Kevin Snow

Purely personal opinion but as an audience-desire I wish it were focused less on aesthetic and more on game design that doesn't make manipulative bids on your time

I love the freaks that grow on you.

I've been cursed with him ever since New Leaf. he moved out of a friend's town and everyone dread who he'd spread to, and it was me. then he moved in early in NH. I only let him go after the hotel, and yet here he is. It's not slander because I'm describing a lifelong companion I'll never escape 😔

terrible mouse with sideburns and a cat with two very close together eyes and a bad color scheme from animal crossing. i forget their awful names

i think it is important that so many of the villagers in animal crossing have ugly designs. like really hideous and off-putting in a way that people have a reaction to. if every villager were Ione then there wouldn't be so many people who absolutely hate that one fucker who moved in early

Pietro sitting at a tree in Animal Crossing: They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder, honk honk...

Pietro sitting at a tree in Animal Crossing: Do you think that's what's going on with us, now that we don't live on the same island?

Pietro in Animal Crossing: Be honest... Did you miss me when I was gone? Kevin?

truly funny to write dialogue like this when you know theres a good chance the player hates the character saying it

a screenshot of pietro from animal crossing on a bench saying: Yes! It's me, Pietro! I'm back on Bravemule, but this time as a basic tourist.

a funny part of the animal crossing hotel is it definitely commonly generates the user story "villager you hated and tried to evict for weeks is back for one day"

I didnt restart but realizing I never finished my critterpedia was exciting

started decorating a bathroom. realized i have no bathtubs. shark karoke room

you've become a senior game designer when you can make the player choose one out of three things without them realizing it

the secret to game design is that as much as players may claim otherwise they all love choosing one out of three things

a letter to another player in New Horizons with a balloon hat attached as a present that says: It's 2013. You're playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf. You finally got a slingshot, and you shot down your first balloon. You are so excited! What wonderful prize awaits your precise aim?

going to be blocked from sending letters

There we go

"usually we try to focus on the effect saliency is intended to achieve instead of getting bogged down in explaining... actually never mind, maybe you can figure this out and every narrative designer will love you"

its don draper presenting a big advertising pitch with his hands making a "picture this" gesture but the pitch says "saliency"

Directed at @seemo.bsky.social after they told me they were going to try working a reference to narrative saliency into a marketing post after I recommmended taking it out

but, incorporating the weird little navigation mechanics into a layout, where the layout is convenient to navigate but the mechanics are required, that part is fun

there are neat islands that completely abandon any aesthetic ties to the premise and make puzzle maps, but i think trying to merge the two is more fun because actually enjoying the game when you and your villagers live in a bad late 1990s pokemon dungeon is difficult

my main beef with many animal crossing islands is i think they overdesign for convenience, when the opportunity exists to do intolerable level design like a sorcerer subjecting people to your riddles

I'm an unemployed video game designer with 14 years of experience and multiple shipped titles. Every day I get up to apply for jobs and every day the news says this

"I just need to" meme with the phrase "earn some money" inserted at key points.

Reminder that I'm looking for work, particularly in narrative or game design, games writing, marketing writing, any kind of writing really, data entry, whatever. ryanmcdiarmid.com

"No one can afford to buy games" is one explanation for what's going on in the games industry but it doesn't really explain the rapid contraction. I think more salient factors are:

1. dependency on external investment that has dried up
2. rapidly changing patterns of consumption post-covid

building a gyroid fragment resurrection area in coco's quarry yard and she keeps dancing by it... shes bringing them back to life...

Nice desk you got there... Be a shame if someone put an interaction prompt to open a readable on it...

games industry layoffs as of feb 11

As of today, Feb 11. I know of so many games industry layoffs in 2026 that it impacts over 50% as many people that i know of than i know who were impacted in the entirety of 2025. Its going to be a long year.

Rude. I let him move out but now he teaches at the vacation school, which is a clown school

An Animal Crossing screenshot with Bob the villager saying "This LEGO sofa? Fits my butt... perfectly."

is this good for the lego brand

it will live on in my animal crossing town

Gonna start leaving my gates open during the day while I'm away at work if anyone wants to visit, now that my overhauled island is still WIP but not annoying to navigate. SW-0779-8303-1503

Love that the dialogue in this game is responsive to player authoring

Hamphrey. My favorite villager since New Leaf. His default furniture and incidental details over the years suggest he's based off old cantankerous fishermen so I leaned into it -- vintage but in a kind of sloppy way, with a pet isopod.