Bennett Foddy
Game developer and moral philosopher; made QWOP, GIRP and Getting Over It, and teaches at the NYU Game Center.
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What they believe
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Making a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant is a worthwhile exercise for any game designer.
It's been my view for a while that it's a worthwhile exercise for any game designer to make a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant.
foddy.netSaid 12 Jun 2018This on korrents
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A good prototype should express a single idea or test a single hypothesis.
For me, a good prototype expresses a single idea or tests a single hypothesis, so a prototype is actually a great container for a creative prompt, which typically takes the form of a single encapsulated concept or provocation.
foddy.netSaid 22 Feb 2018This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
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As its own page →Hiding
2 February
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4 May 2023
30 January 2020
12 June 2018
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korrents.com
Making a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant is a worthwhile exercise for any game designer.Their words
It's been my view for a while that it's a worthwhile exercise for any game designer to make a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant.
22 February 2018
From one piece Hidden Homework (updated 2021) 3 beliefs · foddy.net
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korrents.com
Creative work is better served by a diverse toolkit of specialized tools than by one universal tool.Their words
I don't want a single tool that I can use for any game... I want a digital toolshed that looks like Depeche Mode's synth collection.
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korrents.com
Maze puzzles are unengaging on their own but become interesting when paired with a strong extrinsic motivator.Their words
Mazes are not the most interesting gameplay element if you're relying on intrinsic motivation - they're just not very entertaining - but if there's some sufficiently compelling extrinsic motivator I think their irritating properties become quite interesting.
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Their words
For me, a good prototype expresses a single idea or tests a single hypothesis, so a prototype is actually a great container for a creative prompt, which typically takes the form of a single encapsulated concept or provocation.
4 December 2017
27 September 2017
6 September 2017
31 January 2017
16 January 2017
5 January 2017
4 January 2017
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 4 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Making a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant is a worthwhile exercise for any game designer.
It's been my view for a while that it's a worthwhile exercise for any game designer to make a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant.
FLOP Said 12 Jun 2018
A good prototype should express a single idea or test a single hypothesis.
For me, a good prototype expresses a single idea or tests a single hypothesis, so a prototype is actually a great container for a creative prompt, which typically takes the form of a single encapsulated concept or provocation.
Hidden Homework (updated 2021) Said 22 Feb 2018
Maze puzzles are unengaging on their own but become interesting when paired with a strong extrinsic motivator.
Mazes are not the most interesting gameplay element if you're relying on intrinsic motivation - they're just not very entertaining - but if there's some sufficiently compelling extrinsic motivator I think their irritating properties become quite interesting.
Hidden Homework (updated 2021) Said 22 Feb 2018
Show 1 more
Creative work is better served by a diverse toolkit of specialized tools than by one universal tool.
I don't want a single tool that I can use for any game... I want a digital toolshed that looks like Depeche Mode's synth collection.
Hidden Homework (updated 2021) Said 22 Feb 2018
What is a korrent?
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Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 16 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Liked Elements
Elements on the iPhone is in many ways better than any of the word processors I've used on the Mac or PC.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Liked Xcode
For coding I use Flash Builder and XCode, both of which do what I need them to do.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Loved Nikon D90
I have a Nikon D90 camera which I love, but I feel less compelled to lug it around since I got the new iPhone with its competent camera.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Show 13 more
Loved iPhone 4S
I love my iPhone 4S even more than I love my Mac, and as a frequent traveler it has completely changed my life.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Uses BetterSnapTool
but I do use Dropbox and BetterSnapTool and iStat Pro to add functions that I really wish were built in to the system.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Liked Chrome
After years of Firefox loyalism, I ditched it to find a browser that would actually remember passwords when I want it to, and eventually settled on the excellent Chrome over Safari.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Liked Cocos2D
I use Flixel and NAPE to make web games, and I use Cocos2D and Box2D to make iPhone games, and in both cases I can just implement my ideas without worrying about the boring, arcane aspects of programming.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Liked Flixel
I use Flixel and NAPE to make web games, and I use Cocos2D and Box2D to make iPhone games, and in both cases I can just implement my ideas without worrying about the boring, arcane aspects of programming.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Disliked Blender
I would like to use 3D software in my toolchain, but I've tried just about everything and every piece of software is either too sadistic (Blender), too expensive (Maya) or too powerless (SketchUp).
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Mixed on Aperture
I bought Apple's Aperture for photo editing, which is nice to use until it insists on using 6GB of RAM just to copy photos from an SD card, even if your system only has 1GB free.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Disliked VMware Fusion
For testing things in windows I use VMWare Fusion, which is just as hacky and broken as Parallels.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Disliked Audacity
For making games, I'm using Audacity for editing sounds, which somehow manages to be less usable than Sound Forge was ten years ago.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Mixed on Keynote
Keynote is better than Powerpoint, and you can control it nicely with an iPhone, but both Keynote and Powerpoint are too basic for my needs
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Disliked Endnote
For collecting and citing references, I've used Endnote the most, which is almost as bloated and broken as Word
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Disliked Word
For writing philosophy, I have to use Word for collaborating with other philosophers, but I hate it with great passion
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Uses Etymotic hf3
I do almost everything I do on a 15" Retina MacBook Pro and Etymotic hf3 earphones.
usesthis.com 10 Aug 2012
Where they publish
Site foddy.net His site: games, blog posts and recommendations.
