Branching Factor

Tommy is joined by three of the developers behind ‘Little Learning Machines’: a puzzle game that entrusts players with teaching AI agents called Animos to solve puzzles in a variety of idyllic environments. With a huge content update coming on September 5th to Steam, Tommy sits down with art director Nick Counter, technical lead Dante Camarena and community manager Fiona Firby from Transitional Fo...

Tommy is joined by Dr Christoph Salge and Victoire Herve from the University of Hertfordshire to talk about the 7th annual Generative Design in Minecraft Competition - an event where participants write AI systems to build settlements in Minecraft. We discuss how the project has continued to grow and persist for this long, the community that has thrived around it, and the big challenges still left...

After a summer hiatus the Branching Factor podcast is back! Sorry, I don't think we mentioned we were going talking a break, but hey - here we are! Tommy fills you in on his travels, the work he's been up to, the stack of episodes we have coming up with some guests. But critically Tommy and George sit down to talk about an event they've put together with a group of friends and colleagues: the 2024...

Last week Tommy announced his new project 'Goal State', a series of online courses designed to teach people about AI for video games. It's going live on Kickstarter later this year, Here's Tommy replaying the livestream QnA hosted last week that answered as many answers as he could on the subject at this time. Follow 'Goal State' on Kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aiandgames/g...

Co-host Quang Nguyen returns to Branching Factor as Tommy welcomes long-time friend of the show Jupiter Hadley to come and chat with us. Quang and Jupiter are two of the organisers behind ‘Brilliant Indie Treasures’ : a games event running this summer on July 10th during the Develop conference in the British seaside town of Brighton. You can find out more about the event itself, plus how to submit...

In this episode Tommy sits down with Mark Drew, the director of Villainous Game studios. Their next title, Harvest Hunt, launches on Steam on May 22nd. We get into our shared history, my accent, making sure you survive your first indie game, the lessons learned from shipping anything  to Steam, building a scalable game with a small team, and the benefits of having a publisher in those closing...

In this episode Tommy is joined by longtime friend Melissa Phillips, who is now the director of the Games Leadership Network: a a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and improve leadership skills in the games industry. We dig into what it means to build leadership skills in games, why training is so vital and reflect on the projects we worked on together many years ago at Norwich Games Fe...

Tommy and George are back for this episode of Branching Factor, recorded on the final day of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC). The team reflect on the week that has passed, and just how valuable a solid nights sleep can be when caught up in all this madness. -- The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai : unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn― all inside y...

Will Overgard, aka the Viking Blonde joins Tommy for a chat about his career as a Twitch streamer supporting game developers, and the current state of the industry going into GDC 2024. The conversation covers everything from good indie games to monetisation models, surviving as a game developer, being a content creator, generative AI, crypto and Web3, EA' project 10 dollar, good dogs, British civi...

For this weeks episode, Ben Ridge of Unfathomable Audio (the guy who does our music) joins us to talk about working in game audio, plus Helldivers II, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, gaming news and more! As mentioned in the news: the early bird registration for the Summer School for AI and Games closes on March 1st. Find out more at: https://school.gameaibook.org/ Plus, Game AI Uncovered is out now, get...

Tommy's riding solo in this episode, and so he decided to focus on games he's playing, projects he's involved in and the big stories in the news that are going down. -- As mentioned, Tommy will be at the AI and Games Summer School for this year. It's running from June 17th-21st in Valletta in Malta, and early bird registration closes on March 1st. http://school.gameaibook.org/ Plus, the first volu...

Branching Factor is back for 2024. We kickstart the year with George and Tommy sitting down to discuss the current state of the games industry, and where we see things going over the next 12 months. - Use our promo code with NordVPN for an exclusive discount, complete with a 30-day money-back guarantee! http://www.nordvpn.com/aiandgames -- AI and Games Plus is the second channel for AI and Games:...

In this month's episode, the rest of the team gets a well-earned break for the holiday season. Tommy sits down to reflect on the past year of content published across AI and Games, discusses his favourite games of the year, and answers viewer questions. - Use our promo code with NordVPN for an exclusive discount, complete with a 30-day money-back guarantee! http://www.nordvpn.com/aiandgames -- AI...

