Kathleen Yin

Open Application – Senior/Expert Generalist Programmer - Funcom . We like to think of ourselves as more than just developers. We're a friendly group of around 500 people with plenty of casual and hardcore gamers, tech heads and creative masterminds, organiz...

We've got two job openings at @funcom.com! Know anyone who might be interested? Send this to them!

✅ Senior / Expert Generalist Programmer - Open Application
jobs.funcom.com/jobs/6294946...

✅ Writer - Dune: Awakening
jobs.funcom.com/jobs/6280058...

Diverse applicants encouraged 🙌
RTs appreciated🙏

Feels like Exiliun veered hard into "mobile casual crowd" and the only thing hardcore about it is the story now. NGL, I'm not sure how many mobile players nowadays would want to spend 7 hours a day on something like the GFL1 hard maps

A procedural Earth generated using surface nets and a Signed Distance Field (SDF). This 3D render displays pronounced topographical features with applied height and color maps using real world data. Created in UE5.

Applying real world Earth data as color & magnified height maps to a procedural mesh Voxel sphere.
#UE5 #UnrealEngine #GameDev #IndieDev

Exilium's story still gets to me at the most random of places, especially with its unapologetic portrayal of war's impact on the common person (and how unlikely anyone is to survive it) while still having a sliver of positivity in hoping that a better tomorrow lies in wait 😭

Continuing to spend hours and hours on Wuchang.

Only beaten 3 bosses so far. Still loving it

What do you call it when you only intend to give a max of 2 hours to a game script, but 4 hours later you're like "Holy moly this script is FIRE I must finish localizing it today at any cost!!!1!"

Yeah that's where my time went today.

Portfolio — Hazel Monforton Senior Narrative Designer (2021—2024)

It's been one year since I was laid off, and my contract with Blizzard ends in two months. I'm still looking for my next role as a senior writer or narrative designer!

I have over 8 years of experience working in AAA games from live service MMOs to single player. You can find my work on my website.

Colleagues are focusing on any negative review of their work by players and crying over it... Game devs and publishers really need to be kinder to themselves instead

I've honestly been having a blast playing Wuchang: Fallen Feathers despite the technical bugs. It reminds me of the old days when Souls would lag my student laptop 😄

Yes, I find spending 2 hours on a boss fun...

A quiet moment under the dappled sunlight, a languid smile older than the very hills - in a business that sells transient dreams.

The worst part to localize for any media isn't the poetry, the religion, the proverbs... It's the JOKES! Dry jokes are the worst 😭

A sunny day at the market and museums around Knott's Berry Farm

Tried to get ice cream from the local Bruster's Ice Cream after work but the queue was suuuuper long 😭 I want my discounted ice cream 🍨

Microwave designers keep thinking they're making users' lives easier with all the "poultry/veggie/rice" buttons with weights and measurements, when most people just want to heat their food as quickly as possible at a good temperature

A picture of a simulated stock market, with red arrows going up to indicate rising stocks

A picture of a simulated stock market, with green arrows going up to indicate rising stocks

What is the color of "yes" in a game?

That depends on culture, as seen in Honkai: Star Rail's regional simulated stock UI - Red, a good color in East Asia, symbolises rising stock for Asians, while European markets use green instead.

Such is cross-cultural user experience #UXResearch

Thanks lolokoa for the tag! I've been working on game localization for 3 years, CHS > ENG for RPGs and narrative heavy games, such as Tears of Themis and Genshin Impact (and other NDA'ed titles). I also work on localization dubbing/scriptwriting, LQA, and cross-cultural UI/UX. Happy to chat more!

ZZZ collab spotted in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles~

Dusty dispensers of grey toys and half-melted chocolates framed by faded idols, a previous generation's memories preserved on crumbling covers and dying i-i-irashai warble songs.

(Writing practice on a whim)

I'm actually so excited for the fact it'll be hosted on steam ♥️ GFL1's story deserves to be preserved on a more permanent platform instead of as a mobile gacha

Good to see you're fighting the good fight Bill!

It's the GDC season of the year again and I'll be sitting it out this year. Networking is very good and all, but extremely stressful for an introvert and I really want to work on something I can call my own first... But that's the same excuse I had 5 years go, heh

At least move it out of the Moscone and to a different area of SF that's more walking friendly

The current GenAI premise is flawed because it proposes having no or minimum writer guidance, but a story is a controlled experience, designed by a person to engage another and take them through certain emotions. Without these deliverate story beats, our human brains can't feel the engagement

The funders are thinking of it as trying to win the lottery. Max returns for min effort. If they can potentially be making x10 more with the same effort, they'd rather stop the current project and start again.

Annnnd that's how so many games die before release. Unrealistic $ expectations :(

I love the Girls Frontline IP despite its janky gameplay and odd monetization because of how wonderful its story presentation and narratives are. It is a very bleak world - set to be destroyed in the lore book - but the hope the story instills stirs me up with every patch

Finished bingeing the latest Exilium event on the CN server. Nikita's story is brilliant in its tenacity, hope, and making choices to bear a heavy burden for an ideal. The narrative beats are also on point, with a crisis in chap 1 and an unfolding mystery that lasts until the last scene 👍

This is basically the perspective of many funders. They'll fund so many games in the hope of something getting big, but it also means they'll pull the plug if projects don't make it big, despite still being profitable...

Hope you have a good time at GDC! I won't be going this year but hope to get back to attending conferences next year

If you’re writing a book right now you just have to pretend you’re a surgeon. Can’t look at your phone during surgery.

Is the form or the soul more important for stories? The form pulls in new readers for sure, but the soul endures