James Bowling

Using AI for work I’ve noticed there is part of my lizard brain that wants to accept the AI as an actual human. This scares me. Not because I’m against anthropomorphising software, but that control of something bypassing my cognitive filters sits in the hands of billionaire companies. #ai

I love how brutally honest kids can be. While talking about a guitar I got from a late friend Mr4: I like the Kmart guitar (it’s got a Union Jack on it and he thinks it’s a K) Me: That’s the guitar I got from my friend Mr4: (casually) Yeah, he died #parenting

Hey fellow parents of young children, what hours do your kids sleep? Right now our settle starts 8:30pm, finishes about 10pm, and up 6am. We don’t really get any adult time :/ #parenting

I just had messenger try to force this on me. Can we just go back to ICQ please? #aislop

Holy shit, Copilot X, shots fired. #gamedev

What a fun pax this year with so many cool people to hang with! I’m also feeling dangerously inspired to work on a new game

Thanks to Zoloft and the additional serotonin floating around my brain, I’m feeling things I’ve never really felt before. What the fuck? People feel like this all the time? Why wasn’t I on this earlier? #mentalhealth

PSA for #iOS26: If you want your phone to be readable again, look for this “Reduce Transparency” setting in Accessibility

The only worthwhile programming test question is FizzBang #gamedev

One of the things I’ve discovered on my guitar journey is there is a huge gap between understanding and knowing. Sure, I can understand how modes work easily, but internalizing the knowledge to use them on the fly takes years. #musicthoery

Remember when everyone thought it was a good idea to cheaply outsource development only to find out the outsourced code was useless and going to cost a small fortune to fix? That’s what I’m expecting for #vibecoding

The work is mysterious and important. #minecraft

Get cracking before April 17th and pre-order Eggy for 25% off! 🥚 Pre-order now: vr.meta.me/s/1NjVeUHIlK... #VR #VirtualReality #MetaQuest #Quest3

Something that keeps popping up in my head since becoming a dad is how the father in “Drop Dead Fred” was portrayed as the kind hearted parent before abruptly abandoning his daughter with a toxic mother. Him leaving was understandable. That’s the bar of fatherhood that was set for my generation.

I've been tracking my #guitar practice for close to three years now. I'm currently sitting at about 800 hours, which means I'm about 8% to the 10,000 hours you need to be an expert at a skill. So some quick maths says I should be hitting that expert rank sometime in my mid 70s

I got this amazing hand made birthday present from @mrparoxysm.bsky.social of my favourite adventure game joke ever! #zork

Every now and then I get an update for a kickstarter I pledged to over a decade ago about their progress. I just want to give them a big hug and tell them it’s ok. They can rest. Let it go.

I don’t know what bright spark figured out how to add velocity sensitive touch to iOS Garage Band using the accelerometer, but I’m genuinely impressed.

I'm pretty sure anyone who thinks DEI produces worse performance has never been involved in real hiring. There is seldom a "best person", it's more often it's "here are a bunch of qualified people, and who is giving me the best vibes?"

It would be nice if #AustraliaDay landed on a day that didn’t have so much baggage. I like the idea of a day to collectively appreciate what we have, but today isn’t the day to have it.

I very briefly tried Suno, the AI music generator today. It’s impressive tech. It sent me this follow up email. Even as a novice musician, the idea of entering prompt into a box being in any way analogous to the feeling of emotional expression I get out of playing an instrument is laughable

Welfare is ok when it’s corporate welfare. I’m sure those tax deductions will trickle down to increased wages.

Video game idea I’ll never make #257 - Top-down open world sandbox space sim set inside the human body at a micro scale.

The last few days I’ve been feeling exhausted. Was it work? Kids? Getting older? Nope. I didn’t realise I’d been drinking decaf coffee.

If you're currently doing some kind of typewriter effect in #Unity3D using Text Mesh Pro, please do something like this. Nothing makes me sadder than seeing text-wrap as characters are being appended during animated dialog. #gamedev

No guitar knobs are safe when there is toddler in the house. #parenting #guitar

Mr3: Daddy! Let’s race! Me: Not right now mate, I’m having coffee. Mr3: My trike is fast and your scooter is sllloooooooowwww. Me: … Me: It’s on. #parenting

Sometimes I think about making a little indie project again, then I’m reminded how flooded steam market is. I think any hobby project I work on I should just do for fun, not for profit. #gamedev www.pcgamer.com/games/nearly...

I enjoy improv on the #guitar because it’s creativity without the anxiety of being creative.

So this morning I discovered I cam hybrid pick now. I wouldn’t say I was hybrid picking well, but surprised I could at all. #guitar

Mr3 finally laughed at the joke “Hi Hungry, I’m Dad!” I’m so proud.

One of the things I find fascinating about learning music theory is that it’s like learning a language you already know. We’ve all internalised so much without realising it.

My #telecaster is now a Magikarpster!

Mr3: Why do I need to go to school, then go to sleep, then go to school again! Me: Good question mate, good question… *cries in late stage capitalism*

Unfortunately I had to return my last guitar, but in other news, I’ve got my first #telecaster ever! #newguitarday

Oh no. I started designing something new. #gamedev

Found this uhh… classic? in an op shop today!

It’s one of those Sunday nights

More game devs!

Sometimes I need to remind myself at some point I’ll emerge from parenting two young children and have more of myself available for my career again. It’s strange when I’m around industry people - it’s almost like reverting to a previous version of myself. #Parenting is so consuming #gamedev

Daily #guitar is one of my protective factors when it comes to #mentalhealth. It means I'm calving out "me time" when juggling work and family. Between my wife's late night/weekend work schedule, and getting gastro, this about sums up how I've felt for the last week. At least I got it done today

Nothing fills you with existential dread quite like having a conversation about the future with a three year old with no understanding of death, or the passage of time. #parenting

My little retro-themed shmup, Astro Attack, is currently on sale for less than a buck on steam! 👾 It’s a great palate cleanser when you’re looking for a short burst of shooty fun, with heaps of ships to unlock (and maybe even a secret FPS mode). Plays well on steam deck too #gamedev #indiegames

#newguitarday A Fender Meteora Player Plus 🎸

Got my Sony anniversary controller! So pretty! 🎮