I need to unload the Hot Reload Service from a Blazor app. Simply disabling Hot Reload from the settings does not do that. I am using Visual Studio 2022.
I have tried the recommendations from other posts such as this thread like changing the launch settings and unchecking all variations of “Enable Hot Reload”. However, when I check the memory snapshot, an instance of HotReloadService is still there.
The only way I can make that service not be loaded when viewing the memory snapshot is when going through Debug > Performance Profiler > Start. I need the service unloaded through other methods to verify it being enabled is the cause of some objects being retained in memory than they should.
Edit:
Using dotnet watch --no-hot-reload does not enable me to take memory snapshots using Visual Studio’s interface.
Using a Release Build still loads the service as with a Debug Build.
AI Byte is a weekly column covering all things artificial intelligence, including AI models, apps, features, and how they all impact your favorite devices.
Artificial intelligence is great at some things, and not-so-great at others. Finding the ways AI can help your workflows or improve your daily life can be difficult, especially without compromising quality.
I’ve found that AI chatbots like Gemini or ChatGPT are excellent at lending a hand when you have a specific problem that requires personalized context. Gemini first helped me tend to my plants earlier this year; I could’ve used a search engine for ideas, but none would’ve been able to take the real-world appearance of the plants into account.
For those without a green thumb, I discovered yet another use case for mobile AI while struggling to come up with a design layout for my apartment. After a year of moving things around, buying new furniture, and reading unhelpful articles online, I finally pulled out my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL in a moment of frustration and turned to Gemini for help. I didn’t expect much, but was blown away by what Google AI came up with.
Here’s how I used AI to solve a complicated interior design issue, and how you can use it to help with your own problems too.
Giving Gemini the right starting point
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
The problem with my apartment is simple: it’s fairly large, but there’s only one window in the living room, kitchen, and dining area. The window is actually a sliding glass door, and is flanked by perpendicular walls with double doors, which limits furniture placement. With one natural light source, the wrong layout could make this long and relatively narrow living space feel dark and bland — that’s why I needed to turn to AI.
AI is worst when you don’t point it in the right direction, and best when you provide it with ample context and thorough prompts. Instead of giving Gemini a vague and generic prompt, I found the exact floor plan for my space for context and clearly stated my goals. The prompt doesn’t have to be lengthy, but it does need to be thoughtful and specific.
In this case, after providing the floor plan, I asked Gemini how to lay out the living room to get the most lighting.
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Gemini’s personalized and specific help
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
Gemini quickly responded with some general tips, like avoiding blocking the light source, using reflective surfaces, and choosing light colors. These were helpful in their own right, but giving Gemini an understanding of the floor plan returned personalized results. The chatbot understood that “the living room is a central, long space with a large window at the end.”
It sounds simple, but Gemini having a basic understanding of the layout already gave it a massive advantage over search engines or interior design websites. As an example of how, one of the sites I read suggested renovating the room to change the positions of windows and doors, which was laughably unhelpful for a renter.
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
Gemini provided three detailed suggestions, and I went with the “open flow” layout. This involves floating a couch in the middle, facing the glass door, creating an open concept in the room. To avoid moving stuff around like a madman, I asked Gemini to come up with a few examples of what this would look like in my space — another thing I couldn’t have done without AI.
The other cool thing about using AI for problem-solving and brainstorming is that you can ask further questions as you go. If you have essential needs, like a TV in a certain spot, Gemini can take that into account and only provide solutions that meet this requirement.
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
AI also suggested ideas and solutions that never even crossed my mind — like using mirrors around the room to simulate more windows and natural light in the space. After going back-and-forth with AI for about ten minutes, I had an interior plan that resulted in the following:
Image 1 of 4
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
If you ask me, it’s a pretty bright and open space, which is the vibe I’ve spent a literal year trying to create — and is something I was only able to achieve with Gemini. This was all done using the standard Gemini chatbot, and you could get even more personal help by using Gemini Live’s multimodal live video support.
How you can use Gemini to solve life’s problems
(Image credit: Brady Snyder / Android Central)
You can use Gemini to solve problems in your daily life by focusing on three things: context, prompting, and refinement.
Context is the crucial starting point. If you don’t provide an AI chatbot with ample context, it only has its training material to go off of, which can lead to unhelpful results. You can go about providing context in a few ways, such as providing AI photos or screenshots, like I did with my apartment’s floor plan. Or, you can use features like Gemini Live that share your surroundings via your phone’s camera, which are other ways to provide context.
From there, be sure to write a thorough prompt that clearly explains your goals and what you need AI to do. You should use complete sentences for the best results, but avoid writing long paragraphs. Lastly, don’t forget that you can refine your prompts as you go and steer the AI chatbot in the right direction. This can help if at first the AI doesn’t provide the results you’re expecting from your prompt.
With these factors in mind, you can get AI to help you with almost anything, whether it’s gardening or interior design — or something else completely.
The best AI phone
While plenty of phones can use the Gemini app, the Google Pixel 10 is the best one on the market for Google AI.
From the start, Nothing was designed to be an antidote to Apple and its omnipresent AirPods. While Apple focused on a sort of all-purpose minimalism, Nothing adopted a hallmark transparent look that, if not altogether disparate (both pairs of wireless earbuds have a similar stem design), at least gave its Ear products a unique design language. That quest for being different extended into features, too. In 2023, Nothing introduced personalized EQ, giving it a visual and technological difference over Apple’s AirPods and eventually a ChatGPT integration, which was a first in the category.
But a lot happens in a few years, especially in a space as saturated as wireless earbuds, and while Nothing’s Ear are still a solid pair of earbuds, they feel… a little less of an earful. Apple now has its AirPods Pro 3 with high-tech features like real-time translation and heart rate monitoring, while non-Apple competitors in the same price range, like OnePlus and Google, aren’t pulling any punches with their own entrants into the space that offer personalized EQ, AI features, and noise-canceling that compete with pro-level gadgets.
Nothing Ear 3
The Nothing Ear 3 have solid sound, but flub the one thing that makes them unique.
Pros
Great sound
Solid ANC
They look very cool
Case feels premium
Cons
Super Mic is a super letdown
May not be worth the premium over last gen
But just in the nick of time, as Nothing’s flagship wireless earbuds seem to be falling behind, the company is back with its $180 Ear 3 that offer a new look and one truly unique feature for improving voice calls. As usual, Nothing is taking some chances, and not just in the visual department. For me, some of those risks are really paying off, but others… well, they’re not so super.
