Simon Unger

@clongmire42 Looks great! Some of the planted turns are better in the SM version even. (not that that couldn't be addressed in the MM solve but shows how you sometimes have to force the results you want even if the data shows otherwise)

Here's a thing I've been passionately working away on: What if I told you that one of these characters is using a Motion Matching setup, and the other is using a simple State Machine (sort of)? Would you believe me? Take a guess at which is which.

@locust9 I keep hoping this industry will finally understand the value of team over IP but it seems unwilling to learn.

Don't know the specifics of the Firewalk studio, but firing everyone for a game failing is gross. It also is gross bc those people were likely well positioned to make something better, whatever a future restructure looked like.

I haven't personally rigged a character for a while. What are people's recommendations for tools or auto-riggers lately? (Maya please)

@kiaran_ritchie I agree. creating believable NPC and enemy behavior would go such a long way towards truly immersive experiences. I want us to create worlds where folks talk about them in experiential terms and not how to game the roombas we interact with currently.

What is the next major innovation in gameplay? People always talk about servers with 1000s of players or rendering whole armies. Basically scaling things up. But I think the biggest gameplay innovation we have yet to unlock is fully synthetic narrative design and NPC dialog/behavior. Like imagine GTA 5, but where missions are fully emergent, conversations are done with your microphone, and NPCs speak and act completely in accordance with their own virtual history/relationships, perceptions, temperament and motivations. With the advent of LLMs, this seems imminently doable.

It's annual review season in game dev! May you all "meet expectations" and live true to your corporate values!

Watching a lot of animation reels lately and I'm begging all of you to please, PLEASE, annotate your videos. Leaving us to guess what you did in a shot will not work in your favor I promise you.

@bclark_cgchar @jeandenishaas not the first person to charge on the back of Dan's work but likely the highest price I've seen yet?

Insanity! ❤️ it!

@salaarkohari Congrats Salaar!

In 1 week, I'm releasing my 2nd indie game, Sherwood Extreme! 🚀 One of the most scary and exciting moments of my game dev career. Please wishlist and send words of encouragement! 🥹

@isosmrt I mean, just making eye contact with it is ill advised.

Animators not using unreal watching the GDC showcase

Finally got my hands on @lightbombmike new book! There isn’t another person in this industry who is more conscientious, thoughtful, or puts more heart into this role. If you are in or around animation in games you will find tremendous value here. Get it!!

@joshscherr You are a bad person for putting this jingle in my head now. You should feel bad.

First day of Xmas break let’s goooo

@SlappaDeBass It was such a quick turnaround. Next time we’re doing foods!

@Simonunger Brothers Cousins taco stand on Sawtelle/National!

Hanging out with the boss today.

Anyone have a link to some free, simple maya environment models? Looking for things like rocks, trees/foliage, buildings, props, etc. Not having a lot of luck via google.

@Art_of_Oakley Why do you hate us Canadians Stephen?!?! WHY?!?

@locust9 @corybarlog These are the takes that make me feel the exact same way.

@corybarlog sometimes I really think we’d be better off gardening. Most days.

My first job as an animator was working on the Action Man series. (To be fair, EVERY animator's first job in Vancouver at that time was at Mainframe😆)

@danlowlows I could not agree more. The creative culture in games is still too focused on creating fodder for their reels and not the contribution and impact to the experience they're making with a team.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I feel like this is part of what devs are paid for. I empathize with artists not being able to share their NDA art, but if you collected a salary/payment for that work, then it’s the company’s work.