Riddle time: I am a key of grey hue. For dullness I am mocked. I must often cross with sisters. For purest crimson do I unlock. What am I?

🙌The first recognised union for game devs in the UK! 🙌 Workers at ZAUM now have a say on their pay and conditions at work with the support of the @iwgbunion.bsky.social Work in games in the UK? Join our union today: iwgb.org.uk/en/join/game...

Outside of the full time job as a game designer I try to practice outside of that with whatever design skill I’m not using. Main job requiring lots of system design? Practice level design. Main job requiring level design? Practice puzzle design

Doesn’t get much better than you and the cat playing silksong together

I am all for the excitement of Hollow Knight fans crashing Steam. But please only temporarily! 😅

Rainbow season has kicked off in style here! 🌈 A kind of under-rainbow but triple!!

Today's the day! A silksong special announcement in less than 7 hours. I'm wearing my Hollow Knight T-Shirt in celebration 😅 www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XGe...

We're excited to announce that applications are open for the Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant 2025 🎉 The grant will award $15,000 to five thinky puzzle game developers from all over the world, and a year's mentorship with genre veterans. Deadline: September 28th More info 👇 grants.draknek.org

Games for username letters L onging U nsighted D yson Sphere Program I was a teenage exocolonist C hants of Senaar R esident Evil 2 Y es, Your Grace A strea: Six Sided Oracles N ine Sols

I’m not saying our wifi password is GustaveBestBoi (I’m also not not saying that), however, until Silksong comes out, Clair Obscur is my game of the year

We are incredibly disappointed by the Labour government's decision to seek advice from such a narrow segment of our industry. You can find our open letter here: www.gameworkers.co.uk/open-letter-...

If you have never made a puzzle but really want to give it a try, I wholeheartedly recommend the LOK puzzle system. It has spatial and temporal elements that really get the brain meat working! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI28...

How I tend to work is with one hand, whilst little Gertrude climbs into my arm and demands chin scritches and belly rubs.

Started Logic Bombs last night and it's a real delightful puzzle game. Scratches the same itch as Clues by Sam. The tutorial levels give only a tiny bit of information and they really rely on familiarity with nonograms and solving solutions in other logic puzzles. Highly recommend!

@ludicryan.bsky.social made a fantastic video about how to make a LOK puzzle! Using both pen and paper environment and the editor in LOK Digital, Ryan really exposed what makes a LOK puzzle tick. I also contributed a bit with an interview. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI28...

Our #indiegame #Kickstarter is now LIVE! 🤩🎉 You're the one whodunnit in this reverse detective #visualnovel - can you find the perfect scapegoat, get away with theft, and stomach some sickening consequences? 🔎☕ Head over to our project page and support SPILL THE BEANS! ➡️ bit.ly/stb-kickstar...

This morning my partner joked that they never have to worry about me cheating on them because I'd just be at home filling out my Monster Train 2 spreadsheet 😅 (Making a spreadsheet because I want to do a system design breakdown video of the mini-engines at play for each faction)

A new kind of heist game. South African game studio announces Relooted, a game all about stealing stolen cultural artifacts from museums and bringing them back home to Africa. Get the details here:

I've wanted to write about Sekiro for years but nothing I wanted to say about it was interesting until I reflected on the nature of play and my own experience swordfighting. Finally finished it though! www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ-c...

Ahhhh k-pop demon hunters was such a delight. Great songs and funny from start to finish

I've been practicing making LOK puzzles for the last few weeks in preparation for making a video on how to make and design LOK puzzles. Part of this practice is just creating a muscle memory of different solving and design techniques. Part of it is analysing existing puzzles and why they work.

Every job I’ve had since I started in the industry, I’ve made the joke to managers that I have a clause in my contract to have a week off when Silksong releases. I am excited that I may soon not be making that joke anymore!

Yay, a game I worked on was on the wholesome direct (MV3). Feels like a good game dev achievement! Now to buy this year’s t-shirt!

I'm still annoyed at the idea of these AI bros who don't really care about the craft of making games. The time and effort I've spent to just PRACTICE out of a love of game design is so important to me. The practice itself is enjoyable! All of these puzzles, riddles, levels, systems are important

I think the part that annoys me the most about this is that these people don’t care about making games anymore. They’re in it for profit. I want to scream at every single one of them “but what’s the point if you don’t want to actually put the hard work and effort into a piece of art!?”

