Obsessed with this Norwegian game Northern Journey. Very strange Half-Life style 1st person adventure. Someone in the Steam reviews said “it’s like a Viking took shrooms and suddenly understood how to make an N64 game.”

Garrett Martin is too humble to say this, but modern games journalism wouldn't exist without him. For *many* years, he has been the great spotter and supporter of talent. He used Paste as an incubator for an entire generation of writers, critics, and reporters. Read Endless Mode!

my first story for Endless Mode is up TODAY actually

"Slowly, gradually, the Playdate has evolved into something more like a large-scale, collaborative, physical version of UFO 50. It’s an alternate history Game Boy with dozens upon dozens of genuinely great games." 👍 pushtotalk.gg/p/how-much-game-can-you-fit-in-27-inches

New op-ed: It's time for Valve to follow Epic's lead by offering 0% fees on each dev's first $1 million. Steam is an amazing force for good in games. But it is also incredibly dominant, and Valve has the power to make business more fair for small game developers. www.pushtotalk.gg/p/valves-30-...

I have no idea why the Kepler Interactive people are playing so coy about the budget for Expedition 33, but this quote makes me more likely to believe the rumor I heard, which was that it was between $5m–$10m. If true, that'd be incredible, and Kepler/Sandfall ought to share more on their process.

If you’re not burned out on “deprofessionalization” discourse yet @pushtotalk.gg has a great chat with @brkeogh.bsky.social up that digs into more nuance. Some of that nuance is *yeah this whole deprofessionalization thing would suck a lot less if we had universal health care and basic income!!!!!*

liked this @pushtotalk.gg article with @brkeogh.bsky.social on game industry economies: www.pushtotalk.gg/p/gamings-gr... … so if small game studios are like bands, are game bundles like our version of support acts? are all these game fests like touring?

If you liked or hated my takes on ‘deprofessionalisation’, I went into a lot more detail in this great chat with @pushtotalk.gg for his newsletter. Connected what’s going on now to what I observed in the Australian industry in the 2010s www.pushtotalk.gg/p/gamings-gr...

New from me—I had a great time at PAX East last week and met truly incredible developers. I was also pulling my hair out at how many small teams outnumbered proper-sized studios. It's good that indies can punch above their weight. It's bad that it's replacing stable work in games!

my story's in the tier 1 slot on @polygon.com !!!

Interviewed @lente.me about her life as a game dev who lives on a solarpunk-ass boat—and got a surprisingly touching story about reclaiming childhood www.pushtotalk.gg/p/the-surpri...

We’re still in the early days of games as an art form. You can just send an email to people who invented genres in the 90s and ask them things. 30 years after leading design on Ultima Online, Raph Koster is still working to fulfill his grand vision of “an alternate holodeck world you step into.”

Announcing Process, a novel by @matthewseiji.com, which takes readers on an intense psychological journey into the dark heart of Seattle’s tech startup world. Design @markwynne20.bsky.social Brutalist illustrations @itsfredi1.bsky.social #booksky 💙📚 www.tuneandfairweather.com/products/pro...

Chatted with the GOAT of indie game trailers

I had fun talking to @pushtotalk.gg about how AAA game marketing compares to indies. I always assumed AAA folks are on galaxy brain level thinking compared to me, but Ryan basically said it's decades of the same tactics with lots of money. When it works it works great, and when it doesn't... 😱

✨ PRE-ORDER MY BOOK ✨ My book Mastering Community Management is finally ready!!! ➡️ Learn how to create long-term, sustainable, and intentional game spaces online ➡️ Pre to post-launch community guide ➡️ Case studies, engagement, and infrastructure tips Shares appreciated. ❤️ www.victoriatran.com/book

Thank you @pushtotalk.gg for starting a great conversation in my house after reading the latest Push To Talk. www.pushtotalk.gg

I'm excited because this week I interviewed some teams making unambiguously cool AI stuff (e.g. VLC's new AI-powered subtitles in 100+ languages and Adobe's enhance speech tool) but I have to admit I might be too scared to post the link on this app. I assume I'll get cooked

Many of the most successful indie devs seem to struggle under the weight of player expectations after shipping their first true hit. And it’s true that “Game 2” is almost never as big. So we’ve gotta celebrate those who just keep shipping great work anyway. My interview w/ the creator of Peglin:

Tried to solve a marketing mystery and it got weird www.pushtotalk.gg/p/are-random...

Game File is now a year old, so I'm sharing a very transparent status report about my first year as a reader-supported reporter The good: 2nd-highest grossing gaming pub on substack Key question: year 2 will prove if this is sustainable (and if I can expand) www.gamefile.news/p/game-file-...

How did these hit games find their first 1,000 players?

My latest is in the lead story slot on Polygon. I asked four successful indie devs how and where they found their first 1,000 players. Lot of useful marketing tips in this one (link in comments)

got endorsed by my favorite gaming podcast (am screaming, crying, etc)

Wrote a thing about how we're all gonna die www.pushtotalk.gg/p/2500-books...

Ah yes, let's build Australia with hard work, innovation and non-progressive Gundam ideals like *checks notes* dropping a space colony on Sydney. Thanks for the bot bait! @pmctrilogy.bsky.social

Reviewed a crazy book about the Commodore 64 for Polygon.com! www.polygon.com/books/496693...

It's hard to articulate a clear vision for a new video game, but one helpful exercise is to make a publisher pitch deck. In my newsletter this week is the pitch deck for Mars First Logistics, one of the first games to get funded by @outersloth.com. Thanks @ianmaclarty.com for sharing!

How do you know when your game is good?

Today's my birthday + I started a new job that I'm in love with. Also: @polygon.com republished my essay/interview with @laitue.bsky.social, @ghostcrawler.bsky.social, and Chad Grenier (former game director on Apex Legends). LET'S GOOOOOO

Given that Bluesky’s positioning is “literally old Twitter” I’m surprised they haven’t brought back the old manual checkmark thing Is that something people would actually want?

Weirdly impressive how quickly everything loads here

I heard people are talking about video games over here