iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I don't know who needs to hear this: there are TONS of old speakers at thrift stores. Don't get that new soundbar with wireless tech, it costs 80 bucks! Get the computer speakers for five bucks. Unless you're an audiophile, you really won't notice the quality difference, as it's diminishing returns.

Today is a good day: I finished my first draft of the Pots rulebook! I still plan on a PNP file for only 5 bucks, so get ready for that!

The next time I have the chance to work with ceramics it's going to be for making board game ceramics.

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Yall what is it about this site that really keeps your attention? I'm largely not a journalistic person--I just want people to see the work I'm doing and connect with other board game creators. I've had a hard time understanding what this has over something like Reddit I guess.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The new Beck album is taking longer than I wanted to settle into my brain. Often it's the second spin that things settle in my ears. Until then, this feels to Morning Sound as TKOL did to Kid A. We were unfair to TKOL, collectively, so I want to have patience here.

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It continues to be just amazing to me that we watched a guy throw a metal ball at glass with full confidence it would work. And it didn't. Twice. Then the price went up. And people STILL thought the Cybertruck was going to be good.

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If I mention how much I hate Youtube thumbnails with a person imitating a surprised fish, do the 600k likes come in all at once or will it take a couple days?

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I'm working on the rulebook for Pots. Things are going to be rudimentary with this rulebook for sure, but one little joy I am able to easily add is a tiny rotation on the illustrations.

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The new Sylvan Esso album seems to have taken some inspiration from the liveset done during covid. Still good not great, but the more analog production really suits their music more than what they were doing before. If they can hit that sweet spot, they're like fun Bon Iver. That's rare.

The new Samsung flagship is the first phone in 10 years that has brought a new feature I care to have: adjustable privacy screen settings. Because it's turning pixels off to achieve this effect, it will match the size and shape of, say, notification popups, or autoapply on specific apps. Just...wow.

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Daily Underrated Album: How Big/Blue/Beautiful by Florence + the Machine As far as I'm concerned, Adele can have her slow tearful piano ballads; they're.....flat?....and they drag. Listen to this album and it's full of the same wistful reflection, but it has TEETH and JUICE. Perfect? No. But great.

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There is a show where 6 designers compete to renovate a haunted house. We have horror renovation shows now???

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A bold move but it worked for Rovio for a while. I think picky game enthusiasts might balk at this, citing deeper experiences as better candidates. But Root is Redwall, Scythe has already jumped, and TI is a story you make yourself. Cartoony, whacky games do feel the ripest fruit to pick.

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Dev blog 12 Play at different numbers really matters. The challenge of 4 people wanting the same card isn't the same as 2. This took me a bit to figure out, and I landed on a weather system: rain cards water your plants (yay) and heatwave cards empty the entire store (boo).

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Roguelikes bury into my brain because improvement is constant. RPG and FPS games SIMULATE progression, but both don't often put their potential to lean on your own improvement to practice. I'll say I want a game that just gives me stuff, and almost immediately get frustrated that I have no control.

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The biggest thing I'm glad I have skills for is graphic design programs. Without it I would be scribbling on paper and have a big mess. The thing I wish I had is marketing. I just have no idea what I'm doing with spreading the word, and it's like a big secret because it's so advantageous.

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Maaan dota is tough. Being bad at dota is legit why it's good. The thing is it never feels like the game cheated me, I only ever feel that someone was just better, or THEY cheated. That's rare, the anticheat software is good. I know it's impenetrable. The best way to get in is to watch matches.

It will never stop impressing me how LARGE an open space needs to be to feel big. A gym can be 6 times the size of the average house and still feel quaint.

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Hey everyone: I'm about to work on the rulebook for Pots, which is really exciting. It's a short game with a short price! All in, I'm guessing you might spend....12 bucks if you plan on also having some card sleeves and nice paper.

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Daily Underrated Album: Good Faith by Madeon The gap between "I like this song" and "I know who this is" should have been smaller. Forget Porter Robinson or Passion Pit, THIS is who carries the Daft Punk torch, and the level of educated song construction even outdoes the robots.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

My mother is mildly addicted to....glasses....and knows I like having boxes around to organize my board games. So now I have a bunch of really nice boxes meant to hold glasses and all my games are organized. They fit the scythe factions perfectly. So cool.

