Brenden

@brendengibbons

Senior Game & Narrative Designer (Lucky Punk, Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure, Say No! More, Minute of Islands, Last Day of June, etc) - He/Him - Avatar by Viv Schwarz Portfolio: brendengibbons.me

417 Following1,547 Followers129 Posts

Bluesky

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Brenden@brendengibbons· 2d

All you nerds and game devs coming to gamescom, to my turf?? 👋 Hiii. If you need some recs from a local, ask away.

Brenden@brendengibbons· 8d

Hi! I'm the designer of @greenparrotgames.bsky.social and we're working on Lucky Punk, and we specifically call it out on our Steam Page that we are anti gen-AI. store.steampowered.com/app/4508290/...

Brenden@brendengibbons· 22d

Insane UX at this old train ticket machine in Strasbourg that confused almost everyone who went up to it. With this kind of iPod-ass controls, it must be, what, 20 years old?

Brenden@brendengibbons· Jul 3

At Guadalindie, an indie game fair in Malaga! There's indie games, a little artist's alley, and talks (including @itsquinns.bsky.social)

Brenden@brendengibbons· Jun 26

In 2019, I was asked to write my advice for people, especially fellow people of colour, who are interested in games as a career. Here it is. My opinion has never changed. I always reply to any student cold-contacting me, I've mentored a bunch of times. We do this together and help each other.

A blurry photo of the Ensemble 2019 leaflet with me on the left and some text on the right. In the next photo is an excerpt of the most relevant text.

My advice:

Look, you have to understand that the industry is rife with issues. People burn themselves out working 100-hour weeks with no overtime pay out of a sense of duty and pride. Hundreds of people can suddenly lose their jobs and will be forced to move cities if not countries to search for new work. Quality assurance teams are paid pennies in zero-hour contracts despite being a pillar in our industry.

But, my dearest stranger, we are still here because of the incredible potential of the medium and we are trying to do our best to make the industry a better place for all of us. And if you find yourself, as many of us have, with excitement and passion in your veins to create a video game because, once upon a time, a video game had made an impact on your life... Let us make something wonderful together and make the industry and the world a better place.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Jun 25

They're the same picture.

Brenden@brendengibbons· May 29

We're making a /punky game/. Using AI on something that claims to be punk would be like... oh, I don't know, having sex with a condom on and then stealing a baby from the hospital to parade it as yours. store.steampowered.com/app/4508290/...

screenshot of a Steam page focused on the text: Made entirely by foolhardy, hopeful humans. No "AI".

Brenden@brendengibbons· May 13

On my way to A MAZE! I'll be showing off Lucky Punk on the Open Screens, Thursday 14:00-17:00. Let's hang! amazeberlin2026.sched.com/event/2N9v0/...

An image of a screen inside of a train showing that I'm currently on a train going to Berlin.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Apr 16

Who needs AI?

Brenden@brendengibbons· Apr 6

Reading online about someone who uses AI to generate bad ideas so they can work from there to solve their game design problems and I'm like... buddy. I don't need a machine that turns energy into bad ideas. I'm a human:

Skeleton squatting meme with the text "MY BODY IS A MACHINE THAT TURNS SUGARS AND CARBOHYDRATES INTO BAD IDEAS"

Brenden@brendengibbons· Apr 5

This idiot has decided to be Recyclable Trash.

A grey and white cat inside of a big, rigid, dark yellow bag. Imagine a tote bag made of plastic but very tall. It's specifically to hold clean plastic trash.

He's peeking out of the bag, his mouth obscured by the bag. You can see his butt and tail.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Mar 14

A meme from kids TV show Arthur, where the original is DW is staring a "keep out" sign on the door and says "this sign can't stop me because I don't know how to read."

It's been edited to note that DW is Professor Tangrowth, the sign says "Explicit notes left by humans about what happened and why they're all gone" and DW/Professor Tangrowth says "I wonder where the humans are. Too bad idk how to read."

Brenden@brendengibbons· Mar 13

Anyway, my mood is this. The Asylum Demon was German Paperwork, and I'm about to be carried by the giant crow into pre-production, and blighttown is the steam forums.

