Author | Lightnews

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 22h

Oh, most definitely! And I suspect this will lead to more and more IP consolidation/ homogenization as the budgets ballon.

But, I’ve also seen this when your creative team doesn’t really have a vision to drive towards outside of a list of back of the box features.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

There is a big difference between my frustration at UE5 lacking keyboard shortcuts for their new level workflows after 6 major releases and how I feel when I die running back to collected my dropped Runes in Elden Ring.

One is a failure of design, while the other is successfully creating a fantasy.

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

However, the design of something intended to be a tool is failing when it is not as effortless of an extension of the human using it as possible. Whereas art is a conversation with the audience, thus extending its own vision back to the user as much as it is meant to be an extension of them.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

The relevant takeaway that I had while reading it is how folks seem to confuse designing software as a tool versus designing software for art and/or entertainment.

Elements crucial to the former—HCD, mental models, cognitive load, etc.—are valuable to the latter.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

I finally got around reading The Design of Everyday Things recently to see how it compared to the foundational book in my design education, Understanding Comics, and fill in the context missing from just hearing folks reference elements from it over the years.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

Too often, you get told to sand off all the edges in the hopes that it will appeal to all players, which all too often alienates the audience you were targeting.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

It’s a balancing act for sure, but, in these instances, there is little room for nuance in the discussion around how much would need to change improve the user experience without sacrificing the fantasy we are crafting for players.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · 23h

I find this is particularly difficult with discussions around “friction” in the player experience. For AAA games, in particular. Executives or directors basing huge changes on negative or lukewarm feedback when some level of that response is expected in the designated player fantasy.

Nyek London @stupidhoroscope.bsky.social · 1d

One of the most important jobs of a designer is understanding that there are some things that everyone says they want, but then absolutely hate if they get it

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · May 30

Mind boggling considering the interview is 90% buzzwords that a marketing department would tell a studio is the perfect game for the moment based on the research of the highest revenue games out 5+ years ago.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · May 2

I thought with the Canadian election settled that my anxieties on the home front would ease a little in this tumultuous world.

But, every time I look out my window, I see a crow nesting in the tree across the street, forewarning me of the Hitchcockian nightmares brewing beneath the floorboards.

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Apr 17

I’m so tired of Star Wars sequels.

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · Apr 17

SpaceX is a top contender for Trump’s “Golden Dome” defense project: a trillion-dollar air defense system known officially as the “Iron Dome for America,” which the president claims would protect the U.S. from missile strikes.

Elon Musk Has an Unhinged Plan for Trump’s Pet Defense Project

Musk continues to try to buy pieces of the government.

newrepublic.com

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Apr 13

Every imported item at checkout on a website:

A still from the GI Joe PSAs with quoted dialogue from the parody version saying, “Hey kid, I’m a computer!!”

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Apr 3

Just really needed to get this out of my brain…

Tommy Wiseau from The Room screams, “You’re tariffing me apart, U-SA!”

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 24

Colonel Roy Campbell (AI) explains how misinformation is a source of control over the masses.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 22

I really hope that each part has scent notes comparable to the ingredient, so you know it’s about time to buy a new one when you are getting nothing but bun.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 7

It’s super unfortunate that UE hasn’t updated the move component on the base pawn to reflect how complex the collision on all these megascan and more detailed terrain sculpting can be. You end up with scenes that look pretty, but the player and AI get hung up on a weird facet of geo.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 5

It’s the biggest mistake that I’ve seen from the AAA studios that big publishers started in the last decade: they hire for a fully realized studio instead of laying the ground work with a core team and ramping up once you’re ready. So you get demos that look flashy but have zero substance.

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 5

The addition of real-time cinematics with pcap made this even more likely, as the lead times on those are long and create fixed points in the game when you create all of them as full scenes rather than also having a systemic scene builder for more run of the mill moments.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 5

Never fun to have an arted up level built before the gameplay loop is even roughly proved out and based on the first draft of a plot outline. Not the worst thing if it’s only a VS and not multiple levels, but even one level that heavy is extremely time consuming to rework 🫠

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 5

As an LD, this has been an even shorter timeline. With internal artists ramping up and the need to keep feeding assets to established outsourcing partners lest you lose your foothold, we often get tossed directly into production—rushing through a block out phase to start art phases.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Mar 5

I wish this had been the team trajectory for most of projects that I worked on. With the shift away from story DLC / multi-project studios and the increase in highly specialized roles to meet visual fidelity, the timeframe for that skeleton crew has never been longer than 5-10% of the project for me

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Feb 10

Since Eagles are on everybody’s mind today, I’m sitting over here thinking about this classic video from early YouTube.

Eagles Fly on IYI

YouTube video by GnØ βØdι

youtu.be

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Jan 25

All chained to this mortal coil by the contracts that you made them sign with Tom Nook.

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Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Jan 25

The whole framework of escaping the city to take over your grandparents’ farm in a secluded town seems so apt for it! Using the relationship systems to create impact with who goes missing could just add to it.

Just needs a late game objective that can somehow evolve the base mechanics.

Jordan Groves @tehjgro.bsky.social · Jan 25

Always loved the idea of a slow burn horror game that played on the structure of Harvest Moon and the like.

The first year, you learn about all the festivals and meet all the townsfolk. But, each year after that, someone goes missing and the festivals start to reveal about the local customs.

Liz England @lizardengland.bsky.social · Jan 25

a game like the original diablo except you also run a farm

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