Why theres no such thing as an untranslatable wordPublished inThe Medium BlogSent as aNewsletter2 min read4 hours ago-- Were back with the Medium NewsletterIssue #206: befriending good communicators and a roadtrip through the 11 distinct subcultures that comprise the U.S.Untranslatable words are sort of a trope on the internet. Google that phrase and youll find a series of overlapping lists often written by English speakers. A classic: hygge, which one of my friends who used to live in Denmark tells me definitely does not mean cozy. (Its more nuanced than that, a combination of rusticity and simplicity.)At a certain point, these lists can feel like cultural fetishism to me, like theyre flattening all of Denmark into an appreciation for candles and chunky blankets.On Medium, linguist Tom Scullin believes nothing is truly untranslatable some concepts just take more syllables to express in one language than another. Tsondoku (), for example, is a Japanese word for something thats easy to communicate in English: buying books but not reading them (guilty). Saudade, which tops most lists of untranslatable words, is a Portuguese term at the intersection of longing and nostalgia. I think English speakers are fascinated by these words not because they feel foreign to us, but because they feel so familiar and because whenever you learn a new word for something abstract, it makes the abstract thing floating around your head more concrete.Plus: English contains just as many words that dont easily translate, too. I dont know what this says about the UK and America, but most of them have to do with social norms. Take awkward. It comes from a Norse word meaning turned the wrong way but has picked up all kinds of emotional and cultural valences over the last few decades, and it has no equivalent outside of English. The same is true of cringe and fair. Harris SockelWhat else were readingA progressives road trip through red states, featuring 11 distinct subcultures that comprise the U.S. (Cory Vinny)Joni Mitchell pairs well with a bowl of pho. (Ryley Graham)If you want to be a better communicator, befriend people who are good communicators. (Ava Huang, aka Bookbear Express)Your daily dose of practical wisdomTrue confidence = the courage to be disliked.

How to See the Stunning Leonid Meteor Shower This WeekendThough the nearly full moon will likely outshine some of these speedy meteors, you may still be able to catch a glimpse of bright fireballs and low Earth-grazers The Leonids sometimes produce fireballs, or unusually bright streaks of light that linger in the night sky. NASA / Getty ImagesLooking for something to do this weekend? Stay up lateand look upfor a chance to see the annual Leonid meteor shower.This year, the Leonids are active from November 3 to December 2, according to the American Meteor Society. The shooting stars are expected to reach their peak this weekend, from the night of November 16 into the early morning hours of November 17 and from late November 17 until dawn on November 18.Unfortunately, the meteors might be a bit tricky to spot this time around. The moon will be roughly 98 percent full the night the Leonids peak (in its waning gibbous phase), meaning that even if you head somewhere with very little light pollution, you wont be able to escape the bright moonlight. Still, you might get lucky and catch a glimpse of a dazzling fireball.Heres what to know about the dazzling and speedy Leonids.Where the meteors come fromThe Leonidslike all meteor showersoccur when Earth passes through a natural debris trail in space. These bits of dust, rock and ice left behind by a comet or asteroid enter Earths atmosphere, where they burn up and create streaks of light that are sometimes visible from the ground. These streaks are meteors, also known as shooting stars.The comet responsible for producing the Leonids is called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids parent comet, which measures 2.24 miles in diameter, makes a trip around the sun every 33 years. It was discovered independently by two men: Ernst Tempel in 1865 and Horace Tuttle in 1866. Its next foray into our solar system will come in 2031.The Leonids are the worlds fastest annual meteor shower, traveling up to 158,400 miles per hour. Because Earth and 55P/Tempel-Tuttle are traveling in nearly opposite directions, the meteors collide head-on with the planets atmosphere, according to the European Space Agency. At their peak, under prime conditions, the Leonids produce about 15 meteors per hour.The Leonid Meteor Shower: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher 11/11/2024Watch on A history of meteor stormsThis year, the Leonids are expected to be a regular meteor shower. But every 33 years or so, they produce whats known as a meteor storm, or a much more intense version of a meteor shower. During a meteor storm, at least 1,000 meteors pass through Earths atmosphere in an hour, NASA writes. These dazzling storms result from Earth crossing an ultra-dense cloud of debris, which typically happens when 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is at or near its closest point to the sun, known as its perihelion.In November 1833, stargazers witnessed one of the Leonids meteor storms, with between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors visible per hour. Earth-bound observers were simultaneously amazed and befuddled by the unusual celestial show, as Eli Wizevich reports for Smithsonian magazine.In the ensuing days, a meteor craze swept across the nation, Wizevich writes. Americans were talking about the night the stars fell from the heavens, trying to find meaning, inspiration or prophecy in the spectacle. Some speculated that the meteor shower was a telltale sign of a hard winter to come or that it was an omen of evil.The last time the Leonids produced a meteor storm was in 2002so the next one wouldnt typically be expected to occur