🇵🇸 Younès🔜A MAZE
@pyrofoux
Followers
2,731
Following
1,071
Media
420
Statuses
6,422
Award-winning game designer & AI researcher ❖ @pyrofoux .bsky.social ❖ @KnifeAndBrush Member ❖ amab arab acab ❖ they/them ❖ 🇫🇷 🇲🇦 🇬🇧
Toulouse / Bordeaux
Joined November 2012
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
#PolcaTimeTravelingConcert
• 107710 Tweets
GW初日
• 67808 Tweets
Suns
• 54090 Tweets
連休初日
• 29343 Tweets
ユニコーンS
• 23883 Tweets
CONGRATULATIONS RM
• 22653 Tweets
CONGRATULATIONS NAMJOON
• 21676 Tweets
#AZKi100万人
• 20161 Tweets
Booker
• 15425 Tweets
ゴールデンウィーク初日
• 14514 Tweets
#青葉賞
• 13179 Tweets
シュガークン
• 12137 Tweets
ダービー
• 11361 Tweets
Ohm in Hefei
• 10123 Tweets
1000 likes and I make it into a real game
Baba Is You legal advisors & attorneys - "don't change your practices, change the rules"
3
44
628
54
4K
12K
The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.
To all gamedevs: Please read our letter to The Game Awards, sign it, and share it as much as you can. Palestinians need all the support we can give ✊🏽🇵🇸
📩
6
4K
6K
Mecha anime driving tests be like:
5 hour online course to get my NY drivers license and the whole thing is just questions like this…
49
1K
20K
12
1K
5K
To all the people telling us to "just focus on making games":
How dare you.
How dare you say that we don't love our craft enough that we'd put it aside for something trivial.
How dare you ask us to discard our humanity and stay silent in the face of fucking genocide.
1
263
1K
Hear me out: a platform that let Dwarf Fortress players upload their maps to a database. Then a mod that spawns those same fortresses in Caves of Qud, allowing you to explore the ruins of another player's civilisation, millennia later.
18
127
1K
𝟭𝟯𝟳.𝟬 𝗵𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱
good shatranga-like. why is the male royal hero so weak compared to the female one tho? not a big fan of devs pushing their politics into games
3
134
907
See you tomorrow,
@GeoffKeighley
. I really hope that me, half of your own Future Class and nearly 3000 people of the industry are worth more than 2 silent seconds of your time.
4
218
728
@SaraAlfageeh
Not in schools, not at work, not at the beach (!) and the last elections showed us that we barely avoided seeing woman getting fined for wearing their hijab in public spaces.
Country of human rights, am I right?
0
23
551
Congratulations to Timothée Chalamet for presenting the Arab People Dehumanisation award this year 🥳
Loved his work on Dune and that SNL skit ✨
Timothée Chalamet will present at The Game Awards tonight.
207
379
7K
4
147
562
More than a third of
@TheGameAwards
's own chosen Future Class and more than 2000 members of the industry want to address Palestinian human rights during the ceremony.
Hi,
@GeoffKeighley
. Now would be a good time to contact us about how we can do this.
The Game Awards’ Future Class members demand awards show recognize Gaza crisis
178
299
1K
3
220
561
💥𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗦 𝗛𝗢𝗧 💥 is a
@SUPERHOTTHEGAME
❌
@babaisyou_
crossover game you did not ask for, but that I made anyway.
Break the rules of time and rearrange them to get yourself out of tricky situations -- or at least, die trying!
🕹️play it now at
3
197
540
The workers of our industry have made incredible games recently. I wish the 8000 children in Gaza could have grown up playing them. I wish we could have stood up for them tonight.
#TheGameAwards
0
190
545
To the French gamer boycotting my talks cause I'm too "woke" and "political" to speak about video games:
I'll travel 800km in this cursed country to come empower my peers and make people like you uncomfortable. And I'll do it again. Get used to it.
15
41
512
I'd just like to remind you all that a silly Muppet was given more individual stage time than any game workers on the show tonight. That a silly Muppet was treated with more humanity than 8000 Palestinian kids.
#TheGameAwards
0
139
480
Half of
@TheGameAwards
's own chosen diversity initiative have signed this open letter, supported by more than 2600 members of the industry, including our most esteemed ones.
Yet,
@GeoffKeighley
is unfortunately still ignoring our plea. Radio silence. Don't we deserve an answer?
