Tip for level designers: Get one of these, go to a cafe, and relax. Many of my best level design ideas existed on paper first. Tip for notepad manufacturers: Many level designers would be excited about hexagon patterns instead of square grids.
Rami Ismail (رامي)
@ramiismail.com
I help good people make good games in good ways. https://ramiismail.com/
Folks, turns out the "Would you still like it if AI was banned" guy was doing a very poorly phrased thought experiment. I'm super OK dunking on anyone suggesting we "need" AI but I'm less OK dunking on someone wondering what this means for our world. So with my apologies, I deleted that post.
If you're one of the folks that already finished the Levelling The Playing Field Marketing 101 course, please do write a review! For any review on the platform, regardless of the rating and comment, you'll get a €2,50 credit towards your next course or gift purchase as a thanks for taking the time!
Looking through old Maraoke photos for a thing and... who wants to play spot the @ramiismail.com? (Also @joonturbo.bsky.social and @jtoresson.bsky.social??! Anyone else???) Discounted tickets for our Gamescom gig available for the next few days: maraoke.com/GC26 Go go go be quick.
Turns out Golden Sun, my first and still favorite RPG of all time, turned 25 years old today. Unrivaled to this day.
Golden Sun - "The Elemental Stars"
YouTube video by gamemusicisgood
youtube.com
Months of work, a lifetime of learning, but the Levelling The Playing Field 101 Courses program launches right now. Eight €40 courses launching 10 days apart, I aim to make the critical less-spoken parts of indie gamedev accessible away from expensive visa-locked hotel bars. courses.ramiismail.com
"This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition and passion have made EA one of the world's leading interactive entertainment companies", says Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, somehow keeping a straight face and potentially believing his own bullshit. www.ea.com/news/ea-anno...
EA Announces Completion of Acquisition by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
EA Positioned to Accelerate Creativity and Innovation to Shape the Future of Entertainment Consortium Brings Long-Term Capital, Sector Expertise and Strategic Support to Advance EA’s Next Chapter
ea.com
Rami dropping ALL the truth bombs in this one - fantastic read for anyone struggling to actually ship
Rami Ismail (رامي)@ramiismail.com · 2d agoTwo pieces of Levelling The Playing Field news today! 1. Paid newsletter article on "being bad at shipping" in the monthly "Ask Rami" column. 3,000+ words thoughts and methodologies in response to an existential debut game question. Free article in two weeks. ltpf.ramiismail.com/ask-rami-shi...
oh my god my bluesky was set to show "English" only, fixed that immediately
2. On the courses end, the new Marketing 101 course had its first completion! Marketing 101 was likely the most complicated and easily out-dated course to make - it required a lot of abstraction and care to make. Available at €40 (or all 8 courses for €280!) courses.ramiismail.com/courses/mark...
Levelling the Playing Field - Courses by Rami Ismail
Practical, focused courses for indie game developers. Business, marketing, budgeting, production, pitching and more - by Rami Ismail.
courses.ramiismail.com
Two pieces of Levelling The Playing Field news today! 1. Paid newsletter article on "being bad at shipping" in the monthly "Ask Rami" column. 3,000+ words thoughts and methodologies in response to an existential debut game question. Free article in two weeks. ltpf.ramiismail.com/ask-rami-shi...
Ask Rami: Ship or S(hr)ink
Ask Rami is a monthly column in which Rami Ismail answers the most profound, interesting, or relevant question he receives from the developer community. This month: an indie studio can't figure out ho...
ltpf.ramiismail.com
Filed away my last pass on tomorrows LTPF newsletter article, which given that it's the 1st Monday of the month is a paid-members "Ask Rami" article. Really happy that I'm writing these again, because it means I receive great questions like these, ended up writing 3,000 words in response.
!["Studio founder here. We are a studio of 7 people in North America. We've been funded by our publisher since 2023, and we've been working on our first commercial game, and we are [...] incredibly proud of the game. We made great progress throughout the project, despite some teething issues early on. After a few delays, our publisher has made clear they're out of patience and money and they want us to ship. It turns out we're bad at shipping - we've barely made any progress since then, everything seems to get stuck, and we are running out of time. How can we ship a game?"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jye22xkea3jqsabskhfec347/bafkreifencqyq2fao4mbrybhyhgrcpfiapp5a3m6iok7cl3opdlpwqm3wu)
The only time I've experienced this dystopian an escalation of "oh no" was watching Whiplash.
Rebekah Valentine@duckvalentine.bsky.social · 3d agodo not do this
Just to be clear on this article, the position I took isn't "developers need to be more brave" but "funding needs to be more brave". Developers make all the cool stuff, just because they want to - the funding side hits it with market research and fear and growth targets and shareholders.
