Mark Videon
@realmarkvideon.bsky.social
Digital products have digital factories. I talk about both.
Based in Adelaide, Australia.
Based in Adelaide, Australia.
Pinned
I’ve travelled to Melbourne for Freeplay stuff a number of times and it has never failed to inspire. Very sad to see this
An update: Unfortunately Freeplay didn’t secure multi-year funding and is potentially looking at its last year of operation. We’re exploring what comes next & want your input.
Read our full statement here: www.freeplay.net.au/survey2026
Help us decide our next step here: forms.gle/W4ZSns1bGCX1...
Read our full statement here: www.freeplay.net.au/survey2026
Help us decide our next step here: forms.gle/W4ZSns1bGCX1...
Freeplay | 2026 Survey
An Update from Freeplay
www.freeplay.net.au
January 20, 2026 at 1:47 AM
I’ve travelled to Melbourne for Freeplay stuff a number of times and it has never failed to inspire. Very sad to see this
🥲
Every great story has a final page, and it is with a heavy heart that we share that SXSW Sydney has reached its closing chapter and will not be returning in 2026.
Thank you to everyone who has supported SXSW Sydney over the last three years.
Read more here www.sxswsydney.com
Thank you to everyone who has supported SXSW Sydney over the last three years.
Read more here www.sxswsydney.com
SXSW Sydney
www.sxswsydney.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:16 AM
🥲
Metroid Fusion is incredibly punishing, if this were the only game in the series I had played I’d probably never touch the seres again
January 7, 2026 at 10:50 AM
Metroid Fusion is incredibly punishing, if this were the only game in the series I had played I’d probably never touch the seres again
How hard could it be
a man in a green sweater stands in front of a fireplace in a living room
ALT: a man in a green sweater stands in front of a fireplace in a living room
media.tenor.com
January 6, 2026 at 6:25 AM
How hard could it be
With Nintendo Switch Online I've been playing games that I always wanted to play as a kid but never had the opportunity to, and folks, Metroid Zero Mission rules
December 26, 2025 at 2:22 AM
With Nintendo Switch Online I've been playing games that I always wanted to play as a kid but never had the opportunity to, and folks, Metroid Zero Mission rules
This kind of stuff has been totally ground out of video games for so long that many people would have no idea that once upon a time there were modes of engagement beyond transactions
Gregg Mayles has just unveiled the full plan of Stop ‘N’ Swop, and its glorious!
December 23, 2025 at 12:50 AM
This kind of stuff has been totally ground out of video games for so long that many people would have no idea that once upon a time there were modes of engagement beyond transactions
You’re building something that has never been built before. You’re asked to guess how long it will take to do it. You are held to this estimate because no one really engages with point 1
Needless suffering
Needless suffering
NEW: For the last seven weeks, Naughty Dog has enacted mandatory overtime for staff to finish an internal demo of their next game, Intergalactic. The game won't be out until 2027, leaving some staff wondering: If they're crunching now, what will next year be like? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Naughty Dog Studio Orders Employee Overtime for ‘Intergalactic’
The Sony-owned gamemakers have been racing to hit a December deadline
www.bloomberg.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:04 PM
You’re building something that has never been built before. You’re asked to guess how long it will take to do it. You are held to this estimate because no one really engages with point 1
Needless suffering
Needless suffering
I am astonished by the increasing prevalence of gambling in (video) games media
Are gamblers really performing consumer research to find new games to play?
Are gamblers really performing consumer research to find new games to play?
Videogamer's new logo a screaming exclamation mark on the 'support independent games media' argument. Legitimately thought this was someone taking the piss when it was first posted in a discord, but no, it's on the site. You have to laugh (or else you'll cry)
December 14, 2025 at 11:20 AM
I am astonished by the increasing prevalence of gambling in (video) games media
Are gamblers really performing consumer research to find new games to play?
Are gamblers really performing consumer research to find new games to play?
For as long as I can remember I’ve largely seen mergers and acquisitions celebrated by customers and workers, in defiance of what happens in their wake, time after time.
December 5, 2025 at 4:42 PM
For as long as I can remember I’ve largely seen mergers and acquisitions celebrated by customers and workers, in defiance of what happens in their wake, time after time.
Advent of Code has never been my thing.
There are alternatives. Here is one a colleague of mine shared with me, where the goal is simply to make continuous progress:
eli.li/december-adv...
There are alternatives. Here is one a colleague of mine shared with me, where the goal is simply to make continuous progress:
eli.li/december-adv...
Oatmeal - December Adventure
The Advent of Code is cool, but a lot, and not everyone’s jam. The December Adventure is low key. The goal is to write a little bit of code every
eli.li
December 1, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Advent of Code has never been my thing.
There are alternatives. Here is one a colleague of mine shared with me, where the goal is simply to make continuous progress:
eli.li/december-adv...
There are alternatives. Here is one a colleague of mine shared with me, where the goal is simply to make continuous progress:
eli.li/december-adv...
Took some time this weekend to do a few proof of concepts of various things I've seen at conferences this year. Great experience using home_widget from @abausg.bsky.social - amazing docs
November 30, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Took some time this weekend to do a few proof of concepts of various things I've seen at conferences this year. Great experience using home_widget from @abausg.bsky.social - amazing docs
Input handling is a part of Steam’s moat that doesn’t get a lot of attention
Valve's Steam Client Adds Switch 2 Pro Controller Support.
