Background agents that feel alive and cost almost nothing

Most games are full of things that don’t matter. The crowd behind the fence, the birds, the cars in the next lane over — none of it is gameplay, but all of it is the difference between a world and a set. The catch is that “doesn’t matter” has to also mean “doesn’t cost much,” because the moment your ambient decoration starts eating frame time you’ve paid a lot for something the player was never looking at directly.

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