The fundamental difference between game developers and people who just want to make money off games is, in my opinion, empathy. Game developers are not just creating, they are creating an experience for someone to enjoy. Game devs just want people to have a good time. Capitalists don't care.

hi friends- we're looking to hire a progression designer on my team! we're remote friendly (1 onsite/year) and implementation skills are a must for this role. i absolutely love this team and game. i'm not the hiring manager, but my DMs are open for questions! job-boards.greenhouse.io/teamlfg/jobs...

Remember that layoffs are a weapon used in class warfare to cause division and exert pressure on the working class.

chat is it good when you close the studio responsible for developing your proprietary game engines

Are you a freelance writer & curious about writing for Game Developer? We're looking to expand our freelance roster & add some new voices into the mix for 2026 and beyond! Interested? Fill out the form & learn more about freelancing for GD at the link below: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

“What’s the difference between artists making references and what [slop-machines] do?” is not the gotcha that photosloppers think it is and only shows their ignorance. Slop-o-matics scrape a bunch of work and makes an cringe chum of it. Artists use intentional homage to craft dialogues between works

The secret is, there are no good identity positions in the game industry. Everyone is hated by someone.

Not sure if this is about the revelation I just saw but OOF…might have legit broken my gamedev teacher heart

As someone who used to work on licensed comics (Rugrats, Cartoon Network etc) it absolutely blows my mind that stuff like this is going out on official products. We'd get dragged over the coals if a spot colour was one Pantone reference out. Now? Sure, Donald has seven fingers. Why not?

Being an “academic practitioner” in the games industry is weird because one group hates your work for being too practical, another hates it for being too theoretical (and always reminds you that you never worked AAA), but a third is like “you’re my hero - you make things with your own name on them”

These are the backrooms of game character art (this always struck me as an absolutely bizarre poster)

It’s starting to hit people that Ocarina of Time with modern graphics means the Shadow Temple with modern graphics

Guys, is it good when a bunch of art directors are mad at you?

You know…people can add to the critical discourse of a part of game design WITHOUT trying to erase or subtract people’s established work already done in that area…just saying. Seems to be happening a lot lately…

*rushes into the room* I guess Disney didn’t end their deal with Sora AI after all

welcome to clown town population: all of us

Finally got a physical copy of this. Plays phenomenally on the Analogue 3D

Sega is flopping around desperately trying to spin their use of GenAI and seemingly changing their story for damage control. Don't let them off the hook. You don't need a new Crazy Taxi game that badly.

You'll all be shocked to learn that reorienting the whole economy around cramming AI into everything has not produced any economic benefit outside of the AI companies. www.apollo.com/wealth/the-d...

Evergreen post

Reading art studies/history theory for an upcoming writing project. It’s startling how people on the studies side of a medium believe the making of the thing to be a utilitarian/technical process, but tie themselves into knots describing the way work is perceived and if those perceptions hold truth

Awwwwwww piss So long then, no amount of Offsping OST is gonna unfuck that

these are getting weird

Finished 007 First Light last night. Does for Bond what Arkham Asylum did for Batman and Great Circle did for Indiana Jones. Integrates all the elements (not just the action like other Bond games) of the character into an amazing experience while telling a great (and TIMELY) story in the franchise.

Throwing this out here with the reveal of a homebrew Sega Master System Cuphead and other releases in the last few years: doing homebrew gamedev is a legit development skill and a good way to show your chops. If you teach gamedev, it’s also a good way to have students deal with limited hardware

“Maple syrup has sure come a long way since Pac-Man…”

In First Light, the older agent who trains Bond but at first thinks he’s a loose cannon is going to eventually be like “you can have my old number kid, 007” (winks at audience), isn’t he?

Persepolis - Eye of the Tiger (2007)

One grating thing in 007 First Light is the shootouts. I have roughly 30 sec to catch a plane before a bad guy escapes, but Bond is surrounded by 50 guys with great aim, dies in 1 shot, and has a gun with 7 bullets. You have to run across an open tarmac with even more guys constantly coming…WHAT?!

I had doubts about the new Bond when First Light was revealed but 1) THAT is how you do a tutorial in a game. A training montage is a brilliant idea 2) Q 👏 Branch 👏

God of War Laufey, revealed at today's #StateOfPlay, follows Faye, wife of Kratos, mother to Atreus, as she navigates the Everywhen, the afterlife of the gods, where she encounters new characters from several different mythologies. https://bit.ly/436DFa9 #IGNSummerOfGaming

So the enemy starts firing at me and Peppy gets on my comms, and…yadda yadda yadda…I didn’t get shot down…

I keep saying, I think it’s wildly irresponsible of any educational institution, from kindergartens to universities, to be embracing this technology with zero information on its effectiveness or long term impact

The figures in this book giving some real “finish the rest of the owl” energy (literally in the one case)

you couldn’t have sprung for premium?

Just got this proof from my publisher of the third edition cover of my book!

It’s 1994. I rented Mina the Hollower from the grocery store video department after seeing it in Nintendo Power. A kid on the playground told me it might get a Saturday morning cartoon. All is right with the world.

On the plus side, everyone in the company now has a slightly too smooth profile picture of themselves riding a lemur. The lemur has a couple of extra paws. Its saddle is on backwards. Still: result

Nidhogg (Messhof, 2014)

A thief believes everyone steals.

Bad writers convince themselves everyone uses AI to save their egos.

An art historian came at me with “game artists should use AI because it proves Gombrich right!”, and I just sipped my coffee and was like “They have any published games? Any on Steam or the eShop? Do you for that matter?”

yikes :(

What if a giant “wall of things shooting at you” Contra-style boss, but it’s a nightmare imp bandstand?

First time student’s first level design in a game engine

I need to go one of these days

Oh heck yeah

YouTube Chernobyl disaster documentary: “and that’s when he presses a button to insert all the control rods” Me, who knows nothing about nuclear energy but whose YouTube algorithm played these videos after I finished a nautical disaster channel: “Who does that?”

This is like a mission statement for how I teach game design to students

I want to talk about games in ways that will still be relevant whether you bought the collectors edition today or check it out on an emulation handheld ten years from now