Joseph Knowles
@josephknowles.bsky.social
Games, narrative design, much else besides. Helsinki 🇫🇮 He/him/hän
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
I don't really care if the future is short videos. I like words. Words have gotten me this far and I'm gonna stick with 'em for the duration
September 9, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I don't really care if the future is short videos. I like words. Words have gotten me this far and I'm gonna stick with 'em for the duration
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Spoons are a species of bowl. Knives are a species of plate. Forks are descended from a now-extinct dish that would be completely incomprehensible to the modern diner
July 19, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Spoons are a species of bowl. Knives are a species of plate. Forks are descended from a now-extinct dish that would be completely incomprehensible to the modern diner
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Little gentle reminder to all the human creatives out there 💪
April 9, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Little gentle reminder to all the human creatives out there 💪
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Aki Kaurismäki (with scenes from his film "The Man Without a Past") - BOTD
April 4, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Aki Kaurismäki (with scenes from his film "The Man Without a Past") - BOTD
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
I've learned (and I am still learning) how to run a game studio for the last seven years doing both creative and biz. Here's a list of guidelines that work for us and might be useful for others that were lessons I've incorporated with our experience and guidance from others. 🧵
February 23, 2025 at 9:26 PM
I've learned (and I am still learning) how to run a game studio for the last seven years doing both creative and biz. Here's a list of guidelines that work for us and might be useful for others that were lessons I've incorporated with our experience and guidance from others. 🧵
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Don't just listen to players. If given the option, they'll optimize the game out of their games, and the story out of their stories. It's our job to filter information and data and feedback into good work, and while we'll sometimes miss it's better than blindly following surveys.
I once worked on a visual novel game where all the surveys and focus groups said that nobody wanted romance, they only wanted mystery and sci-fi.
Then 75+% of clicks in-game went to stories with explicit romantic or sexy themes.
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
Then 75+% of clicks in-game went to stories with explicit romantic or sexy themes.
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...
'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it
Young people want stories about friendship more than romance, say researchers and industry execs.
www.pcgamer.com
February 23, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Don't just listen to players. If given the option, they'll optimize the game out of their games, and the story out of their stories. It's our job to filter information and data and feedback into good work, and while we'll sometimes miss it's better than blindly following surveys.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Make this permanent.
Charing Cross Road, pedestrianised today. Glorious. Because whenever you take cars away, cities get better.
February 2, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Make this permanent.
EU nations should do this too
🧪
If I were Canadian PM I would immediately:
1. Create a new $15B science fund
2. Offer any credentialed US scientist funding for lab startup and replacement of NIH grants if they move to Canada
3. Immediate permanent residency
4. Citizenship after 2 years
Overnight a science superpower
If I were Canadian PM I would immediately:
1. Create a new $15B science fund
2. Offer any credentialed US scientist funding for lab startup and replacement of NIH grants if they move to Canada
3. Immediate permanent residency
4. Citizenship after 2 years
Overnight a science superpower
February 1, 2025 at 9:28 AM
EU nations should do this too
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Finns do the best forest art but people don’t even know
January 24, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Finns do the best forest art but people don’t even know
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Yup, @jamellebouie.net has this exactly right. What these guys are celebrating/pursuing/yearning for is not masculine energy, it's *adolescent* energy. Drinking Red Bull, crushing Call of Duty, refusing to clean your room. It is indescribably pathetic. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/o...
January 18, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Yup, @jamellebouie.net has this exactly right. What these guys are celebrating/pursuing/yearning for is not masculine energy, it's *adolescent* energy. Drinking Red Bull, crushing Call of Duty, refusing to clean your room. It is indescribably pathetic. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/o...
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people.
Good trade.
Good trade.
January 17, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people.
Good trade.
Good trade.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
It's so weird that in the end Twitter became state media
January 15, 2025 at 6:54 AM
It's so weird that in the end Twitter became state media
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Gen ai is poisoning our power grid, stealing intellectual property, using precious water, and ruining the internet with unreliable information and garbage imagery. Don't use it, and don't normalize it, even for laughs.
New evidence shows AI's thirst for power may be distorting the flow of power to US consumers (gift link):
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
AI Needs So Much Power, It’s Making Yours Worse
There’s a strong link between proximity to AI data centers and higher levels of distorted power in residential areas
www.bloomberg.com
December 27, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Gen ai is poisoning our power grid, stealing intellectual property, using precious water, and ruining the internet with unreliable information and garbage imagery. Don't use it, and don't normalize it, even for laughs.
Oh there’s a new musical biopic about Robbie Williams? Huh, sounds fun, maybe when it comes to strea—
Wait, he’s played by a CGI chimpanzee? This is suddenly the only movie I want to see. Like, immediately
Wait, he’s played by a CGI chimpanzee? This is suddenly the only movie I want to see. Like, immediately
December 28, 2024 at 8:01 AM
Oh there’s a new musical biopic about Robbie Williams? Huh, sounds fun, maybe when it comes to strea—
Wait, he’s played by a CGI chimpanzee? This is suddenly the only movie I want to see. Like, immediately
Wait, he’s played by a CGI chimpanzee? This is suddenly the only movie I want to see. Like, immediately
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
tl;dr: AI CEO doesn't understand why daughter turned the AI features of the AI toy off, because he doesn't understand how play works
His entire business model is being confronted and destroyed by the innocence of a child and he lacks the emotional intelligence to see it.
