Monthly Archives: September 2022

Road excavations in China's Guizhou Province have unearthed a trove of ancient fish fossils. As a part of rock layers known as the Rongxi Formation, the new fossil bed is filled with never-before-seen species that push back the dates of our first jawed animal ancestors by about 15 million years.

"Until this point, we've picked up hints from fossil scales that the evolution of jawed fish occurred much earlier in the fossil record, but have not uncovered anything definite in the form of fossil teeth or fin spines," says University of Birmingham paleobiologist Ivan Sansom.

Previously, the earliest known jawed animal was a fish that lived some 423 million years ago. A collection of about 20 teeth sifted from the rock bed could be up to 439 million years old. Left by an ancient fish species called Qianodus duplicis, they give us our earliest look at the origins of our very own teeth and jaw.

The development of jaws was a pivotal innovation in the evolution of vertebrates, giving boned animals like ourselves the ability to eat a much larger variety of foods than our ancestors' filter-feeding mouths would allow. This helped early backboned animals move into new environments which continued to shape their anatomy, leading to the huge diversity of body shapes and different behaviors we see in vertebrates today.

Jaws are clearly one of the success stories of the animal kingdom. Little more than heavily modified fish gills, they can still be found in more than 99 percent of today's vertebrates.

Relatives of this newly identified toothy animal would give rise to two of the major groups of modern fish chondrichthyans (sharks and rays) as well as osteichthyans which include almost everything else from seahorses and tuna to lungfish.

In time, descendents from this second group would give rise to tetrapods, which eventually deliver mammals like us.

"Qianodus provides us with the first tangible evidence for teeth, and by extension jaws, from this critical early period of vertebrate evolution," says Qujing Normal University paleontologist Qiang Li.

While researchers can guess at the kinds of features Qianodus might have had, there's only so much teeth can tell you about what an animal might have looked like.

Thousands of skeletal fragments were also retrieved from the Rongxi Formation. This time researchers could painstakingly piece them back together to reveal more of a body, one that belonged to an ancient shark ancestor they've named Fanjingshania renovata.

"This is the oldest jawed fish with known anatomy," explains vertebrate paleontologist Min Zhu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "The new data allowed us to place Fanjingshania in the phylogenetic tree of early vertebrates and gain much needed information about the evolutionary steps leading to the origin of important vertebrate adaptations such as jaws, sensory systems, and paired appendages."

Another shark ancestor Shenacanthus vermiformi and a more ancestral fish species Xiushanosteus mirabilis were also discovered, this time in a South China fossil bed dated to the same period called the Huixingshao Formation.

These discoveries better align the fish fossil record with molecular clock data derived from the genes of still living and extinct species, which suggest that jawed animals arose around 450 million years ago. The fish fossils provide tangible evidence that this important feature, which eventually led to frogs, dinosaurs and our own existence, was already well established during the Silurian period (around 444 to 420 million years ago).

"These are the first creatures that we would recognize today as fish-like, evolving from creatures often referred to as 'clams with tails', from earlier in the Ordovician period," says paleontologist Plamen Andreev from the University of Birmingham.

But even the jawless fish found at the road excavation sites in China revealed some more clues to our own evolution. The researchers also discovered a 436 million-year-old rock bearing a jawless galeaspid (helmet shield) fish. To Zhu and colleague's surprise, this prehistoric animal had paired fins.

Previously only fossilized heads of these Tujiaaspis vividus had ever been found, and it was thought they were finless.

These early fins don't require specialized muscular input, creating lift passively from forward movement, like a paper plane propelled through the air. This supports a long-debated hypothesis that a single pair of limbs arose in animals first that eventually separated into pectoral (arm) and pelvic (leg) fins over evolutionary time.

"Eventually, these primitive fins evolved musculature and skeletal support, which allowed our fishy ancestors to better steer their swimming and add propulsion," explains University of Bristol paleontologist Joseph Keating. "It is amazing to think that the evolutionary innovations seen in Tujiaaspis underpin locomotion in animals as diverse as birds, whales, bats and humans."

These incredible new discoveries help fill in some important waypoints during our prehistoric evolutionary journey from fish to humans.

The research on the oldest fish and shark jaws, early fins and oldest teeth were all published in Nature.

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Amazing New Fossils Provide Earliest Known Traces of The Evolution of Our Jaws And Limbs - ScienceAlert

The common white clover is both everywhere and nowhere: it grows widely in the grassy areas of cities worldwide but barely takes root in our imagination. Yet this inconspicuous little plant holds a giant clue about how species adapt to urbanization.

