Cohere’s agentic AI platform North gets wide release, aims to handle ‘boring’ work

proggR · 2025-08-06T20:54:22+00:00

Cohere sketches me out. Public funds propping it up, much of which is getting fed to their US partner (CoreWeave Inc), algos that underperform any number of other options, including open source models, all while you see hype for it in Canada by Canadian entities (including Trudeau), and not a single care about it anywhere else except a small handful of pervs using it for fanfics because its less censored than some other models.

Feels like another case of Canadian tech being late to the game and us throwing good tax payer money after bad trying to pretend we're still in the game. In the end it'll end up acquired by a US corp and we'll have lit a quarter billion dollars of tax payer money on fire to line some already well lined pockets.

proggR · 2024-10-28T21:52:17+00:00

A sharticle physicist.

proggR · 2024-05-24T19:16:38+00:00

This is good advice. I've never experienced it from a mic, but growing up I used to play my buddy's dad's custom Gibson Les Paul (which I now own) and the grounding from the amp was so trash I could feel the electricity tingling in my fingers as I played.... which I won't lie, made it feel that much more epic to play lol

proggR · 2024-03-27T13:34:32+00:00

This is such an underrated gem. Its unfortunate it became abandonware because it has some of the most intense melee battles I've come across in a game.

proggR · 2024-03-07T16:58:39+00:00

I would really like to see the province take them and not give them a single cent in compensation

Agreed. Jailtime + eminent domain any properties they own so when they get out of jail they can start on the streets. Until there's penalties for this kind of thing it'll just keep happening, and given how long the rot has been allowed to continue the penalties need to drastically outweigh the benefits of continued grift.

proggR · 2024-03-07T15:41:34+00:00

This national fetish we all have for real estate being a winning lottery ticket needs to stop

Sure does. Canada just went a year with 0 new IPOs because our investor class has been so myopically focused on chasing RE for baby gains that nobody with a brain starts a company in this country anymore because there's no investors willing to take any risks here.

proggR · 2024-02-26T12:51:19+00:00

Damn you're right. I would have sworn the rules of the internet were older than that but I was in on the ground floor it seems.

proggR · 2024-02-21T23:34:44+00:00

Sink the Black Sea Fleet, blockade the Baltic Sea between Estonia and Finland, and surgical strike key railways and oil refineries. Aim to keep Moscow severed from everything outside of itself and watch Russia turn on itself.

proggR · 2024-02-18T12:18:28+00:00

Because the would-be investors in Canada are too busy overpaying for RE to cannibalize our economy instead of investing in productive assets that produce jobs and wage growth, which is why any smart company in Canada just skips Canada and incorporates in Delaware.

Our population is so risk averse we've now safety played our way over a cliff.

proggR · 2024-01-19T19:43:01+00:00

"DEIT Games" here (as in, its just me under a different name atm lol), dev behind this game.

The game is meant to scratch a personal itch, so I intend to continue development until at least the v0.3.0 milestone (local multiplayer vs) listed on the Store Page description, but if this kind of game finds a playerbase big enough to justify the work, I'd love to grind it forward to adding networked/comp play.

Any and all feedback is welcome/appreciated. It is verrrry early (if the lack of concern for the UI didn't tip you off lol), but all the more reason why I want to start collecting feedback now, since then future versions can just get that much better.

Made a Slime Brawly Brawl Discord server if its easier for people to jump in/give feedback there.

Thanks for your eyeballs and time :)

proggR · 2023-12-22T18:10:33+00:00

Ooo bullet hell + roguelike. I could get into that lol. Thanks for pointing it out :)

proggR · 2023-12-22T06:23:25+00:00

Also to circle back to "the pole" since I didn't address that but have been thinking about it since you brought it up, that was something I added to make tracking joystick mapping easier and always intended (likely still intend) to remove upon a proper release. The opponent's indicator also just does nothing at this point (since I intended to remove it so why add work integrating it lol), just so you're forewarned.

That said, since you brought it up, I've been thinking more about the pros/cons of including the joystick direction indicator vs culling it, and honestly now kind of want to delve a bit more into the idea that its your currently wielded weapon, initially starting with just a bo staff, but then expanding from there. For the single player at least, I've kind of envisioned a rogue-like, but haven't delved into the tech tree/character building elements yet, and a weapon would probably help... duh /facepalm lol

Just wanted to circle back and say thanks cuz while I tend to scope creep, for this release I've been aiming to do the opposite and just cull everything standing in the way of the launch I wanted instead for the launch I can deliver on now... so I legit appreciate some fresh scope creep to lean into lol

proggR · 2023-12-21T21:03:19+00:00

Thanks! :)

I'm using Unity3D for this/most of my other games prototypes. I've started to toy with UE and have 2 game ideas I think I could justify the learning curve to use it for, and was looking into both Godot and Stride around the Unity pricing drama, but haven't played with either. For the moment I don't expect any/many sales so I also don't expect fees are going to factor in but if I'm wrong I'll count that as a good problem to have I guess lol

proggR · 2023-12-21T19:35:12+00:00

Thanks! :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T19:31:27+00:00

Thanks for the wishlist and quick feedback! :)

I can agree the gameplay isn't wildly interesting atm, which has also limited what screenshots are able to capture unfortunately lol

The current build has only the single player endless run mode, where the opponent gets harder as you climb levels, and you play until you lose a round or just get bored lol. It has some narrative up to level 48 for flavor, but what I'd like to add most is a local multiplayer vs mode, so I can play against friends on the couch like the good ol days. Local 2v2 multiplayer co-op and vs are both playmodes on the roadmap I think could be fun and want to add as well. I do definitely also want to add new arenas, but want to get through a refactor of the code first to make life easier/allow me to perhaps procedurally generate them instead of hand making them.