So much of Nothing is about looks. That’s not a knock on the company. This is technology that you wear, and because of that, appearance can be make-or-break. Chances are, if you’ve bought Nothing products in the past, you agree, which also means, if you saw Nothing teasing its Ear 3 wireless earbuds before its release, your eyebrows may have been raised.
I’m going to get straight to the point: the Ear 3 look great. I was worried at first that the Ear 3 may scale back on the transparent part of its wireless earbuds, but that’s not the case here at all. Sorry for the alarm bells, anyone who reads my blogs. Instead of a homogeneous black look on the outside of the stems, the Ear 3 goes with a metallic silver that really makes them look like a capital “G” Gadget. As Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, noted to me, this thing has big Talkboy vibes (shout out to Macaulay Culkin). There’s still a transparent shell that lets you see the internal components through the sides and back of the earbud stems.
The case also adopts the same metallic look, shedding the white version (there’s also still black) for an aluminum that both looks and feels genuinely different. The “Talk” button (more on that later) is also nice and shiny, inviting you to push it. This case now has some weight in your hand, and I really love that. No one wants to carry around heavy gadgets, but Nothing did a good job here of balancing the weight to make the case and buds feel premium without making it feel chunky.
The design language also feels more aligned across flagship audio products now, bringing together the Ear 3 and the Headphone 1, which have an aluminum finish. If you’re a fan of the Headphone 1, or prior Nothing buds, you’ll love the look of the Ear 3. Another thing you’ll love? The sound.
A much-needed audio upgrade
I thought the Ear were nice wireless earbuds when I first listened to them in 2024, but I’ve tested a lot of newer earbuds since then, and in that testing, my opinion has shifted. The Ear still hold it down, but the sound and ANC aren’t quite as premium as I’d like them to be, especially with a slight cost premium over brand new buds like the OnePlus Buds 4. In short, it was time for an upgrade.
According to Nothing, the Ear 3 now has a redesigned 12mm dynamic driver and “patterned diaphragm surface” that is meant to “lower total harmonic distortion from 0.6% to 0.2% versus the previous in-ear generation.” Nothing also says that the redesigned architecture increases bass response and delivers a wider soundstage. That’s all rhetoric, though, and at the end of the day, what you really want to know is, “Do these sound better than the last generation?” and in my anecdotal testing, they definitely do.
I tested the Ear 3 back to back with the Ear (which is actually newer than the Ear 2) and found that there was a lot less distortion when listening to C.W. Stoneking’s “Desert Isle”. There’s more spatiality in the Ear 3 than the Ear, making guitars and vocals sound like they’re in their own place instead of muddled together competing. Vocals in particular sound clear and natural, which is great if you’re like me and tend to listen to a lot of rock music. One vast improvement over the Ear is in the bass department. As I’ve said many times, I don’t particularly care about having a ton of bass in wireless earbuds, but I do appreciate a pair that can still provide low end without sounding over-compressed or super simulated. I’d say the Ear 3 do just that, especially after testing bassier music by listening to Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”.
As usual, I also dove into the Nothing X app and used Nothing’s personalized audio test to tune the Ear 3 to my specific hearing. I can’t overstate this enough: stop sleeping on your wireless earbuds’ companion app. There’s a big difference in the sound before using the personalized EQ and after, and while this won’t be the case with everyone, I’m 33 years old and a couple of decades of going to shows and listening to loud music means I could probably use a little assistance in the hearing department. The Ear 3 sound great out of the box, but personalized EQ really sends the audio over the top. In short, Nothing is still holding it down with its flagship-level sound, and the Ear 3 is an even bigger improvement generation-to-generation than its jump from Ear 2 to Ear.
Active noise cancellation (ANC), however, I found a little less improved generation-to-generation. Though to be fair, Nothing isn’t touting better noise canceling this time around. I gave the Ear 3 the obligatory subway test, and while they passed, they weren’t quite as formidable as my favorite noise-canceling wireless earbuds, Bose’s Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). They’re still much better than the similarly priced Galaxy Buds 3 FE from Samsung that I recently tested. I do think they’re slightly more noise-canceling than the last generation, though that could be due to Nothing’s redesign of the buds, which are meant to provide a better and more comfortable fit in your ears—that could create better passive noise cancellation and the illusion of stronger ANC.
Battery life is also only slightly improved. Nothing says the Ear 3 will get 5.5 hours of listening with ANC on, while the Nothing Ear was rated for 5.2 hours. This is nowhere near the best battery of wireless earbuds in this class; in fact, it’s a little under. Six hours is generally the standard nowadays. In my testing, I went from 100% to 80% battery in a little over 1 hour of listening at 70% volume with ANC on high.
So, that’s the good, pretty good, and just okay news about the Ear 3. But there are some things I really don’t like, so let’s talk about them.
Super Mic? More like soupy mic.
There’s one aspect of the Ear 3 that can’t be compared, since Nothing is the only company really trying it. I’m talking about the “Super Mic,” a new exclusive feature in the Ear 3 that lets you use microphones in the case for clearer calling and voice recording. By pressing the “Talk” button on the case, you can activate the feature and get recording or calling—one push activates the feature until you release the button, while a double-tap will turn the feature on until you turn it off.
According to Nothing, there are two Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) mics inside the case that use beamforming to zero in on your voice and cancel out environmental noise at the same time. The Ear 3 also take advantage of bone-conducting capabilities that detect “microvibrations” in your jaw that are meant to detect speech. The process of relaying the results of your Super Mic voice is a bit convoluted. Nothing says your voice is “sent to the case antenna, relayed to the earbud antenna over Bluetooth, then passed to the phone.”
Per Nothing, Super Mic “focuses on your voice, cutting through surrounding noise (up to 95 dB) for clearer calls and voicenotes.” In theory, I love the idea. Wired earbuds are a big thing again, and a major part of that (outside the superior audio quality) is that they usually come with an on-cable mic for clearer calls. This theoretically makes the Ear 3 a best of both worlds situation, giving you wired earbud-level mics for calling (or better) while not having to deal with annoying wires.
