Dave Kosak
@thefargo.bsky.social
Writer, game designer, and creative-at-large. Game development consultant. Previous roles: Co-founder of GameSpy, Narrative and Quest Lead for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone at Blizzard entertainment.
Meeko feels called out by this post.
October 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Meeko feels called out by this post.
My local museum had Susannah Clarke’s notes and hand-drawn Piranesi maps for a little while! It was super cool.
October 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
My local museum had Susannah Clarke’s notes and hand-drawn Piranesi maps for a little while! It was super cool.
Yesterday morning I slept in past my cat’s breakfast time, so… he scruffed me! He firmly bit the back of my neck, dug his paws into the bed, and … pulled!
The sheer chutzpah of this ten-pound beast trying to bodily haul a 160-pound human out of bed by the neck to get his breakfast! 🤣😼
The sheer chutzpah of this ten-pound beast trying to bodily haul a 160-pound human out of bed by the neck to get his breakfast! 🤣😼
September 14, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Yesterday morning I slept in past my cat’s breakfast time, so… he scruffed me! He firmly bit the back of my neck, dug his paws into the bed, and … pulled!
The sheer chutzpah of this ten-pound beast trying to bodily haul a 160-pound human out of bed by the neck to get his breakfast! 🤣😼
The sheer chutzpah of this ten-pound beast trying to bodily haul a 160-pound human out of bed by the neck to get his breakfast! 🤣😼
Growing our little patch of native plants has been so satisfying! The whole ecosystem of my region comes to visit and snack.
August 24, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Growing our little patch of native plants has been so satisfying! The whole ecosystem of my region comes to visit and snack.
An incredible find at the old neighborhood electronics store. I talked him down to $20 for the whole case! #vacuumtubes
August 6, 2025 at 7:14 PM
An incredible find at the old neighborhood electronics store. I talked him down to $20 for the whole case! #vacuumtubes
At the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana you can see the author's original maps and notes. Sorry for the potato-quality pic, they're very cool to study!
February 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
At the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana you can see the author's original maps and notes. Sorry for the potato-quality pic, they're very cool to study!
It’s a bloodbath out there, and the people feeling it the most are the content creators, who are suffering year after year of record-breaking layoffs. I don’t even have the words. I’m not the only one worried that this will impact the games we’ll see in the future, creating a negative feedback loop…
January 28, 2025 at 10:20 PM
It’s a bloodbath out there, and the people feeling it the most are the content creators, who are suffering year after year of record-breaking layoffs. I don’t even have the words. I’m not the only one worried that this will impact the games we’ll see in the future, creating a negative feedback loop…
There are a lot of reasons for this, and the report offers some insights, but the fact is that people’s spending habits with games have changed. Folks are more likely to spend time/money with old comfy favorites as opposed to grabbing the next new thing. Look at what we played in 2023:
January 28, 2025 at 10:19 PM
There are a lot of reasons for this, and the report offers some insights, but the fact is that people’s spending habits with games have changed. Folks are more likely to spend time/money with old comfy favorites as opposed to grabbing the next new thing. Look at what we played in 2023:
There’s signs that consoles are struggling. Here’s a sales comparison of the current generation of consoles compared to the previous generation, month-by-month after release. People aren’t buying as many gaming machines.
January 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
There’s signs that consoles are struggling. Here’s a sales comparison of the current generation of consoles compared to the previous generation, month-by-month after release. People aren’t buying as many gaming machines.
There was a hope that VR/AR would be that big thing. It’s really remarkable to look at the VR forecasts over time. Think of the money that Sony, Apple, or Meta have poured into this space! Look at how the forecasts gradually give up hope…
January 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
There was a hope that VR/AR would be that big thing. It’s really remarkable to look at the VR forecasts over time. Think of the money that Sony, Apple, or Meta have poured into this space! Look at how the forecasts gradually give up hope…
Everyone is looking for “the next big thing.” For over a decade mobile gaming drove growth, in a huge way. This is why legacy companies suddenly started announcing mobile games. Look at all that money, especially compared to console spending!
January 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Everyone is looking for “the next big thing.” For over a decade mobile gaming drove growth, in a huge way. This is why legacy companies suddenly started announcing mobile games. Look at all that money, especially compared to console spending!
If money is tight, game publishers and developers can also raise capital via investors. This was easy to do in the salad days of 2021, where VC (Venture Capital) investments ranged anywhere from $1-$3 Billion per quarter. By 2023 that money dried up - presumably they were all investing in AI. 🤷♂️
January 28, 2025 at 10:17 PM
If money is tight, game publishers and developers can also raise capital via investors. This was easy to do in the salad days of 2021, where VC (Venture Capital) investments ranged anywhere from $1-$3 Billion per quarter. By 2023 that money dried up - presumably they were all investing in AI. 🤷♂️
But here’s what happened. Consumer spending on games actually shrunk! Everyone went outside. By the end of 2024 spending was about what it was in 2020. Depending on what you were forecasting, about $30 Billion in annual spending just… didn’t happen.
