Game designer and leader since 1994: Free Realms, Full Spectrum Warrior. Many awards including Lifetime Achievement. Also speaks about game dev wellness.
Seattle, WA
Joined March 2007
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How do you make a game feel fun and fair? By understanding that players have implicit expectations--a sense of their rights within the games we create.
For the next twelve days, I'll add one item a day to the Player's Bill of Rights.
linkedin.com/pulse/players-b…
I posted on the other site about what it was like working on proprietary game engines back in the day, and how tool/pipeline issues can profoundly affect not just productivity but also morale.
bsky.app/profile/laralyn.bsk…
Does this app (which I refuse to call X) deprioritize or silently ban posts that reference other sites? I’d heard it does? Well here’s a test. :-)
This is a gentle reminder that I'm keeping this account but not posting here anymore. You can find me... elsewhere.
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
we can all agree that we enjoy video games but no one can make one of the fucking things without taking psychic damage so severe that it lasts longer than rock
we can all agree that, right
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
An excellent manifesto against coercion in game design by @vectorpoem - touching on many of the ideas I discuss in my talk & concisely opening up more possibilities
gist.github.com/JPLeBreton/c…
More of this, please! Most game devs are also avid players, and privately we love and praise the work of other teams/companies. We even have informal (or sometimes formal) company play sessions of games we've been looking forward to. Let's normalize making that praise public!
We thought we felt something gnawing at the back of our minds...
Happy launch day to @baldursgate3 and @larianstudios! Congratulations on a wonderful adventure!🎉
ALT Pictured is a note pad with "BG3, Don't Forget! and the date 8/3" scribbled on it. Two sets of dice are strewn across the note pad and desk top.
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
10 Minutes to go! Join Hannah Gamiel and Eric Anderson, playing Obduction, chatting, and answering some of YOUR questions!
Humble Bundle's "Myst and More Redux: 30 Years of Myst" bundle helps Active Minds, a cause very close to our hearts.
Get it here: bit.ly/MystNMore2
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
"My first computer was my first husband." @br is in tech since she was five and in gaming for 42 years. "Here child, some demons" - at 11 she got Dungeons and Dragons 🐉 as a gift which allowed to create worlds. Brenda Romero learned Pascal and set up a computer class at highschool.
The most courageous talk of this conference so far, powerful and empowering stage appearance! "How to survive the worst launch of your career" 💪 About moral injury: how to deal with online hate, harassment and doubts #WeAreDevs 🙏
@romerogamesltd
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
🌷 Calling all cozy content creators! 🌷
Since we might be in the end days of this platform, we're putting together a contact list.
If you're a creator, influencer or media with a love for cozy games, please fill out this form!
👉 forms.gle/JGhaHfYgZME85VWaA
🎨: @crylica
Pls RT!
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
The truth is: almost all AAA studios have no knowledge of modern black hairstyles, let alone know how to make them accurately. Hire a consultant like @Ebonix and she can show you 100+ easily.
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
Today we celebrate the 33rd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Microsoft is committed to engaging with the disability community & advocating for policies advancing accessibility as a fundamental right to help bridge the disability divide. msft.it/6013ghj19
So I’m at a medical facility this morning. A woman in the waiting room looks at me, says to the receptionist, “So glad masks aren’t needed anymore, it is SO much nicer without them” then looks at me again.
I’m masked, of course.
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
i mean this with full sincerity: this is how you ship a game
ALT a screenshot of a slack conversation between kyle and jenna. kyle asks "can we cut" and jenna says "sure fuck it"
Laralyn McWilliams retweeted
btw people probably already know this but i am absolutely thrilled when people are angry about things being nerfed. the more trivial the change the more joy i feel.
i clap my hands together and laugh like a combo of Gary Oldman's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Tim Curry's Darkness.
ALT The balance patch that came along with Season 1 is its own story. Nobody is happy with it. Not even Blizzard, which promised to never do a patch like it ever again. The sweeping reductions to player damage and survivability are the kind of drastic changes that would go over a lot better if they were made right at launch. You can't give out a bunch of toys and then smash almost every single one of them apart without people getting furious—and rightfully so.