iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I've been having a lot of fun playing with Unreal's Fracture tools to make these light reactive statue for an interactive music video project I've been working on

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Finally got some proper NPC character models working, with some AI smart objects for them to sit and check out the market stalls

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

The Big Sand desert party is happening this Saturday at the Red Rattler in Sydney, I'm super excited to show off what we've been working on 🏜️ events.humanitix.com/big-sand-des...

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I've been working with my friend on a live show for a virtual band at the end of this month. This video goes into the fancy cameras, Unreal trickery, and puppetry that makes up the show. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWV...

youtube.com

My virtual sci-fi band played SXSW Sydney! Here's what happened.

YouTube video by Big Sand

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

In Sydney end of November? The virtual band Big Sand is performing live! I’ve been helping out with some of the tech behind the scenes, and I’m really excited for people to check it out! Tickets: events.humanitix.com/big-sand-des...

Poster for the Big Sand Desert Rave, at Red Rattler in Marrickville on November the 29th

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Waypoint Constellations this year was something special. It’s at that sweet spot where they’re able to find talented speakers from across the state, but keep the energy tight knit and the talks uniquely weird. Last night wasn’t just a night about games, it was truly about the people making them ✨

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Jonathan Moallem @jonjondev.com · 12/10/2025

It’s been an amazing week - an exhausting week. Take a moment to congratulate yourself on making it through. It’s also important that we listen to our bodies coming away from these events. If it’s telling you that you need to faint and cough up blood, give yourself the patience and space to do so.

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 02/10/2025

Caps Collective is gonna be at #MIGW, so come say hi! We’ll be at #GCAP, Freeplay Parallels, and #PAXAUS, hope to see you there!

Ben and Jonathan from Caps Collective at the 2024 AGDAs

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Jonathan Moallem @jonjondev.com · 02/10/2025

As per my annual tradition, I'll be heading down to #MIGW for @gcapconf.bsky.social. I am a little bit nervous, but also excited to be delivering my first ever technical talk! It's about building open world games with World Partition in #UnrealEngine. I'll be in Melbourne all week, so come say hi!

STREAMING & SERIALISATION FOR UNREAL OPEN WORLDS

JONATHAN MOALLEM
LEAD PROGRAMMER @ GAMELOFT BRISBANE

Unreal Engine 5 provides built-in solutions for chunked streaming management, multi-user editing, instancing, and LODing with its World Partition systems. Theres a ton of great tunctionality to lean on that will get you 90% of the way to your open world game, but there's also a lot of glue and gotchas to look out for. This talk offers an overview of some of the systems and strategies we've used at Gameloft Brisbane to manage multi-platform, open world games, from schedule and world state to streaming and serialisation.

TUE 7TH OCT @3PM

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Getting the hang of Unreal's Metasounds, now we're able to get objects listening to the output and bouncing to the music 🎶

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

One of my favourite parts of level design is creating piles of junk as barriers for player movement

A pile of cogs, baskets, and rugs by a door with a cog symbol on it

A group of pots in a row by a market stall with spices

A pile of garbage blocking the players movement

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

It’s so cool that the biggest game in the world right now is an Australian Indie

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 07/07/2025

The thrilling conclusion to our scarecrow saga

The Flour Fields
Amongst the turmoil of the scarecrow onslaught, a beacon of hope has arrived for our farmers, as our reporters have retrieved an ancient map written in Dryadic, the language of plants.

Herbolinguists from the farmers guild have marked out what appears to be the distant homeland of the dastardy scarecrows that are holding our fields hostage.

While the translation is unclear, it goes on to describe a 'field of flowers'. A band of adventurers have already embarked to the scarecrows' homeland to take care of this denim clad sourge for good!

Don't Worry
Everything is fine!

World's Gobliniest Human
A great disturbance to village life yesterday as the goblin alarm was raised to supposed threat, apprehended by town guards.

After an extensive interrogation and scrying, village officials came to the conclusion that it was in fact not a goblin but instead just a very short, ugly, slightly green wizard. Regardless, he's joined the adventuring guild.

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 03/07/2025

The Ministary of Conjured Cuisine will not be pleased with this development

A newpaper titled Fantasy Town Daily with 2 articles, an ad, and a drawing of some flowers.