The only problem is… the Super Mic doesn’t work as advertised. I ran the feature through a few different tests, and the results were varying degrees of muddy. At first, I played background music while using Super Mic to record my voice through my iPhone’s Voice Memo app. Instead of canceling out the background music (lo-fi beats playing at 75% volume from a Chromebook about a foot away from me), it mixed my voice and the beats together, creating a kind of muddled amalgam that wasn’t very pleasant to listen back to.
Similarly, I simulated subway noise (something more “environmental”) on YouTube at the same volume and distance, and the results were similar. My voice was still mixed in with the ambient sound that I hoped it would filter out. Super Mic did seem to work better out on the street near my office (a fairly busy part of downtown Manhattan), though I still wouldn’t describe the results as “super” in any way. Even when Super Mic effectively filters out environmental noise, I find the fidelity to be choppy and compressed-sounding at times. It’s nowhere near as pleasing to listen to as recording through the native mic on my iPhone 13.
Super Mic did filter out noise effectively while walking on the street next to ongoing construction and in a fast casual restaurant that was playing music, but it still picked up other people’s voices in settings where people were talking nearby, which would make using the feature in an environment with other people potentially problematic.
There’s also the issue of compatibility. Nothing says Super Mic is designed for voice calling in apps like Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, WeChat, and is also supported in native voice memo apps on iOS and Android. However, Nothing makes it clear that the feature “isn’t optimized” for in-app voice messaging through third-party apps like Snapchat or native voice features in iOS Messages and the like. This is a long way of saying that your mileage may vary when it comes to Super Mic, and while compatibility can’t be blamed on Nothing—it’s up to Apple and Android to allow third-party mic access, and in what apps—it still limits the Super Mic feature, making its use a lot more restricted than it ought to be.
I reached out to Nothing about the issue I had with Super Mic, but haven’t yet determined if there’s an issue with the wireless earbuds or a problem with the feature. (Yes, I was using the right firmware and Nothing X build). Other reviewers have reported their own issues with Super Mic, too.
Good buds, but a little (ear)itating
When you make a big bet, you might lose a little money—no risk, no reward. No matter your rote idiom of choice, that sentiment tends to be true. Super Mic could be a cool feature if it’s refined, but for now, I would file it firmly in the “undwhelming” folder. Maybe it will improve with future software, but I can’t really guarantee that, so all I have to work with is what we have right now, which is to say a Super Mic that seems to be plagued by a serious case of Kryptonite.
The annoying part is that everything else about the Ear 3 is pretty solid. They look great, they sound great, and ANC is sturdy. The battery life leaves something to be desired, but it’s not so bad that it’s disqualifying. But this is what happens when you try to do something different sometimes, you gotta take the hits with the misses. Alright, I’m done with the corny euphemisms now, I swear.
The Ear 3 might falter out of the gate with a shoddy Super Mic feature, but if you like the way Nothing wireless earbuds look and you want solid sound and ANC, the Ear 3 are still worth a look. Just don’t expect to be taking any Zoom calls from a construction site with these things just yet.
Master simple controls to command a pair of lovely thighs and vanquish the souls approaching from the back of the screen! Catch and purify souls to the upbeat rhythm… “MOMO Crash” is an exhilarating rhythm game with a novel theme like no other! In a world of chaos, they are the “Thigh-Warriors,” the sole wielders of the power of purification. Look forward to their cute and powerful exploits! Daia, the “Jewel Girl” who shines with confidence and style! To her, “KAWAII” (cuteness) is justice and the ultimate form of self-expression. Wielding her perfectly toned “Thighs” as weapons, she fights and dazzles day in and day out to paint the world in her unique vision of “KAWAII”! Her goal: to become the president of the No.1 brand. No one can stop her ambition! Moons Creed
Seika is a shy sister torn between her duties in her sacred role and her earnest desire to be needed by someone. Hidden beneath her modest sister’s attire, her “Thighs” hold a benevolent power to heal the world, and a “Cage of Love” concealing passions so fierce they sometimes threaten to imprison her. With those legs, what will she grasp? World peace, or her own small measure of happiness——? “I want to make everyone smile!” With this pure wish as her sole guide, the innocent traveler Hikaru journeys the world! To find her missing sister, she heroically CRUSHES any obstacle with her prized “Reinforced Thighs”! Bright as the sun, her destructive power comes with absolutely no ill-will or guilt, of course!
Features and System Requirements:
You play by timing actions to music. As souls, viruses, and other targets approach, you must respond in rhythm with the correct input.
There is a story mode where you can follow the journey of the Thigh Warriors, unlock more tracks as you go, and your performance strengthens relationships with the characters, which may affect how the story unfolds.
The game features easy, normal modes, and a hard mode for players who want more challenge.
Screenshots
System Requirements
Minimum
OS: Windows 10+
Storage: 1 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
Installation Guide
Turn Off Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
Fancy a kickabout? After launching in the much warmer June (why is it already so cold, it’s only bloody September), Rematch has finally received its first proper season, elevating it into a true, blue live service game. This comes with, as you may have guessed, a season pass, which comes with a pair of themes for your football stadium, one being iceberg oriented, the other providing a volcanic atmosphere, alongside some new cosmetics too.
Aside from the season pass, there are two pretty big additions with this update. First up is crossplay! You know how this works I’m sure, but to spell it out, it means those of you on PC will now be able to play with your console friends, whether you own the game on Steam or through the Epic Games Store. Always a neat thing to have! Then, there’s the addition of a 3v3 ranked mode. Typically matches are 5v5, so this will obviously make for a mode with some tactical differences. Sort of like heading to the local park with your mates!
This season also brings some fixes and tweaks through a new patch too. Reactivity and precision should be better now, and whatever the exploit known as the “Ippy Slide” has been nerfed too. Yay? You’ll also find that goalkeeper dives have received a rework so that they’re more effective against volleys, and as detailed in a press release, “skill-based matchmaking parameters are now stricter, especially in ranked matches, ensuring more evenly matched teams.”
Apparently season 2 of the multiplayer game will also introduce a much more personal 1v1 game mode, and throughout 2026 there’ll be new features introduced like clubs and tournaments systems, World Cup-themed events, and “more.” Look forward to that, I suppose!
High Potential — the ABC show about a single mom with an exceptional mind who winds up working as a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department — debuted its first season a year ago. Now, Kaitlin Olson’s fashionable crime-solver Morgan Gillory is tackling new crimes in season 2.
