iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

I get that people are stubborn about this word. I am also very extremely irritated with the "debate" and use of this word, just in a different way from you. I no longer care what it means. I just avoid the word entirely.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

compatible with what the word "retro" is trying to say. "I like retro games" is about as helpful now as saying "I like games that are warm." Temperature is nonsensical and non-applicable to games, and age is pretty that way too now. There is a ceiling and we have hit it.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

This brings me to the top: the entire point of words is to communicate ideas. If a word doesn't do that, then that word isn't useful. Words describe things in a way that reflects the time period the word was written down in. The way video games fundamentally work is no longer

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

assuming it even does now. And generations are lasting longer anyway. The PS4 is 13 years old and yet ~half of PS players are still on it. Games are still actively considering it a core platform. Is the PS4 a retro console? What about live service games? Is WoW a retro game?

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

tell which one is the original PS4 version and which one is the remake from 10 years later. I don't care about getting old. I just absolutely loath the word retro now because no one can agree what it means and the given definition has an inherent time limit before it no longer means anything,

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

The Last of Us Part 1 is a retro game. It was remade for the PS5. One is a retro game, the other is a contemporary game. Technology and game fidelity has changed so little in the time between these two games that, despite being over a decade apart, many people literally cannot

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

The word "retro" as a simple way of saying "X years old" for games is especially terrible because by the logic presented, in a few years The Last of Us Part 2 will meet that criteria, but will not be meaningfully distinguishable from games that will be out 10 years from now.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

Games are inherently technological in a way that music and films aren't. People frequently mean retro as a way as saying "16-bit" or the early polygonal eras. Those games can be retro because they are demonstrably different in their form, presentation, visuals, everything.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

As a musician, there are seemingly infinite reasons we don't just call all music from 1000+ years ago to 2010 "classical." Games (and movies, frankly) need agreed upon words with definitions that communicate actual eras. "Classic rock," despite being vague in verbiage, does communicate a time frame

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/09/2026

I think my bigger issue is that words are supposed to mean something and "retro" no longer does. If I say "I love retro games" that does not communicate anything at all. Am I talking about 8-bit? Or Halo 4? Two things which could not physically be further apart in function.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 12/09/2026

That's amusing because I can pretty much only do ships lol. If you think these are passable I'd be glad to write up some notes but I kinda think I'm bad lol.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 10/09/2026

Is there any chance of good recordings of all the arrangements you all premiered at the various concerts coming out? Would gladly buy a massive album full of that stuff! So much of that stuff was beyond amazing and it would mean a lot to hear it again via a nice studio recording!

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 08/09/2026

how each character reacts in this example. It's not applicable to every story that one would want to tell, especially if there's not too many characters in the story in the first place, but that would be my immediate answer.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 08/09/2026

a believable case for why the characters do or do not care about each other. I don't care about the big twist where [character] dies because of what it means for the plot, I care because it's [supposedly] important/meaningful to the other characters and the "story" often times comes from

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 08/09/2026

story decision is in service to the goal of what I want the story to mean and what I'd want the reader/audience to be able to read from it. All of that said, I think the next thing on my list is relationships. I'm an empathic person and tend to be drawn into the characters/plot when there's

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 08/09/2026

Does "narrative" include the theme? I haven't done too much with stories, but I did do Discarded No More and have a design doc for a more personal short story. I usually start with "[topic] - I should make a story about that." In the instance of DNM, it was of course the planets. Pretty much every

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Reposted by Owen Spence

Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 03/09/2026

Protip: you do not have to watch the new Harry Potter trailer. I did not watch the new Harry Potter trailer, and I am doing great. If I had watched the new Harry Potter trailer, I am sure to have felt regretful and like I had betrayed many wonderful trans folks just living their lives.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

Most of my favorite pieces of media in games are things like What Remains, A Book of Sorrow, or Unveiling. I just enjoy them on their own standalone merits, as opposed to making any one of them, or Destiny's game stories, more significant. I'm not sure why. I should think on that.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

Okay awesome, to elaborate: I think that having background stories or additional texts makes pretty much every universe better. It just doesn't make me, personally, enjoy any one of them more or less when those things get self referential.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

Idk if any of this made any sense or was what you were asking at ALL, but there's my ramble. I could keep going but I fear I'd just go in circles.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

understanding of what the point is, because once you start to clue in, it continuously reshapes the entirety of the story. So yeah, if I'm going to come back to something a lot, there being subtext is pretty important to me because it allows an old experience to new for much longer.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

presented. Anyway, back on track- it makes me want to play the first Halo games again to see all the ways that the game throws humans being forerunners at you. If that wasn't there, it becomes a lesser experience. It makes it much more fun to keep coming back as you gain more knowledge and

