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Sam Swain

@sam.apparance.uk

900 followers 240 following 350 posts

A child of the procedural generation. Long-time tools coder off of the games industry. Worked on Fable, NMS, Gloomhaven. Building crazy proc-gen technology: www.apparance.uk 👈 Try Unreal & Unity plugin for free! he/him ▪ forever 42 ▪ surrey, uk

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Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · Nov 17

Hello Bluesky! I'm a programmer who has worked on a few well known games, making lots of level editors, content tools, and technical architecture. My interest and involvement in procedural generation over the years has blossomed into my game focused proc-gen middleware called Apparance.

Collection of game logos and box-art that Sam Swain has worked on and the companies that made them: Flaming Fowl (Gloomhaven, Ironmarked), Hello Games (No Man's Sky), Apparance procedural middleware (Apparance Studios), Elixir Studios (Republic The Revolution), Salix Games (Maze), Lionhead Studios (Fable 2, Fable 3, Fable Heroes, Fable The Journey, Fable Legends), Silicon Dreams (Dogs of War, Lego Island 2), and Oxford Softworks (Intelligent Strategy Games 10, Go II Professional, Go III Professional).

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 2d

Oops, starting a little late :/

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 3d

Back streaming #ProcGen dev again tomorrow, also back at 1pm BST (12 GMT).
www.twitch.tv/ga5p0d3

ga5p0d3 - Twitch

Games Developer, specialising in procedural generation, tools, and systems. Creator of the Apparance proc-gen plugin for Unreal and Unity.

Reposted by Sam Swain

Ian McQue @ianmcque.bsky.social · 3d

This. So much fucking THIS

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 3d

feels like yet again time to mention that the *videogames* industry (that's a creative industry, which people do creative degrees in) brings in more than twice the amount to the British economy as the fishing and steel industries *combined*

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 3d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Reposted by Sam Swain

Mike Bithell @mikebithell.bsky.social · 3d

Love the clarity of this message

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 4d

Let's make hope normal again.

youtu.be/qxt4HCjd7VA?...

Let's Make Hope Normal Again - Green Party Political Broadcast

YouTube video by Green Party of England & Wales

Reposted by Sam Swain

Json Momoa @jotatx.bsky.social · 4d

How cute that they used bubbles to depict the companies

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 4d

Hmm, yes, some of the obvious shortcuts aren't suitable.

Road with sign saying "Unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles"

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 4d

Perhaps a lesson in *mumble mumble* always questioning authority *mumble mumble* 🙄

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 4d

I can only (at a stretch) assume that they were constrained by roads that can carry lorries/etc, or something, because there are plenty of ways that could be improved. 🤦‍♂️

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 4d

Got sent on this absolute fever-dream of a diversion on my way back from Epsom last night (ongoing overnight M25 junction works). I just followed the diversion signs assuming they would be the best way round. Took about half an hour extra. 😭

Map of where A3 crosses M25 showing closed road (black) and my intended route (green) with the crazy long diversion route (red).

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 4d

Wtf. Also, that last sentence, *chef kiss*

Dr Kat Day (she/her) @chronicleflask.katday.com · 5d

Daughter of Robin Williams, Zelda Williams 💔

zeldawilliams
20m
From Create Mode
••
Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad. Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand, I don't and I won't. If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, i'll restrict and move on. But please, if you've got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It's dumb, it's a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it's NOT what he'd want.
To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to 'this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that's enough,
, just so
other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening. You're not making art, you're making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings, out of the history of art and music, and then shoving them down someone else's throat hoping they'll give you a little thumbs up and like it.
Gross.

And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future. Al is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line, all while the folks at the front laugh and laugh, consume and consume.

Reposted by Sam Swain

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 5d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

Reposted by Sam Swain

Malcolm Nance, Leading Resister @malcolmnance.bsky.social · 6d

TERRORISM EXPERT HERE:

This statement is a clear example of what is known as “State Terrorism”: When the dictatorship will order all instruments of its state security & intelligence apparatus against its own citizens to terrorize the population.

