iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 1h

slowly roasting something for #bitsyjam 100. I've so far failed to ever participate so I'll catch the final jam or be damned.

sliver of a screenshot from a bitsy game-in-progress. there's a text box embedded in.... a pager? some strange technology display? it reads: "QUERY. STATION DOVECOTE TO STATION ORLANDO. STANDBY."

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 6h

what a shot! capcom should fund your glossy artists' book of all these adventures

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 17/10/2026

Perhaps the first game I ever played that, as a child, showed me the potential for bizarre and experimental game design choices. Wrestling with an emotionally volatile Pac-Man from beyond the fourth wall left a mark on me that I still think about often.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

HELL YEAH BUY THE DON QUIXOTE DLC SEASON PASS NOW

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

ooh yeah, cracking into adding don quixote to the tiny toy theatre imagination kit. feels like i'm adding new characters to smash bros

Image of a 19th century toy theatre character sheet from Pollock's Toy Theatres. Text reads: "Pollock's Characters & Scenes in Don Quixote. 4 Plates Characters, 5 Scenes, 2 Wings, & 1 Top Drop. Total 12 with book to the above.

Around the center text are the following characters: Don Quixote, Sancho, Pedrigo, Tereza, Barber, Juey, and Housekeeper.

Bottom text: London, Published by B. Pollock, 73 Hoxton Street, Hoxton.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

You gotta make it sometime! Last year was my first time going and frankly it was a dream of a conference -- everyone there is working on some cool project while also thinking very critically AND playfully about the work. I left very inspired and plan to return whenever I can swing it.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

linking this to your other recent post: this is also why I love working with constrained engines! Making a game in them is very much a generative conversation with the developer and the engine's materials! It's a big part of the Narrascope talk I gave last summer: m.youtube.com/watch?v=HzR7...

m.youtube.com

NarraScope 2026: The Intertextual Materials of a Narrative Game Poem

YouTube video by Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

John @farawaytimes.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

it's simple: everyone on earth should make at least one game in bitsy, twine, puzzlescript, zzt, rpgmaker 2k/3, and pico-8. all of them have robust tooling, smart creative constraints, browser exports, and lively communities.

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

Morgan Johnson @poormojo.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

No joke. I think this is the most important video I have ever seen about mobile games. This guy breaks down how this game psychologically profiles you, and makes the game harder or easier in order to show you ads

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Finally Ramza, our fearless leader, has one function and one function only. To punch so hard it will explode a dragon in one strike. He's good at it. He's terrifying.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

And then Norton and Derulo, ranged and offensive magic respectively. They're just putting in the hours and getting their paychecks. Norton can jump over castles in one leap though, and he's a real gloat about it.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Casia, my Time/White Mage and OG Chemist has carried this party through every battle. She started out so anxious and now just teleports all over every battle, arms full of phoenix downs, calmly tugging everyone back from death.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

There's Grace and Ginger, who I've decided are sisters. They're the bruisers of the crew. Ginger is a lancer who can jump across an entire map while Grace is working on her double blade skills to eventually be an unstoppable tank of a knight

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Suddenly there's all these plot-oriented people joining my party but all I care about are the six generic kids who came up with Ramza in the military academy and who I've been slowly and lovingly crafting in all of my free hours.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

final fantasy tactics update: I have crossed the chapter 4 rubicon, and somehow all of my plucky-but-bedraggled teens suddenly turned the corner into Supreme Battle Gods. is this what parenthood feels like.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It's still hilarious to me that the only *three* games tagged "voyeur" on Itch (without NSFW turned on) are an erotic cuck VN, a hacking game with very little context, and my bitsy videogame poem about looking in windows at dusk. still routinely my most reliable source of page visits every week.

Screenshot of an Itch.io search page, showing the top listed games tagged "voyeur." There are only three games shown with their thumbnails and descriptions. From left-to-right: "The Wife of Dero Island" by fff0422479826, "capsules" by bibliomancer (me), and "Evil Intimates I" by seanographies.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Thank you so much for giving it your time! I'm very lucky to have been a part of the project and to have contributed to the scaffolding and design that Alan and Ellen got started before I joined. (and very lucky that my high school basement Portal days were ultimately of scholarly merit! :) )

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

i'm going to have to thank the creator of 2023's hit YouTube video "Relaxing Donkey Kong Music" in my dissertation, aren't i.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

dess...... moines. toby you genius

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It always feels very counter intuitive but at least a stray ant is always way better news than a horde! You've got this! (but really it sucks)

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It's perfect. It's so good. It goes with anything savory. It goes on ice cream. It replaces jam in PB&Js. Plus you get to watch all the little berries pop as it thickens!