The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.
To all gamedevs: Please read our letter to The Game Awards, sign it, and share it as much as you can. Palestinians need all the support we can give ✊🏽🇵🇸
📩
6
4K
6K
2
200
444
6
87
424
After a long and thorough investigation, it is with tears in my eyes that I announce you that Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium has a Ryu Number of 4.
Unroll for a detailed breakdown, partner. 1/
7
157
405
Let it not be said that game workers witnessed the Palestinian genocide and stayed silent.
Let's raise our voice together:
WE'RE NOT FREE UNTIL PALESTINE IS FREE
✊🏽🇵🇸✊🏽🇵🇸✊🏽🇵🇸✊🏽🇵🇸✊🏽🇵🇸✊🏽🇵🇸
3
80
387
We're over 1500 signatures now, from people all over the industry, including 33 members of TGA's Future Class.
Signatures don't show up live, cause I have to manually update them to avoid hateful speech making its way in the letter.
The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.
To all gamedevs: Please read our letter to The Game Awards, sign it, and share it as much as you can. Palestinians need all the support we can give ✊🏽🇵🇸
📩
6
4K
6K
10
160
392
Among the current signees, there's multiple people from the Future Class: people that TGA have chosen to "represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of gaming".
Because we've been trusted with this title, we have the duty to tell
@TheGameAwards
that they need to step up...
1
53
375
french geometrist: Escher's croissant doesn't exist, it can't hurt you
Escher's croissant:
the main problem with making deals with the devil in exchange for pico8 food-gifs is that sometimes you misread his labyrinthine contracts, and he gives you a horror-beast of mind-violence instead of the delicious pastry you were hoping for
12
156
461
1
177
365
@thegameawards
...and break the silence about the inhumane situation in Palestine. Our industry engages deeply with the dehumanisation of Arab, Muslim and SWANA people; therefore we have a *duty* to use our voice whenever we can to speak for the Palestinian people.
1
51
341
It's been a few hours, and we're already over 600 signatures! Keep it up, talk about it, share it, be the annoying person in the room. There's tremendous power in solidarity ✊🏽❤️🔥
The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.
To all gamedevs: Please read our letter to The Game Awards, sign it, and share it as much as you can. Palestinians need all the support we can give ✊🏽🇵🇸
📩
6
4K
6K
4
143
338
Game developers, game critics, game academics... We all need to show up for them. Please take 5 minutes and sign the letter. Then, share it in your circles.
If you're a member of the Future Class or close to The Game Awards: your support is even more important.
1
51
328
In 25 years, The Game Awards will celebrate the 'bravery' and 'importance' of a game retelling the Palestinian genocide but it will not say a word until speaking out will be absolutely meaningless.
What is the meaning of handing out Diversity and Inclusion awards to dead people?
The game industry was not shy last year about condemning Russian's invasion of Ukraine but has been relatively silent about even acknowledging the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, and in the case of the Golden Joysticks forbid mention of it.
6
410
1K
2
111
331
@NotBrunoAgain
Interesting side effect is that the rituals will often have a "tricky part that is easy to screw up" to explain the times where it didn't work.
Pressing a button for just the *right* amount of time, doing a jump at this *exact* pixel perfect place etc
4
1
310
AI companies love to orient the discussion around "is AI art actual art?" because it is ultimately a harmless question that can paint them in a good light in the best case, and evade any responsibility in the worst.
1
83
293
If you see me at The Game Awards, and you're one of the very kind people who sent me supportive messages, please come say hi 💛
If you want to argue me down on the letter or once again ask me to prove my humanity: peace be upon and you and please don't talk to me ever thx💅🏽
0
22
296
Instead, we should ask "Whose labor feeds your machine and how do you treat them?"
This question directly addresses the power dynamics at play: the ability to exploit, to rob people of their autonomy, to appropriate the cultures and practice of others.
1
118
285
Every day, I receive new hateful comments in my Twitter mentions and sometimes even directly in the open letter. I'm sure it would be order of magnitudes worse if I didn't have the support of so many people from the industry.
Hope
@TheGameAwards
security is ready to protect me.
The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.
To all gamedevs: Please read our letter to The Game Awards, sign it, and share it as much as you can. Palestinians need all the support we can give ✊🏽🇵🇸
📩
6
4K
6K
7
46
281
On the insidious link between the video game industry and the military:
The only public video game school in France just struck a partnership with its most 'prestigious' military school. The aim is to make it easier for its soldier-students to go into the game industry. (1/?)
