Stefan Sain Lopuszanski πŸ”œ GAMA + GDC's Avatar

Stefan Sain Lopuszanski πŸ”œ GAMA + GDC

@stexe

Game Director / Designer at Hintersight Studios. Working on physical-digital hybrid board games and tabletop games. Our first game is a hybrid take on the auto-battler genre.

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05.08.2023
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Latest posts by Stefan Sain Lopuszanski πŸ”œ GAMA + GDC @stexe

I'll be there too! πŸŽ‰

07.03.2026 21:43 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

our team is TOTALLY blown away by the amount of people who have been playing & sharing their love for the game we've been working on for the past half decade.

we're excited to continue to make StS2 the best that it can be!! πŸ’ͺ

also obligatory joke: we'll getcha one day Silksong

07.03.2026 20:39 πŸ‘ 734 πŸ” 104 πŸ’¬ 23 πŸ“Œ 8

Now I'm wondering what company that is... 😬

07.03.2026 00:13 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I've been running gdcparties.com for a few years now. Some shitty company BlueberryAI decided they'd just take all the source code for the work I've done and reskin it, advertising it as their own. Jokes on them...it was still linked to my events spreadsheet, and now their website looks like this πŸ˜‰

06.03.2026 21:43 πŸ‘ 4278 πŸ” 1024 πŸ’¬ 65 πŸ“Œ 39

The only prescriptive advice I’ll give young designers:

Make games only you could make.

Don’t ask me what I mean by that, cos you either already know - or you’ll figure it out.

28.02.2026 14:16 πŸ‘ 99 πŸ” 21 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2

@novocaine96.bsky.social : Hey, I sent you a message on reddit about Searchicality. Let me know if you want to chat about it. Thanks!

10.02.2026 04:12 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

What about GDC 2026?

24.01.2026 21:25 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Stay strong. Let me know if you need any help.

24.01.2026 01:15 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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The GDC Official Discord is now open! Welcoming the entire gaming community to discuss, learn, and grow together. Join now - bit.ly/3NoxFVs

15.01.2026 19:02 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Me too. Especially daylight saving time. Who thought that was a good idea to keep around... It becoming dark at 5 PM is brutal. Both US and Canada should just keep it always on. πŸ™ƒ

09.11.2025 19:49 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

No idea. It happened pretty fast. I think after two or three focus resets. I thought in other levels they kept spawning for a lot longer. But maybe I just missed some explanation or something else.

06.11.2025 03:58 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

@beyondthegrove.bsky.social : Tried your game out. Pretty fun. Feels a bit heavy on the meta progression though. I also ran into a bug where my units stopped spawning, unless that's intentional. Anyway, looking forward to the full release. Reminds me of Golems from WC3.

06.11.2025 02:37 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Awesome. I'll maybe run into you sometime. This is my first Spiel Essen, so I'm still trying to figure it all out. Hope it goes well for you!

22.10.2025 08:17 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Says not Pillars of the Earth though?

09.10.2025 03:13 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Are all these things still true 6+ months later?

04.10.2025 14:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Reserved tables for Unpub at PAX Unplugged are now on sale!Β 

unpub.org/paxunplugged

25.08.2025 17:01 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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(1/2) 🧡 Mortdog Dev Podcast Update #TFT >>>

AUG 19 - Until further notice, there will be no more Walk the Dog episodes.

I do want to say that anyone who watched even a single episode, I appreciate the hell out of you. This felt like the best way for me

19.08.2025 21:37 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation.
After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements.

Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation. After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements.

This is an insane thing to write about game development. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/a...

29.07.2025 02:10 πŸ‘ 7829 πŸ” 1285 πŸ’¬ 417 πŸ“Œ 1132

A lot of people come into the games industry and pretty soon develop a cynical attitude that the industry is largely run by business guys who don't know a thing about video games. It's only after a few years and some seniority that you realize that those guys don't know shit about business either.

16.07.2025 22:28 πŸ‘ 2494 πŸ” 562 πŸ’¬ 21 πŸ“Œ 21

And the reason I'm so against meta progression in general is because it is a form of cognitive manipulation. It makes people play more than they would without it. That's why most live service games do it. It doesn't necessarily make for a better experience. Just more addictive.

30.06.2025 14:28 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Many do love meta progression, but at least they should have more options to disable it or auto-unlock it. For accessibility too.

To me grinding should be optional, especially as people become more time crunched IRL.

Ofc the genre mismatch is there, but that's secondary imo.

30.06.2025 13:54 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

And I did mention the difficulty settings, but they are very poorly implemented in Civ. Overall it was the biggest factor for me to dislike it, especially because the previous entries worked fine without it.

Meta progression to me feels like a crutch design. Binding vs Rogue Legacy highlights that.

30.06.2025 13:50 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
(Retired) Should Roguelikes Have Persistent Upgrades? | Game Maker's Toolkit
(Retired) Should Roguelikes Have Persistent Upgrades? | Game Maker's Toolkit YouTube video by Game Maker's Toolkit

I understand the pattern, I'm just not a fan of it. GMTK's original (and now unlisted video) talked about it but he felt it was too opinion based so he re-did it.

Some rogue-lites skirt around it with options to disable it or auto-unlock stuff. That's a better solve to me.

youtu.be/eXEQ8VBqXBY

30.06.2025 13:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I disagree. Unlocking options I could see an argument for, but unlocking pure power results in an inverted difficulty curve. You learn & get better at the game while also gaining power. Maybe if the difficulty settings mattered much, but the AI is horrible. I don't like mistaking power for skill.

30.06.2025 05:08 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, some content is locked behind playing games to get them. And it is power too. Just a very weird design choice.

30.06.2025 04:52 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

The meta stuff was what broke it for me. Get that out of a Civilization game that locks content and reduces exploration and discovery.

The Ages I liked but I get why others were not a fan.

Most Civ games need an expansion to feel good anyway... The console focus hurt it too.

30.06.2025 04:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I just stumbled upon a note comparing all 3 of us as looking very similar from 14 years ago... (bringing me to this post when I was trying to find an image of you two together). Really sad he died and so young too.

20.06.2025 23:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Funny how you just need to break some angles to turn kitchen environment into a spaceship.

15.06.2025 12:41 πŸ‘ 8693 πŸ” 1957 πŸ’¬ 113 πŸ“Œ 102

The No Kings protest was massive! Historic turnout across the country. Shoutout to all the cities and towns that showed up in force:

15.06.2025 12:34 πŸ‘ 7826 πŸ” 878 πŸ’¬ 257 πŸ“Œ 45

@charliebrooker.bsky.social : Is there any chance you can get @netflix.com to release Bandersnatch somehow? Online only, a freebie to entice Netflix viewers, or even to just archive it? It is very close to my heart being a game dev named Stefan also struggling with mental health issues. Thanks. <3

12.06.2025 01:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0