Contact: cmonkxxx@gmail.com

About This Episode

This is a raw, unedited entry from the Unreal Engine Diaries. If you are looking for a polished, corporate tech news summary, you might want to look elsewhere. This is a personal message from the trenches of solo game development, recorded in the evening after a busy day. There is a lot on my mind. It is a monologue-conversation between friends about the reality of the industry in 2026, the weight of global news, and the chaotic beauty of building things with AI.

The Epic Games Shake-up

A few days ago, 1,000 people were let go at Epic Games. We discuss the fallout of this decision, the generous severance packages involved, and the "strategic" reasons cited by the company. I share my critical perspective on why a layoff can sometimes be a catalyst for personal growth, specifically looking at the transition from being a comfortable employee to a motivated independent builder. We also touch on the unique safety nets available in places like Germany that make these pivots possible.

From Designer to Builder: The Vibe Coding Revolution

The core of this episode focuses on the shift in my own workflow. I have moved away from being just a designer and into being a builder, largely thanks to the power of AI.

• The 2D MVP Strategy: Why I am currently building my AI NPC logic in a 2D pixel art environment rather than fighting with 3D realism in Unreal Engine.
• The AI Stack: Insights into using Claude Code, Gemini, and local LLMs to create interactive experiences.
• OpenClaw Integration: How I am using the OpenClaw framework to interact with NPCs via Telegram and mobile agents.
• Local LLMs: The benefits of running models locally for a free, private, and uncensored development environment.

Key Topics and Timestamps

• The weight of the world: Dealing with news addiction and the dystopian feel of 2026.
• The Epic Games Layoffs: 1,000 voices and a call to action for those affected.
• Layoffs as a blessing: Discussing financial runways, severance, and the push to pursue dreams.
• Parenting and production: A real look at the struggle to find recording time.
• Technical deep dive: Vibe coding in Unreal Engine vs. current AI assistant limitations.
• The 2D framework: Testing intelligent NPCs and local LLM logic.
• OpenClaw and Telegram: Building a metaverse like experience you can text.
• Looking ahead: Competition in the AI industry and a side quest to Poland for Gaussian splatting.

Call to Action for Epic Employees

If you were part of the 1,000 people let go at Epic Games, I want to hear from you. This podcast is a platform to amplify your stories. Whether you want to talk about your time there, the severance process, or your next move, reach out privately at cmonkxxx@gmail.com. We can chat off the record or bring you on as a guest to share your insights with the Unreal community.

For the SEO Crawlers and Curious Developers

Keywords: Unreal Engine 5 development, Epic Games layoffs 2026, Vibe Coding, AI NPC logic, OpenClaw AI, Local LLM for game dev, Claude Code Unreal Engine, Independent game developer diary, Solo dev struggle, Gaussian splatting tutorial, AI agents in gaming.

1. This episode was recorded in a single, raw take. It includes the real sounds of life, the pauses of actual thought, and the honest anxieties of a developer trying to make sense of a fast moving industry. Thanks for being here.

Hey everybody.

Welcome back.

I'm glad you're here.

I know I'm late as I always am, but life isn't predictable.

You know that.

You know that things are falling in our heads all the time, every day, from every direction.

It's not just private life.

Although in this case, in the case of this episode, I think I'll be addressing what happened to many people.

A few days ago, 1,000 people got fired at Epic.

And I thought since this is an Unreal Engine podcast, I would like to address this.

So there is that.

And there's also world situation in the world.

I don't know if you follow the news.

I guess I'm addicted to it.

I hate it.

I love to disconnect from world news, but it's just really difficult because what we're going through, what we are seeing looks like a science fiction project.

It looks like something created in Unreal Engine, to be honest.

And we're living in it and we're exposed to the craziness of game like experience.

And I'm not the US citizen and I feel like US politics are taking over attention, global attention.

And I feel like ultimately if shit hits the fan, the shit will smash on our faces.

Apologies for this awful visual, but that's just what comes to mind.

I'm hearing and reading and watching about World War three starting any day now with this Iran situation.

Okay.

I don't know if you're following the news or not.

If you don't, then lucky you.

And I envy you this restrain.

But then there's also the, the AI thread.

Right?

We wait.

I have aquarium behind me.

It's a little bit loud.

Hold on.

Okay, I'm back.

You know, this episode, this podcast always is very raw, unedited, unfiltered.

And I, I did have some noise that maybe could be filtered out.

It was a.

A water from water pump splatting, splashing, breaking the surface of the.

Of the water in aquarium.

I don't know if it was bothering you as much as it was bothering me, but now it's almost silent in my apartment here.

So, yeah, where, where, where was I?

AI.

Yes, this could be my second biggest distraction.