L'X (Ecole Polytechnique) et l'Ecole Nationale du Jeu et des Médias Interactifs Numériques (Cnam-Enjmin) deviennent partenaires
via
@afjv_twit
@Cnam_Enjmin
@Polytechnique
1
7
15
11
121
198
🧬ROM MUTAGEN🧬
A handy webtool to create cursed mutants of your favorite games. You can use it on a P▒kémon ROM, a game executable, an image, or any sort of file.
Don't have a ROM? Got you covered, but be quick before N▒nt▒ndo strikes!
3
68
193
To celebrate Ramadan this year, I’m taking the time to actively look for games and other productions that do not blatantly slaughter, mock or fetishize Muslim lives
🌒🌓🌔 🌕 🌔🌗🌘
In the spirit of this holymonth, let me share a treat with you each day in this Twitter thread⬇️
4
76
166
[maths, stories, anime]
A common issue when we write stories by simulating characters (Sims, D&D, etc) is — ok we got a bunch of characters doing some stuff, but is there actually interesting things going on?
Let's see how maths guarantees some narrative tropes *will* happen 🧵
1
44
156
@StephaneWithAnE
Hate to break it to you but the judicial system is closing their eyes for the multiple hijab bans happening at work, even if it's illegal. The burkini nonsense was enough for a lot of muslim women who were already feeling uneased to never go back to the beach again.
3
3
139
I improvised a dice roll mechanic last night for an impromptu rp game, and it turned way more interesting than expected:
Roll a D20. Look at the current time on your phone.
Your score is the number of digits on your phone that are also on the D20. I call it a “Clockroll”. 🧵
4
32
141
If you feel like me defending Palestinian human rights is a threat to you, I think it says a lot more about your beliefs than mine 💅🏽
1
14
138
So. Dune (2021) screams white people having to understand and dominate a mysterious desert-type civilization full of occult knowledge and deeply rooted legends made from a hotchpotch of badly used muslim keywords.
That's textbook orientalism. ..But! (cont)
I'm heading to watch Dune (2021). Very tempted to take an orientalism bingo list with me and see how it goes
4
0
10
6
22
132
I got older today, and this year I have a request for you.
If you ever played one of my games, if you ever attended one of my talk, if you ever enjoyed a discussion with me, or read one of my papers: please be aware that it's a miracle you got to do it.
6
25
134
Your favorite Christmas carolls? Jinn-gle bells.
Santa is magical and travels the whole world in a single night and sneaks into people’s houses and eats their food, yeah Santa is a jinn
all your childhood Christmas favorites are jinn
49
942
4K
1
21
130
How dare you say that our collective voice doesn't matter in any way.
How dare you say that our line of work, totaling in the biggest cultural industry in the world, must be soulless.
1
8
125
Doing a talk at GDC about how non-white texts are excluded from text generative AI ...while non-white attendees are blocked from attending the talk 🙃
4
37
124
Semaine pro, je suis au
@GameCampFrance
et on va parler de comment l'IA va transformer le game design dans le futur proche. Comment éviter que ça fasse du mal à nos communautés? Spoiler: va falloir démanteler le capitalisme. À jeudi.
8
16
121
We are the workers of the game industry. We are the press, the researchers, the developers, the content creators.
We make the cogs turn with our sweat and tears. We don't need anyone's permission to decide what we'll stand to for.
2
16
120
How dare you ask us to tell you tales of bravery, courage and justice — and urge us to stay passive in front of injustice?
How dare you brag that games have changed your lives and later deny to us, their makers, the right to protect the ones of Palestinians?
1
14
119
You know you're fucked when mathematicians say that you're literally cursed
4
21
112
Well. I guess I now have a new super ambitious game project on my list.
In the meantime, if you want to play my Baba is You + SUPERHOT mashup, help yourself there:
2
23
111
Tired of AI people who, when confronted with fact that datasets are full of works stolen from working artists, smuggly tweet "You mad? This is what capitalism always did lol". Can you even be explicitely more harmful than that?
1
12
100
Alright, here we go. I'm going to cook a recipe from a fictional generated world and see how it tastes like.
Unroll this thread to see how it goes ⏬
I built a recipe generators with friends last week and I promised I would cook one of them. I now regret that statement.
