Thomas Reiffer
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reiffer.bsky.social
Thomas Reiffer
@reiffer.bsky.social
Game designer, programmer, writer, martial arts nut, polyam, and Guildford area sartorial bad example. He/they. ex: National Film & Television School, SMG, Larian.
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What's up bsky! I'm Thomas, and I'm a Quest/Narrative/Systems Designer. #GameDev

I've worked on Baldur's Gate 3, The Dark Pictures, and recently a sci-fi TTRPG:
reiffer.itch.io/the-markov-eclipse

I'm also a fiend for fashion, Magic: The Gathering and martial arts.

Pleased to meetcha 👋
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
I've looked & I could have missed it, maybe its saved in their drafts but @ukieofficial.bsky.social TIGA, BFI, that new video game council. Which UK body representing games is stepping up to publicly speak about the mass censorship of the cultural form they represent?
www.polygon.com/news/615910/...
Adult games are forcing the game industry into a spiritual crisis
Itchio joins Steam in pulling games due to pressure from extreme groups with an ongoing campaign aimed at payment processors
www.polygon.com
July 25, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
credit cards shouldn't tell you what to buy. you're supposed to tell the credit card what to buy. thats the point i think
yellat.money
July 24, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
It's #PortfolioDay! As my search for gainful employment continues, please check out mine and consider me for your narrative writing needs (the weirder the better) 🤠

📚 Portfolio: www.immersionruined.com
🐱 Baldur's Gate 3 showreel: youtu.be/jfKfc7F9kuY
💾 Dates & Wires showreel: youtu.be/XXmGzAHW1IM
July 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM
July 1, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
It's #PortfolioDay! As I'm still searching for gainful employment, please check out my Baldur's Gate 3 showreel (and the portfolio linked therein) and consider me for your narrative writing needs (the weirder the better): www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfKf...
April 8, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Kudos to everyone writing sex scenes because they're horny. Do it as often as you like.
January 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
These days, 'indie’ either means solo hobbyist or multimillion dollar companies using the word 'indie' to market themselves, but there are SO many developers in-between: professional, long-term devs who haven't grown into a huge studio – perhaps due to funding or simply because they don't want to.
yet another issue with the “indies will save us” narrative outlined (and debunked) on the latest you are error

aftermath.site/you-are-erro...
January 23, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
The Game Developers Conference released its annual State of Games Industry survey today, which found that one in ten developers were laid off in 2024

Overall, 41% of developers were impacted by layoffs last year compared to 35% in 2023

www.gamesindustry.biz/gdc-survey-4...
GDC Survey: 41% of devs affected by layoffs in 2024
The Game Developers Conference released its annual State of Games Industry survey today, which found that one in ten de…
www.gamesindustry.biz
January 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Back in 2021, PMG reported on the unseen games industry crunch taking place at outsourcing studios in SE Asia.

Since then, the companies we looked at have continued to work on some of the biggest games in the world, without any push to improve the conditions of the artists doing that work. (1/7)
January 7, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Part of why Netflix seemingly can't produce anything good or memorable is that "showing people exactly what they want" sucks the life out of artistic creation. No one has their life changed by a movie created in a lab to appeal to their exact marketable demographic.
December 26, 2024 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Truly the most abrasive thing about The Butterfly Site is that people are obssessed with talking about how Things Are Done Over Here in a way that ignores how the platform is built capaciously, allowing many of the same bad behaviors (and actors) from other sites.
December 16, 2024 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
we toured a 3-bedroom duplex yesterday just for fun and it was $1.55M lmaooooooooooooo

We were the youngest ones there by at least 20 years

“why aren’t the youths having more kids” bro where will we put them?
December 15, 2024 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
I recently did a courtesy call with an indie developer. They wanted to talk to me because their game's target audience is ... uh, me. 25-40-year-old women, many of whom are moms.

They wanted to know: what did I need to pick up a game? What would bar me from playing?

Here are some answers 🧵(1/?):
December 9, 2024 at 10:11 PM
Recently I've had an interview for a role that was advertised as remote and turned out it wasn't, and for a role that was listed as on-site and turned out to be completely remote. It's the wild west out there, chat.
December 6, 2024 at 8:43 PM
The one thing this whole debacle has reassured me of is my technical ability. I used to buy into the whole "if you're not pushing keys in an IDE you're not being productive" thing; but hearing very experienced devs talk about how their day-to-day looks a lot like mine has done WONDERS for my mental.
They left out naps.

More seriously fuck you for dismissing bug fixing, testing and securing as unimportant unproductive things.
December 6, 2024 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
2024 currently has more known games industry layoffs than 2023+2022 combined.

2024 is roughly 600 layoffs away from doubling 2023. There is still plenty of business days left in the month.

I can't emphasize enough how extreme these last few years have been.

So far.
December 4, 2024 at 12:58 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
I wrote down five awesome gifts you can get for your favorite tabletop game designers.

Check it out.

www.explorersdesign.com/2024-gift-gu...
2024 Gifts for RPG Designers
Here are 5 gifts you can get for your favorite designers. No gold necessary.
www.explorersdesign.com
December 3, 2024 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
The western world is 100% run by the advertisement industry. Children will know more about every company's products before their own cultural history. Companies have replaced the gods, and profit is the religion
"OpenAI is discussing plans to introduce advertising to its artificial intelligence products, as it restructures as a for-profit company". www.ft.com/content/9350...
December 2, 2024 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Hullo everyone - I'm on the hunt for my next opportunity. I'm an experienced generalist/technical designer, and I've worked for Supermassive Games and Larian Studios.

If anyone has any leads, feel free to send them my way.

In the meantime - peep the portfolio:

www.thomasreiffer.com
Thomas Reiffer - Experienced Game Designer
www.thomasreiffer.com
November 29, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Keeping a job listing up even when you're not hiring just to "see what candidates are out there" feels like it should be illegal.
November 30, 2024 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
#ttrpg
Time for another plug for my sci-fi TTRPG: The Markov Eclipse

reiffer.itch.io/the-markov-e...

4-player RPG thriller about the cost of ambition, losing your faith, and shooting a thousand bullets in a single turn:
The Markov Eclipse - Early Access P&P by Reiffer
What will you do, when the fire is gone and the ashes are cold?
reiffer.itch.io
November 27, 2024 at 1:57 PM
Hullo everyone - I'm on the hunt for my next opportunity. I'm an experienced generalist/technical designer, and I've worked for Supermassive Games and Larian Studios.

If anyone has any leads, feel free to send them my way.

In the meantime - peep the portfolio:

www.thomasreiffer.com
Thomas Reiffer - Experienced Game Designer
www.thomasreiffer.com
November 29, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Thomas Reiffer
Has anyone on here implemented full-3D pathfinding? Like, for creatures that can hover or fly. That kind of thing.

I've got my own solution I'm working on, but now I'm interested in how other people have tackled this.
November 29, 2024 at 8:09 AM
Has anyone on here implemented full-3D pathfinding? Like, for creatures that can hover or fly. That kind of thing.

I've got my own solution I'm working on, but now I'm interested in how other people have tackled this.
November 29, 2024 at 8:09 AM
#ttrpg
Time for another plug for my sci-fi TTRPG: The Markov Eclipse

reiffer.itch.io/the-markov-e...

4-player RPG thriller about the cost of ambition, losing your faith, and shooting a thousand bullets in a single turn:
The Markov Eclipse - Early Access P&P by Reiffer
What will you do, when the fire is gone and the ashes are cold?
reiffer.itch.io
November 27, 2024 at 1:57 PM