Now that we're back at it, I'm really enjoying the work we've been doing to tie Townseek's narrative together. The interesting challenge has been realising that we're not just writing a single story, but that we're trying to create a cohesive narrative that spans three generations of sharks. 🦈

A few very important messages from Big Walk, courtesy of @moskidraws.bsky.social! 🧭

Another one for the gallery. 🔴⚫

Big Walk has a lot of accidental renaissance potential. 🔴🟡

Worten, an electronics and technology retailer here in Portugal, just announced our country's first-ever store dedicated exclusively to PlayStation, with products such as consoles, controllers, merchandise and *physical games*. Did they, uh, not get the memo? 😅

We haven't used our studio accounts much lately as we settle back into work, but somehow I've managed to turn our studio's For You page on Twitter into nothing but Pokémon plushies and Rowlet. Which, honestly, is the opposite of a problem and about as good as Twitter content can still be. 😅

I'm very tempted to get a lavalier mic to record some casual stuff. I've got a Snowball on my desktop, but I feel a lavalier would make things easier. Any recommendations? Because of our studio's whole theme, we've tried recording at the beach sometimes and uh, the audio always came out terrible. 💀

The website that doesn't have the capacity to support more than two colour themes wants you to believe it has the infrastructure to become your bank.

The runtime fee was the final nail in the coffin, but Unity had already been messy to work with for years up until that point. Multiple rendering pipelines, UI systems, unfinished packages, etc. Games are already fiddly projects. Working on a foundation that's complicated by design just felt awful.

If there's something you'd like to see me post about, be it casual things, the stuff that we've been doing at @whalesandgames.com, or Townseek, let me know! Just not the release date, sorry. 🫣 I'm going for a drive now. If you've read all of this, thank you for your time and for sticking around. 🐳

Out of all of these designs, my favourite options are D and H, and then I. 💶 I share the feeling that I'd rather our banknotes stand out with birds and architecture than with people! 🐦 I also never thought about vertical banknotes? Given how we tend to hand over cash here, they actually make sense.

I'm no expert on the matter, but my current understanding of UK politics right now is that there's a guy with a bin on his head running for MP, while a Labour MP is promising to bring back Club Penguin in exchange for TikTok likes.

For those of you who run your own studios and teams, what are some of the biggest challenges you face daily? 🤔 Since getting back into work, a lot of my time has been going into admin. I'm still a programmer, but some days are spent juggling invoices, planning, comms and keeping the studio going. 💦

Cleansing the timeline with our mascot Whalechan in Tomodachi Life. 🐳 As you can see, she's still thinking about recent trends. Look at her go! 🌟

It's hard to believe it's been almost half a year since this last photo, but @moskidraws.bsky.social is back in Portugal and has been around for a couple of days! ✨ Moski is staying here for almost three months this time, and we're looking to make a ton of progress on our game and explore lots! 🐳

What do you mean 150 euros for Pokémon SoulSilver??

I hope folks at GDC this year are having a great time! ✨ Regardless of there being garden fences or not, AI companies littering the halls, and everything else going on, the best thing about the event continues to be the people you hang with and the connections you form. I dearly miss all of you! 🤗

You might have realised it already, but I'm very absorbed in Deadlock right now. Learning different characters and playing Street Brawl have me hooked in a way a game hasn't in quite a while. Its polish and skill ceiling are really surprising, especially for a game that’s still a work in progress.

That was actually a pretty good State of Play! Really nice variety of games across genres, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how Konami is handling their IPs and giving them to other studios to make stuff with. The Marvel fighting game looks amazing too. 👀

Here are some photos from this year's @devgamm.bsky.social here in Lisbon! 🥳 I'm having a great time this year again enjoying both talks and workshops. If you see me or anyone from our team with our hats, poke us for some @whalesandgames.com and Townseek stickers! We've got plenty to give around. 🦈

Shoutouts to @moskidraws.bsky.social!

As you know, I'm not recovered yet from recent undue stress. If I may self-indulge for my birthday, I'd like to ask you something for today. 🙇 If you have the time, I'd really thank you if you could write down or doodle, something about what Townseek or our team at @whalesandgames.com means to you.

Today is my 29th birthday! 🎉 The last year was one of the most euphoric but also stressful years of my life. In the last year, our team received two awards, I had interviews and stayed long-term in Mexico. I also got hospitalised, had to be taken to emergencies, and dealt with a lot of work stress.

See you on the other side of the Silksong hype folks. ✨ I've genuinely been looking forward to it. The first game was a very deep experience to me and the worldbuilding absorbed me like crazy. I'm happy that we've made it here, and that their team had the time to work on it as much as they have. 🍒

This is a very specific request, but we're trying to get our @whalesandgames.com presence on these platforms going because of game marketing or something. 😵‍💫 If you're on them, can you help us with a follow please? 🙏 📸 Instagram: instagram.com/whalesandgames 📽️ TikTok: tiktok.com/@whalesandga...

The big thing happening with our team? Here it is! 🌮 I'm staying 50 days in Tampico in México alongside @moskidraws.bsky.social for a work marathon on @whalesandgames.com! 🐳 Our goal is in sight! That by March, Townseek is fully playable from the start to finish, especially the game's main story. 🧭

Shoutouts to the surprisingly cute Staples A4 Paper Ream plushie that I spotted today! ❤️ The pencil plushie also deserves its own shoutout too. ✏️

I've said this once, and I'll stand by it again. Please add Alt Text to your posts! 🫡 Our studio account may not have many posts here yet, but regardless of platform, we've been committed to adding alt text to everything since 2023! 🐳 You can check your own rating over at dame.is/ratingalttext! 🔍

For some positive news, these past months I've been providing project commentary as an industry guest to the gamedev students at my former university. 🎓 They're first semester students still working on simple prototypes, but if some of them stick to games, I think they'll go and make great things!