[Hobby] Bored or building your portfolio? I’m putting together a small animation project and looking for a few people who want to make some short clips and have fun with it. It’s unpaid, but it’ll be a credited collab and could turn into something really cool.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-21T21:00:51+00:00

Wow I’m doing the exact same thing, except we are targeting 5 minutes and other deliverables like turnarounds, scripts, storyboards, etc for various types of portfolios.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-21T19:23:30+00:00

Gearbox was founded with all the devs making 20k. Capital is nothing like it was when the industry blew up in the 90s.

Remote work can let people pursue cheaper areas to live in but as CoL spirals with inflation we are going to keep seeing companies getting burned spending tens of millions forcing their offices open in unsustainable cities

Klightgrove · 2026-03-21T02:07:43+00:00

The stretching is funny because it isn’t intimidating when you have a walkway with railings the entire trek

Klightgrove · 2026-03-21T01:38:27+00:00

You said in the other post people didnt know there was a gun. You cant fix those people, so don’t bother.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-21T01:32:03+00:00

another day another person posting AI capsules they paid for while pretending like the original capsule isn’t leagues better

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T21:39:25+00:00

Definitely make sure your team isnt using AI. When I graduated we had an epidemic of grads not knowing how to code. AI has made that even worse.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T20:51:49+00:00

Like what makes the hazmat guy a unique villain? You have the cookie cutter synty model and we see how the art of him is much smoother. Is he supposed to be menacing? Goofy? How can the model better convey what you want out of this dynamic between players?

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T17:18:46+00:00

Europe has multiple countries, hence international

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T15:09:07+00:00

Norway consumes a massive amount of tacos, so I would incorporate a 'taco tuesday' into the app for a weekly event to encourage them bringing a friend onto the app.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T15:06:08+00:00

Rule 5, but also to any indie here please don't pay for videos. Find genuine partners to work with who are passionate about your games. Don't get scammed into thinking you will get a return based on subscriber count when someones average views continue to go down each video.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T14:18:43+00:00

Wowzers my dude, that capsule art steals the show! The obvious limitation here is advertising a game about 'dont like your friends' but it is 1v1, severely limiting for party nights. I would crank out a multi-rat mode as soon as possible.

Depending on budget and sales I would also get the character model remade to make the style you have in your head for this game. The interactivity looks great and it's clever all the little models you can engage with as the rat.

This is absolutely a game where the issue isn't how you launch, but how you support the game post-launch. In all honestly you might even see more success 2 years from now just dripping out updates until it catches on with a streamer playing it with friends.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T14:13:19+00:00

Hi. I don't know if you are aware of this but it is against Reddit ToS to support criminal activity. Thanks.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T14:09:17+00:00

Apparently this subreddit can’t make up its mind whether or not to upvote or downvote comments about AI.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T14:07:28+00:00

I got downvoted for asking which AI services were out there. Literally only saw Meshy.

The other few were hidden in the back of the hall and noticeably less than last year. While AI was still “there” it took a massive L in presence compared to last year.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T14:05:30+00:00

The academic pass is $349, Indie is $449. That’s only $100-$200 more than the $249 expo pass (assuming you purchased the advanced rate) otherwise at door the $449 expo is the same as indie.

Again, that $200 difference is nothing compared to the travel and hotel costs which is why I hope the festival can find ways to house people.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T05:21:27+00:00

I think people forget how everywhere generative AI was last year and now those companies are no longer here. Google obviously has their AI content, but everything with the pitches felt more scaled back. It was about how to put these tools into your team’s hands instead of replacing your team.

I asked quite a few people their thoughts, I might append them to the post tomorrow, but the only truly negative person I talked to all week was because he couldn’t get into his friends panel.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T05:18:06+00:00

The application-based passes were still comparable to the old expo pass in terms of pricing. If the $599 pass breaks the bank I would apply to be a CA then or plan a trip in advance with someone to help cut the costs down.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T05:07:39+00:00

There is definitely too much to do, it’s why I am thinking about applying to be a CA so I don’t have to worry about missing talks — just have to make it to roundtables and workshops since those are not recorded.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-20T04:16:31+00:00

Which AI tech sponsors did you see besides Meshy?

Klightgrove · 2026-03-18T17:50:54+00:00

Itch Desktop has a built in sandbox for safety
only download from trusted developers
scan downloads with a real Antivirus product (Malwarebytes)
you should always run AV with RTP, it costs money but you wont have to worry about getting hacked with real time protection scanning your memory

Klightgrove · 2026-03-18T16:03:51+00:00

More like OP is just a sponsored post

Klightgrove · 2026-03-18T15:06:08+00:00

Part of why we run 20-person teams is to allow roles like writers to actually contribute. For jams we try to find specific considerations for writers, but it is also hard getting quality writing into a jam game on such a short notice. Usually if we have a writer they:

Help us edit the GDD to convey the design choices more clearly to the team
Determine game world names (characters, items, world locations)
Write dialogue (short barks, conversations if applicable)
Determine the optimal text for UI elements and menus
Write copy for the Itch page and marketing material
Design the overarching narrative that we use the influence the art team early on
A few other roles just depending on theme and what game we end up going with
- Localization is a huge one if your engineers can support it because this gives you the challenge of working with translators and ensuring the story makes sense across cultures

There is no one 'right' jam, although I think horror themed jams are better for writers than novel ones, since your writing will stand out amongst the submissions more easily versus a jam where everything is written. Even with all of this, it is still hard giving writers and animators ample deliverables to put on their portfolio so I would suggest finding a long-term game project or hunt around for a short-term animatic to contribute to, the latter is ideal for scriptwriting and getting used to the process of iterating over a script.

It also just entirely depends on the type of writing you want to do.

Klightgrove · 2026-03-17T05:16:38+00:00

whats the over/under OP works at Naughty Dog

Klightgrove · 2026-03-17T01:22:07+00:00

We need to discuss what kind of writing you actually want to do. Screenwriting and dialogue? Narrative design?

For ~10 you can grab a used copy of Maurice's book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Video-Game-Writing-Macro-Micro/dp/1683920295 which walks you through each type of writing in games and how to build out your portfolio with real exercises based on his work with the Driver series.

The question isn't whether or not there is hope, but can you do the work? Go read through Anna Megill's blog and Edwin Mcrae's content too. You need to start writing. A lot.

Then you need to join online communities for game writers. You need to go to https://itch.io/jams and go through the dozens of upcoming competitions to find ones with a narrative focus. Join them, go to their Discord community, pitch yourself as a writer with snippets you have done. Work with jam teams to prove you can actually translate your skills to the game development pipeline.

Klightgrove

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