I’m not a great cook, but I do have one dish absolutely perfected: pork belly burnt ends. I use a modified version of the Meat Church recipe with a few tweaks (including a little bit of maple syrup in the sauce for the second cook). It’s actually a very simple process on the Traeger pellet smokers. Right now, Amazon has Traeger grills on sale for up to $200 off. That includes flagship models like the Ironwood as well as more affordable cookers. If you order one right now with Prime, you’ll have it with free shipping in time for Memorial Day festivities. Traeger Grills Pro 34 Electric Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker — $499 (was $699) You can cook vegetables, too, as the photo shows. Traeger This cooker hasn’t dipped below its $699 retail price at all this year, so a $200 discount is a rare treat. This is the bigger version of the Pro 22, and it provides a massive 848 square inches of cooking surface. That’s enough for up to seven racks of ribs or 40 burgers. It maxes out at 450 degrees, but it’s at its best when it’s around 225 for cooking low and slow. Like all Traeger pellet grills, it’s easy to keep temperature. You set your desired level, then a motorized auger pushes wood pellets into a burn box at the perfect rate to keep things cooking just right. Some barbecue purists may scoff at pellet cookers, but snobs are always going to snob. There’s something truly wonderful about getting perfect barbecue that you don’t have to babysit for 12 hours or risk ruining your meat. Traeger Grills Pro 22 Wood Pellet Grill & Smoker — $389 (was $499) This is a more efficient option than the 34 if you’re not regularly cooking for large groups. Traeger This model has all the features you’ll find in the Pro 34 linked above, but it’s a smaller, all-around machine. You get a total of 572 square inches of cooking space, which is enough for five racks of ribs or up to 24 burgers. It’s easier to store and burns more efficiently if you’re not doing big cooks, so you save money on pellets. Traeger Ironwood Pellet Smoker Grill — $1,599 (was $1,799) Pardon my messy garage. I was excited for smoked meat. If you can splurge on your pellet cooker, then the Ironwood is an awesome choice. The companion app allows you to monitor and control your grill from afar as long as you have a connection. It’s made of truly premium materials and even has a clever modular rack system around the perimeter for attaching accessories. If this grill was a pickleball paddle, it would be whatever the fanciest, most awesome pickleball paddle is (sorry, I don’t know anything about pickleball, and I’m not very good at metaphors). More Traeger pellet grill deals Traeger Ironwood XL Wood Pellet Smoker Grill $1,799 (was $1,999) Traeger Grills Flatrock, 33 Inch Flat Top Griddle $799 (was $899) Traeger Grills Woodridge Pro Electric Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker $899 (was $999) Traeger Grills Woodridge Electric Wood Pellet Grill and Smoker $699 (was $799)

We’re happy to announce that we’ve launched a new technical e-book, Create modular game architecture in Unity with ScriptableObjects, which provides best practices from professional developers for deploying ScriptableObjects in production.Along with the e-book, you can download a demo project from GitHub inspired by classic ball and paddle arcade game mechanics. The demo shows how ScriptableObjects can help you create components that are testable and scalable, while also being designer-friendly. Although a game like this could be built with far fewer lines of code, this demo shows ScriptableObjects in action.This post explains the benefits of ScriptableObjects, but doesn’t cover the basics or general coding in Unity. If you’re new to programming in Unity, head over to Unity Learn, which offers helpful introductory tutorials. The first chapter in the e-book also offers a solid primer.Let’s look at six ways you can benefit from using ScriptableObjects in your projects. Want to know more? All of these examples are explored further in the e-book and demo project.Although many of the techniques shared here can also be achieved using C# classes, one of the main benefits of ScriptableObjects is the accessibility to artists and designers. They can use ScriptableObjects to configure and apply game logic in a project without having to edit the code.The Editor makes it convenient to view and edit ScriptableObjects, enabling designers to set up gameplay data without heavy support from the developer team. This also applies to game logic, such as applying behavior to an NPC by adding a ScriptableObject (explained in the patterns below).Storing data and logic on a single MonoBehaviour can result in time-consuming merge conflicts if two people change different parts of the same Prefab or scene. By breaking up shared data into smaller files and assets with ScriptableObjects, designers can build gameplay in parallel with developers, instead of having to wait for the latter to finish setting up the gameplay in code before testing it.Issues can arise when colleagues with different roles access the game code and assets at the same time. With ScriptableObjects, the programmer can control what part of the project is