iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

DAoC ensured I was a fan of MMOs for the rest of my life. I went on to play WoW, Trion, Warhammer: Online, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and many, many more. It was the first game that I got to play with my family, rather than just watching them play the game. Thank you for everything, DAoC.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Dark Age Of Camelot was how my dad bonded with his kids. My brother and sister had accounts, but at a measly 7, I didn't play enough to have my own account. So I had to "earn" time on my siblings accounts. How, you ask? spamming their crafting macros for them.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

!! thank you for preserving our medium's history!!

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P H Lee 🪬 @p-h-lee.bsky.social · 19/08/2023

i am incredibly cranky about the ongoing cultural misread of the song "cat's in the cradle."

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Hell yeah you did! Rhymes are fun! That's why we like them as toddlers! Because we can like things without judgement when we're toddlers!

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

That sounds so useful! And because you're building the app yourself, you can both customize the tools to your language learning needs! And you're making it yourself! That's so cool!

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Also, because it counts, I had an awesome writer's group with a friend. He read my stupid-long knitting game, I read his next IF project, and having an excuse to hype your talented friends is the best. Getting to write my favorite quotes? Do some lit feedback!? The best. Truly.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I buried an Odyssey reference into a completely unrelated project and get to feel like a sneaky gremlin who got away with a prank because nobody noticed it.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Hey! Tell me something you did this week in gamedev that made you happy. Professional, not professional, doesn't matter. The industry sucks - but making games is still pretty great. Can you help remind me of that? What's something cool you made/are making?

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My best birthday present so far is that one of the coolest things I ever worked on launches on my birthday! It was an honor to work on Pokémon in *any* capacity, let alone to write some fun stuff for the TCG Live's 30th Celebration content! If you log into the app, check out the catchphrases :)

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MapQuest @mapquest.com · 27/08/2026

We’re not changing it.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The research from the beginning of my career is cited in here, a part of a long history of the harassment created in deprofessionalized studios with "casual" atmosphere. As we enter an age of all these laid off devs making their own game studios, we have to stay vigilant, or history will repeat.

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gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I think that Dolly Parton was, for a lot of people, an ambassador of the "good" values people think of about the South: kindness, hospitality, can-do spirit, sharp and witty and down to earth. I think for a segment of people, too, she was theantithesis of a lot of noxious masculine country stuff.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Heartbroken about Dolly Parton's passing. A true example of how to show up for the people who need it. donate.imaginationlibrary.com Donate to the Imagination Library in her honor. Carry on her legacy by making sure that every child can always have wonderful books to call their own.

donate.imaginationlibrary.com

Home

Make a donation and support Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in communities around the world and help put more books into the hands of more children.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Writer Reviews Books Her Child Makes Her Read 10 Times A Day: If I Were A Dog Starts strong but bombs on the last page. My bone would be bumpy? A+ Tongue would be rough? A+ "If I were a dog, I would love to see a cow jump over the moon" EXCUSE ME!? What dog thinks that!?!? I'm so tilted. 3/10

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I've been saying for ages-- as soon as a few rich people realize the business to be made from all the gamedevs out of a job and hungry to make good things, we will have the funds for the next golden age.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

There's still a lot to fix with GDC, but these price changes on passes are a huge win.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Writer Reviews Books Her Child Makes Her Read 10 Times A Day: Tad and Dad Adorable book about dad frog and tadpole that won't let him sleep. Wholesome, well written, makes me feel things. Isn't really a "moral" of the story, because the point is just getting through the night with the kiddo. 9/10

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I know so many people who need this fund. Please consider giving. Thousands are out of work, and every dollar is another bit of relief for someone who needs it.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Writer Reviews Books Her Child Makes Her Read 10 Times A Day: The Rainbow Fish The moral is good. Don't be selfish, share with others, you get friends. But why does the rainbow fish have to *rip his own scales off* to do that!? That's his skin! We shouldn't have to hurt ourselves to be liked. 7/10

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Nick Felker @felker.dev · 20/07/2026

Losing to the baby you bathed sounds like a Greek myth

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Also it has automatically become my favorite Nolan movie, because all of the women stayed alive, which unfortunately is not that common in his stories. Anne Hathaway as Penelope was a TRIUMPH. I felt every sentence she spoke in my bones.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