Like many organisms, the white clover defends itself against potential predators. Snails, slugs and voles that graze on this herbaceous perennial encounter an unpleasant bitter taste caused by hydrogen cyanide, which can kill them. But new UofTled research shows that in the worlds concrete jungles, which host fewer foraging herbivores, white clovers have naturally evolved to be less guarded: they are 44 per cent less likely to emit this toxic chemical than their siblings in rural areas.

This is the first time weve documented this kind of pattern happening across the whole world. I think its pretty strong evidence that humans are influencing the evolution of the life that surrounds us, says James Santangelo, who recently earned a PhD in biology at UofT Mississauga. Santangelo helped unearth this new phenomenon in natural selection as a researcher on the Global Urban Evolution Project.

In this first-of-its-kind study, Santangelo and two UTM professors were able to enlist 287 scientists in 26 countries on every continent except Antarctica to study the urban adaptation of white clovers. Fanning out across lawns and parks in Tampa, Helsinki, Cape Town, Tehran and dozens of other cities, they collected some 110,000 samples and sequenced the genomes of more than 2,000 individual plants. Their findings, which were published in Science, clearly show how the plant is undergoing parallel evolution meaning it is biologically changing to adapt to the circumstances of urban life.

Humans have become the major driver of evolutionary change on Earth, says Marc Johnson, one of the studys principal investigators and a UofT Mississauga biology professor. If we want to keep living here in a sustainable way, we need to better understand this trend.

Johnson, who leads the EvoEco Lab at UTM and is the Canada Research Chair in Urban Environmental Science, first explored this trend in white clover populations in Toronto. In an earlier study, he found that the frequency of plants producing hydrogen cyanide (a process known as cyanogenesis) increased with greater distance from downtown. A new idea germinated one day while he was in the shower, and as he wrote in a project blog post: Holy cow, we could use white clover to understand whether organisms are adapting to cities in similar ways throughout the entire world.

The seed was planted, and Johnson attracted interest from Rob Ness, an assistant biology professor at UofT Mississauga, and Santangelo, who was already doing similar research. They initially aimed to include scientists from 50 cities, but after Johnson posted an open invitation on Twitter and circulated the proposal among colleagues, more than triple that number signed up.

The projects goal was to document the genetic diversity of white clover over a wide geographic range. So, starting on foot at their citys centre, the participating scientists travelled outwards on linear paths like bicycle spokes, stopping at least every 200 metres to collect 20 plants at up to 50 sites.

The sampling effort turned into a family affair during Johnsons sabbatical as his two children, then ages 12 and 9, helped pick clovers during travels to Argentina, Chile and Japan. Santangelo himself collected 12,000 clovers on a 16-city road trip in eastern North America, where a stop in some neighbourhoods attracted the wrong kind of attention from residents: People assume youre up to no good and want you out of there, he says.

The global scientists were supported in their work by an equipment kit assembled and delivered to them by the project team and an emailed link to videos outlining detailed protocols for testing samples and recording results.

Johnson co-ordinated the researchers, and says engaging so many far-flung participants posed some unique challenges. For example, while most collaboration took place via Google Docs and Sheets, a different approach was needed for participants in China, where the government mostly denies access to Google products. He also spent ample time clarifying how to record data. With so many different people, regions and cultures involved, there were tons of these hiccups, says Johnson.

Our best shot at conserving most biodiversity is to build more connected green spaces that are uniformly distributed across the city.

Rob Ness, another of the studys principal investigators, conducted genomic analysis of the plants, which required some creative problem-solving. The plants without hydrogen cyanide are missing one or two genes, and detecting the absence of something is tricky, says Ness. So, he helped design a new analysis to detect missing sections in the clover genomes.

The findings that emerged from the project are still being parsed. Some urban clovers actually showed a higher presence of hydrogen cyanide than their rural counterparts, which the researchers speculate is caused by dryer city conditions. They believe this triggers cyanogenesis as a way for the plant to store nitrogen, which has drought-protective functions. Multiple spinoff projects with project partners are now focusing on further understanding the clovers genetics and adaptations.

In the meantime, Santangelo says, this study provides fertile soil for reimagining how we approach city building and conservation in the future. I think clover is going to be just fine, but we may need to be concerned about other species, such as birds that rely on song for mating and whose songs are now disrupted by noise pollution, he says. Our best shot at conserving most biodiversity is to build more connected green spaces that are uniformly distributed across the city. Thats how we maintain large populations that are at less risk of going extinct.

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Cities Are Driving Evolution - University of Toronto Magazine

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Garmin is one of the pioneers of GPS tracking devices, and the company launched one of the first consumer GPS units. That unit and its business in marine and aviation navigation propelled the company to enormous success in the decades that followed.

While GPS is still a critical technology, the company has had to evolve to stay relevant. Insofar, it has transformed itself into a fitness company, offering a variety of wearables, fitness trackers, and other sporting equipment (not a total departure given their nautical roots).

