Fucked up my wrist and ankle drumming without warming up Don’t get old, kids.

Quickest way to my heart is telling me about how playing games helped you bond with your family

“(Game you made) is my favourite game” Is probably the most humbling compliment I can imagine. I still don’t know how to process that. Not really.

Who needs april fools in the age of slop?

Too many cool game concepts. Not nearly enough time to develop more than a fraction into something real. As it should be.

I’m still mostly focused on family and broad market games, but I think I’ll always have one big box experience in development. It’s my native language, after all

Two things: I’m so jazzed about the games I’m working on right now I’m also existentially flattened by the state of the world and crushing personal stuff Feels like two parallel lives Or rather, fucked up life and happy bubble

Been back in Canada for less than a week and I’m already ashy AF

The most sensitive and fragile people on social media are the ones who lash out against pushback to the mean and aggro comments THEY THEMSELVES made to a stranger.

I’m not sure if we talk enough about how chasing payment is such a big part of the freelance life.

💀💀💀

I get why people defend Chappelle: in his prime he was the GOAT. Even his racist, phobic shit used to be unique, sharp and clever. Gervais I don’t understand. His phobic observations are such basic Reddit comment section whinge. A bully who isn’t funny or charming enough to get away with it.

I'm a centrist - meaning, I strike a very careful balance between criticizing the left and defending the right.

I know more about finance than I ever wanted to. This is not a flex, rather a lament.

“Welcome to the Wolfram an Hart customer service line. To sacrifice loved one, or pet, please dial 9”

Nothing wakes you up quite like blowing a spicy kernel of byriani rice out your nose

Oops accidentally clicked like on a Daily Show clip and instantly my youtube is nothing but USA ragebait

“Theme and modelling are the correct way to make games more intuitive”

Mafia de Cuba is *this* close to being my favourite social deduction game of all time. Unfortunately I feel it’s overdesigned and the theme is too high fidelity at the expense of trope. There aren’t any design “mistakes” - it’s just too fragile and needs perfect play or 💩💩 Soooo close, and yet

Fresh fruit juices, baby.

Tropical thunderstorms are my favourite weather

Ack do I have to get a Switch 2 nooooooo 😭

“As the reasons for the carnage cut their meat And lick the gravy We oil the jaws of the war machine And feed it with our babies” - Iron Maiden, “2 Minutes to Midnight”

Btw when Blood Rage Valhalla becomes available at retail, I highly recommend trying it I know it’s kinda weird for a designer to brag on his own game But I feel it got prejudged during crowdfunding The game is good. Real good. And different enough from BR to stand alone All IMHO of course

Gained some hot momentum on a game I’m working on. Saw one news clip. One clip. Lost it all. Trainwreck. News in its current form should be illegal I’m not even kidding

Will always be spellbound by the Malaysian sunset

Convention Organizers: If you have invite a guest from a minority demographic 👏Invite👏them👏to👏participate👏in👏more👏than👏just👏the👏diversity👏panel👏 PLEASE AND THANK YOU

About a month ago I purged my games in progress again - everything without a deadline attached went to the bin Still have like 6 active games in the mix

Sorry all—I just don’t have any spoons for WW3 shit, so Ima just talk games for a bit and pray for all our souls

The only prescriptive advice I’ll give young designers: Make games only you could make. Don’t ask me what I mean by that, cos you either already know - or you’ll figure it out.

Playing Wrath of Fire Mountain first time in a few months. I love this game so much.

Fellow Penangites also heart Manatees!

Last night I made yet another family-game-in-progress much “simpler” by adding rules It flows more intuitively, models real life patterns better and mechanical patterns worse Less ‘elegant’ and IMO much more broadly appealing Looking forward to getting this to the table!

“Everything is interesting, if you know enough about it” - Trevor Noah

Drummers today are so fast, precise and technical. They can play anything and god those YouTube videos are impressive to watch. But there’s only one Bill Ward. This is a post about game design

“Here is how you help prevent DHS from building concentration camps in your area” broke me, I think

Designers: watch other people (not professionals, not designers) teach your game WITHOUT CORRECTING THEM. Over and over and over again. I teach my own games as little as possible, and often discount those tests as essentially tainted lab conditions.

Disclosure: I’ve not played this game nor even watched the video. I am backing it to reward a theme and vision so endearing I want it to succeed. www.kickstarter.com/projects/fow...

Idle music thoughts You know how sometimes your favourite song by a beloved artist are on otherwise unaffecting albums? My strongest example might be Tool Wings for Marie/10000 Days is by far my favourite and most devastating song of theirs, but the record overall is provably my least favorite

I also love every step of the process though I’ll go one further. Skipping any step of the process is fatal atrophy in our craft and a total surrender to mediocrity and luck ChatGPT will never make anyone a better designer. I stake my career on it.

Please don’t publicly challenge game designers to call out their publishers in public Puts many of them in a pretty impossible position And this is what DMs are for

Business executives who think creatives can be replaced by AI Will be the first to be replaced by AI

Year of the horse y’all! At first I was a neighsayer, but I saddled up and got on board with CNY festivities. Now scuse me while I hoof it to the mane fireworks display downtown!

Y'all know how much I hate winter. So if I ever complain about it being too hot in Malaysia Cancel me

“Artists are here to disturb the peace” - Madonna

Amusing and frustrating thing about this platform: When you make a point and fail to cover every single caveat, exception and alternate possible interpretation Well-meaning folks fill in the blanks And almost never charitably And get defensive And then you're debating a position you never held

It cannot be overstated how much hobby gamers underestimate how unintuitive and difficult hobby games are to non-gamers. This is perhaps even more true of professional game designers, publishers and reviewers/pundits, broadly speaking.

Desperately need to talk about games again. I’ve been easing back into playing games for fun mostly going back to old favourites I haven’t played in awhile Gonna talk about each 🧵