Sora AI
The good and bad of Sora
People can't tell the difference between AI and real videos
Best videos so far from Sora
More videos from Sora
The company is showing of their AI to Hollywood.
_S: Hollywood
Sora is being shown off to Hollywood types
OpenAI is trying to convince Hollywood that Sora will help, not destroy. Just let it in, just a little.
Stability Diffusion is one of the first video making processes you could use on your computer. At the same time, Stability is I producing a 3D creation tool as well.
Stability AI has a new image to 3D system that can be run on your computer. Not mine, it's a potato, but yours would be great.
I will post the link list in full with a few posts, but I thought this might open up some conversations as well. It looks like AI is being pressured to become centralized and the big names want to be that centralized power. We haven't mentioned what MidJourney is doing because they don't seem to care as much. I will post something about 3D as well.
Feel free to copy it and put it into other threads for conversation, or even the AI forum I can't seem to access.
I enjoy archiving stuff from Twitter and am in a bit of a problem. My favorite way was through Nitter. It shows all the posts if it's an type post and comments from others. The only time I don't like it is when videos are involved.
Nitter is gone, and I can't seem to find an alternative. Straight from Twitter usually does a single post. Thread reader is great, but doesn't include comments.
Does anyone know a solution?