editable in the Editor. Additionally, using ScriptableObjects to organize your code leads naturally to a codebase that’s more modular and efficient to test.Christo Nobbs, a senior technical game designer who specializes in systems game design and Unity (C#), contributed to The Unity game designer playbook, and is the main author of a blog post series on designing game systems in Unity. His posts, “Systems that create ecosystems: Emergent game design” and “Unpredictably fun: The value of randomization in game design” provide interesting examples of how designers can use ScriptableObjects.Modularity is a general software principle which can be implemented in C# without using ScriptableObjects. But, as mentioned above, ScriptableObjects help promote clean coding practices by separating data from logic, which is a first step toward modular game code. This separation means it’s easier to make changes without causing unintended side effects, and improves testability.ScriptableObjects excel at storing static data, making them handy for configuring static gameplay values like items or NPC stats, character dialogue, and much more. Because ScriptableObjects are saved as an asset, they persist outside of game mode, making it possible to use them for loading in a static configuration that dynamically changes at runtime.While changes to ScriptableObject data do persist in the Editor, it’s important to note that they are not designed for saving game data. In that case, it’s better to use a serialization system, such as JSON, XML, or a binary solution if performance is critical.MonoBehaviours carry extra overhead since they require a GameObject – and by default a Transform – to act as a host. This means you need to create a lot of unused data before storing a single value. A ScriptableObject slims down this memory footprint and drops the GameObject and Transform. It also stores data at the project level, which is helpful if you need to access the same data from multiple scenes.It’s common to have many GameObjects which rely on duplicate data that does not need to change at runtime. Rather than having this duplicate local data on each GameObject, you can funnel it into a ScriptableObject. Each of the objects stores a reference to the shared data asset, rather than copying the data itself. This can provide significant performance improvements in projects with thousands of objects.In software design, this is an optimization known as the flyweight pattern. Restructuring your code in this way using ScriptableObjects avoids copying values and reduces your memory footprint. Check out our e-book, Level up your code with game programming patterns to learn more about using design patterns in Unity.A good example of how ScriptableObjects can simplify your code is to use them as enums for comparison operations. The ScriptableObject can represent a category or item type, such as a special damage effect – cold, heat, electrical, magic, etc.If your application requires an inventory system to equip gameplay items, ScriptableObjects can represent item types or weapon slots. The fields in the Inspector then function as a drag-and-drop interface for setting them up.Using ScriptableObjects as enums becomes more interesting when you want to extend them and add more data. Unlike normal enums, ScriptableObjects can have extra fields and methods. There’s no need to have a separate lookup table or correlate with a new array of data.While traditional enums have a fixed set of values, ScriptableObject enums can be created and modified at runtime, allowing you to add or remove values as needed.If you have a long list of enum values without explicit numbering, inserting or removing an enum can change their order. This reordering can introduce subtle bugs or unintended behavior. ScriptableObject-based enums don’t have these issues. You can delete or add to your project without having to change the code every time.Suppose you want to make an item equippable in an RPG. You could append an extra boolean field to the ScriptableObject to do that. Are certain characters not allowed to hold certain items? Are some items magical or do they have special abilities? ScriptableObject-based enums can do that.Because you can create methods on a ScriptableObject, they are as useful for containing logic or actions as they are for holding data. Moving logic from your MonoBehaviour into a ScriptableObject enables you to use the latter as a delegate object, making the behavior more modular.If you need to perform specific tasks, you can encapsulate their algorithms into their own objects. The original Gang of Four refers to this general design as the strategy pattern. The example below shows how to make the strategy pattern more useful by using an abstract class to implement EnemyAI. The result is several derived ScriptableObjects with different behavior, which then becomes a pluggable behavior since each asset is interchangeable. You just drag and drop the ScriptableObject of choice into the MonoBehaviour.For a detailed example showing how to use ScriptableObjects to drive behavior, watch the video series Pluggable AI with ScriptableObjects. These sessions demonstrate a finite state machine-based AI