Branching Factor

Sep 02 2024 25 ep. 79 mins 18

Branching Factor Podcast artwork

Welcome to Branching Factor, a podcast about video games from people who play, develop and research video games.

In each episode, join our host Dr. Tommy Thompson as he sits down with co-hosts Dr. Anne Sullivan, George Osborn, Dr. Mike Cook, and Quang as they explore the gaming world.

Learn about how video games are made, the goings-on of the games industry, what academic research in games is all about, interviews with guests, and more!

Branching Factor is brought to you by the AI and Games YouTube channel, watch episodes on AI and Games Plus, and become a Patron to support the show.

Watch episodes of Branching Factor on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@AIandGamesPlus

Learn About AI and Games: http://www.youtube.com/@AIandGames

Become an AI and Games Patron: http://www.patreon.com/ai_and_games

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#024 - Digging into Little Learning Machines

Sep 02 2024 70 mins

Tommy is joined by three of the developers behind ‘Little Learning Machines’: a puzzle game that entrusts players with teaching AI agents called Animos to solve puzzles in a variety of idyllic environments.With a huge content update coming on September 5th to Steam, Tommy sits down with art director Nick Counter, technical lead Dante Camarena and community manager Fiona Firby f

#023 - The 2024 GDMC Competition

Aug 28 2024 68 mins

Tommy is joined by Dr Christoph Salge and Victoire Herve from the University of Hertfordshire to talk about the 7th annual Generative Design in Minecraft Competition - an event where participants write AI systems to build settlements in Minecraft. We discuss how the project has continued to grow and persist for this long, the community that has thrived around it, and the big challe

#022 - We Made a Conference!?!

Aug 19 2024 62 mins

After a summer hiatus the Branching Factor podcast is back! Sorry, I don't think we mentioned we were going talking a break, but hey - here we are!Tommy fills you in on his travels, the work he's been up to, the stack of episodes we have coming up with some guests. But critically Tommy and George sit down to talk about an event they've put together with a group of friends and colle

#021 - Goal State Announcement Q'n'A

May 28 2024 77 mins

Last week Tommy announced his new project 'Goal State', a series of online courses designed to teach people about AI for video games. It's going live on Kickstarter later this year, Here's Tommy replaying the livestream QnA hosted last week that answered as many answers as he could on the subject at this time.Follow 'Goal State' on Kickstarter at:https://www.kickstarter.com/project

#020 - Searching for Brilliant Indie Treasures with Quang and Jupiter Hadley

May 13 2024 49 mins

Co-host Quang Nguyen returns to Branching Factor as Tommy welcomes long-time friend of the show Jupiter Hadley to come and chat with us. Quang and Jupiter are two of the organisers behind ‘Brilliant Indie Treasures’: a games event running this summer on July 10th during the Develop conference in the British seaside town of Brighton.You can find out more about the event itself,

#019 - On the Harvest Hunt with Mark Drew

Apr 29 2024 76 mins

In this episode Tommy sits down with Mark Drew, the director of Villainous Game studios. Their next title, Harvest Hunt, launches on Steam on May 22nd. We get into our shared history, my accent, making sure you survive your first indie game, the lessons learned from shipping anything to Steam, building a scalable game with a small team, and the benefits of having a publisher i

#018 Musings on Games Leadership with Melissa Phillips

Apr 15 2024 77 mins

In this episode Tommy is joined by longtime friend Melissa Phillips, who is now the director of the Games Leadership Network: a a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and improve leadership skills in the games industry. We dig into what it means to build leadership skills in games, why training is so vital and reflect on the projects we worked on together many years ago at

#017 - Tommy & George @GDC2024

Apr 01 2024 31 mins

Tommy and George are back for this episode of Branching Factor, recorded on the final day of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC). The team reflect on the week that has passed, and just how valuable a solid nights sleep can be when caught up in all this madness.--The Branching Factor podcast is sponsored by modl.ai: unleash an army of AI and ML bots that play, grow, and learn�

#016 - Legendary Chat with Will Overgard

Mar 11 2024 92 mins

Will Overgard, aka the Viking Blonde joins Tommy for a chat about his career as a Twitch streamer supporting game developers, and the current state of the industry going into GDC 2024. The conversation covers everything from good indie games to monetisation models, surviving as a game developer, being a content creator, generative AI, crypto and Web3, EA' project 10 dollar, good do

#015: Screaming Match with Ben Ridge

Feb 26 2024 108 mins

For this weeks episode, Ben Ridge of Unfathomable Audio (the guy who does our music) joins us to talk about working in game audio, plus Helldivers II, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, gaming news and more!As mentioned in the news: the early bird registration for the Summer School for AI and Games closes on March 1st. Find out more at: https://school.gameaibook.org/Plus, Game AI Uncovered is