Arnis Vaivars
@rinvars.bsky.social
Freelance C# Programmer | Unity Specialist | 12+ Years in Game Development (6 Years Programming) | Aspiring indie dev | Avid board games player | Miniature painting enthusiast.
Not sure why indie games are blamed when AAA and mobile games set the precedent and players now gravitate towards to those loops as the new standard.
December 3, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Not sure why indie games are blamed when AAA and mobile games set the precedent and players now gravitate towards to those loops as the new standard.
And the longer you take to develop one after launch, the smaller your potential audience so it promotes unhealthy development practices.
December 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
And the longer you take to develop one after launch, the smaller your potential audience so it promotes unhealthy development practices.
The problem with expansion packs is that only a small percentage of the total playerbase buy them and the economics rarely work out in favor of the developer. It's why they stopped existing with a few exceptions like Paradox.
December 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM
The problem with expansion packs is that only a small percentage of the total playerbase buy them and the economics rarely work out in favor of the developer. It's why they stopped existing with a few exceptions like Paradox.
And it physically can't be much cheaper than $20 to support all that whereas video games can go lower due to digital distribution.
November 30, 2025 at 6:06 PM
And it physically can't be much cheaper than $20 to support all that whereas video games can go lower due to digital distribution.
Physical good needs real world manufacturing infra, logistics to ship it around the world and all that jazz. Out of $20 the original designers are getting a few bucks. A lot of mainstream board game designers are doing it on the side rather than it being their actual job.
November 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Physical good needs real world manufacturing infra, logistics to ship it around the world and all that jazz. Out of $20 the original designers are getting a few bucks. A lot of mainstream board game designers are doing it on the side rather than it being their actual job.
I think people are just trying to figure out how to survive this in the first place since there's plenty of information out there that grabs those rose tinted glasses and smashes them in the mud. Steam is algorithm driven. Learning how to game it is part of the process for those without audience.
November 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I think people are just trying to figure out how to survive this in the first place since there's plenty of information out there that grabs those rose tinted glasses and smashes them in the mud. Steam is algorithm driven. Learning how to game it is part of the process for those without audience.
Most people who get into indie game development never ship a single title, out of those who do ship, most can't fund the second game. And plenty of examples out there with developers who shipped an initially successful game but then followed with a flop and went out of business.
November 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Most people who get into indie game development never ship a single title, out of those who do ship, most can't fund the second game. And plenty of examples out there with developers who shipped an initially successful game but then followed with a flop and went out of business.
I don't think people go to these "alternative news" sources straight away. They're radicalized by algorithms on social media first which are optimized for engagement. A lot of people don't realize they're funneled into information bubbles that intentionally make them angry/outraged for engagement.
November 29, 2025 at 12:15 PM
I don't think people go to these "alternative news" sources straight away. They're radicalized by algorithms on social media first which are optimized for engagement. A lot of people don't realize they're funneled into information bubbles that intentionally make them angry/outraged for engagement.
Absolutely loved the first 40k Dawn of War RTS games. Couldn't really get into anything else, including the more tactics focused Dawn of War 2.
From fatansy side Vermintide coop games are peak melee combat so far from everything I've played. If only elder scrolls could learn something from them.
From fatansy side Vermintide coop games are peak melee combat so far from everything I've played. If only elder scrolls could learn something from them.
November 29, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Absolutely loved the first 40k Dawn of War RTS games. Couldn't really get into anything else, including the more tactics focused Dawn of War 2.
From fatansy side Vermintide coop games are peak melee combat so far from everything I've played. If only elder scrolls could learn something from them.
From fatansy side Vermintide coop games are peak melee combat so far from everything I've played. If only elder scrolls could learn something from them.
Lovely to see some of the old guard still around trying to make visual scripting happen at a time when Unity (and likely Unreal) are deprioritizing it.
