Ron Gilbert (GrumpyGamer)

Owner of Terrible Toybox, the designer/creator of Monkey Island, The Cave, Pajama Sam and the designer/co-creator of Maniac Mansion, DeathSpank and Thimbleweed Park. Co-designer of Return to Monkey Island.

All ideas are my own, but you'd be crazy not to agree.

Public Key

npub10zashfkmgsdw46wp098n3rspe4272ahhjahysj52gxx7rvmz7evqts95r2

NIP-05 Address

grumpygamer@mastodon-gamedev-place.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs83wct5md5gxh2a8qhjnec3cqu6409wmmewmjgf29yrr0pkd30vkqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsautn5y

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub10zashfkmgsdw46wp098n3rspe4272ahhjahysj52gxx7rvmz7evqts95r2

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Last Notes

2026-04-30 04:42:44 UTC

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@nprofile…cchw The real fps is 160 but if I clamp it to 60, it says 59. I feel ripped off.

2026-04-30 03:31:08 UTC

I hate math. What has it ever done for me?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/491/539/284/840/721/original/c262304b08c7dcaf.png

2026-04-25 23:28:59 UTC

I upgraded to Raylib 6.0 and everything broke. Looking for a good guide to updating to 6.0. Yet to find it. Looks like a lot in animation has been removed/changed?
#raylib

2026-04-23 03:57:59 UTC

Policeman approaches the Bank Robber! How will my State Engine deal with it?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/452/001/465/172/164/original/493af9e10c8a3689.png

2026-04-19 01:34:03 UTC

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@nprofile…v7lm Same place Guybrush keeps all his inventory.

2026-04-18 23:43:28 UTC

Litterbugs!
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/428/355/964/881/264/original/704dd41dca4d2045.png

2026-04-18 22:44:00 UTC

I took a workshop this weekend in Bonsai scalping and styling. It was a lot of fun, but I really missed undo.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/428/112/690/025/944/original/ee8b518b749d33ae.jpeg

2026-04-17 03:43:07 UTC

Every time I work on the AI of my game I feel dirty. Damn tech bros wrecking the good kind of AI.

2026-04-16 21:23:22 UTC

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@nprofile…wrq0 Every from I do 50 steps of the a*, then the next frame I continue.

2026-04-15 23:57:57 UTC

Pathing finding for 50 NPCs, takes 2-5 seconds for them to calculate a path, but no FPS drop. I think we have a winner. Now, I just need a game!
#raylib
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/411/426/550/903/043/original/ecd850dd44c3c151.png

2026-04-14 00:11:37 UTC

A little Pirate diorama for you viewing pleasure.
I have carving terrain in the editor now and made water be anything below ground level and then apply a water shader.
I need better water textures.
#raylib #indiedev #pirates
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/400/116/659/551/345/original/b258f94ebcbb9312.png

2026-04-12 05:52:42 UTC

The thing my editor needs to be able to do is raise and lower terrain from within the editor. Changing the height map in an external tool is becoming a pain.

2026-04-06 00:58:12 UTC

Does anyone know the AI prompt they used to fake the Artemis II moon mission?

2026-04-02 19:37:46 UTC

I just spent 7 days in Australia and didn't see a single spider. I did see a bunch of kangaroos hang out by the airport, probably plane spotters.

2026-04-02 19:31:49 UTC

I'd trust it more the AI.
"Goldfish drives own car thanks to Dutch computer engineer’s record-breaking invention"
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2026/3/goldfish-drives-own-car-thanks-to-dutch-computer-engineers-record-breaking-invention

2026-03-13 21:46:03 UTC

I call it "pile of cubes". A bitting social commentary and the state of gaming these days.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/224/056/203/792/867/original/100f9d985437871d.png

2026-03-10 01:16:52 UTC

30+ years of game dev tells me it's just polish from here on out.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/202/235/285/114/685/original/c531fd5bf688be92.png

