"Man, I have so many appointments today" I say as if those appointments aren't chatting with game developers about their projects and helping them, in the best legal job ever.

I went to PIG Con by @pigsquad.com this weekend. (My firm was even a sponsor!) I spent almost the entire time on Saturday on the show floor playing games and talking to the developers. Here's some of the highlights of what I got to check out.

The Wyndfinder is now Coming Soon on Steam! Would be so thankful if you would consider adding it to your Wishlist, and sharing with your friends! #indiedev #gamedev And, I mean, the art by @teammlcstudio.bsky.social . My goodness! store.steampowered.com/app/4671110/...

The Wyndfinder on Steam

The Wyndfinder is a party-based CRPG inspired by the classics. Create your Wyndfinder, choose from nine unique characters to join your party, and answer the question: If the heroes of old become the v...

store.steampowered.com

Good points. A multiplayer game is as hard as your opponent, one game or genre is not inherently harder than any other, it just emphasizes different skills. A lot of this is very applicable to fighting games.

There are no hard multiplayer games

YouTube video by The fog is your friend

youtube.com

We were on KOIN 6 AM Extra this morning to talk about PIGCON! Lots of little shoutouts in here :) www.koin.com/am-extra/gam...

I have finished Expedition 33. Game is good, go play it. I say that as someone who really doesn't enjoy most RPGs, even the ones I know are very good. If you have friends who are playing it, check in on them from time to time to make sure they're okay emotionally.

Thanks to everyone who made it out today! #SF6 🥇 @jacobvela.bsky.social 🥈Crocoswine 🥉Oma #2XKO 🥇 @jaxas.bsky.social 🥈 @jaredtheho.bsky.social 🥉 @jacobvela.bsky.social #KOF13 🥇Bahn Yuki 🥈 @tarrakhawes.bsky.social 🥉Orochi Clark 🎥 www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... See you next time!

May 9th, 2026 | SSF Saturday! - YouTube

youtube.com

One of the big dangers of generative AI isn't that it's bad at tasks, it's that it pretends to not be bad at those tasks and then gaslights with so much confidence that people believe that it can in fact do those things. When you have people increasingly relying on it you run into problems.

ChatGPT rates the song I made

YouTube video by FatherPhi

youtube.com

My wife referred to a "diss track" as a "defamation song," and I don't know if that reflects more on her or me.

I wish that there was more room in the current game landscape for games to be moderate successes instead of either massive games or shutting down. I am a bit disappointed to see the internet dunking/memeing on this (or any) game though, if only because I know that people worked hard on it.

Highguard Is Shutting Down For Good Next Week

The troubled siege shooter's short life is coming to an end.

gameinformer.com

I have been saying for years that Castlevania has to be one of the easiest franchises to resurrect. Literally just give it to some indie studio that's capable and let them cook. In that same thought, I've also said that Evil Empire/Motion Twin is the single most obvious pick to do it.

Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse - Official Announcement Trailer

YouTube video by GameSpot

youtube.com

I have genuinely tried to get generative AI to help me do things for work. But it gets so much wrong and is so confident about what it gets wrong. This is in things that it should be very good at. The best way to see that LLMs really aren't that great is to ask it about something you know about.

Brendan Davey@brendandavey.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I work mostly in non-profit database management, something AI should aid gracefully, and I genuinely gave LLM AI’s a shot in the first few months of all the hype, and it… can’t do anything. It’s also wrong about the historical topic I studied the most. But AI shills still love to tell me I’m naive…

It's a good way of looking at it. While I do think that looking at the "video game industry" as a single thing can be useful in some places, it's not as much when you're looking at what is competing with your game for their player's time.

The Game Business@thegamebusiness.com · 7mo ago

"Resident Evil is more a competitor to Stranger Things than it is to Clash of Clans. Candy Crush is more directly competing with Tiktok than Fortnite. Roblox is more a rival to the school playground than Street Fighter" www.thegamebusiness.com/p/there-is-n...

Support your local tournament organizers. (by inflicting unnecessary distress to the ones that are fans of Metroid like @jaxas.bsky.social)

So let me get this straight. OpenAI needs a license to Disney characters but not any of the other copyright-protected material in their dataset? What's the distinction here? Just those who have the resources to sue them? Got it. Really not helping the "copyright for big corps only" allegations.

Disney Inks Blockbuster $1B Deal With OpenAI, Handing Characters Over To Sora

Disney will make characters from 'Frozen' and 'Star Wars' available to Sora under $1B deal with OpenAI.

deadline.com

This is from a Sonic game, allegedly. What excites me the most about these crossovers in games is the business deals that have to go on between companies to make them happen, and that says something about me.

