Matthew
@ironmaus.bsky.social
I am he/him. Designing games + more. Professional digital games by day and DoBetterGames by night. Also @ironmaus@mastodon.gamedev.place, formerly that other place.
Fantastic thread about a discipline-specific challenge in game dev: temp audio. 👀
Audio (sound effects, music, and dialogue) has a weird relationship with temp assets, mostly because of issues revolving around human psychology.
Problem #1: How do you communicate that something you're hearing is temp?
Problem #1: How do you communicate that something you're hearing is temp?
The annoying thing about the "oh we left a placeholder" generative AI slop excuse is that that is EXACTLY NOT how you should be using placeholders. Anything "not obviously terrible with a panicked hurried half-awake glance" is getting shipped.
November 20, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Fantastic thread about a discipline-specific challenge in game dev: temp audio. 👀
Reposted by Matthew
It’s basically Deep Space Nine.
Hello welcome to bluesky. We have every kind of anti-government radical left of center, and also, baseball
November 2, 2025 at 3:54 AM
It’s basically Deep Space Nine.
Reposted by Matthew
can't believe outlets are running moral-panic headlines again based on flimsy anecdata from the *same* trade group (the national retailer federation) and sponsored by the *same* anti-theft company (sensormatic) that had to retract this *same* "study" just two years ago for being bogus.
Retailers Dealing With Increasing Levels of Theft and Violence
Report emphasizes importance of preventive measures, coordination with law enforcement
progressivegrocer.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:03 PM
can't believe outlets are running moral-panic headlines again based on flimsy anecdata from the *same* trade group (the national retailer federation) and sponsored by the *same* anti-theft company (sensormatic) that had to retract this *same* "study" just two years ago for being bogus.
Reposted by Matthew
congratulations to the winner of Game 7: Emergent Narrative
November 2, 2025 at 1:30 AM
congratulations to the winner of Game 7: Emergent Narrative
I'm interested in whichever World Series outcome makes Blue Jays fans tolerable when attending Mariners games.
Genuinely happy for people to be enthusiastic for a sporting event, but it's tiring when it turns unnecessarily into a national rivalry. 🙄
Relatedly: Canada, please get more MLB teams.
Genuinely happy for people to be enthusiastic for a sporting event, but it's tiring when it turns unnecessarily into a national rivalry. 🙄
Relatedly: Canada, please get more MLB teams.
November 2, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I'm interested in whichever World Series outcome makes Blue Jays fans tolerable when attending Mariners games.
Genuinely happy for people to be enthusiastic for a sporting event, but it's tiring when it turns unnecessarily into a national rivalry. 🙄
Relatedly: Canada, please get more MLB teams.
Genuinely happy for people to be enthusiastic for a sporting event, but it's tiring when it turns unnecessarily into a national rivalry. 🙄
Relatedly: Canada, please get more MLB teams.
"Democracy – understood as the right to freely express one’s opinion, to cast one’s vote and to be represented in elective government – is the foundation of peace both within countries and between countries."
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...
Nobel Peace Prize 2025
The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Maria Corina Machado "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transi...
www.nobelprize.org
October 10, 2025 at 4:54 PM
"Democracy – understood as the right to freely express one’s opinion, to cast one’s vote and to be represented in elective government – is the foundation of peace both within countries and between countries."
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...
www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace...
100% this. 💯 I've been using the lens of "freedom from vs. freedom to" when analyzing situations recently, and I gotta tell you that "freedom from" is winning the vast majority of those internal debates.
what Americans seem to want is to be able to buy whatever product they want without government interference but also an ironclad guarantee that all store-sold products are safe, and we just need to recognize that these are contradictory ideas and we're gonna have to make people mad about the former
bsky folks are saying this woman made a bad decision and obviously she did but the dairy is selling a self-refutingly irresponsible product -- they label the raw milk "not for human consumption" and sell it in milk bottles at health food stores for people to buy www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2...
August 17, 2025 at 8:02 PM
100% this. 💯 I've been using the lens of "freedom from vs. freedom to" when analyzing situations recently, and I gotta tell you that "freedom from" is winning the vast majority of those internal debates.
