Emerging from my vacation from the socials to say hey, it's almost time for the annual #DOOM run. I play through the original game from start to finish on stream. I'll be live on Tue 30th from 2pm UK time. www.youtube.com/live/kVKY5eW...

Sounds daft to say but I'm talking to a lot of people for whom YouTube is proving v difficult right now. If there's someone whose videos you like, boost them. Share their work around if you enjoy it. Support them on Patreon if you can. All helps a tremendous amount when the platform feels so hostile

Part 1 of the @aiandgames.com GOTY 2025 went live today. A nice mishmash of small indies, award darlings, and the big AAA releases of this year - plus a bunch of games that actually came out like two years ago.

Gonna be online playing through some Terminator 2D: No Fate, plus unboxing the collector's edition that has been sitting at my desk the past couple of days. Exciting stuff... youtube.com/live/HKLMrBH...

Well, throughly enjoyed Metroid Prime 4 until the last 5% of it. Didn't mind much of the broader design changes - some work, some don't and like every entry in the series it has it's own flavour. BUT... in classic series fashion the final boss is just infuriating and not fun. Consistency! 🤣

I briefly came out of vacation hibernation today for a press interview. We wound up talking about how much of a mess the AAA games industry is in right now that (generative) AI is seen by execs as the solution to the very problems it created for itself over the past 20-30 years.

My last video for the year was compiling all the footage from us behind-the-scenes at this years @conference.aiandgames.com. What an amazing couple of days with the brightest and best folk in Game AI - we focus only on the good stuff around here.

People deliberately conflating gen AI with NPC AI in games is just being a damned liar. I can understand people not getting the nuance between machine learning algorithms and LLMs, in part because that conflation is the fault of marketeers, but throwing NPC AI in there as well is deliberate.

If anything the nonsense AI hype has only increased the amount of work I'm doing. There's so many established and applied usages of AI in game development - including generative models - that don't compromise ethics or degrade product. And so our job is fighting to keep that message out there.

This is exactly the kind of poor reporting on AI in game dev that reinforces the problem For every person crying 'fuck AI' and the like you get these 'all games use AI' or 'it's just a tool' arguments. I mean I know there's no nuance on socials but journalism should be held to a higher standard.

At this point, if you are not disclosing that you used AI, you know that your audience doesn't want it

Been on holiday for like, a day, and the discourse on AI in gamedev is very loud. It's important to be angry, and be vocal but equally to be *informed*. Know what to be angry about, what discourse is recycled and how we use AI regularly in games. Shouting 'fuck AI in games' doesn't help.

With both 'Thursday Murder Club' and 'Mickey 17' that's two for two this year where I read the book prior to seeing the movie adaptation and then came away disappointed. Books man. They're pretty good.

Our final big meaty issue of the year is out! Game AI's Existential Crisis (Part II) is now live. In this chapter @tommy.aiandgames.com explores how Game AI education is a fractured knowledge space propped up by a handful of individuals. www.aiandgames.com/p/game-ais-e...

Well it's my birthday this week and I'm actually taking some time off. In the meantime we've kicked off 50% off annual subs to @aiandgames.com meaning you can support us for like less £3/$4 a month. Help us combat the nonsense AI hype and highlight the good work people do in the sector!

And they are definitely not the tools sold to execs to cut down on production time, creativity time, and human labour (and costs) either.

It's our end of year QnA livestream later today on YouTube (and Twitch.tv/aiandgames). 4pm GMT / 11am EST / 8am PST We will be wrapping up the year and having a right good blether.

It's our end of year QnA livestream later today on YouTube (and Twitch.tv/aiandgames). 4pm GMT / 11am EST / 8am PST We will be wrapping up the year and having a right good blether.

This is a fantastic write up about the state of game AI as a field across academia and industry and it really is bleak out there as someone in industry who is one of the only people on my team that does game AI among my other narrative duties

Still time to buy your loved ones a copy of Into the Restless Ruins for Xmas! Available digitally for all current gen platforms, and also physically for PS5!

My last main newsletter of the year: part 2 of Game AI's Existential Crisis In short: the games industry fails to sustain meaningful educational outlets, and relies heavily on individuals to prop up our knowledge exchange mechanisms. And Game AI is suffering because of it.

The context is valuable - and it is what I expected - but the well is so thoroughly poisoned on the use of (generative) AI in creative industries that saying *anything* without a meaningful deep dive (which will still piss people off) was a bad move. Talking about AI is a huge PR issue.

Fuck. That. Shit.

I am so very tired... But I'm proud of everything we've done at @aiandgames.com this year. So let's wrap things up with our annual WRAPPED livestream: - We walk through everything we've done. - What to expect in 2026 - Plus answer your questions. Join us on Friday at 4pm GMT for all the bants!

