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Alexander Bruce

@demruth.bsky.social
1.6K followers 27 following 325 posts

I made Antichamber. Now I'm making something else.

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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It's generally a higher level, yeah, but the reason I was also commenting with regards to programming feel is that AI has introduced a layer of uncertainty about the outome. It would be like hitting compile twice and getting different results, which is not how computers have previously worked.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Oh I didn't think the article strictly needed it, just responding to the extra highlight you did in this post. :) It IS a very accommodating employee, and it's definitely getting better in this regard. Opus 5 was horrendous and I hated working with it, Opus 5.5 is way better to deal with.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
To feel the same as programming, within reason it must feel like "The machine just does what you tell it to do". Sure, if you tell it the wrong thing, same as programming, you'll get an erroneous result. But, if you tell it the right thing, and it does it wrong, that's not how computers work.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
When using it as part of general programming practice, it does essentially feel the same, yeah. When used as "I don't want to understand, just go implement a thing. Wait, no, you cut corners, that's not what I asked for, and why are these extra features here?", then it feels like management.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I agree with the sentiment, but it cuts both ways. Choices can lead to brilliant insight (I live my life trying to find them) and choices can destroy motivation / joy (I fight this every day) I would never want to lose the parts I engage with, but other parts are worth the shortcuts.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I wrote several threads on Twitter regarding these points while I researched the process, the output, etc. and know myself very well, what I'm interested in, what I will always wnat to do myself, etc.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
For my use case, I'm still actively interested in the parts of code / development I'm actually interested in, and using AI like this doesn't take those parts away from me personally. My 2c.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
None of this is a justification for why anyone else should use AI, and it wasn't without its own teething problems trying to work out how to apply any of it myself. Part of it was also researching where it was at out of curiosity. I've found some definite use cases for myself, with verifiable output
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I'm well aware of a bunch of tasks involved with programming and the intersection between the parts I can do, the parts I'm interested in learning to do, and the parts I want done.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
For this specific use case, I know what kind of work is involved. I've done it before, in an easier case, when for example taking something from UE3 to UE5, which was stalled for similar reasons.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Suffice to say, all my own original work, all my own time spent. In this instance, working with the AI to do it in a week is worth the weeks / months of me doing it myself, and probably introducing more mistakes along the way, which is more frustration and friction I specifically wanted to avoid.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I wasn't going to pay someone else to do it, even if I had the money to do so, because I also don't want to manage someone else doing the work.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I was unlikely to spend my own time doing it, because I'm incredibly deep on an entirely different thing, much deeper than the original project ever was, and I have many other things to do in life than back then. It was never going to be a personal priority, the old way.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
However, I am in the middle of getting it to Transliterate a 10 year old dead Unity build I was very unlikely to do anything with again, back into something I can use. I wanted the game back, and I had my old code, but wasn't going to do a dance getting it to run again in Unity, 10 years later.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Prior to this week, I had never used AI for anything that I found useful. Whenever it was forced on me (e.g. by Google) or suggested to me as "things I could do with AI", I either didn't want it, or didn't need it.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I mean, you can also just not make any statements about AI and all of the people yelling won't notice because they're specifically looking for everyone talking about AI or not AI.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Yeah I prefer when software is designed to be useful like this instead of when it's just designed to push shit you don't want in your face
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
It's garbage, because you contact support or tweet about it and you get "We hear you! We appreciate your suggestions! We've passed it on to the teams!" But it's all bullshit. No one actually cares. It's something they broke in an update and won't fix.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Man, Spotify made a change months ago that really annoys me. For years, I'd go to an artist and click All Albums, then hit play, and it would play through all of the albums. Now it just plays one album... or one song. You have to add everything to a playlist yourself if you want multiples. So dumb.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I like to reframe chores as a secondary activity, that get done as a byproduct of things I enjoy. Listening to music... while my free hands happen to be doing dishes Listening to a podcast... whilst pushing around a lawnmower Sipping Whiskey... while poking around in some boring work at my PC
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Telling people this is also useless. It just stops the work getting done. Either work through whatever work is involved or get disheartened and stop.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I guess I meant "forever" figuratively lol. A very long time, in indie development terms.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I was mainly thinking of things like 2048 and Ridiculous Fishing on mobile, everyone copying Flappy Bird, then later Voodoo cloning everything they could.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Been happening since forever. Now it's just faster, by people who have even less reason to care.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Would love this, for all the times Unreal physics decides to break and give stupid results back
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Looks rad.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Loved it.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
So they should. Would be absolutely garbage to start hitting people with fees immediately.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Did you get fined?
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I originally rage quit Baby Steps after about 2 hours, but then because Bennett was coming to Melbourne, I was like, ok, let's do this, let's give it more of a proper go before catching up with him. Then I LOVED it, the whole thing, once I fully let it wash over me.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Yeah I have ZERO problem actually playing the game, I just dug deeper because I really wanted to understand wtf the problem was. You feel NONE of this when you are split second playing with the controls anyway. You can't tell a difference when something happens in 0.1 seconds while you are running.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I understand the perspective because I too have played many games that were just bad and didn't get more interesting / weren't worth pushing through, but when people I find credible recommend, I'll take extra time to reconsider and dig deeper, as is warranted here.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Yeah look, I think that he encountered something that would generally be pretty bad in a game that was otherwise trying to be a standard game, and didn't get to appreciate that in this game, it is actually the point / feature. Hence trying to discuss for a potential reconsider.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I did more specific testing and screenshots and responded to him in one of the other argument threads, because I can see one of the issues he's referring to, with identical looking screenshots. These are actually different states, one I've still got 90% of the pixel in front of me, one I don't.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
It's a ponderous game. You have to let it wash over you. You have to understand that it's giving feedback constantly, but it's in different forms. Seeing the comment of "animation or sound could help this!" is like, not really? Not for what the game actually is doing?
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
That's why I brought up Baby Steps as an example of where the controls are the point. I understand the critique for games generally, but I can also remember people complaining about early Antichamber being vague / confusing / difficult and I'm like... that's literally the gate. That is the puzzle.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Started playing this yesterday on your repeated recommendations. It's very nice.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Ah yeah fair. Writing the correct prompts is hard.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
My favourite part is that even in their demo recording, it misses swipes twice. Could you not take 2 seconds to record that shit again, if you're not going to fix the feature itself?
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
This looks garbage to use, like most things these days
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Oh I've definitely played Baby Steps. Loved it.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Well I purchased it, based on these posts. :)
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Soon, that person will be you.
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I started reading the article, but noticed myself sighmaxxing, so I closemaxxed it to get back to workmaxxing. Not at the article itself, just at another dumb trend. :P
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
On my waymo!
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Gonna try my best… may end up just arriving a bit later than 7 if need be, but at least I am tired and in bed at a decent hour!!
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I should play the climbing game. You’re the second person who recommended it for the same reasons!
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Same to you! Enjoyed our conversation!
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
I have arrived in town for GDC, for the first time in a long time!
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Alexander Bruce @demruth.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Well, 7am is definitely early on my watch, but I'll also be jetlagged, so hopefully I'm actually waking up at 5am and raring to go by this hour! :)
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