Nikki Kuppens
@patt3rson.bsky.social
Senior Game Designer @ Raw Power Games. Previously IO Interactive, Ubisoft Massive. Worked on The Division 1 & 2, Halo: Spartan Assault/Strike, Gatling Gears, Greed Corp. Opinions are my own.
Love how Microsoft puts a positive spin on reducing overall storage from 6TB to 2TB for my OneDrive family plan by calling it "more flexible cloud storage". No mention of "more flexible pricing" to go with that. Guess I won't be a Microsoft 365 subscriber much longer.
October 9, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Love how Microsoft puts a positive spin on reducing overall storage from 6TB to 2TB for my OneDrive family plan by calling it "more flexible cloud storage". No mention of "more flexible pricing" to go with that. Guess I won't be a Microsoft 365 subscriber much longer.
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
too many people treat the maxim of “game dev is an iterative process” as meaning “we should salt the earth every time we have a new idea” rather than “let’s explore and improve the ideas we already agreed on”
no game dev skill is more important than making up your fuckin mind
September 20, 2026 at 10:21 AM
too many people treat the maxim of “game dev is an iterative process” as meaning “we should salt the earth every time we have a new idea” rather than “let’s explore and improve the ideas we already agreed on”
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
no game dev skill is more important than making up your fuckin mind
September 20, 2026 at 2:37 AM
no game dev skill is more important than making up your fuckin mind
My good friend @andyzawadzki.bsky.social released his very own dice-based puzzle game A Bit Dicey today! It’s neat and cheap and you can get it here: store.steampowered.com/app/4551800/...
A Bit Dicey on Steam
A Bit Dicey is a challenging spatial manipulation game, where you solve puzzles by moving dice on tiles.
store.steampowered.com
September 9, 2026 at 8:52 PM
My good friend @andyzawadzki.bsky.social released his very own dice-based puzzle game A Bit Dicey today! It’s neat and cheap and you can get it here: store.steampowered.com/app/4551800/...
GTA already broke Netflix...
August 27, 2026 at 7:00 PM
GTA already broke Netflix...
Straight to the top of my wishlist!
Yes, the leaks were true - a Lego version of Cities Skylines is on its way to PC and consoles
Paradox has unveiled a new entry in its Cities Skylines series, and this time it's getting a Lego makeover for a "playful take" on city building.
www.eurogamer.net
August 25, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Straight to the top of my wishlist!
My 15 minutes of fame (or 13 and a bit) talking about some of the features I've been working on at Raw Power Games (@rawpowergames.bsky.social) for the upcoming Chronicles: Medieval (@chroniclesmedieval.bsky.social)!
Army Progression in Chronicles: Medieval - A Closer Look
YouTube video by Chronicles: Medieval
www.youtube.com
August 11, 2026 at 2:46 PM
My 15 minutes of fame (or 13 and a bit) talking about some of the features I've been working on at Raw Power Games (@rawpowergames.bsky.social) for the upcoming Chronicles: Medieval (@chroniclesmedieval.bsky.social)!
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
sorry to the haters but the CORRECT order to play the series is
A Short Hike
Big Walk
Marathon
A Short Hike
Big Walk
Marathon
August 10, 2026 at 2:01 AM
sorry to the haters but the CORRECT order to play the series is
A Short Hike
Big Walk
Marathon
A Short Hike
Big Walk
Marathon
Man, Ted Lasso is back and they got me crying on the first episode. 🥲
Ted Lasso - Official Trailer - Apple TV
Ted Lasso · Trailer
tv.apple.com
August 9, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Man, Ted Lasso is back and they got me crying on the first episode. 🥲
The downside of going on vacation for 3 weeks is I couldn’t watch House of the Dragon. The upside is I now have 4 episodes of House of the Dragon to watch.
August 7, 2026 at 7:05 PM
The downside of going on vacation for 3 weeks is I couldn’t watch House of the Dragon. The upside is I now have 4 episodes of House of the Dragon to watch.
What if Super Monkey Ball but FromSoft?
August 6, 2026 at 6:46 PM
What if Super Monkey Ball but FromSoft?
Never mind the AI tagline, I have never nodded this much while reading a game dev article. So many great quotes about the real reasons for project time and cost bloat that I don’t even know which one to post here. Just read the whole thing.
Louder for people in the back,
"Art has throughput and quality bars. Engineering has velocity, defect rates, build health. QA has coverage and escape rates. Production has burndowns and forecasts...
The decision layer has status updates."
www.productionalchemist.com/p/inever-see...
"Art has throughput and quality bars. Engineering has velocity, defect rates, build health. QA has coverage and escape rates. Production has burndowns and forecasts...
The decision layer has status updates."
www.productionalchemist.com/p/inever-see...
I Have Never Seen a Game Fail Because the Artists Were Too Slow
AI is optimising the cheapest part of production
www.productionalchemist.com
August 5, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Never mind the AI tagline, I have never nodded this much while reading a game dev article. So many great quotes about the real reasons for project time and cost bloat that I don’t even know which one to post here. Just read the whole thing.
My son is at an age where he decides on his favorite soccer teams/players, influenced by his friends. I’m doing everything in my power to steer that away from Cristiano Ronaldo. Fortunately the next generation of star players is here. He’ll be happy to hear that Lamine Yamal and Spain beat Portugal.
July 6, 2026 at 9:19 PM
My son is at an age where he decides on his favorite soccer teams/players, influenced by his friends. I’m doing everything in my power to steer that away from Cristiano Ronaldo. Fortunately the next generation of star players is here. He’ll be happy to hear that Lamine Yamal and Spain beat Portugal.
