Doc Awk

@samwaitin.bsky.social you got a discord? DM me. Would love to talk to you about your music and a potential opportunity

Toby is the best!!

Would also suggest brevity over accuracy. "Find the broccoli. Save the world"

Instead of the minutiae of how the broccoli is spawned and what you must do with it.

Lean into the fantasy of this wacky world, and try not to explain the design.

Looking good. I would avoid text cards that do not strike at the core conceit of your game. Whereas "Fight" may be relevant to the core premise, "grab and throw", or "swing" are probably best left to the images. When in doubt, text card to explain the goal and why, images to explain the how.

Hell yeah. Sounds cool. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Gotcha. Is working your way through the process the point of the experience?

As someone unfamiliar with the smelting process, is there UI to indicate what I should be doing? Assume it's just cropped.

Fantastic Movie. Now it's time for Attack the Block.

Merry Christmas Snipe!

Genius moves

I was very excited to see Infinity Nikki innovate in the cozy space but after a couple hours with it, the handholding is almost oppressive. Hopefully they offer a streamlined "experienced player" onboarding at some point, because right now I can't stick it out to actually play the game.

I had to snip out my favourite moment from #TheGameAwards. @laratlarian.bsky.social's words echo the heart of every developer. The industry needs to listen.

We just want to make cool stuff for people.

#indiedev #gamedev

Well played. Incredible achievement from an incredible team.

Sick! Awesome pedigree to match an awesome looking game! Thank you for tracking this down.

Thank you! The concept and illustration work is superb. The whole scene looks so badass.

The game looks awesome! Who did your capsule?

The thing no one tells you about #indiedev is that you'll always be thinking of the game. Always.

Feeling very blessed this morning🙏🏽Thankful for everyone who spent time playing my tunes this year 💕 #spotifywrapped

Would love to be included. 🤜🏽💥🤛🏽

A lot of great game design is about the feeling you are left with the moment you step away from the game.

CompUSA is craaaaazy

bsky.app/profile/draw...

I am a huge proponent of using metrics and analytics to make a better game. We're fortunate to have this information to help us make the best decisions for our players. The risk is when you let those metrics drive the creative process; and being unwilling to try new ideas without proven results.

Valheim is a perfect example of devs that are taking established formulas and infusing creative, new ideas. If anything, I think this aligns with my thoughts in the thread. This is what the industry needs more of! As I say in the thread, these problems aren't with ALL games, but it is prevalent.

I purposely didn't name any games here because the last thing I want this conversation to become about is dogpiling some devs when their jobs are hard (and uncertain) enough already. This is simply my observation from my time working in the industry.

Best practices is a whole other can of worms that is worth its own thread tbh. The note about decision makers: there is some truth to that, but I have seen some of the industry greats fall into the same trap. It's hard to manage these big games, so looking at metrics has become a safety blanket.

P.S. Play more #indiegames

The challenges are real, but so is the passion. Creativity isn’t dead... it’s just navigating a much much tougher environment. So, here’s to the devs still finding ways to surprise us and to the players who support bold ideas. 🥂 The magic of games is still out there if you know where to look.

This is of course not the whole story. There are developers, at all levels, pushing boundaries, trying new things, and fighting for ideas that surprise and inspire. The spirit of innovation is still alive; it just has to work a lot harder to break through in today’s system.