until around 2035. But the American Meteor Society says the wait could be even longer. Unfortunately, it appears that the Earth will not encounter any dense clouds of debris until 2099, according to the societys website.In the meantime, though, Earth-bound viewers of the Leonids should keep an eye out for two special kinds of meteors, called fireballs and Earth-grazers, according to NASA. Fireballs, which are produced by larger pieces of debris, are unusually bright, colorful streaks that last longer than typical meteors. Earth-grazers, meanwhile, appear to shoot across the sky near the horizon and produce long, colorful tails.Tips for viewing the Leonid showerThe Leonids get their name from Leo, the vast and well-known lion constellation. The meteors appear to originate from the part of the sky where Leo lies, so astronomers call the constellation the radiant. However, the Leonids dont actually come from Leothey just look like they do from here on Earth.During the Leonids peak this weekend, you might be tempted to find Leo and stare in its direction. But experts recommend taking a wider view of the night sky instead. If you bring a friend or two, you can each gaze in different directions, then call out to each other when you spot a shooting star.The Leonids will be competing with the moon this year. But, to set yourself up for the best chances of success, you should still head to a dark place thats far away from artificial lights. Refrain from looking at your phone and other forms of light for 20 to 30 minutes to give your eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness. Bring a blanket or a comfortable chair, then lean back and relaxyou dont need binoculars, a telescope or any other special equipment to see meteors.Another tip for seeing the Leonids in this years less-than-ideal viewing conditions? Find a place where some or all of the moonlight is blocked outknown as a moon shadow. EarthSky recommends a plateau next to tall mountains or a field bordered by tall trees. If these are not options, find a building and sit in its shadow.Ensconced within a moon shadow, and far from the glow of city lights, the night suddenly darkens and can help you see more meteors, according to EarthSky. You cant run from the moon, but you can sure hide from it.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, Comets, Meteors, Outer Space, Sky Watching Guide

The decorative coffin of Lady Chenet-aa, a high-status woman who died some 3,000 years ago Morgan Clark / The Field MuseumScientists at Chicagos Field Museum are studyingEgyptian mummies using a mobile CT scanner. Earlier this year, they spent four days carefully scanning 26 mummies in the museums collections. Theyre still analyzing the results, which are already shedding new light on the ancient burials mysteries.From an archeological perspective, it is incredibly rare that you get to investigate or view history from the perspective of a single individual, saysStacy Drake, the museums human remains collection manager, in astatement. This is a really great way for us to look at who these people werenot just the stuff that they made and the stories that we have concocted about them, but the actual individuals that were living at this time.The team also hopes to learn more about the mummification process, which todays historians dont fully understand, as J.P. Brown, the museums senior conservator, tells NBC5 News Charlie Wojciechowski.The researchers took thousands of scans of the mummies. By stacking the scans together, they were then able to create 3D images of each one without causing any damage. Experts scanned 26 mummies from the Field Museum's collections. Morgan Clark / The Field MuseumThis technique is a sharp contrast to how scientists once examined ancient mummies. As CNNs Ashley Strickland writes, it wasn't unusual for 19th-century researchers to remove wrappings off of bodies in order to see what was insideruining the mummys burial dressings in the process.In fact, a mummy known as Harwa, who died in his early- to mid-40s some 3,000 years ago, was handled so carelessly that he was briefly lost amidst airplane luggage. In 1939, the Field Museum sent Harwa to New York, where he was displayed at the New York Worlds Fair. However, on the way back home, the body was accidentally sent to San Francisco instead of Chicago.Its maybe not what we would consider ethical anymore, Drake tells CNN. One of the big things for these ancient Egyptian individuals is how you continue to live after death. And that is part of his story and his journey.Now, the CT scans are revealing new information about these individuals stories. For example, experts had long been stumped by the burial of Lady Chenet-aa, a high-status woman who lived during the 22nd Dynasty. Lady Chenet-aas body is inside a form-fitting coffin, which doesnt have visible seams on the sidesjust a tiny opening at her feet. Researchers couldnt figure out how the body had been placed inside.The CT scans revealed a laced seam at the back of the coffin. According to the museum, the ancient Egyptians may have molded the funerary box around Chenet-aas body while she was in an upright position before closing the seam. Additionally, painted supplementary eyes were placed in her eye sockets so that she would maintain her vision in the afterlife. Field Museum researchers analyze composite scans of a mummified child. Bella Koscal / The Field MuseumThe ancient Egyptians conception of the afterlife was similar to our ideas about retirement savings, as Brown says in the statement. The additions are very literal. If you want eyes, then there needs to be physical eyes, or at least some physical allusion to eyes.The scans are also revealing more about Harwa, who was once a doorkeeper of an Egyptian granary. He appears to have lived a comfortable life, as his spine didnt show any signs of problems that may have developed during physical labor. He also had well-kept teeth, suggesting that he had access to high-quality food.The research will continue throughout 2025. Drake hopes the project will help change museumgoers perceptions about mummies, which are often informed by popular culture."These are people. They lived lives. Had names, Drake tells FOX 32 News Dane Placko. We are using these scans to learn more about these individuals and the experiences they may have had.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Chicago, Death, Egypt, History, Innovations, Mummies, Museums, New Research, Rituals and Traditions, Technology

