Chris Cross

I like golf. Studio Creative/Design Director at Cold Iron. Figuring out how to accelerate the indie revolution.

[O’Shea Jackson Jr @OsheaJacksonJr]

I saw it. Now you have to see it. His name is Samuel. And he…is a king.

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

@holinka Congrats!

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

Rep. @MelanieforNM: There is not a single Republican in the room besides the Chairman. Not a single Republican could be bothered to travel across the country to hear testimony on Epstein from Pam Bondi.

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

@fritzva15 @AutumnFox841 Yeah man!

[Automata Games @AutomataGames1]

Indie dev is really like founding a startup, you need to do everything! You need to create a trailer for your game, you need to do it. You need to playtest your game, well why are you waiting. It is rewarding but exhausting sometimes

[Thomas Brush @thomasbrushdev]

I don’t see how handmade everything doesn’t come sweeping back in a huge tsunami. Everything: films, music, games, art. All of it is going to be heavily human (and so obvious, and marketed that way). I’m feeling a deep craving for all of this. Maybe I’m getting old, or I’m feeling a desire everyone else is feeling.

[robot @alightinastorm]

Why "The TikTok For Games" concept is doomed

It's been about a year since vibe coding gametech emerged and while it is still in its infancy, it is also a glimpse into the future of symbiotic co-creation with AI in games

First, it attracted indie hackers racing for $10k by Pieter Levels vibejam contest. Many early founders have seen an emerging market of creators and tried to somehow mold this into a product. Now pioneering professionals have entered the game.

I get it, from a technical POV one can conclude that everytime the tools to create content in a specific medium (and broader internet access/bandwidth) brought us another format of social media.

However, it wasn't purely technical, it was also about matching the (mass) desire to connect in specific ways:

At first, nobody was online, so forums and chatrooms emerged.

Then people wanted identity and permanence, so profiles and social graphs emerged.

Then we wanted frictionless self expression, so photos and short videos emerged.

The "TikTok for games" existed for a loong time! Newgrounds had it, it was novel and the barrier to create games was already very low with the flash technology.

What desire is this format supposed to fill? The infinitely complex roblox engine editor shows that you can add an endless amount of friction to the UX, and still have 14 year olds figure it out in no time.

Games require investment, interaction, attention, learning, progression and emotional attachment.

Successful gametech UGC platforms do this by deliberately constraining the developers in many ways instead of building an infinite canvas and general purpose engines.

Fortnite educated the playerbase for years about character capabilities, world features and creating a wide variety of games is VERY easy, no AI needed. For complex sophisticated games, there's UEFN.

Same for roblox, GTA online.

What we can learn from this is that filling a meta-engine with technologies or simply lowering the barrier for creation with AI will likely not lead to great games, even less pull players to the platform.

People don't open a game hoping to instantly swipe through hundreds of unfinished prototypes.
Most players are looking for something they can understand, return to and spend time with.
They want some sense of continuity, progression or social connection.

A good platform needs to solve an incredibly difficult coordination problem: aligned creators, players, identity, distribution and incentives inside one persistent ecosystem.

So far, without a single exception, all web AI gametech platforms barely got the creator side working.
They assume games behave like videos: lower creation friction -> more content -> algorithmic feed -> engagement

Infinite scrolling for videos, images and text works because consumption is frictionless and passive. Playing games is not, unless you are an industry planted indie studio labeling a movie as a game.

So, what works then?

The future of high-value production of games is focused on the creator, less on the infinite amount of games. Steam marketplace is a great glimpse into the future, as well as game developers building a following for years before launching a game. The underlying technology doesn't matter, unless it's part of your marketing strategy and requires you to build a whole ass programming language called Jai to make people excited to play your sokoban remake. Build games!

I don't like the common meme that "someone needs to solve distribution for games". No, no one can and nobody should solve it. That IS the game for devs/studios. Building is becoming easier, cheaper, faster - for everyone.

Stop building the next platform, (try to) build great games instead.

