NEW: the IWGB has filed formal legal claims against Rockstar after it says the company refused to meet to discuss bringing back fired developers. "Rockstar has declined to meet with the IWGB, leading the union and barristers to issue formal legal claims on behalf of the Claimants."

I went to meet the 'Rockstar 31', the developers who were suddenly fired from their work on GTA 6 for what the studio has described as gross misconduct. That's not what the workers call it though. They have another couple of words they prefer to use: union busting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9nO...

New ep just dropped! This conversation with Dan Pinchbeck, co-founder of The Chinese Room, was fascinating! We cover everything from half-life 2 mods to most of their games, layoffs, the Sumo acquisition, burnout and of course Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2! www.youtube.com/@gothboss #gamedev

Happy Halloween! 🖤🤡

Very, very late to the book party with this one, but grabbed it off my ever growing TBR pile this morning and it is *brilliant*. I struggle reading novels because I lose focus & my mind wanders, so it’s always wonderful when something grabs my attention like this. (Piranesi is another one I love)

This week’s podcast ep is finally up after wrangling technical issues after that AWS outage! It’s a longer format of the talk I gave at Games Talks Live last week: How to Future-Proof Your Game Industry Career youtu.be/ezwXUbo34uc

I am definitely biased but tonight’s Startup Meetup in Edinburgh was my favourite one yet. I had a great time interviewing Maurizio to hear about his impressive career from Realtime Worlds to Jagex, selling his startup (Cloudgine) to Epic, and now working on a new startup using Unreal in the cloud 🤩

Mediatonic founder launches new group of studios under the banner Skeleton Crew

AWS outages are a good reminder to not leave podcast editing until the afternoon before it’s meant to drop. Tomorrow’s ep gonna be a bit delayed because muggins here relies too heavily on browser-based tools for everything 🙃

Alice? Misadventures? Tarot cards? Wonderfully eerie piano-based OST? Habromania looks so good! Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/236... Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3677050/...

If you've not had a chance to sign this yet, please do

So many spooky-cute games this autumn. This one called Gloomy Eyes came out a few weeks ago and has such a lovely art style: store.steampowered.com/app/2667950/...

As usual the @scotgamedev.bsky.social #GamesTalksLive were excellent, still time to catch them in #Glasgow tonight and online! sgda.co.uk/gtl for more details. Amazing speakers, including pals @gothbosscat.bsky.social @petergreeves.bsky.social #Games #Scotland #Scottish #VideoGames #GameDev

once again I need help with some research for my novel! I need to speak to women born between 1979 and 1981. If that is you, and you don’t mind chatting to me about 90s clothes, books, TV, etc, please let me know!

Games Talks Live tonight was great! Thanks to everyone who came up and said nice things about my talk. I’ll also be at Dundee tomorrow and Glasgow on Thurs. P.S. sorry to anyone else who wanted to chat tonight; I bailed early to save energy. You’re welcome to DM if we didn’t get chance to chat 😌

Data science time! Most games heading into #SteamNextFest have between 10 and 100 followers. That's like between ~50 (low estimate) and ~1500 (high estimate) wishlists. But you probably know that already. Anything you want to see?

Can game design really change the world? 🎮 In this week's ep of The Goth Boss Podcast, I chat to @trevinyork.bsky.social about Game Design For Change and hear about projects that are having a real impact on the world. YouTube: www.youtube.com/@gothboss Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6ZPydcl...

A point-and-click parody of Les Miserables? Where could I register my interest for such a thing?? www.kickstarter.com/projects/col... #IndieGame #AdventureGame #PointAndClick #LesMiserables

It cannot be made clearer. If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

I'm speaking at Games Talks Live next week! It's always a great event. If you'll be there, please do say hello! We will be touring 3 Scottish cities over 3 nights! Tues 14 - Edinburgh Weds 15 - Dundee Thurs 16 - Glasgow The full speaker list and and tickets are available at www.gamestalks.live

Unity have had a really tough few years. People keep asking me if they should still use for their games or move to a different engine. I popped some thoughts in the latest podcast ep. 📺 Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/-BuWqvu6lvw 🎧 Audio versions available on all the usual places! #gamedev #unity

P.S. We're still on the look out for a Lead Unity Developer to join the Mind Candy team and help bring the updated Moshi Monsters game to life! Job spec here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Stand back everyone, I'm attempting to write shaders 😂😱

Now this is a bit excessive if you ask me, but here we are. My already discounted bundle – at half the price. I'll do the math for you: all my tools for only 30% of their original price!! assetstore.unity.com/packages/too... It includes...

Good morning from Unity, I guess. If you’ve released a Windows/Linux/macOS game in Unity recently, might be worth patching unity.com/security/sep...

P.S. We're still on the look out for a Lead Unity Developer to join the Mind Candy team and help bring the updated Moshi Monsters game to life! Job spec here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

In my excitement at working on fun Moshi Monsters things this week I completely forgot to share this week's podcast ep on socials 🤣 🙈 YouTube: youtu.be/sy0l6ecXeYA?... It's also on all the usual audio places.

