My talk went great, thank you to everyone for coming!

I often get questions about whether there is formal research about Tool Design, and there is!

Two bachelor thesis' I know about, by @cookiebadger.bsky.social and @thesmall001.bsky.social:
1. tinyurl.com/tooldesign1
2. tinyurl.com/tooldesign2

And as the soundtrack is a separate ‘app’ on Steam, the money can go directly to the musician. As in: Directly to their bank account, no middle man required.

Setting up such a DLC page is free for the original game app page owner, after which they can transfer that page to the musician, for free.

An interesting discussion I just had with @alecshea.com: Apparently selling game soundtracks on Steam can be quite profitable. The tail has to be long, but sometimes after 4-5 years it can eclipse the original fee for the game itself.

At GodotFest I am giving a Tool Design talk today at 12:25 in the Iberico room, and Tool Design workshop tomorrow at 14:30 in the Italy room.

Here is @coppolaemilio.com talking about out the Godot priorities list. Kinda like a roadmap of Godot features and workflows: godotengine.org/priorities/

Not many people know about it yet, so I’m sharing it here as well!

The opening remarks mention this conference has grown a lot since it was first held in 2023, and they figure the reason for that is: Unity’s per-install fee.

(It’s interesting how that will be forever part of the Godot chronology)

Omg that would drive me insane. How can these things still be designed so badly?

As much as I wish it were different, I think level editor priority and design is one of those things you either get through the sheer experience of building different pipelines and games as an IC building real shippable content, or you don't and thus never will.

If you're at all wondering: "Why are you flying, and not taking the train?" A large part is due to the UX of booking a train being bonkers bad sometimes:
bsky.app/profile/ryst...

(As well as it being much more expensive, in this case)

See y'all soon!

Wait is that aimed towards me, or those projects?

Classic engineering detective work: The call is coming from inside the house!

Absolutely! Thanks for linking it

Yes! I reposted some of that thread earlier this week, and have been following @joewintergreen.com's posting on it too.

At the same time I've seen folks try to hire me, try to convince their CTO or director about the importance of level editors, and even literally do free work that proves how important and useful a level editor is. The incredible ROI!

And I've never seen that attempted convincing succeed. It sucks.

I have thankfully been able to work with many great companies over this decade, and even more after I went freelance.

And in every single case, there has been somebody up top who understands the importance of level editors, and this has made them able to make incredibly successful games.

What I've noticed over the years is: If a CTO or other director understands the critical junction that a level editor is within a pipeline, a great editor can be built.

But if not, no amount of knowledge, expertise, or proof will convince the company to improve their level editor.

It's that simple

I am very happy that this talk, even so much time later, is still entirely relevant.

In my week to week work, I still apply principles from this talk to any tooling that crosses my path.

The gym & zoo hybrid starts at 14:47