Venture fund Blue Ocean Games launches with $30m investment for indie developers Fund initially aimed at solo developers and small teams, plans to expand to larger teams with future investments Image credit: Blue Ocean Games News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on April 23, 2025 New venture fund Blue Ocean Games has launched with a $30 million investment fund for indie game developers. Blue Ocean Games was founded by Damian Lee, former head of investments at Krafton. The fund is also backed by the publisher. The company will implement an investment structure known as SAIL – Structured Agreement for Indie Launch. This involves investment at the concept stage of a game and funding of $100,000 per developer (up to $300,000 per team) which will be disbursed over two years. SAIL also includes a "hybrid equity and revenue share agreement that balances developer control with investor returns" and retention of IP ownerships. On top of that, the fund will provide support in the form of "incorporation assistance, bookkeeping services, and mentorship from industry veterans." Developers involved with the fund will be grouped into cohorts to encourage a collaborative space to share knowledge and resources. The fund will initially be aimed towards solo developers and small teams, with Blue Ocean Games planning to expand this initiative to larger teams through future funds. "There is a structural problem in the indie game industry where the gap between what investors are willing to fund, what developers dream of creating, and what players crave has grown too wide," said Lee. "Beyond simply filling a funding gap, we are trying to reimagine the ecosystem itself. "By aligning player demand with developer passion through community validation and reliable funding, our goal is to create an environment where mutual benefits naturally drive success and growth. This isn't just about picking winners; it's about expanding the playing field so that more visions can become reality." Krafton head of development Maria Park added: "We believe that innovation in the games industry often comes from the indie community, yet early-stage funding is one of the biggest challenges for new developers. "Blue Ocean Games offers indie developers a forward-thinking model that provides critical financial support that fosters a sustainable path to success. We're looking forward to working closely with them and seeing the incredible games that emerge from the program." The venture fund will also introduce a talent discovery program called Rising Tide. It's a series of online competitions and challenges to help platform developers and to help them gain recognition for their work. The first challenge is set to launch on May 1, 2025, in partnership with Global Game Jam. Applications for direct funding will also launch on this date. "Rising Tide is an idea proving ground for game developers at every stage and from every background," Lee explained. "It's a great opportunity to validate ideas and gain the confidence needed to dedicate more time and resources to a project. "Participants can pursue funding if they choose, but there's no obligation. By supporting developers at the concept stage with validation and potential funding, we are not just investing in games – we're investing in the future of the industry and the next generation of creative talent."

Logitech is releasing a major software update for the MX Creative Console it launched last fall, expanding the control panel’s compatibility to several new apps. Now available for download in the Logi Marketplace, the update adds “powerful new integrations and expanded functionality for Final Cut Pro,” while new plugins bring support for popular apps like Adobe Lightroom and Figma.Created in collaboration with Adobe, the new Lightroom plugin allows the MX Creative Console’s large dial controller to be used to straighten images with just a twist, while the keypad’s LCD buttons can be customized with shortcuts for quickly rating and flagging images.Adobe Lightroom users can now quickly straighten images using the MX Creative Console’s dial control. Image: LogitechThe Figma plugin uses the keypad to speed up tasks like aligning text and adjusting spacing and layouts, while the console’s dial can be used to change the size and weight of text.The MX Creative Console shipped last October with a collection of plugins supporting several Adobe apps, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, After Effects, and Lightroom Classic. Today’s update adds plugins for the cloud-based Adobe Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, Figma, and the Photoshop alternative, Affinity Photo.“We have heard from the community that the MX Creative Console not only speeds up their workflow, but has increased their productivity and made work easier. Adding these highly requested plugins will unlock the MX Creative Console’s potential for a broader range of creative professionals,” says the general manager of Logitech’s MX Business Unit, Anatoliy Polyanker.The $199.99 MX Creative Console launched over a year after Logitech acquired the Stream Deck rival Loupedeck which offered several different customizable control panels for streamers and creative professionals.See More:

If you recall the days of VHS tapes, you’ll also probably remember the scary FBI warnings at the beginning of movies that cautioned against piracy. Although a little heavy-handed, it always acted as a staunch warning: You own the tape, but you don’t own the content. Today these types of warnings still exist with piracy laws protecting copyrighted work across movies, TV, books, and art. By definition, piracy involves the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work. However, when it comes to the gray area of AI, piracy and copyright laws tend to lose all their power. That certainly seems to be the case with Meta’s latest alleged book raid. According to recently redacted court filings, the technology conglomerate headed by founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly used Library Genesis (better known as LibGen) and other digital piracy “shadow libraries” to train LLaMa 3, the company’s latest and supposedly greatest AI large language model (LLM), to better interface with future users. And yes, if true, this means in a stunning show of bravado, Meta essentially pirated books that were already pirated in order to better train a pet AI. What adds greater frustration about this latest development is authors have been fighting