James Youngman
@jyoungman.bsky.social
He/him Game Designer, composer, writer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/ten-lessons-over-ten-years
http://jamesyoungman.bandcamp.com
https://jyoungman.itch.io
Senior Tech Designer at Elsewhere. All opinions my own.
#gamedev | #gamedesign
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/ten-lessons-over-ten-years
http://jamesyoungman.bandcamp.com
https://jyoungman.itch.io
Senior Tech Designer at Elsewhere. All opinions my own.
#gamedev | #gamedesign
Broke 10,000 words on my DINowrimo project!
November 13, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Broke 10,000 words on my DINowrimo project!
Reposted by James Youngman
impeachment and removal remains the goal & it’s not clear there will be a better opening for democrats to start talking about it than right after this vote
POLITICO: “.. GOP leadership aides believe dozens of Republicans will vote it, possibly 100 or more, according to five people granted anonymity to speak candidly.”
@politico.com
www.politico.com/live-updates...
@politico.com
www.politico.com/live-updates...
November 12, 2025 at 11:52 PM
impeachment and removal remains the goal & it’s not clear there will be a better opening for democrats to start talking about it than right after this vote
The Righteous Mind by Haidt helped me understand how moral reasoning works, the different ways people gauge morality, and the ways the brain handles all of this.
Enlightening read that's helped me better navigate moral and political questions in both private and public life.
Enlightening read that's helped me better navigate moral and political questions in both private and public life.
performative reading, lack of reading skills, nobody's reading anymore -- NO!
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
tell me about a book that changed you
for me? the *extremely* ahistorical novel, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY which I read at 13 and was like, "Oh, art can be *everything* to a maker, for good and bad"
November 12, 2025 at 6:24 PM
The Righteous Mind by Haidt helped me understand how moral reasoning works, the different ways people gauge morality, and the ways the brain handles all of this.
Enlightening read that's helped me better navigate moral and political questions in both private and public life.
Enlightening read that's helped me better navigate moral and political questions in both private and public life.
Reposted by James Youngman
I confess I cannot help but question the moral fiber of anyone still willing to openly and loudly support a president who seems quite clearly to have raped underaged girls, in league with a notorious sex-trafficker.
I am not sure how you can support that and be a good person. I don't think you can.
I am not sure how you can support that and be a good person. I don't think you can.
November 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I confess I cannot help but question the moral fiber of anyone still willing to openly and loudly support a president who seems quite clearly to have raped underaged girls, in league with a notorious sex-trafficker.
I am not sure how you can support that and be a good person. I don't think you can.
I am not sure how you can support that and be a good person. I don't think you can.
Reposted by James Youngman
I'm begging you all in the media. Please read the emails for more than 2 seconds. They don't just say Trump "knew" about underage girls. THE EMAILS SAY HE PERSONALLY PARTICIPATED.
BREAKING: Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said Donald Trump knew about the underage girls that Epstein was accused of victimizing, according to emails released by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives reut.rs/4hZV3nw
November 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I'm begging you all in the media. Please read the emails for more than 2 seconds. They don't just say Trump "knew" about underage girls. THE EMAILS SAY HE PERSONALLY PARTICIPATED.
I need someone with a soldering iron and a 3d printer to prove my theory that the perfect four button controller splits the face buttons between a GameCube style A and X (the latter mapped to B) and paddle inputs for X and Y
I've been revisiting my GBA collection with a Brawler 64, and the ergonomics of having A and B both under my thumb at once are a huge improvement over the original horizontal layout.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
November 12, 2025 at 6:16 AM
I need someone with a soldering iron and a 3d printer to prove my theory that the perfect four button controller splits the face buttons between a GameCube style A and X (the latter mapped to B) and paddle inputs for X and Y
I've been revisiting my GBA collection with a Brawler 64, and the ergonomics of having A and B both under my thumb at once are a huge improvement over the original horizontal layout.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
November 12, 2025 at 6:06 AM
I've been revisiting my GBA collection with a Brawler 64, and the ergonomics of having A and B both under my thumb at once are a huge improvement over the original horizontal layout.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
Related, I use an Ultimate for modern games, and I've mapped the paddles to the north and east face buttons.
Getting Verizon to let me use my new phone on a network my tax dollars paid for
November 12, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Getting Verizon to let me use my new phone on a network my tax dollars paid for
Reposted by James Youngman
Should #videogames receive fewer patches? What is gained—and lost—when games can be endlessly refined?