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

of something like the backwards message in Halo 2 or the ODST glyphs and send people on a wild goose chase when the answer is "oh it means fucking nothing, lmao." I don't think chasing an answer is any fun if there is no answer, especially when the idea that there is an answer is intentionally

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

multiple ways. There are a lot of stories out there that you can take a different meaning from different reads. I think the worst thing you can do as an author is put something in a work that seems significant just so that people will ask what it is. It's infuriating to see Marty stoke the flames

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

story and makes it a great story. I like there being a point to the stories I read or otherwise experience. If I can't think about what the character meant by that and why the author wrote something a certain way, I'm less likely to keep coming back to a story. Especially when it's able to be taken

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

as its own story though. So like, I really like The Last Word story as its own standalone story. But it doesn't make me like seeing it in-game any better. Maybe I'm missing what you were specifically asking here. Then we get to subtext. For me, subtext is generally the thing that takes a good

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

So yeah, for initial impressions, dialogue is everything. I personally don't care too much about background lore in the context of the plot. I don't care that much if the ball on the table in the background is a magical object with centuries of history. I like that magic ball's background story

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

dialogue is one of THE key differences between absolutely detesting a strike and it being a personal favorite. Savathun's Song has an AMAZING story and great lore, with good subtext. However, the dialogue is so comically bad you can't take any of that seriously. At all. Whatsoever.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

-ignore than a character just blurting out something really stupid that the writers think is smart, especially if the same stupid line appears multiple times ("why would you put a tank on a ship" -Hawthorne). If it's a game like Destiny where we're running the same story beats over and over

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

-just don't act in a believable manner. I think history has generally shown us that a bad story presented well will be better received than a good story presented poorly. I really like the story of The Red War, but there are a lot of lines that make me really mad. Lore and subtext are easier to-

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 03/09/2026

dialogue vs plot vs lore vs subtext First time: 50%-20%-10%-20% After many times: 20%-20%-20%-40% Though I may need to think about it more. I could tweak this a lot. For me, dialogue is basically everything the first time through. It's hard to care about how amazing the plot is if the characters-

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 02/09/2026

They're available here on Bandcamp =) atlyxmusic.bandcamp.com/merch

atlyxmusic.bandcamp.com

Merch from Owen Spence

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 02/09/2026

Hey all! I just wanted to remind anyone who's a fan of @destinythegame.bungie.net and physical media that I have some physical CDs available of The Discarded Instrument (my piano album of Music of the Spheres made w/ the original sheet music) and Hope for the Future for Piano.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 27/08/2026

Not my favorite I've done, but I tried doing "Manus Celer Dei," the unused exotic ship from Destiny 1. We had never actually seen what this even looked like here before today, and I immediately had to draw it.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 24/08/2026

youtu.be/dcd-ClpZSBI Here's a compilation of original music I've made over the last year! I'm pretty happy with a lot of this. Lots of #Destiny2 inspiration and some sprinkles of Halo. Plus some stuff that's just me. I hope everyone will check it out!

youtu.be

Full Album - Daydreams of Outer Space (Compilation of Original Music, 2026)

YouTube video by Atlyx

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Reposted by Owen Spence

GerbSnail @gerbsnail.scorched.report · 23/08/2026

The Morningstar / Clarity Control This is the third time that I've set up this map, but this will be the last. It now includes accurate materials and fully implemented decals, decorators, entities, and skyents. #b3d #blender #Destiny2Art

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 23/08/2026

I always forget how insanely good the Saturn orbit screen in D2 looks

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 23/08/2026

Why are there people who defend my creativity as a musician and graphic designer but then turn around and say the creativity of my friends @cohae.dev and nblock doesn't matter?? It does.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 23/08/2026

Yeah, it's why I hate Project Sunrise almost entirely being coded with AI. So many people who are against AI art will say it's fine for coding. But coding IS an art form! There is absolutely creativity and that genre of creative thinking and decision making in coding.

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 22/08/2026

That's a pretty incredible rendition of that helmet. It's been glued to my Warlock for so much of Destiny and I love how you portrayed it here.

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Reposted by Owen Spence

Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 01/12/2025

Why do they still feel the need to preface every soundtrack with "Digital Edition?" They've been doing that for 10 years as if any other edition has existed the whole time

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 14/08/2026

Me with Discarded No More after writing an entire allegory of the planets and Destiny music

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 13/08/2026

Would it be possible to get support for Opus too? Sorry 😅

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 10/08/2026

Is this one of those "make up a guy" things? Lol

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Owen Spence @atlyx.net · 07/08/2026

I don't know that that was actually stated/written explicitly when the D1 pre-reboot EDZ existed. The EDZ also just had a radically different purpose then.

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