@oculus
This is horseshit. Our company will not buy another Oculus product. I absolutely will not force my staff to have facebook accounts to do client work.
Did an interview with a major outlet on running a stable business in games & how to minimize layoffs.
It's not going to come out now because as part of the IGN acquisition of Gamer Network, the journalist who was going to write the article JUST GOT LAID OFF.
I was admittedly crushed this morning when Wandersong didn't get an audio nod for IGF. My hopes were pretty high.
Then I got this unrelated email immediately after finding out. Cosmic reminder that it ain't about the awards.
Delta councillor Lois Jackson had some thoughts last week on what young people should do to get into the housing market:
"You're going to have to save, and scrimp, and you're going to have to do without a lot of things, including your lattes and all those other kinds of things."
"Successful" people must accept their success is attributable as much or more to privilege/luck than it is to talent/brilliance & pivot their mentorship & public speaking accordingly.
OOOHHHH MYY GOD Apple Photos just auto-generated a musical slideshow of the birth of our child, including a graphic photo of the PLACENTA IN A BUCKET & labelled it “DINNER IN VANCOUVER”
We are careening toward a pre-technology state of truth where all you can verify as true is what's in front of you. The truth of greater world as a whole will have to be entirely based on faith. In this respect we are entering a new Dark Age.
All of these UNBELIEVABLE videos were created using Sora, the new AI model from OpenAI
Watch each one and see how it makes you feel...
I don't think it's crazy for me to say this going to shift Hollywood, social apps and media forever
Video
#1
Prompt: The camera directly faces
We're a game studio now.
Introducing: Fish Game. The weird little game I've desperately wanted to exist since I started working in weird & wonderful industry 11 years ago. It's been in secret dev for nearly 4 years.
Please share! This is terrifying lol.
ANNOUNCING: Fish Game.
A cozy but deep Home Aquarium Sim from A Shell in the Pit Games(!!),
@smartereveryday
&
@ryguygames
.
The demo will be part of Steam's Oct Next Fest, playable Sep 28 for press, Oct 9 for public!
Wishlist now! PLEASE SHARE! PLEASE!
I didn't know Hellblade 2 was a 5 hour game what the fuck are we actually doing man
This game got shown before the newest Xbox was even out
HOW DO YOU TAKE 5 YEARS TO MAKE A 5 HOUR GAME
My song "Ghost on the Road" got picked as the opening radio tune in
#PacificDrive
. I haven't had the opportunity to pour this much of myself into a track in years. I'm so proud of it.
This is not an account that represents the whole team, but are making an exception in this case:
A Shell in the Pit, as a team that worked on NITW, believes & supports Zoe. We didn't know. Abusers must be exposed & driven out.
I swear I'm not high:
Imagine if money expired, like food.
I grew too much thyme & the first thing that came to mind was "better give some of this away!" At no point was I like "aw yeah can't wait to horde more thyme than I'll ever need!"
this is my dumbest or smartest tweet
To all dream chasers: every job will eventually feel like a "job".
I don't say this with cynicism but to encourage you to frequently step back & appreciate what you've achieved. What you're doing vs. what you *might* be doing had you not taken the risks to get where you are.
No matter the position or how passionate you are for it, a lot of it will feel like work eventually. Cool work, fulfilling, but work. “Do what you love & you’ll never work a day in your life” is a myth. Some days you’d rather be camping.
Cait & I are having a baby in March. I am gonna delete Twitter from my phone, cuz I need to get a LOT done. Not quitting entirely but if this is your primary form of contact with me expect slower responses via dm.
🌟OUR BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
#2
🌟 NEW FREAKIN WEBSITE & LOGO:
We have been working with
@nosplendorr
on this for *months* with art by
@fungalmatters
. It was an ambitious concept & by gum he pulled it off. Click some peeps! Listen to some sounds!
Artists: $30
Writers: $2
Designers: 60$
Programmers: $100
Executive Bonuses: $100000000
Someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this my industry is unionizing
Not to make it a wholly braggy morning BUT we just got our corporate tax results back & by gum I may not be able to keep a cactus alive I did somehow manage to run a debt-free, profitable company with multiple employees for a whole dang year & that feels... relieving.
We've been doing wild videos with
@smartereveryday
for nearly a decade but this one is a whole new level. We're happy with our slow mo design but wait till your hear the real sound in real-time 😱😮.
I have always wanted to know what happens if a baseball goes supersonic. The new video is the quest to make that happen, and how we did it. As strange as it sounds, the video is almost secondary in my mind to the engineering challenge.
This had to happen
Not sure what to say. A week ago I was exchanging jokey gifs with a dev I had an amenable professional relationship with & I had a lot of respect for, esp. regarding his openness on mental health. 4 days ago he was credibly deemed an abuser. Today he's dead. It's a lot.
Will reiterate that I built & structured my company specifically as an antithesis to the AAA model of instability. It has been working since 2016 &, while certainly hairier the past 24 months, continues to work. It is not impossible to run a stable company in games.
I just want to say this as a 20 year veteran of the games industry who worked on properties from Guitar Hero, to Rick and Morty, to Fallout-
Kids, don't come into this industry and hope some AAA company will hire you and you'll get to work on something awesome. (1/?)
I forgot to post about this. My GDC talk on building a stable business in games is up on the GDC Vault. The whole purpose of it is to prevent the kind of thing we're seeing again today.
