Hobbyist gamedev, moderator of /c/GameDev, TV news producer/journalist by trade

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  • 61 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Dan removed GB from his BSky bio, and Grubb posted that he’s no longer with GB.

    To add more context, last night Dan was streaming on Twitch and said he expects episode 888 to be the last Bombcast. He said things that, if he stays employed, would make Fandom the most understanding employer ever. To use words he used: he’ll keep taking their money as long as they’ll give it to him, but he expects that won’t keep happening for very long. He’s very annoyed with working for giant corporations and wants to bet on himself.


  • I think that first segment is like 5-18, the second segment is 18-98, and the last segment is the cafeteria with uncomfortable hard plastic seats during “arts and crafts hour” if you’re lucky enough to make it to the old folks home.

    They’d have been able to draw a better timeline if the seats were better, probably.


  • They didn’t fire the whole team, just the six people (from what I can find,) that worked in the US. Some suspect NetEase’s move was to consolidating their workers in China. The six who were fired did, to some extent, level design and game design. I’m not sure anyone has a good answer on how much of each. And the creative lead and lead producer are still on the team, in China.

    That’s not to suggest how you should feel about the developer who fired people after a massive success, regardless of how many they fired. Just saying “the whole dev team” is a vast overstatement, considering how many people worked on the game. We can be pissed at people and be accurate. That’s all.


  • I will say that in my many years of hobbyist gamedev, and never releasing one, I regret tackling bigger projects when I’ve done them. (And not polishing things to a level I was happy with, and releasing them, even when I was making small ones.) So convincing yourself, and the public, that you can release games, is pretty empowering, and I recommend it. It’s also a great way to learn in general.

    I don’t know how much experience you have coding, but you likely won’t reuse TONS of code. I know some people, even hit games, have brute-forced development. But In general I think a lot of people who learn by doing will learn from making games. And if you choose to re-use those mechanics, you’ll probably naturally be inclined to re-make things more efficiently, and to better quality. (Though, don’t be afraid to use whatever works, when you can. By learning you’ll know what does and doesn’t work when it comes to some problems.) I think that’s actually another pro in the “plus” column.

    Really, just listen to what Kissaki said.

    Though I’d say also consider that as an indie dev, YOU are your brand. If “Uncharted Sectors” is the brand/world you want to lean into, that’s awesome. But don’t sell short the value in yourself. I loved Balatro, to use a recent example. If LocalThunk makes another Balatro game, I’m interested. Likewise, if LocalThunk makes ANY other game? I’m also interested.



  • Here’s my office work:

    Since 2005 I worked as a TV news producer. We started the day with a morning meeting where reporters pitched stories and it was decided what they covered that day. Then as a producer I organized the stories in the newscast and found other stories which I was responsible for. That ranges from finding a worthwhile press release to interviewing people myself (usually by phone, and someone’s video chat,) or just finding info by going through data. I would write those, then decide what visuals, audio elements, camera shots, graphics, and anchor reads went with it.

    Then during the live newscast I timed it, and made adjustments on the fly when necessary. (Killing stories, finding ones to insert, and adding breaking news.)

    I let my contract end almost two months ago, choosing not to stay in news. I’ve been applying to mostly other non-TV news office jobs. That’s including producing other video projects, but also technical writing and marketing positions.




  • When I first looked all the gamedev communities seemed kinda dead, and none really stuck out, so I went with the server I was a part of. Later someone pointed out that PD was still alive and kicking to me after I already started posting to LW. I just kept posting to LW because I could ban any spam or jerks if the community ever decides that becomes a problem. But after I realized it wasn’t dead I followed it too, and have cross-posted once or twice from it. I’d encourage people to follow both. That just means more options and seems even healthier to me.





  • I joined Google Plus with a group of a couple dozen friends from a long-time online community, and many of us loved it! As i recall the biggest issue at launch was that you couldn’t push a pay to a circle and still leave it discoverable on your timeline, without pushing it to everyone. That kinda made it more insular than it should’ve been. Slowly we all stopped because no one else (family, friends,) was joining.


  • !gamedev@lemmy.world - I took it over several months ago and have tried to regularly share news that is relevant to developers and hobbyists. I think I’ve done an okay job, but it’s still pretty low in search results when you search “gamedev Lemmy”. While posts get a few upvotes, and some comments, almost no one else posts there.

    The thing is, I like the Reddit r/gamedev community just fine and still visit it. I just don’t trust Reddit as a company. So this is my way of trying to facilitate a healthy option, and follow the adage of “the grass is greener where you water it”.

    So if you’re into video game development and the industry around it, feel free to join!






  • Jeffool @lemmy.worldtopolitics @lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    29 days ago

    I think there’s a difference between trying to actively quash public opinion and trying to preemptive self-censorship so others don’t think YOU support something, just because you let the opinion exist on your site. I think this is mostly the latter.

    I’m not saying this is good or better, mind you. Preemptive self-censorship just means the people/structure aren’t healthy enough to withstand the pressure they fear, or just fear it unreasonably. People in those positions are often chosen/supported exactly because they’ll toe a line.

    It’s a problem. I’m just saying it’s a slightly different problem. Maybe less malicious, more insidious and wide ranging. Maybe.





  • Everyone’s talking about money, but I’d try to eliminate costs. First day I make some food and a couple of (full) power banks. Next few days I make some food and solar panels.

    I know you say no cars, but I have family I’d trust to put one together. (I’d trust them to take mine apart to work on it.) The only odd part would be body panels? Similarly I’d try to figure out some small housing a cubic meter at a time, but that’s probably also a work in progress.

    I’d mix in a few personal items over the coming days of course. A new PC, new clothes, and food variety. I don’t know how to get rid of Internet and land costs. I wonder if the resulting economic crash might lead to that being figured out for everyone, but I somehow doubt that.