NEW: the IWGB has filed formal legal claims against Rockstar after it says the company refused to meet to discuss bringing back fired developers. "Rockstar has declined to meet with the IWGB, leading the union and barristers to issue formal legal claims on behalf of the Claimants."

I went to meet the 'Rockstar 31', the developers who were suddenly fired from their work on GTA 6 for what the studio has described as gross misconduct. That's not what the workers call it though. They have another couple of words they prefer to use: union busting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9nO...

The Rockstar Workers Fired Before They Could Finish GTA 6

YouTube video by People Make Games

youtube.com

New ep just dropped! This conversation with Dan Pinchbeck, co-founder of The Chinese Room, was fascinating! We cover everything from half-life 2 mods to most of their games, layoffs, the Sumo acquisition, burnout and of course Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2! www.youtube.com/@gothboss #gamedev

Happy Halloween! 🖤🤡

Very, very late to the book party with this one, but grabbed it off my ever growing TBR pile this morning and it is *brilliant*. I struggle reading novels because I lose focus & my mind wanders, so it’s always wonderful when something grabs my attention like this. (Piranesi is another one I love)

This week’s podcast ep is finally up after wrangling technical issues after that AWS outage! It’s a longer format of the talk I gave at Games Talks Live last week: How to Future-Proof Your Game Industry Career youtu.be/ezwXUbo34uc

How to Future-Proof Your Game Industry Career

YouTube video by Cat Burton

youtu.be

I am definitely biased but tonight’s Startup Meetup in Edinburgh was my favourite one yet. I had a great time interviewing Maurizio to hear about his impressive career from Realtime Worlds to Jagex, selling his startup (Cloudgine) to Epic, and now working on a new startup using Unreal in the cloud 🤩

Mediatonic founder launches new group of studios under the banner Skeleton Crew

Mediatonic founder launches new group of studios under the banner Skeleton Crew

Skeleton Crew will consist of a slate of new companies, plus the existing teams at Payload, Brightrock and Mythwright.

gamedeveloper.com

AWS outages are a good reminder to not leave podcast editing until the afternoon before it’s meant to drop. Tomorrow’s ep gonna be a bit delayed because muggins here relies too heavily on browser-based tools for everything 🙃

Alice? Misadventures? Tarot cards? Wonderfully eerie piano-based OST? Habromania looks so good! Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/236... Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3677050/...

HABROMANIA

A dreamy choice-based misadventure game where Alice falls down a rabbit hole and out of her mind.

kickstarter.com

If you've not had a chance to sign this yet, please do

Gendered Intelligence@genderedintelligence.co.uk · 10mo ago

Over 50,000 cis women have signed the @nionwomen.bsky.social open letter rejecting the narrative that trans women are a danger to women. The real threat to women has never been trans women. The real threat to women is male violence. Add your name today: notinourname.org.uk/petition/not...

So many spooky-cute games this autumn. This one called Gloomy Eyes came out a few weeks ago and has such a lovely art style: store.steampowered.com/app/2667950/...

Gloomy Eyes on Steam

A cozy horror, “self-coop”, adventure about two unlikely souls who forge a forbidden bond and journey together to find the sun. Explore eerie yet charming Tim Burton-esque levels, switch between two u...

store.steampowered.com

As usual the @scotgamedev.bsky.social #GamesTalksLive were excellent, still time to catch them in #Glasgow tonight and online! sgda.co.uk/gtl for more details. Amazing speakers, including pals @gothbosscat.bsky.social @petergreeves.bsky.social #Games #Scotland #Scottish #VideoGames #GameDev

once again I need help with some research for my novel! I need to speak to women born between 1979 and 1981. If that is you, and you don’t mind chatting to me about 90s clothes, books, TV, etc, please let me know!

Games Talks Live tonight was great! Thanks to everyone who came up and said nice things about my talk. I’ll also be at Dundee tomorrow and Glasgow on Thurs. P.S. sorry to anyone else who wanted to chat tonight; I bailed early to save energy. You’re welcome to DM if we didn’t get chance to chat 😌

Cat Burton@gothbosscat.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I'm speaking at Games Talks Live next week! It's always a great event. If you'll be there, please do say hello! We will be touring 3 Scottish cities over 3 nights! Tues 14 - Edinburgh Weds 15 - Dundee Thurs 16 - Glasgow The full speaker list and and tickets are available at www.gamestalks.live

Data science time! Most games heading into #SteamNextFest have between 10 and 100 followers. That's like between ~50 (low estimate) and ~1500 (high estimate) wishlists. But you probably know that already. Anything you want to see?