For magic and card trick fans, I can strongly recommend attending Harry Milas's The Unfair Advantage. The performance is equal parts autobiography, skill demonstration, magic trick, and discourse on attention. The intimacy of it (~30 in the audience) is really something.
www.unfairadvantage.show
www.unfairadvantage.show
The Unfair Advantage
Audiences will need to sign an NDA before participating. Australia's leading sleight-of-hand specialist and casino security expert invites 35 audience members around his table to share the secrets of ...
www.unfairadvantage.show
June 22, 2025 at 1:42 AM
For magic and card trick fans, I can strongly recommend attending Harry Milas's The Unfair Advantage. The performance is equal parts autobiography, skill demonstration, magic trick, and discourse on attention. The intimacy of it (~30 in the audience) is really something.
www.unfairadvantage.show
www.unfairadvantage.show
Once, when traveling in Scotland, M and I were crossing to the Isle of Skye at Kylerhea and seeing signs both advising "look out for seals" and "visit the otter hide" AKA a place to watch otters. M suddenly broke into the voice: "Seal day, seal day, seal day! Watch the seals assault the otter hide!"
As a train convert and someone who parodies monster truck ads in private conversation, this speaks to me.
amtrak’s marketing team gets it
June 21, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Once, when traveling in Scotland, M and I were crossing to the Isle of Skye at Kylerhea and seeing signs both advising "look out for seals" and "visit the otter hide" AKA a place to watch otters. M suddenly broke into the voice: "Seal day, seal day, seal day! Watch the seals assault the otter hide!"
As a train convert and someone who parodies monster truck ads in private conversation, this speaks to me.
June 21, 2025 at 4:24 PM
As a train convert and someone who parodies monster truck ads in private conversation, this speaks to me.
There's a moment in life, when a period where something is beyond abundant—like given away free in annoying quantities—is followed by a period where that doesn't happen anymore, and your out-of-the-blue need for that thing is confounded by...just not having one. 😤
In other news, I need a mousepad.
In other news, I need a mousepad.
April 15, 2025 at 11:03 PM
There's a moment in life, when a period where something is beyond abundant—like given away free in annoying quantities—is followed by a period where that doesn't happen anymore, and your out-of-the-blue need for that thing is confounded by...just not having one. 😤
In other news, I need a mousepad.
In other news, I need a mousepad.
23andMe users: It's time to bail. Download your reports and then delete your data.
oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...
oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...
Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers
Californians have the right to direct the company to delete their genetic data OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued a consumer alert to customers of 23andMe, a genetic testing ...
oag.ca.gov
March 24, 2025 at 4:36 AM
23andMe users: It's time to bail. Download your reports and then delete your data.
oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...
oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...
Reposted by Matthew
We are proud to announce the formation of United Videogame Workers-CWA, a direct-join organization made of, by, and for workers of the video game industry!
Learn more and get involved: uvw-cwa.org
Learn more and get involved: uvw-cwa.org
Today, we are announcing the formation of United Videogame Workers-CWA, an industry-wide union formed by @codecwa.bsky.social and @cwaunion.bsky.social 💪🎮
We're launching at #GDC2025 this morning to build a video game industry that works for us. We're done playing.
We're launching at #GDC2025 this morning to build a video game industry that works for us. We're done playing.
March 19, 2025 at 1:31 PM
We are proud to announce the formation of United Videogame Workers-CWA, a direct-join organization made of, by, and for workers of the video game industry!
Learn more and get involved: uvw-cwa.org
Learn more and get involved: uvw-cwa.org
Y'all ain't gonna believe this, but for-profit corporations are designed to make money not help people, and that includes their workers. Sounds wild, I know.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Half of recent US inflation due to high corporate profits, report finds
Thinktank report says ‘resounding evidence’ shows companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop
www.theguardian.com
January 31, 2024 at 10:59 PM
Y'all ain't gonna believe this, but for-profit corporations are designed to make money not help people, and that includes their workers. Sounds wild, I know.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Reposted by Matthew
I'm looking to speak to game devs who were laid off or whose companies had layoffs in the last 12 months about the reasons their companies gave them for those layoffs. Would be for a piece on IGN. Please reach out via email or Signal (in bio) - can keep folks anon if desired.