the good fight against LibGen and its ilk for years. So many were understandably outraged when learning that Meta may have also stolen their work. The main difference here (if it even matters) is that LibGen remains a controversial yet free service. In contrast, Meta uses the intellectual property of others to help fuel its billions in profits. Not everyone can be Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. Most authors make very little off their books. Few can live off royalties, and even fewer get substantial advances. A billion-dollar company stealing anyone’s work (including publishing heavyhitters) feels like a giant slap in the face. With the U.S. lacking AI laws and regulations on the federal and state levels, it gets even trickier for creatives to protect their IP and receive fair compensation. AI Presents Unique Challenges for Class Action Lawsuits As reported by The Authors Guild, legal action was taken against Meta in 2023, and all authors affected by Meta’s LLaMa 3 training have automatically been included in the Kadrey v. Meta class action in northern California. However, the case is still ongoing and hangs on one important fact: is Meta in violation of direct copyright infringement?  With AI being what it is, copyright gets complicated, especially when combined with Meta’s fair use defense. Essentially, fair use allows you to bypass getting permission from the copyright holder for purposes like criticism, teaching, reporting, and research. In most cases, the work is “transformative,” meaning it adds something new to the original material. And due to Meta’s LLM ingesting, digesting, and spitting out a Frankensteinian text generator, the fair use argument unfortunately has some legs. However, as Dan Pontefract pointed out in a Forbes article, “fair use arguments were meant for education, commentary, and criticism, not corporate exploitation for commercial profit at scale.” Whether direct copyright infringement holds weight or not, Meta’s raid of LibGen, which houses more than 7.5 million pirated books, raises ethical concerns and spotlights the need for more AI laws and regulations. Tech Raids Prove AI Laws Are Necessary AI isn’t going anywhere. To toss out another Frankenstein metaphor, we created a monster that can’t just be abandoned. For many, AI offers unmatched efficiency, task automation, and a new way of delegating mundane tasks with better accuracy. Certain fields undoubtedly benefit from AI, but Meta proves books and other creative media aren’t among them. Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as new ideas.” It’s an argument frequently used in pro-generative AI circles. If everyone is recycling ideas, how is AI any different? However, generative AI isn’t just coded; it’s trained on the published works of artists and writers. Their inspiration may have come from the creations of old, but they still sat, thought, and created something new with human talents and flaws. Agatha Christie had to plot out her mystery novels. She couldn’t just plop them into ChatGPT and type, “Write me an ending.” But thanks to her efforts, now anyone can use generative AI to cook up a locked room whodunit mystery with likely a familiar conclusion. This leads to a host of issues, like who actually owns the work if it’s created from a compilation of many copyright holders? Currently, the U.S. has no federal legislation regulating AI development or use (White & Case). On the state level, there are a few laws pertaining to generative AI. For example, Colorado and Utah have laws stating that agencies must disclose generative AI use to their users. Tennessee likewise updated its right of publicity law to include a clause relating to the unauthorized use of an individual’s photograph, voice, or likeness in algorithms, software, or other technology. California also requires websites to post the data used to train their generative AI systems, including whether it stems from work protected by copyright, trademark, or patent.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! While these various laws outline potential solutions to protecting copyright holders and consumers, it’s just a start. Until then, those pursuing legal action against companies like Meta will have to rely on pre-existing piracy and copyright laws that leave a lot of wiggle room in AI matters. Kadrey v. Meta could very well end in Meta’s favor. As it stands, the court has thrown out most of the claims besides direct copyright infringement. That might not have been the case if regulations about how companies train their AI models had already been in place.  Famed Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli ran into similar issues with OpenAI last month. With OpenAI’s 40 image generation tool (an offshoot of ChatGPT’s paid model), users everywhere were able to create images they claimed were in Studio Ghibli’s signature style. Those unfamiliar with Ghibli can look to hits like Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies for a taste of the studio’s richly detailed, hand-drawn animation. Films like those or The Boy and the Heron are as much labors of love as they are lines and colors. And they’re no easy feat to create. As Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki told EW, it can take one month to draw one minute of animation. With OpenAI’s 40 image generation tool creating allegedly Studio Ghibli-like images with the press of a button, OpenAI’s newest feature has thus stirred up controversy of its own.  While “style” cannot be copyrighted, this brings into question how OpenAI trained its AI model. Fan art? Similar images? Sure, maybe. But if OpenAI used official Studio Ghibli art for training without permission, we’re right back in copyright infringement and piracy territory (currently the Japanese company has announced no plans to pursue legal action). The same applies to Google’s AI summary feature, which compiles information from articles in the search results to deliver a quick, and sometimes wildly inaccurate, answer. As for literature, Meta had the chance to shape this AI hellscape by seeking permission from authors and publishers, and/or paying for the use of their intellectual property. However, with no federal laws regulating generative AI, the tech company allegedly frolicked in the ungoverned Wild West of artificial intelligence and torrented millions of books in the process. While Meta claims to care about building “the future of human connection,” its actions suggest there’s nothing human about it.

