iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

“This album sounds like it was recorded in Snuffleupagus’ ass” Is my new all-time favorite music critique

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If they restore the Buffy board game from the same era, I will lose it.

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The Lord of the Rings™: The King’s Gambit

Boosting not because they need the help, but because Queen's Gambit was a genuinely great game and this looks AWESOME Great pick for Restoration. Love it

kickstarter.com

The final, fateful battle in the war for Middle-earth plays out across four epic fields of battle.

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Was checking out the cool looking Kings Gambit Kickstarter (queens gambit as LOTR?! Please and thank you!) And didn’t even notice Aragorn was black until the racists showed up. You can always count on the racists to be annoying and boring.

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For the last few years I've been most excited by designs of mine that start from the title, or a toy hook. I'll never make anything as perfect as Hungry Hungry Hippo, but I'm getting better at gamer-coded classic style hooky games. Question is: who would publish them?

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Marketing in a nutshell is the discipline of aligning product with consumer, to scale An S-tier strategic marketer has honed their clarity of vision to the point where honestly the only thing standing between them and game design is some learnable skills You're already starting on third base IMO

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Gamers, I love ya but The correct response to “I hate (genre of game)” is almost never “oh you should try (my favourite game archetypal of the genre)” 😂

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think of marketing and game design as a Venn diagram that largely overlaps. Where the delta is mostly autism 😂

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Studying marketing, as a discipline, with genuine curiosity, will make you a better game designer. Guaranteed. Or your money back.

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I was today years old hearing “bacronym” for the first time Never looked it up. I get it, and i love it

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I know that someone has never worked in TCGs when they say dumbass shit like "the meta today is simple to fix"

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

When publishers and designers say their game has been play tested hundreds of times, they're not wrong but The published version you're playing has likely not been tested more than a handful of times, and zero times is a distinct possibility. It's not a bug, just a feature of complex iteration

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I feel like people are almost always correct about what they need But only sometimes correct about what they want

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Forgot to be more Bluesky specific : Issues with tech oligarchy are obvious and existential. I’m challenging even the charitable interpretation of platform as providing a high value service to their users (They are not, IMO. For reasons stated in the OP)

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Midafternoon musings: Media platform algorithms are getting better at serving you exactly the content you want to see. This is a bad thing. Our core memories are often formed by inputs that surprised us or subverted our expectations. The most meaningful discovery is wild and stochastic

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I come up with weird radical new ideas for games all the time Like silly “what even is a game?!” sophomoric thought experiments. All the time It’s fun, but not super productive What thrills me more is innovating in well trodden spaces I think I prefer “fresh” to “wildly innovative”

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Oops. I forgot I also wrote about this game This one I’m pursuing with some excitement. Looking forward to surprising the publisher I’ve got in mind :)

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Oh yeah, that game I had mostly done last week? Dropped it. It’s cute and fun, but honestly I don’t think the world needs another “entry level worker placement” game from me Onward

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If you generally have your shit together You’ll get nearly zero empathy the few times when your shit falls apart Often acute hostility

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

If I never had another new game idea I’d still have enough to release a new game per year for the rest of my life (Weird shit to think about as you get older)

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Drumming makes both my soul and my autism happy.

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Came up with a game concept that’s sadly kinda trendy right now But also it’s a game I think only I could (or would) make Will make a quick prototype and see I’ll let y’all know if it survives next week

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Hit me with a good dad joke I’ve never heard before (I’ve heard a ton of dad jokes)

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Good morning team HR has brought to our attention that we’ve been in crunch mode the last seventeen months We recognize team health is also important, and are pleased to announce a paid week off to all non-critical* devs next quarter (*Flagship releases are critical) Crush it!

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Leadership would prefer that we don't bring politics, particularly dangerous Marxist politics, into the workplace Please take this free copy of Wealth of Nations from the HR library for mandatory reading Best, Tim

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Good morning team Our monetisation consultant from Ten Cent provided a detailed report about every angle in which the game is under-monetised. Essentially stealing from our bottom line Leadership is in alignment and we expect every point addressed by next standup Theft is serious

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I went in favourably cos the three singles rocked my world The rest of the record is fantastic. Super proggy but not wank, heavy but creative I do miss Brent’s vocals but that’s the only minor miss.

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Holy shit the new Mastodon might be my favourite since Crack the Skye What a delightful treat!

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I still come up with new game ideas on a regular basis Like, on last week's very long flight, I came up with basic rules for 3 different family games What's changed is that I rarely get obsessed enough to finish most of these Takes a lot more than "just a fun game" to take me there lately

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Btw if you’re an asshole, eventually nobody will want to publish your games no matter how “good” you are As it should be, IMO

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Successful creatives practice radical honesty. Particularly with themselves. “How do I know if I’m being creatively honest?” Your body knows. Do the work to build, or rebuild trust in yourself.

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“Publishers know what players want better than—“ Nope. We’re all just guessing and pretending to know better Make art you love. Work hard to get better at making art you love. The rest is admin

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“But Eric, nobody will publish my art if I don’t cater to them” Incorrect. There are a ton of publishers, and publishers are also people Charm them with your game. The rest will follow.

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I see too much media educating game designers on how to make games publishers want Publishers make games that buyers want We need to make games for players, not gatekeepers

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Good morning team We sadly announce Buddy McTalent’s termination from design effective yesterday While many of you enjoyed the prototype he made for Project Destruction, the CEO didn’t like it and doesn’t appreciate being contradicted Understandable! We wish Buddy well! Keep crushing it

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Good morning team, Please watch the TED talk “Games that don’t monetise aren’t fun, actually” by Petro Thoil Leadership would like a deep dive PowerPoint from each of you on how to incorporate learnings from this profound talk. Skip to 2:04:56 for the ten minute segment on gameplay Go team!

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Good morning team Leadership was told we need a game about feminism, to appeal to females, and we’ve assembled a killer team For the game FEMAEL EMPOWERMENT Pls welcome lead designer Rich Mann, exec producer Patrick Hermann And a junior assistant team of ALL FEMEALS So proud. Go team!

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Incuriosity is anathema to me. Biggest turn-off ever

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Eric Lang @ericlang.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Good morning team Leadership has expressed disappointment that some are not following the company-wide mandate to incorporate AI into our process We’d like all TCG teams to shelve card sets they’ve done without AI and produce new ones starting with Claude We’ll get better at this! Go team

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Seeing superstar young designers get their validation fills my cup. So much.

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I feel like Dino Racer has a better topline hook. The hotness placement feels right, and well deserved

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Q: Hey Eric, why the burnout? A: Those “good morning team” posts you’ve been reading? Minus light comedic filter and name changes, mostly verbatim Go team! Crush it

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