# Broken Glass – Memory Card #50 👋🏻 Production has kicked into gear on what I have been affectionately calling "Astro Bot and Breaking Gaming's Fourth Wall."[^1] I spent the last two mornings working on title ideas and thumbnail concepts as per the advice I talked about in [[Memory Card 44 – What Came First - The Video or the Thumbnail|letter 44]]. Let's get the titles out of the way, that's a much shorter story. - We Need to Redefine the Fourth Wall - How Devs Break the Fourth Wall to Talk to You - **Why Devs Break the Fourth Wall** - When Devs Break the Fourth Wall - Why Fourth Wall Breaks are Unforgettable - **Fourth Wall Breaks are...Broken** - **Why do Games Break the Fourth Wall?** I hope it's obvious that I am planning on talking about [the Fourth Wall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall) and its implementation in games. I've found wonderful research and have a big fat lists of examples I came up with to use. It excites me. For the thumbnail, I had/have a very clear idea of a character breaking the glass of a screen. It's simple, direct, and has potential to be intriguing if paired with the right title. Given *Astro Bot* inspired this whole essay, I wanted to start with him and what I really needed was a transparent glass texture. ![[250530_Broken Glass Search.jpg]] Yeah...it wasn't a great start. From the "transparent" images in Google Search to the obscene prices for licensing, I was out of luck from the jump. Then I saw on one of the stock sites that AI-generated options could be filtered out. Well, why don't I just make one that way then? I went first to Gemini since I pay for Google's tier and was semi-surprised [that it flopped hard](https://chatgpt.com/share/683a0998-0628-8008-8f79-388eae6749b9). It grabbed things from ShutterStock and wouldn't generate an image for me. I asked how to use Google's Imagen and it gave me a fake URL to an image it never generated. Later, it made me a transparent texture—[checkerboarding and all](https://chatgpt.com/share/683a0998-0628-8008-8f79-388eae6749b9). I pivoted to the free tier of chatGPT and was [immediately impressed with the guidance](https://chatgpt.com/share/683a0998-0628-8008-8f79-388eae6749b9). A much better experience; that is until I ran out of daily generations *right when* I was getting the sort of texture I wanted. When I asked for variants, it generated them on top of an AI-version of Astro Bot, after making four textures like requested. It's remarkable how literal you must be with these LLMs. Anyway, this morning I got a couple of textures that seemed satisfactory to me and I melded them together in Pixelmator Pro, threw on some effect, and made solid drafts, I think! ![[250530_bot drake concept v2.jpg]] ![[250530_Elizabeth concept v1.jpg]] So why go through all this instead of just grabbing something off Google? Peace of mind and some tiny semblance of control. I don't have to worry about violating some license agreement, even if I am never actually pursued. I got to kind of get a version I like; certainly more than the ones off Google Image Search. Am I breaking some sort of moral artist contract by using AI-generation for a broken glass texture? I don't think so. There was no other feasible, timely option for me. I spent my time mostly waiting for tokens to flip back on so I could make more. If I wasn't interrupted by a limit, I would have had this done yesterday morning when I started. That's empowering, especially in this conceptual phase. Now I can get to the writing in earnest. Until next time... > [!email]+ Memory Card Newsletter > This letter is one block from the newsletter **[Memory Card](https://buttondown.com/MaxFrequency)** by [Max Roberts](https://www.maxfrequency.net/about). Thoughts? Send *me* an email at [email protected]. > > Max is the writer and producer behind [Max Frequency](https://www.maxfrequency.net), a place where he cultivates and curates curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings. > > He's written a [[Chasing the Stick - The History of Naughty Dog during the PS4 Era|rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II]], celebrated the [[MFP23 - “A Passion for Smash” – Celebrating 15 Years of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with Peter Spezia|15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype]], and examined how [Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic](https://youtu.be/kc2l_9Fdpek). > > **Memory Card** is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s *how* The Thing™ gets made. You can sign up below. (Look down) > > It's all powered by [Max Frequency](https://www.maxfrequency.net) and [patrons](https://www.patreon.com/maxfrequency). > > Wanna see The Thing™? [Check it out on YouTube](https://youtube.com/MaxRobertsEssays). Read it on [The Blog](https://www.maxfrequency.net). > <iframe scrolling="no" style="width:100%!important;height:220px;border:1px #ccc solid !important" src="https://buttondown.com/MaxFrequency?as_embed=true"></iframe> [^1]: "ABABGFW", just rolls right off the tongue