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There was an interesting profile on Lucas Pope in Ars Technica years ago. [0] What struck me was that he's very development tools oriented. Development not as a

There was an interesting profile on Lucas Pope in Ars Technica years ago. [0] What struck me was that he's very development tools oriented. Development not as a means to an end, but as much a love letter to the process itself. Comes through in every aspect of what he does. Couldn't come up with anything more inspiring if I tried tbh. [0]: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obra-dinn-lucas-pope-dishes-on-his-illustrious-game-dev-career/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obr...

sdkgames 4y ago
Adding a new game object to a game increases its complexity ("combinatorial explosion"). Good tools are needed to deal with this. "Great tools help make great games. Spend as much time on tools as possible" (c) J.Romero.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFziBfvAFnM&t=884s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFziBfvAFnM&t=884s
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  The biggest "explosion" there has got to be Dwarf Fortress, where the interplay of every object and aspect of the game causes some really interesting emergent behaviour (like catsplosions or whatnot).
  - xwdv 4y ago
    You tend to get these kind of emergent behaviors easily when you design a game around entity component systems.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kqr 4y ago
This goes for any type of product development. Speed is a requirement for innovation (you need to try lots of things to see what sticks, and if you can only try things slowly then not many things will be tried), and good tooling is a requirement for speed. Best, of course, is if you find ways to use off-the-shelf tooling (maybe with some exaltation) so you can spend more time on the thing you're supposed to be doing. Either way, you should have a toolmaker in the team.
- cptcobalt 4y ago
  this person ships founders: you want a toolmaker that can build fast iterable tools that effectively balance the needs of Eng/Product/Design when you grow past 10+.

sdkgames 4y ago

Adding a new game object to a game increases its complexity ("combinatorial explosion"). Good tools are needed to deal with this. "Great tools help make great games. Spend as much time on tools as possible" (c) J.Romero.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFziBfvAFnM&t=884s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFziBfvAFnM&t=884s

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
The biggest "explosion" there has got to be Dwarf Fortress, where the interplay of every object and aspect of the game causes some really interesting emergent behaviour (like catsplosions or whatnot).
- xwdv 4y ago
  You tend to get these kind of emergent behaviors easily when you design a game around entity component systems.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kqr 4y ago

This goes for any type of product development. Speed is a requirement for innovation (you need to try lots of things to see what sticks, and if you can only try things slowly then not many things will be tried), and good tooling is a requirement for speed. Best, of course, is if you find ways to use off-the-shelf tooling (maybe with some exaltation) so you can spend more time on the thing you're supposed to be doing. Either way, you should have a toolmaker in the team.

cptcobalt 4y ago
this person ships founders: you want a toolmaker that can build fast iterable tools that effectively balance the needs of Eng/Product/Design when you grow past 10+.