In this month's episode, Tommy, George and Quang unpack the recent headlines made by game engine creator Unity as it sought to define its monetisation practices, and the reaction by the game development community. Our special guest Matt Gambell from YouTube channel 'Game Dev Guide' gives his perspective both as a content creator focussed on the Unity game engine, as well as a day-to-day game devel...

George and Tommy hang out at Develop 2023 and discuss their experiences of trying to make a name for themselves in the games industry, and the value of attending an industry event in building networks and fostering communities. -- Use our promo code with NordVPN for an exclusive discount, complete with a 30-day money-back guarantee! http://www.nordvpn.com/aiandgames -- AI and Games Plus is the sec...

A recording from Tommy's visit to the AI and Games Summer School (  @GameAISchool  ), which ran in June 2023 at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Our panel, explores aspects of AI for games and what the future of it might look like. With Tommy as moderator, this panel ran on day 3 of the event with the following panellists: - Katja Hofmann (Microsoft Research) - Duygu Cakmak (Creative Ass...

In this episode of Branching Factor, Tommy and Mike sit down to celebrate 10 years of Dota 2. A game that Mike has thousands of hours in, and one that Tommy has observed with great interest, but has only played it for 87 minutes according to his Steam profile. So what better excuse than to mash these two people together to talk all about it! We discuss its origins, its impact on the games industry...

In this episode of Branching Factor, Tommy and Quang sit down with Mike and Gavin from the Bitmap Bureau to talk about their journey as indie game developers. Bitmap Bureau has been around since 2016, and has made a variety of games for modern platforms. But they're mostly known for 'Xeno Crisis': a game they kickstarted in 2018 and subsequently released on over a dozen platforms. From t...

Tommy is back in a solo episode of Branching Factor, in which we also welcome our first-ever guests. With AI for game development becoming an ever-popular topic of discussion, we welcome modl.ai CEO Dr Christoffer Holmgard, alongside Dr Julian Togelius, one of the company’s heads of research. Modl.ai is working on AI tools that support game developers and dig into the realities of how AI can be us...

In this month’s episode of Branching Factor, the whole team get together for the first time. Mike, Quang, George, Anne and Tommy meet up right before GDC in March to discuss games, gaming events, the gaming news and much more besides! -- Use our promo code with NordVPN for an exclusive discount, complete with a 30-day money-back guarantee! http://www.nordvpn.com/aiandgames -- Got a question or com...

This episode is with our fourth, final, and equally amazing co-host: Dr Anne Sullivan. Anne is an Assistant Professor in Digital Media and head of the StoryCraft Lab at Georgia Tech. But more critically, she has years of experience in games both inside and outside of academia. In this episode, we get into the realities of figuring out what 'creative computing' can be as a career. The lessons learn...

In this episode, Tommy sits down with our third amazing co-host Dr Mike Cook, a senior lecturer at King's College London, on his career and perspectives in the field of automated game design. We discuss what automated game design actually is, what it means for AI to design games and interesting avenues you can pursue. Follow Mike on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/mtrc -- Use our promo code with N...

Tommy and Quang sit down to discuss the challenges of crowdfunding your own Game Boy games at a time when the perceived value of games continues to change. You can listen to Branching Factor on: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1662631817 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AfZ8o4QLsoQlGR35YfrYS Amazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/6902f3c5-98c5-4695-bc56-ae7aa743f4a9/bra...

We're officially at DEFCON Podcast! Branching Factor kicks off with our inaugural episode as our brand-new podcast kicks into high gear. Over our first four episodes, we sit down with each of the four co-hosts of Branching Factor. For this first go around, it's George Osborn: the former head of communications of the UKIE (the UK games industry trade representative) and now Director of Policy at Ta...

Welcome to  Branching Factor! This podcast talks about video games from various perspectives: as players, developers, and researchers. In each episode, our host Dr. Tommy Thompson sits down with co-hosts Dr. Anne Sullivan, George Osborn, Dr. Mike Cook, and Quang as they explore the gaming world. You'll hear about how video games are made, the goings-on of the games industry, what academic res...