Lau Korsgaard
@laukorsgaard.bsky.social
Lead Game Designer @ Massive Entertainment. 3Cs and systems in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Previously doing weird stuff with controllers in NAPNOK and Copenhagen Game Collective
Pinned
Lau Korsgaard
@laukorsgaard.bsky.social
· Oct 22
Introduction: currently working as a lead game designer at Massive Entertainment. Worked on Avatar Frontiers of pandora since 2020 mostly owning systems design, but towards the end also as a lead on the stellar 3Cs team.
Reposted by Lau Korsgaard
Also: networking as a dedicated activity isn’t real.
Effective networking is just building real relationships. Friendships, co-workers, collaborators, partners. Shared experiences. That is where a network comes from
You can’t force it and going to GDC with that goal won’t work
Effective networking is just building real relationships. Friendships, co-workers, collaborators, partners. Shared experiences. That is where a network comes from
You can’t force it and going to GDC with that goal won’t work
January 4, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Also: networking as a dedicated activity isn’t real.
Effective networking is just building real relationships. Friendships, co-workers, collaborators, partners. Shared experiences. That is where a network comes from
You can’t force it and going to GDC with that goal won’t work
Effective networking is just building real relationships. Friendships, co-workers, collaborators, partners. Shared experiences. That is where a network comes from
You can’t force it and going to GDC with that goal won’t work
Legit analysis
There was a phase at Microsoft Gaming where the initial team started off all unknowingly having the biggest dicks on the planet and even as they added more people nobody wanted to speak up and question the size of their peripherals
December 9, 2024 at 7:42 AM
Legit analysis
If you are curious about what we did to "make flying more fun" in our latest DLC of Avatar, then check this little thread.
Secrets of the Spires, our second DLC to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped last week. While DLC1 was mostly a story extension, DLC2 adds tons of new gameplay and 3C features, especially around flying, so #gamedev let's talk shop, #gamedesign thread incoming.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets of the Spires Story Pack Trailer
YouTube video by Ubisoft
youtu.be
December 8, 2024 at 8:09 PM
If you are curious about what we did to "make flying more fun" in our latest DLC of Avatar, then check this little thread.
Very nice little parkour system:
Made it so you auto find things you can climb on on. it still has some issues but it fixed some bug I had.
#indiegamedeveloper #indiedev #gamedev #unrealengine #ue5 #indiegamedev #indiegame #gameplay #hacknslash #platformer
#indiegamedeveloper #indiedev #gamedev #unrealengine #ue5 #indiegamedev #indiegame #gameplay #hacknslash #platformer
December 8, 2024 at 12:27 AM
Very nice little parkour system:
I can for sure recommend Phantom Spark - a vibe trackmainia that just feels super tight
December 6, 2024 at 9:29 PM
I can for sure recommend Phantom Spark - a vibe trackmainia that just feels super tight
Huge shout out to @lukeplunkett.com for stepping out of the discourse and reviewing an ancient game like Star Wars Outlaws 🙏
December 5, 2024 at 8:37 AM
Huge shout out to @lukeplunkett.com for stepping out of the discourse and reviewing an ancient game like Star Wars Outlaws 🙏
WOHA! having worked on a bow and arrow game for four years, I must say, this idea looks super fresh!
Basing accuracy on timing makes aiming very accessible without over-simplifying it. It makes it possible to shoot even while moving very quickly and performing acrobatic maneuvers. This really sets The Pathless apart from most archery games, where the player typically has to move slowly when aiming.
December 4, 2024 at 8:23 PM
WOHA! having worked on a bow and arrow game for four years, I must say, this idea looks super fresh!
Oh wow. I have found it increasingly physically painful driving at night over the last 10 years. It has been one of those "am I being crazy, or is this a thing?"
In one of the strangest chapters of my life, I spent several months in the trenches of Big Headlight, looking to understand just how and why headlights became brighter than the sun. Answers, graphs, penis sketches—it's all here, on the brand new Ringer site:
www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/t...
www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/t...
Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars
The crusade against bright headlights has picked up speed in recent years, in large part due to a couple of Reddit nerds. Could they know what’s best for the auto industry better than the auto industr...
www.theringer.com
December 4, 2024 at 5:49 AM
Oh wow. I have found it increasingly physically painful driving at night over the last 10 years. It has been one of those "am I being crazy, or is this a thing?"
