Tolga Tekin

Two formalized resources: Amir Likes Me and Complete Job Search Playbook Folks, all the time we are tinkering with new resources for Amir Satvat's Games Community. Sometimes what we add is brand new. In other cases, we have run extensive trials and, based on consistent and strong feedback, decide to formalize them. Today is one of those times. The first is Amir Likes Me. Once a month, you can let me know about a job search post that is at least partially for a role in games. I will add a supportive comment to help boost its visibility. Over the lifetime of our community, I have done about 200 of these. The feedback has been uniformly positive, so I am formalizing it as a resource. This is not a miracle fix, but it is one more way to get more eyes on your post and more connections. It is now on our homepage with a Google form for tracking. I am also adding statistics for this to our bi-weekly community updates so you can see the data on its impact. I will start the tracking at 200, per the data above. Link: https://lnkd.in/gUUuRSjd The second is the Complete Job Search Playbook. This PDF checklist, distilled from a LinkedIn post that received very positive feedback, outlines everything I would consider before calling a job search complete. I know the list is long and that not every candidate can do everything on it for many reasons. This is respected and that is not the goal. It is meant to be a short, printable document you can use to check off actions over any period of time and find new ideas you may not have tried, whether that is just one of them or all of them. Link: https://lnkd.in/gF_gj4rS Neither of these will be numbered resources, but both are now in our resource library, which is linked from our homepage. I hope many of you will use Amir Likes Me to boost your search posts and the checklist to expand your job search activities. Link to Overall Resource Library: https://lnkd.in/eE9EXB5M A big thank you to Desirée R., who helped with UX, resource planning, branding, and design. She did an excellent job. I appreciate your engagement and amplification of this post so we can get this help into the hands of as many games jobseekers as possible. Thank you games community for the continued privilege of serving you.

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As a freelance rigger, I need to make sure my builds have a lot of flexibility. So I've recently reworked my lid modules to add variable joint counts. By utilizing a curve-based output I can changed the amount of joints used based on the needs of the project. Higher joint counts for fidelity and control, lower counts for simplicity and optimization. Or I can test and iterate to find a happy middle ground. So animators using my rigs on film or game projects can enjoy the same features, such as: - Automated lid follow with eye movement - Main controls to position the lids through translation and sculpt the curvature with rotation/scale  - Secondary controls for finer detail (If there are enough joints to support it) - Manual or automated blinking. Animate controls, or activate the automated meet point between your posed lids for a perfect seal I've been using iterations of this system over my last few projects, both commercials and games. The core elements of this system have been floating around in my head since 2018, so it's been great to finally put it to the test. 

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Helldivers 2 studio CEO says the "vast majority" of people "silently play" the game, which means the devs can't just look at what streamers are saying for feedback. "This is a challenge for all games". The silent majority is very real. Most players enjoy a game quietly, without weighing in on social media. That creates a challenge for developers, because if they only pay attention to what streamers are saying, they risk making decisions that cater to a small fraction of their audience. This is something I’ve noticed across the industry. What the loud minority pushes for does not always reflect the behavior of the larger player base. It's a balancing act. Developers cannot dismiss passionate players outright, since these voices often highlight real issues or inspire improvements. But over-indexing on them can alienate the majority who just want to play. The healthiest approach is to ground decisions in hard data. Metrics like character choice, playtime, completion rates, and drop-off points reveal what the silent majority is actually doing. Combining this with qualitative feedback lets developers filter the noise and see where minority concerns align with broader patterns. The truth is that both sides matter. The vocal minority provides early warning signals and creative ideas. The silent majority provides the real foundation of a game’s success. Juggling the two requires careful listening, but also disciplined analysis. Developers who recognize this dynamic and use data to guide their decisions stand the best chance of keeping both groups engaged without losing sight of the game’s core vision.

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Quick trick to cut the bandwidth usage of your online game by 87% when sending status effects ("Poisoned, stunned, etc.."): Store all status effects in a bitmask instead of using a boolean for each of them. "bool stunned", "bool slowed", "bool poisoned" -> take 1 byte each. "byte statusEffects" -> takes 1 byte in total [0000 0000], each bit represents a specific status effect (up to 8) If the value of the bit is "1", you are affected by that state. For example: "Poisoned" is the right-most bit -> its integer value is "1" "Slowed" is the bit before it-> its integer value is "2" You're Poisoned and Slowed? then your statusEffects' value is 3 => [0000 0011] in binary Want to know if you're Poisoned? Just use a bitwise AND with the value of the status: If (statusEffects & 1) == 1 --> you're slowed If (statusEffects & 2) == 1 --> you're poisoned If your game has up to 8 status effects, this trick will save you up to 7 bytes on each character/npc instance, which makes a lot of difference at scale (you pay 87% less for bandwidth, and encoding/decoding packages requires less CPU!) #JustDevIt  #gamedevelopment #multiplayer #netcode #optimization

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Roblox announced major policy changes amid mounting pressure from multiple fronts 🚨 Louisiana (yes, the state) filed a lawsuit alleging the platform enables predator networks, while the #FreeSchlep controversy continues over their ban of a creator who helped arrest 6 predators. Now they're rolling out significant changes: - Explicit ban on "implied sexual content" (major expansion from previous rules) - Social hangouts with bedrooms/bathrooms restricted to ID-verified 17+ only - Nightclubs, bars, dance clubs limited to 17+ verified users - Unrated experiences blocked for most users -Automated real-time detection systems for inappropriate behaviour These aren't minor policy updates - they represent fundamental changes to content moderation. The "implied sexual content" expansion suggests previous policies had significant gaps that community investigators were exposing. Louisiana's lawsuit specifically cited "lack of safety protocols" while demanding platform shutdown. These changes appear designed to address those exact concerns. Roblox is making necessary but overdue changes under intense scrutiny. The platform clearly needed stronger safety measures, but the timing - amid legal action and community backlash - makes these look reactive rather than proactive. They're a step in the right direction, I hope more is to come!

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building apps is so different (and fun too) compared to games: Apps: 🌟 you want the user to get their stuff done ASAP 🌟 success = reducing friction and steps to completion 🌟 users judge you on efficiency and reliability 🌟 monetization often comes from subscriptions or one-time purchases 🌟 users want to forget they're using your app (but come back for solutions) 🌟 apps require a horizontal approach - you focus on different set of features Games: 🌝 you want the player to stay for as long as possible 🌝 success = engagement, retention, and emotional investment 🌝 players judge you on fun, challenge, and surprise 🌝 monetization comes from time spent and in-game purchases 🌝 players want to be immersed and entertained 🌝 games require a vertical product approach - you go deep on content i am building a couple of IOS apps in the coming weeks, focusing on pure IAPs: 1) no ads - so no dealing of constant optimization of ad networks and SDKs 2) leverage my video creation skills to drive downloads via tiktok my view-to-download conversion on tiktok (for games) is a solid 1.5-2% and i hope it can be replicated to app videos too! apps generally have a higher ARPU, which means even videos with low views could make good $$$! #videogames #apps

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