Sam Swain

Hello Bluesky! I'm a programmer who has worked on a few well known games, making lots of level editors, content tools, and technical architecture. My interest and involvement in procedural generation over the years has blossomed into my game focused proc-gen middleware called Apparance.

Not a single word of this is hyperbolic in the slightest. Buy your friends in cybersecurity the drink or chocolate of their choice right now. We are not doing well

This looks like a really cool service for people who want to hire artists who don't use AI. Check it out! hirehumanartists.com

I have straight up never met a trans woman whose approach to bathrooms was "I will only feel like a real woman if I can piss in the women's bathroom." I've met a lot whose approach is "I avoid public bathrooms because using any of them is dangerous to me, I would like to feel safer."

One day I'll post about procedural generation again. Perhaps when people have got off the slop train and are interested in applying themselves to their art and using novel creative tools and techniques again. (And the bubble bursts and frees up some investment.)

Great writeup and reference. Completely agree. Generative AI is a mind virus, an information cancer, and must be controlled/stopped.

Your Harry Potter dollars funded this.

using it anywhere (yes, even code) is an instant signal to the kind of person you are. the kind of shit you’re willing to sweep under the rug in the name of personal convenience. it’s entirely irrelevant how good AI is at a task

Amazing.

Fingers crossed that this all just leads to a single webpage with the words "YOU CAN'T" written on it in large, friendly letters.

Probably time I withdrew from Facebook altogether.

Seeing so many good pieces coming out of Kala Paint, I found myself (not artist) thinking, hmm, they all have a certain quality to them a similarly, and then it hit me; They all look like actual fucking paintings, and thats the point! 🤯

Ysabel Yates'... I mean Cookie Monster's superb takedown of why GenAI in the workplace sucks.

🎉 HUGE CAREER ANNOUNCEMENT 🎉 Today, I'm launching Vertical Slice, a new independent trade outlet committed to producing quality video game journalism that inspires, informs, and interrogates. That means daily news, incisive interviews, vital investigative work, and more. www.verticalslice.news

Utmost respect. Its hard for many to cut off revenue streams like this. If you are able; more of this please. ❤️

The slew of replies to the linked post, predictably: "There is no ethical use of [gen]AI."

Oh wow, not only is there a Satisfactory board game in the works, the crowdfunding campaign (on Gamefound) started today and reached it's base funding in two minutes! Already at 670k euros and unlocked 7 of its 11 stretch goals! Insta-backed... 🛠️🏭🚧👷

"why can you not just enjoy AI art?"

Explaining to a “regular” software engineer that games are hot rods made with customized parts and there’s basically no code reuse while they lose their mind is one of my favorite hobbies! (Also why many game devs don’t understand just how good at things they really are until they leave games)

Thankyou, but our Princess is in another server.

Great points. Let's ban "I" use by LLMs.

"In my joke blog post (during my time at Unity) I invented the Semantic Game Builder Interface as a silly cautionary tale." Unity 12 years later: "At long last, we have created the Semantic Game Builder Interface from classic April 1st blog p- web.archive.org/web/20120501...

Holy moly! Wishlisted 😍

Yeah that nails it.

WTH Steam?!

Ok, but you could actually did a Corridor themed game jam and there'd be dozens of actually cool and creative concepts made by real people who don't suck

I’m hearing those weird ArtCraft Adobe clones seem to be AI slop coded? You know what Photoshop alternative is not AI coded? @kalapaint.bsky.social ❤️🙏 bsky.app/profile/kala...

Is that good? 🤔

You know what is truely, utterly, terrifying. Actual AI. No, not this LLM bullshit, I am talking an ACTUAL AI. One that learns and reasons and remembers. Imagine an immense intelligence that van interact with the world that is totally free from human experience, emotion, morality or fear.

Holy shit.

I'm working on adding large-scale structure to my procedural terrain based on Voronoi-esque cells. Down the line, this allows me all kinds of level design control not possible with traditional noise functions. For now I've tested it with largely flat cells at 3 heights. #GameDev #IndieDev #ProcGen

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

My most evergreen post.

It is also a technology that preys on natural resources, which not only undermines professions but also makes our lives more expensive. Using it and paying for it only serves to legitimise the greatest theft in recent history. Is it convenient in some cases? Probably. So was slavery.

Current AI is a technology that has been built through the systematic theft of work and art created by people, with no respect whatsoever for copyright and with the intention of returning the means of exploitation to the wealthy class.

Let me make one thing clear: there is no such thing as ‘using AI correctly’. The only way to use AI correctly is not to use it at all. The argument about using it correctly is a crude excuse for trying to legitimise one’s own use of it. But there is no such thing.

"AI lets you focus on the higher level ideas!!" because we all grew up dreaming of becoming managers and CEOs we all know the real artists at the very highest level are the shareholders, famously full of amazing ideas

being stupid used to require more effort

The chart explains AI hype more than any chart that's ever been charted.

I will be speaking at GIC this year (gic.gd) with a talk called "The Possibilities And Limitations of Procedural Generation". It will be a fairly general talk about procedural generation where I will be using Vuntra City as a case study to make my points. Come check it out if you're there!

Moving Houses is gen AI free. Zero digital asbestos. 100% made by people, for people.

The Quiet Things is 20% off in the Steam Autumn sale! 🍁 Thank you to everyone who's played and supported us so far, it means so much 🥰 store.steampowered.com/app/2288520/... #indiegame #narrativegame #steamsale

The Quiet Things is 20% off in the Steam Autumn sale! 🍁 If it's been sitting on your wishlist, now is a super good time to grab a copy, for the price of a few pumpkin spice lattes you could support a little indie team ☕ store.steampowered.com/app/2288520/... #indiegame #narrativegame