Steve Lee

"Chow Yun Fat getting revenge on the guy who killed his friend by blowing his head off at point blank range while covered in flour" is a top-tier halloween costume waiting to happen:

How my (weird, story-driven dystopian sci-fi) game looked after the first week of creating the project, vs how it looks now:

...Leaving space for interesting unpredictability, whether through gameplay (emergence from combined systemic gameplay elements) or narrative (interesting character-driven responses that might surprise players, while still making sense for the character)

Interesting design talk in between, too - @jon.inkle.co take on player "agency" echoes what imm-sim types refer to as intentionality. Players making intentional choices based on understanding of gameplay elements + situation, while not necessarily having control over what might happen as a result

Blade Runner, The Last Express and Shadow of the Colossus made this the most instant-click episode for me so far

I also have a stupid iPhone I can't put my own music on, so listening to stuff on the go was one of my last sticking points with leaving Spotify. The gamechanger for me was learning that you can use the Bandcamp app to listen to all the music you've bought on it, stream stuff you've bookmarked, etc

Yeah I'm using MusicBee too. Not too bothered about lossless quality though - did a hearing test compared to 320kbps mp3 and couldn't tell the difference (and wouldn't want filesizes to become an issue)...

YouTube video by Oneohtrix Point Never - Topic Force Of Life

Enjoying the 80s energy of Oneohtrix Point Never's soundtrack for Marty Supreme (the film was good too): www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4M...

Bandcamp Friday alert: it's Bandcamp Friday, right now, and for like 22 more hours. Get some music, pay some artists.

Re: MS never fixing any of their broken shit: bsky.app/profile/oreg...

Yeah I also splashed out on the MX Vertical (my first vertical mouse), only had it since October but it seems good.

(Have also started using a wristpad at the bottom of my mousemat to rest my arm on, because it feels much better to me with the vertical setup)

YouTube video by Aphex Twin Aphex Twin - T69 Collapse

See Weirdcore's music video for a recent Aphex Twin track for a particularly mental version of something along these lines (particularly in the 2nd half): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqay...

(Just saw that I forgot to reply to this) Yeah I definitely plan on talking about my game on my youtube channel when the time comes, but not yet :)

Re: software, I'm using Music Bee (as recommended in that youtube video I posted) - free, very customisable, good tags + album cover management, has a built-in cd ripper, etc: getmusicbee.com

But re: physical mp3 players, I did also buy an iPod Nano 7 (notable because it has bluetooth)

Update on this 6 weeks later: ditching streaming services completely and switching to buying albums on bandcamp has completely refreshed my engagement with and appreciation of music. Owning music is nice, streaming it makes you treat it like slop, and I feel daft for not doing this years ago.

YouTube video by Steve Lee (Level and Game Design) How to make a Portal 2 puzzle in 60 seconds

Here's a video about how you can make a simple Portal 2 level in 60 seconds: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky7T...

And if you're up for some OG boomer shooter-ing, then here's a video about how to start making Doom levels in 5 minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTIc...

“A robot may not kick a human in the balls, or, through inaction, allow a human to be kicked in the balls.”

I've never seen anything like this at all, unfortunately :/

Hehe same here about watching it regularly (especially lately because I'm working on a personal project that's very sci-fi). And yeah I've seen the Final Cut in cinemas a couple of times now, it's always delicious to see on the big screen 👌

Yeah exactly - I figured that for every month I don't pay for Spotify anymore, I can basically buy one or two albums with the money I save 👍

YouTube video by Haggis on Toast I Ditched Spotify for Physical Media and MP3 Players

Another key factor was watching this youtube vid: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EKV...

Just the opening fact about how 12 years of Spotify equates to roughly £1400 spent - resulting in owning zero music, and barely supporting the artists at all - had me making my mind up before the video finished:

This year's Spotify Wrapped thing made me realise that I spend most of my music listening time enjoying tracks from albums I already own, and was the last step in convincing myself to finally cancel my subscription and never look back at music streaming services again - hooray

Yes, yes it does

(Obligatory Bobson Dugnutt post)

In Dishonored 2, (Howler faction leader) Paolo has the (magical) ability to resurrect once a day. This allows the player to kill him in an earlier mission, then be surprised by his appearance in a 2nd one later, at their HQ - in which they can then kill him twice / properly

She was someone who sucked, trying to lead a party that sucked, replacing someone else who sucked, in a stupid situation that sucked

Lol Liz Truss

We launched GenExile, our solarpunk city-builder, in Early Access last week. We had ~35k wishlists before launch (not a barnburner but not nothin').

And they said, "Well, there's no way you'll convert literally 0% of your wishlists to sales."

I looked them dead in the eyes and said, "Watch me."