One month ago, I released a software product called "SimplePath" on the Unity Asset Store. SimplePath is a pathfinding middleware for the Unity game engine, which I recently started using after leaving my full-time job as an AI Programmer at Nihilistic Software, a company focused on the console gaming market. I had never released a piece of software on my own, and I noticed the Unity community's desire for a pathfinding software, so I felt like this was a good opportunity to see what it's like to self-release a small scale product.

While many established high-level AI middleware companies are apparently focusing on finite state machines, the rest of the industry seems to have converged towards behavior trees. I'm sure you're wondering, why hasn't anyone shifted their focus to BTs or why haven't any new companies taken up the challenge? As of today, that's all changed...

I used to think of this site as a swan. What you see on the surface, including those many in-depth features and attentively formated articles, have that apparent elegance of a swan gliding over a lake. Under the water, what you don't see is little duck feet paddling like crazy. It used to be just me working full time on the blog, then my wife Petra joined and we launched small startup — and after that I took on a second shift ;-) These days, however, the best analogy is some kind of amphibian multiped with 10 or more limbs each pushing in the same direction. So if a swan is still an appropriate metaphor for our work on the site, it's more a half-mutant semi-robotic multi-legged swan that's gone much further than the pond we originally intended it to swim in!

The current economic climate doesn't seem to be distracting the middleware industry too much, in fact now seems like the time to be making new partnerships! Xaitment, an AI middleware company based in Germany, recently announced they've integrated their solution within Trinigy's Vision Engine, and developed an interface between xaitControl 2.5 and Gamebryo® LightSpeed™. (Update: To clarify the press release since it caused a little confusion, these products are still licensed separately.)

First, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to new readers who just discovered the site via recent features and subscribed to the feed. (You did find the RSS didn't you? :) There are even more cool articles already lined up for the next few days as we go into launch week...