iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ape Escape required both analog sticks, which was rare for PS1 games, but it didn’t use them for camera controls. The right stick was used to swing your equipped weapon. Left stick for movement.

120

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It’s about the English language, lol. I am not going to randomly drop hints about my work, so please don’t read between the lines.

120

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

And not just making the stuff, but going through levels of approvals and iterations until it hits a certain quality bar.

140

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I’ve literally worked on AAA games but still look at new ones coming out like “how did you do this????” Not even talking GTA scale. (and I do know how they do it, but I’m still amazed they did it)

130

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

English just has 3-5 synonyms for every adjective so we don’t have to use the same one again in the same paragraph when writing. Then we talk and we’re like “This is cool. I just think it’s very cool.” Or “I’m good. This so so good!”

130

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The scene doesn’t even play out now I remember, because I would close my eyes through it and imagine what was happening.

010

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Ghost of Christmas Past in A Muppet Christmas Carol. She’s a muppet of a human child, but looks close enough to actual human that I thought she was and found her features and mannerisms unsettling. Plus she’s a bit angelic and I found the idea of angels scary/intimidating. Plus she’s a ghost.

120

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Though to be fair, half my complaints are things like “these people are way too well groomed”, “this whole set looks CG” and “nobody talks like that” The actual plot is interesting.

030

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I keep watching Silo even though I spend a lot of my time thinking “this is kind of stupid” about various aspects of it. I think it mainly does a good job of dangling a mystery in front of you.

130

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think he has it in him to make a true banger one day.

020

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

All that said, Mark Brown has the craft side of game creation at this scale down pat. It’s a very well made piece of software. He clearly studies game design carefully, even if I don’t always agree with his conclusions in GMTK videos (he likes all the opposite Metroids and Zeldas from me).

120

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The harder puzzles in MOM, by contrast, require fiddling with everything in the room enough to start to internalize the problem and then… okay, there’s the solution. It’s a game where the challenge, more often than not, is parsing.

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

But ElecHead is achieving this CONSTANTLY. ElecHead also gets away with making a few puzzles that were so difficult I had to turn the game off to mull them over, but clear enough that I could hold all the information available to me in my head and have a “eureka” moment hours later.

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You’ll quickly realize that the clear gameplan you had internalized isn’t going to work. There are constant trade-offs with the way the mechanics of the game interact with the world. Mastery of each puzzle involves improved mastery of the core mechanics. MOM does achieve this in its best moments…

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

ElecHead also has a number of “gizmos”, but, IIRC, every single one of them is activated by the player’s electrified head. Crucially, the actual path forward often looks simple and rooms will focus on one big idea. You immediately get the sort of thing you’re meant to be doing. But…

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

ElecHead is based around a simple core mechanic. One that’s not too different from MOM’s core mechanic, now that I think of it. Instead of having a magnet you can pick up and move around, you have an electrified head that you can take with you or leave behind.

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It basically needs to get more and more complex to ramp difficulty. I’ve fallen into this trap as a designer too - it feels right to do, but as a player it can quickly become fatiguing. Later rooms don’t give a feeling of excitement or discovery, but of having to do work. Now, about ElecHead…

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Often it’ll be a flash of brilliance amid a bunch of actions that I’d consider to be “tasky” (a term I first heard while working at Next Level Games). It’s not a fun action, it’s just a task I must complete. And I think because the game is so focused on these in-world gizmos…

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This leads to each room turning into “find the order of operations”. Go here, activate this… oh whoops, should have activated that other thing first. It’s almost more about parsing the environment than actually engaging with the mechanics of the game. There are some clever moments of course, but..

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Comparing to what I think may be the best puzzle platformer of all time, ElecHead, there’s a clear difference in approach. In MOM (lol), you’re constantly being shown new in-world gizmos to interact with. There are lasers, switches, pressure plates, drills, etc.

100

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Playing Mind Over Magnet recently, and want to start out by saying it’s a great debut game and I loved watching the YouTube series about its creation. As I’m playing it though, I’m finding the puzzle design to be a bit tedious in spots and I was thinking about why that is…

110

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hiroshi Yoshimura. He makes/made very chill ambient music.

060

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

To chud-proof this a little: Kait was a cool protagonist for 5 and everyone on the team seemed to be on board for it.

