Pronounced “Thay-mur”. Game Designer on Civ VII
@FiraxisGames
. Creator of
@SeekersRomance
. He/him. Opinions are my own. Live by design. Do good recklessly.
Having officially announced the Seeker's Romance RPG, I'll be at Gen Con to do some stuff about it. I've got a list of people I'll be trying to talk to, but you are interested in talking about Seeker's Romance, lets chat!
Average salary for one game dev: $38,600
Salaries for 1,000 game devs: $38 million
Salary for just Kotick: $155 million
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this my industry is dying
“Bobby Kotick was paid $155 million and EA CEO Andrew Wilson was paid $21.4 million in compensation packages, according to SEC filings. Meanwhile, ZipRecruiter estimates the average annual income for US game workers is $38,600, compared to $68,310 for the movie industry”
At the end of 2020, some good news: I have accepted an offer to join the D&D team as a full-time Associate Game Designer! I'm excited to put down some roots and really build something here. I have so much I want to give you.
#dnd
#wotcstaff
I read nearly half a million UA comments my first year working on D&D. I was not the only one reading them.
I understand the desire to share information as you get it, but this just feels like muckraking.
TL;DR - If you work in TTRPGs or video games (design, content creation, anything) DM me, lets network.
This year has been a lot, but I still need to network and build a career. I like getting to know people at conventions, but that isn't happening this year. So here's an idea:
Today is my last day at Wizards of the Coast. It was my first full time gig, an incredible learning opportunity, and my fellow designers were the best of the best. Everyone should be very excited about the future of D&D and Magic.
See y'all!
I make $71k a year as an Associate Game Designer on D&D.
Support your colleagues by promoting transparency and championing pay equity! The shame we feel about money keeps people from being paid fairly. It's high time we got over it.
I make $141k +bonus a year as a Senior Systems Designer on Destiny 2.
Support your colleagues by promoting transparency and championing pay equity! The shame we feel about money keeps people from being paid fairly. It's high time we got over it. ❤
To everyone saying this is a low average salary: yeah, I agree. It covers the non-engineering and non-design staff too, but everyone in games should be paid more.
Ask yourself truly: was bringing the groceries up in one trip toxic masculinity or laziness so deep you couldn’t be bothered to walk out a second time?
I’m a huge proponent for data-driven game design, but ventures like Blizzard’s recently revealed Diversity Tool is a great indicator of how we largely don’t know how use data to design as an industry. So here’s a quick breakdown of the dangers of tools like this.🧵 1/
To all my friends at Wizards, and those no longer at Wizards, today sucks and I'm around if you wanna talk.
To everyone else, hire these people they make your products work.
To executives, I hope your holidays go how you deserve.
@DarkestCrows
Thanks for sharing! For what it's worth, the 38.6 figure is average annual income for all roles in the industry, not just full-time, salaries devs (which are likely higher).
They've been few and far between lately, but between prepping for a fun playtest tomorrow and seeing everyone's excitement over the new Unearthed Arcana, today has been a good day for me. I'll take it.
Look! A anthology of new
#dnd
adventures, written by an incredible group of writers and designers. All of them did incredible work, and I'm beyond ecstatic to share credits with them.
#wotcstaff
Introducing
#Candlekeep
Mysteries, the latest adventure anthology in the Forgotten Realms setting! Explore this collection of new mysteries by up-and-coming D&D designers from across our community. These short adventures arrive March 16!
Pre-order now:
This D&D price discussion is hilarious to me because the D&D books with a mechanics focus should easily cost $100 but too many people do not value TTRPGs as games enough.
I'm especially interested in talking to designers and content creators of my cohort. People who are also getting started, or are serious about leveling up their skills, and developing friendly and empowering professional networks. Indie, AAA, hobbyist, we can learn together.
We did it. Tonight we ended (with epilogue!) a three year
#dnd
campaign. No pressure from real life obligations, just reached the organic end. All the player characters survived, at least a couple players cried, and the world was saved.
What a feeling.
