Session Zero

Welcome to Roll For Innovation, a new regular-ish email newsletter from me, Luke Dicken.

I’ve been working in and around AI for games for almost twenty years now, and spent closer to thirty obsessing about it. Along the way I picked up four degrees in AI (including a PhD in AI applied to video games), led R&D for companies like Zynga, served as Head of AI for Take-Two Interactive, and chaired the IGDA Foundation.

But over the past few years, I’ve grown increasingly disillusioned with the state of tech. I’ve always identified as “the Game AI Guy”, yet that’s come to mean something very different than it did when I started. Wrestling with that identity crisis has been hard, but it’s forced me to confront a fundamental question: why did I commit my life to this field in the first place?

The answer turned out to be simple:

It was never about the technology itself.

It was always about unlocking new kinds of experiences for players, and new methods of artistic expression. In other words - Innovation.

For most of my career, I’ve explored that through video games, starting in my teenage years with Creatures (1996) - a story I’ve told ad nauseam but will almost certainly tell again in these pages. But lately, so much of my perspective has been shaped away from the screen and instead around the table. I can’t describe the warmth, coziness and community I’ve found in playing TTRPGs with people, both in person and online, and that board games have unlocked. There is no better feeling than that tense moment where your Dungeon Master looks each player in the eye and announces that it’s time to “Roll for Initiative”.

In these pages you can expect to read thoughts on technology, leadership and novel approaches to play. I don’t want to just rant about the nonsense of the day (though there will be some of that) but rather focus on where I see opportunity and optimism - and share lessons I’ve learned the hard way from nearly twenty years of thinking and working in this field. I hope to include other perspectives, especially thoughts from other industry leaders. Ultimately, a place of humor and inspiration, with a zero tolerance approach to fluff and hype.

Pull up a chair, grab some dice, and let’s Roll for Innovation!

Vicious Mockery

(Where industry nonsense gets what it deserves)

Business Insider has reported that AWS is buying significantly more GPUs than they can install. Per their post, equipment is currently sitting undeployed - where they even have space to install the things they don't have available power - and despite this there's an expectation of at least $3bn of additional GPUs being purchased per month "for the foreseeable future". This is not a uniquely AWS problem - Nadella was quoted last November as saying he had GPUs "sitting in inventory that [they] can’t plug in."

What the fuck are these folks doing that they're buying things they can't even use? There's a global memory shortage just so that these guys can hoard these cards. Let's keep in mind that this also means they're sat on depreciation bombs waiting to go off, and when that happens, their P&Ls start to tailspin. The only explanation possible is they're really hoping they can keep running and nobody looks down.

At least there won't be any long term devastating consequences for the games industry or anything. But hey - whatever it takes to keep Jensen in cool leather jackets right?

Performance Check

(For articles and interviews I've contributed to around the Internet)

It's been a busy month for media, and I think that'll continue for a while longer. Here's the highlights for this edition:

In preparation for PGC Nordics, I sat down with Pocketgamer's Mariam Ahmad for a wide ranging interview. The full video is available, as well as a more digestible article Mariam prepared.
With the rise of AI-coded "Decompile-and-Port" projects, Lewis Parker asked me to contribute to an article at Kotaku. I was happy to be featured alongside Emilio Coppola, Executive Director for Godot
I was both surprised and delighted to find myself featured in Edge Magazine's #429 (December 2026) issue. I got quoted alongside an absolute legend of the gaming industry who I deeply respect and admire, and I thought it was nice of them to also include a comment from Strauss. The quote is from a previous interview with 80.lv

I'll be at Gamesbeat Next on Nov 2nd/3rd where you'll be able to catch me in conversation with Rod Humble (of The Sims and Linden Lab fame). Our session is called "The AI Intellectual Debate So Far" and promises to be a thought provoking session.

Short Rest

(What I'm finding enjoyable and/or instructive in media right now)

I've been on the road for over a month as part of this EU Speaking Tour, with two more weeks left, so when I've had chance to get some downtime, it's been focused on my Steam Deck and my Kindle.

Farhaven from my friends at Dragon Snacks Games has been incredible for keeping in touch with my nearest and dearest while I've been traveling. The idea of a FriendMO - something persistent but more intimate than traditional MMO worlds - is intriguing, and I've definitely felt it helping to keep me engaged in friendships as my schedule has me hopping from country to country. Farhaven is up on Kickstarter right now, and a demo is available on Steam.

I've put off getting into the LitRPG as a genre for a while now. It seemed like a janky, dumb premise to me and one that was going to annoy more than entertain. However, when I got stuck on the tarmac at Athens Airport for 3+ hours, Dungeon Crawler Carl ended up being exactly the kind of pulp I needed to make that an endurable experience. It turns out janky and dumb can be fine actually and not every book needs to be impactful literature. I've now inhaled the first four books in the series. There's something incredible about the way it portrays an apocalyptic hybrid video game / reality show, and sets the players up in direct antagonistic opposition with the game designers. It's goofy as fuck, but definitely says some interesting things about hyper-corporate entertainment and media.