Steve Karolewics
@skarolewics.bsky.social
Principal Rendering Engineer on Star Wars Jedi at Respawn Entertainment. Formerly @ Monolith, Amazon Games, Microsoft. Contributor to RenderDoc. Opinions are my own.
http://stevekarolewics.com
http://stevekarolewics.com
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Part of me feels like Dark Souls wouldn't have caught on if the first game had difficulty settings. It'd be "cheap", "pointless", etc.
Arcade games had a relatively granular difficulty option via credit feeding and it played a big part in them written off as "button mashers"/"quarter munchers".
Arcade games had a relatively granular difficulty option via credit feeding and it played a big part in them written off as "button mashers"/"quarter munchers".
November 28, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Part of me feels like Dark Souls wouldn't have caught on if the first game had difficulty settings. It'd be "cheap", "pointless", etc.
Arcade games had a relatively granular difficulty option via credit feeding and it played a big part in them written off as "button mashers"/"quarter munchers".
Arcade games had a relatively granular difficulty option via credit feeding and it played a big part in them written off as "button mashers"/"quarter munchers".
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
NEW: I spoke to Team Cherry about Silksong DLC, cut content, difficulty settings, storytelling, what they were thinking with Bilewater, the lack of signposting for Act 3, whether they'll do another Hollow Knight game, and much, much more www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
The Makers of ‘Silksong’ Aren’t Done Just Yet
The developers at Team Cherry tell us they’re working on new content for their popular action game
www.bloomberg.com
November 28, 2025 at 4:30 PM
NEW: I spoke to Team Cherry about Silksong DLC, cut content, difficulty settings, storytelling, what they were thinking with Bilewater, the lack of signposting for Act 3, whether they'll do another Hollow Knight game, and much, much more www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
I just find this really sad. Imagine being so certain that you need slop machines to do your work, that you convince yourself that EVERYBODY must need them.
Epic CEO says AI disclosures like Steam's make "no sense" because AI will be involved in "nearly all" future game development
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1p7eh60/epic_ceo_says_ai_disclosures_like_steams_make_no/
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1p7eh60/epic_ceo_says_ai_disclosures_like_steams_make_no/
Epic CEO says AI disclosures like Steam's make "no sense" because AI will be involved in "nearly all" future game development
r/pcgaming
www.reddit.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I just find this really sad. Imagine being so certain that you need slop machines to do your work, that you convince yourself that EVERYBODY must need them.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Here's some cute bounding box functions for 2D shapes. A longer list here: iquilezles.org/articles/bbo...
November 25, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Here's some cute bounding box functions for 2D shapes. A longer list here: iquilezles.org/articles/bbo...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Please look at this. *Really* look at it. And realise that even if you do insist there are issues with the data, or try to "Ah, but ~of course~ NPC soldiers should be men!" it away, any result that even vaguely resembles this chart should still be considered shameful. This is 30+ years of stories.
The proportion of female to male dialogue in Final Fantasy. #advx25
November 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Please look at this. *Really* look at it. And realise that even if you do insist there are issues with the data, or try to "Ah, but ~of course~ NPC soldiers should be men!" it away, any result that even vaguely resembles this chart should still be considered shameful. This is 30+ years of stories.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
We did something different with the credits for Demonschool. We used this format: name, title, lengthy description of what they did. Often you see credits in games where you don't know what the credited developer was actually responsible for. We wanted to give people proper, actual credit.
November 24, 2025 at 10:23 PM
We did something different with the credits for Demonschool. We used this format: name, title, lengthy description of what they did. Often you see credits in games where you don't know what the credited developer was actually responsible for. We wanted to give people proper, actual credit.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
having a normal one right now
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 AM
having a normal one right now
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
The amount of people I know who have been laid off from games industry jobs and are deciding to leave games entirely as a result is not only extremely saddening (of course), but also genuinely scary. We have lost legitimately thousands of years of knowledge and experience in the last four years.
