IntroductionHello! My name is Denys. I was born and raised in Nigeria, where I'm currently based. I began my journey into 3D art in March 2022, teaching myself through online resources, starting, of course, with the iconic donut tutorial on YouTube. Since then, I've continued to grow my skills independently, and now I'm working toward a career in 3D generalism, with a particular interest in environment art.I originally got into Blender because SketchUp wasn't free, and I could not keep up with the subscriptions. While searching for alternatives, I came across Blender. That's when I realized I had installed it once years ago, but back then, the interface completely intimidated me, and I gave up on it. This time, though, I decided to stick with it – and I'm glad I did.I started out creating simple models. One of my first big projects was modeling the entire SpongeBob crew. That led to my first animation, and eventually, the first four episodes of a short animated series (though it's still incomplete). As I grew more confident, I began participating in online 3D competitions, like cgandwe, where I focused on designing realistic environments. Those experiences have played a huge role in getting me to where I am today.Getting Started Before starting any scene, I always look for references. It might not be the most original approach, but it's what works best for me. One piece that inspired me was a beautiful artwork by Calder Moore. I bookmarked it as soon as I saw it back in 2023, and luckily, I finally found the time to bring it to life last month.BlockoutThe goal was to match the original camera angle and roughly model the main frame of the structures. It wasn't perfect, but modeling and placing the lower docks helped me get the perspective right. Then I moved on to modeling and positioning the major structures in the scene.I gave myself two weeks to complete this project. And as much as I enjoy modeling, I also enjoy not modeling, so I turned to asset kits and free models to help speed things up. I came across an awesome paid kit by Bigmediumsmall and instantly knew it would fit perfectly into my scene.I also downloaded a few models from Sketchfab, including a lamp, desk console, freighter controls, and a robotic arm, which I later took apart to add extra detail. Another incredibly helpful tool was the Random Flow add-on by BlenderGuppy, which made adding sci-fi elements much easier. Lastly, I pulled in some models from my older sci-fi and cyberpunk projects to round things out.Kitbashing Once I had the overall shape I was aiming for, I moved on to kitbashing to pack in as much detail as possible. There wasn't any strict method to the madness; I simply picked assets I liked, whether it was a set of pipes, vents, or even a random shape that just worked in the sci-fi context. I focused first on kitbashing the front structure, and used the Random Flow add-on to fill in areas where I didn't kitbash manually. Then I moved on to the other collections, following the same process.The freighter was the final piece of the puzzle, and I knew it was going to be a challenge. Part of me wanted to model it entirely from scratch, but the more practical side knew I could save a lot of time by sticking with my usual method. So I modeled the main shapes myself, then kitbashed the details to bring it to life. I also grabbed some crates from Sketchfab to fill out the scene.Texturing This part was easily my favorite, and there was no shortcut here. I had to meticulously create each material myself. Well, I did use PBR materials downloaded from CGAmbient as a base, but I spent a lot of time tweaking and editing them to get everything just right.Texturing has always been my favorite stage when building scenes like this. Many artists prefer external tools like Substance 3D Painter (which I did use for some of the models), but I've learned so much about procedural texturing, especially from RyanKingArt, that I couldn't let it go. It's such a flexible and rewarding approach, and I love pushing it as far as I can.I wanted most of the colors in the scene to be dark, but I did keep the original color of the pipes and the pillars, just to add a little bit of vibrance to the scene. I also wanted the overall texture to be very rough and grungy. One of the biggest helps in achieving this was using the Grunge Maps from Substance 3D Painter. I found a way to extract them into Blender, and it helped.A major tool during the texturing phase was Jsplacement, which I used to procedurally generate sci-fi grids and plates. This was the icing on the cake for adding intricate details. Whenever an area felt too flat, I applied bump maps with these grids and panels to bring the materials to life. For example, both the lamp pole and the entire black metal material feature these Jsplacement Maps.Lighting For this, I didn't do anything fancy. I knew the scene was in a high altitude, so I looked for HDRI with a cloudless sky, and I boosted the saturation up a little to give it that high altitude look.Post-Production The rendering phase was challenging since I was working on a low-end laptop. I couldn't render the entire scene all at once, so I broke it down by collections and rendered them as separate layers. Then, I composited the layers together in post-production. I'm not big on heavy post-work, so I kept it simple, mostly tweaking brightness and saturation on my phone. That's about it for the post-production process.Conclusion The entire project took me 10 days to complete, working at least four hours each day. Although I've expressed my love for texturing, my favorite part of this project was the detailing and kitbashing. I really enjoyed piecing all the small details together. The most challenging part was deciding which assets to use and where to place them. I had a lot of greebles to choose from, but I'm happy with the ones I selected; they felt like a perfect fit for the scene.I know kitbashing sometimes gets a negative reputation in the 3D community, but I found it incredibly relieving. Honestly, this project wouldn't have come together without it, so I fully embraced the process.I'm excited to keep making projects like this. The world of 3D art is truly an endless and vast realm, and I encourage every artist like me to keep exploring it, one project at a time.Denys Molokwu, 3D Artist