The Flower Fields

Amongst the turmoil of the scarecrow onslaught, a beacon of hope has arrived for our farmers, as our reporters have retrieved an ancient map written in Dryadic, the language of plants.

Herbolinguists from the farmers guild have marked out what appears to be the distant homeland of the dastardy scarecrows that are holding our fields hostage.

While the translation is unclear, it goes on to describe a 'field of flowers'. A band of adventurers have already embarked to the scarecrows' homeland to take care of this denim clad sourge for good!

Curse got you down?
Come to Aunty Crystals' healing hut!

Food Safety Spells
Despite ongoing food shortages, the following spells can no longer be cast due to health and safety concerns:
• Cheese Whip
• Wall of Meat
• Flavour Blast

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 30/06/2025

Scarecrows are my personal favourite animated humanoid constructs

A newpaper titled Fantasy Town Daily with 2 articles, an ad, and a drawing of a scarecrow.

Scarecrows Had The Final Straw
All across our fields, farmers have awoken to a shock, as scarecrows have up and started walking about! Little is known of the scarecrows motives, but they have become territorial of their fields.

On the advise of local agricultural and enchantment experts, the farmers guild have agreed to "Burn it all down and send those monsters back to the inferno."

Townsfolk are warned they may notice a slight food shortage in the coming weeks, and to avoid wearing any overalls and sun hats for their own protection.

The Orb of Awakening
Local innkeeper Veronica Stalwart has gained supernatural powers after she touched an orb containing the soul of a long dead god while cleaning her attic.

When asked about her intentions, she stated "I promise to use these powers for good, no matter WHAT the being inside of me says!"

Donate Blood Today!
Please, Don't ask Why!

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 10/04/2025

Special Edition of Fantasy Town Daily! DnD is for Nerds has been a huge inspiration for the events in our game, and I've been so psyched to see how successful their new board game kickstarter has been.

Wake. Adventure. Sleep. Repeat.
Are you looking to hustle? To rumble? To make a name for yourself in this chaotic world we live in? Well come to Jarren's Outpost, and become a legend. Join the Sabres, make a deal with the Blood Cult, and screw over your closest allies today!

Seriously, there's only one day left to go there, you better start running!

Lycanthropills!
Unleash your inner beast!

No Free Actions
Notice to adventurers, in accordance with updates in combat guidelines, please keep your quips and one-liners to a minimum, as your opponents are no longer required to wait until you're finished before attacking.

In exchange, it's now fair game to attack an evil wizard or warlord if their monologue exceeds thirty seconds.

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 07/04/2025

Read all about elder god calamari, floating rogues, and lesser potions in this edition of Fantasy Town Daily!

Food Review: Elder God Calamari
This week, we tried out local celebrity chef Abher'li the Mind Flayer's signature dish: "Lllln'gha bthnkor ot Me-pog Ehye", which roughly translates to "Consume the flesh of the Elder One!"

Four stars: Surprisingly tender, slightly chewy, and the visions have only grown stronger since...

Lesser Potions for Lesser Heroes!
Come to Mr. Mediocre's, where the potions aren't too hot or too cold, they're just alright.

Rogue, Light?
Local rogue Gorath was seen floating above the town today, taunting a pack of brawlers just out of reach after reportedly drinking a potion of levitation. I swear, it's something new with this guy every day...

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 28/03/2025

Remember adventurers, always keep a backup.

INSANE ADVENTURER "FORGETS TO QUICKSAVE"

An upsetting turn of events today, as well known non-violent hero Paci Fistrun is now from authorities after committing what can only be described as "a horrifying murder spree". Reports claimed he got bored and wanted to see what would happen.

The hero released a statement this morning:
"I was just fooling around, I meant to reload after, but forgot to quicksave, I swear!

Well, there goes this play through...

LYCANTHROPILLS!
Unleash your inner beast!

THEY'RE KITTEN ABOUT SAFETY STANDARDS!
A local inn has received scathing reviews over its weekend grand-opening when several high-ranking town gentry in attendance were transformed into house cats upon trying the "new soup”.

The commissioner of the Magical Safety Standard Alliance had this to say about the incident: "meow? meoooooow" followed by faint purring.

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 27/03/2025

Extra extra! Read all about it! Princess Woodsong has been brought to ‘justice’!

The Woods Last Song:

The notorious Princess Woodsong and her bloodthirsty band of furry friends have been brought to justice by our brave adventurers.

