Trent Kusters
@TrentKusters
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studio director @leagueofgeeks • co-host @Official_AIAS 's #GameMakersNotebook • @Official_GDC board • co-creator @ArmelloGame + @SoliumInfernum + @JumplightGame
Melbourne, Australia
Joined January 2009
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It's here! Three years in the making. Solium Infernum out now on Steam.
@PCGamesN
said it's "The best new strategy game in years" 9/10
Easily the best game I've worked on. What a team!
RT far and wide, pls! 🙏
Solium Infernum is LIVE NOW ‼️
Play as one of eight all-powerful Archfiends and indulge your Machiavellian dark side as you navigate the bureaucratic nightmare that is Hell.. ❤️🔥
Link to Steam in the Replies 👇
RT & Share!
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I saw this report delivered live at GDC this year and it was the best horror film i've seen in years.
60 Percent Of Playtime In 2023 Went To 6-Year-Old Or Older Games, New Data Shows
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working as a game developer in this, the year of the gamer 2018, i frequently return to this image for strength
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i hate this part in the boss fight
Embracer Group Has Announced It's Splitting Into Three Separate Companies
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if you use the phrase "PC Master Race" in your job application to our studio we will fire you into the sun
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lol at everyone on this tweet saying they won't install another launcher to play Fallout 76
a) yeah you will
b) bethesda knows you will
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The quote RTs & replies to this are so deeply embarrassing. The insecurity we collectively exude as a medium, as always, is extremely cringe.
Göransson isn’t even close to making any aspersions against videogames here. Y’all are reaching so hard. And even if he was, why care?
Last night, 39-year-old composer Ludwig Göransson won his second Academy Award for his score to ‘Oppenheimer’. In a heartfelt speech, he thanked his parents for giving him his foundation in music.
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For those new to *the* budgets, in 2018 in the halls of E3 I first heard the term “quad-A” (AAAA). The industry sector above AAA. The untouchables. Your CoDs, GTAs, TLoUs, GoWs, Diablos.
- $150M+ budgets
- Decades of tech/tool stack
- Genre dominance/lead
- Multi-national co-dev
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Studio heads, measure seniority in autonomy, not years.
Jnr: Needs support.
Mid: Autonomous, w/support available.
Snr: Autonomy while supporting others.
Lead/Principal: Run a team w/support.
Dept. Director: Run a team autonomously.
People learn and grow at different rates.
Can someone explain how many years you need for a role to call yourself:
Junior
Mid-level / intermediate
Senior
Lead
Associate / principal
Perhaps with samples of how work should look quality wise
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I. Love. Shit. Like. This.
Videogames. Are. A. Lie.
If you make them, you're a professional liar.
Always have been. Always will be.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Also from our
#GDC19
tech postmortem: the transition into Fisk Tower in
#SpiderManPS4
's intro mission. The interior space is much larger than the exterior envelope, and too big to hold in memory at the same time as Manhattan. So we use some careful camerawork to hide the swap!
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Date someone who stops you mid-sentence to tell you there's a dog nearby.
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wait, we can leave?!
Rayman creator Michel Ancel is leaving the video game industry to open a wildlife sanctuary, but said that Wild and Beyond Good & Evil 2 production will continue.
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Ahahaha wowwww.
Yes
@unity
, please do tell us how to keep our clients happy while successfully monetising our products.
Keen to hear your wisdom here.
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We need to keep educating our audience on critical misunderstandings like this. This isn’t how game development works.
One achievement like this may elevate the genre, but it does not necessarily create a benchmark all game developers in that genre must (or even should) follow.
If there's one thing RPGs in the future should copy from Cyberpunk 2077 it's the amount of detail put into the conversations
Idk how people can experience how this game and still think the basic shot-reverse-shot you see in other games is sufficient
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PSA: Everything about this image is fake. I know. Don't @ me.
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It's been confirmed Rogue One won't have the iconic Opening Crawl.
Discuss.
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Email your favourite developer and tell them you appreciate what they do. Game dev is hard, but hearing that people care never gets old.
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Hayao Miyazaki critiquing A.I. animations is now my 2017 mood.
