Rami Ismail (رامي)
@ramiismail.com
📤 58285
📥 7462
📝 4075
I help good people make good games in good ways. Want to work with me?
https://ramiismail.com/
pinned post!
I'm Rami, indie dev, advisor, tool dev, gamedev community builder, & amateur pilot! I help good people make good games in good ways. Links: Work:
linkedin.com/in/ramiismail
Photos:
instagram.com/tha.rami
Newsletter:
ltpf.ramiismail.com
Consultancy:
book.ramiismail.com
AMA about gamedev, anytime.
over 1 year ago
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Still, even after months of reporting,
@safety.bsky.app
allows a genocide supporter to block me, and hide behind that block to harass my community & followers with bullshi pro-genocidal whataboutisms, and it is all set up in such a way that I nor the people harassed by them can do anything about it.
about 2 hours ago
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Israel is so deeply entrenched with evil that the minister of Finance is reacting to the International Criminal Court seeking an arrest warrant for his systemic destruction of Palestinian people by threatening to systemically destroy Palestinian people.
www.theguardian.com/law/2026/may...
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Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich says ICC is seeking his arrest
Smotrich vows to retaliate by waging ‘war’ on Palestinian Authority and orders evacuation of a West Bank village
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/may/19/far-right-israeli-minister-bezalel-smotrich-icc-seeking-arrest
about 22 hours ago
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It's been almost 15 years since
@chipzel.bsky.social
did Super Hexagon's OST and I swear I still just have to start jumping around when I hear it. Incredible soundtracks, with availability right now!
add a skeleton here at some point
about 22 hours ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
You're not supposed to hear about
@rasheedabueideh.bsky.social
's Dreams on a Pillow according to some very influential forces - so how about we make sure that game happens. You can crowdfund the full development of the game here.
www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/...
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“Dreams on a Pillow” is in development - Help Us Tell The Full Story | LaunchGood | LaunchGood
Development of the stealth adventure game about the Nakba is underway. New game trailer headlines a final crowdfunding push for remaining budget until release.
https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/dreams_on_a_pillow__a_videogame_experience_about_the_1948_nakba_based_on_a_true_story
1 day ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
A "piece that was killed" is something we hear over and over again working with press promoting Dreams on a Pillow, not just now but across the years. In some cases the content had been fully written & was pulled right before or even after publishing. In others, it never was allowed past concept.
add a skeleton here at some point
1 day ago
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A "piece that was killed" is something we hear over and over again working with press promoting Dreams on a Pillow, not just now but across the years. In some cases the content had been fully written & was pulled right before or even after publishing. In others, it never was allowed past concept.
add a skeleton here at some point
1 day ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Just so happy with how this game feels by now. Was rewatching an older trailer and it's already so solid here - only getting better & better You could help out a bunch with a wishlist over on Steam and a repost!
store.steampowered.com/app/2396130/...
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2 days ago
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This is 100% true but it's still a risk most studios outside of the US can't take. Tons of amazing culturally specific studios have to first find their audience, prove their ability, and do that with games palatable for an audience that generally knows very little culture outside US culture.
add a skeleton here at some point
2 days ago
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Just so happy with how this game feels by now. Was rewatching an older trailer and it's already so solid here - only getting better & better You could help out a bunch with a wishlist over on Steam and a repost!
store.steampowered.com/app/2396130/...
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2 days ago
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I wonder how much of this (very fair) critique is that the creators are not from the US - they're (white?) Australians, and that means as kids they knew US culture only as an export. It's a weird unevenness stemming from how ubiquitous US storytelling is that I don't quite know is resolvable?
add a skeleton here at some point
2 days ago
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If your government is not making super rich people and those enabling them post alarmist gen AI slop then what's the point of your government really
fortune.com/2026/05/16/n...
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Mamdani's New York is coming to tax your private jet. Here's how to prepare | Fortune
Here's how Mayor Mamdani's tax agenda could reach the Teterboro ramp — and which airports, ownership structures, and strategies offer the most protection.
https://fortune.com/2026/05/16/new-york-private-jet-tax-mamdani-teterboro-port-authority-elevate-aviation/
2 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Game Devs of Color Expo
2 days ago
Every GDoCExpo talk and panel is powered by devs sharing hard-earned knowledge with our community. We believe speakers should be compensated for that labor. Help us fund speaker honorariums for this year’s expo! 🩵💚
www.gamedevsofcolor.org/donate
#gamedev
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Consultancy right now is pretty depressing but one of my favorite "genres" of consultancy calls is "developer doesn't know how to set up SteamPipe" so I set it up for them and then let them press "Play" in Steam for the first time. It's always great.