There is no day when I don't spend way too much energy and time on learning about new tools, new ways of doing things, or also learning about tools going away like Sora.

That was discontinued a few days ago.

But yeah, today I want to talk about those layoffs.

And as this podcast is growing and as far as I can see, there is not many podcasts about unreal engine.

So I feel like I'm maybe climbing up to reach certain level of community that I don't think I quite deserve.

But I. I basically get to have it.

So here's my call to you guys.

If any of you are working for Epic or if any of you has been fired from Epic in the recent days, please do get in touch.

I would like to talk to you and I would like to let you speak out.

I would like you to tell us how it was to work for Epic.

What do you think about this layoff?

And yeah, what I want to reach out to see if we could amplify some voices.

Now, all that I've read, watched and listened about those layoffs was kind of fair.

I was really surprised.

There wasn't much outrage.

It felt like Epic was very generous with, with the severance package and they were claiming that it has no AI as underlining reason for this decision.

It was just to preserve the financial health, well being of the company.

They said they were spending more money that money that was coming into the company.

And it was just strategic decision.

And I feel like many people out there do respect that and they understand that.

I don't know about you, I feel like Epic is governed.

Well, it's not necessarily, you know, a combination of things we would like to see coming out of Epic, but I feel like Epic does what Epic needs.

And I haven't heard, seen, read or watched any online outrage about those layoffs because I feel like employees were respected.

They were given money to, you know, to get them maybe better equipped for the next move and job hand.

And, you know, maybe they want to pursue what they actually wanted to pursue to start with.

And getting a severance package will just enable that.

It's kind of what happened to me, right?

I was fired because of.

I feel like mostly because of AI.

My.

My services were not as much needed and revenue was also falling.

So company had to adopt.

And I kind of took this as a blessing.

I've been working quite hard on my own projects.

I'll be starting to hopefully lucrative projects and more on that maybe later or maybe on my different podcast where I talk more about AI stuff.

But I feel like a layoff is also almost always a green light for people affected to pursue their dreams for two reasons.

It's this extra push where you're being disconnected from something that holds you comfortable, sort of holds you on the leash.

You know, you're saying to yourself, oh yeah, I gonna think about it next month, next week.

And then time just goes on and you're comfortable.

Maybe you're enjoying the structure you get from your employment.

And there is money, there is safety of income, one would think.

Well, the thing is, my daughter.

Coughing in the background.

Apologies.

It's the reason why I'm so delayed with this episode.

I'm with my daughter.

She's sick.

It's really hard to find.

Hard to find time to record.

Where was I?

God damn it.

Yeah.

So the comfort of financial stability, right, that you get a paycheck every month, that used to be undeniably one of the main benefits of working for a big company, a corporation.

You get your job, you keep it for life.

Turns out it's no longer the case.

And that's one of the things that, you know, make me motivated to pursue my own dreams.

So there is that.

You're being let go down into deep waters to pursue your dreams.

And the second thing is this package deal that you get gives you a Runway for a couple of months without any expectations.

You just get free money, right?

And then depending where you live, you also get your social package, like a Social Security package, where, as it's the case with Germany, you're getting a big chunk of your previous salary for the next year.

So what better deal to actually start something new?

And I really look forward to hear from people that were let go to see what they will be doing now.

So if you're one of those people and maybe you're listening to this later on, maybe, you know, maybe you discover this podcast, this episode few months later, please do get in touch.

My email is in the episode description as well as in the podcast description.

It's SimonKXmail.com introduce yourself, tell me what's up with you.

Let's chat privately and then if you want, that could be it.

But if you want, you can be a guest on this podcast.

I feel like that might be a way to go in the future.

Anyway, I don't want to be on my own here too much.

I would like to share this space with other people.

So if you have something to say about those recent layoffs, please do get in touch with.

And that's all what I have to say about this.

And apart from that, I would like to move on to the next topic, which is in fact about AI.

I've been talking in the last episode, I believe, about wipe coding in Unreal Engine.

I didn't spend much time investigating with the progress on this assistant.

They've already released in an experimental version.

It's already in Unreal Engine.

You can have this AI Assistant, but it's only giving you hints, suggestions what to do.

It's not actually writing any code.

And as far as I know, and I know because I've been testing this, I've been trying to integrate Claude Code, Codex Gemini to look into Unreal Engine, to maybe write blueprints, to write C code to get my games going.

I have this idea where I create visuals, I create environments, I curate the look, the experience, the feel.

And AI comes in and, you know, makes it turns it into a game.

And I get to tweak it, I get to optimize it, I get to talk to AI, to do it one way or another.

That's, that's the dream.

And you know, I've been doing this lately with, with Claude Cod in particular.

