We love AFK! This week’s ep covers another of AFK’s ambitious world building attempts to round out the Star Wars universe… and of course it works. What do you imagine the worst jobs to be for the most hapless Stormtroopers? These totally make sense to us! Check out our comments, our overview of AFK’s background and other projects, and what we really think of this short.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Worst Jobs in Star Wars – A ‘For the Empire’ minisode created in Unreal 5.6 by AFK, released 19 June 2025
This week’s pick is the complete contrast to the Happy Wheels gag-fest, Ep 191: the film is called They Were Once Here by Werlias and it has everything you would expect from a Project Zomboid machinima, plus some things you wouldn’t. Its a dark and sad tale, beautifully told, and delivers a real emotional punch. It makes excellent use of Zach Beever’s classic composition for the game, and harnesses a bunch of mods to achieve the outcome. Catch our review and reflections on this one. For those of you into zombie fests, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Project Zomboid | They Were Once Here by Werlias, released 29 Jan 2023
This week, we cover a lot of things this month, as usual, but start with a tribute to a machinima pioneer who has sadly crossed the bridge into an unknown world – Tutsy NAvArAthnA. We then go through some more fascinating projects that we want to share, more about genAI and machinima, a bunch of new tools and techniques, some wise words from some great artists, latest games and relevant updates. All links below.
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Celebrating Tutsy NAvArAthAa / Basile Vignes’ Life
Character Creator 5 update and connection to Unreal –
Fender Studio release for creating audio for 8 tracks, here
Martin Bell’s Unreal tutorial series –
How one detail completely changed a scene –
A LoRA for a Pierson’s Puppeteer –
NaturalVision Enhanced – release trailer –
Game Release
Dune Awakening –
Cyberpunk 2077 –
And finally…
Fortnite definition of machinima states: ‘the use of real-time computer graphics engines, like that used with Fortnite, to create a cinematic production. The word machinima is a portmanteau of the words machine and cinema.’
Take a look at the interview Tracy did with Epic’s Chief Tech Officer Kim Libreri in Pioneers in Machinima!
In days of yore, when Machinima ruled the digiwaves, they commissioned stuff like this week’s pick… we have a rather more heated discussion than usual about the pros and cons of the choice and the commissioning strategy. Check out our thoughts and let us know what you think. Maybe you were caught up in this mess, we certainly hope not… or at least, we hope the lesson was well learned. Ricky tells it from his experience, as part of the Hollywood set – seen it all before. Enjoy the show!
YouTube Version of This Episode
Show Notes & Links
Happy Wheels: The Series (machinima), released 15 November 2016 by BMP Digital – episodes available on the Internet Archive here.
To think this film’s creator knew nothing about animation prior to making this short is absolutely astonishing. Of course, as we discuss, many crossed this path as a consequence of the pandemic, but there are few gems we’ve found like this. The film, Rally, draws heavily on Santiago Menghini’s experience as a live action director and producer. What’s fascinating, in our analysis, is our evaluation of ambiguity and how its clever use makes up for the animation and limitations. Watch the movie, check out our comments and add your own.
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