Pete Shea

Gutted about Mani, not felt this bad since Weatherall.

Completed Cocoon last night (2 years late) and loved it. Exquisite design across the whole game. Mind bending at points but also very tight, satisfying puzzle design.

Loved that game 👏

I told you we’d be back

RIP Brian Wilson. @bigfifi.bsky.social & I walked down the aisle to God Only Knows, & back up it to Good Vibrations. Legend not enough 😭

Finally beat Balatro after 14 hours, made it to round 31 in endless.
Now I can get my life back 😅
Expertly balanced, one more shot crazily compulsive game.
Would like to go back to Blue Prince but need a break from roguelike deck builders... At least until Slay the Spire 2 😬😁

Rolled credits on @blueprincegame.bsky.social. Superb. Took me 40 days but had a lot of bad luck. Ran out of footsteps 2 rooms from 46 one run 😅 Reminded me of Echoes of the Eye, which also took lots of runs to beat. Now to unlock all the rooms... 🤔

Piechart showing share of gametime in 2023 for 18+ year old PC & PlayStation/Xbox gamers where only 6.5% of playtime was on new releases from that year. Remainder was spent on Games as a Service or Annual Update games like Call of Duty & FIFA.

Second piechart showing that of the 6.5% of play time on new releases in 2023, 4 games- Hogwarts Legacy, Baldurs Gate 3, Starfield & Diablo Iv made up nearly 50% of that 6.5% of total play time.

The reason publishers are so obsessed with Live Service games, for better or worse and contrary to anecdotal wisdom, is because that is what the vast majority of "hardcore" gamers are spending their time playing:

Without Lynch choosing Dune over Return of the Jedi, or Dune flopping we may never have got Blue Velvet.
I like to think he would have made these films no matter what. He was that singular.

Lynch famously turned down Return of the Jedi to make Dune. Deeply flawed film, but I also loved it at the time. The production design is amazing, better than the recent versions in my opinion.

One second from every episode of Twin Peaks.

Younger people may not realise this but before Twin Peaks there wasn't really any quality Serial drama on US TV. There were soap operas and some adaptations & limited series but very few original serials.

Now it is the dominant form on TV. Every HBO & streaming series owes it a debt. #davidlynch

RIP David Lynch. Deeply saddened by this. Unique genius.

Wrote my Film & TV Studies dissertation in 1992 about how Twin Peaks revolutionised and changed US TV forever and it's only become more evident since.

The Return is his masterpiece. Unequalled.

Play Echoes of the Eye next! Somehow, it's even better, or at least as mind-blowing. Still haunts me years later.

An image showing the starting few members of the Game Devs of Scotland starter pack

With Hogmanay it seemed like a good time to signal boost to the gamedevs of my adopted home, Scotland.

If you're a Scotland-based or Scotland-born gamedev drop your name in the replies to be added (only self-nominations thanks folks).

Reposts welcome & HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🙌🏻

go.bsky.app/RVGcV8u

Hello, veteran (old) dev here 👋

YouTube video by Freecky Cake The Obscure History of Brave: The Search For Spirit Dancer

This year I spoke to a retro games journalist about a game I started designing 25 years ago. If you are one of the (few) people who remember Brave The Search for Spirit Dancer from their childhood, some nostalgia here- #ps2 #retrogames
youtu.be/kUHjXOoStNE?...

A card in 1950s style. Woman celebrating with hands in the air, papers and computers (Atari 800) flying everywhere. Caption reads, "Looks like it's fuck this shit o'clock".

We've had this up in our kitchen since lockdown. It has an Atari 800 in it for some reason 🤣

Another point, history was written by the victors, but having as much testimony as possible, no matter how seemingly trivial could perhaps change this.

Maybe man/ai will eventually learn from history? 😑

I agree there is an insane amount of worthless content, but see no harm in trying to preserve it in case great stuff gets lost

Newspapers were ephemeral too, but we kept most of them. Having an entire record of history/culture can only aid future civilisations.

Game devs, post your first shipped game and your latest shipped game.
Left: Earthworm Jim 3D, N64 (1999). Right: JoJo & Gran Gran: A Day With JoJo, BBC Little Learners App IOS/Android (2024)
bsky.app/profile/grey...

Sacrilege but preferred the Speedking at the time. The Comp Pro was super tough but too big.

Witcher 4 as well, obviously. Witcher 3 in my top 10 all time. Just 😀

Caught up with TGA trailers. Most interesting game for me that no-one is talking about was Warren Spector's multiplayer ImSim Thick as Thieves. Going to be hard to pull this off I feel, but I have hope!

🦋 Competition time 🦋

To celebrate our near-4000(!) new followers this month, we're running a Bsky-exclusive giveaway.

Three random winners will win a £100 voucher to spend at lostincult.co.uk

To enter, follow + like & repost this lil guy.

Winners announced Thur 28th November @ 1pm GMT

Intro post.

Hi, I'm a Video Game Designer & Producer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Been making games professionally for 27 years and have shipped 38 games in that time - from N64 through a few generations of consoles & PC, mobile and web. Currently Project Manager at Chunk.