I don’t code with genAI because i keep falling back into the thought that any programming task is either central to the design of your thing and thus something you’ll want to understand fully, or can almost certainly be simplified to a smaller version that is more interesting and / or personal.

The Hidden Folks team is working on something and we'll announce it soon. If you want to make sure you don't miss the news, sign up here to get an email: hiddenfolks.com

Don't miss this documentary by @amanita-design.net on making Phonopolis!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQlh... I'm 20 minutes in and getting more excited by the minute. Game development as craftsmanship, artistry, full of personality; real inspiring stuff.

everything related to Phonopolis is legendary. i’m hyped

We just made the Midgame Fund agreement public. midgame.fund/terms The money TL;DR is: - Devs pay investors back from the game's revenue after it releases (if ever). - 75% of revenue pre-recoup. - 25% of revenue post-recoup, until 6 times the investment or 5 years after release.

Example of open source (Godot) working for game devs: - My team needed a feature. I made a proposal: github.com/godotengine/... - A contributor makes it & submits a PR: github.com/godotengine/... - I help review the PR until it's solid & until there are enough approvals to merge it. #godotengine

Hidden Folks has a sorting problem due to its not-axis-aligned isometric perspective. We used manual sorting for the original Hidden Folks and it was an insane amount of work with ~thousands~ of workarounds. We're using y-sorting for the sequel, but it leads to the behavior in the vid. #gamedev

Couldn't stop myself from doing this small redesign of Godot's Audio panel: github.com/godotengine/... #godotengine

Godot's FileSystem panel could use a cleanup. Made a proposal & mockup here: github.com/godotengine/... Open to suggestions! #godotengine

i learned a valuable lesson after a game dev i was firing was surprised they were being fired. i had given them feedback often! but had also talked down its severity and shared that i believed they’d improve. i wanted to encourage, without threaten, but… it gave them the feeling they were fine.

Here's my first Godot engine contribution where I actually had to write C++ code as opposed to copy / pasting others' code! github.com/godotengine/... Learned a tiny bit about pointers (in this case: the `*` in front of variables). Not particularly eager to understand more, but I might have to?

if your small game dev team with no producer is motivated to progress the game & pushing through setbacks… … someone on your team has the producer role anyway and they are probably doing double duty putting lot of effort into facilitating everyone’s work.

💙 open source & Godot!!! 💙 today was exemplary: - team had a workflow issue - i made feature proposal - got told “already in latest beta” 🤩 - got the team to use beta - workflow issue fixed - found 2 other issues - reported them - fixed one myself (!) - other was fixed & merged today #godotengine

maybe other game studio CEOs can relate: my accountant has a newsletter and I read it

games are made by people with complex feelings and dumb thoughts and complicated relationships in different political climates with the urge to create and the need to play and we should want to see all of that in videogames

add to calendar! my team and I will announce something there 🫣🫣🫣🫣

game dev things that i realize i don’t understand at all and i’ve hand-waved my entire career but should be less hand-waving about: - writing / story / narrative - sound design - graphics (any) and, ironically, game design

Steam is apparently taking away the Popular Upcoming list, which takes release dates into account, and replacing it with an Upcoming list with all future releases NOT taking release date into account. are indies losing another opportunity for visibility? www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/c... #gamedev

LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT Forbidden Solitaire is out now! We are immensely proud to release this awesome game made by two veteran indie studios and we hope you really like it. Steam: tinyurl.com/ywj43ptj GOG: tinyurl.com/2s3sv45j Itch: tinyurl.com/3k4bjt8m Please share, many thanks! #indiedev #FakeOS

this meme is actually very good

I love this. you go to the link (on desktop) and you're in and immediately participating. this kind of playful entry should be more commonplace in games

My personal / current stance on generative AI is that it kills opportunities for creative choices at moments where your abilities and what’s practically possible are forced to meet. Example: Hidden Folks’ mouth sounds. Started because it’s possible & easy, stayed because it’s personal & charming.