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 6d

Complaing about the odds actually being rigged... in a game called "Unfair Flips" 🤔

Kara Ling @metacrab.org · 7d

The game in which the premise is "the odds are real but gamers struggle to conceptualize or even believe them" has negative reviews from gamers who don't believe the odds are real (game: Unfair Flips)

A 'Not Recommended' Steam review with 4 hours played

Review text reads: It's a decent idea for a game where you flip a coin and depending on your percentage chances you get heads or tails. However the odds are a lie. You will flip tails 100 percent more than you will heads no matter what your percentage is. Even when you get it up to 60% you will still flip tails way more often then you will heads.

The Dev can try to defend it, but when I flip the coin 2500 times and only hit heads a third of the time even when at 60% then the odds are broken or a lie. I've also watched gameplay and seen fellow players have the same flips so I know it isn't just me having bad luck.

Still not bad for $2, but I'm saying no because the game is coded against you instead of it being fully on chance and luck.

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 9d

Pretty Aces!

The four ace card designs in the Fable card deck

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 9d

The background too!

Microsoft Solitaire app with the Fable theme card deck and background.

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 9d

Oh wow, that's so neat. I never knew! 😍

Eduardo Hulshof @eduardo.peculiarpath.com · 9d

Did you know you can select the Fable Cards that came in the Fable Collectors edition as an option on the Microsoft Solitaire?

I have the actual physical deck, but learning this delighted me today

#fable, #fable3, #gamedev, #microsoft, #solitaire

a screenshot of a solitaire board showing the Fable Themed Cards.

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 10d

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 10d

Unfortunately due to a very busy schedule I'm going to postpone this weeks #ProcGen dev live stream. 🙁 Sorry folks.
Treat this as a positive though since you could instead use the time to catch up on some of the previous streams! 😁 Check out the playlist here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IguZ...

Proc-Gen Dev Stream #1 - A Space Station Room

YouTube video by Apparance

www.youtube.com

Sam Swain @sam.apparance.uk · 11d

Woah! Nailed it. Go support Cassetteboy if you can (i.e. have some money left after all the crap going on here)

Cassetteboy @cassetteboy.bsky.social · 11d

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer.

This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Reposted by Sam Swain

Zoe TunnHELL ➡️ NYCC (Friday only!) @zoewithasword.bsky.social · 12d

I know we on the project volunteered to keep our identities off the individual stories but it's been a year and also things have only gotten worse so let me tell you

Writing this comic last year and having every single god damn thing come to pass at this point is just

Fuck, man. I'm so tired.

Panel 1

A white woman with a white tank top and pink hair leans into frame, her elbow over the lower panel border, waving to the reader.

LUCY:

Hi. I’m Lucy. That’s not my real name, and this isn’t what I look like. But that’s fine, because while this is my story…

LUCY:

It’s one that thousands of other trans people have lived through, at least a little bit. It’s our story too.

Panel 2

A map of the United States. States colored in red are those with anti-trans laws on the books. Those states are: New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.

LUCY:

I’m here to tell you how nightmarish Project 2025 will be for trans lives. Before we get to the main event, let me set the stage.

LUCY:

I’ve been out and medically transitioning as a trans woman for several years. It costs me thousands of dollars in medical expenses each year.

LUCY:

Also had to flee my home state due to bigoted laws, and faced discrimination everywhere from my own family to my job.

Panel 3

Lucy holds up up a giant textbook-sized printed copy of Project 2025. Her expression is one of outrage.

LUCY:

It’s pretty bad. And if Trump gets reelected and Project 2025 is brought into action, it’s only going to get much worse.

LUCY:

“Transgender,” “Gender Identity” and “Biological Sex” are used over thirty times in this Phone Book of Hate, so I’m going to keep it simple.

LUCY:

Three policies. Just three. That’s all they need.

Panel 4

Lucy sits at a computer, typing away. She looks over her shoulder at the reader.

LUCY:

Let’s start at the top. Page five. “Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology.”

LUCY:

Any trans person’s story would be labeled as pornography. Our lives. Our experiences. Every part of us.

LUCY:

Immediately f…

Panel 1

Lucy sits on a cot in a prison, hugging herself in despair.

LUCY:

That means that any trans person talking about their transition could be imprisoned. Every statement about our lives, a potential offense.