Star Rift Saga is part of the Metroidvania Fusion Festival on Steam! Get the game for 20% off and the soundtrack for 10% off until November 10th. You can also discover other metroidvanias of all sizes during the event. store.steampowered.com/app/2158690/...

Star Rift Saga on Steam

Embark on a Metroidvanian journey across a mysterious alien world where every ability unlocks new secrets and every corner hides danger or discovery. Fight enemies and bosses across multiple biomes, c...

store.steampowered.com

It was a fun bracket, my final set went to game 5, final round. Always a good time with @salemfighters.bsky.social.

👊 Super Salem Fighters@salemfighters.bsky.social · 9mo ago

=== Results | 10/25/25 === #2XKO 🥇Nagi 🥈 @jaxas.bsky.social 🥉 @jaredtheho.bsky.social #SSBU 🥇Guanabana 🥈Putrid 🥉CROWNED #GGST 🥇 @jaxas.bsky.social 🥈Cheese 🥉Colwan #SF6 🥇Soren 🥈 @jacobvela.bsky.social 🥉Jarhead #SSBU 2v2 🥇Swoobit / CROWNED 🥈Putrid / DuckMcDougle 🎥 www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

I find this fascinating for a few reasons. It shows how games can't easily cater to both players and market speculators. Their interests in the game are directly opposed to one another. Which is a big reason why I think that crypto/blockchain has no good place in games. 🧵

CS2 skin update ‘rug pulls’ collectors as $1 billion wiped from market cap - Dexerto

Counter-Strike 2’s October 23 update has sent shockwaves through the skin trading community, with the market cap plummeting by over $1 billion.

dexerto.com

One of my biggest gripes with the way that fighting games are monetized (paid game+DLC characters each year) is that the goals of the game's balance and profitability are at odds. Is the new DLC character overpowered at launch? Maybe, but the incentive is there to make it strong so that it sells.

Group that makes cool remixes purely because they love creation and the game music that inspired them says AI is antithetical to their core values because of course it is. The problem is people who want to pretend to be artists and get the credit without actually doing the work to learn the skills.

OverClocked ReMix (We ♥ game music!) 🎮🎵@ocremix.org · 11mo ago

We don’t want AI slop. Stop sending us AI slop. Stop wasting our time with AI slop. It doesn’t sound good. It’s antithetical to our core values. You didn’t even make it. Knock it off.

It might be because I played a lot of Hades so I was a lot more familiar with that game (and had more upgrades), but Hades II feels a lot harder. Which it could be, since this game is aimed at people who already played and beat the first one. Game is very good though.

(Epilepsy warning, probably.) I think I won Maze Mice.

Price increase for Xbox consoles in the US "due to changes in the macroeconomic environment." Look, if you're going to be vague about it, you're part of the problem. Just say what it is, tariffs being imposed by the current administration are increasing the price in the form of an import tax.🧵

Star Rift Saga is on sale for 20% off for a week long deal on Steam! You can also pick up one of the bundles on the store page for an additional discount on other items.

Save 20% on Star Rift Saga on Steam

Embark on a Metroidvanian journey across a mysterious alien world where every ability unlocks new secrets and every corner hides danger or discovery. Fight enemies and bosses across multiple biomes, c...

store.steampowered.com

Mike made a pretty bold assumption here about my brain not exploding, but I do appreciate being called an indie dev daredevil. I was on Mike's podcast where I talked about the basics of what indie devs should know about the law. Give it a listen so I can do it again and talk about other topics.

Mike Arnone@freakingcoolindies.com · 11mo ago

🚨 NEW EPISODE: From Idea to Trademark: Protecting Your Indie Game the Right Way ⚖️ Story time: Your indie game just hit 100K downloads. Congratulations!! 🎉 But then the legal nightmare begins... 🧵

Work has begun on Star Rift Saga's 1.1 content update. Here's a preview of a new robot that will appear in translocator rooms.

I came across this trailer last night and I have rarely needed a game beamed straight into my eye holes so immediately as this one. The opening made me think Star Fox, and the gameplay confirmed everything I look for out of that. Hey @chuhailabs.com, I need a release date ASAP.

Wild Blue | Gameplay Trailer | PC & Xbox Series X|S

YouTube video by Chuhai Labs

youtube.com

Okay yeah, Kirby Air Riders seems like it's building on that prototype. It sure is Air Ride, but again. And more. Which is what fans have wanted. I have my reservations, but game looks solid. Love how many of the visual effects were seemingly pulled straight from Smash. Efficient.

Jacob Vela@jacobvela.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Hot take: I think the original Kirby Air Ride is only alright. It's still fun, but mostly a good prototype for different ideas rather than a great game on its own merits.