That positioning also helped the company reach explosive levels of growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, its stock price skyrocketed.

But as people return to work, it would seem that fewer of us are buying smartwatches and fitness trackers. So the question now is how Garmin will evolve, yet again, as we enter a new phase.

Garmin was founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min H. Kao. The name Garmin is an amalgamation of the co-founders names (Gar and Min). In its early years, Garmins business model was focused on its goal to popularize GPS and change the world.

Initially, it did this by combining cockpit navigation devices into an all-in-one design, which was very popular. One example of this was the GPS 95, launched in 1993. It was the first GPS unit for aviation, according to Garmin.

Later, the firm would expand its product line, integrating GPS units into various devices. These include cell phones, portable GPS units, marine units, and wearables. In addition, it recently added the Garmin Index BPM to its product line for blood pressure monitoring.

By 2005, Garmins revenue had already topped $1 billion, it reported earnings of $1.03 billion for the fiscal year. However, it increased its revenue by 73% to $1.77 billion in 2006. It was now working in many segments, including auto, outdoor/fitness, and marine/aviation.

Garmins earnings have only continued to increase. Its revenue was nearly $5 billion in 2021, and its trailing 12-month revenue exceeded $5 billion for the first time in Q1 2022.

Garmin announced its second-quarter earnings on July 27, 2022. Its revenue for the quarter was $1.24 billion. That is 6% lower than the prior years quarter, but the report notes that the previous year benefited from pandemic-driven sales.

Its operating income was $293 million, 21% lower than the previous year. Its net income was $257.87 million, an 18.65% drop. Despite this, Garmin posted an operating margin of 23.6% for the quarter. Its EPS was $1.33, which was 18.9% lower than Q2 2021.

In the report, Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble said, Revenue declined during the second quarter driven primarily by underperformance in our fitness segment. In addition, Pemble noted that the company has challenges ahead, including a strengthening of the U.S. dollar coupled with high inflation and rising interest rates.

The report also noted that Garmin launched two new products: the Forerunner 955 Solar and the Edge 1040 Solar. These devices are the companys first fitness devices with integrated solar charging.

Like many businesses, Garmin is at something of a crossroads. Its new positioning as a seller of fitness trackers and smartwatches has been a double-edged sword. While its sales snowballed for about 18 months of the pandemic, those temporary gains have mostly melted.

This has led to some lukewarm sentiment around Garmin stock. Even though its share price is less than half of what it was in the fall of 2021, some analysts recommend holding the stock, while some lean slightly toward a buy recommendation.

Some feel that double-digit gains are possible. And Garmin stock is currently priced lower than it was even before the pandemic, so a bounce-back seems plausible. But again, the sentiment is generally lukewarm.

Against the backdrop of declining sales, the CEO said in the last quarterly report, While we must adjust expectations, we believe that our lineup of innovative products and strategy of diversification will allow us to remain strong in an evolving economic environment. However, only time will tell just how true that is.

Garmin began as a GPS company, installing its navigation devices in cars and boats. Then, it expanded its product line, installing its GPS devices in phones, portable units and wearable tech. Its foray into wearables made it a fitness company, which boosted the stock price.

Those trends have waned; today, Garmin stock is selling lower. The company is still profitable, but it is uncertain how the company will position itself in a post-pandemic world. Garmin CEO Cliff Pemble is confident the company can press on. Garmin stockholders will have to hope Pemble is right.

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Garmin Stock Breakdown: The Evolution Of The GPS Giant - Forbes

After its recent ascent to online streaming, Disney, or Disney+, has seen a shift in the content it produces. The new live-action Pinocchio, which came out Sept. 8 and was given a Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score of only 30%, tops off Disneys list of live-action remakes as No. 19 in the lineup.

However, Disneys re-creations are nothing new. The company has always taken originalstories and altered them to fit their desired audience. Now, as they reinvent older movies into live-action forms, the question arises: does this simply reintroduce families to beloved tales, or are the remakes a symptom of a dried-up stream of creativity?

Dr. Anthony Nussmeier, associate director of Italian at the University of Dallas, explained specifically about Pinocchio, The source material that gave us the Disney-fied version in 1940 is a long way away from what we see in the Disney version.

He went on to describe dark elements that were removed for the sake of child consumption, including two assassins, a young girls ghost, and Pinocchios temporary death-by-hanging. Disney cleaned many of its tales, whose original beginnings started with sources like the Brothers Grimm, for example.

However, while oftentimes providing new sources of entertainment, shifting the original source material may cause the original depth and meanings to be obscured. [The Disney version] does completely miss the point about what Pinocchio is, and that is the story of a nation coming into being, and that nation is Italy, Nussmeier explained.

