James Youngman

@jyoungman

He/him Game Designer, composer, writer Senior Tech Designer at Elsewhere. All opinions my own. #gamedev | #gamedesign

705 Following2,588 Followers3,715 Posts

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Before working on Mafia The Old Country, I would have just thought of this as a neat mineral formation. But now, there's a connection. Damn do I love making video games.

A chunk of yellow sulfur on calcite in a museum display. A sticker identifies the mineral, and that it was mine in Sicily

James Youngman@jyoungman· May 28

Post a meme made by you

A musical score, two lines of grand cleff. The first is captioned "Classical musicians think horses sound like" and shows two measures from Schubert's "Erlkönig"

The second is captioned "But metal musicians think horses sound like" and shows two measures from Iron Maiden's "The Trooper"

James Youngman@jyoungman· May 21

Quote with a fiction band that is not Spinal Tap

Screen shot of the band Magical Dreamers from Chrono Cross. Nikki, and androgynous man with pale skin, red hair, and a yellow guitar states "To all you rockers out there in Termina!" He is flanked by two women in skimpy costumes; one dressed in blue, the other in red.

James Youngman@jyoungman· May 14

He found me, too!

Bluesky new follower notification for Charles Darwin bot

James Youngman@jyoungman· May 1

My first import

The cover image of Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!

The title of the game is presented in black Japanese text. The main ouendan, a man with spiky dark red hair, stands at attention. He wears a black uniform and red headband. The background is a bright red field.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Apr 23

Meme of an anime student gesturing at a butterfly. The image has been converted to black and white.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Apr 4

I haven't forgotten how this line ends

Kristen Schaal as Hazel Wassername in 30 Rock. The caption reads "at a resort in YNt Catskills where Henny Youngman"

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 30

There’s a story about how 50 Cent’s son thought there should be a helicopter in the video game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, so the team was forced to put it in. It made the game worse, because a kid’s ideas aren’t exactly going to necessarily make for a great AAA video game, and it made the team feel disrespected. They weren’t being trusted to do their jobs. They were being second-guessed by people who knew nothing about what it takes to make a video game, and what makes video games fun.

In games, narrative designers are asked to do that every day.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 28

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 11

A screenshot from Pokémon Pokopia. A Tangela speaks to a ditto approximating the appearance of a Pokémon trainer with green hair, light skin, and a red and white uniform. The Tangela is saying: "In that case, I belive I'll also take the liberty of calling you Ishmael."

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 9

A tweet from Sam Altman with the following text.

Be me
Grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever
Mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything
Wake up one day to hundreds of messages: "look i made you into a twin ghibli style haha"

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jan 26

The goal of AI alignment research is to align the goals of an AI agent with those of the people who've trained it. Therefore, while there may be technical progress, none of it is morally credible, because it is in service of empowering people who train and deploy LLMS. Who aligns the aligners?

"I haven't seen the video, but I know her academic production. I can't watch right now but I would softest extending some grace - assume she's trying to talk to a generalist audience.
She's been doing solid work for ages.

Anthropic folks are a bit odd, but they have really good alignment results."

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jan 14

George C. Scott as Patton. He is dressed in a heavily decorated military officer's uniform and helmet, standing in front of an immense American flag. He's holding his gloves and a wooden staff.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jan 9

tenpages.github.io/us-level/us....

State map of the US, with a number of eastern and north east states highlighted. The caption states this is level 64.

A map of Europe with a number of western and southern countries highlighted. The caption reads level 43.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jan 2

quote with the personal holy text you would place your hand on to be sworn into office

The cover of a copy of Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. The background is red, and the head of a white sperm whale is present in the center of the cover

James Youngman@jyoungman· Dec 6

Tokyo Jungle! A sequel that cleans up multiplayer and runs on handhelds would absolutely sing!

A city scape of a Tokyo street, partially reclaimed by nature. White text reads "Tokyo Jungle" and various African savannah animals graze in the ruins. A pterodactyl is flying above the street.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Nov 27

Enjoy "Toward the Sun", my entry for the #JellyfishWaltz challenge from @musicweeklies.bsky.social! Photo credit Yu-Chan Chen. I want to know about it if you dance to it!

James Youngman@jyoungman· Sep 6

Expanded out some improvising I'd done for the @musicweeklies.bsky.social #YouChoose challenge. This is "Friend or Foe." Enjoy!

James Youngman@jyoungman· Aug 18

Can confirm

The front face of a black PC case. The case is black, and the front panel is a smooth sheet, with a number of stickers on it, including a character from Futurama and promo stickers for Ranked Choice Voting and Japanese Knife Imports

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jul 22

Alarak from StarCraft 2. A white skinned alien with a peaked, ridged skull, wearing black armor that wraps around the bottom part of his face and extends above the back of his head.

A black ice cream cone with a swirl of white soft serve in it.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jul 14

Chefchaouen is so blue there aren't mosquitos

A narrow street terminating in stairs to a door. Everything is painted a vibrant, bold, blue paint

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jun 29

Made it there! I can make it anywhere!

The Hollywood Sign, from a trail below the sign. The mountain between the photographer and the sign is covered in scrub and brush. There is a palm tree in the foreground.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Jun 11

A map of Los Angeles, with the city of Los Angeles highlighted. Superimposed on the city are the outlines of St Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Boson, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Manhattan.

Together, they cover most, but not all, of the city of Los Angeles.

James Youngman@jyoungman· May 26

I wonder if they're friends with these fine fowl I found

James Youngman@jyoungman· Apr 21

Does baking count? White chocolate chip + caramelized white chocolate chunk cookies

A pair of large cookies on a baking sheet. The cookies are light brown, and speckled with primary colors from sprinkles in their dough

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 27

My @musicweeklies.bsky.social entry for #MonsterFightTheme is "Rise or Fall", the main theme of Kaiju Rush, the game @angrymobofsteve.bsky.social and I made for #KaijuJam3! You can hear it in game as you race to save the city from a giant three-headed monster, or listen to this extended mix here!

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 11

SoundCloud has decided I've uploaded too much already, and Bluesky has decided I can upload even more, so here, directly, is "Hand in Hand", by entry for the #Convergence theme from @musicweeklies.bsky.social!

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 10

I really wish sense-pleasure was taken more seriously outside of games, too. Touchscreens have stolen the joy of buttons, knobs, and switches from us.

Ever navigated your Switch menu, with all the little cheery chirps and cute snappy noises as you navigate? Ever thought, say, your Xbox was a bit of a slog to navigate because it was sluggish and unresponsive? That's because Nintendo is a toy company, and they pay special attention to the sense-pleasure of engaging with their console. It's not just the hardware you're interacting with, it's the software, and they make sure that engaging with it is pleasurable in and of itself.

James Youngman@jyoungman· Mar 10

Post a meme made by you

James Youngman@jyoungman· Feb 20

Post a meme made by you