His entire business model is being confronted and destroyed by the innocence of a child and he lacks the emotional intelligence to see it.
December 27, 2024 at 10:19 AM
tl;dr: AI CEO doesn't understand why daughter turned the AI features of the AI toy off, because he doesn't understand how play works
His entire business model is being confronted and destroyed by the innocence of a child and he lacks the emotional intelligence to see it.
His entire business model is being confronted and destroyed by the innocence of a child and he lacks the emotional intelligence to see it.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Saw FLOW last night night, and all I'll say is GO SEE IT.
May be the best animated film of the last year. Magical, thought provoking, and the critters, while silent and not photoreal, are absolutely full characters you can feel.
It also didn't hurt that Cat looks a LOT like our new kitten.
May be the best animated film of the last year. Magical, thought provoking, and the critters, while silent and not photoreal, are absolutely full characters you can feel.
It also didn't hurt that Cat looks a LOT like our new kitten.
December 19, 2024 at 4:32 PM
Saw FLOW last night night, and all I'll say is GO SEE IT.
May be the best animated film of the last year. Magical, thought provoking, and the critters, while silent and not photoreal, are absolutely full characters you can feel.
It also didn't hurt that Cat looks a LOT like our new kitten.
May be the best animated film of the last year. Magical, thought provoking, and the critters, while silent and not photoreal, are absolutely full characters you can feel.
It also didn't hurt that Cat looks a LOT like our new kitten.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it.
The law only ever serves capital.
The law only ever serves capital.
‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says
‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says
Pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their productsBusiness live – latest updatesThe developer OpenAI has said it would be impossible to create tools like its groundbreaking chatbot ChatGPT without access to copyrighted material, as pressure grows on artificial intelligence firms over the content used to train their products.Chatbots such as ChatGPT and image generators like Stable Diffusion are “trained” on a vast trove of data taken from the internet, with much of it covered by copyright – a legal protection against someone’s work being used without permission. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
January 8, 2024 at 4:34 PM
20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it.
The law only ever serves capital.
The law only ever serves capital.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
I have lost the ability to tell if news organizations are actually this out of touch, this uncaring about fact-checking or context, or if this is an editorial agenda to terrify the people who would benefit most from universal healthcare, the elderly.
December 10, 2024 at 2:43 PM
I have lost the ability to tell if news organizations are actually this out of touch, this uncaring about fact-checking or context, or if this is an editorial agenda to terrify the people who would benefit most from universal healthcare, the elderly.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this
December 10, 2024 at 2:38 PM
Please tell your kids, every damn day if necessary, that chatGPT is not a goddamn search engine and you shouldn’t believe a word it says. Tell the adults too, but it’s especially imperative to inoculate kids against this
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
Before & After: I don’t think people realize the extent to which parked cars degrade public space.
November 25, 2024 at 5:25 AM
Before & After: I don’t think people realize the extent to which parked cars degrade public space.
Reposted by Joseph Knowles
I adore FLOW, the stunning Latvian animated feature out today. Top 10 of the year for me. A dialogue free movie starring animated animals about community vs. individualism, about seeing ourselves as part of a whole.
Here’s 4-star review for RogerEbert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/flow...
Here’s 4-star review for RogerEbert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/flow...
November 22, 2024 at 4:15 PM
I adore FLOW, the stunning Latvian animated feature out today. Top 10 of the year for me. A dialogue free movie starring animated animals about community vs. individualism, about seeing ourselves as part of a whole.
Here’s 4-star review for RogerEbert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/flow...
Here’s 4-star review for RogerEbert: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/flow...
Hello 👋
I’m a game narrative designer living and working in Helsinki. Here for my games friends and general friendly vibes. This place is a good scroll so far.
For the algorithm:
Ursula K. Le Guin
Becky Chambers
Aki Kaurismäki
Beach Boys
Solarpunk
Stereolab
Nintendo
Moomin
Ghibli
Trek
I’m a game narrative designer living and working in Helsinki. Here for my games friends and general friendly vibes. This place is a good scroll so far.
For the algorithm:
Ursula K. Le Guin
Becky Chambers
Aki Kaurismäki
Beach Boys
Solarpunk
Stereolab
Nintendo
Moomin
Ghibli
Trek
November 22, 2024 at 7:01 PM
Hello 👋
I’m a game narrative designer living and working in Helsinki. Here for my games friends and general friendly vibes. This place is a good scroll so far.
For the algorithm:
Ursula K. Le Guin
Becky Chambers
Aki Kaurismäki
Beach Boys
Solarpunk
Stereolab
Nintendo
Moomin
Ghibli
Trek
I’m a game narrative designer living and working in Helsinki. Here for my games friends and general friendly vibes. This place is a good scroll so far.
For the algorithm:
Ursula K. Le Guin
Becky Chambers
Aki Kaurismäki
Beach Boys
Solarpunk
Stereolab
Nintendo
Moomin
Ghibli
Trek