Who knows where branding will go in the future? However, for many of us working in the creative industries, it's our job to know. So it's something we need to start talking about, and Frontify Futures wants to be the platform where that conversation unfolds. This ambitious new thought leadership initiative from Frontify brings together an extraordinary coalition of voices—CMOs who've scaled global brands, creative leaders reimagining possibilities, strategy directors pioneering new approaches, and cultural forecasters mapping emerging opportunities—to explore how effectiveness, innovation, and scale will shape tomorrow's brand-building landscape. But Frontify Futures isn't just another content platform. Excitingly, from a design perspective, it's also a living experiment in what brand identity can become when technology meets craft, when systems embrace chaos, and when the future itself becomes a design material. Endless variation What makes Frontify Futures' typography unique isn't just its custom foundation: it's how that foundation enables endless variation and evolution. This was primarily achieved, reveals developer and digital art director Daniel Powell, by building bespoke tools for the project. "Rather than rely solely on streamlined tools built for speed and production, we started building our own," he explains. "The first was a node-based design tool that takes our custom Frame and Hairline fonts as a base and uses them as the foundations for our type generator. With it, we can generate unique type variations for each content strand—each article, even—and create both static and animated type, exportable as video or rendered live in the browser." Each of these tools included what Daniel calls a "chaos element: a small but intentional glitch in the system. A microstatement about the nature of the future: that it can be anticipated but never fully known. It's our way of keeping gesture alive inside the system." One of the clearest examples of this is the colour palette generator. "It samples from a dynamic photo grid tied to a rotating colour wheel that completes one full revolution per year," Daniel explains. "But here's the twist: wind speed and direction in St. Gallen, Switzerland—Frontify's HQ—nudges the wheel unpredictably off-centre. It's a subtle, living mechanic; each article contains a log of the wind data in its code as a kind of Easter Egg." Another favourite of Daniel's—yet to be released—is an expanded version of Conway's Game of Life. "It's been running continuously for over a month now, evolving patterns used in one of the content strand headers," he reveals. "The designer becomes a kind of photographer, capturing moments from a petri dish of generative motion." Core Philosophy In developing this unique identity, two phrases stood out to Daniel as guiding lights from the outset. The first was, 'We will show, not tell.' "This became the foundation for how we approached the identity," recalls Daniel. "It had to feel like a playground: open, experimental, and fluid. Not overly precious or prescriptive. A system the Frontify team could truly own, shape, and evolve. A platform, not a final product. A foundation, just as the future is always built on the past." The second guiding phrase, pulled directly from Frontify's rebrand materials, felt like "a call to action," says Daniel. "'Gestural and geometric. Human and machine. Art and science.' It's a tension that feels especially relevant in the creative industries today. As technology accelerates, we ask ourselves: how do we still hold onto our craft? What does it mean to be expressive in an increasingly systemised world?" Stripped back and skeletal typography The identity that Daniel and his team created reflects these themes through typography that literally embodies the platform's core philosophy. It really started from this idea of the past being built upon the 'foundations' of the past," he explains. "At the time Frontify Futures was being created, Frontify itself was going through a rebrand. With that, they'd started using a new variable typeface called Cranny, a custom cut of Azurio by Narrow Type." Daniel's team took Cranny and "pushed it into a stripped-back and almost skeletal take". The result was Crany-Frame and Crany-Hairline. "These fonts then served as our base scaffolding," he continues. "They were never seen in design, but instead, we applied decoration them to produce new typefaces for each content strand, giving the identity the space to grow and allow new ideas and shapes to form." As Daniel saw it, the demands on the typeface were pretty simple. "It needed to set an atmosphere. We needed it needed to feel alive. We wanted it to be something shifting and repositioning. And so, while we have a bunch of static cuts of each base style, we rarely use them; the typefaces you see on the website and social only exist at the moment as a string of parameters to create a general style that we use to create live animating versions of the font generated on the fly." In addition to setting the atmosphere, it needed to be extremely flexible and feature live inputs, as a significant part of the branding is about the unpredictability of the future. "So Daniel's team built in those aforementioned "chaos moments where everything from user interaction to live windspeeds can affect the font." Design Process The process of creating the typefaces is a fascinating one. "We started by working with the custom cut of Azurio (Cranny) from Narrow Type. We then redrew it to take inspiration from how a frame and a hairline could be produced from this original cut. From there, we built a type generation tool that uses them as a base. "It's a custom node-based system that lets us really get in there and play with the overlays for everything from grid-sizing, shapes and timing for the animation," he outlines. "We used this tool to design the variants for different content strands. We weren't just designing letterforms; we were designing a comprehensive toolset that could evolve in tandem with the content. "That became a big part of the process: designing systems that designers could actually use, not just look at; again, it was a wider conversation and concept around the future and how designers and machines can work together." In short, the evolution of the typeface system reflects the platform's broader commitment to continuous growth and adaptation." The whole idea was to make something open enough to keep building on," Daniel stresses. "We've already got tools in place to generate new weights, shapes and animated variants, and the tool itself still has a ton of unused functionality. "I can see that growing as new content strands emerge; we'll keep adapting the type with them," he adds. "It's less about version numbers and more about ongoing movement. The system's alive; that's the point. A provocation for the industry In this context, the Frontify Futures identity represents more than smart visual branding; it's also a manifesto for how creative systems might evolve in an age of increasing automation and systematisation. By building unpredictability into their tools, embracing the tension between human craft and machine precision, and creating systems that grow and adapt rather than merely scale, Daniel and the Frontify team have created something that feels genuinely forward-looking. For creatives grappling with similar questions about the future of their craft, Frontify Futures offers both inspiration and practical demonstration. It shows how brands can remain human while embracing technological capability, how systems can be both consistent and surprising, and how the future itself can become a creative medium. This clever approach suggests that the future of branding lies not in choosing between human creativity and systematic efficiency but in finding new ways to make them work together, creating something neither could achieve alone.

