Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦
@raphlife.bsky.social
Exploring apocalypses. I founded and lead Hinterland, and created THE LONG DARK. Game Director, Writer, Designer. Proud Canadian. Lover of film. Just doing my best. He/Him.
LinkedIn bros revelling in how genAI is disrupting/destabilizing the game industry and “oh it’s only a matter of time” and honestly the entirely platform and all those fucking clueless gleeful analysts can sink into the sea. I hate them all. Fuck you guys.
Borrow $1000/day to cover your genAI costs to get 430 peak CCUs on your free demo. 😬😬😬
IGN@ign.com · 4d agoThe developer behind Teach My Little Sister How to Drive, a driving generative AI-powered instruction sim, has been spending $1000 a day to keep the demo running, and now, they've had to take out a bank loan to keep up. https://bit.ly/4rWqe8g
"I don't know. Thousands of years ago it crashes and this thing… gets thrown out, or crawls out, and it ends up freezing in the ice." My take on a scene from The Thing featuring the brilliant matte painting art of Albert Whitlock.
Having long been aware of those tech bros who read my work as utopian porn, where they’ve taken that doesn’t exactly surprise me.
“Blade Runner” concept art by Syd Mead. Of all his paintings for the film, this one is easily my favorite.
It’s one of my all-time favorite games. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and made by an incredible. Explore the quiet* apocalypse. *Until you get mauled by a grizzly. A heavy snow is falling. You’re bleeding out. You can’t feel your feet. Find shelter, make some reishi tea, and patch up that wound, fast.
Mike Sowden@mikeachim.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you're looking for an amazing game with a hauntingly beautiful world to get lost in, grab The Long Dark while it's on offer. It's vast & gorgeous & punishing in the way only the best games are - when you get into trouble (which you will, a LOT), you'll only have yourself to blame. Also... 1/
Yes please! I'm sure others here would agree? Let Jacquelyn know. (Text or video?)
Jacquelyn Gill@jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 3d agoWould people listen to a podcast about the ecology and environmental world-building science in video games? Both in terms of representation, but also how developers do their research and make decisions about how to represent landscapes? Too niche? Or would you be more likely to read or watch videos?
Damn, this looks stylish as hell.
Sally 🔜 AdventureX@sirin.bsky.social · 2d ago"I Shall Name the Dead" is just beautiful. Really enjoying the demo. "A city within the city, magical-realism, investigate the uninterred and uncover their names... burn matches to purify dialogue choices, or allow [The Worm] to get closer." store.steampowered.com/app/4881350/...
Go buy/watch every Nick Cage movie (that isn't owned by a studio/streamer controlled by evil billionaires). Not sure what's left after those filters but I'm sure you can find some way to support this gem... variety.com/2026/tv/news...
Nicolas Cage Says He’s ‘Probably Not’ Working With Amazon Again After Refusing to Sign AI Waiver for ‘Spider-Noir,’ Teases Joining ‘True Detective’
Nicolas Cage says he 'probably won't be working' with Amazon again after refusing to sign an AI waiver for 'Spider-Noir.'
variety.com
THE LONG DARK is one of Steam's Weekend Deals right now, and if you haven't already pulled the trigger I suspect you may want to because...well, let's just say it'll make sense next week. store.steampowered.com/app/305620/T...
This was a surprising discovery! Directed by John Carpenter (!) for TV, right before he directed Halloween. Some familiar Carpenter collaborators in here. Caught on @criterionchannl.bsky.social. letterboxd.com/raphlife/fil...
A ★★★★ review of Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
A surprising artifact of Carpenter's career. A TV-movie he made right before Halloween established him as a leading horror film director. Somehow as a TV movie, this feels bigger budget and more polis...
letterboxd.com
It's 2026. Russia are the good guys. Canada is the enemy. Man we are living through some real "Man in the High Castle"-type shit let me tell you.
John Smith Says Congratulations
ALT: John Smith Says Congratulations
static.klipy.com
I'm watching TREMORS tonight and there's nothing you can do about it.
Melvin Plugg Earl Bassett: Yep
ALT: Melvin Plugg Earl Bassett: Yep
static.klipy.com
Anthropic is out with new nonsense about Claude (or the collection of models called Claude) deserving moral consideration and/or be able to feel distress, so my inbox is filling up with journos asking me to comment. I've also got a day job, so here is a brief set of public comments on this: >>
I know I've plugged this game in the past many times, and if you have never given it a try you absolutely should if you're into survival games. I find I don't play it as much in the summer, but as the weather gets colder I break out The Long Dark to remind myself it could be MUCH colder 😂
Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦@raphlife.bsky.social · 4d agoTHE LONG DARK is one of Steam's Weekend Deals right now, and if you haven't already pulled the trigger I suspect you may want to because...well, let's just say it'll make sense next week. store.steampowered.com/app/305620/T...
this game is my absolute favourite survival game and one of my top ten games period. if you haven’t played it yet you should check it out!!!
Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦@raphlife.bsky.social · 4d agoTHE LONG DARK is one of Steam's Weekend Deals right now, and if you haven't already pulled the trigger I suspect you may want to because...well, let's just say it'll make sense next week. store.steampowered.com/app/305620/T...
Was good value at full price in EA 2015. At this price it's the steal of your life. Get the DLC too at any cost. TLD isn't just a game. Like CIV, or Stardew Valley, or even Minecraft, it's one you want to just live in. You come back to it again and again, no matter how much you've played it before.
Amazingly when you say you're going to make $70B but you actually make $50B, the $20B reduction is considered a "shave". Other words you could use if you wrote articles: * slashes * burns * massively underperforms * significantly misses target
Futurism@futurism.com · 4d agoA $20 billion setback.
If you're looking for an amazing game with a hauntingly beautiful world to get lost in, grab The Long Dark while it's on offer. It's vast & gorgeous & punishing in the way only the best games are - when you get into trouble (which you will, a LOT), you'll only have yourself to blame. Also... 1/
Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦@raphlife.bsky.social · 4d agoTHE LONG DARK is one of Steam's Weekend Deals right now, and if you haven't already pulled the trigger I suspect you may want to because...well, let's just say it'll make sense next week. store.steampowered.com/app/305620/T...
Man, debunking poorly researched game industry news stories could be a full-time job if I didn't already have a full-time job running a game studio and directing video games. So much of what passes as news is thinly veiled PR nonsense. So much misinfo; so little intellectual rigour.
Can't say enough good things about The Long Dark. I'm currently sans PC, and it might be a few more months until I'll be able to hook mine up again, but TLD is one of three games I can't stop thinking about.
Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦@raphlife.bsky.social · 4d agoTHE LONG DARK is one of Steam's Weekend Deals right now, and if you haven't already pulled the trigger I suspect you may want to because...well, let's just say it'll make sense next week. store.steampowered.com/app/305620/T...
I genuinely mean this. I cannot imagine a more bleak dystopian notion than the idea of all art being turned into slop designed to coddle my exact perceived intentions. The point of literature, film, music, and art is to be exposed to the interior lives of others. Who are these people.
Bugs, Yaoist@bugsmaytrix.bsky.social · 4d agomaybe i'm old fashion but the coolest thing about video games is being taken to new worlds that i hadn't thought up and experiencing something exciting that the artists behind the game want to show me