The second season of High Potential will debut much like last season — episodes of the crime drama will air on ABC first before streaming on Hulu. In addition to Olson, the show stars Javicia Leslie as Daphne, Deniz Akdeniz as Lev “Oz” Ozdil, Amirah J as Ava, Matthew Lamb as Elliot and Judy Reyes as Selena. Daniel Sunjata plays Morgan’s by-the-book partner Karadec, and Steve Howey joins the cast in season 2 as new precinct captain Nick Wagner.
High Potential is based on the French series Haut Potentiel Intellectuel. According to official descriptions, the first few episodes of season 2 will again pit Morgan against the Game Maker and continue the storyline with Ava’s missing dad, Roman.
When to watch High Potential season 2 on Hulu
Season 2, episode 2 of the Kaitlin Olson-starring series will air on ABC on Tuesday and stream the following day on Hulu. Here are the release details for the next three episodes.
Episode 2, Checkmate: Premieres on ABC on Sept. 23 at 10 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT/9 p.m. CT. Streams on Hulu on Sept. 24.
Episode 3, Eleven Minutes: Premieres on ABC on Sept. 30 at 10 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT/9 p.m. CT. Streams on Hulu on Oct. 1.
Episode 4, Behind the Music: Premieres on ABC on Oct. 7 at 10 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT/9 p.m. CT. Streams on Hulu on Oct. 8.
James Martin/CNET
Hulu has two plans: a basic, ad-supported option for $10 a month, or $100 a year, and a mostly ad-free option for $19 a month. You can also get Hulu in a bundle with Disney Plus and HBO Max, Disney Plus and ESPN Unlimited, Disney Plus and ESPN Select (formerly ESPN Plus) or just Disney Plus.
Disney Dreamlight Valley has announced that its next free update, Return to Beast’s Castle, will be dropping on October 1. As the title suggests, it will whisk us back to the Beauty and the Beast realm, and plans to add a few fan favourite characters for us to invite to the valley.
As it stands, you can only unlock Belle and the Beast in Disney Dreamlight Valley, alongside Gaston, if you have the Rift in Time expansion, but now Cogsworth and Lumiere will be joining us in this update. The footstool is also already available as a companion, and frankly, I’d love to see another piece of sentient furniture joining us in the next Star Path to coincide with this update.
What we know about the update outside of assuming the characters is incredibly scarce, though. No details of what sort of quests to expect have been shared, so much like the last few free updates, Mysteries of Skull Rock and Wonderland Whimsy, I imagine we will have to expect the unexpected. There’s been a particular emphasis on puzzle-solving in the recent Inside Out and Peter Pan update, so hopefully, there will be some sort of bookshelf puzzle or something similar to unlock these companions.
If you don’t already have access to the Beauty and the Beast realm in the Dream Castle, you’ll definitely want to work towards unlocking it as soon as possible. It costs 12’500 Dreamlight, which is quite the investment, given we’ve only just unlocked the Inside Out realm. Since this update is a return to the realm, you’ll also want to make your way through the process of unlocking Belle and the Beast, too.
After all, you won’t want any roadblocks to stop you from welcoming the new villagers. I faced this struggle when Timon and Pumbaa were added to the valley, having not unlocked Simba and Nala in advance, and now I’ve vowed to never put myself through that stress again.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Sheet metal fabrication is a manufacturing process that transforms flat sheets of metal into a variety of custom shapes, parts, or structures. A fabricator can use a combination of techniques, including bending, cutting, punching, stamping, welding, and machining the sheet into the desired form. But before any of that, a proper fabrication process starts with designing the intended parts using CAD software. The technical drawing for sheet metal design provides detailed information about the part’s dimensions, finishes, materials, tolerances, and other relevant details. A freelance CAD drafter (sometimes referred to as a CAD operator, or more specifically, a mechanical engineering technician as far as sheet metal design is concerned) can produce the drawings in software like SolidWorks, Autodesk Fusion, and Autodesk Inventor, to name a few.
And to ensure accuracy, producing a sheet metal fabrication drawing is a task best left to a professional. When it comes to hiring a professional CAD drafter, no other platform gives you as much in-depth expertise and broad options as Cad Crowd. Thanks to the platform’s exclusive focus on the engineering field, it’s as if you have an entire database of pre-vetted freelancers at your fingertips. The unique categorization of skills also removes a lot of the guesswork in freelancers’ qualifications. A little more extensive list of freelancing platforms you may want to use is as follows.
Specialized freelancing platforms and direct services
The good thing about specialized platforms is that all the talents available in the database have already been screened to filter out irrelevant skills. However, there might be different levels of specialization. For example, some platforms focus on the tech industry, which may include both hardware and software engineering; others have a narrower scope, for instance, the CAD (computer-aided design) applications, product development, 3D printing, etc. The narrower the scope of specialization, the easier it gets to pinpoint the talents you need for any given project. Direct services, as those that sell their expertise directly to you, can be good ideas, too. In the case of sheet metal design, fabrication drawing, or CAD drafting, if you like, here are the contenders.
Cad Crowd
If your project has anything to do with CAD applications, and you need a freelancer to handle the task, Cad Crowd is an easy recommendation for good reasons. The freelancers on the platform offer just about every CAD service imaginable, from 2D drafting and 3D photorealistic visualization services to finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics. And of course, sheet metal design fabrication drawing falls comfortably under Cad Crowd’s umbrella. As for the hiring methods, you have several options, including the regular job post, design contest, and hourly services. When in doubt, there’s the “Get Free Estimate” feature to get a rough calculation of what your project should cost.
You’ll probably find a lot of similar services available in both Cad Crowd and X-Pro CAD, although the former certainly has the edge in terms of a sheer number of specific skill sets and project types. That being said, the latter is definitely a capable freelancing platform that also specializes in CAD software applications in a broad range of industry sectors, including product design, technical drawing, mechanical engineering, and prototype fabrication. X-Pro CAD works pretty much in the same fashion as many other freelancing platforms; you post a job, let the platform help you decide the most qualified freelancers for the tasks, and start the project.
