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When our narrative team requested a cat backpack for an NPC I had two thoughts. One, we should make cat backpacks something all our players can have in the game. The other was we need to give Isabel a backpack with Bella in it. Being able to do stuff like this is why my job is such a great job.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 19h

Isabel is one of the important members of our community who we invited to the studio a few months ago. While here she made a request, I think not seriously, about getting her cat Bella into the game.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 1d

I'm thinking, what are the odds? But he's heading to nearby Lund for a science fiction convention and I'm in a craft beer bar. So knowing them maybe not actually that surprising.

Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 1d

Randomly ran into Scottish SF novelist Charles Stross and his partner Feorag in a pub here in Malmö. We got to chat for a couple hours which was really nice.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 2d

Today I managed to
1 Do some food shopping
2 Make some pasta
3 Rewatch the entirety of Alien: Earth

Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 2d

Tolkien dug deep into Nordic mythos in his world building. In many ways these very Scandinavian works are more on point to his sources. The roots of Tolkien's world with the English romanticism removed.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 2d

I promised more Scandinavian artists. Tove Jansson from Finland. These are her illustrations for the Swedish edition of the Hobbit from 1962. I love these so much. And yes, these are very different from our modern renderings of Tolkien's work.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 3d

Off work for a few days. Trying not to think about work but failing.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 5d

Photo credit to my friend Duncan who has enough sense to not be on this website.

Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 5d

Me too Vancouver. Me too.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 5d

Working on a Sunday kinda sucks but OMG not being interrupted is glorious.

Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 6d

Greta wearing a men's keffiyeh while wearing an autism t-shirt with a dual-rifle wielding skeleton at a pro-palestine rally in Denmark. Her trolling game is elite. I love her so much.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 8d

Yeah it messed me up for a few years. And yet when they tried to hire me back a few years later I almost took it because I needed the work.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 8d

Been too much of this these days part 3. www.gamedeveloper.com/business/sta...

Starbreeze making layoffs after scrapping D&D project

44 people are expected to lose their jobs, while others will be relocated internally.

www.gamedeveloper.com

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

I can't even remotely afford moving back to Vancouver.

Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

Worth remembering that most folks working in games have changed cities, countries, continents, for work. You leave family, friends, safety nets. And you do it with no job security. It's a hell of a gamble being a game dev.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

To be clear I feel appreciated and safe right now. But I remember when I didn't. And the news about the industry these days is reminding me powerfully of the worst times and I feel for folks dealing with that uncertainty right now.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

Folks will give you their best if they feel work effort connects to security. Feeling appreciated only works if it also comes with feeling safe.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

The sword of Damocles hanging over my head made me work hard but not well. The stress of uncertainty made me a bad leader, a bad colleague, a bad husband, a bad friend. Constant worry wears on you. You want to be the best version of yourself but it gets hard.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

I worked at EA around 15 years ago. For most of that time the threat of layoffs loomed. I survived a few years of cuts before it was my turn. I'd shipped a couple games and so was between projects. Served me right for shipping games on time.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

Been too much of this these days part 2.

GamesIndustry.biz @gibiz.bsky.social · 9d

Funcom, the Oslo-based studio behind the recently released Dune: Awakening, has announced it will be laying off staff.

www.gamesindustry.biz/dune-awakeni...

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom announces redundancies

The Tencent-owned studio says it needs to "restructure our teams and focus our resources"

www.gamesindustry.biz

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

To all the game company owners, the CEOs and other senior executives, the finance, publishing and marketing folks, the technical directors, brand strategists, human resource and studio managers, I have a recommendation. You have people who still know how to make video games. Please listen to them.

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Palle! @palleh.bsky.social · 9d

With EA going private they've taken on 20 billion in debt. Not many ways to address that without cutting costs or selling off IP.

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