Did you know I have a Substack where I talk about game production? Of course not, I just started it! Check out my latest post: The Survival Era is Real...But It's Not About Money open.substack.com/pub/piersdup... #gamedev #indiedev #gameproduction

A production audit is a diagnostic. It won't tell you what to build or whether your game is good. What it will tell you is where your project actually stands relative to what a publisher or investor would expect to see and how far that is from where you think you are. #indiedev #gamedev

A production audit isn't useful if you're already in a crisis. You already know something's wrong. It's also not the right move if funding conversations are still years away. There's a window where it actually makes sense, and it's narrower than people think. #indiedev #gamedev

A production audit isn't a general health check. It's specifically for founders who are getting close to funding conversations but genuinely aren't sure if their project is structured well enough to support them. If that sounds like you, that's exactly who it's built for. #indiegamedev #indiedev

Most founders think a production audit checks their schedule. It doesn't. It looks at whether your project holds up the way a publisher or investor would evaluate it and the gap between where you think you are and where you actually are. Walked through the whole process here: youtu.be/-jk-WwPvGOs

Publishers read your deck cold. No context, no backstory, no benefit of the doubt. What's obvious to you after two years means nothing to someone seeing it for the first time. #indiegame #gamedev #pitchdeck #indiedev #gamepublisher

Ask for too little and the publisher thinks you don't know your own costs. Ask for too much and you're requesting a risk the project hasn't earned yet. There's no safe side to get this wrong. #indiegame #gamedev #pitchdeck #indiedev #gamepublisher

A perfect spreadsheet doesn't mean a credible number. Publishers aren't looking at your budget. They're looking at whether the ask makes sense for what they can see in the room. #indiegame #gamedev #pitchdeck #indiedev #gamepublisher

A pitch deck isn't a document. It's a story, and stories have a sequence. Get it wrong and you lose the room before the game even lands. #indiegame #gamedev #pitchdeck #indiedev #gamepublisher

Are you pitching your game or going to pitch to publishers soon? Then I recommend checking out my latest video on YouTube, it breaks down the three mistakes I've seen most on pitch decks youtu.be/rZIJL4dxPyE #indiegame #gamedev #pitchdeck #indiedev #gamepublisher

Most devs I talk to know their features. Some know how long those features take. Almost none have checked whether their team actually has those hours available. Feature list plus time estimates means nothing until it's sitting next to your actual staff capacity. I recommending giving a go asap

Big things coming to Starfield very soon!

A finished, boring, well documented game is more impressive than a flashy half built demo. Studios are under pressure to ship so we hire people who finish. Does your portfolio prove you can close? #gamedev #indiedev #production #gamedevelopment

Self direction isn’t a bonus anymore. It's expected Can you identify problems, propose solutions, execute, and ask for feedback at the right time? Does your portfolio prove that? #gamedev #indiedev #production #gamedevelopment

The strongest hireability signal in game development right now? Production thinking. Showing scope awareness, constraints, trade-off reasoning and knowing when to stop. Does your portfolio demonstrate judgment or just output? #gamedev #indiedev #production #gamedevelopment

💰THE OUTERSLOTH CONTRACT 💰 We just released the FULL contract and terms that all our games sign! We hope this challenges the status quo of what you see out there. In a nutshell: 💸 Pre-recoup 50/50 💸 Post-recoup 15/85 💸 Terms after 7 years www.innersloth.com/the-outerslo...

We all want to ship glossy, glamorous projects but that’s not the full reality of game development. #gamedev #indiedev #production #gamedevelopment

Producers are not impressed by ambition. We are impressed by constraint awareness. If you can explain why you chose not to build something, you signal production maturity instantly. When you present your portfolio, do you explain trade-offs? #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment #production

Most developers optimise for skill but studios optimise for risk. This can cause a disconnect. If you were hiring today, what would worry you most about bringing someone onto your team? #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment #careergrowth

“Self-starter” doesn’t mean motivated. It means you fix problems without being asked. Show it. #gamedev #gamejobs #careertips #indiedev

If you have a strong portfolio but keep getting ignored…It’s probably not your skill. In 2026, game studios hire for alignment. Do you reference their work? Match their role? Or are you mass applying? #gamedev #gameindustry #indiedev

Production awareness is one of the most underrated hiring signals. Shipping small projects. Patching systems. Writing documentation. Improving existing work. That’s daily studio reality. Are your portfolio pieces showing that? #gamedev #indiedev #gamejobs

Some of the most beautiful portfolios I’ve seen still failed the interview. Why? Because the timelines weren’t realistic. Game studios hire for production speed, not just polish. How long are your portfolio pieces taking you? #gamedev #indiedev #gamejobs

The games industry isn’t entry level friendly anymore. Studios are leaner. Teams are smaller. Hiring mistakes are expensive. That changes everything about how they hire. Are you still following advice from 2015? #gamedev #indiedev #gameindustry