LUCY:

Hell, the story you’re reading right now would qualify.

Panel 2

Lucy stands behind a counter with a cash register in front of her, ready to scan a bag of chips on the conveyer belt. She looks annoyed and exhausted.

LUCY:

Next. “Rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of […] gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics.” Page 584.

LUCY:

Paired with page 495, “a general statement of policy specifying that it will not enforce any prohibition on […] gender identity discrimination” it paints a picture.

LUCY:

Discrimination towards trans people at places like their jobs will be fully legal, leaving us open to unmitigated harassment and hate.

Panel 3

Lucy is curled up in a ball, looking small, looking like she’s just finished crying her eyes out and is just empty.

LUCY:

Page 485. “Withdraw all guidance encouraging Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program service providers to provide controversial “gender transition” procedures or “gender-affirming care”.

LUCY:

Page 462. “Fund studies into the short-term and long-term negative effects of crosssex interventions, including “affirmation,” puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries.”

LUCY:

Page…take your pick. There’s a dozen more.

Panel 4

Lucy, still running on empty, holds a vial of Estradiol in her fingers and stares at it. It’s nearly empty.

LUCY:

By cutting federal funding from any medical facility that offers trans healthcare, and standing against it as official policy…

LUCY:

Hormones and gender care will become almost impossible to find. For those of us who are already on them, it’ll wreak havoc.

LUCY:

Our mental health. Our bodies. Damage that will ruin lives. And for trans folks who can no longer produce a safe level of hormones…

Panel 5

Lucy …

Reposted by Sam Swain

chelsea bridge 🏳️‍⚧️ @secretaboutbox.bsky.social · 12d

imagine if trans people didn't need to beg for their fucking lives constantly and instead we could just be funny and hot and go to sleep at night without worrying about what threat morning will bring

Reposted by Sam Swain

JB_AU @jbau.bsky.social · 13d

This whole section really.

Finally: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100% convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, and when the bubble bursts, the money-hemorrhaging "foundation models" will be shut off and we'll lose the AI that can't do your job, and you will be long gone, retrained or retired or "discouraged" and out of the labor market, and no one will do your job.
AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations:

Reposted by Sam Swain

SpryOldLorax @spryoldlorax.bsky.social · 17d

Some amazing gay history. Listen up kids.

I'm watching that documentary "Before Stonewall" about gay history
pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast
about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed
psychologists, a police officer, and one "known homosexual". The
"known homosexual" is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis
White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.
So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale
Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television
and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there's nothing
wrong with him mentally and he's never been arrested. When asked
whether he'd take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether
his family knows he's gay, he says that they didn't up until tonight, but
he guesses they're going to find out, and he'll probably be fired from
his job as well. So of course the host is like ... why are you doing this
interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says "I think
that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself."

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale's boss did indeed recognize him from
the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into
ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten
a new job at a higher salary.
Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further.
It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity
agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that,
but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person
who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the
statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson's disclosure had
a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the
U.S.

Reposted by Sam Swain

👁️ isaac io 👁️ @eyesack.bsky.social · 14d

This is presented in a jokey way but honestly it works! I was talking about the rfk announcement shitshow with my (non-autistic) partner, and she was like "there's something weirdly insulting about it too" and I was like "well, it's eugenics" and she got it immediately

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 17d

i made a helpful reference

$top right: a fractured black rectangle where one half is labeled "autism is bad" and the other side is labeled "FACT CHECK: autistic people are productive members of society". top left: WRONG -negating their frame reinforces it -starts with what it isn't instead of what it is - your argument is shaped like their argument bottom right: large image of Kirby, a pink blob inhaling and the "autism is bad" fragment, labeled THEY'RE DOING EUGENICS bottom left: RIGHT - you eat their frame -starts with what's actually happening -contains and explains what they're doing -your argument is shaped like kirby$

Reposted by Sam Swain

nat alison @tesseralis.site · 15d

mathematicians: This is the Schlüsman-Katsuhira transform. It took researchers over 250 years to discover. Only 30 people in the world know how it works.
tech artists: This is the Schlüsman-Katsuhira transform, or as we call it in the biz, "ol' Schlussy". We use it for realistic cheese textures :)