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Pet peeve: casual storylines in limited episode count seasons. When you have 25 episodes this season, fine go ahead and have Mike learn a valuable lesson about trusting his niece. But if it's 10 episodes, the train has already left the station, we got an arc to finish LETS GO ALREADY

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Dev Blog 11 I settled on 9 plant types and weighted it towards cheaper plants. This was difficult to get right; if 2 people go for the same plant they hose themselves, unless there are enough for both to profit. Max plant size helps here, as does the harvest turn to free up a pot.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I finally finished folding up all the cards for Pots. Now I just need to pop over to my FLGS for some card sleeves. I also noticed a mistake in my print, which annoys me, but I'm not changing it as it's just a background color. Not gonna let imperfection be the enemy of progress.

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I'm not a businessperson, let me be clear: I hear some report about a company raising prices, removing benefits, ordering RTO or hiring a CEO that has led like 7 other companies. This company WANTS to fail, because it can earn more money short term than the slow death. Am I onto something?

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There are mechanics that just don't get old and we've built entire genres around them. My favorites usually are 2 classic mechanics smashed together. Isle of Skye is tile laying + markets. Sushi Go is drafting + set collection. I'd love to know some other great basic mechanic mashups, got any?

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My game Pots is print and play, and I want it to be easy to get people up and running. So the double sided cards are organized so you can fold both sides together to make the card. Traditional crop marks will also be used, but I wanted you to have options.

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Dev Blog 10 With so much gone from the design, it was time to nail down what needed to be IN the design. High value cards rare, cheap ones all over the place. Maintain a consistent spread of alt powers and set collection icons. Since points and turns are low, these are the balancers.

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If a game has you collecting to add to a tableau, that's fine. If your collection has adjacency bonuses, you really shouldn't be allowed to earn more than one or two per collection. It's easy to forget what items were already there before the turn. Isle of Skye is a good example.

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The more I play a MP videogame, the more I play the more losses hurt. The wins don't feel better though. Both make me want more.

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A lot of complaints about boardgames act like a mechanic is poorly balanced or frustrating in a game. Often I feel like it's really good, but it's creating an experience you're just not here for. It's often the multiplayer solitaire genre that gets this.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Watching a compilation of 2000s popular songs reminded me just how much we all liked 4 piece bands playing cymbal heavy drumlines and 3 chord 4 beat measures for an "oh" heavy chorus. But a really catchy weird soundbyte could also work. Hence T-Pain, Aqua, Axel F. The Great Escape was perfect tho.

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Daily underrated album: Home of the Strange by Young the Giant. They got more attention on Mirror Master, I find that one to have less steam. Endlessly the sunny arena rockers, the teeth and the smoothness of HOTS feels like the sunny hills of a golden hour drive. You feel GREAT listening to it.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I think it's really important to remember what you want out of a game. It's easy to remember this when talking about 2 games you love that are very different. It's just really easy to not see the smart choices as flaws if a game isn't *for you*. Not liking yelling doesn't make Pit bad, etc.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Dev blog 9 The classic 3 structure: big points, lots of little points, alternative points. It's enough that even when there's an obvious way to win, other paths will work too. For a game like this, achieving this is basically...other set collection. Grab matching icons for points. Easy.

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Brock Hall @brockhall.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Dev blog 8: Watering the whole plant was going to be tricky, flipping stacked cards. So just the top card is watered, but you get to water 2 plants. That web now feels great. Plant the card, or use it for watering or plant food. With 80 cards and 20 turns, this makes it tight and mean at 4 players

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Dev blog 7 Planting and watering and harvesting didn't feel like enough. I want the cards to be a web of necessity, generating tension as the perfect card for your needs might fit another players. So I added 3 food types, and moved harvesting to an anytime alternative action.

It seems like making a screen just a little stretchy would fix the crease issue on foldable phones. Juuuuuuust a little more than it ever will need. This is why I'm not an engineer.

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I'm working on cutting my first print test of Pots. I printed these so people can cut the front and back together, then fold it in half. The gameplay has you flipping a card when you water it, earning you more points, so both sides matter.

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