This is insane behavior to me. You want to WRITE for a living but you don't want to WRITE?!?

We're excited to announce that the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase will begin TOMORROW and run from May 29 - June 5! Featuring discounts on a selection of excellent puzzle games, streams from our favorite streamers, demos for upcoming games & plenty more! Links below 👇 www.cerebralpuzzleshowcase.com

Tonight’s double rainbow 😁

One of the pieces I’m most proud of was a couple months into the pandemic about The Longing. It coincidently matched the conditions of lockdown during the pandemic. I talked about game texts and Gadamer so it was complex but super interesting! youtu.be/D8viXQhT8zw?...

I've been working on a video about practicing game design through pen and paper puzzles like labyrinths. I like being able to practice through formats where you can see your progress quite rapidly. For me it's like when an artist sketches www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsOE...

Honestly, I think this tech should be outlawed. This is awful.

Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.

Here's a very early concept I did on Monument Valley 3, which later inspired art for a section of levels that made it in the final game. Final art by @ianzell.bsky.social and design by @ludicryan.bsky.social & @ianzell.bsky.social (plus support from other folks for the final iteration!)

Making a mega thread of #transrights protests all across the UK today! Starting of with the big one in London

Getting to play Promise Mascot Agency now. It's interesting playing something with such a heavy collection element in the exploration which - in some games - can feel tacked on to extend the playtime. But here, because there's such good audiovisual feedback for breaking a sign its pleasing!

We ( @salmikawolf.bsky.social ) blasted through Blue Prince today and got to room 46. But so much left to discover, can’t wait to dip back into it more every now and then, but slower and less obsessively! 😅

It’s so effortless to get sucked in to run after run of blue prince. It’s interesting to play the room draw as part of your economy and lean in to creating a certain build. What a framework for a puzzle game!

Sunday riddle time with my cat Gertrude vm.tiktok.com/ZNdLsVYCU/

This was super cool to work on. When I have more free time I’ll be making a video on how this level came together, it’s inspirations and the great feedback that really made it sing!

The last few years in the global games industry have been turbulent and our local industry has also felt these effects. Join moderators from NIGD and union organisers from the IWGB on Tuesday 8th April to hear and discuss what we can do to improve our industry for the future. lu.ma/0f7xzfhj

I absolutely don’t have money or inclination to go to GDC, but I did have the latter to do a lil kendo grading today. Getting back into it. Am now 3rd kyu. Now I work towards Ikkyu I think(?)

It’s weird to see well known YouTubers in and around games development opine about studio closures and the tens of thousands of layoffs without actually mentioning unionising or workers coming together to reform the industry. It’s disappointing to see a lack of engagement with a way forward

I messed up taking the photo but if you squint you can make out a lovely Trainbow! (Rainbow seen on a train)

When colouring in a snowman I made it rainbow colours. Maybe that one’s on me?

What's that you say, you want to see my cat Gertrude pretend to be a sphinx and recite riddles that she came up with? Well by all means have at thee: www.tiktok.com/@ludicryan/v...

Nice winter rainbow this morning 😃

Thought I'd jump in with my favourite games this year. In no particular order: Nine Sols by Red Candle Games is so beautiful! There's a precision in its combat that's so difficult to get right and everything from its hub area to exploration is such a treat

Yesterday we ( @salmikawolf.bsky.social) played Concept but instead of picking items off the cards we put all the Overwatch characters names into a hat and used the symbols to describe their ultimates. There’s fun to be had in the specificity of goals and making your own constraints

Been playing Metaphor over the break and loving it so far. There's a really nice cadence in how it structures dungeon time, free time and story time. They operate as nice pace setters that allow the player to take breaks and reflect. Of course, it's so good I just keep playing...

On the flight back from London today we saw what’s termed as a Glory. Looks like a circular rainbow! Stunning! Never seen that before! With @salmikawolf.bsky.social (fyi I take pictures of rainbows anytime I see them and try to share them because they are just awesome!)