Dean Hall

brb climbing mount everest

i typed "claude" in the claude terminal. it cost me a dollar

I’m so sorry for everyone at id Software affected by these layoffs. I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It’s a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history. The people at id have done a great job moving that legacy forward. DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today’s industry. The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people. A note on digital preservation: id's history is critically important to the history of games. I’ve preserved id’s complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has. I hope someone is doing the same for the company’s ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them). I’m thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday’s layoffs. Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you.

I've seen comments like "the MS layoffs weren't so bad". re: id software. Reports are that 50% (95ish of 200) of the studio was laid off. Here are some quotes on other details: “Tools, programming (except a couple), Quake Champions team, testing team. All gone.” “Yeah seems like all they left was leadership and art/design. I think Xbox forgot quakecon is next month.” It really does sound as if id is now a support team for Bethesda/others. Rip idTech, which was amazing. Maybe Machine Games will carry it on or maybe it will be dropped for future games? But the read is that id is essentially dead. At least for the time being. Yes, the studio wasn't closed and half still have their jobs. That's great. re: the studios set free by MS to be sold or mgmt returned. One view is this is great. For MS they get decent PR for being "good guys". But the truth is that in at least one case (and maybe others), retaining the IP in such a case was written into the original contract when MS purchased them. Second, these studios now are out of the MS lifeboat, on their own, and will have short time to find new deals or funding and they will make it or not. Never mind they sold to MS originally to avoid this grind and be 'safe'. Yes they have a second chance but more layoffs may simply be deferred and outside the current umbrella of today's layoff round, so MS doesn't really get the bad PR of simply shutting studios down. This means continual worry by the employees and stress for mgmt. re: Arkane. Same as the above but timing and process is different due to French labor laws, etc. The layoffs are still happening. A substantial portion of Obsidian was let go today (near 1/3). Worries that they now don't have the staff to complete current projects. Deep layoffs at Zenimax Online. Even Bethesda or Activision studios were hit (with a minor round and numbers that are small enough that it reads more like "everyone has to take a hit, even the star studios"). More details will emerge, but it's a lot of people. So it's bad. Real bad. Good luck to all affected.

been an incredible journey so far

Sorry to @JudithCollinsKC as I said “Minister Judith” in my speech. I got a bit word salad. Sometimes I skip words in my head as I am thinking of the next word. So proud of the team. It’s great to build on the work in space done so far in nz, and spread that digitally as well.

Kitten Space Agency has won the NZX Creative Technology Solution Award at the NZ Hi-Tech Awards. As Dean Hall (@rocket2guns), CEO of @rocketwerkz and @Ahwoo_Official, said on stage: games can inspire, and inspiration should be free. Thank you to everyone supporting the mission.

@Truthful_ast Not sure yet! Blackrack is going to be continuing working on it. Next is likely heat haze and also more distant plumes, like you see with the real launches. Can’t wait to see what he cooks up!

@rocket2guns This is absolutely amazing!!! will plumes interact with colliders allowing diverters/plume deflectors?

Some screenshots of the new rocket plumes in Kitten Space Agency. I think we are the first/only to do volumetric plumes in this way. download free ksa.ahwoo.com

Any senior folks from epic layoffs who want to move to NZ and make games, visit careers.rocketwerkz.com. If you want to help build a client email me dean.hall@ahwoo.com

@SurviveIcarus Icarus: Dangerous Horizons is available on STEAM now. (PC Edition) 🔗store.steampowered.com/app/1648533/Ic…

@discepto @JarredEagley Yep!

@rocket2guns @JarredEagley Wait a second.. in the 2nd vid at the 7ish second mark... Was that the shadow of a moon zipping across the atmosphere of Saturn?

Not photos. Screenshot from Kitten Space Agency and our volumetric + Instanced mesh planetary rings for saturn.

@Truthful_ast I believe blackrack is about to start work on engine plumes again so we will see

@rocket2guns Will the engine plume ever be able to bounce off of parts and the ground? It’d be really cool to be able to make our own aerospikes and plume deflectors

Gimballed Vernier and turbine exhaust nozzles added by the incredible Gravhoek into Kitten Space Agency.

@Sea_Haggis Yes working on that. It’s a bit messy to implement

@rocket2guns Any possibility of having the game auto update? I'd love to keep checking the updates but its getting tedious to keep track of uninstalling and installing new version.

We added a native Linux deployment for Kitten Space Agency, which is free. Linux users have responded with thousands of dollars of contributions, including one of USD 1000. I think this will be the new way to make games like this. Unheard of lifetime customer values for us.

Latest version of Kitten Space Agency just deployed with new shadow system, fully working with ground clutter. Download for free at ksa.ahwoo.com

We built a studio, we made a game, and I'm really proud of both. Before we close the doors at Midsummer Studios I'd like to share a glimpse of Burbank, the game we poured our hearts into. It's like "Life Sims + The Truman Show," but it's more than that. I believe people are storytellers, and I want them to share whatever stories and characters they can dream up. Burbank let's you do that. We have moments playing this game where characters come alive in a way we've never experienced. And for an old game developer like me that's special. What you're about to see is definitely pre-alpha. But this game was a dream of mine, our team made it come true, so watch and dream with us.

@SolomonJake I did a panel with you at PAX many years ago and you had fantastic contributions. An incredible talent. So sorry it ended this way. I am glad you are sharing though, as people don't realize how painful projects ending is, and how difficult creating is.

It had been too long since I had a really frank and honest chat to @BigfryTV and @fps_crash about the state of gaming and my place in it. youtube.com/watch?v=ulJcjE…