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The 30 Rockification of real life is nearing completion

Weather update for this weekend in Texas

wait, wait... i seem to remember a south park episode...

I’m more pro-AI than most on this website but this is absolutely, positively, 100% a good take.

There is a LONG walk between what AI does well and what its boosters think it does well. (And that’s because the boosters are chasing investment cash and Wall Street kudos).

Conceptually, giving PvP players growth and economic optimizations around killing other killers, where the PvE player as a target is suboptimal, is a start.

And PvE players have an effective path to power and economy optimizations outside of PKing as part of the core loop.

But balance is hard

A weird little guy vehicle from the game Docked

So Docked is a game where you collect and drive weird little guys in order to do logistics while getting your music career going and it's absolutely my shit.

The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit.

So here's to one hell of a ride on Anthem. A bit of pre-launch dev, a bit of live service, and a bit of Next. Some of my fondest memories amidst some very complicated times in both games and how communities engaged. I would do it all over again.

RIP Anthem

Their advocacy, support, and recognition of my work to my local leadership is something I'll never forget. The confidence I gained and the support I felt for the first time made me a better designer and leader, and I cannot WAIT to see the next thing they put out.

Advocacy
I was in the mid/senior slump - I felt constantly overlooked and underappreciated. Working with a new design leadership team in our sister studio changed the course of my career...

It was a fundamental re-think of the player growth journey, while pushing for excellence in every other aspect. Everything could be improved, even traversal. It was an exciting time.

Anthem Next
The team working on Next was incredibly driven. A wildly talented small group that playtested every day. Every morning we would look at changes from the day before...

Community
I had the opportunity to interface with some really great communities. We were heavily invested in getting feedback on all of our potential changes and fixes, and there were some dedicated folks that were excited to join us on that journey.

Cataclysm
We designed something special in live service that I'm still really proud of. Cataclysm was a PvE Extraction experience that (imho) was ahead of its time. We had a blast designing it and working with public testers to refine it to something really unique and engaging.

Personalization
Working with and organizing all of the cosmetics and personalization options for the exosuits was a ton of fun. Coming up with more ways for players to express themselves (emotes/poses), and working with some world-class animators and modelers was inspiring.

Circumstances led to us adding a social hub at the last minute: 2 months before launch. I was lucky to work with a two crazy talented engineers (and a couple of producers) from Motive who pulled off a miracle. Working with them was unforgettable.

We didn't want to lean on dark patterns (like FOMO) to fuel social motivation, so we came up with the Alliance system, which encouraged play via positive social pressure. The more you and your friends and their friends played, the more everyone benefitted collectively. More currency for everyone.

Social
Connecting folks together is pretty crucial in a co-op pve game. It was also important to the business. AWS dedis were very expensive, especially when not full. One of the systems I was pretty proud of was the Alliance system...

Today Anthem went dark after almost 7 years - quite a run! It had a profound effect on my career in a few ways, and I wanted to capture some positive memories and thoughts I'll take with me. 🧵

I was born in 1978; Return of the Jedi came out in 1983; Clerks came out in 1994. During those eleven years I never once heard an adult talk about Star Wars other than family members talking directly to me, until I heard Randall and Dante do it. I feel like this is impossible to convey to people now

New Vekoma tilt coaster was open for a preview during the F1 weekend, so of course I had to try it out... This one's legit!

This is important.

This has been a go-to wind-down game for me for a long time. Really executed well and great presentation. I've been recommending this to folks for years - check it out!

meme of two guys looking out a bus. guy on the left is depressed and looking to the left, because "they're having a meeting without me". he is labeled "associate". guy on the right is smiling and looking at a bright horizon because "they're having a meeting without me". he is labeled senior. director would wrap back around to the left probably

Borat voice:

6 because Peggle rules

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...

Broken Wings and Kyrie on infinite repeat.