Fairytale stories have been used to instruct children, warn them about the world, and in Pinocchios case, teach them their own language. Now more than ever, as Disneys focus shifts from telling great stories to monetizing nostalgia, the gap between the source materials intention and the films formed from their flesh, continues to widen.

In Disneys current evolution, the medium of its movies has shifted from predominantly 2D animation to 3D, live-action, and CGI. While this stage of development can reinvent older stories for newer audiences, the near total-abandonment of 2D means losing some of the bouncing, childhood charm the original films possessed.

Hannah McAfee, wife to one of UDs professors and a teacher at the nearby school of Great Hearts, said, The animation, weve lost a lot of it, like, that sort of talent, in the sense that everyone knows how to do 3D instead of 2D.

The overemphasized movements and purposeful lack of realism that 2D wields combine to create something truly magical and unique to the medium.

McAfee explained, I dont think you can get the same effect.

McAfee also aptly pointed out the general lack of creative ingenuity in film. From endless sequels, stuffed franchises, and continued remakes, Disney and Hollywood at large seem to be running out of their once thriving hive of creative minds.

People dont know when to let a good thing go. McAfee said, They just want to make money off of stuff.

With many of these films receiving generally low reviews, it is evident that film viewers expect more from Hollywood than their repeated anthems. However, despite Disneys recent changes, its movies still provide entertainment for children today.

Not that Pinocchio in and of itself, the Disney Pinocchio, cant be a good thing, and cant be entertaining, because I think it is, said Nussmeier.

He stated that people still seem to enjoy the new versions, especially with their target audience of children.

McAfee defended the films as well: I dont think theyre being disrespectful. I think, for the most part, they honor the essence of the story.

There is hope. As large film companies like Disney become more formulaic in the short run while retaining semblances of their childhood charm, one might look to smaller producers who arise with fresh ideas and concepts to expand the future imaginations of viewers of all ages.

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Disneys evolution and its effect on beloved stories - University of Dallas University News

The process of creating a video game that players can connect with is complicated. Like really complicated. Youve got audio syncs, a thousand different story ideas, environment management, online connection support, localization, activities, sandbox balancing, andwell, you get the idea. Theres a lot that goes into what makes a game memorable, more than just the story you experience. But what if I told you that the stories youve experienced within some of your favorite games originally were planned differently? Or that the narrative you loved so much was actually content from a previous brainstorming session that didnt originally make it into the game? What if I told you that this happens all the time in games?

An excellent example of the story you thought you knew is Season of the Haunted, which was born from some old scrap notes created when planning an Exotic mission for the Beyond Light expansion called Presage. Season of the Haunted was one that tore at the heartstrings of developers and players alike. It was a story that connected millions of players from around the world through the power of authentic human experience. Players shared their own stories of guilt, loss, and healing. They shared their favorite moments. They shared their vulnerability, and it was beautiful. Now take all that and think one simple thing: 90s horror classic Event Horizon.

Well get there in a bit.

Here to explore the journey from those old scrap notes to an incredible new experience are a few members from our narrative team, Robert Brookes and Nikko Stevens, both of whom are senior narrative designers.

It was such an odd experience, Brookes recalls, reflecting on what was originally being planned for the Presage mission. Id only been at Bungie for like... two weeks, I think? It may have been a month, but it felt like I had just walked through the door before my first brainstorming meeting for the Exotic mission.

He continues, saying, We were talking about [placing the mission on] a derelict ship because there was some old concept art of a ship being lost around the rings of Saturn and it kind of felt like an old Navy spaceship, but there wasnt really a foundation for what it was going to be or who was going to be the enemy. We had talked about possibly involving the Cabal, but I remember someone said that we should do some kind of spooky ghost ship. Brookes laughs, adding, So my mind immediately went oh, my god, and I just started scribbling ideas about the 1997 sci-fi horror flick Event Horizon and then held it up for the rest of the group to see. I remember asking if anybody had seen that movie and it was so funny to see the looks on their faces when the dots were connecting in their minds.

Stevens adds when talking about the rabbit hole that is the Egregore, a strange fungus that is associated with the Darkness and found throughout the Presage mission, saying, When we were working on Presage, the Egregore was a sort of by-product of us looking at what assets were available for a spooky ghost ship experience, and what assets we had that would align with each other. I had pointed out Drifters contained fungus plant on his ship, funnily enough, named the Derelict. After some world art tests, it was decided that we could utilize that plant asset to give our haunted ship, the Glykon, an overgrown and rundown feel. This stemmed from the phrase we all anchored our ideas with when referring to the Glykon, It came back wrong.