2
1
14
4
30
96
Procedural content generation has been used to generate game levels¹, items¹, monster encounters¹, books¹, world histories¹, relationships¹, food recipes¹, abilities¹, dimension names¹, ...
¹ Caves of Qud
2
17
93
Mon talk pour le GameCamp est passé, désolé d'avoir été un peu vulgaire et politisé sur la fin :-)
Comme promis, voici la version complète, gratuite, en anglais avec le travail de
@florencesn
5
16
94
Big proof that the letter is successful is that this tweet is the target of a focused harassment campaign on my person ✨
Interesting new blend of islamophobia X transphobia X gamergate
8
5
94
[short 🧵]
Thinking about how digital card games like Heartstone and Slay the Spire brought a silent revolution about which mechanics you can afford as a card game designer.
They're breaking the Lavoisier principle of physical games.
4
18
93
Sharing this article because it addresses very important questions for the game industry, but I do want to point out one thing: we managed to open communications with TGA about how to change the program to do better, and for now, they seem to be listening. Let's see how it goes.
I spoke with members of The Game Awards' Future Class who are questioning the program's purpose: “Do [organizers] actually care about the needs of marginalized game devs, or are they simply using us as diversity tokens for their promo shoot?"
30
386
1K
2
16
90
It's finally here. 🥲
1.5 years of work with a team that I'm so thankful for.
I got to put some of my most mature and experimental designs in this game.
Please meet Cannelé & Nomnom, the defective detectives:🥐🗡️
👁️NEW GAME👁️
You 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 a duo of magical detectives to find your lost memories…
…but it's not too late to 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 them, right?
CANNELÉ & NOMNOM
— DE𝓕ECTIVE AGENCY
OUT NOW ⮞ ⮜
#gamedevs
#indiedeveloper
#gamerelease
1
31
69
5
29
89
Missed our GDC talk? Good news: our vision for how we could design new types of games with AI (*while* avoiding exploiting people) will be livestreamed for free on Wednesday.
Take your tickets now:
4
24
84
Reading my mentions, and i'm seriously considering adding "Peace be upon you and please never speak to me again" as an auto-reply.
It's either that, or "OK, gamer."
3
0
86
He tried to dunk on me with twice my followers count but read the reaction and it looks like I've got 20 times more actual support. Thank you all, your words are dear to me ✨
0
0
83
Got nominated for the
#TheGameAwards
Future Class, among with my pal
@florencesn
! Always a honor to be recognised for our work. I also see it as a responsibility towards everyone else; more on that soon.
7
4
84
Daily reminder that the French government is a colonial republic and is still undergoing mass assimilation of its muslim/arab population, like rn🙃
1
32
79
writing is harder than maths imo
there's million of words in the dictionary but only like, 2000 numbers
3
15
78
Happy Bastille Day 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 Did you know that France is a colonial republic that hates muslims on an institutional level and is trying very hard to ban post-colonial & antiracist studies? 😍😘
2
21
73
Thank you so much for joining us on our talk about AI and the future of game design. I also love the takeaway slides-- and here's my favorite.
(Stream VOD is up btw )
Absolute top-notch "tap the sign" potential on the closing slide of
@florencesn
and
@pyrofoux
's extremely good talk Choose Your Own Misadventure: the Future of AI for Game Design
2
18
77
0
18
77
I'm coming to terms with the fact that like many other words, "AI" is loosing its previous meaning (used to be a field of research) and is now being used to describe a specific set of technologies, for a specific use, made by specific people, in a specific era.
4
8
76
The only regret I have about doing this talk at GDC is that I wish people could watch it remotely. What we want to share with you is, to our eyes, super important -- especially for people who can't afford to fly and sleep in the US.
6
5
75
#WhatAGameDevLooksLike
Greetings, Traveler. I'm Younès, a queer arab indie dev and a creative AI researcher as well. My speciality is inventing new way for games to make you go "I'm not sure what's happening, but I love it."
Be like a telescope: Watch. This. Space. 💫
2
5
75
There's a mediterranean restaurant in St. Louis that serves an excellent sandwich named The Palestine. If you eat 7 times there you get a
2
9
74
6h ago in Paris: Activists from a leftist jewish organization join the "march against antisemitism" chanting «Lepen! Get out! Jews don't want you!». They get expelled by the police.