2026-03-08 02:25:30 UTC

I've been following these videos. I love his style, but he talks too fast and make a lot of assumption on how blender is set up. I just want him to slow down. Way down. Way way down. Describe everything he is doing and then describe it again. And then again. I get talking fast during his 10 minute challenges, but not in his tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_cGaqzAIAc

2026-03-08 02:20:29 UTC

Every time I think I understand Blender I don't.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/191/157/947/175/777/original/86a81628b4e98b78.png

2026-03-06 20:48:35 UTC

Did my first piece of Blender art for my game. Can you guess which one?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/184/191/792/985/494/original/f26512a1f4f3a77e.png

2026-03-05 06:39:23 UTC

I wrote some code so if two entities run into each other they stop and talk for a few seconds, but due to a bug they become a bunch of extroverts and never stop talking.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/116/175/189/019/814/815/original/9fd1cccdabc484a0.png

2026-03-05 03:45:20 UTC

Please don't go to GDC. They charge a lot of money when the main benefit is socializing outside the conference and add to that the danger of traveling to the U.S and GDC must end. I have a lot of problems with GDC and how they con attendees and speakers with "it's good for your career" bullshit. I haven't gone in years and won't in the future.

2026-02-24 22:59:27 UTC

I've gotten too used to the silent Mac Laptops. Struggling to find an equally silent laptop I can use for Linux (and buy in NZ). Why does Apple have to make awesome hardware and also be a horrible company. Distros that work on Mac hardware are too experimental right now, don't recommend them. I know all about them. You're wasting the limited amount of typing you have in this life.

2026-02-24 21:08:42 UTC

Coming along great with VSCode and compiling (and more impartially) debugging c++. This all bodes well for the move to Linux once I get a new laptop. I found rcodesign for code signing Mac apps on Linux. No idea if it works yet but it would completely break by dependence on a Mac and still be able to build Mac versions.

2026-02-16 23:05:25 UTC

Feeling old because I've never heard of Bad Bunny before a few days ago.

2026-02-13 03:59:28 UTC

I turned off copilot but I still like AI writing my commit message. It's better then "Did stuff".

2026-02-12 03:26:19 UTC

Copilot is driving me crazy. It makes some decent suggestion but my screen is flashing with hovers and phantom text it wants to place. How does anyone get work done with the mess. Sometimes I accept it's recommendation and it added extra } braces.

2026-02-11 19:07:12 UTC

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@nprofile…0y0v Worth keeping an eye on.

2026-02-11 18:44:57 UTC

One reason I like raylib is it's all code. Unity and Unreal drive me fucking crazy because you do everything in a gui. I know people who have used just the rendering part of Unreal but they say it's a real pain and not recommended. I'm a programmer, I like to code.
#raylib

2026-02-09 02:20:08 UTC

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I think I know what the issue is, the coords you give to stb_perlin_fbm_noise3() are from 0..1, not the actual size of the text.

2026-02-08 03:56:57 UTC

I now have a pirate ship sailing around the sea (in 3D) under player control and feeling pretty pretty good. I now just need a game. I'm thinking something Sudoku based.

2026-02-06 03:37:49 UTC

Spent the day messing around with raylib. Pretty impressive. It will load and display the 3d models from @nprofile…zrxk.

2026-01-29 07:58:07 UTC

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@nprofile…wx8p VR is dead. Normal people don't want to put blinders on and be cut off from the world. It freaks them out. It's also makes a good number of people sick. It also make them look like fools with that gear on their heads and normal people don't like looking like a fool. AR has a future when it's part of my contact lens.

2026-01-29 07:52:05 UTC

"Mark Zuckerberg is all-in on AI as the new social media " -- He was also all in on VR being the future... how did that work out? He is the typical idiot who got lucky and now thinks it was his genius.

2026-01-28 21:21:21 UTC

Hahahhahahha!

