Black & White at 25: how Lionhead's hairbrained, ston...

What’s Happening

Let’s talk about Your disembodied hand trembles with raw power.

It can raze forests, summon storms, and dedicate villagers to single tasks for their entirety of their humble lives: fishing, for example, or the most profound act of all - procreation (fine, shagging). But in Black & White, which just turned 25-years-old, your divine command of mind and matter does not extend to the capricious creature roaming the grassy land below. (yes, really)

This pesky being may be your godly will made flesh, but they’re liable to diss Home Features Black & White Black & White at 25: how Lionhead’s hairbrained, stoner-powered game design became the harbinger of modern AI Peter Molyneux, Google DeepMind’s Richard Evans and more on a notable game’s creation and legacy.

The Details

Image credit: Lionhead / EA / Google Feature by Lewis Gordon Contributor Follow Black & White Your disembodied hand trembles with raw power. Not even Richard Evans, the AI programmer of Black & White, could safely predict the creature’s actions.

In 2000, the mayor of Guildford was being shown around the office of Lionhead Studios, the new crown jewel of the town’s burgeoning game development scene. During one demo, the creature, an ape in this instance, had its own ideas about where the presentation would lead.

Why This Matters

“The creature did a poo, picked up his own poo, looked at it, sort of looked like he was sniffing it, and ate it,” says Evans, whose rapid-fire speech and rumpled appearance evoke celluloid’s most famous eccentric scientist, Emmett “Doc” Brown. “Then,” continues Evans, “the creature was sick all over a villager, which caused the villager to fall off a cliff. ” Image credit: Richard Evans, via International Joint Conference on Learning & Reasoning (IJCLR) The scene he is describing is pure slapstick - a silly turn of events that nonetheless speaks to the mighty intellect underpinning every one of the creature’s smart or hare-brained decisions.

Gaming fans have strong opinions about moves like this, and for good reason.

The Bottom Line

” Image credit: Richard Evans, via International Joint Conference on Learning & Reasoning (IJCLR) The scene he is describing is pure slapstick - a silly turn of events that nonetheless speaks to the mighty intellect underpinning every one of the creature’s smart or hare-brained decisions.

What’s your take on this whole situation?