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ritchie

@ritchie.bsky.social

780 followers 5.1K following 580 posts

Recovering academic. I make tools for facial animation and game narrative at JALI. (@jaliresearch.bsky.social)

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Reposted by ritchie

playswave 🎮 🌊 @playswave.com · 41m

Obsidian Entertainment reveals key lessons from The Outer Worlds for its sequel, launching Oct 29.

Bigger worlds, deeper RPG reactivity, and more player choices are on the way.

Fans wanted more, and they’re getting it!

#TheOuterWorlds2

Obsidian Entertainment On The Lessons Learned From The Outer Worlds

Reposted by ritchie

Farleigh Langridge @farleigh.bsky.social · 27m

“Shh” whispers Obi Wan “It’s over. I have the high ground”

Sculpture of Charlie Kirk and Jesus that looks somewhat homoerotic but also kind of like anakin and obi wan.

Reposted by ritchie

Ian Hamilton @ianhamilton.bsky.social · 3h

Haven't noticed this before! "it's missing accessibility features that I need" given as an option on Steam's refund reason dropdown
#gamedev #indiedev #accessibility

'choose refund reason' dropdown with 'it's missing accessibility features that I need' highlighted

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 2h

When you look at the art style and world building, Machinarium really feels like a predecessor to Hollow Knight / Silksong.

Amanita Design @amanita-design.net · 2h

Machinarium turns 16 today 🤖

Reposted by ritchie

Dmytro Spivakov @dmytro-spivakov.bsky.social · 2h

russia 🤝 usa

"Wh40k but cringe and scaled down"

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 2h

imagining post-Trump death, an LLM-powered animatronic Trumparoid they wheel out using one of those xAI humanoid robots Musk has. It delivers speeches at rallies, is worshipped at megachurches, and is treated as a living being in a mass state of euphoric collective effervescence.

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 18h

The nice thing about python or lua is that because iteration is faster it's so much more chill to spend time messing around

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 18h

And I'd worry that getting caught with C++ compilation errors and long build times could be a barrier as much as conceptual complexity

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 18h

Overall I feel like whatever builds confidence and lets them quickly get to something working in code (ideally something they couldn't do easily in BP) is what would help get them hooked.

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 18h

At the same time it's more to cram in. And yeah I guess I hadn't considered that by learning BP they've already learned programming basics.

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 18h

Yeah pointers are a tough one! When I took intro CS (a loooong time ago) it was 16 weeks of python and then 16 weeks of C and I found learning concepts in python (mutable vs immutable objects, pass by reference vs pass by value) made learning about pointers in the second course less daunting.

Reposted by ritchie

Matthew Kay @mjskay.com · 7d

to appear at #alt.vis 2025: THEORY IS SHAPES

sure "theory figures" are great, but @matthew.wiki, @maryamhed.bsky.social, me, and Carolina Nobre wonder: why always a 2D plane or a flowchart? why not icebergs, horseshoes, Möbius strips, or BLT sandwiches?
arxiv.org/abs/2510.01382

#ieeevis #hci

Abstract and teaser figure of the paper "Theory is Shapes" by Matthew Varona, Maryam Hedayati, Matthew Kay, and Carolina Nobre.

The teaser figure is an "iceberg" theory figure, showing four levels: the tip of the iceberg, containing a nested set diagram and a Cartesian plane. The next level down (just under the water) has a complicated flow charts and a combination flow chart and matrix. The next level down has the iceberg figure itself and a horseshoe. The final level contains a Möbius strip and a BLT sandwich.

The abstract reads:

"Theory figures" are a staple of theoretical visualization research. Common shapes such as Cartesian planes and flowcharts can be used not only to explain conceptual contributions, but to think through and refine the contribution itself. Yet, theory figures tend to be limited to a set of standard shapes, limiting the creative and expressive potential of visualization theory. In this work, we explore how the shapes used in theory figures afford different understandings and explanations of their underlying phenomena. We speculate on the value of visualizing theories using more expressive configurations, such as icebergs, horseshoes, Möbius strips, and BLT sandwiches. By reflecting on figure-making's generative role in the practice of theorizing, we conclude that theory is, in fact, shapes.

Reposted by ritchie

Frank Elavsky ⌁ @frank.computer · 18h

one of my favorite things of all time

i think about this often

Carlos Scheidegger @cscheid.net · 7d

I mean…

Just a completely ridiculous diagram from the infamous pepsi design doc

Reposted by ritchie

Draculanna 🧛🌿👁️ @annacwebs.bsky.social · 20h

I think it should remain possible to work professionally on video games without having to move

Norman Rockwell's "Free Speech"

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 19h

What is the dopest mastodon instance to join in 2025

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 19h

Mastodon : Scythians?

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 19h

Unreal does have a level of adoption + easily accessible learning resources and assets that probably make it the right choice to focus on overall though.

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 19h

I think Unreal C++ is a pretty scary first intro to script based programming - something like doing a two week project in RenPy might do a lot to build confidence in the students who struggle (even if they wouldn't really go on to use that in a production environment, knowing python is useful)

Reposted by ritchie

No true bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 1d

A long time ago on Twitter, someone posted that groupchats are probably a world historical social form, in the same way a guild is a world historical social form. I think about that a lot

jeff com-BOO-ters @helldude.bsky.social · 12d

one of the features everyone wants here is one of the features that consistently drives posters insane: group chats. absolute fetid breeding grounds for the most pointless folie a deux

Reposted by ritchie

HauntedCantina @digitalcantina.com · 1d

Nah, IPs never die. See you in another 15-25 years TRON.

Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 1d

A new report suggests that the disastrous opening weekend for the Jared-Leto-starring sequel may lead to Disney pulling the plug on the Grid once and for all.

'Tron' Might Really Be Doomed After 'Tron: Ares'

A new report suggests that the disastrous opening weekend for the Jared-Leto-starring sequel may lead to Disney pulling the plug on the Grid once and for all.

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 23h

proton is amazing - so much stuff just works out of the box now, it's a totally different ballgame gaming on linux compared to 5+ years ago

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 1d

Classic Warhammer Fantasy Battle Chaos Dwarf model trains would go super hard

Reposted by ritchie

☁️ Ascended NPC Alex ☁️ @lastnpcalex.agency · 1d

getting perma banned from bsky for telling someone to go study statistical mechanics

Reposted by ritchie

Matt Round @mattround.com · 1d

OpenAI’s strategy is very clear, it’s trying to get people - especially young people - so reliant on its products intellectually & emotionally (& now sexually!) that going without them becomes unthinkable. And they need signs of that strategy working to keep the funding flowing in

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 1d

And to add insult to injury the guy they sent us as an ambassador, who is the most shrill about this, is a Bush-era republicsn who was previously most famous for declaring that they found Saddam's WMDs and then fundraising for extreme right wing politicians when he was ambassador to the Netherlands

ritchie @ritchie.bsky.social · 1d

This is the same pattern that is happening with MAGA/Fox News coverage of the trade dispute with Canada - they are obssessed with the idea that Canadians are being rude and ungrateful after Trump set the stage with unprompted economic damage and extreme hostility.