Joost van Dongen

New gamedev blogpost! "The games that inspired me most." What games were your biggest inspirations?

New gamedev blogpost! About three stubborn netcode bugs that weren't any fun while we were looking for them for days, but now that we've found and fixed these they're actually quite intriguing.

New gamedev blogpost! This one is about how I cope with the pressure and stress of owning a game company, and some tricks that can hopefully help others be more relaxed at running a company as well.

New gamedev blogpost! This post explains the basics of cache optimisation and shows how we managed to greatly optimise our particles by restructuring them for better memory coherence.

Also, I intend to blog a bit more regularly again, let's see whether I can find time for it again!

I've finished a new song! I'm quite happy with the atmosphere of this one, and with the interplay between the cello and the violin. On my album, this song will serve to bring the story from the 20th century to the 21st century, hence the title.

New dev blogpost: "Beginner balance versus pro balance." This post discusses 3 different approaches we've used in Awesomenauts and Swords And Soldiers 2 to improve balance for beginners without upsetting balance for experienced players.

I've finished a new cello song! :D This one started out as a travelling theme for a game concept with a little boat, but will end up on my album as the intermezzo where the story jumps from the 1850s to the 1950s. The title reminds of both uses. Hope you like it!

Here’s another cello improvisation I recently recorded. Enjoy! :)

New Awesomenauts dev blogpost! About how psychological factors influence how players think about matchmaking and why even a theoretical 'perfect' matchmaker would still get lots of complaints from players.

I've composed a new song! It's a wonderfully relaxed bit of cello music to the rhythm of a... typewriter! Featuring gentle vocals and artwork by  Marissa Delbressine ( @ocreana ) and guitar by Thomas van Dijk.

A short clip from today's Cello Fortress performance at Gluren Bij De Buren in Nieuwegein. The idea of a live cellist controlling a game and playing against the audience keeps amazing audiences. :)

New dev blogpost! This post discusses how you can give players access to the beta for a new game or an update and what the pros and cons of each method are.

New gamedev blogpost! Explaining a shader technique I invented back in 2007 and that seems to be used in a really cool way in the new Spider-Man game.

New blogpost about game development! This one is about how the Awesomenauts matchmaker balances different requirements like ping, equal skill and letting premades play against each other.