iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Freeplay @free-play.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Last chance to get your very cool Parallels Merch for 2026 ･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Caps, totes and stickers will be available for purchase on the night, but T-shirts will have very limited sizing availability - so please be sure to preorder a shirt if you don’t want to miss out on your size! Link in replies 🔗 xx

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Cassandra (Cass) Barkman @cassiebara29.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Earlier this year Freeplay announced that 2026 might be their last year of operation. I've spent the last few weeks talking to people in and around Freeplay about this point in its history regarding how its changed, its relationship to funding and what it might look like in the future.

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Game dev mates!! My pals at USyd have been cooking up something special: @ludolio.com, a platform that brings games into classrooms while making sure devs get paid 🙏 the catalogue currently slays but if you’re like, it could slay more, you should register your game 👀 www.ludolio.com/for-developers

ludolio.com

For Developers – Ludolio

Discover how Ludolio empowers game developers to reach new audiences and grow through library partnerships.

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Freeplay @free-play.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A friendly reminder to, PREORDER very cool new Parallels T-shirts ･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Caps, totes and stickers will be available for purchase on the night, but T-shirts will have very limited sizing availability - so please be sure to preorder if you don’t want to miss out on your size! Love freeplay. Xx

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Freeplay @free-play.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

✦ PARALLELS 2026 — THE CALL-OUT IS HERE ✦ Making a game, and wanna yap about it at Parallels 2026? Now is the time to let us know! Speaker submissions close on the 5th of June. That’s THREE WEEKS. Don't overthink it. Just apply here: forms.gle/j8NkrdqMnwoH...

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Freeplay rules!!!!!! 🥹❤️‍🔥

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Chris “Mutton” Button @bibbybhoy.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Roblox is adding two new account types in an effort to improve child protection, as the platform faces regulatory pressure and perceptions of enabling predatory behaviour. But experts are worried that Roblox's measures just heap more pressure on parents. www.gadgetguy.com.au/roblox-adds-...

gadgetguy.com.au

Roblox adds Kids accounts, experts fear for pressure on parents

Roblox is adding a Kids account type to try and protect children online, but experts worry that parents will be left to pick up the slack.

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Given the news yesterday, I've seen a lot of speculation about the logistics of running events, and I wanted to give some perspective on the challenges of it in the current moment. madmacsfuryroad.bearblog.dev/the-1000-pro...

madmacsfuryroad.bearblog.dev

The $1,000 Problem

When you run an event, one of the major determining factors of cost is scale. Let's say you want to run something that only needs (1) a physical space an...

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Delphinium 💙 @cinnadev.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Delphinium's Kickstarter will go live on October 27th, 9:00AM ACDT 🩵💫

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Studio Folly — DOGPILE!!! @folly.studio · 01/10/2025

Announcing... DOGPILE!!! ✨🦴 Dogpile is a roguelike deckbuilder about merging DOGS. Play dogs, get money, customize your dogs with special traits, refine your deck, PLAY MORE DOGS! Free demo is live on Steam, WISHLIST NOW!!! store.steampowered.com/app/3839300/...

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 30/09/2025

Great to collab with colleagues at Sydney. Global video game/loot box policy evaluation is an international collaborative effort. Would be great to work with German 🇩🇪, Spanish 🇪🇸, and Brazilian 🇧🇷 colleagues to check (forthcoming) national rules. Please do get in touch with us if interested! 👋🏻

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Co-authored with superstar team @marcuscarter.com @benegliston.bsky.social @tianyizhangshao.bsky.social @leonxiao.com - you can find the preprints here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

New article in @theconversation.com today reflecting on Australia’s 2024 loot box regulations and how, 1 year later, there remains widespread non-compliance - and generally really confusing age ratings for mobile games on the App Stores! theconversation.com/loot-boxes-a...

theconversation.com

Loot boxes are still rife in kids’ mobile games, despite ban on ‘gambling-like’ features

Games with ‘loot boxes’ should be classified for over-15s – but a new study shows many of the most popular mobile games completely ignore the rules.

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☁️ Little Pink Clouds ☁️ @lil-pink-clouds.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Letters to Arralla is OUT NOW on Steam with a limited time 20% launch discount!! 🏝️💌 After 5 long years of development and lots of fruit & veggies eaten to power our developers, this cheeky game is finally ready to be delivered directly into your hands!! ☺️ Play now on Steam! youtu.be/7GbGTEpsoIM

youtu.be

Letters to Arralla OUT NOW!

YouTube video by Little Pink Clouds

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Frosty Games 🍦 @frostygamesfest.com · 15/09/2025

Frosty is back to celebrate the coolest upcoming and recently released games made in Australia & Aotearoa, this December 🍦🥳 We’ll be featuring exclusive reveals, announcements, and updates. Developers can submit their games now until Sep 30! ⤵️ forms.gle/tt8y9N1dPweS...