November 26, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Lovely to see some of the old guard still around trying to make visual scripting happen at a time when Unity (and likely Unreal) are deprioritizing it.
gotcha, I checked out discord - it's Reality.Stop(), who is very passionate about visual scripting, and was very involved in the Bolt 1 (and 2) community but isn't the original developer of the tool. He did create the once great community addons for it though: github.com/RealityStop/...
GitHub - RealityStop/Bolt.Addons.Community: A community-driven project for extending Unity Bolt
A community-driven project for extending Unity Bolt - RealityStop/Bolt.Addons.Community
github.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:22 PM
gotcha, I checked out discord - it's Reality.Stop(), who is very passionate about visual scripting, and was very involved in the Bolt 1 (and 2) community but isn't the original developer of the tool. He did create the once great community addons for it though: github.com/RealityStop/...
Where did ya hear about Lazlo helping out? Can't find any source on that, repo also has a single contributor listed.
November 26, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Where did ya hear about Lazlo helping out? Can't find any source on that, repo also has a single contributor listed.
Are we sure Musk is actually paying them? Plenty of foreign governments are willing to spend some change to sow division within US so you are distracted by internal matters. Russia has a budget and troll armies in employ for this.
November 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Are we sure Musk is actually paying them? Plenty of foreign governments are willing to spend some change to sow division within US so you are distracted by internal matters. Russia has a budget and troll armies in employ for this.
I generally agree with the sentiment, but what’s your take on Unity using the “democratize game development” slogan for some 15 years now? They recently exhibited rent-seeking behavior too, which they backtracked on, but is that writing on the wall?
November 16, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I generally agree with the sentiment, but what’s your take on Unity using the “democratize game development” slogan for some 15 years now? They recently exhibited rent-seeking behavior too, which they backtracked on, but is that writing on the wall?
- Revive
- Star Realms
- Evenfall
- Anachrony
- Galactic Cruise
- Dwellings of Eldervale
- Dune Imperium: Uprising
- Lost Ruins of Arnak
- Andromeda's Edge
- Stone Age
- Star Realms
- Evenfall
- Anachrony
- Galactic Cruise
- Dwellings of Eldervale
- Dune Imperium: Uprising
- Lost Ruins of Arnak
- Andromeda's Edge
- Stone Age
November 15, 2025 at 9:31 PM
- Revive
- Star Realms
- Evenfall
- Anachrony
- Galactic Cruise
- Dwellings of Eldervale
- Dune Imperium: Uprising
- Lost Ruins of Arnak
- Andromeda's Edge
- Stone Age
- Star Realms
- Evenfall
- Anachrony
- Galactic Cruise
- Dwellings of Eldervale
- Dune Imperium: Uprising
- Lost Ruins of Arnak
- Andromeda's Edge
- Stone Age
Temu Edge of Tomorrow.
November 15, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Temu Edge of Tomorrow.
Yeh, I'm not a fan of that move either, but it's better than paying over a $100/month for a year long Adobe contract with no way out.
And you can just hide the AI studio in Affinity so you don't have to even look at it.
And you can just hide the AI studio in Affinity so you don't have to even look at it.
November 14, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Yeh, I'm not a fan of that move either, but it's better than paying over a $100/month for a year long Adobe contract with no way out.
And you can just hide the AI studio in Affinity so you don't have to even look at it.
And you can just hide the AI studio in Affinity so you don't have to even look at it.
Affinity just went free to use with full feature set, it's a decent alternative for gamedev related graphic design work and combines Illustrator/Photoshop functionality in a single app.
November 14, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Affinity just went free to use with full feature set, it's a decent alternative for gamedev related graphic design work and combines Illustrator/Photoshop functionality in a single app.
Under quickly rising hardware costs and vendors switching focus to high margin data center products I'm seriously considering this.
November 13, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Under quickly rising hardware costs and vendors switching focus to high margin data center products I'm seriously considering this.
I don't agree with anything Rowling says these days, but it's weird to see my positive childhood experiences denied with such zest.
November 13, 2025 at 6:13 AM
I don't agree with anything Rowling says these days, but it's weird to see my positive childhood experiences denied with such zest.