The nose alone makes this the best game of 2026.

their little faces

1: Pocket Pikachu pedometer 2: Tomy Water Museum 3: Pokemon Labyrinth

I’m always amazed at how convenient it is to use an ipad as a portable Cintiq-style setup for the Macbook, especially with Krita’s wraparound texture view.

Karen’s work is amazing! Hire her and make your game better.

Some games are more effective than good. This is okay. It’s also okay to change opinions based on context or life circumstances.

Most of my best design work has been in the realm of cuts. During the final 25% of the project it’s really important to focus on what matters, and to make room for improvements based on playtests.

Oeuf /uːf/: a 3D precision-platformer where you are an egg. Go on an adventure, play with friends, have fun in the level editor! store.steampowered.com/app/3831080/... #OeufGame OUT NOW

GDC : Fences & tables of gaming.

The A/B scenario is actually the opinion of playtests vs the whims of management.

Me: I’d like a Linux laptop to get used to Linux. Also me: I want a Macbook Neo that serves no purpose.

What games have you been surprised by during Steam Next Fest?

Today I made a pipe cleaners dog.

When I was working on South of the Circle I made a volcano range with 7 or so rock meshes I made just scaling rotating and placing them by hand. The art style helped dramatically to pull it off. #gamedev

I have a list of games developers I’ll never work with because they messed me around so much. One senior role had eight interviews and dozens of hours of tests.

The most satisfying 3D level blocks I made were these simple low poly blocks. Easy to arrange and remap with different materials.

It must suck to be called Andrew right now.

I often think about how Firewatch was made with just seven rocks, scaled and rotated into formations. It’s so satisfying to work with a small set of good blocks. Anyone know of other examples like this?

I've just updated my website to split up my environment and character work so hopefully it's even easier for folks to see all my cool stuff!! Please check it out!! I've added some fun character work from various projects at ustwo over the years as well :D fensartden.com fensartden.com/characters

I once worked at a studio where programmers could veto anything from design if they didn’t feel like making it. One time I checked the source code and discovered the coder didn’t want a property (a bool) that was used infrequently. The end game design feature would ‘spoil’ the source code.

How about we all ditch Discord and go back to using forums? Discourse is a good paid option.

Hey, I've had the brief opportunity to work with Megan on Monument Valley 3 and you should definitely try and get an opportunity to work with them as well. A brilliant game designer, but also and importantly, is deeply invested in accessibility and will help your projects reach even more people.

Devs shouldn’t trivialise the cost of switching tools. Switching from Maya to Blender, or Photoshop to Krita. Switching from Unity to Godot. It’s really fantastic to see success stories, but everyone makes different use of tools. Not everyone can ditch their invested skills, files and workflows.

I’m very excited to some day start learning Godot. I have dabbled and I love the integrated script editor. One major blocker for me was pausing the game and examining the scene and live game objects. I wonder if that will make it over.

Megan is a brilliant designer and a pleasure to work with! Check out her work.

☆ Hire this artist!! ☆ I’ve had the pleasure to witness Fen’s incredible skills. Any studio would be lucky to have them. Brilliant range of skills and they know what it takes to ship games. Check them out.

2026 update

Imagine if a console platform, or even the Steam Machine, had the courage to implement a really good CRT filter at the OS level.

Wow the CRT filter on the Super Bomberman Collection is awful. Also they charged me £4 extra for the Switch 2 version which promised 4K output, which only matters if there’s a good CRT filter. I hope @dark1x.bsky.social and DF Retro digs into CRT filters in commercial releases someday.

I saw the Cambridge performance of Unfolding and I loved it!! If you believe in creative works please share this link, check it out, and consider helping out.

@kelslewin.bsky.social I assume you’ve already seen it but I’d love your impressions of this mod/decompile of Animal Crossing Gamecube. Maybe on Minnmax? youtu.be/vJL6x5yKy7Q?...

One negative review killed Pendragon. It was posted within hours of release: a detailed "objective" explanation of why they didn't connect with it. But it's ticked as helpful by passing people *who have not played the game*. This keeps it pinned to the top. It's longer than our description text.

RE that RT.. it’s wild how steam reviews are still so damn important to getting visibility. If you play and like indie games, the most generous and helpful thing you can do is spend an hour popping positive reviews onto anything you like with <500 or so reviews.

I think most game dev teams underestimate how damaging slow workflows are to the ultimate quality of their game. If it takes 5 minutes to launch the game and see your changes, I think your game is going to be MUCH worse than the alternate timeline where it took 1 minute

I once had to ship a game using Notepad++ as a level editor. Levels would break daily because artists would move origin points and coders didn’t care if we had to repeat the work. Ever since then I’ve fought to protect my toolchain and work pipeline. It shouldn’t be miserable to make things fun.

I really love the artwork in Starfriends.

We're launching a website. Jank is an independent PC games website funded by readers. jank.cool If you like funny, thoughtful games journalism and can't stand adverts, deals posts, affiliate links, and other nonsense - Jank is for you.

Honestly this sounds amazing. Not for me, or for anyone using Unity or Unreal, but I love that devs are able to make a nicer dev environment for themselves with Godot and other tools in Linux only.

This is the best daily challenge. Even if it’s a short review, we could all do so much good by leaving lots of steam reviews.

I love this artwork. The person with the briefcase is the real monster.

Sometimes I doodle little guys in crayon in random notebooks, completely forget about it, and find them years later.

I love these moments.

Ubisoft put a zillion dollars into Skull & Bones but cancelled a Sands of Time remake at the 11th hour. What a terrible company.

I love the bingo card approach of identifying dubious indie games.

Question for people that have their own websites in 2026!! How is that going? How do you engage with readers? Do you use comments, email, redirect them to bluesky or something else?

Post a game you remember that no-one else remembers.

IRC was critical for my first years of indie full time. I logged onto the unity3D irc at the same time every weekday morning along with a bunch of other devs. We taught each other so much. It was more effective for this purpose than discord because it only worked with active users.

I like brainstorming game design by asking people to imagine a terrible version of the final product. A design north star is useful, but it’s more fun to flee a dreaded outcome.

@itousa.bsky.social I love your artwork so much! I tried to buy from your shop but two different UK credit cards failed to process. Hopefully it works in future.

You won’t be prepared for Sonic’s voice