Unity Technical VFX ArtistNo Brakes GamesVilnius, Lithuania or Remote3 hours agoApplyWe are No Brakes Games, the creators of Human Fall Flat.We are looking for a Unity Technical VFX Artist to join our team to work on Human Fall Flat 2.FULL-TIME POSITION - Vilnius, Lithuania or RemoteRole Overview:As a Unity Technical Artist specializing in VFX and rendering, you will develop and optimize real-time visual effects, create advanced shaders and materials, and ensure a balance between visual fidelity and performance. You will solve complex technical challenges, optimizing effects for real-time execution while collaborating with artists, designers, and engineers to push Unity’s rendering capabilities to the next level.Responsibilities:Develop and optimize real-time VFX solutions that are both visually striking and performant.Create scalable shaders and materials for water, fog, atmospheric effects, and dynamic lighting.Debug and resolve VFX performance bottlenecks using Unity Profiler, RenderDoc, and other tools.Optimize particle systems, volumetric effects, and GPU simulations for multi-platform performance.Document best practices and educate the team on efficient asset and shader workflows.Collaborate with engineers to develop and implement custom rendering solutions.Stay updated on Unity’s latest advancements in rendering, HDRP, and the Visual Effect Graph.Requirements:2+ years of experience as a Technical Artist in game development, with a focus on Unity.Strong understanding of Unity’s rendering pipeline (HDRP, URP, Built-in) and shader development (HLSL, Shader Graph).Experience developing performance-conscious visual effects, including particle systems, volumetric lighting, and dynamic environmental effects.Proficiency in GPU/CPU optimization techniques, LODs for VFX.Hands-on experience with real-time lighting and atmospheric effects.Ability to debug and profile complex rendering issues effectively.Excellent communication skills and ability to work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team.A flexible, R&D-driven mindset, able to iterate quickly in both prototyping and production environments.Nice-to-Have:Experience working on at least one released game project.Experience with Unity HDRP and SRP.Experience with multi-platform development (PC, console, mobile, VR/AR).Knowledge of C#, Python, or C++ for extending Unity’s capabilities.Experience developing custom node-based tools or extending Unity’s Visual Effect Graph.Background in procedural animation, physics-based effects, or fluid simulations.Apply today by sending your Portfolio & CV to jobs@nobrakesgames.com Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

We are pleased to announce the release of Matali Physics 6.9, the next significant step on the way to the seventh major version of the environment. Matali Physics 6.9 introduces a number of improvements and fixes to Matali Physics Core, Matali Render and Matali Games modules, presents physics-driven, completely dynamic light sources, real-time object scaling with destruction, lighting model simulating global illumination (GI) in some aspects, comprehensive support for Wayland on Linux, and more. Posted by komires on Jun 3rd, 2025 What is Matali Physics? Matali Physics is an advanced, modern, multi-platform, high-performance 3d physics environment intended for games, VR, AR, physics-based simulations and robotics. Matali Physics consists of the advanced 3d physics engine Matali Physics Core and other physics-driven modules that all together provide comprehensive simulation of physical phenomena and physics-based modeling of both real and imaginary objects. What's new in version 6.9? Physics-driven, completely dynamic light sources. The introduced solution allows for processing hundreds of movable, long-range and shadow-casting light sources, where with each source can be assigned logic that controls its behavior, changes light parameters, volumetric effects parameters and others; Real-time object scaling with destruction. All groups of physics objects and groups of physics objects with constraints may be subject to destruction process during real-time scaling, allowing group members to break off at different sizes; Lighting model simulating global illumination (GI) in some aspects. Based on own research and development work, processed in real time, ready for dynamic scenes, fast on mobile devices, not based on lightmaps, light probes, baked lights, etc.; Comprehensive support for Wayland on Linux. The latest version allows Matali Physics SDK users to create advanced, high-performance, physics-based, Vulkan-based games for modern Linux distributions where Wayland is the main display server protocol; Other improvements and fixes which complete list is available on the History webpage. What platforms does Matali Physics support? Android Android TV *BSD iOS iPadOS Linux (distributions) macOS Steam Deck tvOS UWP (Desktop, Xbox Series X/S) Windows (Classic, GDK, Handheld consoles) What are the benefits of using Matali Physics? Physics simulation, graphics, sound and music integrated into one total multimedia solution where creating complex interactions and behaviors is common and relatively easy Composed of dedicated modules that do not require additional licences and fees Supports fully dynamic and destructible scenes Supports physics-based behavioral animations Supports physical AI, object motion and state change control Supports physics-based GUI Supports physics-based particle effects Supports multi-scene physics simulation and scene combining Supports physics-based photo mode Supports physics-driven sound Supports physics-driven music Supports debug visualization Fully serializable and deserializable Available for all major mobile, desktop and TV platforms New features on request Dedicated technical support Regular updates and fixes If you have questions related to the latest version and the use of Matali Physics environment as a game creation solution, please do not hesitate to contact us.

