iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 4h

If you ever wonder how misaligned with reality the AI hype is with game dev, today I was reminded of a meeting where an AI bro tried to convince me his LLM tool would help games studios save money cus now they "don't have to hire 50 narrative designers". My guy, where you getting your information?

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 29/09/2026

I've always felt the games industry started crashing in 2018 but the money being pumped into it (especially during COVID) was a Hail Mary to push a broken model over the line. I'm now convinced GenAI is in the same boat. These idiots think you can defy gravity by just pumping more money into it.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 27/09/2026

Looking forward to checking this out if only because every screenshot reminds me of my own neck of the woods growing up (Linwood, not Coatbridge: other side of Glasgow, still shit). Survival horror in a council scheme is oddly comforting.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 26/09/2026

Mate, you subscribed to me. That's kind of on you at this point. Not had any hate mail in a while so this was refreshing.

Angry email saying:

"I hope you die of fucking cancer you idiot bitch i dont give a fuck n***er

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/09/2026

Had a fun chat with Andrei in which we got into the weeds on how so many studios think they're "falling behind" but in truth they're all experiencing the same reality that AI doesn't just magically work in game development.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/09/2026

Thanks to everyone who tuned in last night playing SPRAWL zero. Had a great time, lots of fun discussion, and maybe when time permits we go back and play more of the game online. Be sure to check it out on Steam. store.steampowered.com/app/3748520/...

store.steampowered.com

SPRAWL zero on Steam

SPRAWL zero is a fast-paced shooter inspired by the Golden Age of 2000s FPS. Survive a brutal cyberpunk city collapsing under military rule and cult fanaticism. Use your Gravity-Gloves, augments, and ...

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Liz Edwards @lizaledwards.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I saw this screenshot going around, found this detail charming, looked more into the game (I've never played a Silent Hill) & decided to buy it. Btw these are the "unimportant" background assets AI idiots think AI should be used for

Screenshot of a Twitter post by Val / @shegoingtogloat - it's a Silent Hill screenshot showing a close up of a cork board. On it, a paper says "Welcome to Shorefront Family Clinic" in a classic wiggly 3D font style. The tweet text is: Is this a Silent Hill asset made using PowerPoint lol"

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 24/09/2026

I finally (FINALLY) have a bit of free time and energy to jump on a livestream. So going to stream tonight (7pm UK time) and talk about indie-2000s-FPS 'SPRAWL Zero'. I'm a few hours into it, and wanted to talk about it as I play. So yeah, come hang out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p3B...

youtube.com

Analysing the AI of SPRAWL Zero | AI and Games Live

YouTube video by AI and Games

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 24/09/2026

Been having conversations about this in studios of late (in our consulting capacity) and an emerging theme is prioritising wellbeing of devs and institutional knowledge. Moving faster can have detrimental effects on morale, staff development, and long term product viability.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 23/09/2026

Today we announced the first talks for the 2026 AI and Games Conference in November. A great start, with plenty more to come! Our goal is to bring together the people working on real AI for games. I mean c'mon we have 3x talks on navigation FFS. GenAI grifters don't even know what a navmesh is!

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 23/09/2026

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George E. Osborn @georgeosborn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Psst! I'm going back on tour with Power Play this week, with five dates taking place up and down the country between now and the end of October 🧵

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Or as I told someone at NBC yesterday "it's not 'a rogue AI', it's sloppy software." I won't even use "an AI" to refer to a program (or robot,) these people are using the term to refer to a bunch of cloned threads.

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

every day of my life I think about the people using “she” to describe this computer program who still need to be convinced to use it for trans women

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 19/09/2026

Funny seeing this pop up in my feed after spending a week at games studios in Santa Monica. It's a different reality for sure.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 18/09/2026

Fuck me this is a first. I just had someone email me a link to a "completed, ready-to-shoot 2,000 word video essay script" to see if I want to record it for YouTube. 2000 words? Bitch please. What am I filming here? A Tiktok?

static.klipy.com

Rookie Numbers Meme from The Wolf of Wall Street

ALT: Rookie Numbers Meme from The Wolf of Wall Street

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 17/09/2026

That's a wrap on this week's work over at Riot. Had a blast. Lots of fun, some great conversations (that I can't talk about), and now gotta fly all the way back to the UK. Throw a prayer to the travel gods.

