Meet while True: learn()

Published in

Luden.io

7 min readDec 1, 2017

What are machine learning specialists really doing when they come to work?

Learn how machine learning works

Everyone is speaking about machine learning. Forbes writes that these developers and Data Scientists have incredible salaries, Elon Musk says that they can accidentally create an AI that can enslave humanity. So, what are these people really doing when they come to work?

while True: learn() is a game-simulator of a machine learning specialist who uses visual programming to make his living. So we’re happy to announce that while True: learn() is coming to Early Access on Steam on December 2017 (or later).

Also, we want to make a GIFT to all our friends, grab your Pre Alpha copy of the game for free, just click here (do not forget to say us what do you think about the game).

Why Early Access?

It is being told that every single one who enters Early Access is a millionaire! That’s a joke, folks, not every single one. To be honest — almost no one. Moreover, those, who enter Early Access, are rather poor fellows. In reality, we are reaching towards Early Access because we want to know if there is anyone out there in the world same crazy as we are who will love playing our game.

while True: learn(): Hello, programmer… Casual player, please do not start to hate us immediately.

We found Luden.io company in a strong belief that we would be making games which will benefit people. Games are absolutely amazing since no other format allows you to experiment and learn something new like if you were in someone else’s skin. Thanks to you we now know what shall we do if a zombie apocalypse will break down, so you should realize that games can save our lives one day… But I got away from the topic I wanted to discuss. As many know, in 2014we found a treasure — a VR helmet, — and we thought that this is a sign for us to begin doing our thing. We began our path with simple educational VR games like InMind, InMind 2 and InCell.

InMind 2 VR — is an adventure game which places emphasis on the chemistry behind human emotion.

But there was an obstacle on the path to our dream. Something with a wire, demanding for 90 FPS and making you feel uncomfortable physically. VR has a lot of pros and cons, but there is no need to argue that this technology and this type of content needs a few more years of development before players will have a desire to own VR devices at home.

InMind VR allows the player to experience the journey into the patient’s brains in search of the neurons that cause mental disorder.

We did not want to retreat, so we had to find out a solution. We knew that we could not wait for a few more years because we were crazily curious about what would the players think of useful games, would such projects be in demand, would people want to show them on Youtube and Twitch and would they learn something new while playing. Would there be a player, who would get inspired by a useful game so much that he would become a doctor of science and invent a huge planetary laser or resurrect dinosaurs?

while True: learn() — Scale the system when the amount of data gets huge.

So, we got so excited and we could not wait at all, so we decided to forget about VR and throw gamers an educational game as soon as possible. It was not hard to think of an idea behind the future game. PR guy told us to write it like so: “Machine learning is everywhere around these days, everyone is writing about it, but unfortunately not everyone out there has time and special knowledge to get involved in this topic easily. We’ve decided that this is what we need. So, in spring 2017, the development of while True: learn() began. “ In reality, it was a bit different — our programmers told us that there is nothing more useful than programming and this is why they want to make this type of a game.

while True: learn() — Write systems using visual programming interface to complete clients’ orders.

We hope that we didn’t go wrong with the idea of useful educational games and other developers would follow us in future. Who knows, maybe 10 years after today it will be enough to show you’ve reached 90th level in the programming game to get a job in Valve.

while True: learn() — Recurrent neural networks and LSTM for text generation tasks.

Thank you for coming to our game. We are doing our best to make something really beautiful and useful at the same time.

How long approximately will this game be in Early Access?

The game will remain in Early Access for as long as it needed until it looks like a solid product to me. Usually, it takes about 8 months if I write the game myself and about 18 if I am giving orders on how to code to others.

while True: learn() — Work as a freelancer or run a startup.

How will the full version differ from the Early Access version?

We plan to make 3 different technological eras in the game (you can read about which eras are those down below). the game will allow you to rent servers of different types from different suppliers and players will be able to launch their start-ups in order to lose all their money… oh, I’m being told here that start-ups are started to make money. Anticipating your question about the bitcoins — yes, they can be mined, even during the whole day, you’re welcome… you’ve missed an opportunity to get rich in life but you can at least do this in the game.

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

In the current version of the game first era is 90% ready and second era is 80% ready. What are these eras, eh? Here is the answer: the first era is the beginning of programming development and machine learning before the 1970s. The second era is 1970–2012. And the third era is about everything that happened after 2012. But please remember that if someone of you will build up Skynet or something like this we will have to add the fourth era, so think twice before you will turn your PC on, since our UI is made to fit only 3 eras in, and we do not want to add 4th in there.

while True: learn() — Reuse system components in future.

Will the game cost differently during and after Early Access?

We think that there will be no difference.

while True: learn() — Special skills are not required.

How are you planning to involve the Community in your development process?

We will go to the bar together! Eh? What? I am being told that it is not common to go to bars with players on Steam…

To be honest, in our VR game called VRobot we’ve made the same things many developers did before us. We had an easily found roadmap, Q&A with developers, polls for new features and etc. You know, we felt like we were imposing our community different activities to simply say: “hey, we are still here, making this game, don’t forget about us”. And there were not so many people in this community at all. We could have spent this time not making these activities, but making the game better and more useful for everyone.

VRobot is an action game designed for VR about a giant robot smashing сities using unique weapons or bare hands.

This time we want to make it as comfortable as possible both for the community and for us. Therefore, if the players want to know what are we doing in our office — we will show that to them. If they want to see a translation of our programmers’ work — we will organize it. We will start with simple updates on Steam and social media, and somehow we will find a common language with the players (if there are any. It may be that I, the author of these lines, am generally the only one who reads this.) Seriously, if you read this, let me know, leave a comment somewhere or send me an e-mail to oleg.chumakov@luden.io or shout out to me on twitter @gamescodedogs).