Discussion

There are 20 posts filed in Discussion (this is page 2 of 2).

The DIY Guide to: Work From Home

A significant portion of the working force population in the Western world is employed in an office job. For many of those people, the constraint of working 9-to-5 feels like an act of unnecessary cruelty, especially in spite of the fact that most office jobs could easily go fully remote.

It is not uncommon to see working from home as an escape from the slavery of being stuck in an office job. The reality, unfortunately, is a bit different.

Working from home, either for a company or as a self-employed person, requires a level of self-control that many people are simply not used to. And, if carried out long term, it can have a negative impact on one’s psychological and physical well being.

Working from home is not easier: is actually harder.

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The Ethics of DeepFakes

This online course provides a theoretical and practical guide to the use of face-swap technology. In the past few months, deep neural networks have been wildly used to digital insert actor Nicolas Cage into several movie scenes. These so-called deepfakes have generated a lot of discussion on the ethics of Machine Learning. This second lesson will focus on the potential applications that face-swap technology can offer, and on how to use it properly.

If you are interested in understanding not only how deekfakes are generated, but also to create your own, this is the tutorial you have been looking for. And if you have been using face-swap technology already, I hope this first post will help you become more aware of why and how this technology should (and shouldn’t) be used.

You can read all the posts in this series here:

If you are interested in reading more about AI Art (Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, etc) you can check this article instead: The Rise of AI Art.

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An Introduction to Procedural Animations

This discussion introduces a new series about inverse kinematics for videogames. Before starting our journey, this post will show a few games that use procedural animations, and how they differ from traditional assets-based animations.

You can find all the other parts here:

At the end of this post you can find a link to download all the assets and scenes necessary to replicate this tutorial.

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What Brexit Really Means for Independent Developers

Last Friday morning people in the UK voted to leave the European Union. Regardless of your political views and economic situation, Brexit will have long term consequences; not just for the UK, but for the EU as well. And while the benefits of leaving the EU are still hypothetical (and wildly controversial), it’s easier to foresee the hindrances it will unleash. Brexit will strip European people living in the UK of many privileges they rightfully have. This article addresses the implication on the indie scene in the UK, and the resulting consequences on the entire gaming industry. Continue reading →

A Case Against Photorealism in Games

This post will explain why photorealistic rendering in games is important and, paradoxically, why you shouldn’t care too much about it.

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Photorealism is the Bonsai Kitten of game development: everyone talks about it, but it has yet to be seen. Despite this, there’s an ongoing battle of wits between game engines, ferociously fought with tech demos and last-minute announcements. Being able to render reality seems to be the priority. But… does it really matter? Continue reading →

A Bestiary of Alternative Game Controllers

Many game developers are suspicious about alternative controllers, believing that since they can’t be easily mass produced, they are useless. Well, this is the story of how an Arduino got me to San Francisco for free. Twice.

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Censorship in Games: Violence, Sex and Fig Leaves

Violence

From Pong to GTA V, it is undeniable that games have undergone a massive evolution in the past fifty years. While books and movies have offered a passive entertainment, games are the first really interactive media in history. And since we are the first generation which is experiencing it, it’s only natural that we question its power. This post offers a loose perspective on the effects of censorship in art and entertainment; on how it is affecting games and, even more importantly, on what it says about us as a society.

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The UGC Dilemma: post-mortem of a level editor

It is undeniable that user generated content is getting more and more relevant for games. When a player has the power to create their own content , they engage with the game in a completely new way. But if you’re a developer, you should know that creating a proper level editor can be even more time consuming that creating the game itself. Giving players the chance to create content is not enough: it has to be fun. On top of that, level editors need to be intuitive, or players won’t be able to use them properly. The best solution is a trade off between giving players the power to create whatever they want, and the need to simplify it.

500px-Puzzle_Creator_initial_viewA perfect example of this is Valve’s Puzzle Creator, which beautifully captures the essence of Portal’s gameplay. There is no space for scripting or custom events, making most of the original levels from Portal impossible to replicate. Valve has made a very clear design choice: they add constraints, but in a way that guide players’ creativity.

This post go through some of the challenged I encountered while working on the level editor for 0RBITALIS, and how I solved them. I will show in the second part how the editor actually works.

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