Sean O’Dowd's Avatar

Sean O’Dowd

@odowd.co

odowd.co over a decade of game development with those at SMG, Crows Crows Crows, Mountains Studio, Apple Arcade, Twitch, Immersive Gamebox

69
Followers
52
Following
38
Posts
18.10.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Sean O’Dowd @odowd.co

imagine if the pope was like “i’m going to make an indie game” but the it was steampunk and nothing to do with jesus

01.03.2026 00:42 👍 19 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
NOAA deploys new generation of AI-driven global weather models NOAA has launched a groundbreaking new suite of operational, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven global weather prediction models, marking a significant advancement in forecast speed, efficiency, and ...

Intentionality is such a great concept to distinguish AI slop and AI tooling which empowers us to do more.

So much of the marketing is about removing intention, I prefer projects like this from NOAA: 99.7% energy reduction in weather modeling.

www.noaa.gov/news-release...

18.01.2026 21:54 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

If it is union busting, then this should be an easy win. Trade Union and Labour Relations law specifically covers this.

What I suspect is that they were sharing confidential documents/ information, which then undermines the union effort and puts them in murky water :(

01.11.2025 00:18 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yes, there is a large amount of illiterate and people who struggle with written language. In my country Australia, 44% have low literacy skills.

This person you’ve posted sits upon their ivory tower, looking down at those who need a tool to help them and complain it gets in their way.

28.10.2025 22:08 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

bait keeping bolt relevant

28.10.2025 22:01 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I love this question!!

21.10.2025 11:15 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

it’s been a palette cleanser from the theme of films in the 90s which are all about terrible dads-
Mrs. Doubtfire, Liar Liar, Jingle All The Way, Jack Frost, etc

21.10.2025 11:10 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Here in Australia, we have laws around behaviors of dogs - rather than species.

Owners can be jailed:
- for up to 10 years if their dog kills someone
- for up to 5 years if their dog endangers someone's life

If your dog is at risk of doing harm to others, a muzzle is a must.

20.10.2025 22:15 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Curious where you get your ideas from

20.10.2025 12:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I feel this is a product of not teaching people how to say goodbye 😔

20.10.2025 12:37 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I’m not in the business of children 🤷

20.10.2025 12:33 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

just don’t invite them in and take up hobbies such as whittling wood

20.10.2025 12:32 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

do you have children?

20.10.2025 12:29 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

damn. doesn’t seem ethical to the dog.

seems better to not have a dog, if you don’t have the time to build effective verbal communication.

20.10.2025 12:28 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I’d like to add some context:

- Animal bites constitute 1% of U.S. emergency department visits, varying in severity.

- 70.4% of dog bite deaths were not family dogs, but from chained dogs - trapped at the end of a chain or in a small pen.

20.10.2025 12:25 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

2026 is when I will launch this product. I’m really looking forward to sharing years of effort, passion, and everything I learned along the way.

18.10.2025 07:39 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

What I found helpful was attempting to predict the outcome from a design solution, and then see how close I was in actuality.

Resisting the urge to introduce more elements. Doing more with less.

All in service to a core principle.

18.10.2025 07:39 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Post image

Years ago, I started working on a social game with its core mechanic testing our understanding of the world and each other.

Through feedback I added and removed: powerups, achievements, deception, mind reading. Made it way too complex, and way too simple.

All starting from this

18.10.2025 07:39 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Absolutely! feel free to message me here or at hello@odowd.co

10.10.2025 01:26 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

have we considered the impact of players focussing on addictive systems, rather than the existential threat that is climate change? How can design be proactive?

I feel like the conversation is much more than the small amount covered in your article. But nonetheless, great start to the discussion.

10.10.2025 01:18 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Video thumbnail

I’ve been working with SMG on LEGO Party for years, and I’m excited to finally share it with you all!

I’ve written a few words on how it was made on my portfolio odowd.co

This also means that I’m available to take on another project. If you need help or know someone who does, get in touch!

07.06.2025 22:47 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Post image

Enshittification of windows continues

06.06.2025 14:12 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I earnestly believe tools for accessibility will benefit everyone greatly; prior if someone had poor fine motor skills, using a computer would be very laborious. This is changing.

Although, most companies are trying to shove an LLM into a shitty product, and that doesn’t help anyone.

13.04.2025 04:56 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

if you’re earnestly asking, AI is more than the LLMs that are being marketed as AI.

Accelerating Drug Discovery, molecular research, speech recognition, the list goes on.

There’s a lot of slop, but that’s because there are a few standout uses and a lot of companies are trying to capitalize on hype

13.04.2025 04:52 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

super exciting! would love to chat about it, i've also been working on a board game and video game companion. what have you got printed out on your wall? everything is looking great!

28.03.2025 10:59 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

In my case, the experience i'm creating is not about a compass - although... maybe in another game i will explore that more

26.03.2025 13:08 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

As it turns out, I could simplify the problem and so I removed the feature / visual element.

Kill your darlings; throw things away, remove anything that distracts away from the experience you're creating.

26.03.2025 13:07 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
How To Design Collective Decision-Making Systems JC Lau, Elaine Gusella, Ian Schrieber, Daniel Cook 1. What is this all about? If, as Sid Meier has famously said, “a game is a series of interesting decisions”, then a co-op game is a series of intere...

We published this year's Polaris game design papers. Some of the best game design writing for senior designers on the entire planet.

Our team worked on designing collective decision making systems. polarisgamedesign.com/2024/how-to-...

#gamedesign #gamedevelopment

23.01.2025 17:21 👍 55 🔁 29 💬 3 📌 1
Preview
Sean O'Dowd | Portfolio A developer & designer based in Melbourne Australia.

This year I have availability for new opportunities 🎉

Working on something cool? I want to hear about it!

odowd.co

05.01.2025 01:38 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Local LLM’s won’t be as easily corrupted by this phenomenon. It seems likely the Ad Blocker / Advertising arm race will continue.

02.01.2025 07:42 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0