iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

OTHERSIDE @othersidespec.bsky.social · 3h

ISSUE 3 IS HERE! And completely free to read! We're SO excited for you to read this issue 🧡 It's bleak and beautiful and heartbreaking... and, as always, spectacularly queer. Give it a read, tell a friend, help us spread the word! Read it here: othersidespec.com/issues/issue-3/

White text on a red and black background, with the magazine cover on the left. The magazine cover has eroded statues in the background with a figure standing in the foreground. Text says: OTHERSIDE ISSUE 3. Nine stories, four poems, one essay, original art by queer creators available now!

03024

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

tarinoi 🔜 AdventureX @tarinoi.bsky.social · 7h

As we prepare for our closed beta, here's a peek at our latest Release Notes - major changes, bug fixes and everything in between. We're implementing your suggestions, tightening up the interactions and user journeys and adding extra quality-of-life improvements. #narrativedesign #gamedev

0105

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 9h

We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs

Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.

311371903

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Dan Jackson @danj2k.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"I will always admire an imsim that commits not just to pushing the player over the edge, but getting a willing player to run screaming toward the precipice all on their own. Re:Build's first act is a masterclass in doing exactly that"

eurogamer.net

Roman Sands Re:Build review - a fiendish immersive sim drenched in a vaporwave glitchcore palette

After first hearing about Roman Sands Re:Build, and following along with bits of its development over the last few year…

095

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

jess @jessfrom.online · 24/09/2026

“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.”
― William Gibson, Count Zero

71074362

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 22/09/2026

tried to recover my old playstation account and it seems like not only did i enter a fake birthday, but i also chose the security question 'who is your biggest hero'. why have i done this to myself

190

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 21/09/2026

apart from the known standard model of novels, novellas, and novellettes, we are yet to find evidence of the hypothesized novelino, noveletto, noveluccio, noveluzzo, or noveluolo. a great deal of work remains to be done

1139197

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Tony @mryes.bsky.social · 26/10/2024

"3D Workers Island", a short horror story about a screensaver: yes-thread.com/3dwiscr Also on Itch: mryes.itch.io/3dwiscr

231374558

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Jeremy Peel @jeremypeel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Interviewed an imsim legend: “For Xbox to buy Arkane Austin and quickly turn around in a few short years and dissolve the studio was just a pretty dire warning.” www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/th...

pcgamer.com

Thief designer Randy Smith Evergreen refused to work for Xbox because it would be like 'walking past some stakes with human skulls on them' and pretending 'it's probably fine in this direction'

The immersive sim will find a way outside of AAA.

311035

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

inkle @inkle.co · 16/09/2026

New Kaleidoscope! Can you believe we're up to thirty episodes already? @jigu.com.br joins us to talk about drawing on broader cultural sources while working in a worldwide market. (Also; get 10% of the book this week with the code BACKLIST10.)

23010

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 16/09/2026

have just read the wikipedia page for this fanfic and the first part of the plot is that a female character is magically made beautiful which 'allows' her to get married to an oxford professor. so that tells you everything you need to know

020

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Yarn Spinner 🔜 #MIGW26 @yarnspinner.dev · 16/09/2026

It's 1995, and you're one of the last employees at a video game hint line. And the calls have started getting weird. Hint Line '95, the sequel to the smash-hit art installation we made on a whim, just got funded by @screentasmania.bsky.social! www.screen.tas.gov.au/funding/appr...

55417

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 15/09/2026

anyone else downloaded the patch with new hair options?

A mirror selfie of the OP, Ellis. They are pale, and have a fresh hair cut and dye - a curlyish mullet with dark brown natural hair on the top layer and an under layer of bright red. They have green eyes, dark thick eyebrows, a silver septum piercing, and squarish glasses, with a mild expression. They are holding their phone in one hand where the sleeve is rolled up to show a tattoo, and have the other hand on top of their head. Their shirt is black with a bright illustrative design of a meteor hitting the earth on it.

Another mirror selfie of the OP, Ellis, this time showing a side view of the hair cut where you can see the shaved sides better. They are smiling.