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.comEnjoy!What was Radiant AI, anyway? - A ridiculously deep dive into Oblivion's controversial AI system and its legacyblog.paavo.meConsider The Horse Game - No I don’t think every dev should make a horse game (unlike horror, which I still think everyone should at least one). But I do think every developer should at least look at them, maybe even play one because, it is very important that you understand the importance of genre, fandom, and how visibility works. Even if you are not making a horse game, the lessons you can learn by looking at this sub genre are very similar to other genres, just not as blatantly clear as they are with horse games.howtomarketagame.comMaking a killing: The playful 2D terror of Psycasso® - I sat down with lead developer Benjamin Lavender and Omni, designer and producer, to talk about this playfully gory game that gives a classic retro style and a fresh (if gruesome) twist.UnityIntroduction to Asset Manager transfer methods in Unity - Unity's Asset Manager is a user-friendly digital asset management platform supporting over 70 file formats to help teams centralize, organize, discover, and use assets seamlessly across projects. It reduces redundant work by design, making cross-team collaboration smoother and accelerating production workflows.UnityVideosRules of the Game: Five Tricks of Highly Effective Designers - Every working designer has them: unique techniques or "tricks" that they use when crafting gameplay. Sure, there's the general game design wisdom that everyone agrees on and can be found in many a game design book, but experienced game designers often have very specific rules that are personal to them, techniques that not everyone knows about or even agrees with. In this GDC 2015 session, five experienced game designers join the stage for 10 minutes each to share one game design "trick" that they use.Game Developers ConferenceBinding of Isaac Style Room Generator in Unity [Full Tutorial] - Our third part in the series - making the rooms!Game Dev GarnetIntroduction to Unity Behavior | Unity Tutorial - In this video you'll become familiar with the core concepts of Unity Behavior, including a live example.LlamAcademyHow I got my demo ready for Steam Next Fest - It's Steam Next Fest, and I've got a game in the showcase. So here are 7 tips for making the most of this demo sharing festival.Game Maker's ToolkitOptimizing lighting in Projekt Z: Beyond Order - 314 Arts studio lead and founder Justin Miersch discuss how the team used the Screen Space Global Illumination feature in Unity’s High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), along with the Unity Profiler and Timeline to overcome the lighting challenges they faced in building Projekt Z: Beyond Order.UnityMemory Arenas in Unity: Heap Allocation Without the GC - In this video, we explore how to build a custom memory arena in Unity using unsafe code and manual heap allocation. You’ll learn how to allocate raw memory for temporary graph-like structures—such as crafting trees or decision planners—without triggering the garbage collector. We’ll walk through the concept of stack frames, translate that to heap-based arena allocation, and implement a fast, disposable system that gives you full control over memory layout and lifetime. Perfect for performance-critical systems where GC spikes aren’t acceptable.git-amendCloth Animation Using The Compute Shader - In this video, we dive into cloth simulation using OpenGL compute shaders. By applying simple mathematical equations, we’ll achieve smooth, dynamic movement. We'll explore particle-based simulation, tackle synchronization challenges with double buffering, and optimize rendering using triangle strips for efficient memory usage. Whether you're familiar with compute shaders or just getting started, this is the perfect way to step up your real-time graphics skills!OGLDEVHow we're designing games for a broader audience - Our games are too hardBiteMe GamesAssetsLearn Game Dev - Unity, Godot, Unreal, Gamemaker, Blender & C# - Make games like a pro.Passionate about video games? Then start making your own! Our latest bundle will help you learn vital game development skills. Master the most popular creation platforms like Unity, Godot, Unreal, GameMaker, Blender, and C#—now that’s a sharp-lookin’ bundle! Build a 2.5D farming RPG with Unreal Engine, create a micro turn-based RPG in Godot, explore game optimization, and so much more.__Big Bang Unreal & Unity Asset Packs Bundle - 5000+ unrivaled assets in one bundle. Calling all game devs—build your worlds with this gigantic bundle of over 5000 assets, including realistic and stylized environments, SFX packs, and powerful tools. Perfect for hobbyists, beginners, and professional developers alike, you'll gain access to essential resources, tutorials, and beta-testing–ready content to start building immediately. The experts at Leartes Studios have curated an amazing library packed with value, featuring environments, VFX packs, and tutorial courses on Unreal Engine, Blender, Substance Painter, and ZBrush. Get the assets you need to bring your game to life—and help support One Tree Planted with your purchase! This bundle provides Unity Asset Store keys directly with your purchase, and FAB keys via redemption through Cosmos, if the product is available on those platforms.Humble Bundle AffiliateGameplay Tools 50% Off - Core systems, half the price. Get pro-grade tools to power your gameplay—combat, cutscenes, UI, and more. Including: HTrace: World Space Global Illumination, VFX Graph - Ultra Mega Pack - Vol.1, Magic Animation Blend, Utility Intelligence (v2): Utility AI Framework for Unity 6, Build for iOS/macOS on Windows>?Unity AffiliateHi guys, I created a website about 6 years in which I host all my field recordings and foley sounds. All free to download and use CC0. There is currently 50+ packs with 1000's of sounds and hours of field recordings all perfect for game SFX and UI. - I think game designers can benefit from a wide range of sounds on the site, especially those that