I guess this comes as no surprise in the current industry landscape and Xbox’s cost cutting spree in particular, but it is still unreal to read. I worked on this project for 3 years and I worry about what this means for my friends and former colleagues.
NEW: Xbox confirms to Bloomberg News that it has pulled out of IO Interactive's 'Project Fantasy' video game.
“We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing.”
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
“We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year. What's changing is where we're investing and the kinds of projects we're backing.”
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Xbox Pulls Out of ‘Project Fantasy’ Video Game From IO Interactive
The ‘007: First Light’ makers had teamed up with Xbox for the new video game
www.bloomberg.com
June 30, 2026 at 6:54 PM
I guess this comes as no surprise in the current industry landscape and Xbox’s cost cutting spree in particular, but it is still unreal to read. I worked on this project for 3 years and I worry about what this means for my friends and former colleagues.
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
The thing that drives me nuts is that every big studio exec is like "oh you know AI will let us be more efficient and sharpen our processes and ship games faster" and at the same time every AAA production is SO wasteful and SO inefficient largely because of upper-management malfeasance
June 16, 2026 at 6:06 PM
The thing that drives me nuts is that every big studio exec is like "oh you know AI will let us be more efficient and sharpen our processes and ship games faster" and at the same time every AAA production is SO wasteful and SO inefficient largely because of upper-management malfeasance
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
"I'm okay with using LLMs for the sake of the team's work-life balance" is a really insidious thing to say because no tool (however effective) can give you work-life balance. Work-life balance comes from good boundaries, appropriate headcount, clear responsibilities, and realistic scheduling.
June 14, 2026 at 5:47 PM
"I'm okay with using LLMs for the sake of the team's work-life balance" is a really insidious thing to say because no tool (however effective) can give you work-life balance. Work-life balance comes from good boundaries, appropriate headcount, clear responsibilities, and realistic scheduling.
I need Referee View: The Game. You just are the ref and see everything first-person. Shake players’ hands at the start of the game, choose your field position, try to spot fouls, communicate with the other refs, check VAR, dangle your arms in view giving a card, see the goals up close. GOTY.
World Cup refcam offers new perspective to hint at future of football broadcasting
Usage in opening matches focused on replays of goals from a unique angle, offering the viewer greater depth to watch from home
www.theguardian.com
June 14, 2026 at 3:46 PM
I need Referee View: The Game. You just are the ref and see everything first-person. Shake players’ hands at the start of the game, choose your field position, try to spot fouls, communicate with the other refs, check VAR, dangle your arms in view giving a card, see the goals up close. GOTY.
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
Stellan Skarsgård summing up the difference between social democracy & capitalism very succinctly.
June 13, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Stellan Skarsgård summing up the difference between social democracy & capitalism very succinctly.
Reposted by Nikki Kuppens
Leaders with no ability to do this are one of the top causes of development thrash in the games industry
an important skill, when directing a project, is to be able to imagine what the finished product will look like before it has been made
June 12, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Leaders with no ability to do this are one of the top causes of development thrash in the games industry
“The dead won’t rise. But their sons… will.”
Our gameplay reveal trailer for Chronicles: Medieval aired during Summer Game Fest yesterday evening. Proud of my friends and colleagues at Raw Power Games I have the privilege of working with!
Our gameplay reveal trailer for Chronicles: Medieval aired during Summer Game Fest yesterday evening. Proud of my friends and colleagues at Raw Power Games I have the privilege of working with!
Chronicles: Medieval | Gameplay Reveal Trailer
YouTube video by Chronicles: Medieval
youtu.be
June 6, 2026 at 5:49 AM
“The dead won’t rise. But their sons… will.”
Our gameplay reveal trailer for Chronicles: Medieval aired during Summer Game Fest yesterday evening. Proud of my friends and colleagues at Raw Power Games I have the privilege of working with!
Our gameplay reveal trailer for Chronicles: Medieval aired during Summer Game Fest yesterday evening. Proud of my friends and colleagues at Raw Power Games I have the privilege of working with!
Doing some home redecorating and my wife used EXCEL to make floor plans! She makes all the cells square, to represent around 10cm of space each, and then uses BORDERS to draw. As a veteran game designer of 20 years, let me tell you how much I despise borders in Excel and would not want to do this.
May 28, 2026 at 3:42 PM
Doing some home redecorating and my wife used EXCEL to make floor plans! She makes all the cells square, to represent around 10cm of space each, and then uses BORDERS to draw. As a veteran game designer of 20 years, let me tell you how much I despise borders in Excel and would not want to do this.
I love how Forza Horizon just completely ignores car progression in its open world in favor of the driving fantasy. In 6, I picked a basic Toyota Celica at the start of the story, then I get a R-Class Ferrari FXX-K Evo from my Welcome Pack that goes 350 km/h. Living the dream in Japan!
Ferrari FXX-K Evo
The 2018 Ferrari FXX-K Evo - abbreviated as
forza.fandom.com
May 18, 2026 at 1:27 PM
I love how Forza Horizon just completely ignores car progression in its open world in favor of the driving fantasy. In 6, I picked a basic Toyota Celica at the start of the story, then I get a R-Class Ferrari FXX-K Evo from my Welcome Pack that goes 350 km/h. Living the dream in Japan!
It me.
Just watched a Square Enix interview with Hiroyuki Ito about Dungeon Encounters, which includes pearls of game design wisdom such as "I put a value of 12 there because it felt right" and "I can't remember what that's for".
May 4, 2026 at 3:26 PM
It me.