Our CCG roguelite deckbuilder, Vortex Siege, just launched a public playtest! Check it out here: store.steampowered.com/app/3029050/... #indiedev #gamedev #playtest #vortexsiege

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸!!!

<Giant, decades-old trash pile of criticism of video games as violent, attention-span lowering distractions from reality, people, and other Serious Things> Indie gamedevs: store.steampowered.com/app/1425980/...

My kid's middle school is divided into "learning communities" with names like Earth, Fire, Thunder, Sea, Sky, and Sun, and I am seriously concerned this may be a secret scholium of arcane wizardry, teaching our children forbidden magics.

What is the best actual name for a weapon and why is it the Bohemian earspoon?

But is it really Monday, actually? I'm not sure I buy it.

My favorite part running a D&D campaign for middle-graders: when I made them stop and think HARD about whether to save the missing son or just pay the shady character to smuggle them to the next spot. Their favorite part: when I added a sign saying "Neeps for sale" to the town message board.

Voice acting sessions and live performances for like the next 12 months at least: "Can I get the mic a little higher?" ... "🎵Gimme your desire - I can be the star you rely on...🎵"

What kind of week is it? The Psyduck bandaid on your knuckle kind.

Oh right. Happy Hobbit Day, one and all. 'I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.'

Rewatched the 1971 Gene Wilder Willy Wonka yesterday. It's as delightfully unhinged as hope and memory said it was. I'd just read the book with my kid, and although there are many changes, it felt entirely in the spirit of the thing. Gene Wilder's stop, don'ts most especially: youtu.be/uVdDXeYM4ss

Overheard on campus: "For example in the hobbit book - uh, do you mind spoilers?" "Oh, well I've seen the movie, so..." Might've been date? Regardless, a mighty nerdsplaining was surely about to ensue.

A puzzle game in which you play a logician-exorcist, where you are set against mischievous devils. When you solve the puzzles you DE-DEUCE the problem, chasing the devils out.

When the bird on the pirate’s shoulder Sings a loud satirical song And you want to sing along What is it that you need? Parroty parody parity

Uh oh, a work week A long, daunting work week We can't skip over it We can't duck out of it Oh no We've got to get through it

"But doctor... I am Pagliacci."

Wait the rabbits with tentacles* thing is REAL??? (* well “tentacles”, but still)

A joyful Saint Nemesis Day to all those who celebrate.

D&D hack: to keep my (middle school-aged) players engaged, I asked them to invent a list of tavern names and with the promise that I will sprinkle their choices throughout the world. They are having WAY too much fun with it.

Hear me out: Molotov mocktail.

Oh wow this looks fantastic.

Well THIS was an unexpected revenance. Only... um... 19 years after we released the original.

You’re required to fill the available space, right?

Is it cake but it’s a baked ham and if it’s not cake it’s actual ham.

A minimalist logic game. Can you solve for 𝒙? ❓ Infer the rules of each glyph without hints 🧠 Over 300 handcrafted across evolving lands 🎶 Chill, reactive soundtrack as you play CIPHER ZERO. Out Now. zpdt.co/playcz #PlayCipherZero #GameDev #IndieGameDev #IndieDev #SolveForX

Version Control - the kind of lesson you generally only have to learn once.

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Dreamed I had to work with the two other leads to figure out how to get players engaging with key parts of our next live service update. Eventually we realized the solution lay in focusing them on the story PLAYED (a la Portal GDC talk) & not other narrative, and in the dream I called it ódu.

I have come to LOATHE the business cycle of large corps buying successful studios and then meddling, burying, or tossing them in the wastebin.

Remember friends: LLMs don't hallucinate, think, or get confused. They just generate statistically likely responses to their prompts. That's all.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - There's a satisfying crack as the cap comes off, and the hair on your back rises like an army at attention. You've been here before. Welcome back, detective. You're home now...

Finished the debut season of Dept Q (Netflix) last night. Really strong detective genre storytelling imho. Feels a lot like Slow Horses, except the characters are mostly hot messes on the inside instead of on the outside, and also mostly have thick Scottish brogues.

They should really get their sign fixed.

a friend of mine shared this ai-generated "emotion wheel" and unfortunately i have been laughing my ass off at it for like 15 minutes now. today i am feeling Fnliinneon

Neo-Twiny Jam submission finished. It's an exploration of cycling links as an IF 'uncrumpling' text mechanic - and a dark little surrealist flash fiction. droctothorpe.itch.io/a-crumpled-p...

Pop quiz: what do you call a euphonium player? Now what do you call an insincere euphonium one? What do you call it when they make a delicate or oblique allusion?

I missed this talk at GDC and am so glad I caught it now. Watch it. It's important, a note of (mixed) hope, and a VERY strong case for how the games industry would benefit from unionization. gdcvault.com/play/1034950...

Imagine, if you will, Will Arnett's Batman reciting The Raven in dead and gravelly earnest: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— "What? I said 'lore'. Lore. Don't you know what lore is?"

The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation has launched a Patreon! Now there's a new way to support us and all we do (Narrascope, Twine, IFComp, IFDB, IF Wiki, IntFiction, and so much more!)

Started on my Neo-Twiny Jam entry. I have this crazy idea to base it on the (cycling-link:) macro in Twine/Harlowe. I'm excited but it's already tying my brain in knots. itch.io/jam/neo-twin...

Naming your super secret rebel base Yavin because it’s the 4th planet in the Yavin system is TERRIBLE operational security.

Oh yeah it really is not too early to begin thinking about -- itch.io/jam/neo-twin...

Oooooooooh, I get it. Blue Prince. Blue Prints. I was... not fast on the uptake for that one.

Finished watching Andor S2E12 last night, so I can safely re-join the internet. Hello, world.

Learned about skeleton panda sea squirts and now life on this planet is 1.2% more bearable.

I love how the reward for getting through a crunch period is: you get to deal with all the crap you put off during your crunch period.

School's out and I've begun catching up on GDC talks I missed through the vault. So far Frostpunk 2 Speaking in Systems and the Monument Valley 3 design talk - both fantastic and insightful.

PLEASE BE PATIENT STUDENT DOCTOR

Reviewing the worldbuilding chapter from @totter87.bsky.social's excellent level design book and am suddenly struck by how Metroidvanias have an exploration progression loop (explore to unlock to explore more) much the same as RPGs have a combat progression loop (fight to power up to fight more).