If you make experimental or unusual games, the Out of Index festival in Seoul is still accepting submissions through the 17th! www.outofindex.org

Applications are now open for the SGDA Games Acclerator programme, the first dedicated business development programme for the games sector.

Exciting news! Join @gothicauob.bsky.social for 👾 Video Game Gothic 👾 with our special guest speaker @dreframss.bsky.social on Zoom on Thursday 23rd October 5.00pm - 6.30pm (UK). As an expert in occulture, Efram's talk will explore issues of video game censorship during the 1980s ‘Satanic Panic’ ⬇️

Who wants to help bring back Moshi Monsters? After a successful Kickstarter campaign we're bringing the game back and looking for a Lead Unity Developer to join the team! The role is hybrid with 2 days on-site in their London office. Full job spec is here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43... #gamedev

Who wants to help bring back Moshi Monsters? After a successful Kickstarter campaign we're bringing the game back and looking for a Lead Unity Developer to join the team! The role is hybrid with 2 days on-site in their London office. Full job spec is here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43... #gamedev

Honestly getting a wee bit emosh rewatching clips from this week's episode of the podcast with @spadgy.bsky.social ❤️ It quickly became an honest conversation about his struggles & how the industry has rallied around him. Available now in all the usual places! youtu.be/9BU1BzVf7sk

On today's episode of The Goth Boss Podcast, Cinzia Musio shares insights on the challenges and myths of diversity and inclusion in games, along with practical steps leaders can take to create truly inclusive spaces. Cinzia's profile: @geekybaking.bsky.social YT link: youtu.be/AxmQj2Ik-wc

On Thursday there's a fringe event for DICE happening in Dundee. I'll be hosting a panel on developer survival and success with speakers from Double Fine, Vivrato and Keelworks. If any friends are going, please let me know so we can grab a coffee! ☕

Had the absolute best time teaching kids how to make games in Scratch today. I’m amazed at their willingness to get stuck in, try stuff and be chill when things break. They all made such fun games and even recorded their own sound effects 👏 Thanks to the Codebase Edinburgh team for inviting me! 🖤

My mate Cat invited me on her podcast and let me nerd out about being a freelance designer :D Hopefully some useful nuggets of wisdom here and there, including a breakdown of my process for breaking down and analysing a game's design / direction! Go check it out if that sounds neat :) #GameDesign

In this week's ep of The Goth Boss Podcast my friend Lee Kemp from Tea Imp Games joins me for a long overdue catch up and we discuss all things game design! 📺 YouTube: youtu.be/2xJDxY7oFAA + Spotify and all the other audio places @designergoblin.bsky.social 🤩

I'm looking to commission a freelancer with knowledge of the Russian games industry and preferably some ability to read/speak Russian. If that's you, my email is in my bio: www.rockpapershotgun.com/authors/edwi...

My favourite things about the games industry is the people in it. I had a really tough weekend and started my monday feeling a bit bleh, but I've had a few calls with lovely industry people today and it has totally filled my heart up. Games has a lot of really good people 🫶🥰🖤

Book now! The next meeting of the #games Cross-Party Group at the Scottish Parliament is on September 23rd. In-person and online tickets available. Trust me - you are not going to want to miss this one. Action Plan: DONE. Find out more here... scottishgames.net/2025/09/05/s...

Games CPG: The next meeting of the Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on Scotland's Games Ecosystem takes place on September 23rd 2025.

newsletters are such an under-appreciated direct line to your biggest fans. the Hidden Folks newsletter has 32k subscribers with a ~60% open rate (exceptionally good) and sending an email to everyone costs me just €4,18 (!!). here's a thread on how I set it up to be reliable yet cheap. 🧵👇🏼 #gamedev

Had a bloody lovely time catching up with @designergoblin.bsky.social for the pod. We talk all things game design and get to hear about his indie game in the next episode - available tuesday!

The Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant is offering $15,000 USD to traditionally under-supported game developers working on thinky puzzle games. If this is you, we invite you to apply! Deadline: September 28th grants.draknek.org

Every CEO in the video game industry for the last 18 months: vm.tiktok.com/ZNdVW7Jqa/

Also if any Glasgow-based friends are free late afternoon / early evening today and fancy dinner or a pint, hit me up! I’ve got a few hours free at the end of the day 🖤

On my way to Glasgow for a day of games ecosystem event planning with @brianbaglow.bsky.social & @scottishgames.bsky.social. We’ll be sharing more details about the event in the coming days so keep an eye on our socials 👀

Welp, I've just found out that my role has been made redundant 🫠... So I will be looking for work! If anyone is looking for a 2D/3D Generalist or Art Director for games (particularly specialising in stylised projects!) please shout! From concepts > modelling > animating thru to implementation 💛✨

Today's ep of the podcast is one I expect many startup founders will disagree with but I stand by it. Switching off is essential for you to recharge & do your best work. If you're someone who habitually checks your phone, or know someone who posts to Slack outside work hours, this one's for you!