Reposted by Lau Korsgaard
Secrets of the Spires, our second DLC to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped last week. While DLC1 was mostly a story extension, DLC2 adds tons of new gameplay and 3C features, especially around flying, so #gamedev let's talk shop, #gamedesign thread incoming.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets of the Spires Story Pack Trailer
YouTube video by Ubisoft
youtu.be
December 3, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Secrets of the Spires, our second DLC to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped last week. While DLC1 was mostly a story extension, DLC2 adds tons of new gameplay and 3C features, especially around flying, so #gamedev let's talk shop, #gamedesign thread incoming.
Reposted by Lau Korsgaard
so many studio closures and layoffs in the last couple years, and many of the groups that still exist are in their final round right now, and culturally the vibe among players mostly seems like "fuck devs. if they shut down, good". when there's nothing new to play they will not amend this position
December 1, 2024 at 6:16 AM
so many studio closures and layoffs in the last couple years, and many of the groups that still exist are in their final round right now, and culturally the vibe among players mostly seems like "fuck devs. if they shut down, good". when there's nothing new to play they will not amend this position
Yes! Ada, our fantastic Associate Director is streaming the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora if you are curious about the new DLC
We have our Associate Creative Director for #AvatarFrontiers live on #Twitch playing and talking about the game and the latest story pack, Secrets of the Spires 😄 Oh, and there's some sweepstakes to win too 😉
twitch.tv/Ubisoft
twitch.tv/Ubisoft
December 3, 2024 at 6:51 PM
Yes! Ada, our fantastic Associate Director is streaming the Avatar Frontiers of Pandora if you are curious about the new DLC
Secrets of the Spires, our second DLC to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped last week. While DLC1 was mostly a story extension, DLC2 adds tons of new gameplay and 3C features, especially around flying, so #gamedev let's talk shop, #gamedesign thread incoming.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets of the Spires Story Pack Trailer
YouTube video by Ubisoft
youtu.be
December 3, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Secrets of the Spires, our second DLC to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora dropped last week. While DLC1 was mostly a story extension, DLC2 adds tons of new gameplay and 3C features, especially around flying, so #gamedev let's talk shop, #gamedesign thread incoming.
Am I the only one who still defaults to the Xbox 360 controller?
December 3, 2024 at 7:40 AM
Am I the only one who still defaults to the Xbox 360 controller?
Very good breakdown of the jump in Psychonauts 2 - lots of gold nuggets here if you are making games in the genre.
I wrote a small series of articles earlier this year about some gameplay features I worked on in Psychonauts 2. A little look into how we built and tuned the systems. Here’s the one about Raz’s jump: doublefine.com/news/devin-a...
Behind the Code: Designing Raz's Jump
Skip down past this Video Gallery. Skip up past this Video Gallery. Skip down past this Image Gallery. Psychonauts 2: Jumping - Jump hold button…
doublefine.com
December 2, 2024 at 11:32 PM
Very good breakdown of the jump in Psychonauts 2 - lots of gold nuggets here if you are making games in the genre.
AI Dungeon is still wonderfully fun and playful to interact with. Much better than all the general LLM bullshit machines that came after - and they actually have a business case: Everyone wants to generate horny stories that from time to time turns batshit crazy, right?
December 2, 2024 at 10:57 PM
AI Dungeon is still wonderfully fun and playful to interact with. Much better than all the general LLM bullshit machines that came after - and they actually have a business case: Everyone wants to generate horny stories that from time to time turns batshit crazy, right?
We just released DLC2 for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. If just the current twitch streamers knew how many many developers are watching them right now, and how much we are chatting about them in our teams chat 😁
November 28, 2024 at 11:22 AM
We just released DLC2 for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. If just the current twitch streamers knew how many many developers are watching them right now, and how much we are chatting about them in our teams chat 😁
Yup. I often try to do an effort to talk through all the different kinds of jobs that contributed to a film when watching credits with my kids. "these are the people who probably installed all the computers", "these provided food for the team" "these drew the backgrounds" and so on
A great thing that John Kearns said on the Always Be Comedy podcast. When you get the end credits on films these days that go on for ages, why don’t we tell kids that those are all jobs they could do? Like, you can be part of this, it’s real.
November 27, 2024 at 11:01 AM
Yup. I often try to do an effort to talk through all the different kinds of jobs that contributed to a film when watching credits with my kids. "these are the people who probably installed all the computers", "these provided food for the team" "these drew the backgrounds" and so on
What is the most painful thing you have seen a tester do in your game?
I'll start: We saw a tester literally falling asleep when flying in Avatar 😭
I'll start: We saw a tester literally falling asleep when flying in Avatar 😭
a little girl is sitting at a table with a plate of food .
Alt: a little girl is sitting at a table with a plate of food trying hard not to sleep
media.tenor.com
November 27, 2024 at 5:35 AM
What is the most painful thing you have seen a tester do in your game?
