Over the course of my long career in the game industry, I’ve had good and bad experiences. Regardless of how a project turned out, I’ve always learned something. Sometimes I learn what NOT to do, but any time you work on a creative project with talented, passionate developers, you pick up something helpful. Two decades …
I have a short attention span, and I’m easily distracted by shiny new toys. This means I have games in my Steam library with total play times of only an hour or two. I’ll even confess to owning a couple of games that I’ve played for 8-10 minutes and never touched again. (To be fair, …
In the difficult days following a game studio’s shutdown or a round of layoffs, ex-employees often feel overwhelmed. Besides figuring out their next career step, the uniquely American employer-funded healthcare system means they’re forced to cope with the additional stressor of ensuring their families stay healthy while job-hunting. Thousands of think pieces have been written …
Over the years, I’ve taken feedback notes for a LOT of playtest sessions. Several studios I’ve worked for, notably Ensemble, relied heavily on an iterative process. Team playtesting was a factor in decision-making and identifying the next steps. It was an “agile” process (small-A) before there was Agile. While the weekly sessions could sometimes get …
So. How’s your last three years been? When I accepted a full-time role at BonusXP in April 2020, I’d just returned from a family trip to Florida, including a somewhat ill-advised trip to Disney World the week before all the theme parks shut down for COVID. I had no idea what was about to unfold …