The princess is awaiting trial for her crimes, including:
• Insubordination
• Unkemptness
• Murder
If sentenced, she will be locked in 'The Tower', an asylum for runaway princesses.

DID YOU KNOW?
The cost of a single health potion is enough to feed a family of five for a year!

Donations to your local Guild Co. branch will increase start of next quarter, to help afford essential costs.

GET A NEW
FOCUSING CRYSTAL!
Your spells will backfire no more!

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 25/03/2025

Be careful out there, rogue deer WILL attack on sight!

Fantasy Town Daily newspaper with the following articles:

Princess Out for Revenge:
Princess Woodsong, who apparently has been captured for six months, has grown tired of waiting for rescue.

She was broken out by a band of befriended woodland creatures, who she has trained into a deadly miltia. Now, reports indicate she's out for revenge against the town for forgetting about her.

Our correspondent from GuildCo. has reached out to clarify the situation: "We think her ransom note got caught in our spam filter.

Think you might be Psychic?
Get tested today, at any nearby inquisition outpost!

Royal Spell Bans:
Following a royal decree, the following spells have been banned from non-authorized use:
• Zone of Tax Evasion
• Repress Trauma
• Powerword: Gaslight

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 24/03/2025

Just in time for the Steam sale, we’ve released a new patch cleaning up some of those small outstanding nitpicks that have been keeping us up at night. Patch notes: store.steampowered.com/news/app/152...

store.steampowered.com

Fantasy Town Regional Manager - Quality of Life Update v2.2.7 - Steam News

We're back at it again making some little changes so the game is all up to date just in time for our biggest sale yet!

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 24/03/2025

The Steam City Builder and Colony Sim sale is live, and we’ve got our biggest discount yet of 60%! If you’ve been wishing for the chance to run your own adventuring town, look no further s.team/a/1524530

The capsule art for the game showing the sale cost of $4 ($5.60 AUD), with Steam’s artwork for the sale in the background

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 23/03/2025

Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate ♻️ Our debut issue of Fantasy News Daily is out now!

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

If anyone wants to try out a cute short farming game, I've been really enjoying The Palace on the Hill. It's from a small Indian indie dev team, and they definitely deverse the support! s.team/a/2562620

s.team

Save 40% on The Palace on the Hill on Steam

A heartfelt story of ambition, struggle, and friendship told from the perspective of a young boy in fictional 90s rural India. Explore ancient palace ruins, set up your garden, cook Indian food, run e...

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Bimbo Blog @bimbo.nekoweb.org · 21/02/2025

new post! bimbo.nekoweb.org/posts/7-bsky...

bimbo.nekoweb.org

Bimbo Blog

a static site generator for dumb girls

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Jonathan Moallem @jonjondev.com · 02/02/2025

First blog post of the year: DONE! In this exciting episode, I talk about the fun little string token class I added instead of writing the static mesh packer like I said I would. #cpplus #cpp #gamedev #opensource #programming #gameengine

capscollective.com

The niftiest, runtime interned string tokens C++ can buy

A brief overview of the runtime string tokens used by our custom engine and the story of how I got there.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

👂 CALLING ALL MY SOUND-SENSITIVE PEEPS 👂 Please fill out this survey to help a very wonderful 4th grader that I know get some key data for a school project! And please share! forms.gle/dHAa7uQrhY7f...

forms.gle

Sound Sensitivity

IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF TO BE SENSITIVE TO SOUNDS, please fill this out to help a 4th grader with a research project! And feel free to share! Thank you!

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 29/11/2024

The Steam Autumn sale has started, and Fantasy Town Regional Manager is 30% off! 🍁 Steam: s.team/a/1524530

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Jonathan Moallem @jonjondev.com · 26/11/2024

If you have a blog site and, like me, don't want to host your own comments section, I've put together a short blogpost on how to embed replies to your Bluesky posts in your own site! capscollective.com/blog/bluesky... #blueskydev #webdev

capscollective.com

The absolute simplest way to use your Bluesky posts as a blog comment backend

A how-to on using Bluesky’s public API to provide your blog site’s commenting functionality for free.

