Seven years ago I started this site to write about ANGELINA, software I was making that could design its own videogames. The first games it made were simple arcade games with coloured circles that moved…
Prayer for the Solstice
In the summer of 2005 a herd of twenty-three driverless cars barrelled across the Nevada desert, watched by scientists, engineers and nervous representatives of military funding agencies. Several hours later the first car crossed the…
The First Draft – DOTA 2 & EXAG
This week is AIIDE, a big academic conference all about AI and games. For the last few years I’ve co-organised a workshop called EXAG along with Alex Zook and Antonios Liapis, and this weekend it’ll…
Some Talks, Some Generators
We are slap-bang in the middle of my busiest time of year right now, with PROCJAM coming up in the next month, conferences happening, grant deadlines, book deadlines, and lots more. I wanted to slip…
Alien Languages: How We Talk About Procedural Generation
This is the first in a short series of posts about No Man’s Sky and the future of procedural generation. Procedural generation has been around for a long, long time now. We are approaching the 40th…
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Welcome To EXAG 2016
I like it when great games research (and researchers) get seen by more people, and one of my favourite groups to show this stuff to are indie developers. I’ve poked and prodded at a variety…
@botsburgers – How It Works
Last weekend I attended Bot Summit where I saw an incredible array of talks (watch them all here!)Â Every talk is affecting in its own way, but today I want to mention Martin O’Leary‘s talk which…
The Saturday Papers – The Next Top Model
As game developers, we’re tempted (if not outright encouraged) to code first and think later. There’s lots of good reasons for this – games are big projects, and feeling out a game’s mechanics through play…
The Saturday Papers – Express Yourself
Procedural generation is getting broader and deeper in games every passing month. While more and more genres are finding ways to generate parts of their play space, familiar faces are finding innovative applications for generative…
Introducing Danesh (Part 1!)
Over the last few years I’ve talked to a lot of people about procedural generation. Researchers who are interested in pushing boundaries. Developers who just wish the damn thing would work. Newcomers who wish there…