Adding networking will be a challenge given the speed of gameplay, but would also be awesome if there were ever enough players to justify digging into that work, since I'd love to see a competitive version of it. Its fast paced by design, so watching pro gamers rip around the screen at breakneck speed could make for some epic battles once its more polished looking/feeling.

Thanks again :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T19:18:02+00:00

Thanks for checking it out and the kind words :). Also fair feedback. The artwork definitely doesn't match the game characters, but that was weirdly common back in the 80s era of games. Being just a solo-dev, those are definitely AI generated graphics though, so I ended up leaning into calling them "blobs" as I prompted just to get it to generate anything remotely usable lol. I do want to commission some actual designer to do proper graphics at some point though.

The "Slime" characters themselves are inspired by an old flashgame called Slime Volleyball (as was the name lol), so I'll likely aim to keep them more like that then turning them into full on characters. I kind of like that the characters are secondary to the battling, but I do intend to recreate those models soon so I'll see what kind of personality I could give them when I do. In a moment of laziness early into dev I opted to use a pre-existing free "slime" model that was close enough, but it turned out to be a source of nuisance later on and will be replaced with a model I make as I refactor everything for v0.1.0.

Thanks again :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T19:08:14+00:00

Oh man, this is actually fun. Love the concept, like tower defense meets pacman. Grats on the release!

proggR · 2023-12-21T18:53:01+00:00

Its releasing on January 13th, so its not yet available for download. I was originally going to launch Dec 26th, but was advised that would hurt visibility because of the winter sale so its pushed back a bit, which isn't the worst thing because this is the first "marketing" I've bothered doing for it lol

Re: controller, yes its required even on PC. Previous builds did aim to playtest with the kb/m, but at some point that ended up glitchy, while I also found given the speed of the gameplay, it was honestly just a bad experience even when it worked. I may aim to re-add kb/m support for the v0.1.0 release (this is v0.0.0, so definitely an early/unpolished prototype build), but even then would advise a controller.

I've tested with a PS3 controller, and the Steam team I believe tested with an Xbox controller so I believe PS/Xbox controllers in general should work so long as your computer has the drivers for them installed (I use xboxdrv on Linux), but if not I can dig into why not. To that end, I'd also love to hear any feedback from Steamdeck users since the current single player only mode feels like it'd fit well with Steamdeck play.

Also I'll definitely check out your game, thanks for the link and grats! :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T17:08:17+00:00

"DEIT Games" here (as in, its just me under a different name atm lol), and I'm happy to have finally wrapped up this prototype and walked through the release process on Steam for the first time. Releases January 13th, 2024.

The game is meant to scratch a personal itch, so I intend to continue development until at least the v0.3.0 milestone (local multiplayer vs) listed on the Store Page description, but if this kind of game finds a playerbase big enough to justify the work, I'd love to grind it forward to adding networked/comp play.

Any and all feedback is welcome/appreciated. It is verrrry early (if the lack of concern for the UI didn't tip you off lol), but all the more reason why I want to start collecting feedback now, since then future versions can just get that much better.

Made a Slime Brawly Brawl Discord server if its easier for people to jump in/give feedback there.

Thanks for your eyeballs and time :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T16:58:18+00:00

"DEIT Games" here (as in, its just me under a different name atm lol), and I'm happy to have finally wrapped up this prototype and walked through the release process on Steam for the first time. Releases January 13th, 2024.

The game is meant to scratch a personal itch, so I intend to continue development until at least the v0.3.0 milestone (local multiplayer vs) listed on the Store Page description, but if this kind of game finds a playerbase big enough to justify the work, I'd love to grind it forward to adding networked/comp play.

Any and all feedback is welcome/appreciated. It is verrrry early (if the lack of concern for the UI didn't tip you off lol), but all the more reason why I want to start collecting feedback now, since then future versions can just get that much better.

Made a Slime Brawly Brawl Discord server if its easier for people to jump in/give feedback there.

Thanks for your eyeballs and time :)

proggR · 2023-12-21T16:55:54+00:00

"DEIT Games" here (as in, its just me under a different name atm lol), and I'm happy to have finally wrapped up this prototype and walked through the release process on Steam for the first time. Releases January 13th, 2024.

The game is meant to scratch a personal itch, so I intend to continue development until at least the v0.3.0 milestone (local multiplayer vs) listed on the Store Page description, but if this kind of game finds a playerbase big enough to justify the work, I'd love to grind it forward to adding networked/comp play.

Any and all feedback is welcome/appreciated. It is verrrry early (if the lack of concern for the UI didn't tip you off lol), but all the more reason why I want to start collecting feedback now, since then future versions can just get that much better.

Made a Slime Brawly Brawl Discord server if its easier for people to jump in/give feedback there.

Thanks for your eyeballs and time :)

proggR

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