Anybody remember the CrowdStrike IT Outage? It was two years ago today. How do I know this? Because it was the day I was trying to leave my hometown to move to Europe!

2 years ago I realized my career in tech was eating away at my soul. I quit my job, sold my house, and moved to Europe to write novels and make video games. Most people still think I’m nuts. And maybe I am, but dang if I’m not happier. youtu.be/cpFj1zIxjiY?... #QuitMyJob #MovingAbroad #VideoEssay

The word “readjust” never looks right. #writingcommunity

Work today was yelling into a mic with uppity indignation. Because when a Wizard steals a grimoire in this game, the grimoire protests. Loudly. THIS IS AN ILLEGAL CHECKOUT PROCEDURE! I DEMAND TO SEE YOUR LIBRARY CARD AT ONCE. THIEF! SCOUNDREL! ADJUCT PROFESSOR! I’m having too much fun. #gamedev

I’m AI kosher. If AI even touched a game, book, song, or artwork it’s unclean and I will not partake.

I don’t have a healthy reading habit. I have a binge reading disorder.

I have a novel that needs final edits before publication. I have a video game that’s close to release. I have a pending visa application to move to France, and then I’ll need to pack/move. I think I need a vacation from this whole living the dream thing. #writingcommunity #gamedev #movingabroad

“You’re gonna be left behind if you don’t use AI.” Oh no. I’ll be stuck back here with my critical thinking, doomed to have an attention span. I’ll have to have my own ideas and read and write all by myself. I will be left measuring my life by something other than productivity. #writingcommunity

How do you give players a giant magical toolbox without breaking their brains? This is a bit in the weeds on game mechanics, but we thought it might be interesting to walk through our thinking and how we landed on a solutions that’s somehow familiar yet unique. #gamedev youtube.com/watch?v=ARqG...

Comma usage in creative writing is like garlic usage in cooking. Ignore the recipe and follow your heart. 📚💙 #writingcommunity

I love little defiant plants popping up in weird places. Here’s a flower growing out of an old cattle fence I found today out in the dunes.

Dear YouTube, If I didn’t click on the video the first 3 times you put it into my feed, I probably don’t want to watch the video. Sincerely, Everybody

The real enemy is apathy, and society only loses if we give up hope. www.cjnolen.com/blog/heroes-... #WritingCommunity 📚💙

There’s a big chunk of the world united in watching Eurovision tonight. And then there’s another chunk that is united in deliberately NOT watching Eurovision. And then there’s another chunk of the world that has no idea wtf Eurovision is. Being an American in Europe can be a weird experience.

My generation all mocked Clippy so hard he finally deleted Facebook, lawyered up, and joined a gym. Now we have all this AI slop.

Oh hey look, it’s another reason not to use Unity. We are 100% Organic. Goo Monster Studio is opposed to the use of AI to replace humans in creative endeavors. We will never use AI generated art, music, voice, or writing. Not for brainstorming, not for prototyping, not ever. #gamedev #fuckai

Nobody on my old work network likes these posts, which just makes it funnier to me.

I have absolutely no reason to keep my old LinkedIn account so I’m having a bit of fun with it.

Everybody with a numeric volume control knows that 5 is an honorary even number.

This week we officially entered internal playtesting. We found some networking bugs. We have a list of spell changes to make. But mostly our takeaway is that THE GAME IS FUN. Even with all the rough edges it had me and Zac laughing for hours. We are cooking with gas here! #gamedev

Nobody will ever have to suffer through my first novel but me. open.substack.com/pub/nolenato... #booksky

Today’s adventure in #gamedev is amateur foley work. I had a mic strapped to a stick so I could record my wife’s footsteps in slippers on a rug (because wizards wear slippers, of course). Our dog was very excited by this so most takes were ruined by tippy taps.

Today my job is to set up a makeshift recording booth / blanket fort in my closet and record myself performing over-the-top death screams. The life of an indie game dev is never dull. #gamedev #indiegames

It makes me sad to think that the greatest novel ever written is likely sitting abandoned in a desk drawer or a hard drive somewhere. 📚💙

Many of my friends and family have a fundamental misunderstanding of why I do what I do. It’s my responsibility to support my art, not the other way around. open.substack.com/pub/nolenato... #booksky #WritingCommunity #Art

I batch recorded 10 videos of me dressed as a wizard so that now I can finally shave this huge and horrible beard off. My son is disappointed that I no longer look wizardly, but my ability to commit to the bit for video game marketing only goes so far.

You know, the benefit of being bad at Blender and making really simple game characters is that drawing them is also pretty easy. Not a bad first step to DIYing this marketing stuff. #gamedev #procreate

I am tempted to give the capsule art a shot myself. Worst case scenario it’s so bad I don’t show it to anybody. Best case scenario, I manage to land in the derpy indie charm zone.

I’ve contacted a dozen artists looking to hire for Steam capsule art. None of them have replied. I’m really not sure what I’m doing wrong. It seems like “I like your art! Can I give you money to make some more?” should be pretty straightforward. #gamedev #artist

Everybody calm down. Ballet and Opera have survived the rise and fall of empires. They’ll weather a hot take just fine.

28 spells are officially finished. Thats all the core spells. We have some housekeeping and tweaking to do but this thing is getting closer and closer to being ready to put out into the world. I guess it’s time to settle on a name and find an artist for our Steam capsule! #gamedev #artistwanted

It’s like those 80s movie montages but this one is about learning Blender and creating game characters. #gamedev #indiegames youtube.com/watch?v=lrs5...

In America, my wife was disabled. In the Netherlands, she is not. It’s hard to express just how big a deal that is. open.substack.com/pub/nolenato...

Remember 80’s movie montages?  Watching somebody struggle gets really old, really fast.  So this next video we’re gonna zip through weeks and months of frustrating work and turn the struggle into a comedy of me developing the visual style of this game. #gamedev #indiestudio

England has maths. The US has only math. The One Great Math. At some point we decided that the maths were uncountable. But if you know the One Great Math and also master the Humanities, you become a polymath. It doesn’t add up.

Ok, writers. How on earth do you find a serious, committed writing group these days? My last attempt had me meeting up at cafes with one creepy old guy who couldn’t shut up and half a dozen college kids who “thought it would be neat to try writing.” #writers

I could write a book on all the stupid shit tech CEOs have said to me over the years, but “Being nice is a waste of time” was the phrase that finally broke me. Quitting my job to rescue my childhood dreams has been the best decision of my life. #gamedev #indiestudio youtube.com/watch?v=R4vC...

We worked on this game for over a year. But our artistic blind spot eventually torpedoed the whole thing. An honest post-mortem and love letter to the game we lost. #gamedev #indiestudio Unconquered – The Game That Got Away youtu.be/wou3KnG-Ivs

Hardbacks look nice on the shelf. Which is why I leave them right where they are at the bookstore.

When you take the risk, you’re an idiot. If it works out, you’re a genius. Gotta love being Schrödinger's Idiot-Genius.

I'm C.J. Nolen—novelist and cofounder of Goo Monster Studio. Writerly stuff is on Substack, video game shenanigans on YouTube.