iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 27/03/2026

I agree. “Points” are a tool for displaying competency, this can however be illustrated in many creative ways. these illustrations if ludonarrative & congruent brings surprise & delight. Read Dead 2 could have Cowboy Points which are rewarded when you successfully roleplay (antithetical example)

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 25/03/2026

yeah, this layoff represents 25% of their workforce- so the tide is really receding on them

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 25/03/2026

Epic's 2019 P&L was published as part of Epic v. Apple. If Fortnite makes $2B next year, they still would be underwater on paying royalties and salaries. Estimates don't suggest that Fortnite is growing. Curious to how EGS is going to hold up without the Fortnite money to back it

120

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 19/03/2026

DLSS5 currently requires two GPUs. Due to physical bandwidth limitations, GPUs are unable to share processing load. This alone confirms that its a post-processing filter, not further processing manipulating the "geometry and textures" - unless Huang wants us to believe physics no longer applies

0133

Reposted by Sean O’Dowd

William Pugh @honestwilliam.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

imagine if the pope was like “i’m going to make an indie game” but the it was steampunk and nothing to do with jesus

1202

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 18/01/2026

Intentionality is such a great concept to distinguish AI slop and AI tooling which empowers us to do more. So much of the marketing is about removing intention, I prefer projects like this from NOAA: 99.7% energy reduction in weather modeling. www.noaa.gov/news-release...

noaa.gov

NOAA deploys new generation of AI-driven global weather models

NOAA has launched a groundbreaking new suite of operational, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven global weather prediction models, marking a significant advancement in forecast speed, efficiency, and ...

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 01/11/2025

If it is union busting, then this should be an easy win. Trade Union and Labour Relations law specifically covers this. What I suspect is that they were sharing confidential documents/ information, which then undermines the union effort and puts them in murky water :(

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 28/10/2025

Yes, there is a large amount of illiterate and people who struggle with written language. In my country Australia, 44% have low literacy skills. This person you’ve posted sits upon their ivory tower, looking down at those who need a tool to help them and complain it gets in their way.

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 28/10/2025

bait keeping bolt relevant

020

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 21/10/2025

I love this question!!

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 21/10/2025

it’s been a palette cleanser from the theme of films in the 90s which are all about terrible dads- Mrs. Doubtfire, Liar Liar, Jingle All The Way, Jack Frost, etc

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

Here in Australia, we have laws around behaviors of dogs - rather than species. Owners can be jailed: - for up to 10 years if their dog kills someone - for up to 5 years if their dog endangers someone's life If your dog is at risk of doing harm to others, a muzzle is a must.

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

Curious where you get your ideas from

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

I feel this is a product of not teaching people how to say goodbye 😔

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

I’m not in the business of children 🤷

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

just don’t invite them in and take up hobbies such as whittling wood

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

do you have children?

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

damn. doesn’t seem ethical to the dog. seems better to not have a dog, if you don’t have the time to build effective verbal communication.

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 20/10/2025

I’d like to add some context: - Animal bites constitute 1% of U.S. emergency department visits, varying in severity. - 70.4% of dog bite deaths were not family dogs, but from chained dogs - trapped at the end of a chain or in a small pen.

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 18/10/2025

2026 is when I will launch this product. I’m really looking forward to sharing years of effort, passion, and everything I learned along the way.

020

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 18/10/2025

What I found helpful was attempting to predict the outcome from a design solution, and then see how close I was in actuality. Resisting the urge to introduce more elements. Doing more with less. All in service to a core principle.

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 18/10/2025

Years ago, I started working on a social game with its core mechanic testing our understanding of the world and each other. Through feedback I added and removed: powerups, achievements, deception, mind reading. Made it way too complex, and way too simple. All starting from this

120

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 10/10/2025

Absolutely! feel free to message me here or at hello@odowd.co

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 10/10/2025

have we considered the impact of players focussing on addictive systems, rather than the existential threat that is climate change? How can design be proactive? I feel like the conversation is much more than the small amount covered in your article. But nonetheless, great start to the discussion.

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 07/06/2025

I’ve been working with SMG on LEGO Party for years, and I’m excited to finally share it with you all! I’ve written a few words on how it was made on my portfolio odowd.co This also means that I’m available to take on another project. If you need help or know someone who does, get in touch!

