Dylan Ilvento
@dylanilvento.com
Game dev working on cool things at @ward-games.com | he/him | [email protected]
Trans Rights 🏳️⚧️ & Free Palestine 🇵🇸
Trans Rights 🏳️⚧️ & Free Palestine 🇵🇸
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Dylan Ilvento
@dylanilvento.com
· Dec 4
Hey Bluesky! It’s Ward Games, your favorite indie game studio. If you’re following us elsewhere across the ‘Net, you know we’re working on a pretty cool game: Project Lexa, a sci-fi mystery where you explore a planet where everything is written in an alien language! ward-games.com/post/what-th...
What the Heck Have We Been Working On?
A surprise update!
ward-games.com
Hello, Bluesky followers! In case you didn’t know, I’m making a game with a cool buncha folks and we just started talking about it on Bluesky. You should follow our studio account and check out the other devs working on it! It’s all in this handy dandy thread below 👇
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Do you find yourself exhausted by having to create titles, puns, and names for things in your games?
⭐ Here is my small suite of websites that I find super useful when writing! ⭐
(disclaimer: I am pretty confident these are all genAI-free. I've certainly been using them since before genAI)
⭐ Here is my small suite of websites that I find super useful when writing! ⭐
(disclaimer: I am pretty confident these are all genAI-free. I've certainly been using them since before genAI)
November 25, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Do you find yourself exhausted by having to create titles, puns, and names for things in your games?
⭐ Here is my small suite of websites that I find super useful when writing! ⭐
(disclaimer: I am pretty confident these are all genAI-free. I've certainly been using them since before genAI)
⭐ Here is my small suite of websites that I find super useful when writing! ⭐
(disclaimer: I am pretty confident these are all genAI-free. I've certainly been using them since before genAI)
I credit WoW for expanding my vocabulary so much, even if it was mostly in the realm of “medieval arms and armors.” Pauldrons, grieves, scabbards… these are cool words to know!
there is almost no feedback I will reflexively ignore as a game developer but “you shouldn’t name something X because people don’t know that word” is one of them. oh no! You might learn a new word! God forbid you take away a piece of knowledge from a game that’s not a brand of gun or some shit lol
November 25, 2025 at 11:50 AM
I credit WoW for expanding my vocabulary so much, even if it was mostly in the realm of “medieval arms and armors.” Pauldrons, grieves, scabbards… these are cool words to know!
Respectfully, please stop putting the Musk / Rogan clip on my timeline.
November 24, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Respectfully, please stop putting the Musk / Rogan clip on my timeline.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Asking average Millennial if they've seen a TV show other than Avatar the Last Airbender and they respond "what? You mean like Legend of Korra?"
November 24, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Asking average Millennial if they've seen a TV show other than Avatar the Last Airbender and they respond "what? You mean like Legend of Korra?"
A four hour Defunctland video? 😩👌
November 23, 2025 at 11:28 PM
A four hour Defunctland video? 😩👌
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Fun fact: this is explicitly why Dick Wolf created Law & Order: he violently hates defense attorneys and felt tere weren't enough shows about how defendants and their lawyers are scum
(also when somebody "gets off on a technicality" that actually means the cops committed a crime against them)
(also when somebody "gets off on a technicality" that actually means the cops committed a crime against them)
November 22, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Fun fact: this is explicitly why Dick Wolf created Law & Order: he violently hates defense attorneys and felt tere weren't enough shows about how defendants and their lawyers are scum
(also when somebody "gets off on a technicality" that actually means the cops committed a crime against them)
(also when somebody "gets off on a technicality" that actually means the cops committed a crime against them)
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
psst, no one is struggling with this - we are trying to create singular things that resonate with a huge audience or resonate hugely with a specific audience. We "struggle" with how tech and VC funding has broken almost every creative economy we have. So thanks but no thanks
November 19, 2025 at 11:54 PM
psst, no one is struggling with this - we are trying to create singular things that resonate with a huge audience or resonate hugely with a specific audience. We "struggle" with how tech and VC funding has broken almost every creative economy we have. So thanks but no thanks
Love that, on Google, the Game Awards site's highest surfaced navigation links include Future Class — an initiative they've shuttered — and the site's 404 page. This is a metaphor for... something.
November 17, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Love that, on Google, the Game Awards site's highest surfaced navigation links include Future Class — an initiative they've shuttered — and the site's 404 page. This is a metaphor for... something.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Are The Game Awards important? No
But they do showcase the best gaming has on offer? No
But do they allow devs to tell their stories? No
But do they highlight underserved indies? No
But at least it's not an excuse to show more ads? No
But they do showcase the best gaming has on offer? No
But do they allow devs to tell their stories? No
But do they highlight underserved indies? No
But at least it's not an excuse to show more ads? No
there are accounts here who apparently exist just to defend the Game Awards and point out its high viewership numbers. like cool - but it also sucks? lol. i don't know how "a lot of people watch this" is a defense of anything quality-wise.
