Talent is losing yourself in the minutia, and loving it. Each discovery becomes a skill, part of your style, and opens new doors. Most of my best times in life were alone, late at night, tinkering, and exploring possibilities. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

First look at the interface for OdysseyStream, a new platform I'm founding to bring interactive video characters to life, on all devices, including web, mobile, and TV.

One thing I've learned in my 20 years of being self-employed: there's a difference between being busy and being profitable. In the workplace, being busy is king. It's what leads to success, advancement, etc.

In a startup, revenue it king. You could make Flappy Bird in a weekend, or make a Call of Duty clone that takes years to complete. Both might earn the same, or nothing.

One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it's replacing creativity. I think the opposite is happening. AI lowers the cost of exploration. More ideas can be tested. More concepts can be visualized. More stories can be told. Just like digital cameras didn't end photography and game engin

Ironically, the story behind a project can become just as important as the project itself. People want to know: • Why you made it • How you made it • Who made it People connect with people long before they connect with products.

Attn Game Devs! Have you tried "going indie" or have thought about doing so? Maybe launched a game on the side? No agenda, just looking to converse/network. Back in 2012, my wife and I spent a year making Roboto and it ended up hitting #7 on the App Store. #Indie #GameDev #IndieGames #Unity

Big unlock for @odysseystream.bsky.social We’ve just been accepted into the @elevenlabs.io Startup Program! It's one of those indicators solo founders like myself hope for after months of working in the dark. Thx @elevenlabs.io this means a lot, truly! #AI #Startups #Founders #Tech #FutureOfWork

After 70+ launched projects, I've learned this - listen to your project. When you start, you put in all your hopes and dreams, giving it life. Once you have a loop, listen to it, form a relationship with it. It will tell you where it wants to go. Let it lead you. #creativity #GameDev #ArtProcess

Last night I told my wife I'm not getting along with my AI. So today, me and the AI had a little talk. I literally wrote this to my AI: "There are few moments in life as special as this. Let's enjoy it." It reluctantly agreed. Then apologized. #AI #ChatGPT #FutureOfWork

Generation X lived two lives: one analog, one digital. As someone building what I believe could be a new AI-native medium, I’ve never been more proud to be part of this generation. open.substack.com/pub/brianmcr... #GenX #AI #80s #Tech #Platfoms

For my first Linked In post of 2026, I thought I'd share something a little deep.

Having devoted most of my adult life to the craft of 3D Art, I have every right to completely despise AI art.

But I don't. I see possibility and opportunity.

This transition in mindset has been...a struggle. I worked endlessly to learn every technique and workflow to get the best possible result. I'd pour hours, days and weeks into a single model, and be proud of it.

My hard drives are full of 3D meshes, Unity and Unreal projects, textures, animations, mo cap files, reference and concept art, you name it.

But now things are different. Now anyone can prompt amazing images in seconds. There's very little "skill" required to prompt an image.

But this has happened before.

When photography was invented, it undid hundreds of years of artistic pursuit of realism. As soon as technology could capture reality in an instant, every portrait painter in the world went obsolete.

The result? An artistic explosion of Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism. Monet, Dali, Picasso, Kandinsky. The time between the 1860's and the 1930's gave us some of the best art ever.

Photography forced artists to realize craft was only one part of what makes art ART. The other part was expression, creativity, feeling. Yes, AI may have removed the "craft" of generating high quality imagery, but that doesn't make it evil, it just evolves the medium.

I’m working on a new AI rendering tool that gives full camera control using your 3D assets as a guide. It’s designed to help creative professionals get the exact cinematic angle and mood they want. #AI #3D #Filmmaking #GameDev #AIArt

Been working on a project to help with...my project! It's a story bible software that drives all the sequences in the experience, allowing for true, dynamic and meaningful interactions with other characters. #StoryWorld #Screenwriting #GameDevTools

Asked by a AAA Technical Art Director about how I'm doing the wind system in #WhipsersInTheCorn My response shows that games are a little more complex than you might think. :)

Vertex shader run through a simple perlin noise texture for movement. To keep them grounded I used vertex colors as a gradient painted in Max to influence sway, bend and jiggle, so R,G, and B were all used on the meshes.

Interaction is achieved using a volume field to influence the shader based on the position and radius of any object with a volume helper script. Pretty performant up to about 10 influence objects - which is plenty for my case.

All instanced geo that renders 30m - 90m verts in drawview at 60fps. Distance trees use a more simple vert shader and wind system. I can change the amount of wind on a slider (for story/gameplay reasons). Took about a week or two to get it right.

