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Ben Schneider

@droctothorpe.bsky.social
476 followers 659 following 223 posts

Professor of Practice in Narrative Design for Games at WPI (@WPI_IMGD). Worked on LOTRO, DDO, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Titan Quest, Empire Earth. (he/him)

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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Series pitch: at the time traveler's academy, the final exam is a week-long timeloop. Follow the cast of students as they make their way through. Hotshot gets everything right, doesn't notice the loop. Disorganized kid finds all clues, can't assemble. Love triangle flipflops each loop, etc. etc.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Happy Hobbit Day one and all. And remember: no admittance except on party business! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit_...
en.wikipedia.org
Hobbit Day - Wikipedia
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A student sits in class, wearing a tricorn hat. Me: "l hope the rest of you remembered to bring your three-corner hats today." Multiple students, from around the room: "Oh, I've got one at home, actually."
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I've got some thoughts on the game Peak and narrative design. Yes, Peak. And yes, narrative design. I did in fact put those two things together in a sentence. Also the debut post of my new site, A Tattered Coat. Check it out! tatteredcoat.bearblog.dev/peak-an-open...
tatteredcoat.bearblog.dev
Peak: An Open-Faced Story Sandwich
How Peak has something teach us about narrative design
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Reposted by Ben Schneider
William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 11/09/2026
To be
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Me: So busy rn just gotta head down and focus My brain: so remember that cult of the warehouse boardgame idea you head? Yeah, gonna obsess about that instead.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Look, I understand that Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling are technically two distinct people with some small, discernible differences. But the question I think worth pondering is: how much value do we get out of maintaining their separate identities? Isn't it a bit... inefficient?
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Just for the record: in Disco Elysium the technical *story* is "an alcoholic cop solves a murder" but the narrative experience is in fact a fantastical assemblage of situations with varying degrees of direct and thematic relation to that plot.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This feels like an important (and not quite so doom-and-gloom) read about the state of gamedev: www.gamesindustry.biz/the-things-t...
gamesindustry.biz
"The things that we based our assumptions on have changed fundamentally": Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani on the games industry's rapid transformation
The executive says that long development times, the rise of Asian developers, and the advent of new tech like AI make predicting the future hard, but indies are
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
And what if your dreams jumped off a bridge? Would you still follow them, eh?
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Location: GameLoop Swag: acquired Ready to unconference.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Monarch in the milkweed.
A monarch butterfly perched among milkweed plants.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I am reading this article rebutting and article I didn't read about a movie I haven't seen yet. This is totally fine. aftermath.site/the-odyssey-...
aftermath.site
I Am Here To Defend The Noble Action Movie From The Classicist Emily Wilson
A stupid movie isn't always a bad one.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Going through my old professional junk, and this article I wrote for Game Developer way back in 2007 is surprisingly topical.
Title: Odysseus in Hyrule
Text: There are two heroes in the Odyssey: Odysseus, the namesake, and Telemachus, his son. Now these are two gents who could step straight into a video game. After all, the Odyssey may well have been the original adventure story. Corresponding to the legendary, ingenious father and the good and loyal son, we can describe two general types of player character that are workable: the action hero and the everyman. These two tropes are rightly the staples of video game heroism.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Anyone else ever find themselves humming "the tie of Bob Iger" to the tune of Eye of the Tiger? Or... is that just me?
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Exit stage left, conveyed by bear.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Wow. Microsoft and games. Just holy crap.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Had an all-too-detailed dream about how I had created a text-based fumblecore narrative game last year. I definitely did not. Nor should I.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I'm declaring my 2026 #NeoTwinyJam entry complete. Turns out the combinatory space was deep and I *could* keep on going, but it works, and I'm proud of both the concept and the implementation here. droctothorpe.itch.io/the-stolen-p...
droctothorpe.itch.io
The Stolen Page by DrOctothorpe
A youth, crouching in an alley, from their threadbare coat pulls out a lustrous, half-torn vellum page…
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Reposted by Ben Schneider
sam @soulware.us · 25/06/2026
you can get these 2 platformers for FIVE DOLLARS ($5) during the Steam Summer Sale! Many precise and puzzling challenges lie inside for the persistent platformer player... #steamsummersale #platformer #gaming #gamerlife store.steampowered.com/app/4260640/...
store.steampowered.com
Save 50% on The Bomb Split on Steam
Two mysterious, challenging platformers where you launch yourself with an infinite supply of bombs.
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Frogmageddon @frogmageudon.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
It's Freaky Frog Friday! If you don't own Frogmageddon yet, where have you been? It's on sale for the summer RIGHT NOW! #steam #frog #frogarmy store.steampowered.com/app/3201190/...
store.steampowered.com
Save 20% on Frogmageddon on Steam
Become the horde in this survival game! Expand your army from a lone frog warrior to a 100+ army against the slithery snake onslaught!
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Reposted by Ben Schneider
Lantana Games @lantanagames.itch.io · 25/06/2026
Mondrian - Plastic Reality is 90% in the Steam Summer Sale! Also Abstraction in Beauty is 80% off, so both games are just $1. Just what the Steam Summer Sale ordered!
