Writing
The technical side, at length
Occasional pieces about how the work actually gets done. Not news, and not tied to a release, so they keep their value long after the version numbers move on.
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The backend that runs every game we make, ten years and counting
Seven games, eleven platforms, one backend for crash reports, remote config, cloud auth and console ports. Built by one developer, in use for ten years, rewritten in C# in 2026, and something I enjoy setting up for other studios.
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Shipping to twelve platforms on one day
Crash Drive 3 launched on 8 July 2021 on twelve platforms at once, all playing together. What that took, which platform paid for it, and the two I would skip.
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Optimizing performance of Unity games
A method for finding out what is actually slowing your game down, instead of guessing. Written in the week Crash Drive 3 shipped.
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The server side of game development
Every hosting option I tried between 2005 and 2012, from a server standing on toilet paper rolls in the attic to a CDN bill of 1,500 euros a month.
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New pieces arrive a few times a year. Follow along on LinkedIn, or put the RSS feed in your reader.
Published elsewhere
Written for Game Developer, back when it was still called Gamasutra. They live over there.
- 2020 Gaming a Truce The Christmas Truce in Verdun, the Wolf Truce in Tannenberg: what happens when you ask players in a war game to stop shooting.
- 2016 Postmortem: Verdun Steam Early Access Nineteen months in Early Access, 220,423 copies sold, and the numbers behind them.
- 2015 Evolution of mobile marketing Using the web audience you already have to launch the mobile version, instead of buying a new one.
- 2014 Network traffic culling Sending distant players fewer updates than nearby ones. Half the messages per second, same game.
- 2014 Mac App Store download numbers and sales figures Our own figures for three games, including the one that hit number one at Christmas and earned five cents a download.