Made a build of #WhispersInTheCorn and textures came in at 2.2GB. Too big. After going through one by one, got it down to 1.1GB with no loss to visual quality. But it's tricky to find. Go to Editor.log>Build Report after a build to view your texture list.

Results from my Youtube channel poll last week. I actually love hearing there's plenty of interest in design theory and my process, two topics I enjoy sharing the most!

People have been asking for more #WhispersInTheCorn devlogs, but I've been holding back - don't want to give away the surprises! Here's what I can say: The story is very close to the original inception, but the design has evolved. More soon! #indiedev #UnityHDRP #gameDesign #HorrorGames

The Eyeball Creature from #AlienEarth is probably the most sinister monster of all time. When it jumped at the #xenomorph in ep 5, I actually felt bad for the xenomorph. #AlienEarth #creaturedesign #Alien #horror

In-editor footage from "Whispers in the Corn" - my new horror project, made with Unity HDRP. My goal - to create the scariest scarecrow experience ever. Launching this Halloween through my own site and launcher. #unity3d #UnityHDRP #indiegames #HorrorGames #horror

Advice I wish I had in my twenties: One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.

Does an artist create for themself or for product/market fit? After 25 years, I found it’s this: An artist creates for the PROJECT. • Create only what the project requires • Not the artist's needs • Not what marketing thinks the audience wants The artist's job is to listen to the project. #art

ChatGPT is designed to agree with you. Don’t let it. Prompt this instead: “You are a professional ____, Give me your honest, unbiased assessment of this idea, including pros, cons, and possible outcomes.” Then, make your own decision. #ChatGPT #aiworkflow #aiprompt

New video just went live. This one's about the simple game design method that helped me ship a 1M+ units. How to: - Master your core loop - Refine Your level loop youtu.be/dreMi2rrPHU #GameDev #LevelDesign #Gameloop #IndieDev #SoloDev

Took a walk down nostalgia lane on this one - back to my PS2 days at Midway as Senior Artist on Psi Ops. Enjoy! #gaminghistory #midway #psiops #classicgames #gamedesign youtu.be/xYI3YF9j-kk

It's not "What" you do, it's "Why" you do it. open.substack.com/pub/brianmcr... #indiedev #entrepreneur #creativebusiness

At a certain point your project starts to speak to you, telling you what it needs next. My job is simply to listen. #creativity #indiedev #Philosophy

He's watching you... Facial rig test of the boy scarecrow for Whispers in the Corn, a horror experience I'm designing in Unity HDRP. Coming soon. #IndieDev, #HorrorGames, #AnalogHorror, #Unity, #GameArt

Brand new Devlog! Watch my character creation process bring this boy scarecrow to life. #CharacterCreator #ZBrush #Horror #Scarecrow #IndieDev #DevLog #orrorGame #UnityHDRP #Unity youtu.be/1XdUHi8Ox_c?...

🌽 You’ve seen cornfields in horror movies. But have you ever been inside one… …where something ancient is watching? Screenshot from Whispers in the Corn — my upcoming interactive horror story. 🎮 Solo-dev. Built in Unity HDRP. #gamedev #horrorgame #indiegamedev #screenshotsaturday

Marionette Facial Rig for #WhispersInTheCorn Follow the dev Journey, being made in #UnityHDRP #IndieDev #GameDev #Horror #Marionette

The hard thing about business is that you don’t know what’s behind the doors. When working for a paycheck or a contract, it’s far more simple. This is why founders are so brave. Working from a hunch, they abandon all other opportunities for something completely hypothetical. #founder #business

What's that lurking in the darkness? Screenshot of #NightmareArcade Made with #3DSMax, #Photoshop, #Unreal5 #unrealengine #indiegame #horror #arcade #horrorgame

At Ozzfest '97, after a Zakk Wylde guitar intro, Ozzy sang the opening lines "I was looking back on my life..." and the crowd erupted and wept.

The song was "Road to Nowhere" off the No More Tears album. I was only 21 at the time, but I knew this was special, and knew, as a guitar player and musician myself, the gravity and importance that Ozzy Osbourne gave to heavy metal, music, and culture.

Ozzy was a poet who was endlessly self-effacing. I've dreaded this day for years, but I hope that the Prince of Darkness himself can now rest knowing the joys he gave the world and finally find the answers he's been looking for. "I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end." #Ozzy

Feeling overwhelmed? Challenging to just "keep up"? Simplify. Remove. Minimize. And be ruthless. Your mind will thank you. #SimplifyYourLife #DeepWork #OnePersonBusiness

The waitress from "Nightmare Arcade" - an Unreal 5 project I've been working on. #Unreal #Arcade #IndieDev #GameDev