(I tried to get it made free to the public but GDC said no)
This is a big exciting day for us (and a scary day for me!!!!)--we're adding 3 new fantastic people to Team A Shell in the Pit:
@mauruiz_
,
@soundseeds
& Bryson Dodwell. Not such a tiny company anymore!
My first single in 2 years, building toward an album. A song about optimism & also not wanting to go to bed. Backup vox from
@emaudible
&
@_decibella
! Full track in reply. please RT!
More positive audio comments than we can count on today's
@smartereveryday
video! On one hand: "a good sound job goes unnoticed". On the other hand: 😎😎😎😎😎
If you were tell me that one day a game we worked on would inspire a 17 episode, animated, FAN MADE musical I would have spit coffee on your clean white lapel.
In other news: we’ve leased not one but TWO new spaces. One for team/headphone work, & one that is fully treated for composition & detailed mix work! Moving my home studio (pictured) into the latter today 🤯. never had a non-home dedicated recording space & am over the moon.
We're releasing
#Ikenfell
today after having the pleasure to work with
@ChevyRay
for 3.5 years(!!) and we are so incredibly proud of this game and our team!✨♥️🪄
Children's books:
Illustrator: watercolour dawn pond scene, 7 accurately rendered species of butterfly, a ladybug carefully hidden on every page telling its own visual side narrative
Author: "Frog was a frog"
@XSEEDGames
lol “our corporate policy has always been disrespectful to past workers & there is nothing we can do HELP HELP US WHO CONTROLS THE CORPORATE POLICY
Joining in sharing that one can also create flexible models for various budgets. My rates vary from $500/min-$3k/min based primarily on desired rights exclusivity. This allows me to work on lower-budget indies that I am really excited about.
Hi im a video game composer and I charge ~1000$/min!
That number is not ✨wtf high✨it's an approx industry standard for someone who shipped + couple years of experience!
It's a number shared by a lotta vg composer who work ethically, i did not just make it up!
We got our first test sound panel for our office and it's amaaaazing. Each will have custom art by the amazing Madeline Berger representing our games.
@nightinthewoods
2 years!!!
Wandersong is probably going to wind up being my "opus" (for lack of a better word). I don't know if I'll ever have the time & energy for such an ambitious & prolific project again. & you know what? Could be happier with this reality.
Wandersong came out two years today! I wrote a bit reflecting on the ups and downs since release. Two years on it still feels like a very strange and special thing. Thank you all very much!
🟦 THE YEAR IS 30XX 🟥
Jump, shoot, and slash your way through 30XX, the roguelike action platformer you can play with a friend! Ace Nina return in style with lush pixels, brand new worlds, distinct powers, and a world in need.
WISHLIST NOW:
(sound on!)
In Sept 2016 I woke up to a CRASH & found wife Caitlin unconscious on the floor. She had passed out due to extreme back pain.
It was scary shit. I thought she was dead. She was bedridden for 2 weeks.
Today she deadlifted 200 lbs 20 times & I can't contain my pride 💪👊💓
Hey night-owl twitter
I just finished the last full track for Wandersong
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀🎵♩🎶♩🎵♩🎵♩🎵♩🎵♩🎶♩🎵♩🎸🎵🎵♩😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀🎹🎷🎺🎸🎻🎧📻🎸🎤🎛🎵🎚🎶🎙🎙♩🎷🎻🎧📻🎵🎤🎶🎤🎵📻🎷🎻🎶🎛🎧📻🎷📻🎻🎧🎧🎻🎷🎻🎵🎻
2.5+ years & 100-something songs later I just delivered my last Wandersong file.
Thanks
@theBanov
for inviting me on this life-changing project. Thanks
@emaudible
for joining me on it! Here's to hoping it changes a few more lives than this one.
Cool seeing pals are watching Yellowjackets. My wife was the Key Makeup FX Artist on it! Couldn't be prouder.
Attic Skeleton roomed with us for many months. Here he is going for a cruise in the back of our stationwagon, and takin 5 by my hydroponic tomato garden.
@LCTRfan
@Morrison
the person you get in an accident isn’t going to then go get in an additional accident with everyone the encounter for the next 10-14 days.
Star Wars Visions is OUT!
It is my honour to compose music for the episode "The Village Bride".
I’ve attached a picture with full credits, but some highlights were working on home-soil at Trackdown Studios in Sydney, and with legendary Nier singer
@emirevans
!
#StarWarsVisions
I have a whole internal essay on this & maybe twitter's not the *best* place, but it's popping up in my tl:
If you're trying to get a job in games right now, & having a tough go, it's not you. Or, it's less "you" than it would have been in the 12 years prior to March 2022. 🧵
.
@audiokinetic
asked me to write an article on ethical employment in
#gameaudio
/games-in-general 1 1/2 years ago & after much trepidation I finally did!
OH SNAP figured out how to loop music perfectly in FMOD without having to print loop NEVER PRINTING A LOOP AGAIIINNNN
Filing this under “things I should have figured out 5 years ago”
My wife planned us a camping trip that conflicts with PAX West.
I was about to cancel the trip, but did a quick tally & I have been camping 0 times since 2013, but have been to PAX 6 times. I think I might skip PAX this year & roast marshmallows. Sorry to the friends I'll miss.