020

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think enough time has passed that I can say, as proud as I am of Gears 4 and 5, the story concepts left a bit to be desired. I mean, the lore of the franchise was already insane, but…

220

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I shipped two Gears games at The Coalition and the whole time I think we all kinda wanted to do a “classic” Gears starring Marcus Fenix and fighting against the Locust. Happy for TC realizing that dream, and based on reviews it sounds like it’s resonating with people.

140

Reposted by Adam McDonald

Aseprite @aseprite.org · 01/10/2026

Aseprite is 40% off during the Steam Autumn sale, until October 8th! Get it directly from our website: aseprite.org/buy/ or from Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/431730/A...

91106631

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

“United Snakes of America” - the hardest diss track of all time

030

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In the 90s, people would see stuff like this and think "this is the best a video game can ever look"... and they were right.

0236

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The thing that’s most interesting to me is creating your own attack strings using the monsters you collect. It’s rewarding to find an effective combination, as it isn’t always obvious what will work well together.

010

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Finally tried out Little Noah: Scion of Paradise after having it on different wishlists for a while, forgetting why I was even interested in it, then finally buying it cheap on Switch, then leaving it unplayed for months. It’s quite cool actually! Very addictive loop and fun mechanics.

130

Reposted by Adam McDonald

eastasiasoft @eastasiasoft.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Highly anticipated vertical scrolling shoot'em up BIRDCAGE is now available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, XBOX and XBOX on PC! ow.ly/sn2I50ZQlhS Just US$14.99/€14.99 plus for a limited time, enjoy a 10% launch discount for select regions and platforms!

12915

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I didn’t like that it made you see the info in the game before making choices. I get it from a production standpoint, and it probably makes the experience smoother, but it felt like a simulation of a simulation. Like, what am I doing? Just walking around looking at stuff until the story progresses.

000

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Made it to the end of the list with no strong revulsion to anything. But I played Return of the Obra Dinn a couple years ago and enjoyed it way less than I expected to. It’s okay.

110

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"Ima fix arms" - Shigeru Miyamoto

080

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Probably preaching to the choir here, but I side-eye anyone still on there at this point. Even if you're trying to promote something.

02910

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The other thing they had in common is they were both story ideas trying to find a game to match.

050

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I have worked on two cancelled games, and they had one big thing in common…

190

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Earthbound. I rented it when I was like 7 and it was the first text-heavy game I played that I actually understood and made progress in. I rented it almost every weekend for like a year straight.

160

Reposted by Adam McDonald

Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

“I am not hungry now,” said the Dark Frog. “I have eaten too many tasty frog children. But after I jump rope one hundred times, I will be hungry again. Then I will eat YOU!”

The Old Dark Frog, wrapped in white shroud, threatens tiny Frog, who looks terrified.

From "Shivers"
In *Days with Frog and Toad*

617821

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I'm going to be on my death bed at 100 years old laughing at the memory forum posts from when I was a teenager.

130

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Still thinking about that time in 2002 when I saw a forum user named "Son_of_Liberty" get called "Son_of_Puberty", and then he disappeared forever.

120

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Also I’m doing Story difficulty for action and Hard puzzles. Combat is still challenging enough on Story. Puzzles tend to have enemies present too, so the hard puzzles mean I sometimes run out of resources during them just trying to figure it out. I’m enjoying the way it’s balancing out.

010

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I’m doing Japanese with English subtitles. I’ve had trouble following some games with subs where characters are talking while I’m focused on gameplay, but that hasn’t been an issue here. The characters tend to talk in between the action.

110

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

20 year old me would be impressed by my job and the fact I managed to get married (or laid tbh). I had really low self esteem. I was just too stubborn to give up, even when I felt destined to fail at everything.

040

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Silent Hill f has really been impressing me. The level design is exactly what I want from this kind of game. Excellent pacing and the combat is just enough to keep me on my toes. So many memorable moments already and I’m only like 3 hours in.

110

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

"Guitar Center 'Open For Legends' Contest winner backs out of Ed Sheeran's Loop tour"

328317

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I fought a boss that felt like a good capper of the demo, nice little boss fight. Challenging but not crazy. Then there's a whole second phase where he's way stronger.

000

Adam McDonald @adammcdlt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Checked out the Onimusha demo. People complained this is easy? The regular enemy mobs sure, in a fun way. The bosses and even big enemies? Uh... this shit is hard as hell for me, lol Maybe the whole gaming world has become ARPG melee combat champions due to Souls games? (which I am bad at)

210