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn MoreOne-bit large language models (LLMs) have emerged as a promising approach to making generative AI more accessible and affordable. By representing model weights with a very limited number of bits, 1-bit LLMs dramatically reduce the memory and computational resources required to run them.Microsoft Research has been pushing the boundaries of 1-bit LLMs with its BitNet architecture. In a new paper, the researchers introduce BitNet a4.8, a new technique that further improves the efficiency of 1-bit LLMs without sacrificing their performance.The rise of 1-bit LLMsTraditional LLMs use 16-bit floating-point numbers (FP16) to represent their parameters. This requires a lot of memory and compute resources, which limits the accessibility and deployment options for LLMs. One-bit LLMs address this challenge by drastically reducing the precision of model weights while matching the performance of full-precision models.Previous BitNet models used 1.58-bit values (-1, 0, 1) to represent model weights and 8-bit values for activations. This approach significantly reduced memory and I/O costs, but the computational cost of matrix multiplications remained a bottleneck, and optimizing neural networks with extremely low-bit parameters is challenging.Two techniques help to address this problem. Sparsification reduces the number of computations by pruning activations with smaller magnitudes. This is particularly useful in LLMs because activation values tend to have a long-tailed distribution, with a few very large values and many small ones.Quantization, on the other hand, uses a smaller number of bits to represent activations, reducing the computational and memory cost of processing them. However, simply lowering the precision of activations can lead to significant quantization errors and performance degradation.Furthermore, combining sparsification and quantization is challenging, and presents special problems when training 1-bit LLMs.Both quantization and sparsification introduce non-differentiable operations, making gradient computation during training particularly challenging, Furu Wei, Partner Research Manager at Microsoft Research, told VentureBeat.Gradient computation is essential for calculating errors and updating parameters when training neural networks. The researchers also had to ensure that their techniques could be implemented efficiently on existing hardware while maintaining the benefits of both sparsification and quantization.BitNet a4.8BitNet a4.8 addresses the challenges of optimizing 1-bit LLMs through what the researchers describe as hybrid quantization and sparsification. They achieved this by designing an architecture that selectively applies quantization or sparsification to different components of the model based on the specific distribution pattern of activations. The architecture uses 4-bit activations for inputs to attention and feed-forward network (FFN) layers. It uses sparsification with 8 bits for intermediate states, keeping only the top 55% of the parameters. The architecture is also optimized to take advantage of existing hardware.With BitNet b1.58, the inference bottleneck of 1-bit LLMs switches from memory/IO to computation, which is constrained by the activation bits (i.e., 8-bit in BitNet b1.58), Wei said. In BitNet a4.8, we push the activation bits to 4-bit so that we can leverage 4-bit kernels (e.g., INT4/FP4) to bring 2x speed up for LLM inference on the GPU devices. The combination of 1-bit model weights from BitNet b1.58 and 4-bit activations from BitNet a4.8 effectively addresses both memory/IO and computational constraints in LLM inference.BitNet a4.8 also uses 3-bit values to represent the key (K) and value (V) states in the attention mechanism. The KV cache is a crucial component of transformer models. It stores the representations of previous tokens in the sequence. By lowering the precision of KV cache values, BitNet a4.8 further reduces memory requirements, especially when dealing with long sequences.The promise of BitNet a4.8Experimental results show that BitNet a4.8 delivers performance comparable to its predecessor BitNet b1.58 while using less compute and memory.Compared to full-precision Llama models, BitNet a4.8 reduces memory usage by a factor of 10 and achieves 4x speedup. Compared to BitNet b1.58, it achieves a 2x speedup through 4-bit activation kernels. But the design can deliver much more.The estimated computation improvement is based on the existing hardware (GPU), Wei said. With hardware specifically optimized for 1-bit LLMs, the computation improvements can be significantly enhanced. BitNet introduces a new computation paradigm that minimizes the need for matrix multiplication, a primary focus in current hardware design optimization.The efficiency of BitNet a4.8 makes it particularly suited for deploying LLMs at the edge and on resource-constrained devices. This can have important implications for privacy and security. By enabling on-device LLMs, users can benefit from the power of these models without needing to send their data to the cloud.Wei and his team are continuing their work on 1-bit LLMs.We continue to advance our research and vision for the era of 1-bit LLMs, Wei said. While our current focus is on model architecture and software support (i.e., bitnet.cpp), we aim to explore the co-design and co-evolution of model architecture and hardware to fully unlock the potential of 1-bit LLMs.VB DailyStay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox dailyBy subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service.Thanks for subscribing. 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Disney is reportedly considering Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson as a successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger, the Wall Street Journal said.Read More

