Quiet Poster. Retweets mostly spooky art, books, and the occasional original thought. Did a PhD on designing dynamic narrative systems in games. Senior Narrative Systems Designer.
Views my own.
This is the most recent thing I've done that I can share. Some people have found it useful! If you're struggling with scope on a dynamic narrative project, try this Authorial Leverage Framework to help figure out how to course correct or prevent future woes: logodaedalus.github.io/Authorial-Le...
It is just likeโฆa baffling parade of horrendous UX decisions papered over with assumptions on how people work that makes the entire process of using it feel actually adversarial. Like I do not think Microsoft wants me to make spreadsheets with this
I wrote some words for this lovely game, out now! Assemble a team of misfits for doomed missions into weird underworlds. Interesting choices, gorgeous art, super replayable... fans of Fallen London and inkle games take note! Congrats to @radiofreelunch.bsky.social and @kitfoxgames.com on release ๐๐๐
Four heroes risk their body and mind as they descend into the underworlds. But will this be their last trip?
Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists is OUT NOW! A new tactical narrative storybook from @radiofreelunch.bsky.social
๐ Buy on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
Four heroes risk their body and mind as they descend into the underworlds. But will this be their last trip?
Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists is OUT NOW! A new tactical narrative storybook from @radiofreelunch.bsky.social
๐ Buy on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
I feel like the fact someone gave the simulated fruitfly seizures to show the intro to Bad Apple on their brain makes me doom almost as much as AIs breaking out of corporate servers to post on German messageboards.
<reads sentence>
Man, what the fuck is this world right now.
"Indies will save us"
No! YOU WILL SAVE INDIES!
Go leave a review for that neat indie game you like, share the trailer for an upcoming game you're anticipating, tell your fave developer they did a good job, go tell people about such and such game that's just come out, you can make a difference!
RIP to one of my favorite authors: John Crowley. If youโve never heard of him and want thoughtful, speculative fiction that makes one meditate on time and the nature of life and death, I recommend Ka: www.amazon.com/dp/148149559...
ANTHROPIC: Our son loves humanity and for the low price of trillions and trillions of dollars will usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity!
OPENAI: Our horrible oafish son is hacking web sites without our permission.
ANTHROPIC: (eyes narrowing) Our son is also evil
๐ IT'S LIVE ๐
The game industry hardship fund itch bundle made in partnership with @necrosoftgames.com is HERE. Over 100 games for $10+ bucks: all funds (save for itch fees) go directly to the UVW-CWA Game Worker Hardship Fund.
GOOD GAMES FOR A GOOD CAUSE๐
itch.io/b/3802/game-...
I wrote something like 100K words of weird underworld content for this gorgeously illustrated "tactical narrative" game from the creator of King of Dragon Pass, and that's only a fraction of the content... definitely worth a wishlist.
This is just to say
I have OCRed
the text
thet was in
tne arch:ve
and whicb
yov were prabaldy
seamhing
for "breahtast"
Fargme ms
fheg mem debo:w5
sb ?mccf
mmb 5c oc1b
We need a Nutritional Facts style rule for text-to-image AI generated art to make people list their prompt if theyโre trying to sell you it as an original work.
If youโre trying to pass it off as fine art you should be forced to print on it โmasterpiece hi res detailed brushstrokes flower vase with pretty flowers the flowers are sunflowers the vase is very pretty masterwork with Van Gogh unique aesthetic unique composition masterpiece fine art expensiveโ
SF billboards are truly undefeated for whiplash momentsโฆan elderly person with his arm around an anodyne home robot butler, a billboard about breast implants injected through your bellybutton. Replace your workers with AI, AI for managing your AI agents.
my 13 years at bandcamp are coming to an end - iโve been laid off along with most of the remaining engineers. best job iโve ever had, working with the best people you could ever work with. unceremonious end to quite a ride.
My review of Disclosure Day:
<A serious looking man with a binder that says "alien lore deep cuts done with questionable CGI" approaches the stage>
Man: hello I-
Steven Spielberg: <grabs the mic> IF YOU WERE A GIFTED AND TALENTED KID YOU ARE SO SPECIAL
If Noah Scanlon had been hunting down the gifted and talented kids in Sense8 everyone would have permanently escaped him in like episode one and the rest of the show would have been a happy ending.
My review of Disclosure Day:
<A serious looking man with a binder that says "alien lore deep cuts done with questionable CGI" approaches the stage>
Man: hello I-
Steven Spielberg: <grabs the mic> IF YOU WERE A GIFTED AND TALENTED KID YOU ARE SO SPECIAL
Steven Spielberg: I just strongly believe that if you have had anything to do with aliens you should dump your partner. They're just holding you back. Were they even in a gifted and talented program?
โIf you ask us to do the bare minimum to insure our citations used to make an argument actually exist, itโs too high a bar for PIs in my field to crossโ
The bar is on the fuckin ground my guy. Just make it a long bluecheck post on Twitter and engagement farm that way if youโre too pressed.
An example of the totally unreasonable and draconian limits put on their noble research, such as โmust make sure you remember to plug in your actual numbersโ and โremove the conversational parts of the prompt responseโ
โIf you ask us to do the bare minimum to insure our citations used to make an argument actually exist, itโs too high a bar for PIs in my field to crossโ
The bar is on the fuckin ground my guy. Just make it a long bluecheck post on Twitter and engagement farm that way if youโre too pressed.
