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ECS (Entity-Component-System) has been the staple of game design since the 90’s. Unfortunately, it isn’t great in some ways – especially for the naïve implementations. While it sounds very object oriented to create objects for all the monsters, characters, rooms, and so forth – it turns out that the object classes usually become unmanageably huge, become overly complex when adding new functionality (duplicating functionality across types, start having multiple inheritance problems, etc), and often perform poorly once you get large numbers of assets.

Text roguelike games are great microcosms of game design. Because they don’t have fancy graphics – you can quickly learn good and bad patterns of game engine design.

Here Bob Nystrom, the author of Game Programming Patterns (free and worth checking out), describes some of the classic ECS issues he ran into when he built his roguelike game and how he used design patterns to solve some of them. Definitely worth the 20 minute listen as a good introduction to game engine issues.

Media Molecule’s latest title Dream is a creation platform that allows users to make virtual worlds/games and then sharing them with others.

It’s first year has seen some great creations – with a lot of content created by some amazing artists and game developers. With such a powerful creative engine/tool available for anyone and everyone to create amazing worlds and share them – you’d expect it to be a panacea for both developers, artists, and players.

In reality, however, it seems like there is a problem. While there is no shortage of amazing creators and amazing art, music, and playable creations, there seems to be a real shortage of players. This actually surprised me.

Are these issues new, part of larger issues, or exposing issues we’ve already had before? There are complaints about getting visibility to your creation above the noise – much like mobile app developers and indie musicians have had for years. Is continuing to lower the bar of entry, that enables anyone to create whatever they want, leading to oversaturation? Or is it an age-old problem that the vast majority of creative work isn’t actually compelling to the masses?

Give the linked article a look – it’s a great discussion on how the whole game industry might be going.

Mad Mex in Philadelphia has brought back a traditional favorite: the Gobblerito.

The popular combination of Thanksgiving dinner staples wrapped in a tortilla. The burrito is a Thanksgiving dinner wrapped in a tortilla including turkey, black bean mashed potatoes, stuffing and corn that’s drenched in gravy and served with a side of cranberry sauce.  

The Gobblerito has grown in popularity each year, said Big Burrito Restaurant Group president Bill Fuller.

I made one myself – and with a little Cholula hot sauce – it was AMAZING:

Dylan Beattie leads us through a really fun history of the ways programming has evolved and opened new avenues of exploration over the years: Conway’s game of Life, Mandelbrot set, Obfuscated code, and many more.

Would make a great first class for any programming major in school and invigorate students.

Check out more of NDC’s talks, courses, and conferences in the following links:
https://ndcconferences.com/
https://ndc-london.com/

Intel Overclocking Thermal Velocity Boost is a feature that allows you to set a temperature threshold and overclock based on that temperature.

When paired with sub-ambient coolers, it opens a whole new realm of overclocking.

Here’s another overclocker also experimenting with the feature.

“Go ahead and scream your head off – we’re miles from where anyone can hear you!”

GameCenter CX is a Japanese show with comedian Shinya Arino (one half of the comedy duo Yoiko) who plays home console video games from previous decades and usually attempts to get the game’s ending within a single day. The show has been on-air since 2003 and has gone for over 15 seasons and hundreds of episodes. You can watch re-runs on Twitch.

When Arino played through Shigesato Itoi’s game Mother 2 (released in North America as EarthBound), Itoi came to visit Arino Kacho while he made his way through the game. They talked about their memories of the game on the 30th anniversary of the original Mother title.

Read the transcripts of their discussion here:
https://www.1101.com/gccxmother/en/

What happens when a global pandemic shuts down F1, Nascar, Indycar and other professional auto racing? The pro racers become internet competitors! Real life F1 stars Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, IndyCar drivers Simon Pagenaud and Felix Rosenqvist, and a bevy of popular professional sim racers and YouTube personalities got together and raced online. There were commentators and the virtual event was every bit as good as an actual live one by most accounts.

Before that, Nascar did a similar race earlier and was met with good reviews. Like real life, one race event even lead to its own scandal.

This raises some really fascinating implications for our post-corona world. With computers and simulators becoming ever better – as good as real life – could the likelihood of increasing numbers of pandemics like H1N1 and Covid-19 cause a major shift in real sports?

Could real or interrupted seasons be augmented, or even completely replaced, by online competitions? What would this mean for the millions in advertising and promotion that ride on these events? Will giant, technology ladened stadiums become a thing of the past? And while these online events were friendly, it also brings up the extremely difficult topics of hacking, doping, cheating, and other nefarious activities already plaguing e-Sports.

A new game called Airplane Mode asks players to enjoy being a passenger on a six hour trans-Atlantic flight that plays out in real time. This strikes me as almost as amazing as Penn+Teller’s Desert Bus.

Check out these amazing set of features to enjoy:

• Fairly accurate satellite imagery of your flight path.
• Snacks, premium beverages, and meal service (incl. fish option).
• Carry-on bag with a book, headphones, pen, and charging cable.
• Overhead reading light and complimentary aircraft information card.
• Inflight safety video produced by IFC’s in-house team of expert air hosts.
• Randomized events on every playthrough, such as turbulence, bad wifi, and delays.
• Authentic ambient noise—whose baby is that???*
• Inflight entertainment system featuring a flight tracker and hit movies of the 1930s.
• Our award-winning magazine, Stratospheres, filled with articles, crosswords, and Sudoku.

https://gizmodo.com/honestly-a-video-game-that-strands-you-on-a-boring-six-1839717598

Or, if you prefer, just watch a real-time 11 hour recording of a flight from LA to Paris