Recent
- Zipper 2 Feb 2026 is one of the games that shipped with 'season 1' of the games for Panic's handheld Playdate console. It's a love letter to the ZX Spectrum games I grew up on, especially The Last Ninja 2; It's an evolution of a very old…
- Baby Steps 1 Feb 2026 I worked on Baby Steps, with Gabe Cuzzillo and Maxi Boch, from late 2019 to 2025. I don't really have enough distance from it to explain what it is or why you should play it. Here's some press if you're curious to know…
- Getting Over It+ for Apple Arcade 4 May 2023 Getting Over It is now available on Apple Arcade! Now including cloud saves and controller support. You can get it here.
Show 17 more
- Get On Top (Sportsfriends Version) 30 Jan 2020 I’ve been meaning to post this for a while – it’s the other secret game hidden in Sportsfriends, a version of Get On Top that uses twin-analog controllers for input. One stick controls your legs, the other controls your…
- FLOP 12 Jun 2018 It’s been my view for a while that it’s a worthwhile exercise for any game designer to make a chess variant, a dice variant and a Pong variant. Speed Chess is my take on Chess, and this is my take on Pong. I originally…
- Hidden Homework (updated 2021) 22 Feb 2018 When I was teaching at NYU, every year I ran a prototyping class where students make a new game every week, starting with a prompt or constraint that I give them. It became a tradition for me to hide one of their prompt…
- Getting Over It Support 4 Dec 2017 If you run into problems playing Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy and need help, you can contact me here: Steam Forums Twitter Email: support {at} foddy (dot) net
- Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy 27 Sept 2017 I created this game for a certain kind of person To hurt them. A few things that have happened since I released the game in 2017 It really caught fire with streamers and has been played by nearly all of the biggest ones…
- Plan Bee 6 Sept 2017 This is a little experiment I made in Pico-8 a while ago on a flight. It uses a control method I haven’t seen before, where the movement is damped according to the rate of change in the acceleration (the ‘jerk’) which c…
- Last Word 31 Jan 2017 I made this little game as a way of learning Terry Cavanagh’s work-in-progress game engine, Haxegon. It’s a bullet-hell game where you are always trying to eat a particular bullet… you try to build unique words to gain…
- Eleven Flavors of Frustration 16 Jan 2017 Game designers take it as axiomatic that if the player feels frustrated, something has gone wrong with the design. Yet frustration is an essential ingredient in many (all?) of the most famous and influential designs. Wh…
- Physics tips for game developers 5 Jan 2017 In 2015 I gave a short talk on the best ways to use game physics engines at the Game Developer’s conference, and it’s now online for free. The idea is: nearly everyone who makes games has to deal with a physics engine t…
- Some local-multiplayer deep cuts 4 Jan 2017 In developing the repertoire of games for Multibowl, I played about 1000 games made from 1975 through to about 2000. I found a few gems that are worth playing in their own right, and which I think aren’t all that well k…
- Fly Flicker 4 Jan 2017 When Stephen Clark made this game for my prototyping class, I liked it so much I ported it to HTML. It’s very simple – just click the flies. Stephen is a wonderful designer – check out Rooftop Cop and Witchball. Play it…
- Disobedient Tangram 4 Jan 2017 Part of a series of disobedient toys, which I started when I made Bennett Foddy’s Ball-in-a-Cup for Hide & Seek’s Tiny Games collection.
- Stair: Slide the Blocks to Ascend 4 Jan 2017 Stair is an infinite action-puzzle game I made for iOS with the brilliant AP Thomson (author of Beglitched and Swap Sword). A gymnast who is in an extreme hurry is trying to climb upward. To help her, you can slide the…
- Ice 4 Jan 2017 I hid an assignment for my NYU prototyping class in this game. Use the arrow keys to pump your legs rhythmically and jump over obstacles. Made in HTML5/Luxe. Play it online.
- Zebra 4 Jan 2017 This short maze game is inspired by Op-Art pioneers like Reginald Neal. It combines two ideas: first, your brain can easily segment areas of an image based on the direction of shading, without any color or tone informat…
- Sportsfriends 30 Dec 2016 is something like a time capsule of the local multiplayer games that my friends and I were making and playing in and around New York in 2010-2012. It contains four games: Hokra by Ramiro Corbetta, Barabariball by Noah S…
- Multibowl 19 Aug 2016 is a two-player challenge of skill and knowledge, across exciting moments in over 300 historical games across dozens of hardware platforms. It’s the first videogame collage, maybe. I made it with the excellent AP Thomso…
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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