2026-01-26 22:52:03 UTC

I may have the largest surviving collection of late 70s and early 80s BYTE magazines due to my mom never getting rid of anything. The articles are useless, the ads are hilarious.

2026-01-12 20:38:36 UTC

If I need any heavy construction equipment in NZ, I now know where to get it.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/884/048/746/273/118/original/1f1c978d7e63f60f.jpeg

2026-01-11 21:38:24 UTC

I can no longer stream Wellington Paranormal in Wellington. Let that sink in.

2026-01-10 19:56:19 UTC

I found some ancient remains of Rivendell deep in the wilderness of NZ.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/872/559/078/943/289/original/e5b87ec7018fa4e9.jpeg

2026-01-07 04:32:54 UTC

I really needed to stress out the comment system on my blog so I ask a Linux question.

2026-01-06 23:45:46 UTC

The size of the Grumpy Gamer sqlite comments db is now larger then the entire C64 Maniac Mansion.

2025-12-26 00:04:14 UTC

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@nprofile…09nj What is a LOC?

2025-12-24 21:09:44 UTC

Here is a free Steam key for anything they sell. Just guess the missing letters:
?????-?????-?????

2025-12-24 20:34:18 UTC

The Twelve Days of Crunch Time
https://www.grumpygamer.com/12_days_of_crunch_time/
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/776/432/143/367/255/original/9f554aa485974c0c.mp4

2025-12-21 21:32:57 UTC

When Twitter collapsed, it was great to see the flood of friends, game devs and other come to Mastodon. Over the next 9 months a lot of them vanished to Threads, BlueSky or just left. I want to thank all people who are still on Mastodon and make it a wonderful place. You know who you are.

2025-12-11 18:34:39 UTC

Star Trek is leaving Netflix just when I started rewatching DS9 and Voyager. I'm going to take it personally. There is no other way to look at it.

2025-12-01 21:42:44 UTC

Working on a big update for Death by Scrolling. I miss releasing a game in 80s where it shipped and you stopped working on it.

2025-11-27 07:30:49 UTC

Went over to see a fellow American living the New Zealand and we had Thanksgiving turkey and they hooked me up with place I could buy Root Beer.

2025-11-18 00:15:01 UTC

I will never understand why printf() doesn't support printing binary when you can print hex and octal. It seems like programmer back in the 70s would have need binary as well.
Anyone who responds with some alt printf library gets a block. It's rhetorical question. I'm not looking for an alt method.

2025-11-13 04:56:20 UTC

I wish there were more seasons of Corner Gas.

2025-11-11 22:14:02 UTC

Good news everybody! The SteamDeck/Linux stutter is now fixed in Death by Scrolling, plus some other awesome quality of life changes. We continue to make improvements mostly because I can't stop working on the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3773590/view/613179230182706248

2025-11-09 21:24:44 UTC

Free idea of the day: A tower defense game but as an interactive narrative.

2025-11-09 19:52:17 UTC

Three things I hope I live long enough to see:
1) The Year 2038 Catastrophe
2) Death of Trump
3) Betelgeuse explode

2025-11-07 03:57:50 UTC

The review I dreaded the most. The @nprofile…le9p is here. I can finally relax.
https://mixnmojo.com/features/reviews/Death-by-Scrolling-Reviewed
#DeathByScrolling

2025-11-06 20:08:48 UTC

If you bought Death by Scrolling and are enjoying it, please give it a thumbs up on Steam. A lot of people have bought it thinking it's yet another Vampire Surviver clone and it's not so they leave crappy reviews. Death by Scrolling is a very different game for a different audience.

2025-11-06 18:14:25 UTC

"Death by Scrolling will eat your whole evening and make a gag about it"
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/news-death-by-scrolling-will-eat-your-whole-evening-and-make-a-gag-about-it/

2025-11-02 08:00:19 UTC

I'm glad the Blue Jays lost. Does that make me a horrible person?