Attention, please. The Leader has an important announcement for you... 📣 Phonopolis launches MAY 20! 📣 Wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/1206070/...

Is anyone with experience interested in helping out the Foundation with the videos for the talks from the GodotCon Amsterdam? Reach out 🙏

This explainer video by @walaber.com is extremely good game dev inspiration, for both designers and programmers. Check it! youtu.be/wOAAitKoV9M #gamedev

Godot went through the exact “sponsor is bad, so money is bad” discourse a few months ago, and… nothing of note changed — other than more people were paid to fix your bug reports and improve the engine for everyone. This page was created, too:

GodotCon was fantastic!! 💙 - Met many contributor colleagues IRL for the first time. - Showcased Rift Riff + an unannounced game. - Gave two talks ('Help Contributors Help You' & 'Getting Started with Editor Tools' /w @franzlazerte.bsky.social). - Nerded out hard about #godotengine with other devs

doing “sound design” again

what part of ‘you’ did you put in your game?

I believe you don’t need to endlessly absorb the latest game dev discourse. Much of it already aligns with your intuition and principles. My admittedly gross opinion is that most game dev discourse is intellectual entertainment… and not very entertaining, haha! Yet, I too participate.

I believe that game development, as well as game marketing, is more random, serendipitous, and not-methodical than presentations & experts make us believe. I believe in the wonder of human subconsciousness and intuition, in our ability to absorb info, retain ‘the gist’, and surface when necessary.

15 years of lived experience doing business & marketing for games have taught me that all models are wrong… but some are useful! I watch marketing talks not to structure my efforts but to test my intuition & casually brainstorm. This particular talk gave me 4 ideas worth exploring! Go watch it.

awwww yeah, Sokpop’s @tijmen.sokpop.co took a genre (deck builders), then took a core part of the genre out (playing the cards), and then made the game very very juicy. he shared an early build with me and its very good. (all the @sokpop.co members are very good at making games, jealously so.)

you don’t have to be right to make a thing

Very Good Commentary

puzzles are the opposite of playful

designed this cursor, and really proud of it for some reason

good thread

check it, get it

giving two talks AND showcasing two games at GodotCon, all on top of a major deadline for the Hidden Folks team and I in the following week… exciting, stressful. coping through scoping!

Godot game “Road to Vostok” released on Steam Early Access and it’s doing well. Another Godot success story in the making 🙏🏼 #godotengine store.steampowered.com/app/1963610/...

how do I make games like the ones @foddy.net makes

Starting to see a pattern where my enthusiasm for roguelites / roguelikes simply fizzles out as I understand more and more of the underlying systems and progressing just becomes ‘doing more work’. Which is in stark contrast to games with a clearer ending, where I complete the game on a high note.

Less than 24 hours remain! talks.godotengine.org/godotcon-ams... Submit your talk / worshop / showcase to GodotCon 2026! #godot #godotengine #godotcon

good games made for mobile are rare. just download and try this one, now!

what are you using to search the internet these days? everything decent seems poisoned by AI, including duckduckgo

hope you’re not tired of me posting about Godot! i’m learning about a lot of interesting nuances to how an open source project of this size ‘moves’. like: there is regular discussion among contributors about why cleaning up the almost 5K open PRs isn’t straightforward nor desired. 🧵👇🏼 #godotengine

I researched a dozen ways of putting Godot's new 'game embedding' option in the run bar. I landed on a clean and extendable proposal to improve the entire run bar instead: github.com/godotengine/... feedback always welcome! #godotengine

as an indie game dev, you can do whatever you want — including giving access to your game’s source code to Godot engine contributors so they can use the project as a testbed for cool new features 😎😎😎😎 #godotengine

i feel this tendency equally, not just because i’m a solo parent of a 3yo & my partner can’t get out of bed and needs structural care, but also because the costs (in more ways than financial) no longer obviously outweigh the opportunities. shooting my shot from home is almost (!) as effective.