January 28, 2025 at 10:16 PM
But here’s what happened. Consumer spending on games actually shrunk! Everyone went outside. By the end of 2024 spending was about what it was in 2020. Depending on what you were forecasting, about $30 Billion in annual spending just… didn’t happen.
So imagine it’s 2021, and you’ve been sitting on three decades of non-stop growth. What does the future look like? Lots of people made lots of predictions. Few anticipated we’d keep growing exponentially, but most thought a return to early-2000s growth was reasonable.
January 28, 2025 at 10:15 PM
So imagine it’s 2021, and you’ve been sitting on three decades of non-stop growth. What does the future look like? Lots of people made lots of predictions. Few anticipated we’d keep growing exponentially, but most thought a return to early-2000s growth was reasonable.
This chart shows how worldwide spending on games looked from 1990 until the immediate wake of the pandemic. That’s exponential, my friends! “CAGR” means “Compound Annual Growth Rate.” Impressive 4.5% growth until around 2011, followed by a decade of nearly 10% growth!
January 28, 2025 at 10:15 PM
This chart shows how worldwide spending on games looked from 1990 until the immediate wake of the pandemic. That’s exponential, my friends! “CAGR” means “Compound Annual Growth Rate.” Impressive 4.5% growth until around 2011, followed by a decade of nearly 10% growth!
Meeko sends you good vibes!
January 7, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Meeko sends you good vibes!
The delightful #Naiad was just released. A meditation in beauty as much as it is a game, you glide under the waves of a lovingly hand-drawn world. It's just the balm we need these days! Serene, kind - less about challenge and more about the joy of discovery. store.steampowered.com/app/1813860/...
December 11, 2024 at 7:10 AM
The delightful #Naiad was just released. A meditation in beauty as much as it is a game, you glide under the waves of a lovingly hand-drawn world. It's just the balm we need these days! Serene, kind - less about challenge and more about the joy of discovery. store.steampowered.com/app/1813860/...
The many Sims clones of the late 90s/early 2000s never really grasped this. They all aimed for a specificity that didn’t allow folks to tell their own stories. The secret is a light touch, but imagery that inspires emotion. I hope this helps your designs. Bufus is rooting for you! [end 🧵]
December 8, 2024 at 9:01 PM
The many Sims clones of the late 90s/early 2000s never really grasped this. They all aimed for a specificity that didn’t allow folks to tell their own stories. The secret is a light touch, but imagery that inspires emotion. I hope this helps your designs. Bufus is rooting for you! [end 🧵]
I recommend the whole talk, but something that stuck out to me is how adept humans are at “filling in the blanks.” Our brains are little emotion-storytelling machines, and presented with the outline of a story (random icons, gibberish simlish, funny gestures) we create our own narrative!
December 8, 2024 at 9:00 PM
I recommend the whole talk, but something that stuck out to me is how adept humans are at “filling in the blanks.” Our brains are little emotion-storytelling machines, and presented with the outline of a story (random icons, gibberish simlish, funny gestures) we create our own narrative!
Matt rephrased what enthralled me in 2004, something that’s informed my #GameDesign ever since I met Bufus: "The best game stories are collaborations between the player and the game…" Matt Brown, GDC 2018.
December 8, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Matt rephrased what enthralled me in 2004, something that’s informed my #GameDesign ever since I met Bufus: "The best game stories are collaborations between the player and the game…" Matt Brown, GDC 2018.
“It's an odd question, because supposedly you're in control of everything your Sims do, so ‘what happens next’ shouldn't be a surprise. But nonetheless, the surprises keep coming.” -Me, GameSpy Sims 2 Extended Review, Sept 10, 2004.
I was thinking about Bufus.
I was thinking about Bufus.
December 8, 2024 at 8:59 PM
“It's an odd question, because supposedly you're in control of everything your Sims do, so ‘what happens next’ shouldn't be a surprise. But nonetheless, the surprises keep coming.” -Me, GameSpy Sims 2 Extended Review, Sept 10, 2004.
I was thinking about Bufus.
I was thinking about Bufus.
Bufus didn’t get a job. Bufus wanted to party. He’d wake up at 10AM, decline to shower, then get on the phone to invite everyone to his house for heavy drinking. Bufus checked out of our capitalist system. Again, life lesson? I dunno. He would party in a pepto-bismol pink tuxedo. Hashtag: #goals.
December 8, 2024 at 8:57 PM
Bufus didn’t get a job. Bufus wanted to party. He’d wake up at 10AM, decline to shower, then get on the phone to invite everyone to his house for heavy drinking. Bufus checked out of our capitalist system. Again, life lesson? I dunno. He would party in a pepto-bismol pink tuxedo. Hashtag: #goals.
Looking back at my writing and screenshots from that period, I just have TONS of screenshots of Bufus. It’s like I discovered a whole new game by “letting go.” There’s probably a deep life lesson in there somewhere.
December 8, 2024 at 8:56 PM
Looking back at my writing and screenshots from that period, I just have TONS of screenshots of Bufus. It’s like I discovered a whole new game by “letting go.” There’s probably a deep life lesson in there somewhere.