@mcconnell.bsky.social raised these ideas on a past #podcast of @pixelsandpolygons.net, and we go further into that topic with him in a new episode.
👇🏻
www.soundstone.network/kirby-conver...
@mcconnell.bsky.social raised these ideas on a past #podcast of @pixelsandpolygons.net, and we go further into that topic with him in a new episode.
👇🏻
www.soundstone.network/kirby-conver...
November 12, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Should #videogames receive fewer patches? What is gained—and lost—when games can be endlessly refined?
@mcconnell.bsky.social raised these ideas on a past #podcast of @pixelsandpolygons.net, and we go further into that topic with him in a new episode.
👇🏻
www.soundstone.network/kirby-conver...
@mcconnell.bsky.social raised these ideas on a past #podcast of @pixelsandpolygons.net, and we go further into that topic with him in a new episode.
👇🏻
www.soundstone.network/kirby-conver...
Reposted by James Youngman
And one other thing: we’re being told that AI is the only way to make games cheaper and faster, to pull us from this precipice of production nightmares the industry has found itself in. That it’s necessary.
We put out roughly 3 motherfucking games a year, not touching the stuff.
Skill issue.
We put out roughly 3 motherfucking games a year, not touching the stuff.
Skill issue.
November 12, 2025 at 3:34 AM
And one other thing: we’re being told that AI is the only way to make games cheaper and faster, to pull us from this precipice of production nightmares the industry has found itself in. That it’s necessary.
We put out roughly 3 motherfucking games a year, not touching the stuff.
Skill issue.
We put out roughly 3 motherfucking games a year, not touching the stuff.
Skill issue.
Thread
I wrote a piece a few weeks ago claiming antisemitism was on the verge of going mainstream. It was clear to me that most people had trouble buying it.
That's understandable. But it's happening.
Example: Conservatives themselves are now saying that 30 to 40% of Zoomers in Washington are Groypers.
That's understandable. But it's happening.
Example: Conservatives themselves are now saying that 30 to 40% of Zoomers in Washington are Groypers.
What I Saw And Heard In Washington
Groyperism's Spread Among Generation Z Conservative Apparatchiks Is Real
roddreher.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Thread
Reposted by James Youngman
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
“We were effectively props”: young stars of game development feel let down by the ‘gaming Oscars’
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry’s next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
Reposted by James Youngman
If your game has voice acting, then working with the voice actors is half of your writing process. It's not complete until you've heard it interpreted and reimagined by a voice actor. And they always reimagine it in ways that elevate the writing, in ways you never would have imagined yourself.
November 11, 2025 at 2:52 PM
If your game has voice acting, then working with the voice actors is half of your writing process. It's not complete until you've heard it interpreted and reimagined by a voice actor. And they always reimagine it in ways that elevate the writing, in ways you never would have imagined yourself.
Reposted by James Youngman
credits that include the names of everyone who worked on the game at any point
November 11, 2025 at 4:32 AM
credits that include the names of everyone who worked on the game at any point
Reposted by James Youngman
So every part of this is dumb but the idea that the Iliad is about 'fighting for princesses' is such a vapid take on a work that tells you exactly what it is about in the first (and last) lines.
You can tell the poem isn't really about Bryseis because her return does not resolve the conflict.
You can tell the poem isn't really about Bryseis because her return does not resolve the conflict.
*maximum alpha at 1.25x speed* continuously lives on in my head, unfortunately.
November 11, 2025 at 2:22 AM
So every part of this is dumb but the idea that the Iliad is about 'fighting for princesses' is such a vapid take on a work that tells you exactly what it is about in the first (and last) lines.
You can tell the poem isn't really about Bryseis because her return does not resolve the conflict.
You can tell the poem isn't really about Bryseis because her return does not resolve the conflict.
Their profits shared by the people who worked on them, regardless of their present relationships with the studio where they were developed
November 10, 2025 at 11:55 PM
Their profits shared by the people who worked on them, regardless of their present relationships with the studio where they were developed
Reposted by James Youngman
Someone should run in 2028 on a platform of claiming this entire term illegitimate because of the insurrection clause, thereby nullifying every piece of shit legislation and EO he's signed, all judicial appointments, and every pardon.
November 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Someone should run in 2028 on a platform of claiming this entire term illegitimate because of the insurrection clause, thereby nullifying every piece of shit legislation and EO he's signed, all judicial appointments, and every pardon.
Reposted by James Youngman
i cannot stress enough that if you want to primary anybody then you have to join something instead of shitposting from your couch. zohran happened because nyc-dsa was running local races and often eating shit on election night for close to a decade.
