Game Dev Jack

Roguelites should never have endless modes. I keep falling into the trap and play it, even though it’s the least enjoyable way to play them.

What’s your thoughts on what this means for the size of game studios?

You should totally do that! On your next game 😀

Looks fun. Look forward to trying out how the roguelite aspect plays.

I think that “making games is hard” is one of the worst things you can tell an aspiring game developer.

Me: “I should confirm that fix works.”
Also me: forgets what the fix was and just plays the game.

On my way to work for the first day of work in 2026. This year I will be releasing The Devil’s Due and Basalt: The Cursed Vein. And I am getting married. And turning 50. So yeah, I have high hopes for 2026.

There was an engine failure in the rented van about two-thirds of the way to Trondheim while I was driving my son to university there, and we had to switch to a slightly smaller van. Fortunately, we are very good at Tetris.

And yeah, I still play league 😂

I can see why you would give that advice Grammarly, but as a maker of roguelites, synergies are the reason why my customers get up in the morning 😂

Steam demo: Stackflow YouTube video by Jack Kristoffersen

I want to play more indie Steam demos, so I thought I would start recording them. I’m not expecting to live off the YouTube views it generates, but maybe some of the devs will watch them. Stackflow was fun but a bit too easy. I think it was made by ‪@caueferrareto.bsky.social‬

youtu.be/zJiq6aOFE-Q

My Submission to the GMTK Jam. Had a lot of fun making this one. And who would have thought that I was actually somewhat of a capsule art maker myself :D
mortiperius.itch.io/time-looped

Being cringe is my superpower

I guess it is. Don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone 😉

So the day after we release the release trailer for SpreadCheat, Viken filmsenter drops that @derek-lieu.com will be joining Spillkonvent this year! Are they trying to tell us something?1?

Too long runs. And one that is so hard to avoid.

Would you have signed Minecraft?

Let’s hope they’ll be the first company in history to not totally destroy their own product by trying to increase their profit margins every quarter 😅

Young man, let me tell you about a messaging app called Skype. It was the one everyone was using, so of course Microsoft bought it. And for every update they managed to make it worse. Uninstalling it is one of my happiest memories. Discord should be ok though, as longs they don’t IPO.

I cheated this time and did not really change the hours. Finally being an introvert pays off 😅

Career goal - Make gameplay trailer that is so good it gets accused of being cinematic mock-up trailer.

GDC was great, except that I don't socialize and prefer watching lectures on YouTube, and finally revisiting San Fransico after nine years was sad.

3D Peggle was not nearly as fun in the prototype as it was in my head. I guess that’s a good thing - I don’t need any more game ideas that I want to put into production.

She: Talk dirty to me
Me: I only type my variables so I can get autocomplete

Italy is lucky that FIGS is such a catchy acronym, 'cus those Italian sales certainly aren't justifying any extra translation costs :)

Gameplay prototypes should use programmer art. Production value is a trap!

Hoping for some Excel ❤️ bsky.app/profile/game...

Ah, to be young again…

While Steam does not recommend it, we thought it would be a good experience for our demo players, and it’s not difficult to transition the achievements to the full game for this project.

Achievements - Getting Data Without Analytics
We add achievements to our Steam demo for SpreadCheat and designed the achievements so we get good funnel stats - without having to implement a tracker or ask the players for consent!