I want to establish a regular cadence for connecting with people. I've been a professional game designer for a year and already moved between a few different games. While that has been a great opportunity, its also highlighted the value of transferable skills and community
First, the “default” setting. Every graph has a “zero” that establishes what unaltered values represent. In this case, it seems to be cis straight white men, which is problematic in its own right. However, any assumption of a default human introduces significant bias about 2/
I'll be reaching out over the next few days/weeks to some people, but please feel free to reach out to me. If we follow each other here or if we know each other in real life, especially so! I'd also appreciate any signal boost from my friends and colleagues.
I’m not gonna be at Magic 30 or BigBadCon this year, but that’s because I’ve had a different exciting week!
I just finished my first visit to
@FiraxisGames
! I can’t wait for y’all to see what we’re working on!
#gamedev
I'm interested in talking to experienced members of my industries about the process and art of what we do. There is so much expertise and tribal knowledge out there. It doesn't have to be mentorship or a lesson, we can just chat over lunch. We might work together some day.
Up next in the summer is something special people have been asking for for a long time. We're collaborating with
@Wizards_DnD
! It's a full black-bordered Standard-legal set featuring Dungeons & Dragons we're calling Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
AI is the solution to a problem that exists only in the minds of execs and money men - that what players want is infinite slurry, produced with utmost predictable efficiency
Just remembered that the first ttrpg I made had over 100 weapon types in the basic equipment, each with subtle mechanical differences and no overlap. I took into account size, shape, type of damage inflicted, martial arts applications, etc.
Can confirm that was a terrible idea.
Second, scale of measurement. In the example of sexuality, is being gay worth more or less than being bisexual? Who gets to make that call? As culture and social sensibilities shift, who will update those values? What if they get it wrong? What if they get it wrong on purpose? 4/
I genuinely hope we have tools in this space that help designers and teams avoid the pitfalls of bad representation someday, but it’s way bigger of a problem than we seem to be giving it credit for as an industry. 11/end.
One of my favorite things to do as a DM is see how many players I can get to fully leap off a 30+ foot height when other options are available. Today I got 3 out of 4.
And finally (for this thread at least), these tools don’t have any impact on the execution of the character concept. There have been “diverse” characters that have been handled poorly, and tools like this might ensure more unprepared creators have to try to create them. 10/
If women are worth more diversity points than men in this example, is a roster of all women more diverse than a roster of some men, women, and non-binary folks? Logically this seems obvious, but the tools might not agree. 7/
Fifth, does the tool prevent every character from becoming a box-ticking exercise? Do we get a variety of characters or is every “diverse” character a non-binary, pansexual, mixed heritage individual with an uncommon body type? 8/
Third, the comparison of differences in kind. Is being a woman worth more or less than being Asian? Again, who will make that call and who will keep it up to date? What if they have an agenda? 5/
My grandfather asked me to explain Gatorade to him and I tried to it in Urdu, but electrolytes are complicated as a concept so I ended up saying [translated]: “It’s flavored sweat you drink to replace your sweat when you sweat”
One of the funnier things I’ve seen when engaging with tools like this is that I (cis, straight, brown man) am not a “diverse” enough or “default” enough person to be a character in games. 9/
I moved into my apartment as the lockdown started, and I am moving out of my apartment into a new one while COVID still rages a year later and I’m still locked down, and I am NOT coping well with this reality.
Fourth, on what scale does a tool like this lose accuracy? If it can accurately measure the “diversity value” of a character, does it account for the “diversity value” of a roster? 6/
My favorite thing about people locking on to the Druid in the D&D movie turning into an owlbear is that its lovely proof of how much the game part of the D&D matters to folks. Its very fun to see evidence of that in the wild.
For context, I spoke to Chris Perkins about this book as an intern, wrote my adventure for the product as a contractor, and helped develop the book's statblocks as fulltime staff. It takes a *long* time for a book to go from planning to print.
Today’s D&D session started with one PC ordering a custom-made adamantine fishing pole, climaxed on a heartfelt eulogy for another character’s brother (who had tried to kill the party), and ended with the revelation that a third PC had been kidnapped. Also someone adopted a dog.
It is remarkable how much I want to play a video game and how I cannot seem to bring myself to start a video game. Like a dream, I want to be playing a video game with no recollection or care of how I got there.
I just want to say I haven't seen enough people building Disney Princess characters as Swarmkeeper Rangers, surrounded by flitting birds and helpful woodland creatures.
Next time I play a game, I will be the change I want to see in the world.
