Gold Skull Games

Gold Skull Games

@goldskullgames.com

15 years spent educating - Former professor of python, comp science teacher, and now teaching a shop I created: Game Design and Development. GoldSkullGames.com Goldskullgames.itch.io No AI, 100% human.

1.2K followers1.2K following2.4K posts

If the Indie Nintendo Direct showed us anything, it's that there are some amazing artist teams out there making some really cool art for games. I think every third game I was like super impressed at the stylish take the devs took. Nice work ya'll!

Dan Mumford's MTG land art is incredible. I completely missed Duskmourn because I was on my 13th retirement from playing Magic, but these lands are amazing I might have to pick these up

Pokemon Unite shutting down is a real shame, I'm not a lane based game player for the most part but I found Unite a lot of fun. Smashing players as Snorlax, getting cool outfits for him, I guess it's on to Champions now

If you want to know why the US education system is borked, I'm currently on hour 6 of an all day workshop where we go through several long powerpoint lectures designed to update our understanding of educational techniques without actually, you know employing those techniques to teach us.

Run a game, do hands on activities, do some group projects, give us the freedom to pick what we learn about, offer some classes relevant to our subject. Anything, ANYTHING but sitting in a chair and listening to someone yap for 8 hours, jfc.

I was three years out of high school when Tropico was released, working at a local Walmart in the electronics dept. City builders have been my genre since SimCity so when i read the back of the box Tropico looked right up my alley.

View full thread

Then for the next few decades I got to watch as the series fumbled (Tropico 2), recovered a bit (T3), and then ultimately stagnated with no new or interesting ideas. (T4-6) Now Tropico 7 is on the horizon and it looks like more of the same. Added with the suspicion of genAI usage, it feels bad man.

I hope Tropico 7 turns out well, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Fundamental changes need to be made, the good vs evil mechanic is woefully underdeveloped, and someone needs to introduce new mechanics that make it interesting. The game releases Jan 28th, I'll know more then.

I was three years out of high school when Tropico was released, working at a local Walmart in the electronics dept. City builders have been my genre since SimCity so when i read the back of the box Tropico looked right up my alley.

Tropico popped where SimCity was flat and gray, the soundtrack was fast, Latin classics that I absolutely kept listening to even when the game was over. And the idea of how you treat your people being a mechanic, put it over the top of SimCity's simple happiness satisfaction.

When EA bought Maxis and ruined SimCity I was unreasonably angry, closing Bioware is INFURIATING. Corporations have demonstrated nothing but cruel, lazy incompetence when dealing with the games industry. Maybe we can't seize every means of production in all industries, but it should start here.

Of course Chet puts this much better than me, but yes all of this exactly:

Chet Faliszek@chetsucks.com

Next Fest is really demonstrating the curse of the idea guy. Anyone can have an idea or steal one, but to make it good means living with it, working it, exploring it and finding what makes it work and is special. Or you can just have Claude shit out slop no one wants to play. Valve always needs

Well, I didn't get into the Dawn of War 4 beta. It's cool. I've got 1500 hours played combined on Steam over every DoW and expansion, but it's cool. Been playing RTSs since Command and Conquer. I'm fine. It's fine. Have fun, I'm sure it's spectacular. 😆

I am a very critical person, and I try to rein it in as much as possible to be kind particularly when talking about new/young game designers, but I think I'm done with Steam Next Fest. When I ran an indie game review website the amount of games we had submitted to us was overwhelming, now? Insane

Nothing looks particularly well done or interesting. Art styles are weak, mechanics are rehashed versions of popular games, intention isn't to make art, but to make a product that sells. Not to mention scrolling 50,000 games isn't the best way to present something. No, this is done for me.

My favorite argument so far for AI in games is "it will let everyone make the games of our dreams". You have no idea what you want to play, I guarantee you. Unless it's some knockoff "more of this" version of an already existing game. Pro game designers barely know how to make something fun.

It takes someone with a clear vision, a lot, lot, lot of playtesting by people with all kinds of styles, reworking once fun emerges. AI helps with none of this, all it can do is copy it and remix it once it's made.

I have discovered that my cat absolutely hates me being on the phone, it's appalled at the very idea that my hands could be doing anything else other than petting her lol

Her name is El Presidente, because if people don't stop me I will just make insane decisions. I bought her a tiny house she seems to like I'm calling it Casa del Gato. She also has approximately 76 toys and her favorite one is the trash from all the toys.

Gold Skull Games reposted

Kenney Shape is now FREE! (and it'll remain free, forever) ✨ Previously a paid tool, I'm releasing it as a gift to the community. Today's update will be the final one, with no further updates planned. That way I can focus on new software & projects! kenney.itch.io/kenney-shape

"Programming is hard." I don't want to be that person, but we used to be a place where the people that built our buildings would free walk steel beams 100 feet in the air. Now we have "Programming is hard." Lol

I think what a city builder like City Skylines needs is to sell people on the living aspect of the city. The buildings should reflect choices made by the player, there should be news about what's happening in the city based on what buildings exist. The result of what I do should be more than numbers

Whelp AI seems to be infecting everything. Thanks for the double check ya'll, glad I'm part of a smart community who realizes how garbage AI is! Appreciate ya'll!

Heck ya!

United Wizards of the Coast - CWA@uwotc-official.bsky.social

This morning, the D&D team and Magic's Studio X informed our leadership of our intent to unionize. We love the games we make and the work we do, and unionizing is how we protect that work. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-stu...

Hey want to make a million dollars? Make a VR Boxing game where you punch Nazis. Make all their voice lines things that Musk, Thiel, and all those dopes have said in interviews. Give people an opportunity to blow off some steam.

Way of the Mentor, Way of the Paradox, and Ajani Resolute are just racking up life and I've made my Titanbones an 18/17 dropped the Ghalta for one green mana to give everything trample and had people just scoop lol

There's no game I play more regularly and hate then Magic. I just finished a sealed of Reality Fracture and it pains me to say but they might have cooked with this one. Empower Jace is so smooth in limited my losses never felt cheap, I got to surveil away some lands, draw extra cards, it was nice!

May i suggest the alternate title: New Jersey Tetris 🤣 This looks great I love the fork idea lol

Lorraine🍬@lorandbehold.bsky.social

ok here we go 🍝 Spaghetti Celesti: Devour the Heavens ⛅ is out now for free!! 🍴 the best pixel spaghetti of your life ↪️ prepare them & fork them perfectly ⭐ get those 5-stars reviews 😡 and be quick ! the people are hangry play it at punkcake.itch.io/spaghetti-celesti #fallingblockjam #pixelart

It feels like Strange Scaffolding was the studio I thought Devolver Digital was going to be. Like Devolver hired Cactus and I was like "oh these games are gonna be wacky" and then they turned out relatively normal, meanwhile Xalavier is out here like "OUR NEW GAME IS HAUNTED LIBRARY" 🤣

Ok let's say you go out and happen to see an arcade, what games would make you walk in and play a bit? For me it would have to be the new Stern Pinballs, and Namco's Quick and Crash, what about ya'll?

Hey, Castlevania is free on mobile right now under "Castlevania: 40th Anniversary edition" I know it's definitely on Android, probably on iPhone too, great game for the fall!

This is an unfinished thought, but a friend just showed me these crack a pack lives on TikTok and I immediately thought what if the cards that got opened was somehow related to a secondary game instead of just straight gambling lol