enhance immersion and atmosphere.signaturesounds.orgSmartAddresser - Automate Addressing, Labeling, and Version Control for Unity's Addressable Asset System.CyberAgentGameEntertainment Open SourceEasyCS - EasyCS is an easy-to-use and flexible framework for Unity, adopting a Data-Driven Entity & Actor-Component approach. It bridges Unity's classic OOP with powerful data-oriented patterns, without forcing a complete ECS paradigm shift or a mindset change. Build smarter, not harder.Watcher3056 Open SourceBinding-Of-Isaac_Map-Generator - Binding of Isaac map generator for Unity2DGarnetKane99 Open SourceHelion - A modern fast paced Doom FPS engineHelion-Engine Open SourcePixelationFx - Pixelation post effect for Unity UrpNullTale Open SourceExtreme Add-Ons Bundle For Blender & ZBrush - Extraordinary quality—Extreme add-ons Get quality add-ons for Blender and ZBrush with our latest bundle! We’ve teamed up with the pros at FlippedNormals to deliver a gigantic library of powerful tools for your next game development project. Add new life to your creative work with standout assets like Real-time Hair ZBrush Plugin, Physical Starlight and Atmosphere, Easy Mesh ZBrush Plugin, and more. 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Demo available on SteamYou can subscribe to the free weekly newsletter on GameDevDigest.comThis post includes affiliate links; I may receive compensation if you purchase products or services from the different links provided in this article.

IntroductionHi, my name is Pankaj Kholiya, and I am a Senior 3D Character Artist. I've been working in the game industry for the past 8 years. I worked on titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, That Christmas, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, Star Wars: Outlaws, Alan Wake 2, Street Fighter 6, and many more. Currently, I'm working as a freelancer for the gaming and cinematics industry.Since my last interview, I made a few personal works, was a part of a Netflix movie, That Christmas, and worked with Platige on Star Wars: Outlaws and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 cinematic.The Breakdancing Clothing ProjectIt all started when I witnessed a dance battle that a friend organized. It was like watching Step Up live. There, I got the inspiration to create a break dancer. I started by gathering different references from the internet. I found one particular image on Pinterest and decided to recreate it in 3D.At first, the idea was to create the outfit in one pose, but along the way, I also decided to create a dancing version of the character and explore Unreal Engine. Here is the ref I used for the dancing version:Getting StartedFor the upcoming talents, I'll try to describe my process in a few points. Even before starting Marvelous Designer, I made sure to have my base character ready for animation and simulation. This time, I decided to use the MetaHuman creator for the base due to its high-quality textures and materials. My primary focus was on the clothing, so using MetaHuman saved a lot of time.After I was satisfied with how my MetaHuman looked, I took it to Mixamo to get some animations. I was really impressed by how good the animations worked on the MetaHuman. Once I had the animations, I took the animation into Marvelous Designer and simulated the clothes.For the posed character, I adjusted the rig to match the pose like the reference and used the same method as in this tutorial to pose the character:ClothingFor this particular project, I didn't focus on the topology as it was just for a single render. I just packed the UVs in Marvelous Designer, exported the quad mesh from Marvelous Designer, subdivided it a few times, and started working on the detailing part in ZBrush.For the texture, I used the low-division mesh from the ZBrush file, as I already had the UVs on it. I then baked the normal and other maps on it and took it to Substance 3D Painter.AnimationThere are multiple ways to animate the metahuman character. For this project, I've used Mixamo. I imported my character into Mixamo, selected the animation I liked, and exported it. After that, I just imported it to Marvelous Designer and hit the simulation button. You can check my previous breakdown for the Mixamo pipeline.Once happy with the result, I exported the simulated cloth as an Alembic to Unreal Engine. Tutorial for importing clothes into Unreal Engine:Lighting & RenderingThe main target was to match the lighting closely to the reference. This was my first project in Unreal Engine, so I wanted to explore the lighting and see how far I could go with it. Being new to the Unreal Engine, I went through a lot of tutorials. Here are the lights I've used for the posed version:For the dancing version, I've created a stage like the ref from the Step Up movie: Some tips I found useful for the rendering are in the video below:ConclusionAt first, I had a clear direction for this project and was confident in my skills to tackle the art aspect of it. But things changed when I dived into Unreal Engine for my presentation. More than half the time on this project went into learning and getting used to Unreal Engine. I don't regret a single second I invested in Unreal, as it was a new experience. It took around 15 days to wrap this one up.The lesson I learned is that upgrading your knowledge and learning new things will help you grow as an artist in the long run. Approaching how you make an artwork has changed a lot ever since I started 3D, and adapting to the changing art environment is a good thing. Here are some recommendations if you are interested in learning Unreal Engine.Pankaj Kholiya, Senior 3D Character ArtistInterview conducted by Amber Rutherford