A lot of game dev career advice fails today because it was written for a different industry. Different pressures. Different expectations Let's try to change that #GameDev #GameIndustry #GameCareers #GameDevAdvice

Passion used to open doors in game dev. Now it is the default. The industry professionalized and hiring expectations followed. #GameDev #GameIndustry #GameCareers #GameDevAdvice

Tutorials are great for learning but they’re terrible as a portfolio strategy. Studios want to see decisions, problem-solving, and scope when recruiting. #GameDev #GameIndustry #GameCareers #GameDevAdvice

I got into the games industry through a radio ad looking for untrained QA testers. That was normal back then. It doesn’t exist now and a lot of advice ignores that shift. #GameDev #GameIndustry #GameCareers #GameDevAdvice

Most game dev advice fails today because the industry changed and the advice didn’t. What advice do you think is most outdated? #GameDev #GameIndustry #GameCareers #GameJobs #GameDevAdvice

Entry level in game dev doesn’t mean learning on the job anymore. It means owning a small piece of work and delivering it without hand holding and this is where a lot of applicants get stuck. What do you think entry level should mean? #GameDev #GameCareers #GameJobs #IndieDev #AAAGames

ArtStation portfolios work best when they show process, not just final images. I go into a bit more detail about that in my latest video youtu.be/GyneBHaN_ok How much of your workflow do you usually show? #gamedev #artstation #portfolio

Showing design documentation is tricky. Do you think feature-focused pages work better than full design documents in portfolios? Check out my thoughts on YouTube - youtube.com/shorts/ZRVFz... #gamedev #gamedesign #portfolio

Final renders look great, but they don’t explain much on their own. How much of your process do you usually show in your portfolio? #gamedev #portfolio

Portfolio UX matters more than people realise. If someone has to click just to understand what they’re looking at, that’s friction. What’s the first thing your homepage actually shows? #gamedev #portfolio

Reapplying with an unchanged portfolio is more common than you’d think. How often do you actually revisit yours after getting feedback? #gamedev #portfolio

About Me pages are tricky. It’s tempting to write personal stories, but from a hiring perspective they rarely help. What do you think an About Me should actually communicate? #gamedev #portfolio

Happy 35th to id Software 🎉 As a huge fan of Doom, id’s work was a massive part of what pulled me into games in the first place. Getting to work at Bethesda now and seeing the respect between these teams up close is genuinely special. #gamedev #doom #idsoftware

Your portfolio is a living document. New work gets added. Old work gets clearer. The site itself gets better over time. If it’s been a while, this is your reminder. #gamedev #portfolio

Recruiters do not compile your project. They read your README. If it doesn’t guide them, they move on. Write for humans, not just engineers. #gamedev #github #portfolio

Your portfolio is judged instantly. Homepage should be the work. GIFs should prove gameplay. Labels should explain your role. How fast can someone understand yours? #gamedev #portfolio #uxdesign

Game jams are not shipping experience. Shipping starts after the jam ends. If you want real portfolio value, extend your jam project for two weeks and treat it like a studio release. What would you fix first after a jam ends? #gamedev #indiedev #gamedesign #careeradvice #gamejams

2025 was the year of Obsidian Entertainment and now 2026 is the year of Playground Games. I love it Absolutely here for Fable and Forza this year!

Designers, here’s a smart portfolio move people ignore. Wiki contributions ARE real experience. You’re documenting systems, explaining mechanics, and proving design thinking publicly. That’s valuable. #GameDesign #GameDev #GameDesignCareer #GameDesigner #PortfolioBuilding

Most portfolios show what you built. Great portfolios show what you understood. Reverse engineering a movement controller proves you can identify constraints, timing, and design intent. That’s recruiter gold. What mechanic would you try to reverse engineer first? #GameDev #GameDesign #IndieDev

Most people wait for permission to get experience. QA testers don’t. If you can find bugs, document them clearly, and show evidence, you’re already valuable to a dev team. That’s how you build real QA experience. What game would you test first? #GameDev #GameCareers #QA #IndieDev #GameTesting

New World shutting down is genuinely sad to see. An MMO that took real risks and a world that clearly had a ton of love poured into it. Not perfect, but ambitious in ways the genre badly needs. Massive respect to the devs behind New World. Shipping at that scale is no joke #GameDev #GameIndustry

You don’t need permission to get experience. Do the work a studio would assign and suddenly you’re production ready. What’s one “real” task you could add to your portfolio this week? #gamedev #careeradvice #gamedevcareer #indiedev

Co-development is a career superpower when done right. Some of the best games out there are made through tight collaboration between studios, not in isolation. Have you worked on a co-dev project before? What was your experience? #gamedev #gameindustry #careers #indiedev #AAAdev

You don’t need to ship a game to prove game design skill. System breakdowns, formulas, AI behavior, and clear documentation are real design work. Use it in your portfolio. #gamedev #gamedesign #gamecareers

Publisher marketing gets misunderstood a lot. Here’s what publishers actually do for that 30% when things are working well. #gamedev #indiegames