ZeniMax QA workers to strike over concerns about return to office mandate and outsourcingMembers of ZeniMax Workers United-CWA say firm didn't notify union about contracting out work News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Nov. 13, 2024 Hundreds of employees from ZeniMax Studios are striking today in response to its remote work policy and outsourcing of quality assurance work.The Communication Workers of America filed an unfair labour practice charge against ZeniMax last month for allegedly contracting out QA work without notifying the union.Members of the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA have raised concerns that this decision "threatens job security amid record layoffs across the video games industry."The protest will take place in ZeniMax offices across the US, including locations in Maryland and Texas.Last month, workers from Activision's QA department in Eden Prairie, Minnesota walked out in protest against return-to-office mandates. Activision workers group ABetterABK claimed the firm "refus[ed] accommodations as a way to force them to quit."In January 2023, ZeniMax Workers United-CWA became the first video game studio union at Microsoft, and represents over 300 QA workers in Maryland and Texas.

76% of US kids want consoles and games for ChristmasESA survey also found that 38% of children were planning to ask for in-game currency News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Nov. 13, 2024 76% of children in the US are planning to ask for game-related gifts this holiday season, with almost half of those surveyed requesting consoles.This is according to the Entertainment Software Association, which surveyed 500-plus children (ages 10 to 17) on the gifts they wish to receive this Christmas.This percentage has increased slightly from last year, where 72% of those surveyed planned to ask for video game products.Aside from consoles, subscription services came in second at 43% followed by a tie between console games and game accessories at 41%. In-game currency was the least popular game-related item, with 38% of children surveyed expressing interest.The ESA also surveyed 500 adults about how much they plan to spend on themselves and others over the holidays, which amounted to $312 on average.Game-related products were top of children's wish-lists, with 67% asking for money and gift cards or clothes and electronics at 66%."Video games and video game technology have evolved quite a bit since today's parents were kids themselves, but the fun and joy created by gameplay for families remains the same," said ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis."Parents see video games as more than simply a gift. With 83% of US parents who say they play video games with their children, games serve as a powerful tool for families to connect with one another, especially during the holidays."

Within this article, I will be going over various aspects of my score for Tactical Breach Wizards, including my creative process, inspirations, experiences, challenges, and reflections post-release. I hope that this gives hopeful composers some behind-the-scenes insight into the production of a full game score.Creative process and visionI feel like the biggest obstacle for any score, whether its a film, game, or other type of media, is to land the vision correctly and stay true to it. When I sent my work to Tom over at Suspicious Developments when he announced the composer opening, the two tracks that helped me stand out were two trailer tracks I had written that heavily used percussion. With that in mind, I wanted to ensure that percussion was at the forefront when the game called for more serious or dramatic music mixed with orchestral and sometimes electronic elements. It helped that I was a trailer composer, so I had access to a fair bit of trailer samples to bring some punch and intensity.In Tactical Breach Wizards, there are four main acts and a prologue to start the game, showing the last mission between Liv and Zan. Along with the references Tom had sent to me, I also wanted to try to give each act a different direction while staying true to the vision of the overall score, sometimes with different instrumentation focuses, such as Act 1 (DSR) having a lot of synths and a lead electric guitar, a choir for when dealing with Chapel in Act 3 (Kalan), and using bells to put the players in a historical setting in Act 4 (Medil). The prologue is more of an opening sequence made of two more orchestral tracks with some of my favorite trailers, SFX.The two outliers with the vision of the overall soundtrack were At Mas and The Necromedic, which were Reggae and Jazz, respectively.Technical challengesWhen it came to the challenges of writing the soundtrack, at times, I was my own worst enemy, which I will talk more about later in this article. At times, my own tools led to limits I had to overcome. Sometimes, it was my production level at the time. The challenges all led me to find creative ways to overcome them, and eventually, they all went away fairly quickly. Dont be afraid to face them head-on, as you may be surprised by what you can do.InfluencesOverall, the score was meant to have different militaristic elements mixed with elements that worked well with the setting. I thought back to older game scores and developed ideas of what I