Elixir diaries

You have probably heard about an AI algorithm defeating a human professional in a game of Go. The algorithm itself has been developed by Deep Mind, an English company that’s now owned by Google. One of the founders is Demis Hassabis. If you were playing Bullfrog games in the late 90s, the name might ring a bell, he’s one of the designers of Theme Park. Back in the day I remember reading a column in Edge magazine titled “The Elixir Diaries”. It was the diary of Elixir Studios, a game company Hassabis started after leaving Bullfrog. The DeepMind news made me think of that and wanted to refresh my memory and go through the diaries again. It turned out to be a little bit more difficult than expected (I didn’t really remember the exact name, so my Google search phrases weren’t very precise), but I eventually found them here. Pretty cool read, especially if you’re interested in the realities of making a game back in 90s/00s (the McD for breakfast story was painfully familiar…)