Me standing at the entrance lobby of Riot's LA office

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 16/09/2026

On @aiandgames.com I wrote about the 'AI Gaming Festival': a Steam event that will help in “educating and showcasing how AI is used in games”. Except it's a marketing stunt by a GenAI startup, including an online conference with speakers from other AI startups. www.aiandgames.com/p/the-steam-...

aiandgames.com

The Steam Fest That Proves Why Everyone Hates on AI in Games | 16/09/26

The push for Gen AI in games masquerading as a sales event

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 16/09/2026

aiandgames.com

The Steam Fest That Proves Why Everyone Hates on AI in Games | 16/09/26

The push for Gen AI in games masquerading as a sales event

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 14/09/2026

Alright LA, I'm here and I've got work to do. Can we keep the traffic on the 405 to a minimum please. I need tacos because this presentation ain't going to finish itself.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026

Can confirm both Onimusha and SPRAWL zero are very good.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026

"Our AI upscaling is nothing like Nvidia's". Describes an architecture which is essentially how early versions of DLSS operated. Yes they're technically not the same, but I do enjoy watching companies try to avoid suffering the same heat as Nvidia despite using the same core technologies.

"Our networks are not generative, so they're not from the same nature as the latest DLSS model," he says. "Our networks are convolution type networks, which means that they don't imagine anything, they don't create anything, they just kind of know what things need to look like. So we've trained our networks on real content, but we have also trained them in a way on data sets which allow us to actually make our networks open and public. So all of our networks, our resolution networks, our frame rate generation networks, all of those networks are public and open on GitHub and on Hugging Face.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026

"Asked my husband to cook dinner."

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 13/09/2026

Off on another trip out to the US for work. Had originally planned to dip into Onimusha on the flight but got sent a key for SPRAWL zero and desire for early 2000s FPS is intensifying.

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Brilliant Indie Treasures @brilliantindietreasures.com · 09/09/2026

🏴‍☠️ BITs on a BOAT! 🏴‍☠️ We are running a public event on October 10th, in #London, on The Golden Hinde! We need some #indiegames (& #gamedevs) who are interested in showcasing - if you'd be up to being on a boat, please apply (it's free): docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... (rt pls)

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Ahmed Khalifa @amidos2006.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Cellular automata are powerful but painful to author. Rules are a lookup table; neural CAs are more expressive but a black box. What if each CA rule was just code that you can read? Introducing Programmable Cellular Automata (PCA)

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 11/09/2026

The initial acceptance emails are going out now. We have another *amazing* line-up this year - thank you all! We're going to start making some noise in the coming weeks but we have some exciting stuff, a new venue, and some new ideas we're trying out this year.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 10/09/2026

Props (and thank you) to Ben, I think this is the best introduction I've ever received in an article.

He has another talk in about twenty minutes. When he reaches the stage, he will describe himself as fuelled by coffee and “a little bit of existential anger”. Thompson has worked in game AI for twenty years and runs AI and Games. The technology has finally become fashionable enough to ruin his schedule.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 10/09/2026

Wow... There are ways to communicate how AI is actually used in games. What best practice looks like in various disciplines. How experienced devs have utilised even ML and GenAI over the past 15 years. This is not it.

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Dawnlight🌞Neni / ART COMMISSIONS OPEN!! @nenilein.com · 09/09/2026

Fun fact: "Reviewing an AI made translation" is more work for translators than just translating it themselves, because AI translations do not pass the sniff test beyond the most superficial. It's a loophole companies use as an excuse to underpay translators, and nothing else.

