Ben Zeigler

Profiling Game Memory and Performance | Tutorial Tutorial explaining how to use the engine's built in Memory Profiling tools along with Unreal Insights

If anyone needs help with profiling and optimizing #UnrealEngine games, I just published a new tutorial walking through how to use Memory Insights and Mem Report. There isn't a lot of first hand information on how to profile so I thought I would write some down:

dev.epicgames.com/community/le...

Oh my god some fucking tech dingdong posted this on Twitter with the caption "AI games are going to be amazing" totally seriously, you have to watch it. You have to. In full screen.

Obviously the country has bigger problems, but today I'm mad at Trump for ruining the start of my vacation. Flying is a complete mess right now

ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist on Steam Decades after the events of ENDER LILIES, Homunculi — sorrowful, artificial life forms — roam the land. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania, face formidable enemies and explore a bewitching post-apocaly...

Right now I'm playing a 2D souls-inspired metroidvania sequel. That's right, I'm playing Ender Magnolia which I'm really enjoying. Wait did some other game come out?

store.steampowered.com/app/2725260/...

Stuff in that genre is also called Acid Jazz or Downtempo which makes searching for it a bit hard!

To focus on the important part: Trump has ordered every state's national guard to organize dedicated units devoted to "quelling civil disturbances" which is a terrifyingly vague goal

How developers are using AI agents: Asset or content optimization that adapts to in-game needs 44% In-game coaching or automated tutorials 38% Dynamic balancing and tuning of gameplay 38% Procedural world or environment generation that reacts to player actions 37% Automated content moderation or community management 37% Adaptive difficulty or personalized player challenges 36% Automated testing and bug reporting 35% Advanced NPC behavior 34% Internal studio functions 34% Real-time voice or audio enhancements 33%

This chart from the Google Cloud report shows how #AI is being used right now in #GameDev. I think only the first and last items on this list would really be considered "Using AI" to the average game player:

87% of game developers are using AI agents in their workflows, says new survey A new survey by Google Cloud and The Harris Poll has found that 87% of developers are using AI agents in their workflow…

Here's an interesting report on using #AI in #gamedev, but you should click through to read the report because the headline is a bit deceptive. They are counting all development of games with procedural generation or dynamic difficulty as using AI agents: www.gamesindustry.biz/87-of-game-d...

Trump says US to levy 100% tariff on imported chips, but some firms exempt President Donald Trump said the United States will impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but offered up a big exemption - it will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.

I bought myself a new PC today even though my current one is working fine. I'm guessing prices will start to go up fairly soon for enthusiast PC parts because of www.reuters.com/world/china/... as the smaller companies won't know be able to suck up to Trump the way that Apple/Nvidia are now

I just 100% completed Death Stranding 2 on normal, Platinum and all milestones. It was the perfect game to play over my last few weeks of semi-vacation. Good mix of Kojima bullshit and satisfying deliveries.

If this whole programming thing doesn't work out, maybe I should be a logistics manager.

This is basically true for all forms of journalism right now, unless you're aligned with the ownership-approved goals of one of the big papers like NYT. bsky.app/profile/beij...

Saw credits for Death Stranding 2 and I kind of just want to play more as it opened up a bunch of other content. It turns out I really like a mix of logistics challenges and Kojima-style bullshit. The plot still doesn't really make sense but the cutscenes were all pretty great

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Post from Matt Turnbull: These are really challenging times, and if you’re navigating a layoff or even quietly preparing for one, you’re not alone and you don’t have to go it alone. I know these types of tools engender strong feelings in people, but I'd be remiss in not trying to offer the best advice I can under the circumstances. I’ve been experimenting with ways to use LLM AI tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss. Here are some prompt ideas and use cases that might help if you're feeling overwhelmed: Career Planning Prompts: “Act as a career coach. I’ve been laid off from a [role] in the game industry. Help me build a 30-day plan to regroup, research new roles, and start applying without burning out.” “What kinds of game industry jobs could I pivot to with experience in [Production/Narrative/LiveOps/etc.]?” Resume & LinkedIn Help “Here’s my current resume. Give me three tailored versions: one for AAA, one for platform/publishing roles, and one for startup/small studio leadership.” “Rewrite this resume bullet to highlight impact and metrics.” “Draft a new LinkedIn ‘About Me’ section that focuses on my leadership style, shipped titles, and vision for game development.” Networking & Outreach “Draft a friendly message I can send to old coworkers letting them know I’m exploring new opportunities.” “Write a warm intro message for reaching out to someone at [studio name] about a job posting.” Emotional Clarity & Confidence “I’m struggling with imposter syndrome after being laid off. Can you help me reframe this experience in a way that reminds me what I’m good at?” No AI tool is a replacement for your voice or your lived experience. But at a time when mental energy is scarce, these tools can help get you unstuck faster, calmer, and with more clarity. If this helps, feel free to share with others in your network. Stay kind, stay smart, stay connected.

