nathaniel
@pedrothedagger.bsky.social
game developer (derogatory). Lead Systems Designer at Epic Games on Lego Fortnite
This comment on the first take version of on the way cracked me up lol.
“My 4 year old keeps saying ‘dame dame! Mate mate! Nagai mo yamaimo dakeshimetai’ lol please stop”
Which means “I want to embrace a yam even if it’s long” instead of “I want to embrace both the curse and the disease” lol
“My 4 year old keeps saying ‘dame dame! Mate mate! Nagai mo yamaimo dakeshimetai’ lol please stop”
Which means “I want to embrace a yam even if it’s long” instead of “I want to embrace both the curse and the disease” lol
February 5, 2026 at 5:49 AM
This comment on the first take version of on the way cracked me up lol.
“My 4 year old keeps saying ‘dame dame! Mate mate! Nagai mo yamaimo dakeshimetai’ lol please stop”
Which means “I want to embrace a yam even if it’s long” instead of “I want to embrace both the curse and the disease” lol
“My 4 year old keeps saying ‘dame dame! Mate mate! Nagai mo yamaimo dakeshimetai’ lol please stop”
Which means “I want to embrace a yam even if it’s long” instead of “I want to embrace both the curse and the disease” lol
discovering that apparently my opinion that the dandadan s2 op is better is a hot take lol
February 5, 2026 at 5:11 AM
discovering that apparently my opinion that the dandadan s2 op is better is a hot take lol
Reposted by nathaniel
why is game dev feedback always kinda like this
February 3, 2026 at 5:26 PM
why is game dev feedback always kinda like this
ado’s scene is v cyberpunk - people created artificial machine voices, wrote songs for them exploiting their artificiality by making them too hard for normal people to sing, and then ppl took that as a challenge to develop their technical skill to be able to recreate it with the human voice. v cool
February 2, 2026 at 7:40 AM
ado’s scene is v cyberpunk - people created artificial machine voices, wrote songs for them exploiting their artificiality by making them too hard for normal people to sing, and then ppl took that as a challenge to develop their technical skill to be able to recreate it with the human voice. v cool
i genuinely couldn’t do this for long in fft because I felt too bad for the guy that i was leaving at 1hp while we threw rocks at each other
My FFT party milking each other for XP: agh. oug. ahg. uog.
The cuck goblin in the corner at 1 HP: :(
The cuck goblin in the corner at 1 HP: :(
February 2, 2026 at 7:32 AM
i genuinely couldn’t do this for long in fft because I felt too bad for the guy that i was leaving at 1hp while we threw rocks at each other
once in a while I’ll see or hear about something like the linked blog and I realize if nothing else I do not have the mental fortitude to be a writer in games, where everyone thinks they could do your job despite not understanding it at all. The sheer frustration. sprints for fucking writers lol
For more on this, vide Michet 2024 blog.lauramichet.com/why-you-shou...
February 2, 2026 at 7:06 AM
once in a while I’ll see or hear about something like the linked blog and I realize if nothing else I do not have the mental fortitude to be a writer in games, where everyone thinks they could do your job despite not understanding it at all. The sheer frustration. sprints for fucking writers lol
Also - this doesn’t need to be in the form of butting in to creative decision making. Many experienced but still bad producers know enough to avoid that. But it can be in the form of arbitrary, ill fitting process or holding meetings that largely exist to make everyone remember the producer is there
My hot take about producers - I have noticed some producers recoil against the role because being a great producer involves a lot of invisible labor and if you are not socialized to believe invisible labor has value, you feel a need to insert yourself into visible labor to validate your existence
February 2, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Also - this doesn’t need to be in the form of butting in to creative decision making. Many experienced but still bad producers know enough to avoid that. But it can be in the form of arbitrary, ill fitting process or holding meetings that largely exist to make everyone remember the producer is there
Reposted by nathaniel
For more on this, vide Michet 2024 blog.lauramichet.com/why-you-shou...
February 2, 2026 at 6:47 AM
For more on this, vide Michet 2024 blog.lauramichet.com/why-you-shou...
My hot take about producers - I have noticed some producers recoil against the role because being a great producer involves a lot of invisible labor and if you are not socialized to believe invisible labor has value, you feel a need to insert yourself into visible labor to validate your existence
February 2, 2026 at 6:38 AM
My hot take about producers - I have noticed some producers recoil against the role because being a great producer involves a lot of invisible labor and if you are not socialized to believe invisible labor has value, you feel a need to insert yourself into visible labor to validate your existence
all producers are multipliers on the output of their team. It is very possible for that multiplier to be less than 1
There are a lot of roles in game dev where someone bad in a role can do damage, but a bad producer can be so unbelievably damaging that it truly would be better to have no one in the role at all.
Just as good producers are force multipliers, bad producers are like throwing sand into a gearbox.
Just as good producers are force multipliers, bad producers are like throwing sand into a gearbox.
A good producer is absolutely an incredible force multiplier and allows the folks who are creating the actual artifacts to be more effective.