January 19, 2024 at 5:41 PM
I'm looking to speak to game devs who were laid off or whose companies had layoffs in the last 12 months about the reasons their companies gave them for those layoffs. Would be for a piece on IGN. Please reach out via email or Signal (in bio) - can keep folks anon if desired.
Reposted by Matthew
A reminder that when you contribute to LinkedIn's articles, you're actually training their AI (h/t @josiahw.bsky.social) www.searchenginejournal.com/is-ai-going-...
Is AI Going To E-E-A-T Your Experience For Breakfast? The LinkedIn Example
LinkedIn’s “collaborative articles” seem to be a perfect hit: content that combines authority, AI-generated content and user generated content. What could go wrong?
www.searchenginejournal.com
December 31, 2023 at 2:40 PM
A reminder that when you contribute to LinkedIn's articles, you're actually training their AI (h/t @josiahw.bsky.social) www.searchenginejournal.com/is-ai-going-...
Reposted by Matthew
Game Devs of Color GDC 2024 Scholarship is now open and taking applications! 🎉
If you're a POC in the industry or trying to break into the industry, I highly recommend submitting an application ✍ They also offer travel stipend this year so get to it!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
If you're a POC in the industry or trying to break into the industry, I highly recommend submitting an application ✍ They also offer travel stipend this year so get to it!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
December 11, 2023 at 8:14 PM
Game Devs of Color GDC 2024 Scholarship is now open and taking applications! 🎉
If you're a POC in the industry or trying to break into the industry, I highly recommend submitting an application ✍ They also offer travel stipend this year so get to it!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
If you're a POC in the industry or trying to break into the industry, I highly recommend submitting an application ✍ They also offer travel stipend this year so get to it!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Matthew
The folks over at the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation are awesome. They made a new website and as a result, some content was removed. I sent an email to see if they could restore Le Guin’s “A Rant About ‘Technology’” — and they did!
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
December 5, 2023 at 11:55 PM
The folks over at the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation are awesome. They made a new website and as a result, some content was removed. I sent an email to see if they could restore Le Guin’s “A Rant About ‘Technology’” — and they did!
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
Go read it: www.ursulakleguin.com/a-rant-about...
I stand by it: I was only able to establish a career in digital games because my spouse shouldered the larger load the few years I spent being underpaid in QA. I could only do the same during her career switch years later because I lasted long enough to become a better-paid designer.
The reason I wish more creators could be more open about having other means of floating a career is not to shame or out them -- I mean, ffs there's no sin in having a spouse with a good job, a trust fund, supportive family, etc -- but to help young creatives understand the playing field better. (1)
November 29, 2023 at 5:39 AM
I stand by it: I was only able to establish a career in digital games because my spouse shouldered the larger load the few years I spent being underpaid in QA. I could only do the same during her career switch years later because I lasted long enough to become a better-paid designer.
If you're a tabletop gamer looking for a holiday season deal and also to buy direct from a publisher, Cherry Picked Games is offering 50% off their particularly diverse portfolio, from the storytelling of Conspire to the cozy set collection of Hair of the Dog: 🍒👉 www.cherrypickedgames.com/shop
November 24, 2023 at 11:39 PM
If you're a tabletop gamer looking for a holiday season deal and also to buy direct from a publisher, Cherry Picked Games is offering 50% off their particularly diverse portfolio, from the storytelling of Conspire to the cozy set collection of Hair of the Dog: 🍒👉 www.cherrypickedgames.com/shop
I struggle to distinguish in my memory between Honeymoon in Vegas, Indecent Proposal, and Leaving Las Vegas. In my defense, they released within a three year span, and if you pick any one, there are better than even odds it stars Nic Cage or features a rich man buying a woman after a gambling loss.
November 23, 2023 at 1:48 AM
I struggle to distinguish in my memory between Honeymoon in Vegas, Indecent Proposal, and Leaving Las Vegas. In my defense, they released within a three year span, and if you pick any one, there are better than even odds it stars Nic Cage or features a rich man buying a woman after a gambling loss.
Well, time to do this: geniusnw.com
November 10, 2023 at 5:41 PM
Well, time to do this: geniusnw.com
Reposted by Matthew
oh to be a happy kitty lying on warm clothes in a tiny dryer
October 13, 2023 at 4:09 PM
oh to be a happy kitty lying on warm clothes in a tiny dryer