Mark Ripley - Games Industry Dinosaur
@markripley.com
Fractional CTO. I help tech startups scale. Making games since 1981, 200+ published titles. Solo indie dev. LinkedIn: https://markripley.net YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@grumpyoaf Indie: https://wearedinosaurs.uk
Two things I heartily recommend: - Parsec: stunningly fast and responsive screen sharing - Lore: Epic's rapid blob-focused git alternative I can't believe how quick Lore commit/pushes are. I keep doing clones just to make sure it's all actually there. Don't bother with a GUI though, just use CLI.
Had a sudden urge to go and sort the office out. It's a mess, a desk needs taking out, plus PCs, Macs, monitors, dev kits and UPSs all need untangling and rearranging so they don't look like they've been set up by a gibbon. Walked in there, walked immediately back out again. Maybe Monday....
A typical day in game dev. Yesterday was a biggie - dynamic level loading so players can pick which map to play in. Involved all sorts of UEFN buffoonery - data layers, load/unload sequencers, sorting out which assets could be streamed in and which were global, a meaty job.
Phew! Multi map support is in, just got to make a map selection GUI now. Up to 10 players, on an island in the sky, each with 25 coins. Bonk a player for some coins, or bonk them off the edge for all their coins. Player with most coins wins.
Looking through some 20+ year old Java code. Awww, I'm using Hungarian notation. Bless.
Whilst I've been recovering I've been trying to coax my brain into action by learning UEFN and Verse - a language so unlike any other. The game's a cross between a Mario Party game, Smash Bros, and Worms. Totally silly. Bonkers, even ;) I'll release an island code when it's ready.
Fascinating story about the unfortunate new normal on the web...
What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all
If you work in or around the film industry, there is a decent chance you have used the work of The Numbers this month, whether you realise it or not.
stephenfollows.com
This will be really useful - you can get up to all sorts of Jenkins shenanigans with this. And maybe the CLI search will work better than the UI one :) Looking forward to v2 where I can type unity command stop_crashing ...that'd be nice. youtu.be/C7wwjNeR4OE
Unity CLI - This is FRICKIN' AWESOME!
YouTube video by Gamefromscratch
youtu.be
Anyone from Epic on here involved with UEFN? Need tech and marketing/store/publishing contacts ideally. Thanks!
Oof! From the days when I was properly grumpy. Mind, spending all day making iPhone 1 games with XCode can do that to a person.
Before everyone and his dog ran a games outsourcing company, 20 years ago I was busy doing it halfway up a mountain on a Greek island. The team were spread from South America, to UK, to Vietnam! Clients were mostly American. Anyway, here's an insight into what life was like at Effervescing Elephant
I wonder if David Darling ever did find his marbles.
Random email. I've been invited to become a member of Dewsbury Golf Club! Bizarre.
Ooh, Gen Atlas! Latest game from the Ico devs. Info in this month's Edge.
Once again, I've been deprived of a visit to Develop. Deprived of spending two days in the bar catching up with old friends and generally being grumpy. Arse! I'm simply too weak for planes, trains and automobiles. I'm knackered just from taking the bins out! Maybe next year....
That new Xbox CEO is especially clueless, isn't she? She seems to think that a billion players a day is achievable, despite GamePass being poor and that small matter of assisting genocide. Oh, and they're laying off thousands of devs each month and people are selling their Xboxes to pay bills.
The UK government is clueless. Absolutely clueless. Pouring money into a huge datacentre that can't be powered. The business proposal is outright lies, but the gov aren't scrutinising the evidence anyway. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Revealed: landmark Scottish AI project has no prospect of meeting renewables promise
Exclusive: Government and developers privately acknowledged Lanarkshire datacentre site had power provision ‘issue’
theguardian.com
In response to PlayStation going full-digital, Nintendo’s next console should go back to using big, gray cartridges that are mostly empty space and feel really satisfying to push into a slot.
We need more stories like this. 7-string guitar as well! He obviously thinks he's Steve Vai :D www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...
‘Techno in a monastery – are you ready?’ The Greek priest whose doom metal album is the year’s hippest record
His church thinks electric guitars are the devil’s work. But Father Tabakis is on a mission to change that – with Paradise Metal, a religious dubstep album that outdid Daft Punk and Aphex Twin
theguardian.com
Saddened to hear this news. Been a huge fan of Psion since back when and have owned many Organisers over the years.
Anthony Barnett@anthonybarnett.bsky.social · last mo.Very sorry to learn that the magnificent David Potter died on Sunday evening. A pioneering mathematical physicist, he founded Psion, created the first hand-held organizer and oversaw Symbian, the standard mobile operating system. He was a wonderful philanthropist and supporter of @opendemocracy.net
There's no need for a PS6, unless they're going to put a NPU in it so you can have conversations with LLM-backed NPCs. In which case, there's no need for a PS6 :)
Alex Bertram-Powell@alexbpart.bsky.social · last mo.And the launch exclusive will be what? One of the studios they nuked? A studio they will nuke after they entomb it in this thing?
