Dispatch from fighting game land: 2XKO is out in Closed Beta today, which means for some people it exists forever, and for everyone else it will exist forever soon, and I simply cannot believe it. I love this game, I am very grateful I got to spend a good chunk of my life making it.

Okay, 2XKO calling, we've got a Vi, we've got a global Beta on PC that is on from Sep 9 and there on out, we've got an EVO booth, we've got extremely earnest intent to deliver you an extremely sick fighting game youtu.be/quGZjIkigu4?... youtu.be/vr6Y96D3_Ro?...

An absolute honor-and-hoot to guest on one of my favoritest sources of game design wisdom there is

Burned my brain out playing 2XKO today - a special kind of melt I've only really had from long sets of tag fighters. Oh shit it works. 🙏

If you're in Alpha Lab 2, we're trying to cram a bunch of folks into Ranked Lobbies right about for now testing. Come play!

Man, games hit different when you get to play them with people who aren't making them. I had SO much fun playing ranked duos in 2XKO today. Can't wait til we get the rest of the world in there.

Five people—three researchers and two test subjects—have just seen a color no human has ever seen before.

My game design aesthetic is "Surprisingly Discrete"

Whoa. Hi Alpha Lab.

When I joined Spry Fox 12 years ago, I worked on Road Not Taken, a roguelike narrative puzzle adventure, a game I loved. Blue Prince is also a roguelike narrative puzzle adventure, somehow managing to have absolutely nothing in common with Road Not Taken. 👏

Blue Prince is the intersection of like five separate that I've wanted to make, god I love it

Nom nom Mardu

Tons of juicy 2XKO improvements and updates, all on one big hour-long platter. youtu.be/v_juWbTw4hc?...

So sad that I'll be missing the Systems Design Meetup (and GDC altogether) today. I'm sick and I'm staying home! Thanks so much @lizardengland.bsky.social for sailing the ship. Miss everyone!!

You could show me any ten seconds of Severance at any time of my life in any fictional universe where I've never heard of Severance and I'd instantly know it's my favorite show in every universe

Hellloooooo if you are going to GDC and are a systems designer (or aspiring to be one), I'd like to recommend registering for this. Free, only about a block from the Moscone, and usually a really good mix of people (if I don't say so myself).

Do you design game systems, even a little as a treat? Will you also be at GDC this year? Gosh do I have the event for you. Our tenth annual GDC Systems Design meetup. Wednesday, March 19th at noon. Register, chat, enjoy! lu.ma/ileesdw6

Just WILD. 17 congratulations to @unormal.bsky.social, @jfg.land, the whole @cavesofqud.com team, @kitfoxgames.com, and the human race (distributed evenly). I've been holding out on diving in for many years of friendship with these folks. I'm so excited that my time has come. Mash that buy button

Behind the times, but one of the greats of is BACK. 868-HACK is easily one of my favorite Roguelites, _certainly_ my favorite Broughlike. What a purified essence of game

Was there a vibe shift? I'm pretty sure The Ship of Theseus isn't a paradox anymore. It's just obviously, uncontroversially the same ship.

Dang, my favorite restaurant is closing. www.instagram.com/p/DCqIFTnpb2... If you're in the bay and want to try some scrumptious food that honestly reads like the chefs were microdosing, check it before it's gone.

"If a woman doesn't look woman enough to a Republican, they want to be able to inspect your genitals to use a bathroom? It's disgusting. Everyone should reject it completely... they're endangering women, they're endangering girls of all kind, and everyone should reject it. It's gross." - AOC

Ridiculously insightful, nuanced, clear-eyed take on Trump's coming autocracy. Reshaped how I think about what's happening and what's going to happen. Not in a good way. But getting clear does feel empowering.

We out here

Lessons from today's prototyping meetup #gamedesign 1. Build the middle of your game first. Can you play your own game for 40-60 minutes? Then figure out how to teach that. Tutorials reveal the known fun, they don't find the fun.

Trump was elected and everyone at daycare came together in sorrow and love, buoyed by the unrelenting joy of babies. Over the next two days most of us got gastroenteritis, and stayed up all night puking our guts out while watching our babies puke their guts out. I'd like to thank the writers

I'd love to see an attempt at a DM-style difficulty mod for Baldur's Gate 3. Threats are clearly signaled, risk is on the lower side, the game gives you multiple opportunities to recover from your screw-ups, but: permadeath, no save-scumming.

When you die if you were good they show you all the mildly approving things the whisper networks said about you

This is like when a fighting game plays CPU vs CPU

We made a Trello for home life and by far the saddest thing about that is the deep equanimity that washed over me

This book so yum

Ten games to get to know me: - Final Fantasy 1 - Worms 2 - Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 - Resident Evil IV - SpelunkV - Street Fighter VI - Unreal 7ournament - Subnautic8 - Harvest M9n - Deus X

I've just come from two days on threads, and it looks like this place ISN'T an endless labyrinth of unbearable drivel? So cool