Xbox's 1,600 person "reset" didn't hit 14 layers of management. It hit devs who built the worlds you love. Faceless brands don't make games - people like Ben Carnow and his team do. #SaveGameWorkers and tell Microsoft to end these cycles of layoffs: shorturl.at/5ruBE

Two laid-off game devs are making an indie game. We're looking for a 3d artist. The game will be a simple 3d driving/road trip friendslop comedy game in the vein of "Peak" or "RV There Yet", based on something I made ages ago that got millions of views when tubers like Markiplier:

Don't Make Me Turn This Car Around

YouTube video by Markiplier

youtube.com

On July 6th, Microsoft laid off 50% of id Software. Among these cuts were folks like John "Jebus" Roberts, a principal engine programmer on the id Tech engine. For 15 years, Jebus supported the games you love. #SaveGameWorkers by telling Microsoft to end their cycles of layoffs: shorturl.at/5ruBE

Hi everyone, today me and 22 others at Double Fine were hit by layoffs today. All the people who lost their jobs today care so much about the games they make and the people they work with. If anyone is looking for a tools SE with 7 years of experience and who brings baked goods on Mondays lmk.

Bethesda Games Studios’ Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it. Here are the details. If this upsets you let Microsoft know: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

My student portfolio reviews last week were very popular, but many non-students asked if I can review their portfolio too. So! Monday the 17th of August, 18:00 CEST: Gamedev Portfolio Review: www.eventbrite.com/e/gamedev-po... For anyone who wants a review, from seasoned veterans, to new students.

Gamedev Portfolio Review

Get your portfolio reviewed, live, and learn from each other's portfolios.

eventbrite.com

I'm hardly an impartial observer (and am even name-checked in the article), but this article does a good job summing up the utter senselessness of the recent carnage at ZeniMax Online. Again, my heart goes out to everyone impacted, it is just so cruel and unnecessary www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/th...

The Elder Scrolls Online's developer deserved better than to get sucker-punched by Microsoft twice in two years

$2 billion over 10 years can't save you from Xbox.

pcgamer.com

The bosses are stealing our game industry, and we aim to take it back! We’re calling game workers, allies, and fans alike to join emergency rallies on WEDNESDAY, JULY 15th! Check this thread for times and locations as they’re established: 🧵

Monday, I was laid off from my job of 27 years at Bethesda Game Studios. Shock is an understatement. I’m not sure how to feel about it right now, especially since I’ve received no communication other than the teams call about their hard decisions. So I’m kind of in limbo.

Everyone gets hired again, and paid more.

Sophia_Nyx 🏳️‍⚧️@sophianyx.bsky.social · 4w ago

Name your dream videogame announcement.

Hey remember the big teaser at the end of Fallout season 2 that L****** P**** was gonna be in the next season? So cool. Oh yeah the concept artist who designed that was laid off.

Here’s a really fun one! The iconic armor worn by the Dragonborn in all the Skyrim key art was made by Lead Character Artist Christiane Meister. The Steel Sword (and a majority of weapons in Skyrim) were made by Senior/Lead Weapon Artist Dane Olds. Both were just laid off by Microsoft.

Fun fact! When you start a new game of Skyrim literally the first thing you see is art concepted by laid off concept artist Ray Lederer. (I made the in game art.) A slap in the face to every Elder Scrolls fan.

She is also a traditional painter in oils and acrylics, selling her work and taking pet portrait commissions on Instagram and Facebook. Let's send her some love in this difficult time, and buy a painting if you're able? www.instagram.com/maveriquemorrow www.facebook.com/RavenHawkImages

Among the layoffs was character artist Christiane Meister — a 27-year veteran of Bethesda and (as far as I can tell) one of the longest tenured women in games, period. She worked on Argonians + Khajiit in TES3, horses in TES4 and TES5, Fallout creatures, and more. (cont'd)

So what can you do if you enjoy games from Bethesda, ID, Zenimax Online, Obsidian, and other studios under Microsoft? You make your voice heard: “treating developers as line items in an expense sheet and not people is unacceptable. People make the games I love, and they deserve better than this.”

I think the next 2-3 years might be the best for indie developers. As big corporations work more towards killing the AAA industry and pivoting to UE6, more and more games will begin to look the same and have similar AI-generated content. Your time to shine as a solo dev.

One way you can show Microsoft your concern is here through the XBOX Player Voice feedback platform: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

We're finally bringing our powerful and user friendly CPU profiler to Linux! The beta version is now publically available, and it's free for 60 days during the open beta, so there's really no excuse not to try it out! Just download, extract, optimize. superluminal.eu/applications...

Superluminal For Linux | Fast Profiling Without The Challenges

No pages of installation guides. No Gigabytes to download and install. Just unzip, run and focus on performance issues. It Just Works™.

superluminal.eu

INTRODUCTION TO SPHERICAL HARMONICS FOR GRAPHICS PROGRAMMERS finally done. gpfault.net/posts/sph.html

I guess we are doing this again: liveplusplus.tech/blog/ Expect a mix of low-level, C++, assembly.

New article! What do you do when profiling your code shows the slowdown isn't in your code, but deep in the kernel? Why, you grab the kernel source and go spelunking. How a routine profiling session turned into a Linux kernel patch: rovarma.com/articles/fro...

From profiling to kernel patch: the journey to an eBPF performance fix | Ritesh Oedayrajsingh Varma

A story about how an innocent profiling session led to a change to the Linux kernel that makes eBPF map-in-map updates much faster.

rovarma.com

Good read: "GPU Cache Hierarchy: Understanding L1, L2, and VRAM" charlesgrassi.dev/blog/gpu-cac...

GPU Cache Hierarchy: Understanding L1, L2, and VRAM

Why does one texture sample cost 4 cycles and another 500? GPU cache hierarchy explained—L1, L2, VRAM, and how to stop thrashing them.

charlesgrassi.dev

So if you're going to be doomscrolling today, at least make it a journey through decades of community creativity that helped shaped gaming as we know it. Maybe something you made is in here? doomscroll.cx

DoomScroll — Browse, Preview, and Play Thousands of User-Made Doom WADs

Endlessly scroll through decades of user-made Doom maps. Preview and play WADs instantly in your browser.

doomscroll.cx

Just to remind people that there is still good in the world.

I’m excited to announce the release of Spark 1.3 and the launch of spark.js, our new JavaScript API for real-time GPU texture compression on the web. ludicon.com/sparkjs

spark.js

Real-Time GPU Texture Codecs for the Web

ludicon.com

Mesh2Motion (@scottpetrovic.bsky.social) is an open-source alternative to Mixamo that allows you to rig humanoid and four-legged characters! mesh2motion.org

Stonemaier Games (and others) are suing the President over tariffs