Francisco Dominguez

We can’t let the market decide what we remember and forget Emily Friedman and Evan Torner on why gaming histories matter.

This is a great discussion with @friede.bsky.social and @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social about RPG history, and particularly the online element of it. You need to be supporting @rascal.news with your dollars -- nowhere else on the internet is publishing stuff like this. www.rascal.news/we-cant-let-...

Design Room (@designroom.bsky.social) A new website dedicated to video game oral histories coming soon from mattleone.bsky.social. Logo by asawallander.se.

For the evening crowd: I’m launching a new oral histories site called designroom.bsky.social. Won’t be much there for another month or so, but follow now to get in early!

This interview was really funny, because I was mostly there to be quiet and take notes on what my colleagues said, but then Francisco asked about animal animation in games and I just HAD TO jump in and briefly derail the conversation 😂

bsky.app/profile/domi...

Definitely my first time with someone hijacking a laptop mid-videocall, but the tangent was worth it!

Your videos are pretty much the only FGC content I watch. When I finally crack and buy a fightstick, you'll have been a major contributing factor.

Herdling gives the animal kingdom and an underused mechanic the respect they deserve Okomotive’s mountain herding proves there’s emotional strength in numbers

I talked about the delights and difficulties of recreating the animal kingdom with @okomotive.ch.

With Herdling's packs of distinctive yak-like calicorns, they're giving animal animation the rare focus it deserves.

store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/h...

Herdling gives the animal kingdom and an underused mechanic the respect they deserve Okomotive’s mountain herding proves there’s emotional strength in numbers

I talked about the delights and difficulties of recreating the animal kingdom with @okomotive.ch.

With Herdling's packs of distinctive yak-like calicorns, they're giving animal animation the rare focus it deserves.

store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/h...

That's awful. You did brilliant work there and I hope you land on your feet soon.

Hello! You may have seen it, but I am one of the employees that have been impacted by layoffs at IGN.

It's been a great six years, but this now means I am looking to apply my talents to something new and exciting.

Looking for Angry Kirby We investigate why Nintendo of America gave Kirby an angry mean streak

Hiya Matt, just in case it was missed my Kirby feature byline still isn't updated. It's the piece I'm proudest of so just wanted to check it's on the to-list when you can, thank you!

www.polygon.com/nintendo/507...

They read fanfiction exactly once and decided their business strategy was to deter Ao3 writers with names and places that are physically painful to type.

Square Enix's Department of Wacky Names out in full force.

I swear they just pick up a pile of Scrabble tiles to come up with these things!

I'm sitting out until Boogie Fortnites.

Can't help feeling this endless speculation is a natural consequence of Nintendo's modus operandi: surprise.

Second-guessing a wildly unpredictable and inscrutable company is pretty futile. But, when nothing's ever off the table, reading the tea leaves is hard to resist.

Age checks for online safety – what you need to know as a user As of 25 July 2025, all sites and apps that allow pornography will need to have strong age checks in place, to make sure children can’t access that or other harmful content.

The timing makes me wonder if it's more to do with the UK 18+ content legislation kicking in tomorrow. Not everyone can get age verification / content gates up in time and GDPR caused a similar wave of slapdash responses.

www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

It's odd when the decision to avoid direct real-life references was such a big part of building Magic's identity.

And this feels so much more contemporary than Shakespeare quotes, the Library of Alexandria or images from the Crusades!

Excited to co-write a story with @lukeplunkett.com that puts the Vice/Waypoint saga of the past few days into the context of the wider destruction of games journalism, not just of sites themselves but of professional development, secure jobs, and living wages

That's amazing news! Glad to see more of your writing again (and love how you highlight the surreality of a Kojima group interview)

This Week in Videogames - TWIV Covering the important things happening in the world of videogames. News, reviews, and insights without ads or filler content.

Hello. About a year and a half ago, some guy called Ralph asked me if I wanted to make a new videogame website.

We're launching it today. Maybe you can even visit it if people stop hammering the server for a second.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t invent Final Frenchtasy or the J'RPG: the newly dubbed subgenre has a long and complicated history Pas mal, non? C'est français.

I was pleased with this one about Clair Obscur's genealogy: www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/cl...

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a stealthy, Scandinavian puzzle-box Stealthy like a cat, but not how you’d think

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is out today.

@riverendgames.bsky.social told me how they applied Studio Ghibli's sense of wonder to a uniquely-realised Scandinavian stealth adventure.

store.epicgames.com/en-US/news/e...

Mouthwashing’s genesis, sick jokes, and the “thin line between goofy and grotesque”: an interview with Wrong Organ An interview with the developers of Mouthwashing at Guadalindie 2025.

Ecstatic to finally share this one: At @guadalindie.bsky.social 2025, I was able to chat with @wrongorgan.bsky.social's Johanna Kasurinen, Jeffrey Tomec, and Kai Moore about #Mouthwashing, what came before, and what comes after. Read here: skyboxcritics.com/2025/07/14/m...

An inbox rule that autoreplies to anything with "pitch" in the subject line does the job.

I like Keza MacDonald's for the transparency. Thanks you, apologises for not being able to respond to all pitches, and includes expected timeframe for response if she's interested.

The fact that "word bird game" didn't even make the highlighted section says it all.

A BBC news headline which says “Penguin says it did “all necessary due diligence” with The Salt Path

I’m no expert but I would’ve got a person to do it.

Hey Alex, I'd be interested in knowing more! Email's in bio.

*Week, even.

Hello, not at Develop next month but interested to be in the loop!