liked from those scores. Some of it was the use of percussion, some of it was the use of synths, and some was the use of strings and brass, which I loved.I remember once trying to take the whimsical approach when the players were selecting their perks; however, it didnt work. There were other moments I attempted it, but it never stuck. I do know that when you think of wizards and magic, you think whimsical and fantasy, but that had no place here! We had a more gritty theme that went with this, though there was a lot of humor around them.Evolving as a composerWhen working on the score, I went through an evolution over the three and a half years I was involved with Tactical Breach Wizards. In ways, my process was all about experimentation with sounds, textures, and themes, but as time went on, my process evolved into a more methodical approach, mainly thanks to my studies with Penka Kouneva, who helped me clean up my methods, have more of a detailed plan with each cue, and most importantly, executing it. I know that has been a common issue, so it was very important for me to get it right. This also showed an evolution of the score with sometimes more complex writing in the latter half of the soundtrack.Also, I had really worked on my production skills so I could achieve great results with whatever orchestral libraries and synths I owned at any time. I should also thank developers such as Rocky Mountain Sounds (Complexity, Majestica 2, etc.) for making great libraries and expansions that really contributed to the soundtrack in various ways.With all that said, all of these changes led to an issue I hadnt accounted for, such as having to go back to a few older tracks and use what I learned to improve their quality. Keep in mind that if youre working on a score over the course of several years and are still really developing, you may be in a similar position!Feedback from players and reflectionsOver the course of the beta rounds, the feedback was great, but there was one surprise. The Necromedic stood out to many players in a good way, and it showed when looking at the feedback for the score. It was the favorite, which honestly made me chuckle because I didnt consider my jazz chops to be much to write about. This process has shown me to be open to such nice surprises.The overall reception to the soundtrack upon release had been something I was nervous about as this is one of the first times many people would hear my work, AND they know my name behind it as many other projects I worked on (trailers and films) didnt thrust me into the open like this one did, especially with that hype around it. I appreciate the great response to the game and the soundtrack, and I hope more people play Tactical Breach Wizards, as the game is awesome with great writing, level design, art, and more.When I look back at the soundtrack as a whole, I plan to keep using the knowledge gained during the experience and continue writing great scores, as this has so far been my best work. You never truly know how you will handle the challenges thrown at you at work like this until youre in the thick of it, and I urge everyone to pursue these challenges. I really hope you enjoy the score as much as I enjoyed writing it.

For most of his development career, Billy Basso has attended gaming conventions on a work and promotional capacity. He'd stand near an incomplete game demo kiosk, watching people play it, taking notes, figuring out if he's on the right track. Analyze, focus, guess, and hope.In September, he finally got a taste of the other side of the booth."PAX West was the first show that happened after Animal Well's launch," Basso says weeks later from his home studio in Chicago. "I was looking forward to taking, in a way, a victory lap." He describes a crowd of people lining up at the Seattle exponot to play a new game, but to greet Blasso and share "all of these stories" about their positive experiences with his months-old title.As Animal Well's sole coder, artist, and designer, Basso deserves the lap. Since its April 2024 launch on consoles and PCs, the indie "Metroidvania" game has amassed nearly universal acclaim. Sales estimator Gamalytic points to sales figures exceeding 300,000 copies on Steam alone. During its launch month, Animal Well at one point outsold every first-party Nintendo game on Switch's eShop.In a chat with Game Developer, Basso and his business partner, Dan Adelman, reflect on Animal Well's development, launch, and success. What worked? How did surprising fare, like a Wisconsin tourist attraction and the 3D adventure Shadows of the Colossus, inspire and guide the game's unique spin on Metroidvanias? And what might come next?Related:Opting out of battles with pre-made enginesThe Animal Well journey began in two phases, Basso says: a quick stab at a Metroidvania-styled prototype in 2012, and a bespoke engine project that he took more seriously, which he began coding alone in 2014 during his day job's off hours. That day job, to clarify, was programming work at the video game studio Phosphor Games."I was typically working on mobile games with live service elements that were heavily dependent on network infrastructure," he says. "We were using off-the-shelf game engines that had a lot of bloat and were laggy." Having his own bespoke, offline engine was a priority for whatever kind of game he would eventually make on his own, to avoid the "sour taste" of inefficient tools and workflows.But Basso's work on a "general purpose, 3D game engine" dragged on during nights and weekends for three years before he came to a tough conclusion: the engine-focused project had been too focused on "preemptively solving problems," instead of "having enough direction to actually turn into a game."It was 2017, and some of the design ideas from his 2012 Metroidvania lark had continued pulling on him, so Basso "wrote off" his 3D engine as "a learning experience" and started