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 AM
The amount of people I know who have been laid off from games industry jobs and are deciding to leave games entirely as a result is not only extremely saddening (of course), but also genuinely scary. We have lost legitimately thousands of years of knowledge and experience in the last four years.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
#Dispatch devs have no interest in using AI for game development 🎮
"AI feels like a production solution, not a creative one. Maybe it's a creative one if you aren't creative"
"Whatever we're building, it has to connect. It's got to be made by people. It's got to connect to people"
(via GIBiz)
"AI feels like a production solution, not a creative one. Maybe it's a creative one if you aren't creative"
"Whatever we're building, it has to connect. It's got to be made by people. It's got to connect to people"
(via GIBiz)
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 AM
#Dispatch devs have no interest in using AI for game development 🎮
"AI feels like a production solution, not a creative one. Maybe it's a creative one if you aren't creative"
"Whatever we're building, it has to connect. It's got to be made by people. It's got to connect to people"
(via GIBiz)
"AI feels like a production solution, not a creative one. Maybe it's a creative one if you aren't creative"
"Whatever we're building, it has to connect. It's got to be made by people. It's got to connect to people"
(via GIBiz)
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
finding out your game got nominated by The Game Awards in the group chat with other folks who got laid off is… just so painfully 2025
November 17, 2025 at 7:41 PM
finding out your game got nominated by The Game Awards in the group chat with other folks who got laid off is… just so painfully 2025
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
In gamedev, if you're using a placeholder asset, best practices involve marking it as placeholder so garishly and offensively clearly PLACEHOLDER that you can't possibly miss it. Also flagging that asset in the dev process so it can be identified quickly before the final build.
November 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
In gamedev, if you're using a placeholder asset, best practices involve marking it as placeholder so garishly and offensively clearly PLACEHOLDER that you can't possibly miss it. Also flagging that asset in the dev process so it can be identified quickly before the final build.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
It really needs to be pointed out how every one of these embarrassing statements is made by a c-suite executive and not an artist or even art department lead
"Surely there's a middle ground here?" The CEO of Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead says people "jump to extreme takes" when debating generative AI, and that there needs to be more nuance in the discussion.
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/surely-...
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/surely-...
‘Surely there’s a middle ground here?’ Helldivers studio CEO says people ‘jump to extreme takes’ when debating GenAI | VGC
“This is such a trigger point for big parts of the games industry today”…
www.videogameschronicle.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:05 PM
It really needs to be pointed out how every one of these embarrassing statements is made by a c-suite executive and not an artist or even art department lead
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Insulting to the players, insulting to the IP, insulting to the medium, the developers. And the craft itself. Fuck you executives who pushed this garbage.
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is littered with AI art slop, because your $70 means nothing anymore
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is littered with AI generated artwork which makes the $70 feel like a complete rip-off.
frvr.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Insulting to the players, insulting to the IP, insulting to the medium, the developers. And the craft itself. Fuck you executives who pushed this garbage.
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
frvr.com/blog/call-of...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
We don’t use generative AI at Strange Scaffold and I can confirm that a *lot* of other studios are not—whether indie or AAA.
Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.
Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.
“It’s important to assume every game company is now using AI.” Nexon CEO comments on role of human creativity as AI tools become the norm
automaton-media.com/en/news/its-...
automaton-media.com/en/news/its-...
“It’s important to assume every game company is now using AI.” Nexon CEO comments on role of human creativity as AI tools become the norm - AUTOMATON WEST
In an interview following the launch of ARC Raiders, the CEO of Embark Studios' parent company Nexon shares his views on AI.
automaton-media.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:25 AM
We don’t use generative AI at Strange Scaffold and I can confirm that a *lot* of other studios are not—whether indie or AAA.
Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.
Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Announcing: New @steampowered.com Hardware, coming in 2026:
Steam Controller
Steam Machine
Steam Frame.
Watch our jazzy announcement video and wishlist now: steampowered.com/hardware
Steam Controller
Steam Machine
Steam Frame.
Watch our jazzy announcement video and wishlist now: steampowered.com/hardware
Steam Hardware
The Steam Hardware family officially expands in early 2026.
steampowered.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Announcing: New @steampowered.com Hardware, coming in 2026:
Steam Controller
Steam Machine
Steam Frame.