Another mirror selfie of the OP, Ellis, holding up a peace sign and smiling.

480

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 10/09/2026

this is for the reactive narrative design freaks. who cares if only 2 players ever see that line of dialogue - they'll remember it forever!!!

064

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

The Breakdown AB @thebreakdownab.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

BREAKING! "Saddle Lake Cree Nation is asserting its Treaty rights and jurisdiction to provide safe refuge for those seeking and providing gender-affirming care. Any Albertan will be able to access gender-affirming care on Saddle Lake Cree Nation reserved lands and territories"

5456291779

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

OTHERSIDE @othersidespec.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Less than a week until Issue 3! While you're waiting, why not read a past issue? If you want to support us, you can pick up a copy from... Weightless: tinyurl.com/bj2cv93j Kobo: tinyurl.com/2fm52kbm Amazon: tinyurl.com/5t3fn4mk Patreon: tinyurl.com/ycyu6es3 and all your favorite ebook retailers!

tinyurl.com

OTHERSIDE | Shop | Patreon

Shop exclusive products from OTHERSIDE on Patreon. Join for free or become a member for just $2/month. OTHERSIDE (www.othersidespec.com) is a quarterly…

0139

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 10/09/2026

saw a teenager going to school via large unicycle this morning

010

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

daryl "crimetime after primetime" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

2845371905

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

IWGB Game Workers Union @gameworkers.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Today marks the beginning of our trial against Rockstar to hold them accountable for firing workers who were trying to unionise. In order for us to see this through to the end, we need your support. Please donate to and share our fundraiser for the Rockstar 31: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/wWq5Omj...

crowdfunder.co.uk

Defend union rights: Support the Rockstar 31

Justice for 31 Rockstar employees who formed a union and were fired en masse

0355268

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Future Dr. V @vgtxresearch.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Recruiting adults 18+ for Playing with Emotion, my online thesis study on how video game mechanics relate to mood and player experience. playingwithemotion.com

12610

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Chride Lassheikki ✨ @classheikki.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Our self-indulgently adorable dress-up visual novel Goldie's Boutique is out now! 💖 And it's completely free! 💸 👚 100+ clothing options! 🐾 Cute animal customers! 🎨 Creative mode to play around in! #indiegame #visualnovel #vn #dressup #browsergame youtu.be/TRtr1pXAQg4?...

youtu.be

Goldie's Boutique – Vintage Dress-up Visual Novel With A Heart of Gold!

YouTube video by classheikki

174

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Kitfox Games 🦊 @kitfoxgames.com · 08/09/2026

Four heroes risk their body and mind as they descend into the underworlds. But will this be their last trip? Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists is OUT NOW! A new tactical narrative storybook from @radiofreelunch.bsky.social 😈 Buy on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...

4232101

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Sammi Narramore @narramoreart.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Can you imagine being approved for a surgery, waiting years for the appointment, and when they day comes you finally meet the surgeon - it's cancelled by a subcommittee which has decided too many people in your country want the surgery.

020668

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

𝕲𝖆𝖝 @gaxix.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

𝕮𝖔𝖕𝖕𝖊𝖗 𝕲𝖔𝖑𝖊𝖒

4725157

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 08/09/2026

did manage to pick up daggerbound last week and devoured it - so good, maybe my second favourite white rat book. and today i get to go pick up fortune's wake 😌

000

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Anna Hollinrake 🌤️ @annahollinrake.com · 03/09/2026

Looking for someone who can do rigging and animation for a some ad-hoc work on Crescent County! If you are that person, or know of that person, please reply or DM me 🙏

26152165

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 29/08/2026

this LBK season is so short - only five entries!!!! - so it's very achievable to see every single one!! and they're all wonderful

000

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 29/08/2026

bitsy is such a staple of indie game dev and has been a huge part of my own game dev journey - i can't believe it's 10!!!! will absolutely be making something for this jam, and if you love bitsy as much as i do, would definitely recommend making something for it yourself

1146

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Sami @samitron.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Rest in peace to a genuine icon and hero

1753241982

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Rogue Fortune | WISHLIST NOW 🗡️ @roguefortunegame.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