Once the idea took root, it didnt take long for the narrative team, particularly Brookes and Stevens, to get cracking on ideas, particularly when the sci-fi fandom love started flowing. The basic idea was for a ship to go somewhere it wasnt supposed to be and come back wicked wrong, recalls Brookes. Its a classic TV trope, but a classic for a good reason.

According to Stevens, Once wed committed to using that plant asset, I began work on building out what it actually was, based on lore surrounding the Drifters exploits, and the core concepts of the Darkness that we would be explaining more over the course of the next year or two of content releases. From there, the Egregore became that connective Darkness network we all know and love. It was really the idea of a collective consciousness, stemming from how the Darkness functions, and the cult-like aspects of Caluss followers that led me to the name Egregore in the first place.

He continues, adding about the development of Presage: With the idea of the Egregore in place, we knew that it had to be a big part of the Leviathan returning, and that festered into the wonderful spore colony you see aboard the Leviathan today! This also allowed us to flesh out how the Egregore functioned and talk more about its connections to death and memory, based on the ideas that were planted in Presage.

Brookes remembers fondly, I remember thinking, Hold up, what if our version of ghosts centered around trauma and unsolved business? And Im looking at Shadowkeep and the shared thread of trauma there, and this massive lightbulb just went off. Ideas started spinning about what sort of Nightmares would await, who would be on Caluss ship, and what would Guardians face while there? What sort of Nightmares haunt Calus himself?

Sounds incredible? And it was! Just... a little too incredible (and big) for an Exotic mission, which is why the idea stayed on the cutting room floor, waiting to inspire something even greater. Even though Nightmares were not originally part of Presage, the concepts that allowed us to connect them and Season of the Haunted seamlessly to the happenings of Presage were all seeded in the Exotic mission itself, says Stevens.

This is one of those video game things that seems very easy to do. Something someone might imagine is as simple as, just ctrl-copy/paste the line over, but there are considerations to be had! Would the player understand this ghostly voice, both with how it sounds and what we are trying to convey? Was there enough narrative runway to explain where these voices were coming from and why? Would localizing the English recordings into other languages be ten or more times the work? What would it sound like when these voices are communicating with you? Which characters would we meet across this perceived veil? Cayde? Uldren? Someone... or something else? These are all things the team had to contend with. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Stevens adds, So, once we reached Season of the Haunted, the Narrative team came together and, between Robert Brookes and me, we immediately linked all these concepts together and to the Nightmares. It all just made sense and worked to prop up several of the stories we'd be telling over the remaining Seasons of the year. So, we collected all the Nightmare assets we had and began constructing a story about internal trauma and overcoming it in a sort of inverse of how the characters aboard the Glykon had faced their own demons but failed to overcome them.

But back to film and its power over the imagination: Event Horizon was a major inspiration. In that movie, a rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and came back... different. This wasnt the only film they drew inspiration from during the ideation stage. Stevens and I compare Presage to the first Alien movie: small and self-contained, says Brookes. Season of the Haunted, however, was larger. Larger location, larger threats, and a narrative that was... well, moving somewhere also larger. If Presage was the first Alien movie, with its small cast and claustrophobic environment, Season of the Haunted was Aliens, where everything was bigger. And like the Alien franchise, Season of the Haunteds alien experience needed to feel more human. Just like with the first two Alien films, there's a family dynamic with the cast, and that really felt like it informed the decisions we made about moving forward with Nightmares and what it means to come face to face with the ghosts of traumas past.

A personal favorite storyline of mine from Season of the Haunted was that of Crow. I related to it deeply, reconciling who I was in the past growing up homeless, scared, and angry, to how Ive evolved into the person I am today. The person Ive been allowed to become thanks to the safety Ive been able to create through the years, similar to that of Crow and his past self as Uldren. Oh yeah, we always knew we were going to have Crow be one of the focuses, recalls Brookes. We knew his story was going to be intertwined with Uldrens. We just knew it had to happen.

And can we just take a moment here, please, to appreciate how stunning Brandon ONeills performance as Crow and Uldren was during Season of the Haunted? According to both Brookes and Stevens, ONeill knew exactly what he wanted to do when stepping into the booth and was able to nail it on his first take. He just knew the assignment perfectly and delivered everything we wanted and so much more through and through, remembers Brookes. He could just switch from Crow to Uldren on a dime. It was so impressive to see.

ONeill definitely nailed it. You could feel his characters pain through each gritted voice line, through each sob as he wept on the floor throughout his journey. But he wasnt the only character at play here.

According to Brookes, there were quite a few paths the team thought about taking. At one point, it was discussed whether or not Ikora should be one of the characters haunted by memories of Cayde-6, but the stars never quite aligned for that. It was an obvious choice, but the resources and scheduling simply weren't there. Would it have been cool for Cayde-6 to come back again? asks Brookes. Of course, but there was just no way we could have done it in the time we had.

