Albert Säfström

Ihop med @HannaBrus

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

@SkydomeHive I get bad recommendations too.

But when the algorithm shows me something cool it feels like I discovered it myself. When it shows me something irrelevant I blame the algorithm.

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

@mikergmoj96151 @RegisKillbin It suggesting things you've set to ignore sounds more like a bug than a failure of the algorithm to me, but yeah, I would be very annoyed if that happened to me too.

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

@mikergmoj96151 @RegisKillbin Hah! Any algorithm has to make some guesses to pinpoint your taste, though - otherwise it would only be able to show you the same handful of games all the time. So it makes an educated guess (which you might hate), then hopefully adapts depending on how you act.

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

@mikergmoj96151 @RegisKillbin I understand this feeling. But we're better at spotting (and getting annoyed) algorithm fails than when it succeeds, and those "fails" could be the algorithm knowing you better than you know yourself. Maybe you'd love Peak?

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

Only one week in and 250,000 Romans have joined the fight against the fallen hordes (and the bugs and balancing)!

With that, we'd like to give you a glimpse into the why's, what's, and how's of Romestead and our future together!

https://t.co/k5lQJPZZLR

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

What a crazy launch it has been!
THANK YOU to everyone who has played the game during our launch period!

We have made a post over on Steam that highlights some more of the known issues and our plan going forward!

Read it here!
https://t.co/i4BH9eckIy

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

So...

@Coffee_Stain is publishing DRG made by @GhostShip_Games
@GhostShip_Pub is publishing DRG: Survivor made by @FundayGamesdk
Funday Games is publishing Scritchy Scratchy made by Lunch Money Games
And now Lunch Money Games is publishing Sludge Department made by Simon Juhl

It's like that old saying, "You either die a developer, or live long enough to see yourself become the publisher."

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

ROMESTEAD AVAILABLE NOW!!!

The sun rises over the ruins of Rome, only a few survivors stand in its ashes.
Grab your carts, sharpen your gladii, and fight...

FOR THE GLORY OF ROME!

https://t.co/0cFn3fbdAH

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

We've been busy constructing for months - but in a few hours the gates open. See you soon...

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

Crawling with hostile creatures, the Volcanic biome rewards resilient explorers with valuable resources and hidden secrets.

#screenshotsaturday #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev #Romestead

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

This is one of the best talks I've seen on the struggles of game onboarding (though it seems to be more of a general human challenge) https://t.co/8WVya1SqFf

[Albert Säfström @InterWill]

@xaker89 @RomesteadGame we had people seeing the other art thinking the game was more realistic in graphics, so the cartoony version was meant to give a more "pixel art" vibe without being literal pixel art

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

5 Days Remain!
Curious about what to expect from Early Access, or when Romestead releases in your timezone?

Head over to steam and read our latest news post!
https://t.co/v7psLcH0aK

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

New Art Alert!
Our new art captures the spirit of Romestead!

Action, Excitement, Cart trains, and Potmen! What else do you need?

[IGN @IGN]

Romestead's wild blend of Ancient Rome with souls-style exploration and cozy community builder – with zombies that come out at night – has the makings of one of the most original genre mash-ups in some time.

Our preview: https://t.co/Yt8auw2dRs

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

In one week from now, we will be farming our crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so!

One week remains until the gates to Romestead opens up! What do you look forward to the most?

[Romestead @RomesteadGame]

Romestead hits 250k wishlists!

Thank you ALL for your support!

If you'd like to read a bit more about what's next, or potentially help us translate Romestead to your language, check out our steam post!

https://t.co/5TBeE5ZIJf

[thomasmahler @thomasmahler]

There’s a pattern we should talk about that has quietly killed a lot of great games over the years.

It usually pans out like so:
1) Developers listen to players and think they do them a favor by giving them exactly what they asked for.
2) Players love it - at first.
3) After that, for some 'mysterious' reason, players lose interest and the game slowly dies and nobody is quite sure why that happened.

The truth is that players will always push for fewer restrictions. They'll always argue for endless farming, easy power creep, never getting locked out of any content, making things more convenient, removing any sort of gates, etc. etc.

And usually, even if you give in to things that will hurt a game in the long run, you get applause, at first.

But you also just removed some of the very things that made the game special.

Magic in games often comes from limitations.
Scarcity, anticipation, effort, friction... all of these things have meaning. And if you remove those out of the equation, you logically remove meaning.

Christmas is magical exactly because it happens once a year. If you had Christmas every day, you wouldn’t make it better - you’d destroy what made it special.

As a parent, I know how excited my boys are when December hits and they start dreaming about how amazing Christmas will be.

They start talking about which awesome presents they'll receive and every day they come up with new things.

The parents challenge is then to intently listen and to understand what your kid really wishes for - and after thoughtful deliberation, you turn THAT into their present.

You don't give them everything they wanted, you give them what they deep down truly wished for. And that's what makes it magical for them, because you actually spent the time and were thoughtful enough to truly understand who they are.

And the same is true for games.

When everything is always available, then:
- Nothing feels special
- Nothing is worth planning for
- Nothing creates stories anymore

You’ve optimized the fun out of the system.

We’ve seen this over and over:

You remove keys, costs, or gates and players gleefully cheer you on.

But suddenly:
- The gameplay loop breaks
- The economy collapses
- The sense of progression disappears

Another example: social friction.

The magic of early World of Warcraft was that it was basically the first social network.

You had to actively talk to people, organize raids, build relationships and in the process a lot of people created life-long friends.

Then players kept asking for features like LFG and developers caved in with the argument that removing friction is good.

But suddenly, your friends didn't need you anymore. You weren't seen as an important part of their group anymore, you became an annoying obstacle that could be side-tracked. And losing your friends is a horrible feeling, as it should be.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Players are very good at optimizing for short-term satisfaction. But they are incredibly bad at protecting long-term fun.

THAT is the developer’s job.

Sometimes you have to stand your ground and say no. Not to frustrate players, but to protect their experience.

Because if you give players everything they want…

You might be taking away the reason they loved your game in the first place.