It's the @aiandgames.com end of year livestream this Friday at 4pm GMT. @tommy.aiandgames.com and @shraddhagupta.bsky.social will discuss our work in 2024, plus our conference, Goal State and more. All this plus an audience QnA as well. We'll see you there! www.youtube.com/live/MiLKzb7...

I know you know how stupid content ID is but... It's December 2025, and YouTube still thinks I own the copyright to the opening cinematic for Left 4 Dead. I've only told them *several times* this is not mine, but hey, new copyright flags hit my account every other week.

The ex-professor in me is screaming 'grade inflation' when you notice the supposed 'worst' games of the year compiled from professional reviews on metacritic have an average of 40% (median 42%). The entire games industry passed the class - except Mindseye. www.metacritic.com/pictures/wor...

Keeper slaps.

Perfectly timed after our recent episode on it, Amnesia: The Bunker is the price of a cup of coffee. Check it out. Really interesting horror game. store.steampowered.com/app/1944430/...

I've been under embargo and dying to talk about this. Terminator 2D: No Fate is... SO FREAKING GOOD A really fun callback to SNES era movie adaptations, with great pixel art and clearly a lot of love for the original IP. I'm on my 3rd playthrough and I'm still just smiling throughout.

You'd think this was their first PR rodeo? If someone had intentionally leaked information that was so significant and critical to Rockstar and Take Two's business operations that they were fired, it would be all over the freaking internet. And yet, crickets...

“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...

Hey you lovely freaks. Another wee plug for yesterday's new episode of @aiandgames.com on Amnesia: The Bunker. It's had a great response, but as always YouTube continues to kill our impressions and views, so sharing among the real sickos who I know will love this shit. youtu.be/SqVKuTy6eYc

Hey you lovely freaks. Another wee plug for yesterday's new episode of @aiandgames.com on Amnesia: The Bunker. It's had a great response, but as always YouTube continues to kill our impressions and views, so sharing among the real sickos who I know will love this shit. youtu.be/SqVKuTy6eYc

Amnesia: The Bunker is a pretty terrifying horror game, and it was a lot of fun to chat with the devs at @frictionalgames.bsky.social to hear about the challenges and creative solutions they came up with during development. Really happy with this episode, go and check it out!

Launch trailer for that other game I have been working on, Terminator 2D: NO FATE This Friday 12th December 2025

Amnesia: The Bunker is a pretty terrifying horror game, and it was a lot of fun to chat with the devs at @frictionalgames.bsky.social to hear about the challenges and creative solutions they came up with during development. Really happy with this episode, go and check it out!

Appreciate this is aimed at a narrow audience but... On Jan 11 2026 I will be talking about electronic games from the 1980s at the Video Game History Museum in Zagreb, Croatia. Based on my book, From Coin-Ops to Table-Tops. Would love to take this same talk elsewhere... to UK museums?

The demo for D*Fuzed is up on our itchio page, along with the full Super JetPak DX, for free. Both are playable in your web browser, or downloadable as ROM files. asobitech.itch.io #gameboy #itchio #dfuzedgbc

Hit the same conclusion last night. It almost feels like Mackenzie had a larger role in an earlier build that later got cut down. A desire to help new Metroid players understand the game only for focus testing to dislike it?

Alrighty, I'm chilling with Metroid Prime 4. Going to stream the opening couple of hours as I find my feet with it. You can find me over on Twitch or on YouTube

Well it's my birthday this week and I'm actually taking some time off. In the meantime we've kicked off 50% off annual subs to @aiandgames.com meaning you can support us for like less £3/$4 a month. Help us combat the nonsense AI hype and highlight the good work people do in the sector!

Yesterday, the Epic Games Store decided at the last minute not to distribute the game, after having previously approved a release build. HORSES is otherwise now available on GOG, Itch, and Humble for $4.99. www.horses.wtf

That said… if you have indie game and you want to talk about the GameAI in it. We would love to interview you. Get in touch with me please! #IndieGame #GameAI

Just discovered that Metroid Prime 4 doesn't unlock in the UK until like 5pm on Thursday. I had planned to take the afternoon off to give it a crack and it unlocks right when I have to leave the house to go do boring grown up things. Ragin'

So @shraddhagupta.bsky.social and I were discussing today how views on @aiandgames.com this year are no doubt lower not just because of YouTube being shit, but we covered more niche projects. Our videos on Trepang2 and Blood Typers had the lowest views but glad to see viewers check those games out.

A fun read and I'm glad to see it's been successful enough to keep Tom trucking. I had a good time playing Highrook and well worth a punt if you fancy a spooky narrative puzzle game to keep you busy over the holidays.

So the Until Dawn movie is on streaming and we decided to watch it out of morbid curiosity. It. Is. Terrible.