For me it's primarily the moral issues and the amount of power required. Yesterday I discovered this lovely post by benui, an experienced ui designer/programmer:

https://benui.ca/why-i-refuse-ai/ and it is a good list of why using LLMs and their ilk are bad. To be clear: I have seen machine learning used in my previous career and it is awesome. Stealing art/stories/code to make LLMs work, that I cannot accept.

I wanna write more but I'm not in a good place after hearing people say they don't care about the morality of stolen art/stories/code etc.

Meow!
Some videos from EF29!
Fursuit Parade Start Point https://youtu.be/hTfY0BWcTUc
BRoll and more: https://youtu.be/cr_OGLUG89g

Got a few more vantage points linked in the description of the two videos above. The BRoll's first clip is a proposal! Congratulations to the happy couple :3

Something was different this convention. In previous years, I spent alot of time visiting hamburg or taking instax photos, but not this year - I was very busy between panels and hanging out with folks. Felt amazing to speak with folks who have similar values. Can't wait to meet you all again!

I hope the folks on here have seen or read about the recent issues of payment processors forcing steam/itch.io to remove NSFW games from their platforms. Here is the itch.io statement:

https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content

I think it's the usual censorship under the guise of "but what about the children"*, in addition, it strips the income of folks making such content.

Do I know what to do? Heck no. But I want this to be in people's minds - one day we might no longer be able to pay for NSFW art. What will happen then?

One japanese official has already stepped up, as this over reach by payment processors has impacted manga in Japan; they are right to state that this can be considered a form of suppressing japanese cultural expression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWp8bBd0k5c

(Collective Shout would also be another keyword to look up on youtube - youtubers have been covering their role in forcing payment processors to stop collecting payments for sites and content they do not like - even sexy clothing is under fire!!!)

* it's call parenting, as a parent, learn how to keep your children safe.

Any gamers from the EU on here? Please make sure you sign the stop killing games initiative. This is an initiative that seeks to make sure video games are playable when publishers decide to stop supporting games. https://www.stopkillinggames.com/eci

And if any folks are fans of Thor/Pirate Software, I suggest you look up how he has been spewing nonsense about this initiative.

Please check this journal from thetiedtigress:
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/11140572/

I am procrastinating as always, so HEY why not a random FA journal?

Am currently working on my game in Sweden (at a co-op workspace for game developers alled Spelkollektivet) and took the opportunity this year to do ScotiaCon. It's a pretty nice con, held a game dev meetup there (we were maxed out - wish they'd given us a bigger venue...) but I was mostly just barely awake thanks to jet lag. The hotel food was surprisingly good.

I stayed at the hotel across the river. Thankfully. The 3 main elevators in the main hotel were not sufficient and I think only one or two were active. It was so bad the hotel opened up the service elevators. Could tell the staff were not pleased XD

Would like to visit again, but I was told GDakon will be held later next year, so I'll likely do NFC then that.

NFC is awesome as always. The jump from 3k+ to 5k+ attendees could be felt. For me though, I don't care for most of the events so I wasn't bothered too much.

Unfortunately, I was barely awake at NFC. When I arrived at Spelkollektivet after SC, it was extremely dry in Sweden and I kept coughing at night, and barely got any shut-eye. So when I arrived at NFC, the last 4 days before that I had maybe 10hrs of sleep. I spent too much time in the hotel just trying to catch up with sleep and failing lol. It was so bad, I could not recognize people and during the gamedev meetup I organized, I dozed off in a corner lol.

The dealer's den, now at Valhalla is great, lots more space. But the queue to get in is still insane. I regret not using my sponsor badge to get in on the first day - it was a choice between sleep and dealers den and sleep on. Also, there is a proper city bus going between the two locations, convenient for people who don't want to can't make the walk. Didn't try much of the food this time round - heck I didn't even have a semla >.> - had no appetite at all and basically survived on lattes and croissants at Espresso House >.>

Hopefully next year I will have a better time - bought a small humidifier and it is helping me alot. Will be visiting Oslo next week, and Dublin two weeks after. Then need to figure out flights home. Will miss being in the same timezone as many furs but I'll be back for EF, Otterdam and maybe some smaller cons later in the year.

Meowdy!
If you're gonna be at ScotiaCon or NordicFuzzCon and are interested in meeting other folks in game development, pop on by! I'll be hosting them and look forward to meeting more game developers :)

Mow mow mow mow mow mow mow mow!

Mow!
I finished my game jam game! It's a survival autobattler where you need to choose which anthro to rescue and add to your team.
These are:
Sneps
Snakes
Porcupine
Axolotl
Tamarin
Rhino
Cheetah and
wolf

https://catbitestudios.itch.io/esca.....-from-lab-zero

Give it a go, it plays in browser, even on your phone :)

Are you interested in video games? Doesn't matter if you are not a game developer, if you make music, write, draw - come join the furry game jam #0!

Details at: https://furrygamejam.com/ (Not affiliated, just promoting for friendo :))

This time next week I'll be in Hamburg for Eurofurence! Any folks gonna be there? A few furs and I will be hosting the Game Dev Meetup on Saturday, and will be at various meetups. e.g. vore, fediverse, cats in boxes, micro/macro*, inflatables* etc

* for photo ops

 spottedsqueak
They were posting on gulp.cafe just yesterday?! About development of their FA bulk downloader. They just passed on. My condolences. Don't know them personally, only their wonderful art but it hits.

