The 2006 Barnyard game was an ambitious open-world title featuring cows squirting milk, riding bikes, and playing golf. Those who remember it do so fondly. To mark its 20th anniversary @maddie-b-a.bsky.social spoke to its director Nick Hagger about what made the game and its development so unique.

Every time I hit publish on a big feature I’m like, “Damn, this is the best thing on our website.” But man — this one is absolutely killer. I love it. Maddie crushed it. So many great insights and quotes and jokes. Please read it and support independent reader-funded games journalism thank you!!

my mom loves telling everyone who's ever known me where to read my stuff. hope my pre-school teacher likes this one

The Games for Change Summit in London left @maddie-b-a.bsky.social with a lot of questions. Is child safety gaming’s most pertinent social issue now? If so, why has this realisation taken so long? More importantly, what are companies actually doing about it, and why is it probably not enough?

thank you paste games and thank you @garrettmartin.bsky.social for giving me my first experience in a professional newsroom. rest easy, old friend

London Games Festival’s New Game Plus showcase ran for the second time this year, and while @maddie-b-a.bsky.social thought it wasn't without its flaws, she still came away with some new favourite indie games.

Blue Prince creator Tonda Ros says he "will always claim there are still mysteries in the game." He also suggested that his next project will "probably take 10 years," and that it will be about “the letter R.” "It’ll make sense when it comes out."

Tom McKay, who portrays Henry in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, says the games "opened up opportunities and conversations," and shared enthusiasm for the film adaptation. He also called his Shakespeare background "like mountaineering for acting... if you can do that, you can probably do most things."

The success of Dispatch has allowed AdHoc to "assess what the most sane version of doing a future project looks like," according to co-founder Dennis Lenart. On AdHoc's next project with Critical Role, he said, "We feel a sort of kinship with their studio. It’s a creator-led thing just like ours."

Charlie Cox has again praised Clair Obscur's motion capture artists. Speaking to TWIV, he spoke highly of Maxence Cazorla's work on Gustave. "It’s no lie that you feel like a little bit of an impostor." "He’s got a huge amount of recognition... and that’s right, that’s the way it should be."

Shuhei Yoshida, former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has remarked that he was "fired" by then-CEO Jim Ryan "because I didn’t listen to him." Yoshida suggested Ryan "asked to do some ridiculous things, and I said 'No,'" before saying he highly enjoyed his subsequent PlayStation Indies role.

really into this one having gone up on easter sunday because, as we all know, jesus was a socialist

Dave the Diver has begun using generative AI to aid in translations, which the developer says goes through "substantial internal review." Mintrocket clarified that for languages outside of the team's fluency, the work is assesed “in partnership with a professional translation agency" before use.

With several big investments and a $55 billion acquisition of EA, you may be wondering: Why is Saudi Arabia so determined to be in the videogame industry? We speak to regional experts like @zhugeex.com to try and better understand the motivation behind the country's "elder millennial investments."

Both Sony and Microsoft are researching in-game AI helpers that can take over when you have trouble with a game. One patent even frames forums and videos as “rudimentary” ways to get help. But to undermine guides would be to undermine game communities, suggests @maddie-b-a.bsky.social

Who is Asha Sharma, anyway? Xbox's new CEO has business experience in everything from insurance, home improvement, and grocery delivery, to Meta products, AI, and even a previous stint on Xbox. Here's a primer on her career trajectory and experiences to date, which may inform what happens next.

Between e-waste, rare materials, logistics, and now genAI, gaming's impact on the global climate is significant. We speak to the Sustainable Games Alliance, Playing for the Planet, the Videogame History Foundation, and more to understand what's happening and what they're trying to change.

A three-day international strike held by Ubisoft employees last week has been called a success by French unions, though Ubisoft management has not responded. "Things cannot stay this way," one organiser told TWIV. "They cannot hide their head in the sand and pretend nothing happened."

The first day of an international Ubisoft workers strike saw 1,200 participants, according to French unions. One union told TWIV it's “proud of [ourselves] because we reached a new record.” "Without respect, without negotiation, without decent working conditions, there is no sustainable industry.”

We asked game developers to share their thoughts on Google's Project Genie, a "world builder" powered by generative AI. "Even the deeply misguided notion that this could somehow replace humans in the game development process is dangerous to the continuation of the artform," said @ramiismail.com

Hey - if you're a game developer who for some reason happens to have access to Google's Project Genie, we would really love to hear your thoughts. If you're a gamedev who doesn't have access but has strong thoughts to share regardless, please also feel free to get in touch. Email or DM me!

Best gas masks

Always remember that it's the youngest generations who hate AI *the most*, especially for games/creativity. It's the 45 year old+ folk who don't mind AI so much. quanticfoundry.com/2025/12/18/g...