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I’m seeing deal terms get worse for devs recently. The shittier publishers and investors are absolutely taking advantage of the current contraction.
Saw one today that had 0% revenue going to the devs, and another from a publisher who now demands IP rights.
This is why I always tell devs to email me before talking to publishers because what the fuck is going on out there bro
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Heya folks! Looking for a narrative designer / writer to work with us on our new project. Don't email me or LoG. Lol. Just reply to this thread and say hi. Simply trying to get an idea of who's out there first. Feel free to RT and/or tag folks. 👩💻💖📝
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If you have any curiosity for Dwarf Fortress, this one’s for you.
What Zach & Tarn have created is truly unparalleled in our medium and for 3hrs they were so generous with me, sharing their 30+ year journey. We spoke for so long it’s a two-parter. So proud of this conversation.
On
#GameMakersNotebook
,
@TrentKusters
chats with Dwarf Fortress creators Tarn and Zach Adams about their 20 year
#gamedev
journey, crucial creative/community milestones, working with
@KitfoxGames
for Steam release, and favorite stories from their community
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People seem to like this framework for career advancement so here's the page directly from our team handbook... Enjoy! Hope it helps. 💖
(We knew measuring experience in years wasn't quite right, but it took us ten years to find the solution. lol)
Studio heads, measure seniority in autonomy, not years.
Jnr: Needs support.
Mid: Autonomous, w/support available.
Snr: Autonomy while supporting others.
Lead/Principal: Run a team w/support.
Dept. Director: Run a team autonomously.
People learn and grow at different rates.
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E3: VIDEOGAMES ARE BIGGER THAN EVER
*me running a successful indie studio*
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Imagine pushing out ten, free, major updates for your game in 2018, but all along, you were also working on one big update, driven by community requests, 4-5x bigger than any update before... and then you just gave that update away for free too.
Well, that’s Armello v2.0. 🦁
From death life flourishes and thus the dance of fate swirls anew, are you prepared to unearth Armello's bright new beginnings?
Armello's largest update ever, v2.0, launches on Steam, February 26th
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Hola! I'm looking for freelance *level designers*.
- Skilled in Unreal Engine.
- Experience in first-person games / large mods.
- Bonus for narrative-driven project experience.
Say hi here, pls! Looking to put folks forward for an incredible opportunity. RT's appreciated. <3
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What an epic week for indie games. Wtaf.
🦢Untitled Goose Game
🐕Overland
🌱Mutazione
🌋Hot Lava
🐊Later Alligator
💖Sayonara Wild Hearts
🕵️♀️Jenny Le Clue
...and all of🍏Apple Arcade 🍏!!!
...annnnd the most important indie game of all...
⚔️NEW ZELDY⚔️
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These IP are so vast in content, so great in quality expectations, such logistically complex productions, that the conversation doesn’t start below $150M. The whole paradigm through which you manage risk with these productions is inverted. The risk lies in not spending enough.
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Elon Musk: Reply Guy for best supporting actor in a social media website
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Things I did not imagine I'd be purchasing on the company credit card when we founded a videogame studio:
#bushfires
#bushfireaustralia
#ClimateEmergency
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Some dude in his twenties just rode past crying on his bike and when I locked eyes with him he yelled “her name was Anna and she’s a bitch!”
I’m sorry broken-hearted bike bro. You’ll find love again. 💝
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This is one of the most devastating things to happen to the potential of our medium in years.
Fuck everyone involved in this. This is the actual shit ‘gamer rage’ should be directed towards. Not puddles.
WB Interactive has finally secured the patent to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War's signature Nemesis system after multiple failed attempts.
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Absolutely humbled to be awarded the industry excellence award in Adam’s name.
I’ve made a point of planting trees I shall never stand under the shade of. To see new generations of Aus game devs succeeding internationally is all I ever wanted.
So, this one goes to you. 🐨💖
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Hi! We've got a BUNCH of roles up on our brand new careers page. Take a peek and come help us make real good things!
💖 Senior Programmer
💖 Programmer
💖 3D Art Generalist
💖 Assistant Producer
💖 Quality Assurance
💖 Studio Manager
🙏 RT please! 🙏
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whenever I order from my local dumpling joint they give me four or so sets of chopsticks and it’s so kind that they think I’m feeding an entire family and not just a fat ass bachelor with no gods to answer to
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This is utterly psychotic. Imagine thinking you’re this important.
