My self-made point‑&‑click adventure "Venice After Dark" is approaching release. I couldn’t be more excited. Mysterious, atmospheric storyline, mind-bending puzzles, and thousands of atmospheric hand‑drawn visuals. Wishlist? Yes, please => www.VeniceAfterDark.de

11 years ago I put this as my job description as a silly little absurd joke that no sensible person would take seriously but now there are people out there doing this very thing and calling themselves animators instead of silly little absurd jokes that no sensible person would take seriously #fuckai

Small, free act you can do to bring some good in this world: add positive reviews to ALL you Steam games, especially the small indies. You don't need to write anything smart, just "game good" is enough. Every positive steam review tips the algorithm and helps your fav artists get more sales

Veronika, our queen 👑 🐮

Success. Can't brag, since all I did was dig through decades-old forums until I found example code my compiler actually works with, but I've got the video mode I want with DOS/4GW. Can address any pixel in a nice, linear array. Way friendlier than the 16-bit real-mode alternative. #gamedev #dos

My quest to get 640x480x256 in a DOS program is in a tricky spot. I've managed it in a 16-bit binary, but not in 32-bit protected mode yet, which would be much better for the hypothetical "actual game." I know what DPMI interrupt functions I need to use, but something's still amiss. #gamedev #dos

There's an account I kove on Mastodon called LucasArts Places that just posts background art from LucasArts adventure games. Seeing the scenes without characters or UI really underscores the immense talent of the artists who worked on the games. A few examples:

Me, several hours ago: "SVGA supports 256 colors at 640x480, right? Let's see what you have to do to make that happen in DOS with OpenWatcom C++" Me, a minute ago: "Okay, gonna have to pick between high resolution OR 256 colors." #gamedev #dos

Definitely hypothetical question for any devs who've made or ported a game to DOS (let's say, using C++), whether professionally or for kicks: What's something you wish you knew before you started? #gamedev #indiedev #dos

Don't know if you're reading this, but big thanks to the kind and cool person who left my game a review on Steam last night. Each one really helps. #indiegaming

Definitely hypothetical question for any devs who've made or ported a game to DOS (let's say, using C++), whether professionally or for kicks: What's something you wish you knew before you started? #gamedev #indiedev #dos

Me: "I don't need to comment my code THAT much. It's not like I'll be putting this down for a few months and then forgetting a bunch of it." Me, a few months later: "Oh joy, how I love puzzles." #gamedev #programming

SEO-funded games journalism is in freefall with no floor and it's up to you now to fund quality coverage out of pocket. Support @aftermath.site, @remapradio.bsky.social, @secondwindgroup.com, @vgbees.com, @rogue.site, @skyboxcritics.com, @bloodgodpod.bsky.social, @mothership.blog, @3ma.bsky.social

It seems not everything is doom and gloom in the AI slop era. arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/b...

on netflix at least, they leave the Detective Conan post-OP sponsorship pauses in, which inevitably leads my brain to fill in the blanks, which leads my body to do this kind of dumb shit 😀

#GameDev question. I want to port my game to Mac, but buying a Mac would be a steep purchase for me right now. I know Godot CAN technically do a Mac export on a non-Mac, but I'm given to understand this isn't viable for a commercial release (e.g. on Steam). Am I mistaken on this? #IndieDev #Godot

the discourse on what jobs are acceptable to replace with generative AI reveals a lot about what we think of other people's jobs

Instead of drinking morning coffee (which I never do, because I'm a morning tea drinker), I played and completed Celestial Coffee Quest by @waveygames.bsky.social ! Pretty cool short EGA adventure game! It's free! ☕ wavey-games.itch.io/celestial-co...

Just found out my wife might be losing her job, so I'm desperately searching for work. Contract, full-time, freelance, whatever. Press, PR, consulting, anything. I have 16 years of editorial experience and have been writing about games for 13. Reviews, news, previews, guides, etc. RTs appreciated.

Guys, we did it. We invented the Commodore 64

There will be a lot of talk in corporate spaces about how you need to learn to use AI as a software dev in order to keep pace, and it'll be hard to tune out, but ignore it. What companies will really need in 10 years are devs whose brains haven't atrophied from relying on AI. #softwaredev #gamedev

Hey, if you've got a demo going into Steam's Detective Fest on Monday, email me at [email protected] and I'll include a bunch in a post once it all goes live.

A hearty thank you to everyone who bought The Amateur Deity Society during the #SteamWinterSale for collectively covering my X-mas shopping expenses this year, which I didn't think I'd get to say a few months ago. I haven't been at my new job for very long yet, so this helps a good deal.