2025-10-30 23:05:03 UTC

Steam Deck update: I found an old SteamDeck running OS 3.6 and installed Death by Scrolling. It ran fine and was butter smooth. I then updated the OS to 3.7 and now it's choppy and stutters. The plot thickens.

2025-10-30 18:15:45 UTC

This patch didn't address the SteamDeck issue. The steam deck issue is perplexing. The game worked great for all our playtesters, then the game release and it broke for all of them. Same bits. We suspect a SteamDeck update happened. It is our #1 priority.

2025-10-30 00:50:42 UTC

If you don't live in Seattle this will make little sense, if you haven't lived in Seattle for twenty years it will make no sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dj7nkEj8ZM

2025-10-29 22:51:00 UTC

I'm not a Streamer so I don't know what Streamers need in terms of features to turn on and off to make streaming easier. I watched someone streaming Death by Scrolling and they wanted to turn off looping SFX because they got in the way of talking. If you stream a lot are there others things? Happy to add them.

2025-10-28 08:58:55 UTC

#DeathByScrolling
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/450/959/859/028/232/original/56b92a0e37f0fa6a.png

2025-10-28 07:10:13 UTC

I'm going to celebrate the launch of Death by Scrolling with some Grog, just like the pirate leaders did.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/450/537/173/331/435/original/371c3ae3378b337a.jpeg

2025-10-27 22:08:05 UTC

With less than 10 hours until Death by Scrolling launches I am afraid to run TesterTron3000 because it might find something.

2025-10-26 21:45:49 UTC

Pro-tip: When you first play Death by Scrolling, focus on collecting Gems, not Gold so you have get Destiny Cards. Once you have built a good character focus on Gold and sending people across the river to the afterlife. Corporate Purgatory, Inc. wants to distract you with Gold. Don't fall for it.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/442/644/093/996/726/original/b92b6e12b200c5eb.png

2025-10-26 00:17:53 UTC

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@nprofile…cjng Vendor lock-in. Complex recovery from lost devices. It's a solution companies love because you a have to keep using their devices. I use 1password. I see no advantage to passkeys and only disadvantages.

2025-10-25 22:19:08 UTC

I wish there was some kind of global internet-wide setting that says "I don't want to you use fucking passkeys, stop asking me".

2025-10-22 05:00:26 UTC

Real headline or The Onion: "AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright"
Pro-tip: It's never the Onion.

2025-10-22 04:49:42 UTC

Last minute bug fix today:
* Stop chainsaw when you go the afterlife.
I kid you not. Making game is weird.

2025-10-20 18:12:40 UTC

Real or The Onion headline: "New toilet camera provides health insights based on your bathroom breaks"

2025-10-20 03:48:47 UTC

Stages of hearing about a new bug
1) Denial - That’s not a real bug!
2) Anger - What are these testers thinking!
3) Bargain - I’m sure I fixed this before? Didn’t I?
4) Depression - I’m never going to fix all these bugs.
5) Acceptance - Fine! I’ll fix the bug and it turned out to be pretty simple.

2025-10-18 20:59:53 UTC

I've been punching Nazis since 1989.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/397/171/356/703/659/original/f1c9eaa902eccd41.png

2025-10-18 20:12:35 UTC

If you think video game shouldn't be political, then you haven't been paying attention while you play Battlefield.

2025-10-18 19:42:32 UTC

#FuckTrump

2025-10-16 22:42:48 UTC

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@nprofile…xsud Yeah, I know. I'm not a big fan of awards (games, movies, tv). I generally don't submit for them.

2025-10-15 19:40:53 UTC

Development of Death by Scrolling has been put on hold during the Seattle Mariners game today.

2025-10-08 01:44:13 UTC

I broke my Scurvy Scallywags coffee mug this morning. I can't help but feel there is metaphor and symbolism in there somewhere.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/336/001/932/121/337/original/4ab00aca313c0e6d.jpeg

2025-09-29 21:34:48 UTC

I took a small vacation to the south island of NZ.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/115/289/727/147/513/492/original/5e1367a81930fc75.jpeg

2025-09-05 02:15:40 UTC

Mastodon users who reply only to correct someone spelling or grammar are very sad people. From now on you will be blocked.

