iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mentioned player taxonomies in the talk, actually! At first blush the concept seems similar, but it's actually totally complementary, as it lives at a higher level of granularity. All types in a given taxonomy can potentially ascribe to the same mythology.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

That means so much coming from you, Alexei. @jfg.land and I were just casually trading praise for you the other day

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

2.5 years later, my GDC talk "Player Mythologies" is free on the vault! gdcvault.com/play/1034601... I'm really proud of this one. It tries to rewire your brain wrt what games actually do, what they are for, and thus why-and-how we should make them. Stand out from the crowd by changing lives.

gdcvault.com

Player Mythologies

Designers build games around player fantasies. These typically concern something the player

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Reposted by Alex Jaffe

Osama Dorias @osamadorias.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

We just updated the Poly Fighter demo on steam!! store.steampowered.com/app/3977340/... It's a HUGE upgrade on the previous version! More moves, new UI, lots of new VOs, visual upgrade, AI upgrade, etc... Please check it out and spread the word!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYkb...

youtube.com

Poly Fighter New Demo

YouTube video by Poly Fighter

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I got to be on one of my favorite podcasts! Had a super fun time, give it a listen. Thanks for the clutch hosting, @nictringali.bsky.social. ❤️

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Who's heading to Rocky this Saturday 😭

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Yummmm got my rules down to 3 pages.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I AM STILL SAD ABOUT 2XKO A few of us had a little wake last night 😢

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Psyched to talk about the game I'm designing! In Chrysalis: Dungeonwake, 1-3 players search a dungeon for treasure, while that dungeon is built out of cards, by an additional player. It bottles some of the creative magic of DMing into a compact PvP experience. blinkity.substack.com/p/chrysalis-...

blinkity.substack.com

Chrysalis: Dungeonwake

Build a dungeon of cards to torment your friends

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Just posted to my substack, on tabletop game design as nature's medicine open.substack.com/pub/blinkity...

open.substack.com

On the Table

A video game designer on making videoless games

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Reposted by Alex Jaffe

Michael Brough @smestorp.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

pope says HACK THE MEGACORPS

from the encyclical https://www.humandevelopment.va/en/magnifica-humanitas/risorse/infografiche.html

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

P.S. If you want to hear what I do and what I make and what I think and what games do and what this game is and what it becomes, sign-up for my literal newsletter: substack.com/@blinkity

substack.com

Alex Jaffe | Substack

Indie game dev and game design consultant. Prev. Lead Champion Designer on Riot's 2XKO, Spry Fox, Kongregate, SuperBot, UW CSE PhD. Cursed problems, player mythologies, immersive designer, game master...

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

So I’m hopeful. Long road from here, but such a cool day for me. Really grateful I get to be my own person for a while, bringing my own thing into the world. The End (of this thread).

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

And yesterday at KublaCon I think, fingers crossed, it turned a corner. Game was messy, unbalanced. But the fantasy came through. I was just a little bit entranced, and my playtesters were too, and they saw it like I saw it. And they actually wanted the thing in their lives, kinda bad I think?

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Design has been hard AF, in all the juicy ways that I love. I’m taking some known goods and twisting them into forms that don’t belong, and finding ways to make them more unknown goods so they fit snugly and hit that maybe-real fantasy. So far it’s been that better-almost-every-playtest dream.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

My plan has been to chase this idea until progress flattens, and move on to the next game (a video game!) if/when that happens. But it hasn’t happened yet.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I have a delicious premise. People get excited by it, just as I did when I came to it. But reader, I am well acquainted with the dream-reality gap, [citation Cursed Problems in Game Design, 2019]. So I’ve been careful not to get too attached.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

And yesterday I headed to KublaCon to spend the day at the Protospiel. It was a breathtaking day for me. Caught up with a couple friends, made some wonderful new friends, learned about an industry I’ve only been adjacent to. And most importantly, played the game a bunch. And I think it’s hitting? !

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

So that’s what I’m making. I’ll talk more about what it is soon. For now, I’ve been thinking and spreadsheeting and InDesigning and printing and sticking and playtesting, every day. Been playing myself a whole lot, with several friends, and doing fortnightly playtesting events at the LGS.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

The games I'll make are all over the map in terms of medium, let alone genre. Many are video games, several bridge physical and digital in ways that feel meaningful. But the loudest game in my heart was, of all things, a good ol’ fashioned tabletop game. Players at a table, slinging cardboard cards.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I’d gone through hundreds of pages of design ideas from 15 years of Ulyssesesque ravings, put together my top 20 projects, then top 10, then top 3, until I knew what I had to make. TBH I knew what it would be deep down. It’s been haunting me for two years.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Since then, I’ve spent the last month on bliss island of my own project.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Started off with a few weeks of genuinely joyous combat design consulting for Double Fine and HeartLoop Games. (If you want design consulting, I have a few specialties, check my geocities page alexjaffe.games. While supplies last, busy bee over here, see below.)

alexjaffe.games

Alex Jaffe Game Design

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I took several weeks to decompress, travel, hang out with kid, clean the damn house, all that. Then in April I got started on the new life.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Layoffs were in February, and though I was heartbroken to be separated from my punchy-kicky baby, I knew within like two days that it was time to dive into the wild. Doin’ my own thing. The open road.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I loved the fighting game, but it had been a long long long time, and even longer that I’ve been working for others, and my fragile indie heart was nearly bursting from my body waiting for its moment.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Lil’ life update thread: I’ve gone rogue baby, OR, I’m an indie dev and game design consultant now

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Heading down to KublaCon for the day, HMU if you're there!

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Man, Eka, way to just perfectly hit that completely-unexpected-never-knew-i-needed thematic.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

It's not at all! I have no energy for that :-p

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Today I'm making a website about me. I last did this when I was 15, which seems about right. Just writing out all the things I've done, like I'm a Dwarf Fortress dwarf. I guess lots of you do this too, but it is PRETTY SILLY.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

I was hype for that session all that week. 8/10!

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Been so impressed watching @fourbitfriday.bsky.social and co put together this clean-as-hell multiplayer roguelike faster than anyone has a right to. Can't wait to poke all the buttons.

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Now a week til GDC. Register for the Systems Design Meetup to Meet Up about Systems Design!

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Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

A monthish until GDC, and so too until the GDC Systems Design Meetup. Our 11th annual meet - not official, but delightful. Come wade through a sea of crunchy design topics and lovely people. Wed, March 11, 12 PM luma.com/dzii8av8 Will likely fill fast, but please read the page before registering!