Published 17 March 2025
e505 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI technical & security challenges, a Metallica augmented concert, Dungeons & Dragons and much more.
Michael and Michael get things started off while Andy is away with a discussion on the security challenges and technical complexity for AI implementations for Siri and in upscaling video. They then turn to another set of AI game generation and playing experiences using Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. There have been many such stories in the past years where the level of AI sophistication has been tested by either developing game code or leveraging machine learning to play a game.
Moving into the augmented experience world, Michael R gives his firsthand impressions of the new Apple Vision Pro Metallica immersive concert. He was very impressed – listen into the episode for the specific vignettes that were most intriguing to him. This spurred a conversation between Michael and Michael about ways to potentially interact with such immersive experiences in the style that the 1983 game Dragon’s Lair used to highlight choices for the player. Take a look at the YouTube video below for this game mechanic. In another story, Lowe’s Home Improvement is using the Apple Vision Pro to help you visualize your kitchen design. This also reminds the co-hosts of similar experiences from Ikea.
The team then heads over to the Pokemon Go Gym to exercise the story the recent sale by Niantic of the game (and the game’s data) to Scopely. Michael and Michael imagine how in-game rewards could generate immensely valuable (near) real time location data collection. Last, the team wraps up with a couple of Dungeons and Dragons stories – one on the tabletop augmented experience and another on a colossal D20.
How would you like to experience a concert or sporting event from the comfort of your living room? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!
These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
Selected Links
AI
9 to 5 Mac article: Apple commenter John Gruber launches blistering attack on ‘rotten’ Apple over Siri vaporware
Vice article: Netflix Used AI to Upscale ‘A Different World’ and It’s a Melted Nightmare
The Guardian article: ‘A lot worse than expected’: AI Pac-Man clones, reviewed
Games at Work e504: Can you Digg It? for fly.pieter.com
Boy Genius Report article: Claude-3.7 outperforms other AI in Super Mario Bros, but it’s still no gamer
Games at Work e225: Ah-ha, it’s AI! for AI playing Q*Bert
AR
MacStories article: Metallica Is Coming to the Apple Vision Pro
Wikipedia article: Dragon’s Lair
9 to 5 Mac article: Apple Vision Pro demos expanding to new Lowe’s stores
Games at Work e336: Pancaking Robots for Pancake “furniture as a service” and Ikea
Apple App Store: Magic Room: LiDAR Environment
AR / VR Games
TechCrunch article: Pokémon GO maker Niantic is selling its games division to Scopely for $3.5B
404 Media article: Saudi Arabia Buys Pokémon Go, and Probably All of Your Location Data
Games at Work e503: Death Watch for Scaniverse
Polygon article: After years in development, D&D’s Unreal-powered virtual tabletop still feels off
Hello Mastodon! I'm a power engineer who is trying out solo game development and on the way to release Power Network Tycoon – a game where you build and manage your own electrical grid with real physics simulation.
If you've ever wondered how power systems actually work (or why they fail), this might be your jam. I built it to be technically accurate while still being fun. To say it's been a challenge is an understatement
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2429930/Power_Network_Tycoon/
Tindie post: Massive Light Up D20
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:34 — 60.4MB) | Embed
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Great show guys! Sorry I missed the recording.