2 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Mike Rose
2 days ago
📀 It's GONG TIME 📀 Watch myself and
@ramiismail.com
answer questions from
@cheesemastergames.bsky.social
,
@elschorscho.bsky.social
,
@phokal.bsky.social
,
@fabraz.bsky.social
,
@adriaan.games
,
@fishwithlasers.bsky.social
,
@limeyotoko.bsky.social
,
@downieseb.bsky.social
and more!
mikeandrami.com
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Mike and Rami Are Still Here
Mike and Rami Are Still Here
https://mikeandrami.com/
3
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One day I will make it through Mitsuha's Theme or Katawaredoki from the Your Name OST without cracking
3 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Albert Pinto
3 days ago
daaaamn london
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
It's heartbreaking that games as a medium remain out of reach for people telling the stories worth telling most.
www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...
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The Palestinian game fighting to exist
A developer from the occupied West Bank is turning a 75-year-old Palestinian folk tale into a video game.
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/5/14/the-palestinian-game-fighting-to-exist
5 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
This morning news I watched Israelis bludgeon a Palestinian's dog, the girl increasingly struggling to stand as each blow lands, unable to escape, until she collapses to more blows. Every morning, medics murdered, kids sniped, pets maimed, people raped, families massacred. It's what Israel does.
4 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Jack The Generalist
4 days ago
If you found yourself reading about the oppressed people of Palestine and went "But... what am i gonna do!" Well, you can support this game and help lift the dehumanization campaign been put on these people (and Arabs generally) by helping the game production. Change starts from within. Thanks.
add a skeleton here at some point
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I'll be taking down most of my available game dev blogs and resources for the future as LLMs keep crawling my content and I hate it. I'll spin up a simple account system that'll keep the AI out, but please rest assured free will always stay an option.
4 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Rasheed is literally risking his life for this game. Israelis could decide to capture, torture, or murder him at any point for daring to share the truth of the Nakba or Palestinian culture. He truly believes in games and their power to tell these stories. Please help his courage not be in vain.
add a skeleton here at some point
4 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Rasheed Abueideh - Now crowdfunding Dreams on a Pillow 🍉
5 days ago
We are collaborating with Launchgood on Nakba Day. Help us raise an additional $20k before 12pm EST and they will give us an additional $5k to our campaign. 6.1K Achieved 13.9K to go.
www.launchgood.com/1948
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This morning news I watched Israelis bludgeon a Palestinian's dog, the girl increasingly struggling to stand as each blow lands, unable to escape, until she collapses to more blows. Every morning, medics murdered, kids sniped, pets maimed, people raped, families massacred. It's what Israel does.
4 days ago
2
447
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Rasheed is literally risking his life for this game. Israelis could decide to capture, torture, or murder him at any point for daring to share the truth of the Nakba or Palestinian culture. He truly believes in games and their power to tell these stories. Please help his courage not be in vain.
add a skeleton here at some point
4 days ago
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2190
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It's heartbreaking that games as a medium remain out of reach for people telling the stories worth telling most.
www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfe...
loading . . .
The Palestinian game fighting to exist
A developer from the occupied West Bank is turning a 75-year-old Palestinian folk tale into a video game.
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/5/14/the-palestinian-game-fighting-to-exist
5 days ago
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This is why I continue to recommend ending your subscription to The Guardian, and why my sub remains lapsed: not one mention of genocide, war crimes, apartheid, or the International Court case. That's not news, that's laundering Israel as if a democracy.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
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Israel’s ruling coalition proposes early elections amid ultra-Orthodox anger at Netanyahu
Prime minister under pressure over failure to grant military service exemptions as multi-party government looks at risk of collapse
https://share.google/JukwFamnzF4RtrGAb
7 days ago
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Genuinely think the 10 Empty Slides talk I gave today is one of the best iterations of it I've ever done. It remains hilarious to me that this turned into my most requested talks, but it also makes sense - not many people can pull that one off and it does mean the talk is always audience-relevant.
7 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
fernando h.
7 days ago
lembrei do
@ramiismail.com
add a skeleton here at some point
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The only discourse on Mixtape that's interesting is seeing how asymmetrical the conflict between press & influencers plays out - many influencers individually take shots at "the press" for clickbait & to solidify their own commercial relevance - while the press writes critique about the actual game.
7 days ago
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Love the vibe of this one
add a skeleton here at some point
8 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
justin achilli
8 days ago
The position that billionaires “provide” for workers is misaligned. Billionaires -take from- workers. Labor creates; capital extracts. If billionaires disappeared tomorrow workers would self-organize and continue to produce. If workers all vanished, billionaires would have no labor value to steal.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
castpixel ⚧️⚢
13 days ago
I'm looking for work. 21 years of experience. • any game art, isometric, top-down, side-scroll • stylized or realistic • characters, icons, key art, animation • Can build a style from zero or match yours • Big projects don't scare me • ex Minecraft DM here or email
[email protected]
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Firing the people isn't good enough, these services needs to be structurally unavailable to genocidal Israel's government and any dual-use companies, and any military contractors. A win nevertheless. Let's keep making Israel a liability for any company.
