iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 7h

Someone recommended Vurt. How have I not read this?!

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 15h

The team within the team within the team. On a need to know basis. The need to know person got fired 2 years ago.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 17h

Damage I've taken on the current project that makes me a worse person. * I hate perforce. What a POS * I hate slow loading times. A waste of life * I hate extended handoffs. What should be days takes months. I don't want to live in that world.

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Tricia Lockwood @tricialockwood.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I am going to request the most michael moorcockian yessongs-ass gossamer axe-coded cover for this new book and yes the breasts will be embossed

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sometimes the hardest part is giving yourself permission.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

TBH, there are nicer ways to be called Sherlock

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Justin Oaksford @justinoaksford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You can’t spell happiness without pines

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This year's Polaris notebook. Dot grid on the inside.

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huck mason @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

rip annie dillard

One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"I bet you can buy naked sculptures of clowns in that place." "Oh yeah. But that's probably anywhere."

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Fixing culture is very much not like fixing a computer. Just reboot, you say? Turn it off, turn it on. "Turning it on again" can take generations. If you are lucky. Or it might simply never come back. "My bad" says the tech bro used to iterating quickly.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ah, back home in North America, land of insultingly primitive bathroom technology.

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droqen and 24 others @droqen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

pretty low bar, 'make art that doesn't disgust me', but i think being confronted by the visceral notion of having been complicit in something that i briefly held such a strong emotion towards was very strong!!! if i can hold onto this realization for a moment, it really felt like actions mattered

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In other news, I recently discovered Finnish baseball, which is playing on a z-shaped set of bases. And the pitcher stands next to the batter and tosses the ball straight up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pes%C3%...

en.wikipedia.org

Pesäpallo - Wikipedia

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Milk comes from milk animal. Butter comes from butter animal. Cheese comes from cheese animal. Gelato comes from gelato animal. It is just common sense.

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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 20/09/2026

In 99% of cases you're better off with A Bad Decision than with everybody idling waiting for a decision, or with a decision that continues being litigated six ways by four people, or with a decision that you feel is temporary. You're going to put paint to the canvas or not, you can't "maybe kinda".

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Finland. Staring at an apple tree, as the day wanes.

Looking out a window at an apple tree. The sky is gray.

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Kati, A Certified Yapper @bakenshake.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

New post about how Value Chains (from @danctheduck.bsky.social inform where to put JUICE in your game but specifically for ttrpgs: theplayreports.com/posts/juice-... #ttrpgs #blog #rpg #design

theplayreports.com

The Play Reports

Juice and Value Chains in RPGs

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Society: You must Do Something, about the Horrific Outcome. Company: We hired People to Do Something! They have titles! Do Something People: Hey, hey! Here's some fixes. Anyone? Anyone? Rest of Company: Wrrrrrr. Cannot hear you over my deep structural incentives.

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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026

My 50c: - release your games multi-platform (desktop, mobile, console). case in point: Steam makes up for "only" ~20% of Hidden Folks' multi-million dollar revenue. - don't compete. lots of ways you don't have to compete, like finding a niche, having fans, rely less on store promo, etc.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Getting over a cold, dealing with emotional trauma and jumping on a flight to Finland(?) to give a talk. Ever be completely unprepared for life but keep moving forward? One foot. Next foot.

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Steam & Epic Games | Daily @steamandepic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Lead game designer Starfield's Kurt Kuhlmann honestly explained how the game's scale nearly broke Bethesda 😬 It was the studio's first multi-studio production, the approval chain stretched so long that even lighting tweaks took 2... #SteamAndEpic #Kuhlmann #Starfields #Bethesdas #Bethesda #Fallout

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Iteration cycle time = Game convergence speed

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

At one point I realized I was smart, but not quantum mechanics smart. So I gave up on being smart and started pursuing other options.

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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

this paper is coming up once again today among designers so am recirculating it here

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Do you have a full game in you? Not just a clever feature. Or a scene. Or a twist on an existing game. But the full game. Start to finish. Big picture down to the tiny details. All of it.

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Geir Ove Alnes @geirovealnes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Recently came across a Reddit-thread discussing the real-life "hiker's nod" phenomenon, which inspired me to do some exploration on how to translate this to game design (for virtual worlds/mmos in particular) #gamedesign

blog.xoduz.org

On Stranger Trails, or: How to apply the Hiker’s Nod to Game Design

The Hiker’s Nod Is there a game design principle that matches up to the phenomenon of instinctively nodding/saying a quick hello in passing to otherwise complete strangers on (non-busy) hikin…

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

[Narrator] The newest work of those who invent new aesthetics will always be hated by those sad goslings imprinted upon the experiences of a distant childhood [Bjork appears on stage singing "Human Behavior" dressed as an orgasmic Luigi]

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

there are only two video game art styles: steam or phone

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adamatomic @adamatomic.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

constraints CAN breed creativity, sort of, but i hate this way of phrasing it, because constraints can also hobble you - dogma can make you miserable and incapable of creating things what we really mean is that SOME constraints function as PROMPTS, specifically in the pre-hell-world sense

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The trick to making a good presentation is to edit each slide 10 times. Also deleting and nudging.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

At what point are you allowed to relabel your hyper-vigilance as competence? Asking for a friend.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

You are Willy Wonka, encased in intricate tubing suffusing your orifices with recombinant sugars. Whispering to infinite recursive chittering oompa loompas.

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Alpha Beta Gamer @alphabetagamer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

So what is an "anti-shooter?" Laser Guy is an indie twin-stick pixel art anti-shooter where try to avoid accidentally lasering your coworkers into oblivion! Playtest the game now on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3656610/... by indie dev @pointnsheep.bsky.social #gaming

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I remember a girl who believed that pickles came from the pickle plant and I should stop lying that most use cucumbers. I think about this a lot.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Player feedback after launch: Most players play your game to collect potatoes. It's all they ever really wanted. Everything else was just you and your misplaced desire to be a movie director.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A conversation at SLICE that stuck with me (and I'm wildly paraphrasing): A veteran designer is semi-retired. He just can't see going back to a world where he spends the vast majority of his life trying to convince people. Most of your brain dedicated to arguing, not making things.

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Tomas Sala @falconeerdev.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Folks I really need a lot more user reviews. If you got the game or wanna help, just leave a steam review. #indiedev

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Amazing quote: “...but it’s not fair to call it confidence. I’m not the most confident person. It’s some sort of defiance. It’s an act of rebellion to try to do something hopeful in times like this.” - Harvey Smith

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Open minded, artsy, creative weirdos always win when it comes to building cultural work. The tools may change (my god, the tools change constantly) Things get 'easier'. That's what tool makers do. But the good stuff? Look to creative weirdos. They can imagine something beautiful. Still rare.

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s1gnal @s1gnal.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Been going through some big shifts in my personal life recently. Drawing studies have been therapeutic. @danctheduck.bsky.social Tyrian pixel art always makes for excellent study reference. 🔥 (Also, spilled some ink on this one, oops) #drawing #study #ink #traditionalart #scifiart #Tyrian

Sci-fi machine study done using ink, grease pencil, white acrylic graphite pencil on toned paper.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I hear a lot of concerns about new technologies, but my worries are more about old philosophies.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

If you release a game with combat, you will be arbitrarily judged against a favorite implementation of a style of combat that you did not make. These comparisons will pull from hazy nostalgic games released decades ago. So it is written in the Gamer Laws.

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

And games where you chop off heads are headslop

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Daniel Cook @danctheduck.bsky.social · 24/08/2026