Caiatls involvement, however, was a no-brainer due to her Very Complicated relationship with her father, Calus. That relationship eventually led to the inspiration behind the Duality dungeon, which allowed the Narrative team to fully explore the tangled history between this particular father and daughter duo.

Thinking back on some player reactions to Calus and Caiatl, Brookes loved seeing the reactions to Calus and the justifications people made for his behavior. Seeing people say that they dont think hes such a bad guy and that hes selling a lie of who he is and giving you the reasons for his way of life... it was intense, reflects Brookes. And I get it. Its easy to make excuses for him and buy into his lies, but then you get to see him from Caiatls perspective and realize that, no, maybe hes not right. He literally had someone butcher her dog because she liked it more than him. He's just a total sociopathic narcissist.

I could see the wonder in Brookes eyes during this interview. The journey into the past of Presage and the creation of Season of the Haunted, the complexity of player reactions, and the rich history of the Destiny universe all swirl behind his eyes as he recalls the path of creation. Its that wild look of creative passion that made me unable to suppress a smile of pride for the Narrative team and all of the teams here at Bungie. Everyone has their own idea of what game creation looks like, or is, but its nearly impossible to fully grasp the sheer love and drive developers have when crafting the experiences that are ruminating in their heads, because there arent many feelings like it. You cant fake that sort of dedication and love of storytelling. That love is one of many puzzle pieces that make the teams here at Bungie so magical (in my eyes).

So how did Zavala come into play? A little chaotically, to be honest. Brookes confesses, There was a non-canonical lore tab that slipped into the game quite some time ago, I think during the Forsaken expansion. It teased the idea that Zavala had a relationship with someone. It was never really explored and sort of passed off like fanfiction, even though it came from us here, but I knew that I loved this idea. The only caveat was, in the context of Nightmares, losing someone you love is always centered around tragedy like, the baddies killed the love of your life, oh no! Brookes continues, I didnt want Zavala to be John Wick-ing his way through the Destiny universe. But then Julia Nardin, our senior narrative lead at the time, came in with the thought that a couples relationship rarely survives the death of a child because its such a traumatic experience. Its a personal experience, one that makes people crumble at the very weight of it. To have the love of Zavalas life survive all of the chaos her family underwent and to pursue her own path of healing was the more powerful route. Thus, leaving Zavala behind and unable to reconcile the loss of his son and the woman who held his heart.

This was also a big reason why the team added those then-mysterious knitting needles in his office. It wasnt a hobby. It was a piece of his heart at the root of sentimentality. Hes a complex man, and Season of the Haunted explored that in a rare way for the Titan Vanguard.

This particular narrative pulled at a lot of our players heartstrings. It did for us too, but for Brookes, it was a little more personal, because he was struggling with a loss of his own. His team was nothing short of supportive and understanding, allowing him to step away from the subject matter or choose to work on something that ended up helping him without sacrificing his health and mental safety. When we were working on Season of the Haunted, my mom passed away unexpectedly, he shares. Right as we were closing out the Season, she passed. For those three months, I went into this weird grief cycle where I was compartmentalizing three different fantasy characters and shaping what their own grief looked and felt like. I felt their pain and then immediately jumped into my own grief right as we were preparing to wrap up. It was such an odd coincidence to be working on such a complex project like this and then to be smacked with it in real life.

He shares that it did end up becoming helpful in a way. Almost cathartic. I had to work through three different peoples ways of dealing with grief after internalizing where they failed to move on. And I really do think that this helped prepare me a little for this loss because I experienced that trauma alongside those characters as a narrative designer and a player. It was a lot. That year was heavy for so many, but I really feel that Season of the Haunted let me safely explore that part of my own story more deeply.

Luckily following Season of the Haunted with Season, Season of Plunder was a nice palette cleanser. We went from intense trauma to being able to chase pirates with Drifter. Auntie Eris helps us deal with our problems, while Uncle Drifter wants to set the world on fire and maybe grab an adventure or two on the way. Its called balance.

Both Stevens and Brookes reflected on the process and how its not always this elegant trail and theres a deeper process to make an idea fathomable and tangible. Once we get an idea that has traction and leadership is onboard, the next part is making sure that the game hasnt moved past the moment youre trying to create when telling an evolving story. There are storyline threads that have ended, and revisiting moments like that can feel forced or like theyve come too late. Our job, as Narrative, is to think about how to conceptualize this growing history and how we can make it cool and relevant to the current story. It should be an additional adventure, not a distraction.