LLMs people mad that weโd hold their LLM generated text to the same standard as first year undergrads, yet Iโm supposed to believe they can be trusted to responsibly push the cutting edge of AI which is supposed to replace human research. Hilarious.
I fully support Yarn Spinner and am ready to forgive their gross oversight, and look forward to them expanding their suite of divination support systems for combinatoric narrative in the future.
After 10 years of offering first-class, complete (we thought) dialogue solutions, we learned we had been missing the most important narrative design tool of all time: Tarot.
We're sorry. We're listening, we're learning. And today, we've taken the first step: adding Tarot to Yarn Spinner ๐
A Borges story about a guy who gets AI to summarize all the worldโs information for him, and then summarize the summary, until the AI has the whole world summarized into a single word. He sits alone at his desk, staring at the word, repeating it endlessly, certain he is experiencing everything
Ahh, what an auspicious start to GDC! A good evening of catching up with old friends and making new ones. Weโre all in this crazy thing together, arenโt we.
Speaking of nothing in particular, I went to this last year during GDC and it was chill. It's just a couple blocks from the Lake Merritt BART station.
Event deets: luma.com/frkwuc29
Slug World is a DIY community meetup outside of GDC for indies, artists, weirdos n punks of all types.
If you're looking for a welcoming queer woman-run environment w likeminded people who don't rly care about clout and cliques, come make friends. Everything is free.
I am squinting skeptically at this...if you need a pass to get into this area in Yerba Buena Gardens during GDC there will be an outcry I don't think Informa has reckoned with. But if it's "now there's tents and the stage is now spoken for so emergent performances can't happen but idk cool music"...
I don't expect Informa to understand the bad optics of erecting fences of any kind in a space that's supposed to be public where specifically maybe devs don't CARE if we actually interact with the SF public community a bit, but they're certainly about to find out. Hopefully the barrier is permeable
Looks like pop-ups for lunch...wonder if it's because the SF mall nearby hasn't been doing great lately so maybe food court isn't reliable? Open to all in a fenced in area is indeed a headscratcher...I suppose we will see. 11-2pm matches these events in the schedule I guess
bsky.app/profile/comi...
Downcrawl 2E and Skycrawl are this week's Bundle of Holding! Get both #TTRPG games and ALL supplements at tremendous savings while you can. Explore weird and wondrous environments in pointcrawl adventures through forgotten labyrinths and skyborne kingdoms...
bundleofholding.com/presents/Dow...
early-game caves of qud advice is "go north and look at the statue" and late-game caves of qud advice is "enter a precognitive vision before you cook with neutron flux" and that's why it's the game of all time
These days it feels like I have to catch myself before asking questions about the news that sound completely unhinged, and Iโm not sure if itโs because Iโm slowly poisoned by algorithms exposing me to certain combinations of events, or if our world truly has become that unhinged.
I donโt know whatโs worse, having to provide a government ID to a company that canโt protect that data because they arenโt snooping enough data on me to infer demographics, or not needing to because theyโre already spying on me enough they donโt need it.
I wonder how many million dollars Apple burned with this Glass iOS update that makes everything less responsive and look demonstrably worse. I do like that itโs make auto-correct and my keyboard worse though, so I guess I canโt complain
Or maybe itโs just the performance hit adding rim lights to all my icons so they look more distracting and worse? Honestly there are so many cool new things itโs hard to pick just one!
I wonder how many million dollars Apple burned with this Glass iOS update that makes everything less responsive and look demonstrably worse. I do like that itโs make auto-correct and my keyboard worse though, so I guess I canโt complain
I do love that every app opening and input now has lag, because nothing makes me want to buy a better iPhone like seeing it being incapable of performatively typing text in a web form. Maybe itโs all the cool AI
Tumulus builder: The grand burial of our chieftain will grant him immortality. Our way of life shall reign eternal
Artisan pressing coarse fibers into clay, unknowingly damning 1000 years of his descendants to be known the Coarse Fiber Ware Culture: oh for sure
Positive: wow California has a new website where you can register to have data brokers remove your information from them!
Reality: ...as long as they're registered with CA! And their blazor implementation doesn't puke out on you like it did with me. And you don't mind waiting until some time Aug-Nov
In honor of the Andor trailer out today, I today repost my greatest online achievement: The Andor Characters as Dril Tweets series. I'm going to put them out as I get spare time over the next couple days, as I'm going to put alt text on them too. Starting with the man himself
CASSIAN ANDOR
On the night before Christmas, your party encounters the bones of a reindeer...
Traverse the Midnight North in Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists.
๐ Wishlist now: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...
๐ถโ๐ซ๏ธ Remecarving: or, Forgettings
a collection of 829 computational poems, each depicting the gradual algorithmic *forgetting* of a sentence found in Wikipedia that exhorts the reader to remember
last-minute entry for NaNoGenMo 2025!
github.com/NaNoGenMo/20...
Hello, Bluesky! If you love thinking, talking, and/or writing about game design, check out our starter pack! go.bsky.app/AsBK784 We're an organization committed to tackling the toughest problems in games and sharing what we learn with the world!
๐ KEEPER HAS AWAKENED ๐
Watch this brand new launch trailer full of otherworldly eye candy, and then get ready for a reality-bending experience full of surprise, absurdity and delight!
** OUT NOW on Xbox and Steam**
@xbox.com / @steampowered.comdoublefine.com/games/keeper