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Scenario You are in a research facility inside a human. Each player controls one part of the body Each turn, players can move to a new part of the body and perform an action. The body can move in unnatural ways Goals * Escape the facility * Escape this body

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

Dragons and Dragons Create Your Dragon: * Skills: Flight, Site, Fright, and Bite; Distribute 10 points * Traits: Every dragon has their own Plight, Delight, Spite, and Acolytes Conflict: * Roll 1d6 + skill vs 1d6 + difficulty or defender skill Scenario: * Build your hoard * Defend from townsfolk

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David J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

CREATURES Need: 3d6 Character * Skills: Hands, Feet, Mouth, Guts; assign 3, 2, 2, 1 * Traits: claws, fangs, fins, horns, shell, slime, tail, tentacles, trunk, wings; pick 2 Conflict * Roll dice=skill * Highest: * 6: Yay * 4–5: Okay * 1–3: Uh-oh Scenario * escape maze * eat wizard * profit!

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

The new farming game I’m working on is essentially this

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 01/09/2024

I’ve noticed a jump in new people in my feed, so time to celebrate another round of welcoming BlueSky #gamedev and #indiedev migrants 👋 We’re Caps Collective and we make little, weird, and silly games, like these ones!

A screenshot from Fantasy Town Regional Manager, a satirical city builder about the adventuring life

The title card for ‘Have You Eaten Yet?’ A short narrative game about a dumpling restaurant

A screenshot from Smack Back, a nightmare table tennis game

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Chloe Appleby @chloeappleby.bsky.social · 17/10/2024

Games week more like please I’m so tired and my body is actually collapsing in on itself

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 05/10/2024

Hey! We’ll be in Melbourne next week for GCAP and #MIGW24, looking forward to seeing you all there!

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Angus Coolan @angus.coolan.games · 20/09/2024

I made art for this! It was a cool little project :D

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 13/09/2024

If anyone has been seeing all the layoffs and closures in games and games media and is looking for something to directly support, subscribe to Aftermath damnit! They’re so close to being able to sustainably do this full time, get them over that line

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Trezy @trezy.codes · 05/09/2024

Hey, I did a new thing! I set up a labeller for the games industry. I've gone through a few folx that I already had on lists, but if you want one of the labels applied to you just ping the labeller and I'll get you added when I can. 😁 @ozone.birb.house

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 01/09/2024

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 08/07/2024

It's essential for any fantasy town regional manager to stay informed on the goings on in your town, and the daily paper is the best way to check! #gamedev #indiegame #indiedev 🎮

The daily paper in Fantasy Town Regional Manager, "The Dimensional Press". There are three articles, a mechanical golem wreaks havoc, a princess out for revenge, and angry townsfolk who are after the local witch. Just another normal day.

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Ben Kelly 🔜 GCAP & MIGW @beeseekay.bsky.social · 07/08/2024

A tool I use often, it should be an immediate bookmark for any #UiUx designers or #IndieGame devs

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 09/07/2024

We’ve used Affinity Design for just about everything. From game UI to promo art to the full sized print for our PAX booth. #gamedev #indiegame

Game UI from Fantasy Town Regional Manager, with playing cards in the centre, and menus sitting on wooden backboards in the top left and bottom right corners.

The 2ish metre canvas backboard printed for our booth at the PAX 2022 indie showcase, with game art, logos, and award promotions

A promo image for the game FTRM in the style of a PSA reading:
Caution!
If you are reading this, it’s right behind you.
Don’t try to run.

There is an image of many aliens eyes in the centre, and a blood splatter from the bottom left.

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 08/07/2024

It's essential for any fantasy town regional manager to stay informed on the goings on in your town, and the daily paper is the best way to check! #gamedev #indiegame #indiedev 🎮

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Tim Dawson @ironicaccount.bsky.social · 03/07/2024

I attended the Queensland Games Festival a few weeks ago and didn’t really say anything about it so I figured I’d do a quick thread on some of the cool local game makers and their games

Photo of a crowd of people interacting with games at the Brisbane Powerhouse Museum

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Caps Collective @capscollective.com · 08/07/2024

Pro tip: In our latest update, we added this nifty extra upgrade that shows where you can place buildings to get their adjacency bonuses. #gamedev #indiedev 🎮

The upgrades menu of the game, showing the "Holy Guidance" upgrade.
It reads "Divine light will show you the way to increased efficiency. Highlight valid tiles for buildings with placement bonuses."

An image showing the plaza card selected, with gold highlights around the guild hall showing where the bonus is available.

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