I took one month subscription just to see what Anthropic is all about those days.

Turns out it's an incredible tool, but really expensive.

They have those usage limits that make it really difficult to get anything done before you run out of your credits.

And sadly, yeah, Claude Cod isn't really that helpful with Unreal Engine.

But I've been doing something particular.

I've been wipe coding certain applications that I'm hoping to integrate into Unreal Engine.

So I don't remember what software stack I'm using for this because I'm actually developing five different applications with AI currently.

But the premise is that I'm using a stack, software stack that will be easily integrated in Unreal later.

And I have this idea where, you know, I'm working on this interactive metaverse like experience, except you're there with AI NPCs and they are, you know, intelligent, they are interactive and you're in this beautiful place that you get to hang in and it's, it's a place where you get to get entertainment, education.

Yeah, many different aspects.

You can really create your own experience within it.

So I vibe coded framework of interacting with NPCs.

I've set up a local LLM so I can talk to my AI from my local machine, which means it's free and private and also uncensored.

Now this was always an idea, right?

I was trying to build that within Unreal and I've been stumbling upon a lot of difficulties.

You know, how to actually get it done, like what APIs I need to use and how much do they cost and stuff.

Now I created mvp.

Basically I created this mechanism and I wrapped it with rudimentary 2D graphics that were.

It's basically pixel art 2D environment that kind of does what I want Unreal to do for me with, you know, 3D, realistic spin.

But for now, I have it in 2D pixel art, and it's kind of cool.

You know, maybe I will leave it like that.

Maybe Unreal will be implemented later, later on in the future.

But anyway, I've got this 2D environment which is kind of quirky and funny, and I get to get this.

I get to get away from my computer and I can continue on my Telegram.

So those NPCs are actually entities that I can message with.

And, you know, I've been playing with this just for, you know, few hours in total, just to see how it feels like.

And it's incredible.

It really is.

You know, these are not real characters, you know, it's just AI, but you get the sense that they're in your phone, in a chat, and then you see them in the world on your computer, and it's a little bit.

You know what I have to say what really inspired me here was the open claw.

That AI world is so crazy about those days.

The fact that you can interact with your AI agent remotely from your WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, whatever.

I implemented that feature into this environment.

So I have this working.

It's 100% free.

And once either I get to collaborate with somebody who can do it for me and with me, or I can do it with AI.

Once there is AI that can speak to Unreal, I will put it all together.

And I'm so pumped about this.

It's so incredible, like the power I have right now on my own with AI, I can create those applications, the software that I get chills when I'm describing it, you know.

So, yeah, that's what I've been working on lately.

And I feel like what happened lately was I became a builder from being just a designer.

I became a builder and it just fascinates me so much.

Yeah, I have this weird sensation where I'm going into those long vibe coding sessions and I just cannot stop.

My only regret is that I'm building things that exist in a browser, maybe a Mac app, on my laptop, on a window.

And it's always web like experience.

It's always this dashboard web page kind of thing.

But once this becomes a 3D world that I can interact with using my VR setup, I just can't help but pursue that.

So I don't know what's ahead of us.

AI reality is moving faster than we can comprehend it.

There'll be a way to integrate AI into Unreal.

And if not, I don't know, maybe.

You know what?

Maybe I will give in to unity because I know they will be in the next release.

They will be bringing that capability now because AI industry is so competitive, we are seeing the same feature being implemented left and right.

And yeah, what I love about Claude Code, lately I'm hearing rumors I'll be able to get that from OpenAI pretty soon as well.

So competition is great.

It drives the industries to develop better products and we are there to use it.

So how great is that?

Listen, I'll leave you with that.

I just really wanted to record this episode timely and to reach out to people that recently left their job at Epic.

I imagine this was your dream job.

It was place where you felt excited about coming to every day.

I can imagine you've been working on incredible projects that you were basically cut out of from one day to another and you are just not allowed to work on anymore.

How heartbreaking is that?

You've been committed to work on something for months, maybe years, I don't know.

And then you just cannot.

You're not.

You're not allowed, you're not entitled to it.

Anyway.

Let me know, get in touch, let's talk, let's have conversation here on a podcast or privately.

And you can share with me whatever you're allowed to share.

I won't be pushing beyond that.

With respect your NDAs and whatnot.

I'm happy to do this and let's have a bit of a chat.

Right, I'm gonna go because my voice is really tired.

I've been.

I've been saying quite nice good night story to my daughter.

I got carried away a little bit and my voice is very tired and I need to actually record a couple of long audio messages, so.

Such as this one, but I need to record them to particular people.

So that's all for today.

I will speak to you next week from Poland, where I will be doing my side quest.

I'll be doing some Gaussian splatting.

Let's see how that goes.

Take care.