November 17, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Are The Game Awards important? No
But they do showcase the best gaming has on offer? No
But do they allow devs to tell their stories? No
But do they highlight underserved indies? No
But at least it's not an excuse to show more ads? No
But they do showcase the best gaming has on offer? No
But do they allow devs to tell their stories? No
But do they highlight underserved indies? No
But at least it's not an excuse to show more ads? No
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
there are accounts here who apparently exist just to defend the Game Awards and point out its high viewership numbers. like cool - but it also sucks? lol. i don't know how "a lot of people watch this" is a defense of anything quality-wise.
November 17, 2025 at 5:51 PM
there are accounts here who apparently exist just to defend the Game Awards and point out its high viewership numbers. like cool - but it also sucks? lol. i don't know how "a lot of people watch this" is a defense of anything quality-wise.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
It's gonna be so funny when these two have to fight CG Mario in the Smash Bros. movie
First photos of Link and Zelda in The Legend of Zelda live-action movie released www.vooks.net/first-photos...
November 17, 2025 at 2:15 PM
It's gonna be so funny when these two have to fight CG Mario in the Smash Bros. movie
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Me when I try to write dialog for our game.
November 16, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Me when I try to write dialog for our game.
Shout out to Matthew Macfadyen who, between Succession and Death by Lightning, seems to revel in playing the most annoying characters.
November 16, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Shout out to Matthew Macfadyen who, between Succession and Death by Lightning, seems to revel in playing the most annoying characters.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
The winner takes all-instant hit-meme-flywheel mentality that has completely overtaken the games industry and even #indiedev is poison.
It deteriorates the space for risk and sustainable growth, until all that's left is to to either make slot-machines or slop-machines.
It deteriorates the space for risk and sustainable growth, until all that's left is to to either make slot-machines or slop-machines.
November 14, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The winner takes all-instant hit-meme-flywheel mentality that has completely overtaken the games industry and even #indiedev is poison.
It deteriorates the space for risk and sustainable growth, until all that's left is to to either make slot-machines or slop-machines.
It deteriorates the space for risk and sustainable growth, until all that's left is to to either make slot-machines or slop-machines.
Man, Pluribus. That’s some good television.
November 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Man, Pluribus. That’s some good television.
There's a lot of silly, unexpected things that make you go, "oh wow, our game is like a real *thing*." Today that was updating Project Lexa's Steam capsules with @thenazzaro.bsky.social's awesome art and seeing it reflected in my Steam library.
November 15, 2025 at 12:07 AM
There's a lot of silly, unexpected things that make you go, "oh wow, our game is like a real *thing*." Today that was updating Project Lexa's Steam capsules with @thenazzaro.bsky.social's awesome art and seeing it reflected in my Steam library.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Do not recommend having weeks-long lethargy and migraines. 👍
November 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Do not recommend having weeks-long lethargy and migraines. 👍
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
appreciate this article breaking down a taxonomy of knowledge games (also, unfortunately, known as metroidbrainias)
azhdarchid.com/against-metr...
azhdarchid.com/against-metr...
Against 'Metroidbrania': a Landscape of Knowledge Games
What are knowledge games? How do we relate them to each other? What sub-genres exist – and which ones might be implied?
azhdarchid.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:17 AM
appreciate this article breaking down a taxonomy of knowledge games (also, unfortunately, known as metroidbrainias)
azhdarchid.com/against-metr...
azhdarchid.com/against-metr...
Didn’t make it very far in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. There was the gore (which, y’know, can’t really be helped), the straying away from the source material, but even without those issues, I realized I just don’t really like GDT’s oeuvre. Maximalist and schlocky - not for me.
November 12, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Didn’t make it very far in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. There was the gore (which, y’know, can’t really be helped), the straying away from the source material, but even without those issues, I realized I just don’t really like GDT’s oeuvre. Maximalist and schlocky - not for me.
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
“Don’t gather some of the most brilliant activists in the industry, treat us like crap, and then expect us to do nothing about it.” After the Game Awards cancelled its Future Class programme, @alyssamerc.bsky.social talked to its former honorees
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/n...
“We were effectively props”: young stars of game development feel let down by the ‘gaming Oscars’
Announced in 2020 by the Game Awards as an inclusive programme for the industry’s next generation, the Future Class initiative has now been discontinued. Inductees describe clashes with organisers and...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Just want you to know that when I asked Geoff why he gave the silent treatment to an open letter written by his own "future of games" program (& co-signed by 3000+ industry peers), he replied:
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
"Because that's my show and nobody gets to tell me how I should use my platform". 💀💀💀
Reposted by Dylan Ilvento
technology that makes people more productive is inherently used to perpetuate capitalism, that’s why I make videogames, technology that makes people less productive
November 11, 2025 at 6:20 PM
technology that makes people more productive is inherently used to perpetuate capitalism, that’s why I make videogames, technology that makes people less productive