To celebrate the kickoff of The Dusklight Archive, I've made the first short story AND the wallpapers of my latest illustration absolutely free to all! If you like what you see, join my Patreon or Ko-fi to support new creations! www.patreon.com/posts/148063...

#MMORPG #Content #Tea time. The trope: "Go here and kill this named guy" is weaksauce bad storytelling for an MMO. So, there's one baddie, that can be defeated by one player, or even a small group - why is it a problem? There are hundreds of heroes around, your enemies have to be bigger than that

In today's #Gamedev tea break - I observe that there sure are a lot of people out there like: "Gosh I really wish the things that I loved to do took up less of my time."

#GameDev Tea? Video game UI is a helper, it exists to reinforce design, and worst-case to fill in where the design has failed to convey the intended gameplay. If you find yourself playing the UI instead of the game - there's been a disconnect between the design and the player experience you built.

Ever feel like a yo-yo that glows in the dark? IYKYK I suppose.

A colleague just floated the idea of a Gamma World adjacent #MMORPG world - and I gotta admit, underserved niche - could be rad.

It's been a minute since we've had some Friday #GameDev #tea! So I've brewed up a spot to share: Basically every choice made in the past 20+ years in MMO dev that has "addressed" player friction by moving the content toward a single-player paradigm has been a trash hack, harmful to the genre. 1/3

The one, single, bit of commentary that I've received on my assertion that "time respect" criticisms of #gaming are fundamentally disrespectful to gaming as a core hobby was "Based."

#GameDev #protip - start the day with an easy fix that you're confident will work. Sets the tone for the whole trip.

One should assume, if one had not already, that every single thing the GOP has to say about pretty much anything is a lie or fabrication.

Oh hey! The world has no 3rd spaces anymore wha happen? Oh hey! MMOs all suck now, wha happen? Oh hey! Games that recreate worlds to hang out in with friends like 3rd spaces are surprise hits! WHA HAPPEN? (Friday #GameDev #tea)

Who's your favorite Jedi? (Wrong answers only)

You know what word is fun? Metasyntactic.

Some chiptune DJ is missing an opportunity by not rocking the handle "Dropdown Selector"

What!? Friday passed with no #GameDev #Tea? Here's one for Caturday, then: "It is a game designers' job is to modulate friction."

It's Friday! Did you think I forgot your #GameDev Tea? I did not, hold out thy cup: QA's primary job is verification, not discovery. (Test your shit, kids.)

No objection to games having difficulty modes/options (even if often they're the least interesting answer to the problem) but I am baffled when the argument for them is "you should want everyone to play your game!" I don't think any piece of art should be for "everyone", that's quite silly

Friday is ending, so let me leave you with a drop of spice in your #GameDev tea. If I can watch a stream while I'm playing a game - why am I watching something I don't particularly care about while I play something I don't particularly care about? The science says I'm not doing either thing well.

While I'm at it: Market #gameplay is based on scarcity. No scarcity, no gameplay. Looking at you #MMORPGs - you suck at this.

Hey it's Friday and I haven't posted any #Gamedev tea in a while. Working hard in the pixel mines. So here's one: Games are designer-modulated friction. Friction *is* gameplay.

I stan Debord. That Guy was onto something... youtu.be/0blWjssVoUQ?...

I experience vasovagal syncope from time to time and having a physical manifestation of the truth that "My heart betrays my brain" isn't really as poetic and sweet as it sounds.

Here, since my own advice to myself today has come up like 12 times and it's not yet noon. I'll share it with you all too. "Nah dude, one thing at a time or you're gonna get lost - like a dipshit. A lost dipshit." -Me How's your Friday goin?

"I think it's really important to study the Huge Manatees in school." :3

The validation software ran successfully, but the self-doubt persists! #GameDev #MentalHealth #Jokes

Hey #TTRPG frens -> there's a thing I'd like to direct your attention to.

Fun fact: in the 1960s, Civil Rights protestors were given literal classes on nonviolent protest; they didn't all just spontaneously know what to do. So, if you're planning on showing up, this weekend: read this comic. And if you're staying home, signal-boost it/link it around.

1. The US Transgender Survey has finally been released, and the results are stunning. - <1% of people are less satisfied after HRT. - The most common reason for detransition, pausing transition, or stopping transition is transphobia. The latest from S. Baum. Subscribe to support our journalism.

Sure, your soundcloud works, spotify playlist, whatever - so many bonus points if you make a cover though, that's half of the art.

OK hear me out - a dating service where your first swipe is based on mixtapes...

IYKYK

More information tomorrow about the No ICE in California Itch Charity Bundle. But for now, here is the game jam. All games on itch are welcome, please spread the word. itch.io/jam/no-ice-i...

Y'all - MMOs aren't a single-player experience. It's in the name of the thing. And since I'm feeling spicy today - *neither is your life*

There's a lot of childhood trauma that Gen-X'ers could have avoided by just reading the book. Artax lives, y'all. Bastian brings him back with the power of the Auryn halfway through the book.

Oh, it's still friday? OK, more tea then. The loss of "orienteering" as an adventuring skill - and actual element of play - is a failing of adventure makers. Don't @ me. Or do, I mean, the point of all of this is discourse, right?

Pretentious? Moi!?

It's Friday! Time for #GameDev tea! I don't really respect your time. There, I said it. What other hobby does? What would you be asking if you said "Now that I'm older, I don't have the time to (do hobby) - so that hobby should alter it's core tenets to serve my older, less invested, self." ? 1/2

Kinda feeling like Pepsi today. Sure, you'll take Pepsi, you guess...

If I could curse the entire world, Pandora style, I'd give everyone incurable sincerity. WIthout a second thought.

#Worldbuilding #Snob here: One thing I notice when up in my shit about bad worldbuilding is that we like to imagine these epic moments without ever considering what that looked like 20 minutes earlier - or how commonly 1 of the 5000 independent elements necessary to pull that spectacle off fuck up.

AI "hallucinations" have persisted even as tech companies roll out new reasoning models. I talked to researchers about the challenges of using ranked hallucination leaderboards to evaluate large language model performance. 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2479...

I think there is something to discuss about the delta between the visual drive of human beings, and the creative inspirations of those who work in text - and the space between those realms.

Generally speaking, lexical gaps in people I communicate with irritate me. Lexical gaps in the minds of our lawmakers, however, horrify me.

Oh it's friday! Time for the #MMORPG #GameDev tea! Finding efficiency in levelling isn't necessarily smart. Slime-molds are very efficient.

FFS, can we please not have a nuclear war. Is that too much to ask.

Google assures me that "plox" is still cromulent,- so don't @ me (ploxx)

Suppose I accidentally got my shit together...

I have now listened to 2 of @scalzi.com's books on audiblo - as read by @wilwheaton.net - and now I read Scalzi's posts in Wheaton's voice. I hope you two are proud of yourselves.