A producer beholden to methodology or who does not understand the needs of the game they're working, however, can do irreparable damage very easily.
A producer beholden to methodology or who does not understand the needs of the game they're working, however, can do irreparable damage very easily.
February 2, 2026 at 5:56 AM
all producers are multipliers on the output of their team. It is very possible for that multiplier to be less than 1
lol the night manager season 2, truly awful
February 2, 2026 at 5:54 AM
lol the night manager season 2, truly awful
Games require engineering, design, art and organization. Sometimes those skills live in one person and sometimes they don’t.
I know several games made solely by programmers, I know none made only by project managers.
February 2, 2026 at 4:54 AM
Games require engineering, design, art and organization. Sometimes those skills live in one person and sometimes they don’t.
i've seen a couple people mentioning this today and I enjoy how I've managed to curate my feed such that these kind of bad takes are like dark matter, I can't see them except by their secondary effects
There are very few Objective Truths in gaming, but I do believe that if you call the Evergrace soundtrack “bad”, you should be banned from sharing any additional opinions online for a period of no fewer than 99 years, for your own good
February 2, 2026 at 2:16 AM
i've seen a couple people mentioning this today and I enjoy how I've managed to curate my feed such that these kind of bad takes are like dark matter, I can't see them except by their secondary effects
among all of the things i liked about freiren season 1 it makes a great argument in favor of the effectiveness of remote work
February 2, 2026 at 12:36 AM
among all of the things i liked about freiren season 1 it makes a great argument in favor of the effectiveness of remote work
Reposted by nathaniel
Worth remembering that something did happen: the journalist who revealed this died from a car bomb.
remember when the panama papers came out and we found out every rich person on earth was committing tax fraud and then nothing happened
February 1, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Worth remembering that something did happen: the journalist who revealed this died from a car bomb.
Reposted by nathaniel
Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly
February 1, 2026 at 3:40 PM
Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly
Sorry everything about this is insane but strong senior-junior hierarchy is really giving harmodius-aristogeiton
Look I know there's a lot going on right now.....but what in the fresh hell is this
February 1, 2026 at 6:38 AM
Sorry everything about this is insane but strong senior-junior hierarchy is really giving harmodius-aristogeiton
Reposted by nathaniel
Play frictional games, you need fiber in your diet.
I legit fear for the overall game literacy of new junior designers in the coming years for various reasons and a big part of that is just, a lack of idiosyncratic games in many diets that aren't, like, tied to insidious monetization loops.
Let people play games that are weird in honest ways, dude.
Let people play games that are weird in honest ways, dude.
"Go back and play Morrowind and tell me that’s the game you want to play again," said Bruce Nesmith, who worked for Bethesda for over 17 years, adding that playing The Elder Scrolls 3 "would not stand the test of time." https://bit.ly/4q4GoKh
February 1, 2026 at 1:59 AM
Play frictional games, you need fiber in your diet.
Reposted by nathaniel
I hate that this is all just easy to piece together from this guy's poorly-spelled emails
January 31, 2026 at 4:55 AM
I hate that this is all just easy to piece together from this guy's poorly-spelled emails
it does say something about the state of investing in games that a character pointlessly wandering around an empty environment is making people think video games are done for lol
January 31, 2026 at 4:35 AM
it does say something about the state of investing in games that a character pointlessly wandering around an empty environment is making people think video games are done for lol
it's like when you see a character in a cutscene and they're like 10x the polys of everyone else and you realize they're going to join the party later
How is Melania the only person with a bespoke font in the Epstein Files?
oh my god
January 31, 2026 at 4:25 AM
it's like when you see a character in a cutscene and they're like 10x the polys of everyone else and you realize they're going to join the party later
Reposted by nathaniel
Hey yall. As you've seen here - unfortunately a large portion of the ivy road team was laid off today, myself included. We're all looking for work! Gonna do a quick thread about those who were laid off today and why you should hire them:
While we've gotten affirming feedback on Engine Angel, pitching unfortunately hasn't been successful. As a result, we've had to make the hard decision to lay off five team members. Each of these devs are incredible: if you have a place on your team, or know someone hiring, please keep them in mind!⬇
January 31, 2026 at 12:52 AM
Hey yall. As you've seen here - unfortunately a large portion of the ivy road team was laid off today, myself included. We're all looking for work! Gonna do a quick thread about those who were laid off today and why you should hire them:
damn you know a game woke when Genders.xml is 13kb
January 30, 2026 at 7:11 PM
damn you know a game woke when Genders.xml is 13kb
Is there a repository for caves of qud savegames somewhere? like, imagine you wanted to show off various aspects of the game to an audience and needed to jump around different world gens/characters/points in the game, is there a resource like that so you don't have to do it all yourself lol
January 30, 2026 at 6:45 PM
Is there a repository for caves of qud savegames somewhere? like, imagine you wanted to show off various aspects of the game to an audience and needed to jump around different world gens/characters/points in the game, is there a resource like that so you don't have to do it all yourself lol
ugh ok freiren is fantastic
January 30, 2026 at 3:57 AM
ugh ok freiren is fantastic