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Amy Remeikis @amyremeikis.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Given this is making some waves - here is the piece and you can judge for yourself. (I'm fine, there are no issues - right wing ecosystem just doing what right wing ecosystem does). Take care of you - it's rough out there! Ax amyremeikis.substack.com/p/charlie-ki...

amyremeikis.substack.com

Charlie Kirk died in the America he wanted

I mourn the loss of human life. I feel compassion, empathy and grief at an inexcusable killing. But I find nothing to lionise in his legacy.

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

✨I’m recruiting for a research project on game monetisation!✨ I’m keen to chat to game devs about how monetisation shapes the dev process. Interviews will be 60mins via Zoom. To learn more, head to bit.ly/40mOB3f if you'd like to participate, shoot me a DM or email taylor.hardwick@sydney.edu.au 😊

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

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Leon Xiao @leonxiao.com · 11/08/2025

We’ll be hosting GachaCon 2026, a hybrid academic conference on gacha games with Genshin Impact as the theme, on 12–13 February 2026 at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. 🇭🇰🇨🇳 Call for Papers: tinyurl.com/gachaconcfp

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

You can take a girl out of Dubbo but you can’t stop Dubbo from following the girl forever and ever and ever (team Freeplay @ Dubbo skate park tho)

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Waypoint @waypoint-events.com · 04/08/2025

The return of Waypoint Constellations✨ 🎫 events.humanitix.com/waypoint-con... A close collaboration with @serenade.games to celebrate Sydney's games and creators. 🗓️On Oct 14th just before SXSW's games festival begins Follow and sign up for more info as we tease out the secrets of this event.

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

(Crowd chants) dubbo 👏 dubbo 👏 dubbo 👏

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Freeplay @free-play.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

The Freeplay Angles 2025 schedule is now online, and tickets are on sale! Angles runs from 31st July - 2nd August at Science Gallery Melbourne. www.freeplay.net.au

Freeplay Angles, at Science Gallery (Grattan St, Carlton) on Thurs 31/07, Fri 01/08, and Sat 02/08. The image shows a tarot spread of Lovers, Death, and Fortune in an orange and blue colour scheme. The image is by Percy Harris.

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Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

If you liked or hated my takes on ‘deprofessionalisation’, I went into a lot more detail in this great chat with @pushtotalk.gg for his newsletter. Connected what’s going on now to what I observed in the Australian industry in the 2010s www.pushtotalk.gg/p/gamings-gr...

pushtotalk.gg

Gaming’s Great Downsizing and the Garage-Band Game Economy

Brendan Keogh explains the post-2008 collapse of the Australian games industry and how it might prefigure changes coming for the rest of the world

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Then, we make 4 recs for designing games in kids’ best interests: 1. No monetised random chance features! 2. Easy access to refunds for child accounts 3. Better protection for kids’ accounts & items, and 4. Reversible & transparent virtual currencies ✨Games are good, but they could be better✨

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Kids used words like “scams”, “lying” & “false” to describe harmful spending features & outcomes in games. So, we argue that kids are harmed when game monetisation features are deceptive & misleading. Spending in games isn’t bad - but it is when it deceives children.

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Super excited to present our research on how children perceive & experience harm resulting from game monetisation at #CHI2025 today! Co-authored with @marcuscarter.com @saharkin.bsky.social @tianyizhangshao.bsky.social & @benegliston.bsky.social - check it out here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

It was fun! It’s great to see the research coming together 😊

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

New article in @theconversation.com today by myself and @marcuscarter.com on how kids talk about when spending money in Roblox is harmful to them. TLDR; virtual currencies and random reward features should be better regulated! theconversation.com/literally-ju...

theconversation.com

‘Literally just child gambling’: what kids say about Roblox, lootboxes and money in online games

Kids who play Roblox games describe ‘scary’ virtual currencies and ‘cash grab’ random rewards.

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

theconversation.com

‘Literally just child gambling’: what kids say about Roblox, lootboxes and money in online games

Kids who play Roblox games describe ‘scary’ virtual currencies and ‘cash grab’ random rewards.

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Reposted by Taylor Hardwick

Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Incredibly excited to announce this special issue of Media Industries Journal that I co-edited with Chris Young and @dayofthemutants.bsky.social on the topic of LOCAL DIGITAL GAME PRODUCTION. journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/issue/31...

List of article titles and authors on the journal website:

Global Localities of Game Production
Chris J. Young, Emilie Reed and Brendan Keogh

Game Design for a Fiverr: Precarity, Regionality, and Platform-Mediation in the Gig Economy
Scott DeJong and Michael Iantorno

Globalization and Heterogeneity: Locating the Malaysian Indie Game Production Culture
K.T. Wong

Situating Platform-Based Precarity: Platformization and the (Dis)embedding of the Dutch Game Industry (1980-2022)
Anne Heslinga

Independent Game Production in Southern China
Hugh Davies

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Purplepingers ☭ @purplepingers.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Truly incredible stuff happening I think it’s called class consciousness

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I mean I didn’t realise it was a competition until Dan made it one

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Taylor Hardwick @darthtayrah.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Did you get 7/7. If I find out you got 7/7

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