A serial killer is stalking the streets, and his murders are a work of art. That’s more or less the premise behind Psycasso®, a tongue-in-cheek 2D pixel art game from Omni Digital Technologies that’s debuting a demo at Steam Next Fest this week, with plans to head into Early Access later this year. Playing as the killer, you get a job and build a life by day, then hunt the streets by night to find and torture victims, paint masterpieces with their blood, then sell them to fund operations.I sat down with lead developer Benjamin Lavender and Omni, designer and producer, to talk about this playfully gory game that gives a classic retro style and a fresh (if gruesome) twist.Let’s start with a bit of background about the game.Omni: We wanted to make something that stands out. We know a lot of indie studios are releasing games and the market is ever growing, so we wanted to make something that’s not just fun to play, but catches people’s attention when others tell them about it. We’ve created an open-world pixel art game about an artist who spends his day getting a job, trying to fit into society. Then at nighttime, things take a more sinister turn and he goes around and makes artwork out of his victim's blood.We didn’t want to make it creepy and gory. We kind of wanted it to be cutesy and fun, just to make it ironic. Making it was a big challenge. We basically had to create an entire city with functioning shops and NPCs who have their own lives, their own hobbies. It was a huge challenge.So what does the actual gameplay look like?Omni: There’s a day cycle and a night cycle that breaks up the gameplay. During the day, you can get a job, level up skills, buy properties and furniture upgrades. At nighttime, the lighting completely changes, the vibe completely changes, there’s police on the street and the flow of the game shifts. The idea is that you can kidnap NPCs using a whole bunch of different weapons – guns, throwable grenades, little traps and cool stuff that you can capture people with.Once captured on the street, you can either harvest their blood and body parts there, or buy a specialist room to keep them in a cage and put them in various equipment like hanging chains or torture chairs. The player gets better rewards for harvesting blood and body parts this way.On the flip side, there’s a whole other element to the game where the player is given missions each week from galleries around the city. They come up on your phone menu, and you can accept them and do either portrait or landscape paintings, with all of the painting being done using only shades of red. We've got some nice drip effects and splat sounds to make it feel like you’re painting with blood. Then you can give your creation a name, submit it to a gallery, then it goes into a fake auction, people will bid on the artwork and you get paid and large amount of in-game money so you can then buy upgrades for the home, upgrade painting tools like bigger paint brushes, more selection tools, stuff like that.Ben: There’s definitely nothing like it. And that was the aim, is when you are telling people about it, they’re like, “Oh, okay. Right. We’re not going to forget about this.” Let’s dig into the 2D tools you used to create this world.Ben: It’s using the 2D Renderer. The Happy Harvest 2D sample project that you guys made was kind of a big starting point, from a lighting perspective, and doing the normal maps of the 2D and getting the lighting to look nice. Our night system is a very stripped-down, then added-on version of the thing that you guys made. I was particularly interested by its shadows. The building’s shadows aren’t actually shadows – it’s a black light. We tried to recreate that with all of our buildings in the entire open world – so it does look beautiful for a 2D game, if I do say so myself.Can you say a bit about how you’re using AI or procedural generation in NPCs?Ben: I don’t know how many actually made it into the demo to be fair, number-wise. Every single NPC has a unique identity, as in they all have a place of work that they go to on a regular schedule. They have hobbies, they have spots where they prefer to loiter, a park bench or whatever. So you can get to know everyone’s individual lifestyle.So, the old man that lives in the same building as me might love to go to the casino at nighttime or go consistently on a Monday and a Friday, that kind of vibe.It uses the A* Pathfinding Project, because we knew we wanted to have a lot of AIs. We’ve locked off most of the city for the demo, but the actual size of the city is huge. The police mechanics are currently turned off, but there’s 80% police mechanics in there as well. If you punch someone or hurt someone, that’s a crime, and if anyone sees it, they can go and report to the police and then things happen. That’s a feature that’s there but not demo-ready yet.How close would you say you are to a full release?Omni: We should be scheduled for October for early access. By that point we’ll have the stealth mechanics and the policing systems polished and in and get some of the other upcoming features buttoned up. We’re fairly close.Ben: Lots of it’s already done, it’s just turned off for the demo. We don’t want to overwhelm people because there’s just so much for the player to do.Tell me a bit about the paint mechanics – how did you build that?Ben: It is custom. We built it ourselves completely from scratch. But I can't take responsibility for that one – someone else did the whole thing – that was their baby. It is really, really cool though.Omni: It’s got a variety of masking tools, the ability to change opacity and spacing, you can undo, redo. It’s a really fantastic feature that gives people the opportunity to express themselves and make some great art.Ben: And it's gamified, so it doesn’t feel like you’ve just opened up Paint in Windows.Omni: Best of all is when you make a painting, it gets turned into an inventory item so you physically carry it around with you and can sell it or treasure it.What’s the most exciting part of Psycasso for you?Omni: Stunning graphics. I think graphically, it looks really pretty.Ben: Visually, you could look at it and go, “Oh, that’s Psycasso.”Omni: What we’ve done is taken a cozy retro-style game, and we’ve brought modern design, logic, and technology into it. So you're playing what feels like a nostalgic game, but you're getting the experience of a much newer project.Check out the Psycasso demo on Steam, and stay tuned for more NextFest coverage.