Context for non-French people🧵⬇️
Des militants d'une organisation juive de gauche perturbent le cortège du Rassemblement National à la marche contre l'antisémitisme aux Invalides.
#Marchecontrelantisemitisme
93
298
718
1
39
72
To the Zi*nist harassers in my mentions who want to degrade me by mocking my hair: please watch Jojo part 4 to understand what's gonna happen to you if one day you insult a queer guy's haircut irl
2
5
70
get yourself a mentor who makes Disco Elysium x Kirby memes of you
3
10
70
Tonight I'm thinking about all my trans siblings who don't have contact with their wider community, Who don't even know it really exists. For whom the word 'cis' is unknown, who have to rediscover their inner language by themselves.
1
10
68
In the last months, there's been more children murdered in Palestine than days in my entire life.
I can't even understand this number, I just want it to stop
0
36
67
This. Putting concepts like "religion" and "science" in a swordfight over the Ultimate Truth™️ is a western thing and Muslims across time and space are shaking their head in incomprehension
Can't speak for others but to me, a significant portion of modern science is built on the shoulders of Islam, Muslim scribes, scholars, and philosophers, Muslim librarians, scientists, Muslim art, and Muslim culture. The two aren't incompatible, trusting science can deepen faith.
31
110
1K
1
19
66
I occasionnaly help seniors or non-tech people in a similar way. This thread explains really well how it's a simple act of civic resistance.
so here's a story
I volunteer helping seniors with their technology issues. One of my regulars came in with a Lenovo laptop. It still had a retail sticker; I imagine she bought it used, for over $500
"I bought this so recently, how is it already so slow," she asked me
256
7K
32K
0
29
62
Brian ported the core of Caves of Qud to Godot in... 14h. Yes, its screen output is simpler than most Unity games BUT Qud is not a small game, and Brian's expertise tells him that it shouldn't be too hard even for most 3D games.
It took me ~14 logged hours to port the 500kloc game core of Qud into Godot, and get a full boot. It's truly, completely running 100%, feeding frames and waiting on input.
If I can do it, you can too.
68
534
4K
1
6
66
If you feel like you've seen these words in other contexts — it is not a coincidence. The structures that currently produce "top AI research" are deeply white, capitalistic, technocratic.
Their ability to make a profit from massive exploitation *and* justify it are not to prove.
1
7
59
New "detoxified" French language model just dropped. Let's play a game of « Can I guess it's political alignment in 5 minutes? »
Answer: Yes. Far right racist.
(example below)
Announcing Cedille: the largest French language model!🚀
🤖 6b params of baguette-filled intelligence
📝 “Jouez” with it right now!
📖 Open AI: MIT licensed
🤬 Merde no more! Dataset has been detoxified
🇨🇭 Built in Switzerland
@coteri_es
@CedilleAI
🧵1/4
9
50
234
2
42
61
I recreated the delirious Disco Elysium fanzine I read last night, during my vaccine fever dream.
5
11
57
*scratch disk* *freeze frame* Yep. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation.
9
5
58
🎥NOW ONLINE 🎥
SUPER IS HOT – Designing Games By Breaking and Combining Others (A MAZE./Berlin 2022)
A design talk where I detail how making cursed mashups will make you a better game designer.
↘️↘️↘️
1
21
58
A week ago, I asked the devs if there were was any official Pikuniku Valentine's Day card and they made this one for me. Thank you so much, my valentine❤️l o v e d🧡 it !!
0
4
54
I'm witnessing someone stealing and lying up their way up the game industry™️ in real time and it's nauseating.
surreal to see how shallow their declarations are, how quickly they co-opt the language of the oppressed and how quickly they befriend influential people 🫠
4
1
55
Hey. Have you heard which game got nominated at
@AMazeFest
, next to NORCO and Sable? It's...
SUPER IS HOT, THE RULE-BREAKING PUZZLE FPS
🕹
9
16
54
GDC Vault is such a cursed thing. We've worked our asses off to make them a high quality talk *for free*, but I can't even access the replay of the other talks in our session without paying $600 a year.
Why are we putting up with such an exploitative and gate-keeping structure?
2
5
55
To all the arab guys who tried to insult me by saying "astarfirullah" to my face when I went to the local Pride parade in full glam outfit:
1⃣ I understand very well what you're saying
2⃣ Be careful with your words. Insulting a beautiful creation of Allah like me is a grave sin💅🏽
6
0
54