invicticide / is on Nostr

Wizened (and withering) game developer, Monster Hunter and Genshin Impact enjoyer, occasional music maker, and unapologetic leftist.

Games matter. But people matter more. ♥

Last Notes

2024-05-24 01:50:18

#writerscoffeeclub May 23: What gets in the way of your writing?
Capitalism. And sometimes children. But mostly capitalism.

2024-05-15 14:52:31

I was looking at LinkedIn earlier (yes, I know) and my feed was entirely three things: ads, #AI magical thinking nonsense, and #layoffs by companies with record profits. And my feed here isn't so different, save for the addition of some hobbyist dev diary stuff.
I've been in #gamedev for 20 years and it's never felt this unsustainable. I'm taking a #sabbatical this summer — at my own expense, due to a deep need for rest and redirection — and I'm seriously considering just never coming back.

2024-03-15 21:04:32

Last time I used #linux I was on #ubuntu and it had some annoying quirks. If I do it again I want to try a different distro, maybe #pop_os or #linuxmint. How are we feeling about those, or even other alternatives, these days?
(I don't think I want to go as bare-metal as e.g. #archlinux. I mostly want to use the computer to accomplish stuff, not use the computer as a tool for tinkering with the OS.)

2024-03-15 20:42:43

Well I *was* going to use my computer for a bit, but then #windows decided to eat all the system resources to do background installations and malware scans that I didn't ask for, so I guess I'm just not doing that now.
I'm getting so close to going back to #linux. 😡

2024-02-29 19:19:12

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@npub14fs…qegk I saw Vampire Survivors referred to as a roguelike recently and I clawed my own face off in inchoate rage
(I love VS but dear god it is not an orange)

2023-11-12 16:05:02

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@npub1aw2…8vv5 I have so many feelings about this 😳

2023-10-25 15:58:37

We ordered soft-boiled eggs for breakfast and they came out under CROCHETED HENS I love it so much 😂
#food #crochet #crafts
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/111/296/476/118/557/863/original/4b3fec41eeb9e833.jpg

2023-09-15 16:35:07

I'm cherry-picking here, but I'm pretty convinced that this, not real estate value, is the primary driver of #rto for large metropolitan #tech companies.
Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-montreal-in-turmoil-amid-what-developers-are-calling-broken-promises
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/111/070/126/256/844/195/original/7f98555d3ce855ff.png

2023-09-12 15:49:53

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@npub1ykg…g4jv Huh, that's interesting. I've never met them, so I'm missing that context, but back around 2.5 to 4.0 it felt like this plucky indie thing that was tightly focused, holistically designed, and sold for one fair price. Now it feels relentlessly corporate, chaotically unfocused, user-hostile, and openly greedy. Maybe they were just really good at intentionally selling a manufactured image even right from the start? (Which is somehow even *more* disappointing, if that's the case.)

2023-09-12 15:38:00

I'm so incredibly disappointed in the direction #unity has taken over these past several years. They're cynically strip-mining every possible penny out of the market, developers be damned. The original spirit of the engine has been murdered, its corpse defiled, and its memory all but forgotten.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/unity-to-start-charging-fee-pegged-to-game-installs
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/111/052/912/303/352/628/original/7585e3a418a294a5.png

2023-09-01 15:10:44

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@npub1aw2…8vv5 I mean I feel like Unity is the corporate embodiment of chaos these days, so the math checks out

2023-09-01 15:06:25

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@npub1aw2…8vv5 This is pure violence, why is this happening

2023-08-29 04:56:38

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@npub12ze…hunm @npub142f…us0n I feel like these definitions are relatively solid. It's notable that "roguelike" here makes no mention of either permadeath or procgen, which puts me in mind of e.g. the older Spiderweb Software games (Exile, etc.) that AFAIK were fully hand-authored adventures, but still channeled a pretty roguelike spirit.

2023-08-28 00:54:25

I kind of hate that #roguelike has become an utterly meaningless term.
This is the current #steam category graphic, featuring literally zero actual roguelikes.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/110/964/483/859/464/789/original/67c32b0e3c9407c1.png

2023-06-25 23:38:35

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@npub1mc3…nkdg I moved into a nice quiet neighborhood and it turns out it was only nice and quiet on the specific day I toured the house. People here run their leaf blowers to clean off driveways that are already clean! Why?!