VFX ArtistNo Brakes GamesVilnius, Lithuania or Remote2 hours agoApplyWe are No Brakes Games, the creators of Human Fall Flat.We are now looking for an VFX Artist to join our team to work on Human Fall Flat 2.FULL-TIME POSITIONRole Overview:As a VFX Artist, you will develop and optimize real-time visual effects and ensure a balance between visual fidelity and performance.Responsibilities:Develop and optimize real-time VFX solutions that are both visually striking and performant.Debug and resolve VFX performance bottlenecks using Unity Profiler, RenderDoc, and other tools.Optimize particle systems, volumetric effects, and GPU simulations for multi-platform performance.Stay updated on Unity’s latest advancements in rendering, HDRP, and the Visual Effect Graph.Requirements:2+ years of experience as a VFX Artist in game development, with a focus on Unity.Experience developing performance-conscious visual effects, including particle systems, volumetric lighting, and dynamic environmental effects.Proficiency in GPU/CPU optimization techniques, LODs for VFX.Excellent communication skills and ability to work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team.A flexible, R&D-driven mindset, able to iterate quickly in both prototyping and production environments.Nice-to-Have:Experience working on at least one released game project.Experience with Unity HDRP and SRP.Experience with multi-platform development (PC, console, mobile, VR/AR).Experience developing custom node-based tools or extending Unity’s Visual Effect Graph.Background in procedural animation, physics-based effects, or fluid simulations.Apply today by sending your Portfolio & CV to jobs@nobrakesgames.com Create Your Profile — Game companies can contact you with their relevant job openings. Apply

Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series is expected to make its debut later this year alongside the next-generation foldables. As we wait for the official unveil, renders of the purported smartwatches have surfaced which corroborate previous leaks and suggest that Samsung could bring the unique “Squircle” design of the Galaxy Watch Ultra to other models this year. According to a report, a total of three smartwatches may be launched as part of the Galaxy Watch 8 lineup.Squircle Design of Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 SeriesAndroid Headlines shared exclusive renders of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 series in a report. The publication claims that three smartwatches will be introduced this year — Galaxy Watch 8, Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, and a Galaxy Watch Ultra successor, and all three models will sport a squircle design which debuted last year with the Galaxy Watch Ultra.Photo Credit: Android HeadlinesIt is expected to comprise a circular display housed inside a square dial. Renders also suggest that the standard Galaxy Watch 8 will have a two-button design, while the Watch 8 Classic and 2025 Watch Ultra models could be equipped with three buttons, including a Quick button which may be accented in a different colour.Notably, it is a customisable button which is designed to toggle a workout mode or for playing a siren on the Galaxy Watch Ultra.The purported Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is also shown sporting a rotating physical dial, similar to other Classic models of the past. This usually gives it a more traditional watch aesthetic while retaining smartwatch functionality.This report corroborates a previous discovery in the animation files of the leaked One UI 8 Watch which hinted towards the implementation of the squircle design across Samsung's next generation Galaxy Watch lineup. The unreleased firmware contained references of two smartwatches — the Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic. Further, the report also suggested that the smartwatches could also benefit from stronger vibrations, aided by extended vibration pattern support akin to the flagship Galaxy Watch Ultra.

IBM Plans Large-Scale Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by 2029 By John P. Mello Jr. June 11, 2025 5:00 AM PT IBM unveiled its plan to build IBM Quantum Starling, shown in this rendering. Starling is expected to be the first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum system. (Image Credit: IBM) ADVERTISEMENT Enterprise IT Lead Generation Services Fuel Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Our full-service marketing programs deliver sales-ready leads. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! Learn more. IBM revealed Tuesday its roadmap for bringing a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, IBM Quantum Starling, online by 2029, which is significantly earlier than many technologists thought possible. The company predicts that when its new Starling computer is up and running, it will be capable of performing 20,000 times more operations than today’s quantum computers — a computational state so vast it would require the memory of more than a quindecillion (10⁴⁸) of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to represent. “IBM is charting the next frontier in quantum computing,” Big Blue CEO Arvind Krishna said in a statement. “Our expertise across mathematics, physics, and engineering is paving the way for a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer — one that will solve real-world challenges and unlock immense possibilities for business.” IBM’s plan to deliver a fault-tolerant quantum system by 2029 is ambitious but not implausible, especially given the rapid pace of its quantum roadmap and past milestones, observed Ensar Seker, CISO at SOCRadar, a threat intelligence company in Newark, Del. “They’ve consistently met or exceeded their qubit scaling goals, and their emphasis on modularity and error correction indicates they’re tackling the right challenges,” he told TechNewsWorld. “However, moving from thousands to millions of physical qubits with sufficient fidelity remains a steep climb.” A qubit is the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing, capable of representing a zero, a one, or both simultaneously due to quantum superposition. In practice, fault-tolerant quantum computers use clusters of physical qubits working together to form a logical qubit — a more stable unit designed to store quantum information and correct errors in real time. Realistic Roadmap Luke Yang, an equity analyst with Morningstar Research Services in Chicago, believes IBM’s roadmap is realistic. “The exact scale and error correction performance might still change between now and 2029, but overall, the goal is reasonable,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Given its reliability and professionalism, IBM’s bold claim should be taken