Established in 1992, Hitech CADD offers a rather extensive list of CAD services, such as 2D drafting, 3D visualization, shop drawing, MEP design, and sheet metal design. It’s a typical example of a direct service provider, working for you as a temporary external employee or freelancer on a per-project basis. Hitech CADD doesn’t provide information about pricing, but this is only because every project is different, and it needs to understand the scope of work first before it can provide an estimate. This practice is not uncommon among direct service providers.
You can say that Freelance CAD Design is a direct service provider, but this is a one-person company that is practically a stand-alone freelancer. The person running the entire show is a seasoned mechanical engineer with 26 years of experience in his record and a certified SolidWorks Professional. He provides such services as CAD design and manufacturing documentation, which should include technical drawings for sheet metal fabrication. Again, there’s no clear information about the pricing on the website. Freelance CAD Design is based in West Band, Wisconsin.
The main site positions itself as a digital media publisher filled with story highlights and news of the latest developments in the engineering world and the manufacturing design services industry at large. In the “communities” part of the website, you’ll find a section simply called “Engineering Jobs” geared primarily toward professional engineers looking for the next employment opportunity. It has very few features for employers, but at least it allows you to post a project and be sure that it reaches the right audience.
You hire freelancers on Contra without posting a job first. Instead, the platform encourages you to browse freelancers’ profiles and send the contract when you’re ready. The search option comes with filtering options such as skills, tools, or software, and project types. Contra specializes in only several job categories, including design and engineering. The platform says every registered freelancer has been verified with certified skill badges, a list of completed projects, and earnings history. This should help you make the hiring decision with confidence. For every project completed through Contra, you must pay a $29 fee for every invoice, although it’s waived if the invoice comes from a Contra Pro member (freelancer). There’s also another $29 fee per contract (one-off project) or a $29 fee per month for ongoing projects.
The vast majority of the freelancers in WorldTeams have worked on US-based projects. In fact, some of the most experienced ones have been working for American clients for more than five years. WorldTeams specializes in the AEC industry, and it says the professionals in the database are all familiar with typical US construction methods. Although most of the engineering specializations in the platform are related to the architectural industry, a professional CAD drafter should be able to handle technical drawings for both construction projects and sheet metal design equally well.
Having been around since 1995, Core77 has been a prominent digital hub frequented by industrial engineering experts from all around the world, including students and professionals. The website works more or less the same way as ENGINEERING.com, where the main pages are reserved for news surrounding technology and industry, but they also have a dedicated job section for employers to post projects in the Design Directory. A basic listing is free of charge, for which you get one public project and a maximum of 8 image attachments. The premium listing, which is available for $85 per month, gives slots for 20 public projects and unlimited private projects.
For a site that claims to be a design job board, Coroloft lives up to the hype with its collection of over 2 million images from professionals and students all over the world. Coroloft uses the term “design” in the broadest sense of the word, as it doesn’t limit the subject and format of the images submitted. But the platform is part of a design employment network that also includes Core77, Design Observer, and IxDA, so it makes sense if technical drawings or engineering drafts are within the scope. Another good thing is that you don’t even have to register for an account to post a job here.
All the freelancers in the database are engineers of various specializations, including CAD drafting professionals. You have multiple talent-finding options with iHireEngineering. Other than the traditional job post, it also offers resume search and the all-in-one iHire360 recruiting platform. A standard job post costs $369 per month, and you can enhance it with a resume search feature for another monthly fee of $450.
The sites listed below do not specialize in engineering design services, CAD drafting, or any kind of profession. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the talents to handle sheet metal design drawing; it’s just that you have to look more closely into the talent pool to find exactly what you’re searching for.
Remotive
The main reason Remotive gets the first mention in this category is that it works very much like a job board, but it prioritizes freelancers looking for their next projects in the tech industry. While the platform isn’t very specific about which tech sectors it covers, chances are the database includes a good number of CAD drafters and sheet metal designers, too. There’s no feature to browse freelancers directly. A single job post on Remotive costs $299 per month. Every job post is distributed to the platform’s social channels, including LinkedIn, Slack Community, and email newsletter subscribers. The website itself attracts 3 million unique visitors per year.
Freelancers on Virtual Vocations are provided with the option to go with the free or premium membership accounts, but there’s no such thing for clients/employers; you can post an unlimited number of jobs at no cost at all, so long as they’re all remote jobs. This is entirely possible for a CAD drafter working on a sheet metal design project. For example, there’s nothing wrong with hiring a drafter located in Denmark or Japan, even if your business is operating out of the United States.
About 60% of the freelancers and clients using PeoplePerHour are based in the United Kingdom, but the platform itself doesn’t restrict its area of service to any particular region. In fact, it has a global reach and is accessible from more than 100 countries worldwide. PeoplePerHour says that every freelancer registered with the site is hand-reviewed and approved, although it doesn’t say anything in detail about the extent of the vetting process. You can search for freelancers and request project proposals, purchase pre-packaged services, or post a job and wait for interested freelancers to send their bids. Phoenix AI does the talent-to-job matching on PeoplePerHour.
Boasting a freelancer database consisting mainly of scientists and industry experts, Kolabtree is likely more suitable for research-intensive, complex, or highly technical sheet metal design services or fabrication drawing projects. This isn’t because you can’t hire experts from Kolabtree to handle the relatively simpler projects, but you can probably find junior (and qualified) freelancers to do the tasks for a more affordable rate. If you can’t find freelancers with the right CAD qualification, there’s the “Request a Service” feature to post a project and have the platform recommend some experts for the job. Every proposal outlines the SOW (Statement of Work), milestones, deadlines, and project fees.
Being a networking platform for businesses and professionals, LinkedIn is a fertile ground for employers to discover fresh and seasoned talent for any project. The platform offers quite a lot of features to help you search for talent, including Recruiter and Jobs. The former provides access to a database of job seekers with intelligent matching and advanced filtering options, whereas the latter is mainly for posting a project and targeting it to a specific audience/users. Premium job posting is also available, and LinkedIn says it should receive three times more qualified applicants than what you can expect from the free option.
Like the vast majority of job boards, We Work Remotely has very little involvement in the hiring process and project management. You can think of the platform simply as an online space to announce to the world that you need a freelancer for a project, with some additional options to increase exposure. A single job posting in the WWR costs $299, and that’s only the base price; multiple upgrades are available to boost visibility by email campaign or highlighted ads. There’s also a “Filtering Service” add-on to have the platform manually screen all the applications you receive and prioritize them based on the project requirements.