More terrifyingly; this is nothing next to the insane shit going on in videogames literally daily.
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Endlessly proud of our crew for truly pushing what a colony sim can be. Blows my mind every day.💖💪
Check out the gameplay demo showcased today in the
#GuerrillaCollective
, where I take you on a tour of your "colony" and starship, the SDF Catalina. 🚀
Gather survivors, build out your starship, brave black holes, and fend off attacks, all while managing your colorful crew in the starship adventure sim Jumplight Odyssey. Here's a tour of your spaceship, the SDF Catalina.
#IGNSummerOfGaming
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For games like GTAVI, Take-Two know they can write a $500M cheque to Rockstar (they surely have) and it’s not just a guaranteed 3-5x RoI (minimum!) on that game, but also a long term strategic and defensive investment in their dominance of that genre for successive titles.
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There wasn't any "confusion",
@unity
. In fact, the exact opposite is the concerning issue here;
That we all, very clearly, understood the devastating impact and anti-developer sentiment of your new pricing model far better than you ever did (or cared to) before rolling it out.
We have heard you. We apologize for the confusion and angst the runtime fee policy we announced on Tuesday caused. We are listening, talking to our team members, community, customers, and partners, and will be making changes to the policy. We will share an update in a couple of…
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No. of complaints regarding Armello's pine trees going brown in Autumn: Nine.
No. of complaints regarding walking, talking animals: Zero.
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So this is a thing I’ve been sitting on for a while; Incredibly honoured to be going back to the IGFs as host next year! Huge congrats to all the 2018 finalists! ❤️
Also, delighted to announce that
@TrentKusters
is our IGF host for this year - see y'all at GDC in March to find out who wins!
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For PlayStation there’s wayyy more at stake.
They may have “won” this console war, but if you zoom out a post-hardware future is inevitable and MSFT is spending billions to bring that forward asap. So $220M is a tiny investment in a seat at that table with your 1st-party titles.
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10 years after announcing Armello, LoG's back with our second game... Solium Infernum!
A political grand strategy game for 1-6 players, set in the ultimate arena of Hell. Guaranteed to destroy friendships. 🔥
Help us out by RTing the tweet below. 🙏
Prepare yourself for SOLIUM INFERNUM - the strategy game from Hell. 🔥🔥
Put your mind (and friendships) to the test as you manipulate, outwit and betray your rivals to become Hell’s new Dark Majesty.
Learn more + wishlist now👉
#indiegamedev
#EGX2022
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it's funny I'm going to see the "final" film in the "skywalker saga" tonight and i literally could not give a fuck.
at the start of the decade, i would never have imagined this level of apathy towards the franchise i literally have inked on my body, let alone its conclusion.
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Cat: *meows*
Friend: wow your cat is vocal
Me: yeah he’s rad. talks all the time. don’t ya, buddy?
Cat: *meows*
F: haha cooool
Me: yeah I know right?
Cat: *meows*
F: haha
Me: haha
*ten mins later*
Cat: *still meowing*
Friend: OH MY FUCKING GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP WHAT DO YOU WANT
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Most of you think my greatest life achievements are in video games. FALSE.
Here's me, 13 years old, in the first ever Pokemon Trading Card commercial. Thought this footage was lost to time, but some legend uploaded it to Youtube.
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When your game is literally *one* position away from being in the Top 100 PC Games of All Time
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Yes! Incredible! 👏
Kotick gets paid >300x the median salary at EA! Wilson? >200x. No one, at any company, for any reason, deserves a multiplier *anywhere near* that magnitude.
TL:DR Make me CEO for just twofiddykay AND I'll throw in Jade Empire 2.🤝
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YOU FUCKING BEAUTY! YEWWWWW! 🏆💯🎉
When your game is literally *one* position away from being in the Top 100 PC Games of All Time
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After 4.5 years Armello's finally out! A GoT x Ghibli board game brought to life! RT pls <3
http://t.co/BA6KMtjxsm
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If lockdown's taught us anything it's that golf and horse racing are the enemy of the people.