seriously,” said Enrique Solano, co-CEO and co-founder of Kipu Quantum, a quantum algorithm company with offices in Berlin and Karlsruhe, Germany. “Of course, it may also fail, especially when considering the unpredictability of hardware complexities involved,” he told TechNewsWorld, “but companies like IBM exist for such challenges, and we should all be positively impressed by its current achievements and promised technological roadmap.” Tim Hollebeek, vice president of industry standards at DigiCert, a global digital security company, added: “IBM is a leader in this area, and not normally a company that hypes their news. This is a fast-moving industry, and success is certainly possible.” “IBM is attempting to do something that no one has ever done before and will almost certainly run into challenges,” he told TechNewsWorld, “but at this point, it is largely an engineering scaling exercise, not a research project.” “IBM has demonstrated consistent progress, has committed $30 billion over five years to quantum computing, and the timeline is within the realm of technical feasibility,” noted John Young, COO of Quantum eMotion, a developer of quantum random number generator technology, in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada. “That said,” he told TechNewsWorld, “fault-tolerant in a practical, industrial sense is a very high bar.” Solving the Quantum Error Correction Puzzle To make a quantum computer fault-tolerant, errors need to be corrected so large workloads can be run without faults. In a quantum computer, errors are reduced by clustering physical qubits to form logical qubits, which have lower error rates than the underlying physical qubits. “Error correction is a challenge,” Young said. “Logical qubits require thousands of physical qubits to function reliably. That’s a massive scaling issue.” IBM explained in its announcement that creating increasing numbers of logical qubits capable of executing quantum circuits with as few physical qubits as possible is critical to quantum computing at scale. Until today, a clear path to building such a fault-tolerant system without unrealistic engineering overhead has not been published. Alternative and previous gold-standard, error-correcting codes present fundamental engineering challenges, IBM continued. To scale, they would require an unfeasible number of physical qubits to create enough logical qubits to perform complex operations — necessitating impractical amounts of infrastructure and control electronics. This renders them unlikely to be implemented beyond small-scale experiments and devices. In two research papers released with its roadmap, IBM detailed how it will overcome the challenges of building the large-scale, fault-tolerant architecture needed for a quantum computer. One paper outlines the use of quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC) codes to reduce physical qubit overhead. The other describes methods for decoding errors in real time using conventional computing. According to IBM, a practical fault-tolerant quantum architecture must: Suppress enough errors for useful algorithms to succeed Prepare and measure logical qubits during computation Apply universal instructions to logical qubits Decode measurements from logical qubits in real time and guide subsequent operations Scale modularly across hundreds or thousands of logical qubits Be efficient enough to run meaningful algorithms using realistic energy and infrastructure resources Aside from the technological challenges that quantum computer makers are facing, there may also be some market challenges. “Locating suitable use cases for quantum computers could be the biggest challenge,” Morningstar’s Yang maintained. “Only certain computing workloads, such as random circuit sampling [RCS], can fully unleash the computing power of quantum computers and show their advantage over the traditional supercomputers we have now,” he said. “However, workloads like RCS are not very commercially useful, and we believe commercial relevance is one of the key factors that determine the total market size for quantum computers.” Q-Day Approaching Faster Than Expected For years now, organizations have been told they need to prepare for “Q-Day” — the day a quantum computer will be able to crack all the encryption they use to keep their data secure. This IBM announcement suggests the window for action to protect data may be closing faster than many anticipated. “This absolutely adds urgency and credibility to the security expert guidance on post-quantum encryption being factored into their planning now,” said Dave Krauthamer, field CTO of QuSecure, maker of quantum-safe security solutions, in San Mateo, Calif. “IBM’s move to create a large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029 is indicative of the timeline collapsing,” he told TechNewsWorld. “A fault-tolerant quantum computer of this magnitude could be well on the path to crack asymmetric ciphers sooner than anyone thinks.” “Security leaders need to take everything connected to post-quantum encryption as a serious measure and work it into their security plans now — not later,” he said. Roger Grimes, a defense evangelist with KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla., pointed out that IBM is just the latest in a surge of quantum companies announcing quickly forthcoming computational breakthroughs within a few years. “It leads to the question of whether the U.S. government’s original PQC [post-quantum cryptography] preparation date of 2030 is still a safe date,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’s starting to feel a lot more risky for any company to wait until 2030 to be prepared against quantum attacks. It also flies in the face of the latest cybersecurity EO [Executive Order] that relaxed PQC preparation rules as compared to Biden’s last EO PQC standard order, which told U.S. agencies to transition to PQC ASAP.” “Most US companies are doing zero to prepare for Q-Day attacks,” he declared. “The latest executive order seems to tell U.S. agencies — and indirectly, all U.S. businesses — that they have more time to prepare. It’s going to cause even more agencies and businesses to be less prepared during a time when it seems multiple quantum computing companies are making significant progress.” “It definitely feels that something is going to give soon,” he said, “and if I were a betting man, and I am, I would bet that most U.S. companies are going to be unprepared for Q-Day on the day Q-Day becomes a reality.” John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Leave a Comment Click here to cancel reply. Please sign in to post or reply to a comment. New users create a free account. Related Stories More by John P. Mello Jr. view all More in Emerging Tech