2025-09-04 23:09:22 UTC

TesterTron3000 found it's first bug. A very rare map generation issue. A playtester got it first, so I started TesterTron working. 3 hours of running non-stop building a map every 0.25 seconds and it found it and I was able to repro.

2025-08-22 20:08:24 UTC

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@nprofile…suh9 Is that Perl?

2025-08-19 19:14:17 UTC

Officially announcing Death By Scrolling, of course Mastodon followers have known about it for months. It's the privilege of being on Mastodon.
https://www.grumpygamer.com/deathbyscrolling5/

2025-08-14 23:22:06 UTC

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@nprofile…wq9y I use Fork, but I need to diff files that aren't in git and I can't figure how to run Forks diff outside of Git.

2025-08-14 23:11:14 UTC

Kaleidoscope, the excellent diff tool on the Mac is now predatory subscription software. I use it three of four times a year, I am not paying $8/month for that. Shame on them and shame on you if you make subscription software that doesn't have a need to be just because you think your a poor dev that need to milk customers. Charge a reasonable price and don't race to the bottom.

2025-08-13 01:09:39 UTC

I watched Trainspotting for the first time last night. No notes. OK, one note, I had to turn on the subtitles to understand what they were saying.

2025-08-12 02:41:16 UTC

If players want to power-through dialog and then miss story information, I can't solve that. I don't know what I want to solve that. It feels like fast forwarding though a movie, just watching the action scenes, and then complaining the plot didn't make any sense.

2025-08-12 01:20:46 UTC

If you work for a company owned by an evil and horrible company, you work for an evil and horrible company. Stop deluding yourself.

2025-08-08 02:23:13 UTC

I switched to @nprofile…4fxs long ago for my search. Never felt the need to drop back to Google. Yeah, it cost a little money (cup of coffee/month) but good things do and you're not the product or spied on.

2025-08-07 23:13:11 UTC

Damn it! No one told make making games was hard.

2025-08-03 03:27:30 UTC

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@nprofile…fnwu @nprofile…v284 Any good rss feed reader will figure it out if you just past the main blog url into it.

2025-08-01 20:58:03 UTC

I'm looking for some good game dev blogs that have RSS feeds. Only interested in ones that have RSS feeds, so check before you suggest.

2025-08-01 00:00:49 UTC

My happy place is a 6502 that runs at 4.3 GHz with 64 bit A,X,Y registers.

2025-07-29 23:42:07 UTC

I have to updates my Mac's OS. This always terrifies me. Several years ago an OSX updated bricked my machine. This close to Death By Scrollings release this would not be a good thing. Yes, I've backed up, etc, etc. Don't be a reply guy unless you have a secret way the upgrade will work 100% of the time.

2025-07-29 20:52:46 UTC

Leisure Suit Larry solved the age verification problem years ago, the UK should just use that.

2025-07-29 20:32:05 UTC

If you look around the room and you don't know who the DM is, you're the DM.

2025-07-21 03:46:05 UTC

Steam users that put Emoji in their Steam names are destroying my afternoon.

2025-07-17 05:04:47 UTC

I had a positive thought. I'm fucked now.

2025-07-12 23:03:07 UTC

As you grow older in games the only jobs you can get are “Resident Geezer” where you sit in meetings and say “Back in my day…”

2025-07-10 22:19:53 UTC

Guybrush is mad his hands broke off during the move to NZ.
#monkeyisland
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/114/831/256/237/186/235/original/1875f65a36e67e46.jpeg

2025-07-08 21:27:13 UTC

I know it's going to be a good day when I don't wake up to endless new bugs from our tester in the UK. Only 2 this morning and one isn't a real bug.