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Report from Australia: We're ten minutes in and no tragedies yet so 2017's looking pretty good, folks. 👌🏻
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First gameplay reveal of
@JumplightGame
(one of our two new titles) just dropped during
#IGNFanFest
!
There's SO much more to this game as well. Haven't even scratched the surface on this special little gem. The team have been absolutely slaying. 🚀💫
Command your starship crew during your perilous journey through the cosmos in Jumplight Odyssey, a starship adventure sim coming to Early Access in 2023.
#IGNFanFest
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lol okay this did numbers. if you're here because you wanna play good, new games, play ours.
@SoliumInfernum
is one of the highest rated games this year. It rules.
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If you've got pals going to
#GDC17
to pimp their game, here's my thread of Golden Rules for Networking aka; Takin Names & Pitchin Games. 1/?
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myself + 5m others are living under the strictest iso laws in the world rn. And it's working. From >700 cases p/day to <50 in just one month. Our state's premier has held a presser *every day* for months and always with such incredible compassion and clarity. I'm in awe.
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as someone who's hired 20+ team members in the last 12 mths, sat in on countless interviews and read 100s of applications it is STAGGERING to me how many folks don't read the job posting section titled "How to Apply"
this is videogame development. attention to detail matters.
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Fuck you to hell if you ever verbally/psychologically abuse any developer or creative over REWARDS promised to you as thanks for a DONATION.
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Today
@LeagueofGeeks
...
1. Launched our latest DLC (some of the coolest heroes in Armello).
2. Was also our most stable DLC/update release ever.
3. Had our second highest grossing day on Steam ever!
...all this 2.5 years post-release, and thx to a KILLER team and community! <3
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While you're bashin on MN9, remember that not only is making games incredibly fucking hard, but Kickstarter is a multiplier on top of that.
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When I die mourners will come to my grave and gently whisper... "Hi! Ever thought of making a physical board game version of this game?"
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Kickstarter is not a store front.
End. Of. Fucking. Story.
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No matter where in the world
@tha_rami
and I may bump into each other, it's always special. 😍
#SteamDevDays
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Huge PSA for folks applying for jobs in games...
Don't respond to tweets of job postings with images of, and a link to, your work as a substitue for *actually applying* for the role.
Also, please, please, PLEASE read job postings in full before asking questions.
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Everybody,
@LHissrich
very politely accepting absolutely none, zero, nada of this bro’s basic-ass bullshit during her great day is the best thing that’s happened on the internet in recent memory. What a legend. ❤️
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hey how cool's our new studio?! and it's not even finished! Still THIRTY plants to fill this sucker! cool, huh?
WELL, come work with us! hang out with our plant buddies makin cool videogames. plenty of positions open and we're hiring *now*!
Today we are in the 🌈NEW STUDIO🌈 and that means ⚡️NEW STREAM ROOM⚡️
Unfortunately it still needs to be set up, so there won’t be a stream today, but we will be back Tuesday 6:00pm PT, fresh from the new digs.
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I am very proud to announce that less than 6mths after kicking off LoG Doggo Day we have experienced a 50% increase in doggos. 🐶🐶🐶
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Here it is, our other game in development and brand new IP!
Lead your crew on a daring, star-flung escape to the sanctuary of the Forever Star in this 70s anime inspired roguelite colony sim. 🚀👸✨
Wishlist now!
RTs appreciated. 🙏
Announcing our brand new game...
✨Jumplight Odyssey🚀 - the starship adventure sim!
Keep Hope alive. Gather survivors. Repair & build out your starship. Navigate chaos. Lead your colorful crew.
Escape to the Forever Star. 💕
Wishlist now:
RT pls 🥰
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Today we're encouraging all of the team at LoG to strike, with full pay and benefits.
As a business owner, this is no small cost. So fucking what! Climate change is already costing us all far, far more.
Support the strike. See you there! 💪
Build a future, not a fortune. 🌏💖
Climate change is not a game, but it’s part of our job to fix it. 🌏 We’re encouraging our staff to attend the
#ClimateStrike
tomorrow.
✊ Join us and support your employees to strike for climate.
