Not to be another game designer praising Dark Souls but

Wow this game solidified that I never want voice chat with random gamers ever again in my life.

My first one is usually the best! before the pan's temperature becomes too high even on a low flame.

Quick non-take about game design but... I've never liked or agreed with the MDA Framework (mechanics, dynamics, Aesthetics) to analyze or understand games.

Not ready yet to clearly articulate why, but I felt like putting it out there.

This is so sad.

gamedev starter pack

I've been feeling similarly for a while, including not wanting to quit, but feeling like I might already have.

Many of those feelings of disillusion are very close to what burnout feels like, which asks for conscious rest.

More than anything I want to say: I understand.

they are talking this way about gamers because they know that without modern gaming online culture, starting out with gamergate, the current cultural rightwing movement wouldn’t be what it is. without gamergate there wouldn’t be paid ads for adolf hitler on twitter

Maximum points: what is the most influential video game ever? As Bafta launches a survey asking the public to nominate the most influential game of all time, we asked people from across games and culture for their picks

www.theguardian.com/games/2025/m...

All around good takes.

Let's play videos are a game changer for video game analysis. You can find hundreds of detailed player experiences from all across the world, most of them including face and input recording.

Anything from highly edited interactive experiences, to painfully slow livestreams. Incredible resource.

Da miedito. No he hecho sino pensar toda la semana en cómo trabajar en eso, desde la enseñanza, la formación de públicos, el imperativo moral. No sé.

If you want consistently interesting and well made games to play on your phone, look no further than @adamatomic.bsky.social pico-8 output.

I spent a couple of hours last night when I should've been sleeping playing Cave of cards. The pico-8 mobile controls are actually good!

Or in the immortal words of Adrian Bott:

But what concerns me the most, is how they seem to ignore these ideas mean erasing themselves.

Just being Colombian devs in the periphery would make all of us the wokest of DEI hires. Any scholarships they may pursue to study abroad would turn them into undeserving migrants to these ideologues.

Their discourse is also deeply anti-dev. They seem to believe that most devs are out to get them. Either maliciously, or passively by omission, all devs in their mind are pushing the 'woke agenda'.

No personal anecdote of misogyny and racism within the industry would convince them otherwise.

We are not from the US. Far from it. This is a class in a college in a relatively small city in Colombia... and yet, I hear them complaining about DEI in games, talking about Zoe Quinn, with gamergate talking point that have long been refuted.

You'd think they are red-blooded republicans at heart.

They see themselves as 'gamers' first. Part of my intention is getting them to see themselves as gamedevs instead.

Being a gamer, as an identity, has become inextricably tied to a specific brand of american right wing politics. This specific brand is deep into conspiranoia.

The kids ain't alright.

I've started teaching an elective on 'Videogame analysis and creation' for students of any major (though it's mostly computer science and multimedia design).

It's tough to see them parrot alt-right talking points when we get into discussions of games and representation.

This looks like a great crash course into videogame history.

This 100% it's never about "balance", what does balance even mean? It's about feel. (Not game-feel necessarily). We really need better semantics for games discourse.

Jokes are and will always be the best reason to make art.

*Narrator voice*

- The creator of Truth or Fail asked...

I understand the fear of supporting a politician one knows little about.

But as a Colombian, he's the first president to give me hope for the future. He's not perfect. No politician is. The first leftist leader in the country's history who wasn't been murdered before coming to power.

My own take on this is the very notion of "design" is an inescapably poisoned and neoliberal concept and personally I'd rather approach games in terms of media or art

(Please nobody lookup what kind of school employs me)
bsky.app/profile/sylv...

Slightly warmer take. No, but this is actually part of the problem with players equating 'realism' with better games, which fuels the graphical arms race that bloats development times and sinks studios.

Also... This is sometimes paired with "beautifying" female characters.

Using AI to summarize text is similarly flawed as using it as a search engine. It removes context and nuance, and standardizes learning outcomes. Same as it does with writing. Makes everything bland and mediocre.

Loved this take on quality of life changes in games. I for one, am down for arguing semantics, especially when there is a hidden meaning to common terms that needs questioning.

This one asks, are "quality of life" changes ever actual improvements? Or just unexamined changes to design flavours.

Severance is so hard to watch because this actually happened to me

yet another issue with the “indies will save us” narrative outlined (and debunked) on the latest you are error

aftermath.site/you-are-erro...

How is this so amazing!!