I'll start: We saw a tester literally falling asleep when flying in Avatar 😭
I'll start: We saw a tester literally falling asleep when flying in Avatar 😭
This looks like my jam. Jelly wolf? Scorpion frog?
In Chrysalis, abilities are attached to a species' body part, so you can merge species and also combine their abilities. There are tons of possible combinations!
#indiegames #gamedev #pixelart #chrysalis
#indiegames #gamedev #pixelart #chrysalis
November 26, 2024 at 6:30 PM
This looks like my jam. Jelly wolf? Scorpion frog?
Might be time to repost this again. Getting a steady drip of new connections every day. Hi all 😘
Introduction: currently working as a lead game designer at Massive Entertainment. Worked on Avatar Frontiers of pandora since 2020 mostly owning systems design, but towards the end also as a lead on the stellar 3Cs team.
November 22, 2024 at 7:47 AM
Might be time to repost this again. Getting a steady drip of new connections every day. Hi all 😘
Interesting example of "The door problem" coined by @lizardengland.bsky.social
Back in the development of The Division 2, the team worked with detailed feature specification documents in excel called FSO. Each row, one requirement. The FSO for "Car door" had over 1000 rows!
Back in the development of The Division 2, the team worked with detailed feature specification documents in excel called FSO. Each row, one requirement. The FSO for "Car door" had over 1000 rows!
“The Door Problem” – Liz England
lizengland.com
November 21, 2024 at 9:55 PM
Interesting example of "The door problem" coined by @lizardengland.bsky.social
Back in the development of The Division 2, the team worked with detailed feature specification documents in excel called FSO. Each row, one requirement. The FSO for "Car door" had over 1000 rows!
Back in the development of The Division 2, the team worked with detailed feature specification documents in excel called FSO. Each row, one requirement. The FSO for "Car door" had over 1000 rows!
What can game designers learn from starter packs? Pretty insightful - good stuff
I think games could learn a lot from them
Starter packs are pretty genius tbh
November 21, 2024 at 8:35 PM
What can game designers learn from starter packs? Pretty insightful - good stuff
Reposted by Lau Korsgaard
Hey all - I am building a starter pack for people who are (at least sometimes) sharing interesting content* regarding the 3Cs of #gamedev
*mostly 3D and mostly... non-jank aestetics 😋
If you want to be on the list or if you know of people who should be here then holler!
*mostly 3D and mostly... non-jank aestetics 😋
If you want to be on the list or if you know of people who should be here then holler!
November 15, 2024 at 12:06 PM
Hey all - I am building a starter pack for people who are (at least sometimes) sharing interesting content* regarding the 3Cs of #gamedev
*mostly 3D and mostly... non-jank aestetics 😋
If you want to be on the list or if you know of people who should be here then holler!
*mostly 3D and mostly... non-jank aestetics 😋
If you want to be on the list or if you know of people who should be here then holler!
I do love some good hoverboard action - this looks sick
Race across alien landscapes and battle colossal sandworms in Star Overdrive! Ride your tuned hoverboard and wield a weaponized keytar—what more could you ask for? 🚀🎸🔥
Coming as a timed exclusive in early 2025 on Nintendo Switch!
#indiegame #scifi #openworld #nintendoswitch
Coming as a timed exclusive in early 2025 on Nintendo Switch!
#indiegame #scifi #openworld #nintendoswitch
November 18, 2024 at 4:13 PM
I do love some good hoverboard action - this looks sick
You might ask: What is the difference between working on a 50 ppl project and a 1000+ ppl project?
Honestly, not much. On Avatar I lead a team of roughly 5 designers, working on features on the scope of a mid/large sized indie game. Big difference is that there were 5 of such teams
Honestly, not much. On Avatar I lead a team of roughly 5 designers, working on features on the scope of a mid/large sized indie game. Big difference is that there were 5 of such teams
Show me your streak of team sizes? Mine is:
First released game: 5
Second: 7
Third: ~10
Fourth: ~15
Fifth: ~50
Sixth: ~45
Seventh: >1000 🫠
First released game: 5
Second: 7
Third: ~10
Fourth: ~15
Fifth: ~50
Sixth: ~45
Seventh: >1000 🫠
November 18, 2024 at 8:15 AM
You might ask: What is the difference between working on a 50 ppl project and a 1000+ ppl project?
Honestly, not much. On Avatar I lead a team of roughly 5 designers, working on features on the scope of a mid/large sized indie game. Big difference is that there were 5 of such teams
Honestly, not much. On Avatar I lead a team of roughly 5 designers, working on features on the scope of a mid/large sized indie game. Big difference is that there were 5 of such teams