Valve's Steam Client Adds Switch 2 Pro Controller Support
Support for "GameCube adapters in Wii U mode" also added
www.nintendolife.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Input handling is a part of Steam’s moat that doesn’t get a lot of attention
There are conferences. There are hackathons. There are meetups. There are workshops. There are a range of opportunities to connect with other people in the field of software development. Is this so different to other fields?
blog.markvideon.dev/meetups-conf...
blog.markvideon.dev/meetups-conf...
Conferences, Hackathons, Meetups, Workshops... And Why
Recently I've been summarising what software developers do. My latest post explores what the best developer in the world might look like based on that model. The short answer that there is so much var...
blog.markvideon.dev
November 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
There are conferences. There are hackathons. There are meetups. There are workshops. There are a range of opportunities to connect with other people in the field of software development. Is this so different to other fields?
blog.markvideon.dev/meetups-conf...
blog.markvideon.dev/meetups-conf...
If anyone is curious about the behaviour when multiple try-catch-finally blocks are in the same function, the first finally wins.
This prints 3! That we are allowed to return from finally at all was something that came as a surprise to me recently, but I would have expected it to return 4 if I was forced to guess. Per Dartpad this is currently allowed - why is it so, and could it be disallowed in the future?
November 10, 2025 at 9:38 PM
If anyone is curious about the behaviour when multiple try-catch-finally blocks are in the same function, the first finally wins.
Technology choice. Sometimes the choice is yours, other times it has been made for you. This piece ties a lot of threads together, including the previously explored concepts of the digital supply chain, primitives, and more recently, differentiation.
blog.markvideon.dev/technology-c...
blog.markvideon.dev/technology-c...
Technology Choice: Sketching A Digital Factory
In the last post I wrote about investigating issues in software projects, or in other words, determining the cause between a specified (or planned) behaviour and an observed (or actual) behaviour when...
blog.markvideon.dev
November 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Technology choice. Sometimes the choice is yours, other times it has been made for you. This piece ties a lot of threads together, including the previously explored concepts of the digital supply chain, primitives, and more recently, differentiation.
blog.markvideon.dev/technology-c...
blog.markvideon.dev/technology-c...
I’ve used the word commoditisation a lot in previous posts, and it’s everywhere in software. We use it in analogies, we implicitly use it in estimation, we implicitly use it when we measure, and we use it to when we write code (or plans). Now for contrast,
blog.markvideon.dev/differentiat...
blog.markvideon.dev/differentiat...
Differentiation, Or "2 Commoditisation 2 Furious"
A colleague of mine (hi Jake!) who subscribes to my newsletter mentioned to me recently that I use the word commoditisation a lot in many of these posts. He is absolutely correct. I think elaborating ...
blog.markvideon.dev
November 9, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I’ve used the word commoditisation a lot in previous posts, and it’s everywhere in software. We use it in analogies, we implicitly use it in estimation, we implicitly use it when we measure, and we use it to when we write code (or plans). Now for contrast,
blog.markvideon.dev/differentiat...
blog.markvideon.dev/differentiat...
Years ago they used to say software is eating the world, today it seems the world is eating software. (see full attached screenshot). Could not have fabricated a more perfect ad to be placed in the screenshot itself
November 7, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Years ago they used to say software is eating the world, today it seems the world is eating software. (see full attached screenshot). Could not have fabricated a more perfect ad to be placed in the screenshot itself
Today I had a nice opportunity to test my theory that the way to get the most out of LLMs is to navigate commoditisation. I needed a web page that simulated storing cart state for a store in cookies, commoditised problems all the way down. One sentence prompt worked first go
November 5, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Today I had a nice opportunity to test my theory that the way to get the most out of LLMs is to navigate commoditisation. I needed a web page that simulated storing cart state for a store in cookies, commoditised problems all the way down. One sentence prompt worked first go
I want to see a healthier relationship between technologists and the rest of society. I want everyone to know there is a factory.
blog.markvideon.dev/there-is-a-f...
blog.markvideon.dev/there-is-a-f...
There Is A Factory
In many of the previous posts we have been laying the groundwork for the answers to the big questions. I've already alluded to a division of labour, the role of commoditisation, ownership, the digital...
blog.markvideon.dev
October 31, 2025 at 12:20 AM
I want to see a healthier relationship between technologists and the rest of society. I want everyone to know there is a factory.
blog.markvideon.dev/there-is-a-f...
blog.markvideon.dev/there-is-a-f...
Reposted by Mark Videon
@realmarkvideon.bsky.social at #DDDAdelaide 2025 offers a better framework for technologists to understand their own work and future as tech rapidly evolves. A clearer way to think about what we do and explain it to anyone. Enter the digital factory 🏭✨
October 23, 2025 at 10:01 PM
@realmarkvideon.bsky.social at #DDDAdelaide 2025 offers a better framework for technologists to understand their own work and future as tech rapidly evolves. A clearer way to think about what we do and explain it to anyone. Enter the digital factory 🏭✨