Apart from the tech-focused part, Remotive and Working Nomads have many things in common. Both are premium job boards, of which the services include distributing your job post to external sites like LinkedIn and Google Jobs, as well as forwarding it as an email alert to subscribers. Working Nomads doesn’t say anything about freelancers’ vetting process (or the lack thereof), so it looks like you must review and screen the applicants without any assistance from the platform at all. A job post on Working Nomads costs $199. Discounts are available if you purchase a bundle of three or five slots.
You can post a job to Remote OK for $269. But since the platform aggregates job postings from all around the web, there’s a good chance that your project will end up being displayed on the site even if you posted it somewhere else. On top of the base price, you can use optional upgrades to make use of such features as auto talent matching, email campaign, displaying your company logo, QR code, sticky post, and more. Whether or not you buy any of the upgrades, the job post will be distributed to the Google for Jobs network.
Nearly 60 million people in the US visited Indeed as job seekers in January 2025 alone. Although not every single one of them is a sheet metal designer or a CAD design service, the traffic number still makes Indeed a very promising platform to find the talent you need. You can post a job free of charge, but Indeed says it will only receive regular visibility; the platform doesn’t explain what “regular” means here. If you choose to sponsor the job, however, the post gets a boost of exposure (thanks to a wider target audience) and an enhanced ad placement. A sponsored job post costs anywhere from $5 per day to at least $150 per month.
There’s no free employer account on FlexJobs. You have three subscription tiers: monthly, 3-month, and annual memberships. FlexJobs doesn’t give a lot of details about the cost, but the platform is happy to tell you that the monthly subscription starts at $199. No matter which membership account you choose, the benefits include an unlimited number of resume searches and unlimited job posts. If you don’t feel like spending money on it from the get-go, there’s a Free Trial with which you can post five jobs at no cost at all. It doesn’t mention whether the Free Trial also includes a resume search feature.
Right in the top left corner of Freelancer’s homepage, you’ll immediately bump into a pretty comprehensive search tool to filter talents based on skill, location, or category. The platform has several hiring options. You can post a job, start a contest, buy predefined services from freelancers, or use the Recruiter Service. You also get to choose whether to use the hourly rate or the fixed-price-per-project model. Payment is only released when you’re satisfied with the work delivered. Posting a job and reviewing the freelancers’ profiles are free, but the platform charges 3% commission based on the project price should you proceed to hire a freelancer.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find any freelancer in Toptal with a skill set as specific as “sheet metal designer,” but there are categories like CAD designers, product designers, and prototype designers; any of them may include qualifications like CAD drawing or drafting. Toptal is known for its rigorous vetting process, where fewer than 3% of the thousands of freelancers registering for the site every month are accepted. You can’t browse freelancers’ profiles, but the “Hire Top Talent” form allows you to specify skills such as CAD drafting and mechanical engineering as the requirements. Toptal isn’t free; the monthly subscription costs $79, and you get a refund if the platform can’t provide you with the talent you need.
A simple and straightforward freelancing platform, Workhoppers aims to connect clients directly to talents without middlemen, commissions, and recruiting fees. While the platform itself isn’t free, at least there won’t be extra charges when you decide to hire a freelancer. The search feature comes with basic filtering options by skill, city, and country. Currently, it doesn’t have CAD drafters or sheet metal fabricators, but you can always specify the skills and qualifications when posting a job to the platform. Every job post is distributed to more than 100 other job boards in the network. Membership registration is managed by the freelance.ca website.
Job postings on Guru, if available, are free of charge. It doesn’t even have any premium membership subscription models like you’ve seen in many other freelancing platforms. Every employer can post an unlimited number of jobs and an unrestricted number of requests for quotes from freelancers. Its project management dashboard, known as WorkRooms, is also free to use. For every project or invoice you pay, Guru charges a 2.9% handling fee, but if you pay using wire transfer or eCheck, you’ll receive 100% cashback of that fee. Guru claims to maintain a network of 2 million freelancers in the database. A simple search for CAD drafting, 3D rendering service, and sheet metal design reveals a good number of available freelancers for you to hire.
Nothing about Upwork feels unfamiliar, even if you’re a first-time user. It’s a platform where you can post a job and wait for the proposals (bids) from freelancers to reach your inbox. Upwork does its work in the background to match your project with candidates it considers ideal for the job. You get to review the freelancers’ profiles and portfolios before you make the hiring decision. It’s also possible to search for freelancers and hire them directly (by purchasing their pre-planned packages). Upwork is a premium platform. For every new marketplace or project catalog contract, the platform charges a “contract initiation fee” of anywhere from $0.99 to $14.99, which is non-refundable. There’s also a “client marketplace” fee of up to 7.99% on the payment you make to freelancers.
Most freelancers on Fiverr sell their services with a fixed-price model, although there are some who charge on an hourly basis. There’s no feature to post a job to the platform. You must browse through the freelancers’ profiles or use the search function to find exactly what you’re looking for. The search bar will be your best assistant here, along with the filtering option. Freelancers offer the service using pre-planned packages like in Upwork, but you can always ask them to make a custom offer according to your project requirements. Fiverr isn’t free for clients. Every purchase you make comes with a 5.5% service fee calculated from the payment you make to the freelancer. For orders under $100, there is an additional $3 fee.
Sheet metal fabrication, technical drawing, and CAD drafting are all highly specialized skills within the engineering field. While you can easily find professionals selling those services in general freelancing platforms and job boards, it doesn’t make a lot of sense if there are already specialized platforms with similar offers.
Cad Crowd remains standing at the top of the recommended list when it comes to finding qualified freelancers for CAD applications and engineering projects. By going straight with the best CAD-specialized platform of them all, there’s the peace of mind that your project is handled by qualified professionals with just the right skill sets. Get a free quote today.
MacKenzie Brown is the founder and CEO of Cad Crowd. With over 18 years of experience in launching and scaling platforms specializing in CAD services, product design, manufacturing, hardware, and software development, MacKenzie is a recognized authority in the engineering industry. Under his leadership, Cad Crowd serves esteemed clients like NASA, JPL, the U.S. Navy, and Fortune 500 companies, empowering innovators with access to high-quality design and engineering talent.
