Paul Kilduff-Taylor
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mode7games.bsky.social
Paul Kilduff-Taylor
@mode7games.bsky.social
Indie games // Electronic music // Words

Mode 7 // nervous_testpilot + _ensnare_ // Mode Collapse

modecollapse.com - read my words about things
mode7.games - games
nervoustestpilot.com - music
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
RIP to one of the best to ever do it. Absolute powerhouse and a legend.
Tom Stoppard, playwright of dazzling wit and playful erudition, dies aged 88
A theatrical sensation since the 1960s, whose dramas included Arcadia, The Real Thing and Leopoldstadt, Stoppard also had huge success as a screenwriter
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
And finished! Another 20 fantastic-looking unknown indie games to play right now or wishlist!

kotaku.com/indie-games-...

Thanks so much to everyone who submitted, and sorry to the hundreds I couldn't include! Very pleased to have managed to get to 40 though!

Please repost far and wide!
20 Extraordinary Indie Games To Wishlist This Black Friday
Another incredible selection of unknown games, both out now and coming soon
kotaku.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Is "owned" the millennial six-seven? Why am I suddenly sent back to 2003 every time I see this word in any context? Please enjoy my 4 hour video essay relating this to the ills of late-stage capitalism
November 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
This was fun and I maintain that stupidity should be one of the guiding principles of game marketing
When press releases go terribly right 😄

@mode7games.bsky.social used to send absurd press releases with Monty Python-esque language, and... it's great? I dug up some old ones for Paul to read out loud.

Full ep: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEl1...
November 28, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
Re: Last Repost. I always pause a little before reposting things that universal, because I have wrote to support myself with no back-up my entire adult life. However, day-job was journalism/criticism, and fiction what I did in my spare time. That's still having a dayjob.
November 26, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
And the folks who are actually writing full-time generally only got there after years of day jobs, family support, or both.

The point of sharing this is not to demoralize anyone, but to let emerging writers know they're not failing if they can't make a living off writing alone. Almost no one can.
almost every novelist you read who's not from the airport fiction or bestseller sections is working a full on day job, including multi-award winners and absolute legends, or they have a spouse or trust that supports them. virtually across the board. just normalize in your mind that's how it works.
I know we know this, but authors need to get better at talking about how they actually make their money. Stop pretending it's from the books.
November 25, 2025 at 11:24 PM
This was a great chat. I'm really calling for people working on games with more complex architectures (and also a greater technical understanding than me - not hard!) to be more transparent about any challenges around preservation.
Regulation looms over publishers ending support for games - but it might hit indies hardest.

@mode7games.bsky.social tells grokludo about the technical complexities that neither industry nor Stop Killing Games have planned for.

I also got him to read his absurd press releases out loud 😁
November 24, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
Regulation looms over publishers ending support for games - but it might hit indies hardest.

@mode7games.bsky.social tells grokludo about the technical complexities that neither industry nor Stop Killing Games have planned for.

I also got him to read his absurd press releases out loud 😁
November 24, 2025 at 9:27 AM
The greatest threat to productivity in our times
November 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
REMINDER: 'Earth Must Die' desperately requires your WISHLISTS.

Please be amazing and pop over to Steam and drop us a wishlist, each and every one massively helps us out.

THANK YOU.

store.steampowered.com/app/3639780/...
Earth Must Die on Steam
These moronic Terranoids think they can just roll in here and take over my beautiful Tyrythian kingdom? The kingdom that I built from the ground up with my bare hands, and only sort of inherited from ...
store.steampowered.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
Best Friend of Size Five Games from The Swindle dev team @lottemakesstuff.pink has a new game coming out in 3 hours and it looks AMAZING.

A little bit 'Fights in Tight Spaces', a little bit 'Into the Breach', a little bit 'Devil's Kiss' and visually gorgeous

store.steampowered.com/app/1900250/...
Demonschool on Steam
Demonschool is a new-style tactics RPG where motion equals action. Defeat big weirdos in between the human and demon worlds as Faye and her misfit companions, while navigating university life on a mys...
store.steampowered.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:53 AM
November 13, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I wrote about whether or not you should attend games industry events

modecollapse.substack.com/p/will-atten...
Will Attending Events Help Me Sell More Games?
Definitely not. Also yes. Maybe.
modecollapse.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:52 PM
My brain is definitely reaching a bit with this but STILL
November 13, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Complaining about something in a restaurant but then not actually sending the food back is the most British bullshit imaginable and should be banned
November 12, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Is there a reason that UK MP's are taking consultation from American YouTubers but not, say, indie game developers who would be affected by changes in the law?

hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025...
November 12, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I will be at To the Moon at Birmingham NEC talking about Stop Killing Games this afternoon so if you happen to be there then please say hello!
November 12, 2025 at 10:45 AM
I wrote about the general conversation around AI and why I find it increasingly impossible to engage with

modecollapse.substack.com/p/we-need-to...
We Need to Stop Talking About AI
Time to close the context window
modecollapse.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Would someone kindly be willing to put me in touch with anybody at Cloud Imperium who might be interested in chatting about a games preservation/ history issue I've come across? Sorry for vagueness but will explain once in contact. Thank you!
October 26, 2025 at 12:20 PM
The AI bubble and hype-mongering has obscured much of the true value in the tech to the point that "maybe I should engage with this somewhat - no it just sucks" is a thought process that many people are going through. I genuinely find this frustrating and sad.
Sometimes, I wonder if I’m getting old/behind on embracing new technology.

Then I remember, no (at least not in this case): It’s just that AI sucks.

It’ll never be the money-maker execs want it to be, and in the process, it’s decimating industries (and the people within them) along with the planet
If only everyone could have predicted this

www.thegamer.com/ea-generativ...
October 26, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Have a little controversy for the weekend

open.substack.com/pub/modecoll...
10.5 Game Development Lies the Industry Should Stop Telling
Liar's Poker
open.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
I did the thing! Most of today has been me making and editing and rendering and uploading this roughly 50 minute intro video to how I program a complex strategy game in C++! I know not everyone does it this way, but this is just 'how I do it'. youtu.be/FShH78J_zmY?... Plz share with likely viewers!
C++ Strategy Game Programming: Ridiculous Space Battles code video #1
YouTube video by Positech Games
youtu.be
October 23, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Paul Kilduff-Taylor
Sorry to keep banging on about this, but we are *so desperately close* to 50 reviews on the EMD Demo

It'd be HUGELY helpful to be at 50 ahead of Next Fest, for boring and complicated algorithm reasons, so if you haven't reviewed it yet PLEASE DO thank you x

store.steampowered.com/app/4057540/...
Earth Must Die Demo on Steam
These moronic Terranoids think they can just roll in here and take over my beautiful Tyrythian kingdom? The kingdom that I built from the ground up with my bare hands, and only sort of inherited from ...
store.steampowered.com
October 13, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Why do I have 30 notifications
October 11, 2025 at 1:26 AM