#dnd
#WOTCstaff
Every time I tell the story of the time I ran a Super Mario inspired D&D campaign without my players realizing what was happening, I enrage/disappoint someone new.
It lasted 4 sessions before any of them questioned what was going on.
My favorite thing about people locking on to the Druid in the D&D movie turning into an owlbear is that its lovely proof of how much the game part of the D&D matters to folks. Its very fun to see evidence of that in the wild.
Candlekeep Mysteries was the first book I got to see from go from start to finish. It was an incredible learning experience, and I can't wait for y'all to see it.
I have spent my whole life thinking cilantro and coriander were different things. But they are the same thing and now I don’t trust any word in any of the languages I speak.
Today is an awful reminder that when a group feels like they can wield violence without consequence they will resort to the cruelest option available because it costs them nothing and costs others their ability to act. It’s easy to “win” when the other side can’t afford to play
@justicearman
I think you’re right, unless the encounter is designed to have you run away up front. If the challenges presented are “how will you escape” instead of “you are outmatched”, I’ve had a lot of success in getting players to flee. Basically you have to build a running-away-encounter
@mattcolville
It’s such a shame how much creative space feels “cut off” because of how previous incredibly popular and familiar IPs claimed it and now anything made without the same level of production or funding feels derivative.
Am I gonna watch the Vox Machina show this weekend?
Probably.
Do I know anything about campaign 1?
Not really.
I just wanna see someone draw D&D style magic.
It’s been three months since I broke my back and I’ve been so fortunate in my recovery. There was a lot that could have gone wrong, and a lot of long-term consequences that I dodged. Just feeling thankful for the luck where I have it.
My favorites thing about Baldur’s Gate 3 so far is that playing a gnome I’m always looking up in cutscenes and other characters are constantly looking down. And in a few key scenes other character kneel to get to my level
I’ve fled to a hotel room to ride out this absurd PNW heatwave. If I’m going to be trapped in here with my thoughts, so are all of you, an ongoing thread:
(Also AMA I guess? I’m bored)
Question time!
In one of my D&D games, my players (level 9) are trying to kill an enemy that can see his own future for the next 24 hours perfectly. As such, he can prepare perfectly within that time frame to avoid the PCs. How would you solve this?
@DailyDael
Exploding dice! From many games but I’m thinking of Savage Worlds. For some rolls, if you roll the highest value on the dice, roll again and add it to the previous result. If you get the highest number again, keep going.
You can roll a natural 27 on a d10!
Me, filling out a design test for a job application: Gotta take it seriously, put my best foot forward.
Me, doing the the job normally: This ability is an anime-based pun. It deals 6d9 damage.
I’ve determined that I haven’t been able to play video games for the last few months because closing my work laptop, turning 30 degrees, and launching Steam on my PC doesn’t really get me out of work brain. It’s all just screens and clicking. Also the news is an Alt-Tab away.
I love what I do.
In public, private, and professional spaces, I often speak about things that need to be improved, or fixed, or that are hurtful. But I *really* love what I do, and as a conduit between people's fun and the work of game design, it's good to remind myself of that
How excited am I for the new Mass Effect?
Well Eid is tomorrow and ME releases on the 14th, and I got confused and thought ME was coming out tomorrow and Eid was later. I was willing to fast extra days to live in a reality where I got to play ME early. I need help. Send Tali.
Harness the power of dragons in this installment of Unearthed Arcana! This playtest document presents race, feat, and spell options related to dragons in Dungeons & Dragons. 🐉
Learn more about Unearthed Arcana - Draconic Options:
As we approach August, a quick shout out to every other person that's gotten 18 months into a pandemic with little to no support system and is still trying. I see you, we'll make it.
A big part of achieving your
#ttrpg
goals is having them in the first place! There's no size requirement for a goal—it might be as small as writing 50 words each week!
What's one of your tabletop goals for 2022?
I’ve been struggling to say anything about the violent attacks on Asians around the US, because it feels so...standard.
Another middling white man committed a terrible act, fueled by personal delusions that every feature of power in his life upheld and amplified.
Sometimes when I’m working at the office and no one else is there I feel like I’m the lone protagonist of an apocalypse movie, burdened with humanity’s survival.
Other times I sit on the floor to work because no one can stop me.