The Odyssey was an utter triumph. Run to the theater to see it if you haven't. A lot of classical literature struggles in modern adaptation, but Nolan's Odyssey grabs the story's connective tissue by the throat and bangs it into you every scene like a war drum. Quite literally, given the music.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Congrats! I've been missing the games coverage of old and I'm excited to read your work :)

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Nino Cipri @ninocipri.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

PSA from your friendly neighborhood bookseller: a lot of bookstores are currently finalizing their big Fall '26 orders, so now would be a great time to preorder any new releases coming out in September - December with them. An example from this past week:

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Phil Salvador @philsalv.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Gotta nip this in the bud: These games are not unaccounted for. The ICS's collections were owned by the Computerspielemuseum and the USK ratings board. They still own them. This museum project is on the cusp of shutting down, but the games themselves are not going to a dumpster

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

It's been a dream of mine for years to work on something that will be run on the GDQ stage. The two times I thought it might happen, the games got cancelled and never came out 😭 But one day!! There's still time

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

GAME DEVS! Check their schedule, and if someone is running a game you worked on, you should totally donate during that run! It makes the day of the runners and often gets read aloud on stream :)

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Happy Summer @gamesdonequick.com to all who celebrate! (It's me) Nothing makes my game dev heart happier than watching people play games in wild, broken, "unintended" ways to raise money for charity, especially one as important as @msf.ca.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

But also, like, buy your grief food and let yourself feel some things first. The industry apocalypse isn't going anywhere fast.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

My heart is with everyone laid off today. The heartbreak and grief of losing your studio is hard to put into words. You're not just losing a project - you're losing the creative ecosystem you made your home. If any writers laid off today want to have someone look over their samples, I'm here.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

In a similar vein, at a birthday party, someone holding my son mentioned Trump's name, and my son had some vomity spit up out of nowhere, so now I'm very proud of his comedic timing.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Sometimes jokes are so good they bring us to tears.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Husband likes to ask absurd questions at the start of dinner. Today's edition: "You're dead. You can see any statistics about your life. Which ones do you want to see?" The speed with which I said "Total creative writing word count", lol What numbers about you are you looking up?

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Trans rights are human rights always and forever.

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The Founders wouldn't be shocked by the abolition of slavery, though perhaps more by equality and integration, and ditto for women. Nor even by technological progress as much as we might think. Such ideas were not unknown to them. But they would be flabbergasted and astonished by an American pope.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

250 years ago, Americans rebelled against one tyrant, then became different tyrants in what they built next. Let's go back to our roots and rebel against tyrants, the true American pastime, but let's not make their mistakes either. What we build after must be for everyone.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The old game industry is like, on day 3 of labor giving birth to the new game industry without an epidural and oh girl, did she need it like 5 centimeters ago.

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Anna 🌿👁️ @annacwebs.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

The old games industry is dying. The new games industry is struggling to be born. Now is the time of absolutely batshit corporate decision-making.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Life is short. Make the things that you want to make. Make them shoddy with the skills you have. Don't wait for the perfect opportunity to come. Middling opportunities are hard enough to find these days.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

All of the *gestures broadly at games news lately* sucks, but I'm gonna get up today and I'm gonna work on my own game stuff. And help my friends making their scrappy game stuff. and just make games because making games makes me happy. FTE, contract, hobby level. Any of it.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I'd say it's possible cause I manage it, but I didn't start LARPing until after I got married and we are 100% monogamous. If you bring baked goods, it will at least placate the polycule masses, lol

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David Slack @slack2thefuture.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Trans rights are human rights.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The kingdom management mechanics dovetailed seamlessly into the narrative and world that was built. I wanted to protect my family with everything I had. If you're looking for a gem, please go play this. You will not regret it.

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Jen Allaway Writes Games With Big Hearts @allawayj.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Absolutely devoured Yes, Your Grace by @braveatnight.bsky.social this weekend and was blown over by it. What a powerful game about sacrifice, endurance, and hope. I picked it up on the Switch sale for only 6 bucks and now wish I had picked it up at full price.

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ariella @agbouskila.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Well, I've been affected by the Bungie layoffs, and I guess I'm now looking for work. I'm a senior narrative designer on Destiny 2. I'm going to thread a little list of stuff I've done on the game; normally I go out of my way to avoid attention, but today I'd appreciate reposts.

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