💀 Announcing ROGUE FORTUNE ⚱️ A single-player roguelite with unique geometric puzzle-powered progression. 🗡️Face relentless enemies 🔮Arrange inventories into devastating combinations ⚙️Experiment, adapt, risk it all WISHLIST NOW Steam: ow.ly/jhNx50ZG0GV XBOX: ow.ly/lpUJ50ZG0GW

3168

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Starbucks Workers United @sbworkersunited.org · 25/08/2026

🚨BREAKING: Our union of over 12,000 baristas are officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Read this statement penned by Starbucks workers on why a boycott from ALL customers, allies, and organizations is necessary to fight back against corporate greed:

9465734510

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 26/08/2026

preordered both of these like a month ago and neither has arrived to my local indie yet 😭👍

010

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

✨Sailor Scout Austin✨🔜PAXU @sailorsctaustin.blacksky.app · 26/08/2026

Rest in peace Tim Curry, thanks for full sending it in every role you ever had and making sure people knew when they act alongside a muppet they in fact have to match energy

static.klipy.com

Muppets Muppet Treasure Island

ALT: Muppets Muppet Treasure Island

28217

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Weyland - ttv/weyland_here @weyland.live · 26/08/2026

FYI the HUGE number of AI slop at GamesCom's opening night live is not a sign that the industry has normalized AI. It's a ploy to make you believe that. These games are all by the same 3 or 4 publishers. This is a concerted effort to make consumers accept AI.

1444322001

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 26/08/2026

if YOU 🫵 are experiencing pain or numbness in your first two fingers, especially at night or when gripping something, this is your sign to wear wrist braces when you sleep!!! carpal tunnel will only get worse if you ignore it - it will make you much happier if you catch and treat it early

100

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 19/08/2026

daggerbound and fortune's wake next week... so spoiled

120

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

Michael @michaelklamerus.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

It is my birthday so I am issuing a blog challenge to write about an obscure game on your blog. People are legally allowed to issue blog challenges on their birthday. virtualmoose.org/2026/08/19/m...

virtualmoose.org

My Birthday Blog Challenge: Write About An Obscure Game | The Virtual Moose

2810648

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

LITHOBREAKERS @lithobreakers.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

CHOO CHOO! all aboard our 5th Official Astronaut Press Conference! over the next few days, we’ll CHOMP right into these new games! 🚂✨ itch.io/c/7944307/lithobreakers-jam-05-onomatopoeia banner by @big-flat-cabbage.bsky.social 🎨

An illustrated banner image. The text reads ONOMATOPOEIA! across the length of it in red, distorted text. The background is black with blue lines circling outwards. In the bottom right corner, it says LBK 05 with a yellow starburst behind it.

1812

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 19/08/2026

just got to stand in the rain for a bit before bed 🥹🥹🥹🥹

020

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 18/08/2026

nonbinary spiderman called jupiter parker

041

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

ianarchie.bsky.social @ianarchie.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Winter Afternoon Light, The Sycamore St Margarets: watercolour and pencil

015644

Reposted by ellis dex 🌟

mcoorlim is developing Torchlike @mcoorlim.com · 28/05/2026

Big hello to new followers! I'm Michael, Narrative Designer and Game Writer. I've been laid off for quite some time so job leads are appreciated; my runway is crumbling fast. I have a youTube channel focused on video game history and retrogame narrative analysis, check it out:

youtube.com

Michael Coorlim

Narrative analysis, video game history, devlogs. I play old games so you don't have to. I also have a gamedev channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcKnL11qnxBVjifqoIWtk5w

194

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 16/08/2026

have i ever managed to write more than 10,000 words of a novel? no. am i looking up writing retreats anyway? yes because these will definitely for sure 1000% solve whatever problem is stopping me from doing the novel in the first place

170

ellis dex 🌟 @ellisdex.itch.io · 14/08/2026

i am now checking the hobonichi website for new 2027 drops every day and i booked off the 2nd from work so i can visit the pop up shop in london. my life has changed 🙂‍↕️

130