Watch our jazzy announcement video and wishlist now: steampowered.com/hardware
Steam Controller
Steam Machine
Steam Frame.
Watch our jazzy announcement video and wishlist now: steampowered.com/hardware
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
We just released "Unreal Materials: New Features & Productivity Enhancements", where my coworker @shedoesartstuff.bsky.social shows off a bunch of quality-of-life improvements to the Material Editor in UE in 5.6/5.7, alongside new and upcoming features. #uetips
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmd...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmd...
Unreal Materials: New Features & Productivity Enhancements | Unreal Fest Stockholm 2025
YouTube video by Unreal Engine
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
We just released "Unreal Materials: New Features & Productivity Enhancements", where my coworker @shedoesartstuff.bsky.social shows off a bunch of quality-of-life improvements to the Material Editor in UE in 5.6/5.7, alongside new and upcoming features. #uetips
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmd...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmd...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
NEW: Big layoffs at Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, which is shrinking its US and UK offices as it looks to cut costs and consolidate publishing operations in Japan. Exact number isn't clear but the company says it will save $19.6 million due to the cuts www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Square Enix Lays Off Staff In Global Restructuring
Japanese video-game company aims to save $19.6 million annually
www.bloomberg.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:56 PM
NEW: Big layoffs at Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, which is shrinking its US and UK offices as it looks to cut costs and consolidate publishing operations in Japan. Exact number isn't clear but the company says it will save $19.6 million due to the cuts www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
BREAKING: Rockstar has delayed Grand Theft Auto VI again, pushing the highly anticipated game from May to November 19, 2026. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ Is Postponed Again — to November 2026
The release date for the game had previously slipped to May 2026 from fall 2025
www.bloomberg.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:05 PM
BREAKING: Rockstar has delayed Grand Theft Auto VI again, pushing the highly anticipated game from May to November 19, 2026. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/square-...
I imagined trying to get through bug reports written by an LLM and immediately got an honest to god headache. What do you mean I can’t even go back to the person who wrote it and ask for more details because there isn’t one, but it can still make shit up?
I imagined trying to get through bug reports written by an LLM and immediately got an honest to god headache. What do you mean I can’t even go back to the person who wrote it and ask for more details because there isn’t one, but it can still make shit up?
Square Enix says it wants generative AI to be doing 70% of its QA and debugging by the end of 2027 | VGC
The publisher is researching “Game QA Automation Technology” with the University of Tokyo…
www.videogameschronicle.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:58 PM
www.videogameschronicle.com/news/square-...
I imagined trying to get through bug reports written by an LLM and immediately got an honest to god headache. What do you mean I can’t even go back to the person who wrote it and ask for more details because there isn’t one, but it can still make shit up?
I imagined trying to get through bug reports written by an LLM and immediately got an honest to god headache. What do you mean I can’t even go back to the person who wrote it and ask for more details because there isn’t one, but it can still make shit up?
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Everything about making video games is harder than you think.
November 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Everything about making video games is harder than you think.
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
I interviewed with 20 studios in 2023 before finally finding a home at CDPR. Studios closed, projects got canceled, devs got laid off. As of today, only 1 of those roles remains. It's a wild time in the games industry
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
I interviewed with 20 studios in 2023 before finally finding a home at CDPR. Studios closed, projects got canceled, devs got laid off. As of today, only 1 of those roles remains. It's a wild time in the games industry
Reposted by Steve Karolewics
Take-Two's CEO has spoken out on AI, saying "genius is the domain of human beings", and raising copyright and creativity concerns.
"There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven."
(Read more: Eurogamer)
"There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven."
(Read more: Eurogamer)
October 30, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Take-Two's CEO has spoken out on AI, saying "genius is the domain of human beings", and raising copyright and creativity concerns.
"There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven."
(Read more: Eurogamer)
"There is no creativity that can exist by definition in any AI model, because it is data-driven."
(Read more: Eurogamer)