🔎 Learn more at:
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The Aus games scene owes so much to Samurai Punk. There is not a more prolific indie studio in Aus with a more diverse portfolio. Their advocacy for the local scene overseas, stylistic execution, and the home they provided to so many, paved a path others will walk for years.💔
We have some unfortunate news to share, Samurai Punk is ceasing development.
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Hi! We've got SO MANY roles up on our careers page. Take a peek, apply, and help make our Real Secret Real Cool New Thing!
🍩 Senior Gameplay Engineer
🍩 Gameplay Engineer
🍩 Senior Game Designer
🍩 Technical Designer
🍩 Senior Animator
🙏 RT please! 🙏
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As an official Marvel Snap addict, it was such a pleasure to speak to the inimitable
@bbrode
about his career as well as what he and
@seconddinner
have been up to.
Get amongst it! It's a blast. Plenty of nuggets in here for game designers too!
This week on
#GameMakersNotebook
Podcast,
@bbrode
of
@seconddinner
chats about
@MARVELSNAP
, his career at Blizzard and work on Hearthstone, the road the led him to start his own studio, and key decisions they made with MARVEL SNAP to keep players engaged:
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sean murray is slowly but surely making a fool of every hater/naysayer gamer idiot in real time and believe me...
I 👏🏻 am 👏🏻 here 👏🏻 for 👏🏻 it
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Easily my fav Armello iOS review. I want that fifth star, so work on open world Armello starts next week. Thx all for your support so far.❤️
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"Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart."
– Haruki Murakami
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there's a lot to be angry about in auspol, but something that really blows my lid is politicians actively moving us further away from free tertiary education when almost Every Single One of them had a free tertiary education.
it's such a pointed example of pulling the ladder up
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No, it’s not.
Your country is fundamentally broken and the rich have trained you all to sacrifice what paltry benefits you do receive to protect your employers’ and politicians absurdly damaging wealth.
Good morning, America.
“It really, really meant a lot to me... I was extremely appreciative and very humbled.”
Donating vacation time to new moms is a trendy - and generous - co-worker baby shower gift:
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Lol kojima is definitely just making up death stranding as he goes, like that neighborhood kid who changed the rules in every game you played as you played it
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You: Video games can’t further Australia’s cultural identity.
Us:
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IGF Stage Manager: “Trent, we’ve just opened doors for tonight. Good luck!”
Me: “Thanks!”
Also me:
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This. Armello made more cash from DLC than the base game. More DLC was BY FAR our
#1
request for the 7 years we supported the title.
When done right DLC makes games more sustainable and the vast majority of players are normal human beings who will happily pay for great content.
With all the recent DLC stuff I think some indies will get the wrong message again.
The audience in general doesn't think "DLC is bad" - a few unhinged people who watch too much angry gamer YouTube think that.
DLC that is creatively valid and well priced is *very* popular.
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I’ve worked in games for over a decade and I legit thought this was a joke tweet until I saw people responding in the same alien language. 🤙🏻
So whats your best algorithm for generating aperiodic infinite deterministic irregular relaxed quadrilateral grids?
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Pretty fucking gross exhuming the games you dragged last year for some sort of sadistic victory lap.
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"Someone?!" Journalist pals - even those at Polygon, lol - wtf is with this? Is not tagging folks in tweets standard policy or something? If so, for what reason?
They have *1m followers*. Surely they can credit and tag the man in the tweet. The indie life is rough enough. Jeez.
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Before I even knew I wanted to get into game development, I would read every single issue of Edge from front to back, not missing a single character.
This month's Edge calls
@SoliumInfernum
"one Hell of a revival" in an epic four page spread.
Career achievement unlocked.✅🥲
A forgotten classic gets one Hell of a revival in
@LeagueofGeeks
' Solium Infernum. E378 is on sale now:
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In the hopes of a more productive conversation around crunch in games; what are the best practices, processes, principles, policies, etc, you've seen (or better; experienced) companies implement to avoid crunch and how successful were they?
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We're hiring a Sr. Game Designer.
If you're a talented and knowledgeable designer with the professional experience to back it up, you may just be the one to land the gig.
Women and other underrepresented devs; please apply!
RT, please. 💖
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