I now choose to believe that Froot Loops is the best thing to have come out of the US. 🐦

@RichelleTrickel @MoskiDraws Thanks! They're very exciting times, and we're really looking forward to start making proper updates about the game again soon! 🫡

The big thing happening with our team? Here it is! 🌮 I'm staying 50 days in Tampico in México alongside @MoskiDraws for a work marathon on Whales And Games! 🐳

Our goal is in sight! That by March, Townseek is fully playable from the start to finish, especially the game's main story. 🧭

It's going to be a fun two months, and we'll be sharing photos and progress every now and then as its the first time that we get the opportunity to do a trip focused on work, rather than attached to an event. 😊

I'm aware that I have been posting little gamedev stuff lately with everything going on! I've been slowly enjoying posting about all sorts of things and curiosities again, but I've also been busy with the preparations for this next week! 😱

This week things will speed up a lot! 🐳

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

There's something big happening with our team next week (no it's not the release date yet) and while it's exciting, I've been overwhelmed with everything there is to take care of until then! 💦

People don't talk enough about how running a gamedev studio basically triples your work beyond just making the games. There's so much bureaucracy and paperwork involved with accounting and changes that are needed at the company level, especially in a country like ours! 😅

Mind you, I wouldn't trade my job for anything else. I absolutely love making games even if I have to go through these additional hurdles sometimes to be able to get them done! 😘

That being said, it requires me to take some bigger breaks every now and then. Don't let yourselves get burntout while doing what you love! 🙌

There's something big happening with our team next week (no it's not the release date yet) and while it's exciting, I've been overwhelmed with everything there is to take care of until then! 💦

People don't talk enough about how running a gamedev studio basically triples your work beyond just making the games. There's so much bureaucracy and paperwork involved with accounting and changes that are needed at the company level, especially in a country like ours! 😅

I use tone indicators on my emails in the way that if I start with "Hi!" with an exclamation mark, it shows I'm in a good mood and ready to discuss details. I also sprinkle some emojis here and there, especially if it's situations of embarrassment. 😅

And if I start with an "Hi," with a comma instead, I'm most likely not very happy at whatever is being discussed and you're likely about to read an upsetting email.

For some positive news today, these past months I've been providing project commentary as an industry guest to the game development students at my former university. 🎓

They're first semester students still working on their first prototypes. The most important thing for them to learn is how to manage scope. Gladly, a lot of them managed to scale down their games to the short time-frame they were given!

I think that if some of them stick to the games industry, they'll go and make great things! ✨

For some positive news today, these past months I've been providing project commentary as an industry guest to the game development students at my former university. 🎓

They're first semester students still working on their first prototypes. The most important thing for them to learn is how to manage scope. Gladly, a lot of them managed to scale down their games to the short time-frame they were given!

I think that if some of them stick to the games industry, they'll go and make great things! ✨

As someone from outside of the United States of America seeing what's happening with TikTok there, both the announcement messages of the shutdown and of the subsequent restoration of the service with very clear propaganda intent and messaging is just, honestly, extremely creepy. 😨

The vibes feel rotten all the way through. It's like that country is no longer hiding that it's become a full-on oligarchy.

@djlink @MoskiDraws Apparently Google screwed up the rollout of the Find my Device network. First they wanted it to be opt-in, then they changed it to be opt-out but only in dense urban areas, and people generally report less accuracy with it than with Apple alternatives as early as last week. https://www.androidauthority.com/tested-google-find-my-device-android-airtag-alternatives-3510305/

I'm hoping that the network and rollout improve as time goes on which is part of why I ended up getting one of those. I think they'll double-down with their own tracker eventually.

I ended up going with the moto tag, crossing fingers that, despite Android's coverage still being fairly limited, that it is more flexible given the places that I plan to travel to during this year. 🤞

I've been reading different articles, and it's really hit-or-miss regardless of the tracker option. My conclusion with @MoskiDraws was that, at the end of the day, I just have to hope that my luggage doesn't get lost regardless, and make sure the airports track it properly. 😅

For people who travel frequently, does anyone know have a good AirTag alternative for Android? I'm currently eyeing the moto tag, but I'm a bit overwhelmed at the options for trackers among Moto, Tile, Chipolo and the other alternatives. Any recommendations? 😵‍💫

For context, this would be for use in European countries, to be attached primarily to checked luggage. 🧳

#android #tracking #askfedi

Today Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new, European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control. #MastodonNonProfit

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/

Still at this! I also took the opportunity to clean-up unused SSH key-pairs I had all over my files and to fix some auth issues I had across some services. 🧹

Also, lots of sites have really lackluster 2FA support? Some allow you to generate new recovery codes just fine at any time, others only show them to you if you disable and then re-enable 2FA, and others have no recovery codes at all if you get locked out? It's a huge mess! 😵

It's heartbreaking to see the images coming out of Los Angeles and seeing entire neighborhoods being ravaged by fire. For people there and anywhere being affected by climate disasters, I hope that you're safe and that you can heal with time. 🫂

We must fight climate change and avoid future tragedies like this, regardless of how much some groups try to put a break to protecting our planet, and continue spreading misinformation about its effects. We're seeing the consequences unfold in real time.

I'm taking the opportunity of the new year to do a digital clean-up and see which accounts I no longer use across the web and to also strengthen the security of others even more. 🔒

I feel like I'm going through a maze of options where no two websites list their security options under the same place or following the same tree of options. 😵‍💫

It's our first work day of the year! ☕ Taking it chill and finishing up some leftover work from before the holidays. The sometimes forgotten but necessary parts of running a project, like finishing up the changelog from our last milestone build, declaring invoices from last month, and setting up the task list ahead! 🧭

What are y'all working on this week? Anything exciting happening at your start of the year? 🐳