The tragedy of the UX Designer is being completely incapable of using technology without losing your entire fucking mind.

Here's a review we got on Steam for The Haunting of Joni Evers earlier this month. We love seeing these reminders that our game and our story really hit its mark. "...It sticks with you, in that soft aching way..." 🥹 30% off now if you haven't played it yet! store.steampowered.com/app/2828590/...

This isn’t just a problem with books. Less professional criticism means more marketing driven understanding by consumers and that’s bad for the consumer AND the worker.

We're excited to announce that applications are open for the Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant 2025 🎉 The grant will award $15,000 to five thinky puzzle game developers from all over the world, and a year's mentorship with genre veterans. Deadline: September 28th More info 👇 grants.draknek.org

INDIE GAMES

An excellent article on the state of the industry and where we go from here!

now that i've written a book about community management, i can finally reveal the TRUTH:

Mike is THE PERSON to talk to about your game, project, soul, studio, and/or strategy. He _will_ make it better. Seriously, he literally wrote the book on Game Dev Business.

I'm absolutely thrilled and beyond thankful to share that we've now made an award-winning game 🥳

🎉 The Haunting of Joni Evers is officially an award-winning game! 🏆 This morning the Collision Awards announced their winners and we took home honors for Voice Performance, Narrative, and the Audience Choice for Craft in Games. #indiegame #indiegames #indiedev

www.tiktok.com/@causewaystu... #indiegame #indiedev

The Summer of Strange Scaffold is a celebration of a milestone for us. Once Co-op Kaiju launches, we have made and released SIX GAMES in the last 2 YEARS! So, we want to discuss that! Highs and lows, with the many people who brought these games to life in videos, podcasts and more!

We're honored and blown away by this heart-warming review we got over the weekend for The Haunting of Joni Evers. "At the end of the game, I was a sobbing mess" It's still 30% off for the Steam Summer Sale so you can pick it up today! #indiegames #adventuregame store.steampowered.com/app/2828590

Tomorrow is Indie-Penance Day on Kotaku! If you have an indie game in development, or a recent release that's been ignored, email me: [email protected], with the subject line "INDIE PENANCE 2025". Please include a store link and a YT link (if possible). Rules next...

All of this is to say, if you want indies to keep making games, waiting for that 80% deep discount is going to make it very difficult. It’s also why I’ve never discounted Lamplight City more than 40% I know not everyone can afford to buy games at full price, but we’re also not charging $60.

Today's #indiedev workspace:

📢 The Haunting of Joni Evers has been selected as a finalist for the Collision Awards in the Games & XR - Craft category! The Audience Choice voting is now open and you can vote here: vote.collisionawards.com/PublicVoting... Any votes and shares help us immensely! 💚 #indiegames #indiedev #gamedev

Thrilled to share that our game has been selected as a finalist for an award, and there's also an Audience Choice award! If you're able to spare the time to vote for us, we'd be eternally grateful!

One game you’ve worked on - no words just trailers! m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jadm...

One game you've worked on - no words just trailers! www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZOA...

How would you mend a broken family? 🏠 Explore the vast Cunningham House 📖 Uncover stories, memories, and secrets 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Piece together the family's past 🔮 Restore bonds and break the curse Play The Haunting of Joni Evers today! store.steampowered.com/app/2828590/... #PitchYaGame

Our Peabody speech for 1000xRESIST. “This art form is barely unearthed. It’s too early to define it. Fund the indescribable.”

Gratulerer med dagen 🥳 Today is Norway’s Constitution Day! What better day to explore a 1920s Norwegian village in Draugen? And of course—eat an unreasonable amount of hot dogs and ice cream (as is tradition).

Our time in the Cunningham house has come to an end. 🏡 What a lovely game, Causeway Studios - I can't wait to see what you do next! 👏✨ youtu.be/OgBtIM6xhHg @causewaystudios.com #MysteryGames #WalkingSimulator #VarietyGamer

Siegecaster, an active skill-based siege defense game, is available now! This was a personal project created with a small team, and my friends say, "I was playing it to be polite, but then it was four hours later, and I actually liked it!" Getting the word out is still hard, so all RTs appreciated!

My prototype tactical dungeon-crawler card game is now available to play at foldedfox.itch.io/delvetoodeep.... It's free, so there's no excuse to not try it out! #gamedev #indiegame #videogame

Support independent games media. This page will be regularly updated, so please let us know if we're missing anyone. 🔗 www.sixoneindie.com/indie-games-...

Finished Wanderstop. Loved it. Thank you @ivyroadgames.bsky.social!

Your "dumb little projects" are so important during this harrowing time. Don't forget that. Your creativity has value, for yourself and for the world.

Hit 20 years in games this year - here's some thoughts after all that time modecollapse.substack.com/p/i-spent-17...

Hello new followers, I’m Aysha and I’m an award-winning game writer and narrative designer. I’m open for freelance scripting and consulting work, hit me up.

We need more of this from the game industry. We need new stories, untold stories, & fantastic stories. We need art direction that sings of the beauty of the world it captures. We need fantasy, folk legends, & esoteric secrets. We need experiences that are HUMAN. I can't wait to try this game.

South of Midnight by @compulsiongames.bsky.social is finally out! 🤩 I have said it before & I will say it again - now more than ever we need to support the games we want to see in the world. Every single one that makes it to being published is a gift. Check out the game on steam & xbox!

Harrison Ford should be the patron saint of inexpensive small-studio video games. Think about it: he's a carpenter who played Indiana Jones and Han Solo. He's an indy rogue-like deck builder.

The Steam page for Cartomantic is now live! Wishlisting and sharing is greatly appreciated. 💖 #godot #indiegame #tarot #roguelite #deckbuilder

I’m about halfway through Lost Records, two days into Wanderstop, and now South of Midnight is out. How am I supposed to keep up?!

A message to our followers.

Added fence repair to the skill set this weekend (with only one casualty 😅)

Alright Wanderstop, I see you… (15 minutes in, you can stop attacking me now.)

Sitting in a coffee shop courtyard trying desperately to organize all of my GDC notes, people, follow-ups, inspirations, etc. What a lovely way to decompress and start recovering.

GDC was an incredible whirlwind. I am exhausted but I am inspired. I am hopeful and confident that we can weather the storm our industry is going through, and so appreciative of our shared resilience.

If you need a GDC award winning writer and narrative designer….

I've been saying for nearly a year now that the current trend in indie publishers becoming hyper risk-averse will rapidly make them obsolete and project funding without publishing services is the reason why 🧵

Today, we are announcing the formation of United Videogame Workers-CWA, an industry-wide union formed by @codecwa.bsky.social and @cwaunion.bsky.social 💪🎮 We're launching at #GDC2025 this morning to build a video game industry that works for us. We're done playing.

GDC so far has had a lot more optimism than I was expecting - lots of folks trying new things and enjoying the process of working on their games. I hope this leads to more stability as those projects come to fruition.