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

every fall I make this cranberry sauce that is so perfect I just call it The Sauce. One bag cranberries, one cup orange juice, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, some orange zest. Sprinkle of salt, cinnamon, rhubarb or black walnut bitters, maybe a dash of herbal liquor, simmer that bad boy

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

It really stressed me out the first time it happened and I had a freak out myself. But then just keeping at it - cleaning the area, removing food, killing or removing the ants as much as possible - slowly but surely things got better. And then winter came!

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

They will go away! If you just keep cleaning around where you see them and store food the best you can, they should stop coming in once you've disrupted their food source enough. It's happened a few times over here with our cat food on the floor.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

dracula after picking up PICO-8 in the summer months: please, step into my ~spoooOoky~ game. but bewaare! you may foind yourself surrounded by my leeeegion of...*cape flourish*... BOO-leans!!!

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

They truly are. It's fun coming to him from the opposite direction to how you framed it in your journals - I grew up reading/learning/emulating so much of Williams that it really feels like encountering an uncanny alternate texture to the breath and break

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Your working journal for your project with Julie Carr introduced me to him! Lo and behold a fortuitous copy of Kerrisdale Elegies at a book sale the next day. I've been carrying it around all week with me.

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

YOU - Johnny Law is about to tear it up. Sad-style.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Absolutely. I teach a lot of first year writing and this is exactly my experience. Students show up believing that anything less of perfection on every assignment will get them thrown out of university, and they've been socialized into that by teachers who are operating on their own survival panics

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I get it! It's very fun to see how an external system interprets our behavior! but do we really need to give Amazon, of all entities, that response.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

is it just me or does the immediate fad response of posting "oh here's a screenshot of the silly categories Amazon assigned me" feel like a psyop to normalize cute data surveillance tracking. like Spotify wrapped, etc.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I never learned HTML or any kind of coding when the first wave of early internet was here (I was old enough, I could have, but I just wrongly assumed it wasn't for me). Neocities and all these small constrained/retro game engines have allowed me to learn so much in my mid-30s!

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

lots of folks helping others on their adventures! Grizzled old forum warriors.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

ok I finally got to this fight and it's hilarious. thought my over-grinded Ramza was hot shit, first turn Wiegraf killed me in one shot by summoning a train-sized sword. reader, he did not even *need* zodiac priority. I would have thrown my ps1 out the window in 1998.

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

Computer𝔍𝔞𝔪𝔢𝔰 @computerjames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If you're looking for an excuse to make a game (digital) and win a delicious pizza (physical) the next PIZZA JAM 🍕 starts November 6th! itch.io/jam/pizza-ja... So far Ive had pizzas delivered to Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Norway, USA, Italy, Taiwan, Poland, Germany, Argentina

itch.io

Pizza Jam (✨Pizza Prize!✨)

A game jam from 2026-11-06 to 2026-12-01 hosted by ComputerJames. Hello! This is a themed 9 day jam that runs from 7pm Friday November 6th until 7pm on Sunday 15th (GMT), in order to WIN A PIZZA. Ther...

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thanks Jordan! You're very welcome to attend the virtual presentation once it's announced in December (it'll be at a much more humane hour of the day for you, hah)

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thanks! It took me down some of the wildest research rabbit holes, which was a pleasure.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I loved collaborating on this project! You can view our (now award-winning!) critical edition in Scholarly Editing 42: scholarlyediting.org/issues/42/ap.... Many thanks to the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London for the recognition.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

after a long day one can kick back with a toy theatre set to a jonny fritz deadbeat dad country song

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Oh I forgot all about my petrification troubles. And I felt so guilty about my original party member when I had to do a similar promotion swap

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

Maddy Thorson @maddymakesgames.com · 05/10/2026

one thing you learn from making a lot of things is that the nitty gritty details, the millions of tiny invisible decisions, ARE the art. The "higher level ideas" are not nearly as important or interesting

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

When I first started I couldn't be bothered to check/care about the enemy letter/number labels, and then my A-team got wholly crushed by an atypical high lvl encounter. It completely changed the play experience as I sent the JV kids to riskily revive everyone.

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Brendan Allen @brendanallen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

oh my GOD that enemy! It singlehandedly changed the entire nature of how I was playing the game up to that point. What a strange and obsessive experience dungeon encounters is

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Reposted by Brendan Allen

Berry 🍇 @nyamukoneko.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

the bunny can now KICK

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