anew with 2D search action as a priority. Like before, off-the-shelf solutions weren't going to cut it, but at least this time, he had a genre and some design directives in mind.For his new game, he wanted pixels to scale perfectly to a variety of common screen resolutions, along with visual effects that meshed well with his integer-scaled pixel art. He disliked "built-in lighting effects" that developers had to "fight against quite a bit" in engines like Unity: "they have point lights and stuff, they have a smooth gradient, and that clashes with pixel art."Build your own technology, then let it set the toneWith that baseline in mind, Basso's early project took shape, but roughly one year in, he found it "looked like an NES game, where the art wasn't that striking." Thanks to his full control of the engine and rendering efficiency at the fore, Basso had more wiggle room at this point in development to add what he describes as a crucial technical upgrade: a rim light shader."Everything was now kind of in shadow, but the edges were highlighted, and your character sprite in the bushes got blended in with the foreground tiles in a way that tied it all together," Basso says. "Immediately, when I got that shader working, I'm like, 'This is a unique look."The inspiration dominos began falling. Basso noticed that his effects' shadow-and-light interplay "informed the stylistic direction" of the game's environments and animals. Newly inspired, he built a "full screen Navier-Stokes fluid simulation" to power the game's smoke and water effects for more haziness and dreaminess, along with more lighting and particle-effect systems, painting more highlights and posterization effects over backgrounds and sprites.Image via Billy Basso/BigMode."This is interesting," Basso recalls thinking, "where I have this high-fidelity physics simulation working, but it's being paired with this, in some ways, primitive pixel art." As Basso's work bounced between design, art, and engine development, "the richness of the game got layered on, and I found the game's tone and identity gradually over that process." Despite his earlier hiccups with a 3D engine, he still recommends an engine-first mentality for new game development: "That opens up a lot of unique creative avenues. Once I get a cool system working, then I can play around with it and see what it allows for."Digging the well with Adelman's aidWith his 2D game in full swing, Basso inadvertently learned about Adelman, a business- and marketing-focused industry veteran, through a pair of interviews in late 2017 and early 2018. Basso appreciated hearing how Adelman had transitioned from revolutionizing Nintendo's digital distribution channels to dedicated support for indie devs, particularly for the breakout Metroidvania hit Axiom Verge. "I'm naturally a pretty introverted person, so having someone like him to work with sounded very appealing to me," Basso says. He sent a cold-call email.In hindsight, Adelman admits that his near-instant email reply turned out to be a bit disingenuous. "What was special enough about [Animal Well] that made me think, 'oh I want to work on this,' versus what it eventually became, were actually very different games," he says on the PAX West 2024 show floor. "I really like both games." The game he originally envisioned landed somewhere between VVVVVV and You Have To Win The Gamesince both eschewed combat in favor of exploration, puzzles, and hardcore platforming. For Adelman, the cherry on top was the early game's emphasis on nooks and crannies, which might otherwise be hidden in shadow or other Basso-developed effects: "I really loved finding secret passageways that I walked past, like, four or five times before I noticed them," Adelman says. "Like, oh, this opens up into a whole new area!"With Adelman on board, Basso's more richly developed prototypes started getting in front of industry players, and Animal Well's first major reveal came in a small booth at the inaugural Summer Game Fest in June 2022, an in-person event in the wake of the defunct Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). That event's biggest Animal Well payoff came one week later, as a six-second blip in a wrap-up video made by popular YouTube creator Jason "Dunkey" Gastrow.A big leap with BigMode"Jason, in his normal style, basically shit on the whole event, but he did give us a positive shout-out," Adelman says. "Just from that one mention, our wishlist numbers had a big spike." Shortly after this, Gastrow and his wife Leah traded follows with the Animal Well team on Twitter, which led to a series of DMs between Adelman and Leah during that September's Tokyo Game Show. Leah requested a playable build of Animal Well; Adelman asked that it not be used as YouTube or Twitch content. Leah replied that she had something else in mind: "We're starting a publishing label, called BigMode," Adelman recalls her saying. "Would you have any interest in talking about that?"Adelman had not planned to add a formal publisher to the Animal Well development period; after all, he didn't need one for Axiom Verge. And the Dunkey YouTube channel's reputationfull of curse words and overt trolling in online gamesgave Adelman some pause: "is [Gastrow's] real-life persona the same as his online persona?" (The past few years have seen other YouTube and Twitch creators take huge missteps in their own game-publishing efforts.)Image via Billy Basso/BigMode.But Adelman and Gastrow's initial conversations were polite and promising. Game promotion and marketing were changing in the years since Axiom Verge. Jason's online reach and the couple's genuine enthusiasm filled an information gap for Animal Well at this point in development. Jason had made a career out of tapping into a modern gaming audience's attention spanhow people engage with new games and pick favorites out of a deluge of indies. If Gastrow saw something special in Animal Well, he could convince a lot of people to do the same. In short, what a good publisher does."This could be a disaster, or it could be a really good fit," Adelman recalls thinking.