Look at me posting another thing on the YouTubes. Balancing Player Freedom and Scripted Events in my Solo RPG youtu.be/O862Pgk92bA

Well @animenorthcompass.bsky.social is over ☹️ The rain and wind really, pardon the pun, dampened the spirits this year. I ended up skipping a number of things cause I was soaked and cold. Hopefully next year will be a return to drier skies.

Day 2 of @animenorthcompass.bsky.social Mostly a shopping day. Though I went to a panel on designing games which was really good. More stuff this evening.

Now for the @yenpress.com panel.

Impressions from Super Eyepatch Wolf’s panel. 1. Man can tell a story 2. Amazing someone who does videos on such diverse topics can fill a room 3. How he talks about video ideas - looking for the right story & how he hasn’t done a Twin Peaks video cause he can’t find the right angle.

Also, I guess with my lack of posting, I also forgot to mention I posted something to YouTube after a long hiatus I'm Writing a Horror Solo RPG youtu.be/Qacjk1R6Cps

And so @animenorthcompass.bsky.social begins. First up is a panel with Super Eyepatch Wolf. Then, for the first time I know of, @yenpress.com is having a panel here!

About to see a show! Spending an evening with Lucy Darling in Toronto

This. So much this.

I have never preordered something so quickly. I mean, I know, it’s kinda cringe. But it’s marrying my favorite transformer with my favorite mecha. #optimusprime #evangelion youtu.be/bcBI04lqXPc?...

I haven’t posted in a long time. But man, this just really resonated with me. I feel like I needed to read it right now.

Sometimes the French are just more honest

It’s AnimeNYC and FanExpo Canada weekend! I’m at neither event 😭

Whelp, having only posted 1 video in 6 months on YouTube, and not having a back catalogue that produces a ton of watch time, I’ve been kicked out of the partner program. Wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t 2/3 of the way to a payout. 😭

Saw Shin for the first time last night in theatres. It was really cool. Especially for an Evangelion nerd like myself.

The look that says, “I’m not moving, so you’re not leaving.”

Something in the bowels of YouTube stirs. 🤣

My wife gifted me Hope and Fear 😊 They’re beautiful!🤩 @criticalrole.bsky.social #daggerheart

I have never seen the human experience so succinctly defined.

GKIDS is proud to announce we'll be bringing a new 4K remaster of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's SHIN GODZILLA to North American theatres starting August 14! 💥 brnw.ch/21wT5Ox

My new favorite book

There’s a band, Ninja Sex Party, fronted by one of the Game Grumps. Yesterday, my son asked if my spouse and I were working today and I said “no son, we’re going to see ninja sex party.” He stops for a moment, then says, “I wonder how many parents in the world have ever said that.” 🤣🤘

I think the past two threads really resonate with me not only as someone who wants to create, but especially as someone who took calls for ambulance for so many years. I’ve heard things no person should have to hear. And yeah, games and all forms of entertainment made it more bearable

Another similar thread inspired by the last. It’s so important to realize there is meaning and value in creating any form of art or entertainment.

Honestly, this choked me up. What a brilliant moment to have. And what a brilliant doctor to have provided it.

All You Need Is Kill, the science-fiction novel that inspired Tom Cruise's Edge of Tomorrow film, gets an anime by STUDIO4°C! It will retell the story from a different viewpoint than either the novel or the Hollywood film!

Been playing Ender Lilies. I forgot how addictive metroidvanias can be. I also forgot how much I suck at them.

I feel this in so many ways.

this person said it so good so here it is

I’ve always struggled with going through the process. I have little patience for taking the incremental steps to reach a finished project. But in my 50s I’m trying to change. To see an idea I have realized, I’m trying to take the small steps. To that end, I have made a snowman in Blender.

I hate that this isn’t even that far fetched 🫣

My schedule used to mirror my boss’. But since the start of the year, I’m working shifts which means I can go a week or more not seeing her. This fills me with dread when I know I have to go in on days she’s working. Cause I just worry I’ve done something wrong and she’s had days to stew about it.

I did not see those last few words coming. And I admit they made me do a lot deeper think about this than I had expected.

A reminder that fiction — books, film, games, what have you — is always political. The willful absence of “politics” in any work is itself a political choice and a political act. Who gets to tell (and sell) stories is political. It might be an undercurrent — covert, not overt. But it’s there.

Having spent years as an ambulance communications officer, I have always said real life is stranger than fiction. I mean, there are no rules and no one editors.

Jerry Lawson invented the video game cartridge. He's the reason they stopped making pong consoles in the 1970s. If it weren't for him, the Atari 2600 and many others would literally NEVER exist at all.

Played my first honest-to-goodness D&D campaign last night. Realizing maybe a Bard isn’t the best class for me. I play too much like a slimy conman, not a charismatic crooner.

I followed a tutorial and got a little sprite knight to run around the screen in Unity. My day feels accomplished.

I know I’m revealing I still have a 10 year old’s taste in humor, but some of these are funny as hell.

this is pretty perfect

Sometimes I think about the me living in the good timeline. Fuck that guy.

I’m so exhausted by being constantly letdown and horrified by the behavior of people I thought I could respect and whose work I loved.

I've been thinking about K-drama pacing for a while, and I think maybe video games have something to learn from the form. IMO 3 acts has always been unwieldy for games. 5 acts works better. But what if we dig into the sub-beats and think more about "episodes"? I think that's where the magic is.

今年も一年ありがとうございました！最後の絵はエーブリエタースで締めたいと思います。皆様また来年！#Bloodborne

The biggest waste of money I’ve seen in video game development, across many years and studios (not my current one - one of the reasons I wanted to work there), wasn’t on graphics. It was abruptly being told to throw out months or years of work bc one executive decided they didn’t like something.

Daily reminder that the underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.

Figures the most vocal “Canadian” in favor of the US annexing us is an old rich white dude who lives in the US.

I confess, I've been playing around with the idea of making a hobby game. So, in my usual fashion, I start poking around different software and such. And I check out all the "this is the best to use" type articles. Well, my computer has decided for me that Unreal Engine is not the right tool for me

I really need to find a new path in life. All this depression and anger is gonna make me pop an embolism

Yeah ok, I’m doing this. Here is some advice for aspiring game writers. Do not come into games wanting to be a game writer with the attitude that all you are going to write are the cinematics. Fact: a game’s story is not about the cinematics. 🧵