I need to say this to make it real. I am currently escaping from an unsafe domestic situation, and the way that fucks your life up, and how little the police can do until you are physically harmed is utterly mind-boggling. I am safe, for now, but I am so scared and I hate how vulnerable I am now.

SAE Australia is hosting a competition for any current or ex students and staff to showcase their game at PAX 26. Tickets, flights, accom paid for. If your team has 1 alumni or student on it, it qualifies to enter. Closes 5:00pm AEST, 16 August 2026. Winners announced 31 August 2026.

I have discovered whimsigoth aesthetic and I am so, so scared. Mostly because I am about to make it my whole personality....

THIS. I'm just a streamery dude, but I've pivoted this year to try to organise more collaboration because we already have such nice friendships in this space that I reckon the rest of the world would be jealous. BTW if any devs in QLD have a game with a demo, can I can come to you to do some videos?

I need the Aussie and NZ game dev industry to realise how utterly phenomenal their collaborative and supportive nature is. How utterly singular, and precious it is, and how much it must be protected and preserved. Zero exaggeration, it is absolutely astounding how supportive the scene is.

Listen, what if I went into politics (I won't) and basically promised everything Mamdani promised (I can't), and campaigned off of that (I won't). But what if. WHAT IF.

Indie game bundle saving buyers over $1,000 in support of laid off developers has raised over $100,000 in three days. https://bit.ly/4w0uow7

More games need to just be unrepentantly 'ok', and we need to be ok with games that are just 'ok'. Also games need to stop being treated as money sources for the super rich for fuck's sake.

Anyway. Back to our regularly scheduled existential dread.

It kind of fucks me up that all of the absolutely batshit conspiracy theories about global politics... are starting to be revealed to not be batshit conspiracy theories. Just directed at the dumbest shit. I feel like we were fucking... Palovian trained for this shit.

Holy shit I have so many things to say about this, but whilst this is a funny, sexy, raunchy film, the social commentary in it is so fucking on point and I am watching it happen in real time in my own research. Oh my god I want to talk about this so much. I don't know howwwwwwww....

WICKER | Official UK Trailer

YouTube video by Black Bear UK

youtube.com

I am beginning to be concerned with the absolute pit of despair I seem to have found myself in because... er. I can't find the ladder anymore...

We have reached full circle. I am now seeing advertisements for live service games that boast 'no sign-in tasks, no pay to win, just play the game'. SO LIKE A NOT LIVE SERVICE GAME? I feel like those people who have nepo baby silicon valley ceo's pitching buses at them...

I don't know where else to put this. Not sure why I need to say it. Maybe to make it real? I'm just having a hard time. Home life, work life, game life, world life. It's a struggle, folks. Trying not to pack it in and just move from paycheck to paycheck these days.

Australians have no issue going to north America... it's just the USA they're not as enamoured with as before...

really thinking about this tweet as i’ve been struggling to breathe through nausea for the last 5 hours

Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · last mo.

These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...

JKR and her new org apparently helped get the new Amnesty International report on how TERF organizations destroy lives taken down from their site. Well, guess what? The Streisand Effect is real. Here's the entire report in a thread. Read it. Share it.

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · last mo.

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours, GC groups threatened defamation lawsuits and Amnesty was forced to pull it down. Proving the point they're anti rights. Anyways, here it is.

This is actually profoundly true. I have never seen a whole audience not only reject a pushed technology, but deliberately and defiantly do things that cannot be corrupted by that technology. Seeking human-made creations, rejecting AI manufacturing. Turning to analogue. It's incredible.

IGN@ign.com · last mo.

The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan has observed that younger audiences are more critical of AI and have a "renewed interest in more tactile, more real forms of storytelling." https://bit.ly/4f0BL00

It's always amusing when people discover we have always let our daughter swear as long as she understands the consequences. And also it produces amazing moments like yesterday: 5yo: "Dad. Why is the bag of chocolates empty?" Dad: "I ate them." 5yo: "Fuck's sake."

... Oh my god Sam Neil died?

warhammer is great because you can have a conversation like "well they don't have bene gesserit" orders framulous "ok well they don't have gundams" imperial knights "ok well they don't have dinotopia" you're not gonna believe this

Voidra, you have piles of tiny fabric squares on your desk. Voidra quilt. Voidra. Don't sew a ruffle skirt. IT'S A NON VYVANSE DAY.

Remember when streaming was the next big revolutionary thing and within ten years it's degraded in to paying a monthyl subscription fee for the honour of going back to watching old fashioned telly with adverts.

John Rogers@johnrogers.bsky.social · last mo.

The audience wants to watch charismatic people solving moderately difficult problems, delivered in weekly doses with occasional short breaks. That was what the market *told us* over seven decades. It created international cultural dominance and enormous wealth. www.wsj.com/business/med...

You know the most awful part of making games? It's that insidious insinuation that if you come up with a game, and it's not the most break out, amazing, makes headlines game, then somehow that's a failure. The kind that guts studios and lays off jobs.

I wish every multimillion dollar company using AI advertisements a very merry bankruptcy.

Something that often goes unsaid: We're against using genAI in our work, and we've also blocked AI crawlers from finding and stealing our work. Even Google. We're not traffic-driven, but in 2026 this has a big impact on how people find us. So, simply following us and sharing our work means a lot 🙏

This Week in Videogames@thisweekinvideogames.com · last mo.

This Week in Videogames is a reader-funded website, and our independent, commercial-free nature is only possible due to paid subscriptions. By popular demand, we've just launched a Discord community as a new perk for financial supporters. We'd love for you to be a part of it.

I have discovered quilting. Not... you know. It's existence. But the activity. I'm in so much trouble.

I pivoted to UE5 after Unity's business choices made me feel uneasy (and I was validated in their choices afterwards). This is making me feel worse, especially with UE6 apparently doing away with blueprints and potentially moving toward vibecoding...

Sami(3 days til 🎂)@samitron.bsky.social · last mo.

THIS STUDIO MADE THE FAMOUS IDTECH ENGINE AND YOU'RE FORCING THEM TO USE FUCKING **UNREAL**??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? FUCK YOU

The current state of AAA games is a result of capitalist cowardice and a refusal to treat gamers as mature adults capable of nuance, and has left the audience vulnerable to those who have used video games to drive collective culture into a narrow, hateful, controlled landscape.

Cara Ellison@caraellison.bsky.social · last mo.

game devs: what are the myths that a lot of players of games think are true about making games that are completely untrue? If you could snap your fingers and they suddenly all knew the truth about it what would it be?

I am so fucking over this bullshit line that apparently Israel's militant force is so trained, and so armed, and so deliberate, yet somehow keep 'missing' the correct targets and hitting such specific individuals. Fuck off. Fuck OFF. Fuck off. Fuck off.

CNN@cnn.com · last mo.

Palestinians in Gaza have had the opportunity to collectively watch the World Cup, but the man who had been organizing the watch parties was killed by an Israeli strike ahead of the event.