I didn't know Dragoneer but I met people I never would have without this site.

Mow!
I arrived in Spelkollektivet* yesterday after a week in Austria for Awoostria. Got my PC somewhat setup and made a video of my snep room renovation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRKYhlKRw8Y

Will be here till late October, and will be attending Eurofurence as well as Otterdam Art before I return back home. Catch u folks soon! MOW

*https://www.spelkollektivet.com/

https://awoostria.at/

I'll be doing Awoostria and EF, possibly a 3rd con that's kinda private (its in belgium at a castle that's all I will say). Still waiting on the dates to be confirmed. Next year will do SC/NFC, Gdakon if I can swing it.

I've submitted and got approved for hosting a Game Developer's Meetup at EF, _might_ do it at Awoostria as well.

---

Life Updates:
Moved back to Singapore a month ago and continuing my game dev here as I don't need to pay rent in the family home. Downside is less privacy and the timezones SUCK. Wish Canada wasn't having a housing crisis; I'd absolutely prefer to be living in Canada vs Singapore.
At the moment, I'm clearing out my room. Haven't lived there since 2008 and I have junk from the 90s >.>
Once that is done, gonna resurface the walls, paint them, install an AC, install some home automation.... alongside working on my game. It's quite difficult tbh as I don't have my adhd meds and I am finding it very difficult to fight my executive dysfunction.
In between the cons, I'll be developing my games at Spelkollektivet in Sweden.

Hope my savings can keep me afloat XD

This year is flying by! NordicFuzzCon is next week, any folks gonna be there?

Will also be running a Game Developer's Meet & Greet on the 21st Feb at 11am-Noon (https://nordicfuzzcon.org/Events/Schedule - wednesday)

Two other furs, LinnTheShark (https://twitter.com/LinTheShark), developer of SharkRain, and Sudo (https://x.com/furSUDO) who is our community manager at Spelkollektivet, and I, will be presenting about how we got into game development.

If you're interested in video games, come on by!

I've been here for 2 weeks so far and it's been smooth sailing. The small town I'm in (900 people and one snow leopard!) only has one ICA, a restaurant and a sports hall. That's about it!

Public transport is also very different, the buses run about once every hour. Thankfully the ICA doubles as a post office so stuff I order online can be picked up there.

I'll decide next week if I'm staying longer than November - likely will but I'll see how next week goes. Still pretty scary to be doing game dev on my own without any income but with the strikes still ongoing I think I made the right choice.

A very short youtube skit :)
https://youtu.be/LmX0Uj2gMys

MOW!

I came across this journal while trawling FA looking for artists to commission:

Asexuality, Romantic Orientation, & Aesthetic Attraction
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9651001

Specifically the asexuality section. That's me. Gonna get some ace flags commissions soon hehe :)

Whelp thats it. Last day of work. Its a bit bittersweet as I'll miss many of my colleagues but I am done with the infrastructure in this place.

Tomorrow I'll be taking a flight to Netherlands to say hi to some folks, then I'll head up to Hamburg to attend my first Eurofurence! Much excitement as it's kind of a bucket list item to attend EF. After, I'll be visiting Berlin for a few days before I return to Madrid to pack up the flat.

I wonder if there are any gamedev furs in Eurofurence I could network with.

MOW!

Any folks on the fedi gonna be at EF next week? There's a panel arranged by Kianga on Monday, do come and meet other denizens of the fediverse!

https://meow.social/@kianga/110967887022357116

It's been just over 11 months since I moved to Spain and it's not been the most pleasant of roads. I've submitted my resignation last week and after EF, will be moving to a tiny town in Sweden to start my new life as an indie game developer. My current plan is to stay on till at least May next year - visa dependent - so I can do SC/NFC/CFz as well as travel around Europe.

Originally I was planning to move back to Canada, but there is a serious problem with housing there atm. I think only Australia and Hong Kong have it worse. Rent is through the roof, and I can't justify dumping a few thousand dollars a month to tool about in Unreal.

In other news, after how many years of changing species, I've finally got around to getting an artist to make me a ref sheet, so I'm hoping to post that in a month or two! Then finally, FINALLY I will be able to get stickers done lol.

Mow!
Finally back on FA after a month or so away - been a stressful last few weeks of moving to a new country, flat hunting (omg) and settling into a new job. New job also requires me to be in the office 3 days a week, which is quite meh, but on the flip side we finish work after lunch on friday which is a big plus.

It's the first country I've worked in that English is not spoken by the majority of the population, which puts addition stress on me to learn a new language, as well as myself feeling somewhat isolated because I simply cannot communicate.

I'll need probably another month to properly sort out bureaucratic issues - and also need to learn how to drive, again, as my Canadian driver's license cannot be converted - then I can start exploring the other cities in Spain, as well as jaunts to nearby countries. Kinda hoping to visit Santorini again :)

Keep on perching. Mow!

Really miss shooting fursuiters at Confuzzled... I doubt I personally wanna travel this year even if it's held, so I'm hoping to get a shot at the vaccine by the end of this year, and take some time travelling europe next year!