050

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 06/06/2025

Enshittification of windows continues

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 13/04/2025

I earnestly believe tools for accessibility will benefit everyone greatly; prior if someone had poor fine motor skills, using a computer would be very laborious. This is changing. Although, most companies are trying to shove an LLM into a shitty product, and that doesn’t help anyone.

120

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 13/04/2025

if you’re earnestly asking, AI is more than the LLMs that are being marketed as AI. Accelerating Drug Discovery, molecular research, speech recognition, the list goes on. There’s a lot of slop, but that’s because there are a few standout uses and a lot of companies are trying to capitalize on hype

100

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 28/03/2025

super exciting! would love to chat about it, i've also been working on a board game and video game companion. what have you got printed out on your wall? everything is looking great!

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 26/03/2025

In my case, the experience i'm creating is not about a compass - although... maybe in another game i will explore that more

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 26/03/2025

As it turns out, I could simplify the problem and so I removed the feature / visual element. Kill your darlings; throw things away, remove anything that distracts away from the experience you're creating.

100

Reposted by Sean O’Dowd

Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

We published this year's Polaris game design papers. Some of the best game design writing for senior designers on the entire planet. Our team worked on designing collective decision making systems. polarisgamedesign.com/2024/how-to-... #gamedesign #gamedevelopment

polarisgamedesign.com

How To Design Collective Decision-Making Systems

JC Lau, Elaine Gusella, Ian Schrieber, Daniel Cook 1. What is this all about? If, as Sid Meier has famously said, “a game is a series of interesting decisions”, then a co-op game is a series of intere...

35529

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 05/01/2025

This year I have availability for new opportunities 🎉 Working on something cool? I want to hear about it! odowd.co

odowd.co

Sean O'Dowd | Portfolio

A developer & designer based in Melbourne Australia.

053

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 02/01/2025

Local LLM’s won’t be as easily corrupted by this phenomenon. It seems likely the Ad Blocker / Advertising arm race will continue.

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 14/12/2024

In a visual design, I’ve been using a compass in order to illustrate many positions within a radial spectrum. It is quite complex. It’s often a failure point. Again, and again, I’ve attempted to simplify the solution - but ultimately, what am I actually trying to solve? Can I simplify the problem?

000

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 14/12/2024

Complexity is a desirable outcome, but similar to cellular automata, must be derived from simple parts multiplying into complex forms.

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 03/12/2024

Started learning rust to build a web server. The current goal is to support 50,000 concurrent players within a single game instance. I have no idea whether the game will actually go viral in this way, but as my game can be played with a large twitch audience, handling is a must

040

Reposted by Sean O’Dowd

Jon WeisNEWSKi @sharkeatsman.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Gameplay design philosophy: try to read the player’s mind. This is a simple guideline for how to design input priority. The statement is simple, but the execution can be extremely complicated depending on the game in question.

1278

Reposted by Sean O’Dowd

Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Why does 'finding the fun' fail so often as a design strategy? #gamedesign New designers are told to prototype and 'find the fun'. But the naive version of this is a garbage tactic that mostly results in poorly thought out prototypes that are never going to converge on gameplay.

44923199

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 27/11/2024

Sunrise on Mt Speculation 🗻 3 day hike in. Well worth the view 📸 #photography

060

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 27/11/2024

Thanks!! It took a bit of time, but it feels really rewarding. Totally recommend giving it a try! Is it just flips you’re interested in?

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 27/11/2024

Working on being able to backflip

110

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 26/11/2024

What’s really difficult about playtesting is how messy the feedback can be. If I act on all feedback, then I risk creating something horrifically confused. But instead, just focus on testing my assumptions and understanding of the design space.

010

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 26/11/2024

R&D within games, for me looks like lots of prototyping and playtesting. Keeping everything low stakes. Completely reworking the design, discarding elements. Testing assumptions. Fast prototyping.

120

Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co · 22/11/2024

I’ve been working on a social game concept for about 18 months now, and I’m keen to show you all. I’d also like to throw it all away and do something else. The process is confusing. Really difficult too. Though, I’ve found this book to be a good anchor to return to. #gamedev #art #boardgames

amazon.com

The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Amazon.com: The Creative Act: A Way of Being: 9780593652886: Rubin, Rick: Books

040

Reposted by Sean O’Dowd

cTrix 💾 @ctrix64.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Arrite - let's see if this blusky thing can post previews of Amiga synthwave bangers. Let's face it - that's half my use case!

1118048