Matt Turnbull, Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing - after the Microsoft layoffs - suggesting on Linkedin that may maybe people who have been let go should turn to AI for help. He seriously thought posting this would be a good idea.

The Republicans just passed the worst tax bill in decades, which is very bad but is also an opportunity to point out all the ways they have betrayed their own constituents. Voters will not be happy with this bill when it starts to actually change the way they live in America

a tissue on a tray with a bunch of pictures and phrases and about food. but it seemingly contains a bunch of errors and nonsense: “Doltclous” “A full suamsh makes for you a happy heram” “bood food is bood mood”

AI in the wild? This tray tissue I was given at a restaurant is full of errors and hallucinations…!

Just saw credits on Expedition 33 (not done with side stuff), and the last few hours of that game are amazing. There was a certain narrative point where I kind of wanted to stop playing, but a few hours after that the pace picks up and doesn't really stop until the end

I'm trying to comment on this without being hyperbolic.

As a manager, insisting on deadlines that you and your ICs straight up don't believe are possible almost GUARANTEES that a) their work will be thrown out or completely redone and b) you will put them in danger of burning out.

YouTube video by No Goblin Snap & Grab - Announce Trailer

Introducing Snap & Grab - the new game from No Goblin where you get to do cool crimes using just your camera and your crew!

youtu.be/26GgiiiP5Po

Great video about the tech of the #UnrealFest demo yesterday, Digital Foundry isn't easy to impress. They also talk about some of the compromises needed to hit 60fps on a PS5 and some areas for improvement in the future

YouTube video by Unreal Engine The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo 4K | State of Unreal | Unreal Fest Orlando

The full 4k capture of The Witcher 4 tech demo at #UnrealFest shows off the great content that @cdprojektred.com built and the Unreal Engine improvements that are available to all games (most of them are in 5.6). Yes this is a smooth 60fps on a real PS5:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aorR...

I can personally confirm that demo was 100% realtime and in engine. Some of it was on rails but the part in the middle was real movement and town gameplay with lots of simulation happening in the background. This will be a lot closer to the final game experience than other demos I've worked on!

Also looking forward to Ari's presentation, I helped out with the research for this and there's more improvements on the way

The State of Unreal 2025 Coming June 3! Find out what’s next for Unreal Engine and the Epic ecosystem.

Spent the last day before vacation debugging a weird issue where garbage collection caused a large game thread stall exactly 1% of the time.

Pretty sure that's fixed properly now, and I'm looking forward to watching the State of Unreal presentation next week www.unrealengine.com/en-US/state-...

Just saw credits in Assassin's Creed Shadows and overall really enjoyed it. Felt a bit disjointed like basically every AC game, but I loved exploring the world. Definitely made me excited to go back to Japan later this year

My current theory is that the main difference between open source and closed source when it comes to the adoption of “AI” tools is that open source projects generally have to ship working code, whereas closed source only needs to ship code that runs.

Was at a conference dinner a while back and one guy said "The future is AI. It doesn't replace senior developers, but no more need for juniors."

To which i replied:

"Where do you think senior developers come from. Straight from the womb?"

He went quiet, then wandered off to a different huddle.

tcrf.net/The_Cutting_... is great for fueling discussions like that, or just waste time reading about different revisions of Mario 3

Starting a Simple Consulting Business A basic guide to the legal and business aspects of starting a game development consulting business

A few people have asked me about the details of contracting, so I wrote up a basic guide for the legal/business aspects of starting a consulting company. I'm no expert, but knowing some of this stuff before I started would have saved me some time and stress:

medium.com/@jzig/starti...

I really need to make it to Revision one of these days, relive my teenage years of making mediocre tracker music