On that note, Stevens adds that the connections made to the games histories may not always be obvious, but they are there. While the connection between the Glykon and the Leviathan is pretty obvious, did you know that the Glykon is actually a Red Legion ship that was stolen from a shipyard on Nessus? Its true! Check the lore. Brookes added, We had a string of meetings where we would sit down with Ashley Flanagan, our historian, and just shout obscure character names to see what stuck to the wall.

The path of storytelling is never simple, but even those moments with the largest impact came from the smallest kernels of creativity. According to Stevens, When all those elements come together, you get to see a small idea, like what Calus could look like, or how the Crown of Sorrow functions, expand into Season-forging concepts, such as they did in Season of the Haunted. The Crown of Sorrow, for example, went from being a cursed object that breaks its wearer to a vessel of power for the Vanguard to tame our most painful thoughts. The Egregore went from a physical display of corrupted Darkness, to still that, but also a connective network of experience made manifest in our reality. These ideas got deeper, they changed, they grew like a fungus. See? Full circle moment.

Speaking of full circle, the technical side of the cutting room floor can get daunting sometimes. Checking 900 obscure lore tabs that could be referenced, Brookes offers as an example, is just one of the many ways that even reusing older concepts is never lazy or simple. To validate a moment for a franchise like Destiny, Brookes explains, you need to make sure everything fits. Does the idea make sense? Is it safe for global players with aspects like the translation of names in different languages or unintentional references to real-world events? Ideas are amazing, but if they arent doable in a safe way, or in a way that does a game justice, then it just wont work. Thats part of the job. How to make an idea work. How to make it make sense.

As Brookes puts it, the Narrative team is determined that nothing goes to waste. We like to use the whole carcass, says Brookes on why the cutting room floor isnt where ideas go to die. I have an entire folder on my computer of unused concept art and prototype ideas. And whenever we go into a brainstorming meeting, I always pull that up to be like, What weird idea can we try to make a reality today? He adds, Thats actually how we got the Harvester in Season of the Haunted. Eve Astra, one of our senior world artists, came up with that design originally for Festival of the Lost. Never let anything go to waste, and youll never run out of new ideas.

This is just one of the many ways that the cutting room floor has inspired some of our own strongest narratives, but you never know what else has been inspired by something like a terrifying 90s horror flick. Or a meme. Or just an oddball idea that comes out of nowhere. The challenge is honing that and crafting it in a way that players can feel and cherish. Each puzzle piece creates a blueprint for the future of what a game can be, and even shifts how we see past experiences. Its about balance, vulnerability, and never shying away from throwing even the wildest ideas at the proverbial wall. Because when you have a good team, those seemingly off-the-wall ideas can transform into something truly great. And trust me, you have no idea whats coming, but keep this little inside look in mind as we race towards Lightfall and beyond.

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From Presage to Nightmares, the Cycle of Narrative Evolution > News - Bungie

Last month, Samsung Electronics unfolded a new future of mobile possibilities with the release of the new Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4. Flexible screens that can fold and unfold seamlessly come with endless UX design opportunities. Not only do Galaxy users want a phone that fits in their pockets, but they also need a mobile device that is designed to offer meaningful, relevant and flexible experiences to fit their daily lifestyle.

To help users understand more about the journey of foldable UX design evolution, Samsung Newsroom sat down with Yoojin Hong, Executive Vice President and Head of User Experience, Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. As a leader in the global UX design of Samsung mobile products, the Q&A below includes exclusive insights on all thingsflippable and foldable.

Read on to learn more about Samsungs goals for the Z Flip4 and Z Fold4 and the process behind the smartphones flexible and bold designs.

Q:What inspired the creation of Samsungs lineup of foldables? How has the device enabled new experiences for users?

As smartphones became an essential companion in our daily lives, users began to demand larger screens, and the race was on to deliver just that. At the same time, users wanted pocket-sized and portable devices two seemingly opposing asks. So this posed the question, how could we reconcile these demands while solving the problem? Samsungs solution was simple, though not easy: fold the screen.

While this was a huge undertaking in itself, developing folding screen technology was only the beginning. Once we had these new form factors, we realized that designing UX for a foldable was different from a traditional smartphone. We had to rethink the smartphone experience entirely. We also discovered, over time, that these new form factors had the potential to change peoples relationships with their phones. Changes in form factor also lead to new life patterns, and not just for advanced users, but for everyday users. Foldables met evolving user needs in surprising ways.

Q:What is Samsungs UX design philosophy for foldable?

When creating a user experience on a phone, most companies only need to account for a single static screen. But foldables are moving devices with two screens, so the UX must be more fluid. This has been the basis of our entire design philosophy since the beginning.