“Number One, you have the helm.” The fact that Captain Picard speaks those words on a regular basis in Star Trek: The Next Generation shouldn’t undermine the importance of the chain of command. Within the world of Star Trek, the first officer isn’t just the person who supports the captain and takes over when needed. The first officer must connect the captain and the crew, making sure that the former’s orders get carried out and that the latter’s concerns are heard. As such, the first officer must act like something of an audience surrogate, allowing the captain to be an ideal. In short, the first officer (or executive officer or XO, depending on which term you prefer) is one of the most complicated parts on Star Trek. But that complexity also means that the first officer is usually one of the best characters in any Trek series, making these eight the best of the best. 8. Commander Chakotay (Voyager) No character suffered from Voyager‘s slow evolution more than Chakotay. Not only does the series largely disregard the plot development that would have given him good stories, the conflict between the Starfleet personnel and Maquis rebels aboard the ship, but he’s also pushed to the background when Seven of Nine joins the cast. Worse yet are the behind the scenes problems that hobbled the character, including a non-Native scam artist that Voyager producers hired to serve as Native American consultant. Too many Chakotay stories involved pan flute and the bones of his ancestors, making him more of a cartoon than a representation of any real people. It’s easy to understand why Chakotay actor Robert Beltran would completely check out from his job from season three onward. Just look at the wonderful job Beltran does when Chakotay returns for a great arc in Prodigy. 7. Commander Jack Ransom (Lower Decks) Lower Decks may have started out as a parody of classic Star Trek, but by the time it finished its five seasons, its leads had moved from types to fully-developed characters in their own rights. All except Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell. Ransom began the show as an exaggeration of Riker’s sexy, masculine XO and that’s how he ended the series, as demonstrated by the phrase he adopts as Captain: “Engage the Core.” Okay, that’s not entirely true. Over the series’ lifetime, Ransom revealed himself to be a good leader and teacher, because of, and not in spite of, his gym bro attitude. And yet, Ransom’s best moments rarely go beyond punchline. He never gets the full development of his forerunner Riker, and thus has to land near the bottom of this list. 6. Commander Saru (Discovery) Discovery was a messy series, and that lack of clear direction reflected in its command structure. Several people were Commanding Officers at one time or another in Discovery, including Michael Burnham herself. Yet, the most prominent of them is Saru, one of the best characters in the uneven show, brought to life through fantastic special effects work and the always amazing physical acting of the legendary Doug Jones. Saru is a Kelpien, a new race designed for Discovery, and the first of his kind to join Starfleet. In particular, the Kelpiens stayed away from exploration due to their timid nature, a biological instinct that warned them of encroaching danger. Of course, that meant Saru’s warnings went off constantly especially around Burnham. Yet, he stayed loyal to the mission, a decision that felt believable thanks to Jones’ warm screen presence. 5. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Strange New Worlds) A role created by none other Majel Barrett in the original Star Trek pilot “The Cage,” Commander Una Chin-Riley is the original Number One. When Rebecca Romijn took over the part in season two of Discovery, she followed Barrett’s lead to reveal more of Number One’s bravery, competency, and even her sense of humor. Chin-Riley can handle anything Strange New Worlds throws at her, whether it’s battling rabid Gorn or singing a duet with La’an. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! That said, the short seasons of Strange New Worlds, which still hasn’t produced as many episodes of a single pre-Discovery season, means that we haven’t had the same look at Number One as we have othered on this list. Still she’s taken full advantage of the chances she’s been given, as seen in the season two standout episode “Ad Astra Per Aspera.” Revealed to be an Illyrian, a race that uses augments despite Federation on the practice, Number One must defend her position in Starfleet. And defend it she does, capturing in a single speech the sense of bravery and aspiration that makes Star Trek so great. 4. Sub-Commander T’Pol (Enterprise) No one on this list has it easy, but no first officer quite faced the same challenges as T’Pol, the Vulcan first officer assigned to aid/stall humanity’s first steps into deep space aboard the Enterprise NX-01. Even beyond the fact that she had to serve under Captain Archer, a man whose mix of belligerence and incompetence set a model that Starfleet Admirals would follow for generations, T’Pol also had to deal with a duplicitous Vulcan high command. That no-win situation only made T’Pol stand out more. Jolene Blalock perfectly embodied a true believer Vulcan who slowly gets won over by the humans. Her ability to convey the frustration of her position without expressing emotions makes Blaylock one of the best Vulcan performances in Trek history. That’s especially true in Enterprise‘s much stronger third and fourth seasons, in which T’Pol’s friendship with the crew becomes the foundation of the Federation. 