Yessss, #AGDQ time again. Can't wait to see what "dlroW oiraM repuS" is in about an hour

Game dev devlog up, text adventure engine update edition! projectrootproxy.newgrounds.com/news/post/15...

Happy Public Domain Day! Lots of rich material is now free to use in your own artistic expressions (including games!). Highlights include The Little Engine That Could, 1930 Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Tintin’s debut—the list is long #gamedev #indiegamedev #indiegames en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in...

Happy New Year!

Looking up C++ compilers that can target DOS because I can't shake the idiotic idea that porting my mostly-text game to DOS couldn't be THAT hard, right? #indiedev #famouslastwords

If your 2025 New Year's resolution was to buy The Amateur Deity Society (excellent choice), you still have time! store.steampowered.com/app/3241070/... (If it's already 2026 in your timezone, don't fret, the game's still 40% off until Jan. 5.) #SteamWinterSale #indiegame #pointandclick

I am begging games writers in 2026 to stop talking about point and click like it's a dead/dormant genre currently being resurrected by whatever thing you've just noticed

Just finished season 1 of Binary Break (@binarybreak.bsky.social), and I'm floored at how perfectly DigiDice translates the Digimon anime to TTRPG mechanics. Having everyone play a human and ANOTHER player's digimon is a genius idea, and the cast nails playing both the kids and the cartoon monsters.

The Amateur Deity Society v. 1.1.7 is live, which means savefiles from v. 1.1.5 are now safe to open.

This bug in TADS is fixed, btw. Safe to start a new game and save now. Fortunately, only save files made on version 1.1.5 (which was only up for 10 days) are affected. I'm currently testing a more complete fix that will self-correct the corrupted savefiles starting in ver. 1.1.7, should be up today.

Screenshot Saturday. No, Master Roshi, he’s in DRAGON BALL.

Correction: These all make perfect gift-gifts. Especially Cthulhu Saves Christmas! (And it's still Christmas - twelve days long!)

#gamedev tip: When testing a new patch, be thorough. Don't just test the issues you meant to patch. And get in the habit of testing that the save system still works. Make new save files in-game, load them, and test everything again. Don't ask if this is related to why I haven't gone to bed yet.

a feature of godot I always appreciate

Merry Christmas to everyone, and an especially merry Christmas to all y'all who've played The Amateur Deity Society since Thanksgiving. This month has been so encouraging. Like, "maybe a real career shift isn't as far off as I thought" encouraging. #gamedev #indiegame

all i want for christmas is for dan olson to do for AI what he did for nft's

Merry Christmas! If you'd like to spend 45 minutes celebrating video game history with me, we're about to debut The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I worked on his ALL YEAR, and I genuinely think it will reshape how we all think about the system. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvp...

Important advice if, like me, you typed all your game's on-screen text in an editor that lacks a spellchecker: Bite the bullet and export all the text into a file you can open in Word or LibreOffice. Run spellcheck, go back and make corrections. You will NOT catch every typo in playtesting. #GameDev

Some of the most Christmassy backgrounds from The Curse of #MonkeyIsland. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays! 🎄

Steam appears to be down right now, but don't worry, all is not lost. You can still buy my game on @itch.io: robertcarlson.itch.io/the-amateur-... #ItchWinterSale

What indie games should I buy for Xmas break? Tell me you game and I will buy it

The lead-up to Christmas can be stressful, crowded, and bewildering, but don't forget to take time to relax and re-watch all the Homestar Runner Decemberweeen cartoons, as I hope everyone on this website does annually.

The confusion and conflation of ‘generative ai that is built on stolen artwork’ and ‘machine learning, character behaviour modelling and proc gen’ is intentional on the part of the grifters peddling the former. They benefit from murkiness of classification, because the latter predates their bollocks

by far the funniest use case for AI is “I use it for powerpoints because I hate making them and nobody looks at them” because it kinda sounds like the real workflow savings would be to stop making powerpoints

Without getting into the story that's making the rounds, here are my thoughts on using generative AI for placeholder assets in #gamedev. (1)

#SteamWinterSale is on, and The Amateur Deity Society can be had for $3 until it's over: store.steampowered.com/app/3241070/... I'd normally try to convince you it's good myself, but thankfully I can now simply link to @botherer.bsky.social's review instead: buried-treasure.org/2025/12/the-...

Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story is a new documentary exploring the games, the creators, and the engine behind Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Sam & Max, Loom, and more. The journey begins early 2026. Join the waitlist at scummdoc.com