Nobody I'd rather listen to than @lairdbarron.bsky.social whilst out walking with the dog.

Simpler times. I turned 40 last year & honestly I have been so nostalgic for the mid 2000's time in games. I miss just booting up the 360 & playing Gears with friends all weekend. If you're in your early 20's now make sure you appreciate this time you have. 🙏

This is where holiday cinema peaked

Enjoy a look at the narrative side of Fellhollow, the upcoming expansion to the Unreal Engine 5-powered open-world survival crafting game RuneScape: Dragonwilds that's out tomorrow on Steam:

Going into 2026, a reminder for everyone who's fallen off the creative wagon, game dev, writing, art, music, whatever, no matter how long:

🌿 Verdant is a singleplayer survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world, frozen in the 80s. 🌺 You wield the power to take or restore life - and combat is always just a last resort. #verdantgame #indiedev #gamedev

Spent some time with Lords of the Fallen this afternoon. The umbral lantern is an interesting concept & feature, but I am not a fan of the camera position, and the combat animations are fast, which makes it feel "floaty" and not deliberate, unlike in the Souls series.

I developed a bit of an obsession with Half-Life this year.

If you're an enjoyer of the macarbe & the cosmos I implore you to give Thomas Ligotti a try. Cosmic horror stretches far beyond HPL.

Routine is a sublime and highly tactile puzzle adventure drenched in tension and terror. Our Routine review: gameinformer.com/review/routi...

Some #Blocktober progress I’ve been focusing more on pacing & exploring lightweight, storytelling techniques that work well on mobile. The goal is to keep everything diegetic, letting the environment communicate the story rather than relying on cutscenes or UI #leveldesign

Here is my #blocktober '25 update. About half a dozen hours in so far as I was late starting. Looking forward to seeing what I can get done by the end of the month #leveldesign

Finally managed to persuade the wife to give Yellowstone a try

Had a fantastic family vacation in Wales. Nothing beats sea air & family time to help reset the mind.

In #TotalChaos, Fort Oasis is waiting... Where reality breaks, abominations adapt, and every bullet matters.

Normalise Level Designers playing through their levels, doing commentary on design choices and taking the time to set up scripted events and combat scenarios. In this competitive environment top down maps, screenshots & fly throughs aren't enough. Stand out.

I find putting together these little scenes so therapeutic. I'm at my happiest when I am creating.

Cracking day for 40th birthday drinks in Liverpool 🍻

If you're looking for Outer Wilds meets Amnesia in Victorian era London consider wishlisting. store.steampowered.com/app/1734000/...

Nightdive has been killing it recently. Excited to see what changes are coming to a cult classic.

Personally I think Halo MCC like Mass Effect LE are the best value for money in gaming. If you're looking to learn about game, level, narrative or combat design - study these two games

Games leaders, please embrace more AA projects and AA budgets—quality over scope. Helldivers 2's success should be a wake-up call. Players want more games like Singularity and FEAR than another live service or open-world game. Listen to the market, not your ego.

Finding a concerning trend with the redundancies in games, why is it never the Senior & above staff affected when it's them mandating the content that gets made which fails to resonate with Players or publishers? You'll normally find the people doing the work know it's shit but can't do anything.

7 years is a long time. Still incredibly proud of the people that helped me put this concept together. It was our attempt at blending survival horror & immersive sims together but the horror elements were really poorly executed. Still not a bad attempt after 9 months. youtu.be/8zjzwOpbwK4?...

In memoriam. www.eurogamer.net/how-viktor-a...

I just released a new tool: a "texture browser" for UE5.5 that presents materials as square thumbnails instead of spheres. Like a 90s texture browser. Much better for level designin'. Has favourite searches, quick access to recently-used materials, etc. www.joewintergreen.com/new-tool-imp...

Devastated to hear this. A wave of sadness has just hit me. My thoughts go out to his family. 53 is far too young.

I wasn't expecting to get some great references from Anderton Boat Lift 😂

I never got a Xmas night out thanks to taking voluntary redundancy so making up for it today 🍻

I've put off making this game for 5 years. Pleased to have gotten the first draft onto paper. Miscarriage affects 1 in 4 couples. 17 out of every 100,000 men commit suicide.

If you're playing a RPG and don't use your kids name as your character are you even a parent 😂

Jensen vibing

Easily the best part of the day

Deus Ex in bed. 2025 has peaked already.

Let’s Plays are great, but nothing compares to the experience of playing a video game yourself and uncovering its message firsthand.

Elon Musk is a good example of how terrible people become increasingly radicalized into the far right simply because the far right is a community that accepts cruel, terrible people. It's tempting to say Elon is going "mask off", but I'd wager Elon didn't know who Tommy Robinson was 5 years ago. 1/

Snow day

I spent most of the Xmas break replaying Cyberpunk 2077 and came away with an urge to dive deep into its themes with a new piece. www.si.com/videogames/f...

If you are a #gamedev based in The North - let us know if you would like to be added to our #gamedev list. If you are offering investment in games, please let us know so we can add you to our useful resources for #gamedev list too.

People were talking about yellow paint in games again, and I got thoughts on that and the sorts of things you should do instead, so here's a blog post on that. Imo read my blog post and buy influx redux www.joewintergreen.com/what-i-recko...

Support Immersive Sims

I went to watch Nosferatu this morning - I've always respected Egger for always trying to be historically accurate. I wasn't expecting to have as many emotionally compelling scenes as there were. I really can't recommend it enough.

Bought a Nerf Captain Rex blaster off eBay. Found a tutorial that shows you how to convert it into a movie prop - never really done anything like this before but looking forward to it

I'm super late to this Discourse, but I'd rather see yellow paint and other level-design craftiness than have to write variants of NPC barks like, "We should find a way out of here" and "Think that door's the exit?" and in desperation "Let's try that door by the ramp. It looks like an exit."

It's ok to have to remind people, and perhaps ourselves, that it's not bad to cut things in creative projects. It's critical. (Yes, yes, perfect vision and planning would obviate this.)

This time period Xmas & New Year is meant for The Goonies & Stand By Me

I really wanted an OG Assassin's Creed experience from Mirage but again like most modern AAA it sacrifices agency for hand holding & over explanation in cut scenes to set the stakes.

Saw this on offer and could not say no #Bloodborne

Looking forward to diving into some games this morning before the family arrives later.

If you can't have fun setting up silly little vignettes like this what are you even making games for #leveldesign