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
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Microsoft fires head of Israeli subsidiary and other managers over surveillance of Palestinians
The move follows years of internal and external pressure.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/microsoft-fires-head-of-israeli-subsidiary-and-other-managers-over-surveillance-of-palestinians/
8 days ago
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"We won't fix this because there's no time/resources or there are higher priority fixes" is one thing, but "players won't find it" - yes they will and if your game is even somewhat successful, they probably will within 24 hours
add a skeleton here at some point
9 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Eka | Dosa Divas
9 days ago
We made a pretty good coming of age story game but most players won’t even give it a chance because it’s got too much color. We’re not all that different in love, relationships, and generational issues. I promise you can relate to these characters.
store.steampowered.com/app/1617220/...
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Thirsty Suitors on Steam
Thirsty Suitors is a surreal story-driven game which throws turn-based RPG battles, skating and over-the-top cooking mechanics together in a spicy fusion! This isn't a dating sim - it's a breakup simu...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1617220/Thirsty_Suitors?snr=1_7_15__13
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
gate
15 days ago
got a new pull quote for Derelict Star courtesy of Jonathan Blow. thank you so much for playing my game!
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If the games industry had the power to make certain games a cultural phenomena with global hit sales, it would so all the time. However, the games industry cannot even agree on what "alpha" means
add a skeleton here at some point
9 days ago
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In line with Israel's continued adherence to international law, it took the opportunity of the ceasefire with Lebanon to bomb Lebanese emergency response centers, killing two medics and a civilian. The Guardian rep-oh wait no it doesn. BBC repor-wait no that's on Eurovision. CNN re-nope.
9 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Smitner
10 days ago
A sneak peak into the development of indie games:
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British public broadcaster completely seriously reports on an Austrian complaining in a German publication that he really doesn't deserve the protests going from just being funny background noise to him personally being yelled at just for supporting a genocide.
10 days ago
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For those of us having a pleasant Sunday, may I interrupt your pleasant Sunday with a reminder that Israel today, too, murders, maims, tortures, kidnaps, holds hostage, starves, dispossessed, and rapes Palestinians, Lebanese, and others as they please in a Western-backed genocide.
10 days ago
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Mike Futter
13 days ago
There's a similar story that
@ramiismail.com
tells about the development of Nuclear Throne. (It made it into my first book.) You have to balance your existing audience (the base) while casting the net as wide as is reasonable without sacrificing your vision.
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Wardrum | OUT NOW!
13 days ago
Wardrummers, your time has come. Rally your Warband and confront the dark sorcery sweeping the lands. 🥁 Wardrum, our tactical, turn-based, rhythm-driven roguelite, is out now on Steam! ⚔️ 🔗
bit.ly/X-Wardrum
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reposted by
Rami Ismail (رامي)
Natalie (Tali) is in Vancouver ✨
13 days ago
add a skeleton here at some point
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The Netherlands upholds a functional separation of the judicial, the executive, and the legislative - so color me surprised when all three fucked every citizen in country by handing all of our data to a hostile genocidal country that doesn't even uphold its own privacy laws for its own citizens.
14 days ago
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Made it to page 21 before the first "we oughta really just kill all the Muslims" so Florida is really living up to Florida's reputation here
add a skeleton here at some point
15 days ago
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More unprecedented "fuck the law" from the people supposed to uphold the law in Britain, to ensure a smoothly continued Israeli genocide.
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Barrister in Palestine Action trial facing contempt of court proceedings
Rajiv Menon KC accused of defying judge’s orders to not inform jury of right to acquit on basis of conscience
https://share.google/biTDkWtua7zCDFymM
15 days ago
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oh COME ON you didn't have to call me out like that
add a skeleton here at some point
16 days ago
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The best time to leave Substack is when the Nazis showed up, which was years ago. Every day after is a bit worse, so the best time still available to Substack publishers is right now. There's countless not-openly-welcoming-to-Nazis options, including Ghost, beehiiv, Kit, Keila, and many more.
add a skeleton here at some point
16 days ago
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I think people know I love gadgets, little thingies that make life better. What is by far my favorite gadget -not even close- broke today, after years & years of dutiful & continuous use. I immediately ordered a new one. It's this reusable bag. I never leave the house without it.
everless.com
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Everless
Dutch design reusable bag. Folds like magic. Made with ultra performance smart fabric.
https://everless.com/?country=NL
16 days ago
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