And all the new platforms emerging hopping on the train now in 2026, with teams clearly in it to make money instead of games: You will fail

[Dustin Browder @DustinBrowder]

Indie dev looking for followers.

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

Ohhhh well we did a thing. Gameplay footage and interview.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 – Full Mission Gameplay (Prologue) | IGN First https://t.co/V4HCuUqDsB via @YouTube

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

https://t.co/WvHyBX9k5a

Little behind on socials. Trying to finish the game in this video. Super excited I can start talking about it.
#xenomorphs #aliens #fireteamelite2

[John Carmack @ID_AA_Carmack]

My reply to someone considering starting a video game company:

The distribution of possible rewards for starting a video game company are generally not very good today. The market is well served, and gaining a foothold requires strong execution on both business and product issues, along with a substantial amount of luck. Plan to burn through seven figures with a not-great chance of making it back.

If you do go for it, some bits of advice:

Identify your customers clearly before you start. Not just a broad community, but specific people, and imagine them as you make decisions.

Initially, build the smallest, most concise game you can imagine anyone paying for. It will still take much longer than you expect.

Once something exists, hill-climb the value. Hopefully you will have some elements that clearly bring joy to people, which you can magnify. There will inevitably be tons of things that people find confusing, frustrating, or just boring that you will need to fix.

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

This looks so gooood. I’ll try it this weekend.

[Dustin Browder @DustinBrowder]

We started our PvP Spaceship game in 2020

☠️2025 we launched as a Spaceship Battle Royale
🚀We added a team fleet battle mode
🪙 2026 we added a PvP light Extraction Mode

Have we cooked enough for you to try our demo or play for free on Xbox Game Pass?

(links in comments)

[Dustin Browder @DustinBrowder]

We are ex-Blizzard devs that made an FPS where you control a spaceship.

We just added Treasure Hunt, an extraction-light game mode:

🌌5 Zones, AI Enemies, Upgrade Your Ship
🤖Solo Player Ship + AI Crew
📢Use Proxy Chat to make allies or enemies

Would you try our demo?

[Forge @ThetaForgeCo]

I'm convinced the best time to be an indie game dev is now.

More tools at your disposal than ever before to create the game of your dreams. Genres and games that weren't available to you before have now completely become possible thanks to the speed of iteration with AI.

AAA Game studios have lost the plot.. Indies are the only devs left taking risk and making games that are just fun to play.

The golden days are upon us lads. Build that game.

[Chris Cross @CoffeeWithCross]

https://t.co/uT80HSJWUt

I'm so proud to be able to finally share what has been hoarding all my attention the last 6 months. Read about it and go watch the trailer!

#xenomorph #aliens #gameoverman

[MR.SOLACE @oopsallsolace]

What's that sound? Oh yeah it's the sound of freshly mowed grass!

Finally made a system that uses Metadata assigned to materials in Blender to differentiate footstep sounds based on surface!

#LegionofHonorGame #GodotEngine #indiedev #retro #PSX #WWII #indie #dev

[MR.SOLACE @oopsallsolace]

Some Steam news for a Steam page: Steamworks ...... Works 👀

Multiplayer is now functional! Still early, but connection, syncing, Steam invites and lobbies are now functional.

(Splitscreen online too!)

#LegionofHonorGame #GodotEngine #WWII #Retro #PSX

[sui ☄️ @birdabo]

A JAPANESE DEV BUILT AN APP THAT SHOWS A FAT CAT ON THE SCREEN AND FORCES YOU TO TAKE A BREAK.

[MAX MEMES @VitoComedy]

I miss the Burbank Fry's so much

It was legitimately the coolest store ever, and it's a tragedy knowing we'll never see anything like it again

[MR.SOLACE @oopsallsolace]

Finally made a Discord server for Legion!

Expect:
devlogs, updates, cool things, and me breaking things that were working 5 minutes ago!!

Join if you want to stay up to date, or if you want to just discuss stuff!
(Link in comments.)
#LegionofHonorGame #indiedev #PSX #retro