GamesRadar+@gamesradarplus.bsky.social · 2w agoWe need games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Balatro, and Peak as a cure for the "fear" in the industry, say experts www.gamesradar.com/games/we-nee...
Levelling The Playing Fields' Marketing 101 course is live now at courses.ramiismail.com for just €40 - pay once, keep forever. The course discusses common indie marketing methodologies at the 101 level, including topics like funnels, store pages, tracking, showcases, demos, and festivals.
Levelling The Playing Fields' Marketing 101 course is live now at courses.ramiismail.com for just €40 - pay once, keep forever. The course discusses common indie marketing methodologies at the 101 level, including topics like funnels, store pages, tracking, showcases, demos, and festivals.
Hey #ScreenshotSaturday ! Get ready to boost, blast and burn your way through Rogue Eclipse on August 7th! 🕹 Tight Flight Controls 💥 Merciless Armadas to Blast Through 👾 Epic Boss Fights to Overcome 🚀 A Roguelike Campaign ☪ An Arabesque Futurism inspired Cosmos bit.ly/4bRLumD #gamedev #gaming
We're live! In 10 days, expect Directing 101. For now, enjoy Marketing 101. We're going to cover a lot of 101 in this one: store pages, wishlists, KPIs, setting clear and measurable goals, press lists & releases, influencers, social media, ads, timelines, and some basic community management.
Rami Ismail (رامي)@ramiismail.com · 4d agoGetting read to launch Marketing 101 on courses.ramiismail.com - for those of you that bought the full package or pre-ordered, it should go live in the next hour and a half. For those of you interested, you can check the course details out at courses.ramiismail.com/courses/mark...
2. However, I did enjoy the impressively beautiful visuals, landscape and weather. It was a joy to ride my horse through so much beauty. And drawing was fun, a welcome break. I do like to play a game till the end. For this game I felt the 63 hours I needed were enough. It is time for a new game. 🎮
1. And so after 63 hours I’ve completed the journey of Atsu. Her mission and goals felt incredibly heavy to me, driven as she is by loss, grief, pain, survival, and revenge. I struggled with the sheer amount of weapons I got at my disposal during the game and therefore often forgot how to use them 🎮
What a great piece of writing here. I’be been feeling something similar to a note Abram hits: surrendering ourselves to the experience at hand regardless of whether or not it’s actually resonating can be meaningful and additive. Immersion and exposure can bring us closer to an experience, bonding ♥️
Abram Buehner@abrambuehner.bsky.social · 4d agoFinal Fantasy VII Rebirth's excess is as unmistakable as it is endearing. A moving, messy journey that accumulates feeling through its best and, more importantly, its most tedious episodes. I love this game, and I'd love it if you checked this out! medium.com/@abrambuehne...
We're live! In 10 days, expect Directing 101. For now, enjoy Marketing 101. We're going to cover a lot of 101 in this one: store pages, wishlists, KPIs, setting clear and measurable goals, press lists & releases, influencers, social media, ads, timelines, and some basic community management.
Rami Ismail (رامي)@ramiismail.com · 4d agoGetting read to launch Marketing 101 on courses.ramiismail.com - for those of you that bought the full package or pre-ordered, it should go live in the next hour and a half. For those of you interested, you can check the course details out at courses.ramiismail.com/courses/mark...
Getting read to launch Marketing 101 on courses.ramiismail.com - for those of you that bought the full package or pre-ordered, it should go live in the next hour and a half. For those of you interested, you can check the course details out at courses.ramiismail.com/courses/mark...
Daily reminder that GDscript supports the Sumerian clay table alphabet, Akkadian cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia. This is perfectly valid code you can write in your game:
Sektori is ridiculously good
Jörg Tittel@newjorg.bsky.social · last wk.My 2025 GOTY (and this year's, too, since it came out on Switch 2), @gimblll.com’s Sektori, is getting a glorious physical edition and soundtrack from my friends at @lostincult.co.uk. Get them while they’re 🔥. More details about the gorgeous innards will be revealed soon. Do not miss out on this.
Just a few more days until Levellling The Playing Field launches the 2nd of the 8 courses - the Marketing 101 course! Very excited about this one too: pre-orders are available, and you can preview the full course content on the store page. courses.ramiismail.com/courses/mark...
Levelling the Playing Field - Courses by Rami Ismail
Practical, focused courses for indie game developers. Business, marketing, budgeting, production, pitching and more - by Rami Ismail.
courses.ramiismail.com