3. Major Kira Nerys (Deep Space Nine) Voyager‘s fumbling of Chakotay is made all the more frustrating by the fact that its predecessor nailed a similar dynamic. Major Kira Nerys of the Bajoran resistance came to Federation Starbase Deep Space Nine after spending her adult life waging war against Cardassian occupiers. Now, she not only has to transition to peace time, but must also work with Starfleet, which prioritizes peace with the Cardassians over full reparations to the Bajorans. Rather than run from the conflict, Deep Space Nine embraced it and rested it largely on the soldiers of Kira, played fantastically by Nana Visitor. As early as season one’s excellent “Duet,” Kira revealed herself as not just an incredibly competent commanding officer to work with Sisko, but also a full person with complicated feelings. Kira’s ability to fight through those feelings, to do her job and do it well, makes her one of Trek‘s best first officers and one of the best characters in the entire franchise. 2. Commander Spock (TOS) Were it not for Spock, you would not be reading this article because Star Trek would have died as a weird but interesting sci-fi show from the ’60s and never become the massive ongoing story it is today. Where William Shatner embodied the show’s sense of adventure and where DeForest Kelley embodied the show’s old-timey Western roots, Leonard Nimoy was truly alien as Spock. Through Spock, the series perfectly combined its sci-fi tropes and its ambitions to tell philosophical stories. Moreover, Spock set the standard for Star Trek first officers. He had his own role on the ship and, with it, his own often great stories (“Spock’s Brain” isn’t that bad). But when he clashed with the captain, he provided a necessary counter to his human leader, providing valuable insight to help Kirk realize his full potential. It’s no wonder that Spock became the breakout character of the series and that he and Kirk’s relationship inspired a whole genre of fan fiction. 1. Commander William Riker (The Next Generation) Need evidence of Will Riker’s greatness? First, watch Jonathan Frakes perform the Riker maneuver. Then, watch his forerunner Will Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Sure, the character gained more of an adventurous side during the transition from Decker to Riker, changing from wet-blanket to Kirk surrogate. But where Decker felt cold and ineffective even in his romance scenes with Ilia, Riker felt competent and kind, even away from Troi. It’s that warm competence that makes Riker the ideal Star Trek first officer. At a moment’s notice, Riker could take the helm and even fire torpedos at his compromised captain. But he could also flash a big goofy grin while playing cards with the rest of bridge crew and show compassion for a struggling ensign. Even before he explained himself to Jellico in “Chain of Command,” we already understood why Riker didn’t want to graduate to captain. He was happy in the space between solitary leader and member of the crew community, a job he performed at the highest level of excellence.

Apr 23, 2025Ravie LakshmananBlockchain / Cryptocurrency The Ripple cryptocurrency npm JavaScript library named xrpl.js has been compromised by unknown threat actors as part of a software supply chain attack designed to harvest and exfiltrate users' private keys. The malicious activity has been found to affect five different versions of the package: 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, and 2.14.2. The issue has been addressed in versions 4.2.5 and 2.14.3. xrpl.js is a popular JavaScript API for interacting with the XRP Ledger blockchain, also called the Ripple Protocol, a cryptocurrency platform launched by Ripple Labs in 2012. The package has been downloaded over 2.9 million times to date, attracting more than 135,000 weekly downloads. "The official XPRL (Ripple) NPM package was compromised by sophisticated attackers who put in a backdoor to steal cryptocurrency private keys and gain access to cryptocurrency wallets," Aikido Security's Charlie Eriksen said. The malicious code changes have been found to be introduced by a user named "mukulljangid" starting April 21, 2025, with the threat actors introducing a new function named checkValidityOfSeed that's engineered to transmit the stolen information to an external domain ("0x9c[.]xyz"). It's worth noting that "mukulljangid" likely belongs to a Ripple employee, indicating that their npm account was hacked to pull off the supply chain attack. The attacker is said to have tried different ways to sneak in the backdoor while trying to evade detection, as evidenced by the different versions released in a short span of time. There is no evidence that the associated GitHub repository has been backdoored. It's not clear who is behind the attack, but it's believed that the threat actors managed to steal the developer's npm access token to tamper with the library. In light of the incident, users relying on the xrpl.js library are advised to update their instances to the latest version (4.2.5 and 2.14.3) to mitigate potential threats. "This vulnerability is in xrpl.js, a JavaScript library for interacting with the XRP Ledger," the XRP Ledger Foundation said in a post on X. "It does not affect the XRP Ledger codebase or Github repository itself. Projects using xrpl.js should upgrade to v4.2.5 immediately." Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