(When asked for comment on Animal Well's development and success at PAX West 2024, Jason Gastrow replies by repeating the same sentence twice: "I feel like one hundred penguins." It is unclear whether this statement was in line with Gastrow's humorous YouTube persona, or whether he was offering a hint about an undiscovered Animal Well secret, since the game prominently features penguins.)"Layers" workbut they need to be distinct and appealingAnimal Well wastes no time hinting at its range of secrets. With no plot or narration, players begin running-and-jumping around a dark, eerie cave. In one direction, players can pick up an "egg" from a treasure chest with no indication of what it means or does. In the other direction, a squirrel runs away, and a rabbit is seen hiding in a seemingly unreachable corner of the screen. Neither of these hints is borne out with prompt clarification, and the mysteries and layers keep coming.But that opening beat is nothing compared to Animal Well's "layers" of deeper puzzles. Some required dozens of players' collaboration to figure out, and others required connecting specific hardware to a PC while playing the game. Layers found their way into Animal Well in a few ways:With a publishing deal in place and budget settled, Bigmode, Adelman, and Basso agreed not to rush the game's launchand to let Basso ultimately lead on the development, implementation, and difficulty of the game's crisscrossing puzzles. Basso would often hand a new build to Adelman and the BigMode team without spoiling its four "layers" of puzzles, though the deepest layer was so obtuse that its puzzles simply couldn't be tested by Bigmode's tiny team without cheat codes.This part of the game's development never exceeded Adelman's "scope creep" bandwidth, as he found the deeper puzzle additions never added "bloat" to the development process. Basso would review feedback after each build was turned in and accept "maybe half" of the suggestions. "It wasn't so much like I was asking permission ever to do something," Basso says. "I kind of just did it."For Basso, Animal Well's deeper layers would have no value unless players connected with Animal Well's surface-level content. He drew inspiration from an unlikely 3D-adventure game: 2005's Shadow of the Colossus, whose online community eventually began hunting for a "hidden" 17th "colossus" boss (which never existed)."It was almost like a religious conviction that they wanted to find this missing part of the game," Basso says. "But then you realize that that's only true because Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most finely crafted games ever made, and people care that much because the base game is so compelling."Early on, Basso committed to one principle in particular: none of its items could be considered "staples" in other Metroidvania games. Midway through development, Basso inadvertently realized he'd leaned on children's toys as the game's foundation, including a Slinky, a yo-yo, a bubble wand, and a frisbeewhich gave him immediate reference points for their designs, plus the freedom to add clever surprises to each (particularly the bubble wand's unique "climbing" system). Basso likes the "safe bet" nature of the popular toys he picked out: "That's already a proven interaction."Inspiration from The House on the RockThe last step was to coalesce Basso's artistic and design leanings in a way that would make his mysterious world inviting and exciting to explore, not confusing. Basso had his vision catalyzed after visiting The House on the Rock in Wisconsin. "It's this ramshackle collection of weird objects that the original owner of the house collected, and he built all these expansions to store them all," Basso says. "You can go in any direction and find cool stuff to look at. It's always surprising, and you can't really predict what the through line is between all of them, but it still feels consistent."Basso says he wanted to make "the video game version" of the tourist attraction, though his version would include an unspoken mythology defined by "all the weird, Midwestern lawn ornaments I was seeing in my neighborhood." This explains some of the game's atypical animals standing amongst overgrown, lawn-like weeds (hello, pink flamingos), but Basso also describes an effort to keep his game's animals as unique as its items.Basso admits leaning towards a cast of animals in the game because he finds them "more enjoyable" to draw than humans, and that he can have more creative license since people on average are "more forgiving about the [visual] details, about what they look like." His initial impulse was to draw "more zoo animals," Basso says. "There's a zebra in the [early versions]. And there's just some, like, bears."Image via Billy Basso/BigMode.As the game's more mysterious tone took shape, Basso began watching nature documentaries on YouTube, then found himself compelled by the weirder, less popular animals he saw. "I remember learning that the beluga whale can imitate the sound of children underwater," Basso says. "They trick a lot of divers into thinking there's a child drowning." He might have otherwise picked a better-known creature to fit whatever biome he needed (water, forest, cavern, etc.), but documentaries shaped his excitement: "Oh, I like this detail. That's scary and creepy and interesting." He thus filled out the Animal Well.Community matterswith a pre-release twistAdelman admits that before working on Animal Well, he'd never focused pre-release efforts on the concept of community, and he was particularly ambivalent about one popular service, which he'd seen other game developers adopt for their own games with mixed success. "I guess we've got to start up a Discord