system that can be configured using ScriptableObjects for states, actions, and transitions between those states.A common challenge in larger projects is when multiple GameObjects need to share data or states by avoiding direct references between these objects. Managing these dependencies at scale can require significant effort and is often a source of bugs. Many developers use singletons – one global instance of a class that survives scene loading. However, singletons introduce global states and make unit testing difficult. If you’re working with a Prefab that references a singleton, you’ll end up importing all of its dependencies just to test an isolated function. This makes your code less modular and efficient to debug.One solution is to use ScriptableObject-based events to help your GameObjects communicate. In this case, you are using ScriptableObjects to implement a form of the observer design pattern, where a subject broadcasts a message to one or more loosely decoupled observers. Each observing object can react independently from the subject but is unaware of the other observers. The subject can also be referred to as the “publisher” or “broadcaster” and the observers as “subscribers” or “listeners.”You can implement the observer pattern with MonoBehaviours or C# objects. While this is already common practice in Unity development, a script-only approach means your designers will rely on the programming team for every event needed during gameplay.At first glance, it appears that you’ve added a layer of overhead to the observer pattern, but this structure offers some advantages. Since ScriptableObjects are assets, they are accessible to all objects in your hierarchy and don’t disappear on scene loading.Easy, persistent access to certain resources is why many developers use singletons. ScriptableObjects can often provide the same benefits without introducing as many unnecessary dependencies.In ScriptableObject-based events, any object can serve as publisher (which broadcasts the event), and any object can serve as a subscriber (which listens for the event). The ScriptableObject sits in the middle and helps relay the signal, acting like a centralized intermediary between the two.One way to think about this is as an “event channel.” Imagine the ScriptableObject as a radio tower that has any number of objects listening for its signals. An interested MonoBehaviour can subscribe to the event channel and respond when something happens.The demo shows how the observer pattern helps you set up game events for UI, sounds, and scoring.At runtime, you’ll often need to track a list of GameObjects or components in your scene. For example, a list of enemies is something you’d need to frequently access, but it’s also a dynamic list that changes as more enemies are spawned or defeated. The singleton offers easy global access, but it has several drawbacks. Instead of using a singleton, consider storing data on a ScriptableObject as a “Runtime Set.” The ScriptableObject instance appears at the project level, which means it can store data that’s available to any object from any scene, offering similar global access. Since the data is located on an asset, its public list of items is accessible at any time.In this use case, you get a specialized data container that maintains a public collection of elements but also provides basic methods to add to and remove from the collection. This can reduce the need for singletons and improve testability and modularity.Reading data directly from a ScriptableObject is also more optimal than searching the Scene Hierarchy with a find operation like Object.FindObjectOfType or GameObject.FindWithTag. Depending on your use case and the size of your hierarchy, these are relatively expensive methods that can be inefficient for per-frame updates.There are several ScriptableObjects frameworks which offer more use cases than these six scenarios. Some teams decide to use ScriptableObjects extensively, while others limit their use to loading in static data and separating logic from data. Ultimately, the needs of your project will determine how you use them.Create modular game architecture in Unity with ScriptableObjects is the third guide in our series for intermediate to advanced Unity programmers. Each guide, authored by experienced programmers, provides best practices for topics that are important to development teams.Create a C# style guide: Write cleaner code that scales assists you with developing a style guide to help unify your approach to creating a more cohesive codebase.Level up your code with game programming patternshighlights best practices for using the SOLID principles and common programming patterns to create scalable game code architecture in your Unity project.We created this series to provide actionable tips and inspiration to our experienced creators, but they aren’t rule books. There are many ways to structure your Unity project and what might seem like a natural fit for one application may not be for another. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each recommendation, tip, and pattern with your colleagues before deploying it.Find more advanced guides and articles on the Unity best practices hub.