Dark Souls 1 screenshot, right at the end of the first section, with "STUDIO FOUNDED" text in front of it.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Mar 13

Quick announcement! 🎉I'm co-founding an indie studio!🎉 Say Hi to Green Parrot Games. I'll be working with Tom Bockhorn and @laburrini.bsky.social , and supported by @thomasroessig.bsky.social & everyone else at Fourth Moon Games. Please enjoy this not-at-all-cheesy album cover, I mean team photo.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Mar 11

Also I guess I will now be Posting?? since I have to start using social media again to talk about things. Anyway, I now have proof that InnuendoStudios Ian Danskin played Say No! More, and it helped him say No, which I'm very glad of. Marius & I wrote some real evergreen advice for the game, tbh.

A screenshot showing the YouTube page of Innuendo Studios' video titled "a guide to flaming out". The video is paused in the beginning content warning, which includes the words "spoilers for Say No More" which is hey, that's MY game! I wrote that! The content warning warns the viewer of "(brief) mentions of suicide/siucidial ideation and mental health ordeals generally", so ah, this is a pretty heavy video.

A screenshot from the game Say No! More. It has one of my favourite lines that I wrote, where the coach tells you "Remember: You don't need work or capitalism to self-actualize!".

Brenden@brendengibbons· Mar 11

Hi! I'm Brenden Gibbons, a queer British-Indonesian and this is #WhatAGameDevLooksLike. I've been in this industry for 10+ years as a game and narrative designer, which just means that I'm always deep in flowcharts and spreadsheets. I'm busy working on something that I'll announce in a few days~

Brenden has short black hair and is wearing a black graphic t-shirt with a mossy green twill jacket, and glasses that has a mostly transparent frame. He's looking to the side and is leaning against an old stone wall.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Aug 22

Oh my god they're playing BEYBLADES at Gamescom??

Brenden@brendengibbons· Aug 3

If you're going to #Devcom or #Gamescom '25, there's train construction work that could affect you. If you're staying in Düsseldorf, the S6 would've been one of the trains you'd take straight to the conference. Now, it's endstation is Köln Mülheim and you'll need to get an additional tram.

Brenden@brendengibbons· May 27

Oddsparks 1.0 is out on PS5 & Xbox Series! 🥳 🟢 www.xbox.com/en-US/games/... 🟦 store.playstation.com/en-us/produc... and it'll be out on PC at May 27th, 7pm Central European Summer Time! ⬛ store.steampowered.com/app/1817800/...

A screenshot of Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure on the Playstation Store.

A screenshot of Oddsparks an Automation Adventure on the Xbox Store

Brenden@brendengibbons· May 21

We've worked hard on making the genre approachable and accessible without dumbing it down. Like, we spent a lot of time making our Logic tools understandable, and we see folks talking about using it with their kids! Use our game to teach yourself or your kids how an OR gate works!

Brenden@brendengibbons· May 21

We love this subgenre and we wanted to crack it open for people. Stardew Valley can be calm and cozy AND get people to pull open a spreadsheet to rush year 1 community center. We wanted to toe the same line and from the reviews, I think we did pretty well, especially since a few has 500+ hours!

A steam review for Oddsparks - ruruorbz posted a positive review on 8th of february, having played Oddsparks for 130.9 hours, and says "This game is soooo CUUUUTE, like me. xD".

1 person found this review helpful and someone gave it a "Heartwarming" award.

A steam review for Oddsparks - Ongar the Weary posted a positive review on 6th of May, having played Oddsparks for 49.9 hours, and says "This is a fantastic factory-builder that will have you using excel spreadsheets (like Satisfactory), but is incredibly cute the whole time. Also, it's perfect for Steam Deck; I might actually prefer using a controller.".

A steam review for Oddsparks - Rai posted a positive review on 24th of April, having played Oddsparks for 94.6 hours, and says "A different take when it comes to automation games but was able to make it work. Polished gameplay and constantly receiving updates, the way early access should be.".

A steam review for Oddsparks - dino_inc posted a positive review on 24th April 2024, having played Oddsparks for 8.8 hours, and says "it's factorio with little guys".

28 people found this review helpful, 2 people found it funny.

Brenden@brendengibbons· Dec 18

Yeah, this is an occupational hazard of being a game designer.