My first major memory of Indie Games on Xbox platforms is a pleasant one, and it’s precisely the sort of memory I feel most appropriate for the medium. This was a tiny self-published affair – nary a publisher in sight, what I assume was a solo developer, and an extremely limited scope. I’m not talking about Hollow Knight, or Balatro, or Braid, or Limbo or what have you. I’m talking about Curling 2010.
Curling 2010 was exactly what it sounds like: a very simple indie recreation of the sport of curling. It was a drunken discovery, and in my circle of friends was almost exclusively played competitively when very liquored. To me, Curling stood alongside Mount your Friends as the absolute poster children of Xbox Live Indie Games, a rather brilliant little service that allowed pretty much anyone to develop Xbox 360 games using Microsoft’s XNA framework. Games would get peer reviewed and then could go live for a few bucks.
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This service was surprisingly simple, shockingly democratised, and was the first signal of how serious Xbox was about allowing independent developers access to its platform; they let one person indulge their interest in Curling and put their game on Xbox 360.
While Xbox Live’s Community Indie games service never left the Xbox 360 and Microsoft never quite embraced such chaotic openness again, that system’s founding spirit was later channeled into Xbox One’s ID@Xbox program, which continues to this day. In 2025, ID@Xbox has seldom seemed more important to Xbox’s fortunes. The platform holder finds itself in choppy waters: first-party studio layoffs, second-party game cancellations, botched rescue deals and boycott calls fuelled by the actions of Xbox’s parent company. But you know what part of the Xbox ecosystem has been consistently rather good? ID@Xbox.
A glance around Xbox’s Gamescom stand last month serves as quite firm confirmation of that fact. The longest line was, of course, for Silksong. Even before the show opened to the public, I watched media and influencers denigrate themselves dashing to that queue, which ran for over an hour. On the other side of the stand, games like Super Meat Boy 3D and There are No Ghosts at the Grand dominated as partner titles. Some might uncharitably suggest that this stand is more representative of a particularly quiet year for Xbox’s first party games – but the truth is, Xbox shows have featured booths like this for a long time; each appearance a demonstration of an indie and third party relations setup firing on all cylinders.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a big deal, and got the full-on “chosen one” treatment from Xbox, but not all indie games are as fortunate. | Image credit: Eurogamer/Team Cherry
“Some years there’s more indie games, some years there’s a few less – but every year it’s a discussion,” ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla tells me in the midst of the bustle and noise of the Xbox stand. We chat in a small aisle of the booth just adjacent to an indie-focused section where an early-morning queue is beginning to snake. The breadth of third-party titles on the booth, from late Japanese ports to all-new indies and hotly anticipated sequels, is meant to send a message.
“It is just really a recognition by Xbox of the absolute crucial need for diversity in our portfolio,” Charla adds.
Case in point: There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, the quirky debut title of Bristol-based developer Friday Sundae. Distinctly British, it took pride of place at Xbox’s Summer Games Fest and Gamescom presences.
“We never in our wildest dreams thought that we would be there,” shares Anil Glendinning, creative director at Friday Sundae on No Ghosts at the Grand. “And if we did, we thought it’d be in some tiny little booth hidden at the back of a distant hall, where nobody gets to see us! We did not ever in a million years expect to be right there, as part of Xbox, right there, hall 7 – and to have people waiting, like, an hour to play our game.
“Not as big as the queues for Hollow Knight, of course,” Glendinning laughs, “But it was extraordinary, and surreal, and a real item off the bucket list. As an indie dev, you couldn’t hope for a better start for introducing the game directly to gamers.”
The section towards the back-right of Xbox’s stand where No Ghosts at the Grand made its debut serves as a perfect example of the breadth of the relationships Xbox is trying to foster outside of its first-party ecosystem. Alongside No Ghosts there was Silksong, the indie that is so massive it no longer quite fits the term in the same way. Then there’s Invincible VS, which has a more traditional publishing arrangement but via the smaller-scale Skybound Games. PowerWash Simulator 2 is a sequel to a smash hit published by one of gaming’s biggest multinationals – but this time developer Futurlab is going it alone. Chinese developer Pawprint Studio showcased its Pokémon-alike Aniimo, and just off to the side were some of the fruits of Xbox’s development outreach efforts in Japan with a few late-but-welcome ports from Square Enix.
The point is, the stand paints a picture of a direction of travel for Xbox even as other aspects of their business appear much less certain. From smaller truly independent studios to start-ups with a little external investment and support, the word tends to be pretty universal, too: those who have had the opportunity to ply Xbox’s resources have found it invaluable.
“We’re an indie studio and small publisher so getting this level of support during key marketing milestones is huge for us,” says Mike Willette, executive producer on Invincible VS at new startup studio Quarter Up. “Having that kind of reach – especially during such a big-scale event – meant that fans around the world could connect with the Invincible VS. It was a big moment for the game and the reaction has been amazing to see.”
The enthusiastic attitude towards Xbox’s support raises a question, of course: how exactly Xbox decides which games are the chosen ones and which are less lucky. Even the most passing of glances at Steam’s statistics tells us there are now more games than ever – and the process of discovery is thereby ever more complicated. That’s true for the media, as we try to dig out cool games for readers – but it’s also obviously true for publishers, and consumers themselves. Charla says Xbox’s approach hasn’t changed in over a decade, however.
“We find them everywhere,” Charla says. “We find them by spending time in the Indie Arena [at Gamescom]. We find them by people sending us direct messages on BlueSky… We find them from people all around Microsoft being like, hey, have you seen this game? And we find them from having friends who make games who say – hey, you need to see my friend’s game. And from people just emailing us!”
In the end, Charla’s team works with hundreds of partners each year, reviewing what’s next in the world of indie or indie-adjacent gaming. This is a team that isn’t just looking for the next Hollow Knight, either – the hunt is on for all sorts of titles, in large part to ensure the breadth of releases on Game Pass. And while the idea of Game Pass as a universally ‘good thing‘ remains in dispute, with some developers going as far as to call it unsustainable and damaging, Charla is bullish on the service – and its successes with indie developers.
Securing a deal to get a game on Game Pass can be a huge financial safety blanket for indide developers. | Image credit: Adobe Stock, Microsoft
“The majority of partners who’ve had a game in Game Pass want to bring their future titles to the service,” Charla notes. “As a result, we’ve signed deals with more than 150 partners to expand the catalogue. We continue to engage with hundreds of partners each year to review upcoming titles.”