A newly described creature from the Cambrian period is putting a bizarre twist on what we thought we knew about early animal evolution. Meet Mosura fentoni—a three-eyed, clawed, and flappy-limbed predator about the size of your finger, recently identified from Canada’s famed Burgess Shale. The alien-looking animal is part of a group called radiodonts, a now-extinct lineage of arthropods best known for Anomalocaris, a three-foot-long (one-meter-long) sea terror with spiny limbs and a circular mouth full of teeth. Like its cousins, Mosura had a similar feeding disk and paddle-like limbs for swimming. But it also had a strange surprise out back: a tail-like segment of 16 tightly packed body sections, each lined with gills. The Royal Society Open Science published the team’s description of the creature today. “As much as we learn about radiodonts, there always seems to be something new and surprising about this group around the corner,” said study lead author Joe Moysiuk, curator at the Manitoba Museum, in an email to Gizmodo. “The ‘abdomen’ in Mosura is different in that its segments are small and they have only tiny flaps that would have been basically useless for propulsion.” The researchers aren’t totally sure why Mosura needed this extra breathing real estate, but it could be related to how or where it lived—maybe hanging out in low-oxygen environments in the lively Cambrian seas, or leading an especially active lifestyle. A life reconstruction of the radiodont. Illustration: Art by Danielle Dufault, © ROM Its unique shape, with broad swimming flaps and a slender abdomen, earned it the nickname “sea-moth” from the researchers—hence the name Mosura, a nod to the Japanese kaiju Mothra. But despite its nickname, Mosura is only distantly related to moths. Mosura is part of a much more ancient lineage of arthropods—and though the radiodonts are long-gone, their remarkable preservation in the Burgess Shale is routinely yielding new species to science. Beyond its sci-fi looks, Mosura is also offering rare glimpses of internal anatomy from half a billion years ago. Some of the 61 fossils of the creature studied show preserved nerve tissue, eye structures, a digestive tract, and even reflective patches representing an open circulatory system—essentially a heart pumping blood into internal cavities called lacunae. Those same features, previously mysterious in other fossils, are evident in the team’s Mosura specimens. The fossils, mostly collected by the Royal Ontario Museum over the last 50 years, came from Yoho and Kootenay National Parks—part of the Burgess Shale region. The region was part of the ancient seafloor and is known for its exceptional preservation of the soft-bodied organisms that called the seafloor home. Moysiuk has recently unearthed a couple of other creatures from the Cambrian Explosion, including Titanokorys gainesi in 2021 and Cambroraster falcatus, named for the Millennium Falcon, in 2019. “So many science fiction creatures have been inspired by living organisms,” Moysiuk said. “It seems only natural that scientists should take some inspiration in return.” “There are loads of other possible inspirations for species names, but I do think there’s a lot of potential with the ‘Tremors’ franchise,” Moysiuk added. “The giant worms in that series are supposed to be relicts of the Precambrian, and although that makes no sense scientifically, it could make for a fun reference.” You heard it here first: As long as the creatures getting discovered keep looking as alien as Moysiuk’s recent finds, no science fiction franchise is safe from becoming scientific nomenclature.

A few summers ago, when the culture was moving through micro trends as fast as they could be Instagrammed, Cottage Core was born. The trend, which came out of a Covid-influenced romanticism for living close to nature (but not ruffing it, à la gorpcore, fashion’s cousin trend), inspired an infusion of chintz and whicker-filled interiors, and, of course, lush English-style gardens.Flash forward to 2025. All those cottage gardens planted in early 2020—rustic, sophisticated, chic—are at their peak. And there really is something to an outdoor space that merges with the indoors, is there not? On a warm summer evening, when the bougainvillea is in bloom, and the grass is a bit damp, what could be more appealing than a home built to nestle into a fantastical garden.Here, we’ve collected some of our favorite cottage gardens. They range from fairy house gardens to campground landscape, historical (Anne Hathaway’s famed cottage that has inspired Shakespeare devotees the world over) to contemporary compound gardens in the woods.While we may have a specific notion of a cottage garden, but they are—and should be—as unique as the people who tend them. One lesson for planting your own? A small space is an asset rather than a limitation.Below, you’ll find 15 of our favorite cottage gardens from Marin County California to Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.William Jess LairdThis Amagansett cottage was literally designed for “summertime snoozes.” It’s also a good reminder that a delicate slate garden pathway can take you far. Designer Melissa Lee noted how “unexpected” the whole place felt, surrounded by the many mansions of the Hamptons. As she rightfully notes, the charm is in the surprise. A suggestion of mystery always adds to a cottage! Think The Secret Garden or the unexpectedly expansive Weasley Family home.Noe DewittVines climb up this 1920s English Art and Crafts style cottage in the Hamptons. The elegant and eclectic cottage was re-designed by Nick Olsen