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 09/09/2026

Sinking City 2 wears its inspirations proudly, but it still presents something unique on a much tighter scale. A solid contender for one of the best survival horror games this year.

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Tom Betts @tomnullpointer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Sale Klaxon! My Game "The Horror At Highrook" is currently 40% off, which is a serious discount! So if you have been intrigued by its cosmic clockwork machinations now is the time to jump in! store.steampowered.com/app/2836860/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 40% on The Horror at Highrook on Steam

The Horror at Highrook is an occult card crafting narrative RPG. Explore a haunted mansion with your team of investigators, summon dark entities, craft powerful protections, uncover the fate of the mi...

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 07/09/2026

Reviewing Sinking City 2 in the newsletter later this week but had a great time with it so far. While I didn't play the original I'm aware it's drastically different, playing much more like Resident Evil 2 with the flooded city of Arkham as the backdrop. store.steampowered.com/app/2825860/...

store.steampowered.com

The Sinking City 2 on Steam

Set in the Roaring '20s, The Sinking City 2 is a survival horror steeped in Lovecraftian dread. Defy an eldritch deity and explore the drowned alleys of Arkham, stalked by the dead, as you weigh one l...

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 04/09/2026

A fun end to the week with the latest @aiandgames.com podcast being a deep-dive into our week at Gamescom, talking about the event itself, our experiences hosting a track of @gamescomdev.bsky.social, and the big takeaways from the week - plus industry gossip!

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 04/09/2026

Trying this thing called 'a day off' today. Crazy scenes.

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AI and Games @aiandgames.com · 04/09/2026

This week's newsletter we look back on our week so Gamescom (Dev). Helping to run a track at the developer conference, giving talks ourselves and the state of all this 'AI in games' stuff. www.aiandgames.com/p/post-games...

aiandgames.com

Post Gamescom (Dev) Musings | 02/09/26

A few words masquerading as wisdom between naps

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 04/09/2026

They state this will impact around 4% of Game Pass users, and I'm genuinely surprised that many people actually use the cloud streaming feature to that level.

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Devour🌱 @devoureroftime.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Gamescom AI Slop Thread. Every game from the Gamescom Opening Ceremonies that was actually AI Slop so you don't have to care about it.

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(Andrew) Roper @arndreth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I have no regrets

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 28/08/2026

In classic fashion having spent a week in Cologne for Gamescom I only managed to play one game. And no, it wasn't Alien: Isolation 2

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Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant.xyz · 28/08/2026

When you play the demo it generates a lil performance report. Nice idea.

ALIEN AWARENESS TIME: 46S
ALIEN NEAR MISSES: 4
STEALTH ASSESSMENT: QUIET
EMPLOYEE DEATHS: 1
CLOSEST ALIEN PROXIMITY: 313CM
ITEMS FOUND: 18
EMPLOYEE TIME IN THE OPEN: 1100S
EMPLOYEE SURVIVAL PROSPECTS: ACCEPTABLE

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/08/2026

The first ever AI Summit at Gamescom Dev hosted by @conference.aiandgames.com was a huge success. Really appreciate the trust placed in us to run two tracks on AI that will appeal to the audience. Good content and people is paramount! Next stop: AI and Games Conference in November!

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 25/08/2026

This week's newsletter is fairly lightweight given I'm busy at Gamescom. So I reviewed two indie games instead: Anomaly President and Akatori. www.aiandgames.com/p/getting-th... However if you're looking for a meatier bit of Tommy musings on (Gen)AI in games, George had me on VGIM this morning.

aiandgames.com

Getting the Votes in for the Anomaly President | 25/08/26

While Tommy's at Gamescom we review some new indie games!

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 22/08/2026

The important thing for anyone AI literate in a field is not to give the "well, actually" counterpoint. It's not productive. What I (try to) do is give context of *why* we use AI in specific areas of games, and contextualise why that is needed versus the stuff being sold by the hype merchants.

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