Can game design really change the world? 🎮 In this week's ep of The Goth Boss Podcast, I chat to @trevinyork.bsky.social about Game Design For Change and hear about projects that are having a real impact on the world. YouTube: www.youtube.com/@gothboss Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6ZPydcl...

A point-and-click parody of Les Miserables? Where could I register my interest for such a thing?? www.kickstarter.com/projects/col... #IndieGame #AdventureGame #PointAndClick #LesMiserables

Coming soon: Less Misearbles: A point-and-click parody of Les Miserables

An adventure game that's a loving parody of Les Misérables, complete with hand-drawn art and live voice acting.

kickstarter.com

It cannot be made clearer. If you continue to support the Harry Potter franchise in any way, you are directly funding the removal of trans people's human rights in the UK.

I'm speaking at Games Talks Live next week! It's always a great event. If you'll be there, please do say hello! We will be touring 3 Scottish cities over 3 nights! Tues 14 - Edinburgh Weds 15 - Dundee Thurs 16 - Glasgow The full speaker list and and tickets are available at www.gamestalks.live

Unity have had a really tough few years. People keep asking me if they should still use for their games or move to a different engine. I popped some thoughts in the latest podcast ep. 📺 Watch on YouTube: youtu.be/-BuWqvu6lvw 🎧 Audio versions available on all the usual places! #gamedev #unity

Unity’s in Crisis…But Is It Still the Right Engine for Your Next Game?

YouTube video by Cat Burton

youtu.be

P.S. We're still on the look out for a Lead Unity Developer to join the Mind Candy team and help bring the updated Moshi Monsters game to life! Job spec here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Stand back everyone, I'm attempting to write shaders 😂😱

a cat looking at an acer laptop with a bunch of text on it

Alt: a cat looking at a laptop with a bunch of text on the screen going AAAAAAAA (which is how i feel when trying to write shaders)

media.tenor.com

Now this is a bit excessive if you ask me, but here we are. My already discounted bundle – at half the price. I'll do the math for you: all my tools for only 30% of their original price!! assetstore.unity.com/packages/too... It includes...

Good morning from Unity, I guess. If you’ve released a Windows/Linux/macOS game in Unity recently, might be worth patching unity.com/security/sep...

Security Update Advisory

A security vulnerability was identified that affects games and applications built on Unity versions 2017.1 and later for Android, Windows, and macOS operating systems. Unity has provided fixes that ad...

unity.com

P.S. We're still on the look out for a Lead Unity Developer to join the Mind Candy team and help bring the updated Moshi Monsters game to life! Job spec here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

In my excitement at working on fun Moshi Monsters things this week I completely forgot to share this week's podcast ep on socials 🤣 🙈 YouTube: youtu.be/sy0l6ecXeYA?... It's also on all the usual audio places.

Surviving the Games Industry: Layoffs, Studio Closures and Future Predictions

YouTube video by Cat Burton

youtu.be

If you make experimental or unusual games, the Out of Index festival in Seoul is still accepting submissions through the 17th! www.outofindex.org

Out Of Index 2025 - Experimental Game Festival

Out Of Index is an experimental game festival in South Korea. The goal of the festival is to inspire the game industry with new ideas and experimental energy.

outofindex.org

Applications are now open for the SGDA Games Acclerator programme, the first dedicated business development programme for the games sector.

Applications Open for SGDA Games Accelerator

The Scottish Game Developers Association (SGDA) has opened applications for a major new initiative aimed at fostering the next generation of games industry leaders: the SGDA Games Accelerator. Funded by the Scottish Government’s Ecosystem Fund, the accelerator is Scotland’s first dedicated business development programme for the games sector. It offers a free, intensive series of workshops designed to provide early-stage and aspiring games leaders with the practical skills and expert mentorship needed to build a successful studio.

scottishgames.net

Exciting news! Join @gothicauob.bsky.social for 👾 Video Game Gothic 👾 with our special guest speaker @dreframss.bsky.social on Zoom on Thursday 23rd October 5.00pm - 6.30pm (UK). As an expert in occulture, Efram's talk will explore issues of video game censorship during the 1980s ‘Satanic Panic’ ⬇️