October 2025 Newsletter (Patreon)

The leaves are falling. The trees are bereft. And yet we persevere to make interactive entertainment software.

It may not always be fun. It may not always be good. But like the falling leaf in autumn, it is in our nature.

(Unless we are leaves belonging to evergreen trees, which would probably be preferable in this metaphor. )

What's on YouTube This Month?

Those of you who've been following for a while will know that I like to keep things loose and agile, but centered around the core promise of the channel; we're here to try to make better games. The only content formats truly locked in place are Indies Under the Knife and the Community Playtest Streams. Alongside that, I'll keep making occasional video essays, as and when - but at the moment at a rate of one every 3 weeks.

Here's what's coming up on Indies Under the Knife this month. October is a month heavy in Thursdays, which means there's time half-way through to do a little collab with the folks over at Indie Game Academy to look at some of their student pitches just as those projects go live on KickStarter!

Week 1 (Oct 2nd) - Logistics and Automation with Crystal Rail, Truck City, and Main Sequence.
Week 2 (Oct 9th) - Games About Show Business with Bomb or Kill, and Stage Fighter Tactics.
Week 3 (Oct 16th) - Indie Game Academy Pitch Review Special
Week 4 (Oct 23rd) - Games w/ Spooky Settings including PHOSPHORUS, Rogue Blight, Pinnacle Point, and Mind the Clown.
Week 5 (Oct 30th) - Halloween Spooky Boomer Shooter Special with Frog Legs and BRINE.

As in September, the Community Playtest Stream has gone from monthly to fortnightly. You can sign up from inside the Discord, using the spreadsheet pinned in the Playtesting & QA Channel.

Tom Hughes will be returning as my co-host on the Game Developers' Library, where we'll be covering Kim Nordström's UP DOWN UP: Why some game companies succeed, while others fail, a surprisingly easy read about game business. I'm about a third of the way through now and finding it breezy. It speaks some hard truths that many might not want to hear, but it also validates some feelings I've had about cargo cult mentalities, the intuition of talented people, and the dangers of trying to treat anything creative as something which can be totally risk-managed through data-driven approaches.

October Membership Sale

For those of you who have been thinking of joining but haven't taken the plunge yet, October is the perfect time. Between Oct 4th and Oct 25th you'll be able to get 50% off of your first month of membership. Just use the code "OCT50" when joining (valid on the lower 3 tiers, not on 1:1 mentoring). I don't promise you anything silly, you're probably not going to go from a hobbyist to making six figures, but we do have a pretty neat community of folks who want to work together to help eachother make better games!

Best of luck with your projects this month, and see you in the Discord!