Thomas Grip
@ThomasGrip
Creative Director at Frictional Games. Past: Penumbra, Amnesia & SOMA. Future: Unannounced Sci-Fi Game.
"This task need to be fast therefore I will not do any preparation work" almost always leads to MORE work. Never underestimate thinking through and developing the setup before doing any actual work. Good prep is the real time saver - not the opposite!
This always seem to happen: 10 year old code bug become noticeable right before an important deadline. It has had a decade to be found, and yet it has remained undetected until the worst possible moment, when it causes incredibly apparent issues. So annoying.
Anyone know how long does it usually takes before 1000xResist clicks? I am 2 hours in now and not really feeling it. Worth give a few more hours?
Turn out the new Indiana Jones game is very similar to Metro: Exodus in many ways. Was not expecting that. Small open worlds, linear sections mixed into open ones, diegetic maps, etc.
Someone made a real life Omnitool from SOMA! 😮 Beyond amazing! reddit.com/r/soma/comment…
Embarrassing confession: I really enjoy crunching numbers i spreadsheets, making formulas and giving it all nice colors.
I explain what we discussed at work during family dinner. My kid: <stops eating>".... I need to process this."
In the process of playtesting now and OMG it is hard not to care about minor issues that are easily fixed later. Eg: I spot an interact icon being sliiiiightly misaligned, and want to drop everything to fix it :D
Reminder that you do not need to have divine inspiration to do good creative work. What matter is good routines and actually getting shit done. Nothing is worse for creative output than "waiting for the right mood". Often the right mood naturally arise as you start doing stuff.
Constant gamedev dilemma: 1) Fix features I know need work or 2) Do big test run of the game If you do (2) too soon, the test run gives bad data. ff you get stuck on (1) you never get to playtest the game properly. Esp tricky with longer narrative experiences.
Crow Country was great! Highly recommended if you like classic Survival Horror.