“Last year, we worked with over 50 teams to sign their first Game Pass deal. This year marks our largest investment in Game Pass to date, and we remain focused on delivering the most exciting and diverse catalogue in gaming.”
The pathway of gradually ending up intertwined with Xbox and landing a Game Pass deal matches up to that described by Friday Sundae for No Ghosts at the Grand. In that case, the studio had put together a demo and had been showing it off to various potential partners, which included a submission to the Xbox team via a developer-focused website and form entry. It was, by Glendinning’s own admission, a “strange demo” – which tempered expectations.
“We didn’t expect to hear back,” Glendinning admits of that early No Ghosts at the Grand demo. “We went through those channels and then promptly forgot all about it. And in fact, when we got an email back… we thought it was spam! We weren’t completely sure it was real. But it was – it was someone within the Xbox team saying, yeah, we like your demo, we played it, we think it’s interesting, and we’d like to jump on a call. Since then, it’s been a blur.”
That whirlwind of Xbox’s involvement has been described to me variously by developers as useful from a nuts-and-bolts development perspective – in terms of gathering feedback and enjoying technological support – but also as a confidence-booster for the small teams involved. The attention of a much bigger partner can be useful or scary – but it can also be validating.
Image credit: Friday Sundae
“We had to show Xbox progress during key milestones, i.e. demo the game for their partnerships team at critical moments to inspire confidence that we belonged on their support roster,” says Mike Willette of Invincible VS. “It was a good exercise for our dev team as well as something that helped us constantly elevate our own bar.”
“I just remember that Xbox was so curious about our creative process,” says Friday Sundae’s Glendinning. “They wanted to know where we wanted to take it, where our creativity was coming from, our vision for the game. Everything that we said to them, they came back with this enthusiasm. We’d keep sending – another email, some more screenshots, more videos, more content. Time after time, we were getting encouragement, support, and the thumbs up to keep on going.
“Having that kind of support was a huge confidence boost, y’know? We weren’t sure what we were making or whether anyone would be interested, or really like it. Hearing people within the Xbox team being excited, being encouraging, wanting to see more – that was a real shot in the arm of confidence for us. It really spurred the team forward to think: hey, you know what? We might actually have something here.”
There was another, secondary benefit, of course. “The biggest thing for us was getting access to those dev kits,” Glendinning notes. “It’s still hugely important for us knowing that we have Xbox there, having our backs if we run into any issues or problems. But the truth is, it’s actually been smooth sailing so far.”
A smooth journey for indie developers is something that is clearly a focus for Charla and his team. When asked about his team’s journey over the years – aside from the games themselves – the ID@Xbox boss instantly zeroes in on the technical changes that team has managed to institute across the Xbox platform, making adjustments that in many cases benefit everyone, indie or triple-A alike.
Indie games have a strong history on Xbox, as evidenced by this absolute classic, Mount Your Friends. | Image credit: Stegersaurus Software Inc
“It was really hard to publish on Xbox. It was our job to make it easier,” Charla says. “So when we first started ID@Xbox, we had a lot of asks.
“We had a lot of asks that were really indie specific, and we would go into these meetings with all these engineers – and we didn’t know anybody, right? These are business people. And we show up like, ‘Errr… ahh… we’re from ID’ – but as soon as we said that it was like ‘Oh, you’re the Indie guys! What do you need?!’ That level of support internally at Microsoft for independent developers has been off the charts forever from day one, and it continues today.
“Y’know, if we can save 12 hours on a game… hey, that’s great for everybody. It’s great for big publishers, but for an indie or maybe a solo dev – 12 hours is like a day and a half of work that you can use to theoretically materially make the game a day and a half better. There’s a lot of former developers on the team, and we really take that kind of thing to heart.”
Over the years, the focus has been on trying to make the act of getting games onto Xbox easier. But Charla now sees a new challenge. With an explosion in the sheer number of games, plus an ever-growing number of games in Xbox’s subscription service, it’s now about making sure games don’t get lost in the flood. His team is looking to make similar optimisations in this area as they once did to the process of onboarding developers in the first place.
“What if we put that discovery question on its head?” Charla asks. “How do we as a game platform help developers to discover their audience? So if you’re making a game of a certain quality… there’s an audience for that out in the world. Whether that audience’s total addressable market is 30 million or 3 million, or 300,000, or 30,000… How do we as Microsoft help you get in front of that total addressable audience?
“We want to show that audience your box art. Now, whether or not they click on the box, whether or not to buy the game, that’s a little dependent on the developer – on the box art, on the game, etc. But I think our job is to think about Discovery in a new way, which is, how do we ensure developers can discover their audiences?”
Some of this brings us full-circle. When I speak to Charla and the developers featured here, it’s either during or off the back of an Xbox Gamescom presence that has been all about connecting directly with players in-person. At Gamescom, from the perspective of these developers, Xbox’s support was invaluable.
“Having the opportunity to showcase Invincible VS on a global stage – especially in Europe – was huge,” says Mike Willette. “It was our first time seeing international fans interact with the game in-person, and that was incredibly rewarding. Seeing people’s reactions, watching them get a feel for the mechanics and feeling the excitement build up on the show floor – there’s really nothing like experiencing that.”
The challenge, then, appears to be taking that sort of energy and that discovery available in person at physical events and finding ways to deliver that on digital storefronts and the like. Charla’s vision – that discovery is a two-way street, as much about games finding audiences as it is about audiences finding games – is clearly a key lynchpin. As with ID@Xbox driving storefront and development backend changes that helped all, though, it’s clear that Xbox’s indie support will be key to this. Then there is the broader position in which Xbox finds itself, much of it undesirable – making this bright spot one whose continued luminescence is vital. Charla, at least, appears to believe he has the support and buy-in needed to do that.
“I remember one year, we had a bunch of games ready but we just weren’t showing them at this particular internal review. And a very senior executive, halfway through the review, looks at me and is like ‘where are the indie games?’,” the ID@Xbox boss recalls.
“I was like, ‘oh, don’t worry, they’re coming – next review! You know, the trailers tend to come along a little later for indies…’ But, it was cool for that question to be asked. It was a real moment where I reflected on it later and was just like – okay, I’m working in the right place.”