to emphasize outdoor living with comfy couches, a tiled patio and a pool.William James LairdThis pink cottage kitchen looks out over a garden in Litchfield County, Connecticut. Designer Clive Lonstein’s work is vibrant and unexpected, particularly for a modest Connecticut cottage built in the late 1800s. In a way though, the bright colors all throughout the house are a reflection of the original design for the house. The architect, Ehrick Rossiter was known for his own whimsy, and even included a turret in this design. This cottage is a great reminder to leave the door open all summer long.Stephen Kent JohnsonThis former fishing shack in Provincetown proves that a sprawling garden can fit into a small space. From Windex yellow fox gloves to arching lavender, this is a bucolic slice of heaven. A classic shingled home, complete with flower boxes and a white picket fence, it has a deeply cottage-core sequence backstory. It was used as an artist studio for William Maynard until his death in 2016, and when it was sold, prospective buyers were asked to write why they wanted to live there.Rachael SmithWe love an indoor / outdoor cottage garden. Ideally, you have a branch that grows through a window, like this one in Suzie de Rohan Willner’s English Country Garden. It is a charming marriage of dynamics: English and French, contemporary and historical, and, of course just as eclectic as a cottage should be. Willner notes, “The whole house is a collection of things from each period of my and my husband’s lives. I love to pick up bibs and bobs and it all comes together very happily.”Chronicle / Alamy Stock PhotoKate Middleton’s Adelaide Cottage conjures images of an Arthurian fantasy. The Wales family made this their Windsor home since 2023. Built in 1831 for Queen Adelaide (the German-born wife of William IV, who was the Uncle of Queen Victoria). It went through a transformative renovation in 2015 which left the historical decorations in tact. Fun fact: the Wales family pay market rent for their use of the home.Photo 12//Getty ImagesThe poet, actor, and playwright Anne Hathaway’s famed cottage and accompanying garden must have inspired her husband’s plays (that would be Shakespeare). This might be what comes to mind when you think of a cottage garden. Now open to the public daily, it was originally built more than 500 years ago, and is the site of Hathaway’s own birth in 1556.CostcoThis Costco (yes, Costco!) shed turned cottage is an ideal backdrop for your cottage garden fantasy. If you’re feeling very DIY this year, start here. Priced at $6,499, it measures 12’ x 24’ feet, a perfect amount of space for your own summer hide away or gardening shed.Richard PowersThis glass house is a reminder that a cottage garden doesn’t have to follow a prescribed style. The Amagansett cottage, originally built in 1960, is a marvel of mid-century design, an aesthetic reflected in the mod-furniture choices. Again, we love a stylistic mix in an updated cottage. Japanese Maple Trees complete the woodsy vibe.© David Hockney, Photo By Jonathan WilkinsonDavid Hockney illustrated his own cottage garden during the Pandemic. His drawing is illustrative of the benefits of an English garden: a bit wild, extremely lush, and more green than anything else. If we could, we’d jump right into this scene like Mary Poppins on a rainy day.John M. Hall for ELLE DecorHere’s a rule of thumb: trust Ina Garten. This cottage-like structure, on the grounds of the East Hampton home Garten shares with her husband Jeffrey, is perennially perfect. Note, too, the green and purple color scheme here. This is perhaps the dream cottage garden and something of a childhood playhouse. It has just enough space for a cozy chat and is a reminder that you can build your own little cottage on a very small plot of land.Photo 12//Getty ImagesMarie Antoinette’s Hamlet on the grounds of Versailles still sets the standard for the cottage garden with a thatched roof, hedges, and roses straight out of a fairy tale. During the former French Queen’s reign, her hamlet was used as a faux farm house, where she and her young daughter, Princess Marie Thérèse, would dress as idealized versions of French peasant farmers and milk cows. The interior, though, of this modest cottage, is appropriately grand with silk furnishings and canopy beds.Douglas FriedmanA garden that proves succulents and cottages are a match made in heaven. This one, in Marin County, California, adds a bit of desert flair. On the other side of this cottage is a water way and a perfect little dock for launching paddle boards. We love how the greens liven up this side of the house and create a completely different, almost modern desert-like, aesthetic. As with any great cottage garden, there is a distinctly transportive factor.Michael CliffordA light wood sauna and cold plunge on the grounds of Jenni Kayne’s Hudson Valley farmhouse are hidden behind shrubbery for a sense of privacy against a wide open landscape. We love the idea of adding a spa-like ambiance to a cottage garden as well as finding inventive ways to use the space. This is exactly where we want to be in the summer!Getty ImagesThis is sort of cheating, but Bunny Williams is a necessary inclusion! Williams’s Oak Spring Garden in Upperville, Virginia continues to inspire garden and cottage enthusiasts the world over. Rather than one cottage, the grounds of Williams’s large estate feature a guest cottage and a basket house, both of which are charming in the extreme.Dorothy ScarboroughDorothy Scarborough (she/her) is the assistant to the Editor in Chief of Town & Country and Elle Decor.