Romain Macré

@romainmacre.bsky.social

🇫🇷 Works at Nitrome, lead Programmer on Shovel Knight Dig. I'll talk about game development and design, as well as my side projects. Working on a Steam expanded version of my space shooter Alexus 2040 (currently on mobile). https://fairlyavailable.com/

I am so tired of people who can't code telling me about how AI helps them code to 1% of the ability of a professional, which sure is 10x for them. It's like me telling people that the invention of music theory will make actual musicians obsolete because now I, too, can write chords that sound OK.

It's common for English to use a French word for something there is already a word for, but give it a more extreme or fancy meaning. Fatigue in French is just regular tiredness. Serviette in French is just any napkin or towel. I suggest the word 'mouchoir'. It would be a fancy handkerchief.

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

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

In yesterday's 3rd place match England - France, each team had 5 or 6 players defending, not the whole team like in modern football. It was like in the 90's! They set their mind to score as many goals as possible. Add to that some of the best strikers in the world. No wonder you get 6 - 4.

There are people who post genAI art of landscapes, along with the prompt, and you see a fair share of comments: "That one is nice". "I love the colours!". "Stunning!". And I'm thinking, is it some kind of joke? Am I missing something? Are they just eager to make a point? Convince themselves?

Boomers who always go back to the hot summer of 1976 like "How did we survive back then?" is the worse argument ever. It wasn't as hot! There have been 5 summers than have been hotter since (2025 and 2026 among them). The hottest in 1976 was 35.9. Britain has reached 39 and 40 several times since.

1- A type of hard bug to find is the one that happens on an object where something silently goes unexpected in the object data, but it doesn't manifest itself until later when the data causes something else to go wrong. By the time you see the bug, it's too late. #gamedev

I've had this Shovel Knight T-shirt since 2019 that I still wear occasionally. For the first time I got someone stopping me to say "I like your shirt!". It was this kind of situation where the drive of the person to let you know that they know outweighs the awkwardness of the interaction.

MINA IS OUT! 🐭 It hasn't sunk in yet. It's been a wild 6 years of dev and feels weird not waking up and going to my desk to pixel new sprites. Her adventure has finally come to a close for me so she could start a new one with all of you. From the bottom of my 8x8px heart--Thank You. 💟

I'm looking for work. 21 years of experience. • any game art, isometric, top-down, side-scroll • stylized or realistic • characters, icons, key art, animation • Can build a style from zero or match yours • Big projects don't scare me • ex Minecraft DM here or email christina.neofotistou@gmail.com

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Twin Shot Deluxe is OUT NOW! 👀 Available on Steam / Nintendo Switch... (mobile coming soon too!) Its $10 £10 €10 (with a launch week -10% discount on steam)

1- In the English speaking world, making fun of the French (stereotypes, accent...) is a cultural thing that is passed down the generations. Someone may never have met a French person but they will know some comedy with a representation of French people, and that will be their reference.