We need to lay more blame for "Kids don't know how computers work" at the feet of the people responsible: Google.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Tech literacy didn't mysteriously vanish, it was fucking murdered for profit.

Linux is a very good and powerful alternative.

reminder: you cannot Personal Choises your way out of an Intentional Structural Problem

Indie Studio Possibility Space Studio Shut Down For The Dumbest Reason Ever

Today in completely unhinged video game business moves: Jeff Strain, former Blizzard and ANet dev and the co-founder of media company Prytania which operated both Possibility Space and Crop Circle Games, has shut down Possibility Space.

While layoffs aren't the craziest thing to hear about right now, what is crazy is that he did this because he caught wind that the project they were working on may have leaked and cited an unfinished and unpublished Kotaku article. (???????)

Like for reference, leaks happen in video games. It's just the reality of marketing. It's a fact on almost any video game. A senior marketing person I knew once said "With leaks it's not a question of if they're going to happen but when". Therefore, to shut an entire studio down and lay everyone off because of one rumored and unsourced article is frankly completely unheard of for a games studio. It's almost certainly not the whole story.

It's also really...erm...'funny' to look back on the statements Jeff Strain made in 2021 about the games industry:

Yeah...ok.

This also comes at the heels of his wife laying off the staff of their other studio (Crop Circle Games) abruptly a few weeks ago and without warning right after GDC, and then writing a weird and really unprofessional letter that also seemed to try and demonize the yet-to-be-published Kotaku article as some sort of conduit for the closure.

Honestly I'm looking forward to seeing this Kotaku article now, because all these events are throwing a perfect storm of "we did something horribly wrong and are going to get called out for it" red flags everywhere situation. Like this is incredibly unusual and suspicious behaviour even for business people in video games.

I've been working on a godot plugin for controlling how pixel art behaves with lighting, and I'm almost done with a really basic version! (more info under the cut)

The Metal Farmsteads of Pentel

The ends justifies the means

I have friends who are involed in the game industry & they all say this is the visual equivalent of game development

I just learned yesterday that Pikachu, my favorite Pokemon, was originally designed not by Ken Sugimori (he only finalized the design), but by a female graphic designer named Atsuko Nishida. 

Also after googling her, I found out that she’s also designed Sylveon–another favorite PKMN of mine. She’s also illustrated some very pretty Pokemon cards!!

Thank you Ms. Nishida! :-) May you get more credit and love for your contribution to the Pokemon franchise.

as a camera shy person myself, knowing she hides behind plushies is just amazing

Her and Yoko Taro are legends at hiding from cameras. xD 

Here’s some other Pokemon she’s designed, for anyone curious:

source: x

and not to derail this post into anything overtly political, but: If it weren’t for a woman in the gaming industry, we wouldn’t have freakin’ Charizard. I feel like that’s something more people should know about!

Anatomy of a PS1

Experimenting with simple, stylised background design. As usual, keeping it minimal has a price, including "it's hard to have doors on side and front walls without doing some weird projection or exit markers".

Vague gameplay idea: you are an art student and you have a project due tomorrow. You have to quickly gather together whatever materials you can find around town and then stick them together into something inspiring/terrifying/awful before the morning.

There is no win condition, only comedy failure.

wurmy game dev

🎶 Space Sheriff Sharivan 🎶

Requested by @hdmhbdeda

a broom for space

Bombing!! 2 Skatepark Update is Live!

The Bombing!! 2: A Graffiti Paradise Skatepark update is now live, bringing a whole new map for you to paint your creations all over!

Check it out and leave the game a review, it really helps a lot! 🥰

Hey! Bombing!! 2 is also 20% off as part of the Spring Sale on Steam! Now's a great time to pick it up and check it out! :)