November 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
i cannot stress enough that if you want to primary anybody then you have to join something instead of shitposting from your couch. zohran happened because nyc-dsa was running local races and often eating shit on election night for close to a decade.
Every time you use generative AI, you make the world a little bit worse, and harm yourself in so doing. Of course I've never used it.
Hands up if you've never used Chat GPT ✋
(I feel like Dozer and Tank in The Matrix right now - at first I didn't use it because, rather ironically, I'm lazy and stubborn (peak Taurus energy there) - literally no, don't make me use the new thing I don't wanna. Now I'm glad I didn't 😅)
(I feel like Dozer and Tank in The Matrix right now - at first I didn't use it because, rather ironically, I'm lazy and stubborn (peak Taurus energy there) - literally no, don't make me use the new thing I don't wanna. Now I'm glad I didn't 😅)
Probably a good way to tell right now if the job you’re applying for is run by absolute dumbfucks is to ask if they’re using AI.
November 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Every time you use generative AI, you make the world a little bit worse, and harm yourself in so doing. Of course I've never used it.
Reposted by James Youngman
This is actually the original definition of emotional labor, as defined by Arlie Hochschild, the sociologist who coined the term. It refers to the labor of performing emotions in order to do your job. It is not enough to just do your job, you have to put on a performance
There is something really wrong with people who need workers to be not just competent, but slavishly fake-happy. "Slavishly" used on purpose, bc that's where this grotesquerie comes from.
"Store employees are now required to smile if they are within 10 feet of a shopper.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
They also must make eye contact with and wave to or greet the customer.
If they’re within four feet, the employee should ask how the customer’s day is going or if they need help."
🙄 Won't stop the boycott, y'all.
November 9, 2025 at 12:23 AM
This is actually the original definition of emotional labor, as defined by Arlie Hochschild, the sociologist who coined the term. It refers to the labor of performing emotions in order to do your job. It is not enough to just do your job, you have to put on a performance
Reposted by James Youngman
Got S rank on the final Once Upon a Katamari level and the King told me to go outside and touch grass lol
November 8, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Got S rank on the final Once Upon a Katamari level and the King told me to go outside and touch grass lol
Reposted by James Youngman
Alright everybody its time to start collecting nominations.
Who should be included in nominations for the award for BEST "LITTLE GUY" introduced in a game in 2025?
Nominations close end of November.
For a refresher you can see some of last year's nominations here; bsky.app/profile/raji...
Who should be included in nominations for the award for BEST "LITTLE GUY" introduced in a game in 2025?
Nominations close end of November.
For a refresher you can see some of last year's nominations here; bsky.app/profile/raji...
Who should be included in nominations for the award for best "little guy" introduced in a game in 2024?
November 7, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Alright everybody its time to start collecting nominations.
Who should be included in nominations for the award for BEST "LITTLE GUY" introduced in a game in 2025?
Nominations close end of November.
For a refresher you can see some of last year's nominations here; bsky.app/profile/raji...
Who should be included in nominations for the award for BEST "LITTLE GUY" introduced in a game in 2025?
Nominations close end of November.
For a refresher you can see some of last year's nominations here; bsky.app/profile/raji...
Reposted by James Youngman
all of this is also true for sexism. you tell me you think women are biologically less smart and i’ll suspect that i could probably convince you to drink your own piss
November 7, 2025 at 9:01 PM
all of this is also true for sexism. you tell me you think women are biologically less smart and i’ll suspect that i could probably convince you to drink your own piss
Reposted by James Youngman
bring back maligning racism as the mark of a stupid person. prejudice is the mark of an idiot. if you believe that shit i bet you also don’t wipe your ass
November 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
bring back maligning racism as the mark of a stupid person. prejudice is the mark of an idiot. if you believe that shit i bet you also don’t wipe your ass
Reposted by James Youngman
As a designer with scripting but not coding experience, this is an informative thread. And if your reaction—like mine!—is "but I don't wanna learn frame timing and rendering", that's fine! Just hire/collaborate with someone who can. Or make a game that will still feel good without that precision.
If muscle-memory/skill-ceiling is a goal for your game, I think it's good to learn to "Think In Frames"(tm) rather than seconds... 🧵
November 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
As a designer with scripting but not coding experience, this is an informative thread. And if your reaction—like mine!—is "but I don't wanna learn frame timing and rendering", that's fine! Just hire/collaborate with someone who can. Or make a game that will still feel good without that precision.