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Okay but just so we're clear, the official terms, in order of size ascending, are: - speed bump - speed lump - speed hump - speed harrumph
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Hey, don't yak my yam.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 30/05/2026
The USGS is showing no quake activity in the area. Still waiting for confirmation, but if this is a meteoroid explosion, it likely came apart high in the atmosphere over Massachusetts. Then again, at a minimum of 11 kilometres per second even a relatively small space rock can make a loud bang.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
First, bravo to Unknown Worlds (past and present), the world has validated you. But also holy heck do not run your publishing business by ChatGPT! www.ign.com/articles/sub...
ign.com
Subnautica 2 Has Been Such a Massive Hit That Krafton Is Paying Out Up to $250 Million to Unknown Worlds' Former Shareholders
Subnautica 2 has sold so well that publisher Krafton has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million earnout to the developers — a bonus that was at the heart of its high-profile legal dispute with the fi...
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
May Barney Frank's memory be a blessing and an inspiration.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Somewhere there's someone named Carl Magnusen who's just terrible at chess.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Me: Time to return to my gamedev project. I wonder where I left it? <opens door> <mass of writhing bugs within> Me: Ah, yes. <rolls up sleeves, marches in>
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Oh wow, happy 100th to David Attenborough www.npr.org/2026/05/08/n...
npr.org
David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday
He was born before the Great Depression, came of age in WWII, and is still making wildlife documentaries. Brits call David Attenborough a national hero, as he celebrates his 100th birthday.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I feel SO called out right now.
Screenshot from the game Titanium Court. Dialogue reads: 
"So okay, first you take a metaphor, and then you stretch it really thin, right?"
"...Right."
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Jake Wright @bcnjake.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
There are two higher ed Bluskies right now:
The two guys on a bus meme where the sad guy is thinking “Canvas is down” and the happy guy is thinking “my gradebook is a spreadsheet on a computer.”
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Every once in a while I take a moment to stop an remember that one time at Boston #Gameloop when we spent a full hour debating what was and wasn't a metroidvania... and walked away without a shared, conclusive definition. Truly, an hour well spent.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Literally called out.
Game over screen reading: You are Slain! "The Necrobinder had simply given up."
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Need to level up my side-eye so the next time I walk in front of that lady slow-rolling her right turn into the TJs parking lot with her phone up in her hand and clearly half her attention on it, I can send her straight into a profound spiral of questioning life choices.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
As funny as I'm sure the Onion's version of Info Wars is gonna be, part of me thinks what they really should do with it is subtly and gradually transform its old content into a well-researched conspiracy theory debunking site.
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Gillian Smith @codingcrafter.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
It's IMGD Presentation Day! We have a full-day student conference of creative and technical research. Graduate students present in the morning, undergraduates in the afternoon. If you're interested you can tune online, and I'll be sharing project work here too. echo360.org/section/b7d6...
echo360.org
Email
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Congratulations to everyone who re-enacted Pheidippides' mission to request military aid from Sparta today by running through Boston. You have done credit to the memory of the first Greco-Persian war!
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Having read Around The World in 80 Days and now finally played 80 Days to its completion, I can confidently state that the game is the definitive superior edition of the text. Not least of all due to its featuring steampunk conveyances inexplicably omitted from the original.
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Charles Johnson @charles.littlegreenfootballs.com · 11/04/2026
not now, orcas
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Welcome back to earth, friends. (Sorry, we haven’t cleaned things up much since you left.)
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
If we stand by while the president commits clearly-threatened war crimes, we will all be to some degree culpable as a nation.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I've been fancy once or twice, I guess, but getting namedropped by a college rankings list? That's a first.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Did I spend way more of my morning than I should have inventing four different story concepts (as plot outlines) for a class activity tomorrow, because I could? Uh.... maybe?
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Dammit. Reading The Martian made me start playing the new version of Surviving Mars. Goodbye, evenings.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Ouch. That's about a quarter of Epic.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Item: Day Old Bagel It knows nothing. It's only a day old. Can it even focus its eyes and see the looks on our faces?
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
There were a lot of rainbows winging back tires on the long, rain-slick road to Worcester this morning.... And if that's not the opening sentence to some brooding, psychotropic neo-noir novel, I don't know what is.
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Ben Schneider @droctothorpe.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
I cannot get over how insane this is.
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 02/02/2026
This is a post about animal excrement and the English language. bull$#!% = nonsense/lies chicken$#!% = petty or cowardly horse$#!% = nonsense/lies dog$#!%= low quality ape$#!% = wild bat$#!%= crazy Ordered above from oldest to newest: bull$#!% (1914), bat$#!% (1971).
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