Real-life young person @maddie-b-a.bsky.social is tired of commentators using Gen Z as a scapegoat for the rise of AI slop, and tired of those using the demographic as a reason to keep churning it out. "Let's level with each other — no one likes being told what they think less than young people."

The jobs were lost, huh? That passive voice doing some work here. The jobs aren't a set of car keys, are they.

Patrick Dane, longtime games and entertainment journalist and News Editor at This Week in Videogames, has died in a motor vehicle accident. He was 34 years old.

For our Best of 2025 series, we asked staff and columnists to share their personal favourites of the year (and they didn’t necessarily need to be new for 2025). @maddie-b-a.bsky.social juggled an exceptionally busy 2025, so it makes sense that her highlights were all about unwinding.

What's actually involved in getting a human voice actor to record lines for a game, and how does that compare to an AI replacement? @maddie-b-a.bsky.social speaks to actors and audio engineers like @selmaleh.bsky.social and @jeffvandyck.com to try and demystify what goes into giving games a voice.

Vince Zampella, Call of Duty co-creator and head of Battlefield, Respawn Entertainment and Ripple Effect Studios, has died. NBC4 reports that Zampella was killed in a single-car crash in Southern California. He was 55 years old.

We spoke to a dozen professional concept artists who are currently or have previously worked in game development about whether generative AI image tools have made their jobs any easier. Zero said it did. Most said it made things harder. thisweekinvideogames.com/feature/conc...

Bloomberg has reported that workers at Naughty Dog recently underwent a seven week, mandatory overtime period. The directive was made to complete an internal demo of its upcoming title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, for review by Sony after the production missed multiple deadlines.

Horses developer Santa Ragione says the studio is "very much suspended," despite the attention the game received for its ban on Steam. “We were literally at the top of the best selling games on GOG for multiple days. If that had happened on Steam, I could stop working for the rest of my life.”

New interview with Santa Ragione about the Horses bans and the studio's suspension, courtesy of @maddie-b-a.bsky.social “If there is an opportunity for a reunion in the future based on our success, it’d be lovely. If not, we’re still very happy and proud of the eight games that we’ve made."

Charlie Cox has previously downplayed his involvement in portraying Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Now in a recent press conference he has said that he gives "any nomination or any credit" to the performance capture artist Maxence Cazorla. https://bit.ly/4ifCDz8

Why is Hollywood suddenly so obsessed with mining videogames for ideas, and more importantly, making sure they get it right? We get some industry perspectives, including BAFTA Award-winning actress of film, TV, and games Jane Perry (Hitman, Returnal)

Today, Paste Magazine shuttered all its non-music verticals, a choice I am both professionally and personally heartbroken about. Sadly, I am once again looking for a place that wants to let me write about Books and TV on the regular, so hit me up if that’s you or anyone you know.

Okay, yeah: Endless Mode is now The A.V. Club Games. We speedran this thing. Same editors, same writers, same content, just a different but familiar site. www.avclub.com/new-games-se...

@iwgbunion.bsky.social i love talking to unions i love writing about unions i love unions

this has probably been asked before but is there any good writing out there about how the rise of cosy games is a capitalist psyop

speaking up for what I believe in 😔✊

big thank you to union chair spring mcparlin-jones for chatting to me about za/um becoming the FIRST RECOGNISED WORKPLACE UNION IN UK GAMES ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

"Adaptors, particularly video game people, have clung to the idea with remarkable tenacity and have wonderfully multiplied these 'witcher schools'. Completely unnecessary." andrzej sapkowski i love your work please be a cranky old man forever

What the heck is this BLIPPO+ thing from @panic.com? Is it even a game? We talked to one of the collaborators behind it, the dance-pop band YACHT, to try and find out. Did we get answers? Uh, kind of?

Chat what does it mean when my videogame website colleagues continue be characterised by their belief in vampires and ghosts and cryptids etc

"...it’s like a cosy story, it might make you sleepy, but it doesn’t mean it’s boring or something. That’s what we want the player as well to feel… it doesn’t give you any stress. It’s very comfortable…" Thank you @maddie-b-a.bsky.social for your article on room6 and Yokaze 🌙

What do you think was the best reveal at Gamescom this year? If you said "that random American trucking simulator," you'd be right – and it just so happens to be set exactly where @maddie-b-a.bsky.social grew up. Thankfully, she got a chance to play it.

I'm biased ofc but I reckon Maddie is killin it at This Week in Videogames Dot Com. Gamescom was her first consumer games convention... like ever? And she somehow survived a back-to-back schedule solo, conducting interviews that were great to listen to raw, and wonderful to read written up.