The project’s defining concept was that a child should be able to find their way home from school on their own,’ writes Dinah Bornat in All to Play For: How to Design Child-Friendly Housing. Bornat is describing Highgate New Town, an estate of 275 homes built by Camden Council in the late 1970s, designed in-house by architects Peter Tábori and Ken Adie.  Source:Dinah BornatAll to Play For: How to Design Child-Friendly Housing In today’s complex world of viability assessments and value engineering, commissioning such a large project with a ‘defining concept’ that focuses on children seems almost whimsical. And yet it worked. Almost 50 years later, homes in this 1970s estate, built as council housing, are highly desirable. The wide internal pedestrian ‘streets’ that run through the estate directly to nearby schools, shops and parks create places to play, to hang out and to bump into neighbours. ‘You can sit just outside your home and still be part of the street,’ says one resident, adding that during the Covid lockdowns, ‘as neighbours walked past, they would nearly always say: “Aren’t we lucky?”’  Bornat and her practice, ZCD Architects, have analysed numerous housing developments in the UK and abroad to discover what it is that makes some places work for children. These evidence-based spatial reviews have been distilled into a set of principles, set out in All to Play For, along with illustrative case-studies. However, before going into the ‘how’ of child-friendly design, the book starts with the ‘why’.Advertisement Source:Dinah BornatAbove and top image: One House Four Homes competition submission by ZCD Architects for homes that can grow with the family Play is fundamental to children’s development – physical, mental and social. The right to play is one of the articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the UK is a signatory. However, whether or not policy-makers consider play a topic worthy of their attention depends on the wider political context. In the last 15 years, play has been entirely absent from policy-making in England (although Scotland and Wales have done better). The current version of England’s National Planning Policy Framework only mentions children once, in passing. There is no national play strategy. This political neglect wasn’t always the case. As Bornat explains, following the Second World War, considering where and how children could play was an intrinsic part of the narrative of rebuilding the country. ‘Attitudes towards play fitted within the political and social context at the time,’ she writes, ‘representing the freedom societies had fought for and optimism for the future.’ Source:Dinah BornatHeat map of the Christchurch Estate, Hackney, east London All to Play For starts with social history, then considers what makes a good place for children to grow up in and how to involve them in the design process, and, finally, provides practical guidance for creating housing that works for children. By putting the history first, Bornat makes it clear that whether or not society plans, designs and builds places where children can thrive is, overwhelmingly, a political choice.  As the case studies demonstrate, designing for children creates places that work for everyone – and creates value. Yet despite the fact that Highgate New Town demonstrably works, it would be difficult to build it today because the whole estate has been designed to meet children’s needs. Bornat calls for an urgent rethink of ‘the perceived wisdom that creating separate, equipped, designated play areas for specific ages of children is the way to encourage “playing out” and foster the wellbeing of young people … Currently it is only “designated play” that is quantified and valued in many local plans and housing guidance.’ Source:Paul RiddleGascoigne Estate Phase 2, Barking, east London The book finishes by considering how to make high-density housing and the limited space it provides still work for children. ‘There are difficulties with sharing space at a high density, such as noise and maintenance, and these cannot be ignored,’ writes Bornat. ‘Yet not providing shared space or restricting it for children’s use, for example with age-based equipment and “no ball games” signs, does more than prevent children using these spaces; it effectively traps them indoors.’Advertisement We live in an age when the mental and physical health of children and young people is alarmingly poor, with consequences for the NHS and the economy. Ensuring all new developments are deliberately designed to support children’s wellbeing ought to be a priority. However, with a government fixated on brute economic measures, such as growth in GDP, it is perhaps not surprising that children’s needs (and their right) to play freely near home continues to be neglected. Julia Thrift is director of healthier place-making at the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) All to Play For: How to Design Child-Friendly Housing, by Dinah Bornat. RIBA Publishing, PB 172pp, £38 2025-04-23 Simon Aldous comment and share

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Todor Nikolov writes: This video is a detailed overview of recent Blender developments., with focus on Rigging and Animation updates. The main topic is Blender 4.4 and the new "Slotted Actions". But we also go over various smaller updates. Source