Our design philosophy for foldables revolves around two foundations. First, UX design that is new yet familiar. Foldables offer consumers a new form factor, which delivers a variety of different and innovative benefits. However, while the user experience is new, it shouldnt be unfamiliar there should not be a steep learning curve. For foldables, we design with the idea that the UI should be almost invisible. It should be so intuitive that users are instantly familiar and can navigate with ease.

The second foundation is to remember that foldables are tools that help users create. Smartphones have evolved from literal phones to devices that can unlock creativity through photography, art, gaming and more. We want to ensure our UX enhances these experiences.

Since that first Galaxy Fold, weve launched a new generation of foldable phones every year. These phones have evolved in so many unexpected ways some of which were planned from the beginning, while others were guided by our learnings over time in addition to the invaluable feedback from our users.

Q:What are the differences in the user base between Z Flip series and Z Fold series?

Z Flip series and Z Fold series are both foldables, but they have very different form factors with distinct user bases. Z Flip users see their devices as a form of self-expression and enjoy the versatility and personalization the form factor provides. Z Fold users gravitate to the large-screen experience with the ability to do and see more at once. They love getting things done quickly and then having more time to focus on whats more important to them.

These separate user bases also gave distinct feedback on the previous generations, which led to our focus areas for Z Flip4 and Z Fold4. For Z Flip, we wanted to give even more ways for users to express themselves and personalize their experiences. For Z Fold, we wanted to enhance large-screen interactions, specifically around multitasking.

Whats important to remember, however, is that these new devices are not just for advanced smartphone users theyre for everyone.

Q:How have the UI and customization features been improved for the latest Z Flip4?

With Z Flip4, users can personalize the entire look of their device, from the hardware color, accessories, Main Screen UI and now Cover Screen UI. Customization goes beyond simply decorating a phones UX it also includes customizing the user experience. The Z Flip4 offers a new level of Cover Screen functionality, where users can not only customize the Cover Screen design but also take advantage of a variety of useful widgets and other functions.

We also noticed that Z Flip users were taking advantage of the unique photo-capturing experiences offered by the form factor. So, on Z Flip4, we continued to provide features that promoted self-expression and enhanced the UI of the camera to open up new possibilities for the FlexCam.

Q:How is UI improved users boost their productivity and save time with the new Z Fold 4?

Weve improved interactions and eliminated steps in activating settings and redesigned menus and layouts to bring action buttons closer together. This is important on a large screen as it reduces the amount of finger reaching required for the most common inputs.

We also wanted to simplify the large-screen experience by enabling faster app switching and activation. To accomplish this, weve added Taskbar, a familiar app bar that can always be activated, no matter what app youre using.

Finally, were also giving more flexibility in how multiple apps can be viewed on the screen with finger gestures that enable a split window or pop-up window. One-finger swiping at a corner makes the currently used app shown on a pop-up window. Two-finger swiping on the right, left or bottom makes the currently used app split in half. This allows you to be more productive, so you can achieve more in your daily life.

Q:How have Samsungs collaborations set the foundation for the entire foldables market?

We have worked with Google to create this ecosystem together from the beginning, often inspiring each other to develop new features or technologies. From the beginning, we worked closely with Google to fulfill our foldable vision, even collaborating at the code level to modify Android to meet the needs of foldable devices. We knew we would need to enhance Android to run effectively on new screen dimensions, and this work served as step one of our foldables journey long before any hardware was announced.

And, of course, we continue to work with our biggest partners, including Google, Meta and Microsoft, to bring optimized experiences on foldables to life. Now, apps like Chrome, Gmail and Microsofts full Office suites and Outlook take advantage of the Z Fold series large screen for the ultimate multitasking experience. Thanks to our partnership with Meta, FlexCam is optimized for the most popular social platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.

I believe it is extremely important to both build a Foldable ecosystem to diversify user experiences and continue to expand the app ecosystem through an open collaboration philosophy.

Q:User behavior and thus, user experience is constantly evolving. How would you summarize your approach to keeping up with new consumer demands?

In our previous devices, we approached our UX design by starting with what was necessary and tackling the challenges. Then, we developed new technologies to provide more screen space while keeping the devices compact. The new designs didnt just solve existing problems; they also transformed user behavior, changing the way people take photos, interact with their phones and more. These new behaviors have become natural parts of the everyday lives of the people who use foldable phones.

They also, of course, create all new challenges and thats what drives us forward as UX designers. Users imagine new possibilities, and those possibilities become demands. Its our responsibility to create the innovations to meet them. As the cycle of innovation continues, were excited to get to work building the foundation for whats next.

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[Q&A] The Evolution of Foldable UX: How Samsung Elevates the UX Design of Z Flip4 and Z Fold4 - Samsung Global Newsroom