eieio.games

by nolen royalty

media & speakingblog & all workwhat's my deal

What's My Deal

Hi. I’m Nolen Royalty. On the internet I often go by “eieio” 1.

I like putting games in surprising places and helping strangers interact on the internet. Here I am shouting on the podium at GDC 2024.

me at a podium that says 'GDC 2024.' My mouth is very open, my face is animated, and my hand is held up like I'm grabbing something.

I think I'm telling a funny story here?

1

My sister’s first word! Isn’t that cute. I picked the name on the teamliquid forums when I was 13 and it stuck.

I started this site in March of 2023. You can see everything I’ve built over here. I built many of my favorite projects while at the Recurse Center, a writers retreat for programmers that is a great place to get weird (and learn!). If you like my work you should consider applying.

My last real job was at the quantiative trading firm Jane Street Capital. I spent 7 lovely years there. It’s ancient history now, but before that I had jobs at Deepfield Networks and Amazon Web Services. And before that I had some non-tech jobs, but you’re probably not looking to hear about how much I loved being a camp counselor 2.

I’m also a long time recovering addict. I don’t talk about that much, but you can read about it here if you’d like.

2

Email me if you are though! It sounds silly, but I think camp counseling has as much (more??) overlap with the games I like to make than programming.

Are you here because you’d like to keep up with my work somewhere? Here are a bunch of places where you can do that.

A list of platforms that is too long

Are you here because you’ve got a question? Well, you can certainly email me - I love talking to strangers - but here are a few answers you might want.

Some answers you might want

  • My favorite game is Outer Wilds and it’s not close to being close. I probably think about Universal Paperclips more than any other game.

  • Most of my work is unmonetized because it’s more fun that way. I’m lucky that I can make that choice.

  • The best way to learn how to make games is to make a lot of games.

  • The best way to get a job at $company_i_worked_at is to write a lot of code.

  • I’m already working on too many projects; it’s unlikely that I’m looking to collaborate if we haven’t already met

  • I’m picky about contract work. If your pitch is “here’s a bizarre problem we need help solving” I might be interested. If it’s “can I pay you to make this game I thought of” I’m probably not. Sorry!

Are you here because you’re a podcaster or reporter and want to chat? Well, like I said, I love to yap. You might be interested in my media and speaking page. But here’s my email again.

I’m based in New York City. I’ve got a cute dog 3. I play a lot of games and try to play even more piano. I know the NATO phonetic alphabet pretty well, but only if I’m allowed to sing it to the tune of “Ode to Joy”.

3

Her name is Gabby. She’s named after Gabbro from Outer Wilds.