David Plummer re-created the classic game Breakout using Grok 3 AI. It generated a Javascript program that can be played in a browser. He even shared the prompts and code on github.
Another score for AI heavily augmenting the need for programmers.
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Twitch streamers are really getting creative. Besides completely AI generated content, others have been experimenting with viewer participation in unique ways.
Shindigs is one of the streamers really experimenting with new ideas. He’s streamed as a gun with eyes, a “biblically accurate angel McRib vtuber”, and a Costco hotdog. He also mixes real and animated footage. In one stream, Shindigs went “back in time” every time he died in Lies of P, eventually turning the broadcast into a radio play. He recently let characters play Christmas songs with chat and created music experiments live.
While playing Helldivers, he recently allowed his viewers the ability to use chat to type things in and they pop up in the stream like a helmet cam. The viewers quickly started riffing on numerous themes while he played.
He created this effect using SAMMI, a stream tool that connects Twitch chat and Channel Point redemptions to Open Broadcast Software. With it, he created his Twitch plugin called ‘Bug Twitter’ that allowed this functionality. He also created a plugin called ‘strategems’ that uses OBS’s Advanced Mask. Viewers can use Twitch channel points to activate effects like distorting the screen to make it more difficult or ‘Australia mode’ that flips the screen upside down.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2071145144
Check out his X stream here, or watch more of his videos on his Twitch channel.
He’s not the only one being creative. CardboardCowboy built a cartoon RPG world where the NPCs are played by Twitch chat with TTS (Text To Speech) complete with proximity-based audio that fades off as he moves away.
Young streamers on Twitch seem to be exploring a lot of extremely creative ideas with a more publicly interactive form of streaming. There’s likely an interesting balance between interacting with the viewers and yet maintaining some sense of cohesive sanity and avoiding trolls seeking to ruin the experience – but what they are doing and trying are wildly creative. Give it a look
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The TV show Reboot was the first full-length, fully CGI-animated TV series. It had its debut in 1994 and spanned four seasons. It ended up spanning 48 original episodes, a toy line, a video game, a 2018 live action/CGI hybrid Netflix revival. ReBoot brought technology and imaginative storytelling to the masses. It also built a lasting legacy among fans.
Jacob Weldon and Raquel Lin are currently producing ‘ReBoot Rewind’ documentary for the series. As part of their research, the team was allowed to search for the original master tapes and in doing so, found them. It was feared that the original tapes had been lost over the decades. They’re now locating suitable playback equipment to the tapes.
It’ll be interesting to see what they find and their documentary when completed.
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AI may have trouble with accuracy of information (AI is the know-it-all neighbor) it is a great way to brainstorm a variety of different ideas quickly. Getting them to generate images that have correctly spelled words can be hard.
Julian Horsey and Metricsmule give you prompts that demonstrate how to use ChatGPT combined with DallE 3 to generate logos for your company – that include correctly spelled words.
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The annual Portland Winter Light Festival is hitting it’s 10th year and runs from Feb 7-15th. Definitely go check it out – it was a lot of fun last year.
As Nike and Apple learned the hard way, outsourcing your work overseas can have serious ethical concerns.
Sadly, workplace abuse (both mental and physical) is a reality in many low-cost countries. People Make Games reveals some highly disturbing cases of abuse and punishments that are subjected to game dev workers at these outsourced locations. In one case, a young developer is told to record slapping herself in the face 100 times as punishment.
It’s disturbing, but definitely something people should be aware is happening when companies outsource to low cost geos.
I already had a more in-depth article, but here’s a bit faster one.
Other methods: https://medium.com/@amdadAI/4-methods-how-to-run-flux-locally-onwindows-mac-and-linux-544f4f11eab7
There’s plenty of color changing bulbs out there – but they usually only display one color at a time. The Moonside Star-Bulb allows you to have mulitple colors from the same bulb. Make one side one color, the other side another, or have the colors rotate and move in interesting ways. Very resonable at only $37 per bulb.
Are you a millionaire? Want to live the real Bruce Wayne lifestyle? Warner Bros partnered with a PR firm to create the luxury Wayne Enterprises company. How luxury? How about buying one of 10 real life, functional, Wayne Enterprises Tumblers – for a cool $2.9 million?
Or perhaps $20,000 custom chairs, $5,000 shoes, $120,000 wall clocks, $21,000 lamps, or $3,000 luggage? All of these ultra-luxury items are real and for sale.
Head over to Wayne Enterprises website and start living the luxury lifestyle you never knew existed.
This is an interesting twist – instead of the old dartboard – how about a digital pixel art dart board. It can be programmed with images to change gameplay and to display art, data, and even play retro games.
It uses silicone suction darts with a sensor chip that can send data on its exact position on the board to keep score. They also plan to make NERF-compatible sensor darts.