server and hope people show up," Adelman recalls initially thinking. But in the game's run-up, Basso hid a number of puzzles across the game's promotional channels, including videos and website postsall hinting to the caliber of puzzles that would eventually debut in the game's deeper layers. The resulting Discord engagement was immediately massive. "These ARGs brought a lot of people together, and friendships started to form," Adelman says. "So I was like, 'Oh, I get what [people] mean now, when they talk about building community.'"Before that full community could coalesce, Adelman elected to test one unique version of "community": a pre-release, critics-only Discord channel. In addition to giving critics a few weeks to play the final game, Adelman wanted to provide a meeting place for critics to "share information and collaborate on certain puzzles," admitting that Basso's design vision always included an expectation of community-driven puzzle solving. (In other words: it's not cheating to ask for Animal Well help!)This had two outcomes for the very small Animal Well development team: First, the developers could see in real time a miniature version of how Animal Well would be digested by a community at largesomething that couldn't necessarily be replicated by a dedicated QA team. Second, it arguably bumped the game's review scores. "I think if everyone had been playing in isolation, they might have missed out on some things," Adelman says. "Sometimes a reviewer would say, 'I just found this,' and everyone would be, like, 'What?! I gotta look for that." We might have gotten a lot of 7 out of 10s, 8 out of 10s, if people didn't seek out some of the more interesting content or didn't know where to find it."Not "niche," but "intense"The community's response to Animal Well's pre-release ARG puzzles gave Basso confidence to build complex puzzles for the final game, and that community responded even more fiercely to the final retail game. "People really appreciated the secrets in the game," he says. "I'd assumed there'd be a hardcore group of people that that appealed to. And most people would just enjoy the game. Maybe that is the case, but I think everybody that did experience those deeper, later parts of the game, they all seemed to really resonate with it.Still, when the game's deepest riddles were uncovered by the communityparticularly a cypher whose only hint is the pixel-long direction a bunny's ears are turnedAdelman and Basso admit they were shocked by how quickly it happened.Adelman suggests the internal estimate for full puzzle discovery was somewhere around ten years. "There were so many people who were so passionate about Animal Well, that there were probably, you know, ten man-years dedicated in that condensed amount of time," Adelman says. "It was just way more people working way harder on [the game's puzzles] than we ever expected." (Basso insists that "there are some things the community hasn't found" in Animal Well but has not elaborated further.)As Basso speaks to trusting his development instincts, he confirms that he's "thinking about another game" and is thus in the "very early stages of setting a new project and engine up." He intends to deliver something similar to Animal Well's scope, if not something "bigger.""I'm looking forward to releasing a game within the context of having already released Animal Well," Basso says. "I think I'll have more flexibility with how it is marketed, and it will be fun to play off, and subvert, existing fans' expectations." And he clarifies that the afterglow of Animal Well's launch, including a "victory lap" where feedback has moved from comment sections to critical accolades and real-life lines, made years of solo-development isolation worth it. He had ultimate control over its tools, engines, art, and mechanics. Now, and forever, he says that's out of his hands."Animal Well was this sort of pure side project where I could implement things in what I felt was the ideal way," Basso says. "Robust, not dependent on things. [The result was] a timeless quality that older cartridge games havethat still have, like, really intense speed running communities. I wanted to make a game that, you know, could still have a fandom around it 30 years from now."

OpenAI is preparing to release an autonomous AI agent that can control computers and perform tasks independently, code-named Operator. The company plans to debut it as a research preview and developer tool in January, according to Bloomberg.This move intensifies the competition among tech giants developing AI agents: Anthropic recently introduced its computer use capability, while Google is reportedly preparing its own version for a December release. The timing of Operators eventual consumer release remains under wraps, but its development signals a pivotal shift toward AI systems that can actively engage with computer interfaces rather than just process text and images.Do you work at OpenAI? Id love to chat. You can reach me securely on Signal @kylie.01 or via email at kylie@theverge.com.All the leading AI companies have promised autonomous AI agents, and OpenAI has hyped up the possibility recently. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything forum a few weeks ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said we will have better and better models, but I think the thing that will feel like the next giant breakthrough will be agents. At an OpenAI press event ahead of the companys annual Dev Day last month,chief product officer Kevin Weil said: I think 2025 is going to be the year that agentic systems finally hit the mainstream.AI labs face mounting pressure to monetize their costly models, especially as incremental improvements may not justify higher prices for users. The hope is that autonomous agents are the next breakthrough product a ChatGPT-scale innovation that validates the massive investment in AI development.