iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Spending time with over 200 kiwi game makers as we talk about our stances on AI usage in game production, support, and creation. Strengths, risks, weaknesses, and opportunities. #NZGDC

Many round tables filled with games people
watching a research presentation from the Media Design School

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Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 14h

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.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 14h

Out of some weird mix of masochism and curiosity I’ve been watching the weird Wonka reality show, and it’s kinda refreshing to see a bunch of contestants who clearly *don’t* understand how these types of shows work make really poor strategic and social choices.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 29/09/2026

ANZ Flat White Counter: 1 From Up Cafe, Auckland

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NZ CODE @nz-code.nz · 29/09/2026

21 studios awarded over $2M in CODE funding🎮🥝 A total of $885,654 was awarded to 15 studios within the KickStart category for the creation of prototypes. A further $1.5 million was allocated to six studios in the StartUp funding category to support production. www.nz-code.nz/post/21-stud...

nz-code.nz

21 studios awarded over $2M in CODE funding

21 studios from across Aotearoa New Zealand received prototype and production funding in the 2026 NZ CODE national funding round.A total of $885,654 was awarded to 15 studios within the KickStart gran...

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 27/09/2026

Going to be at #NZGDC or #MIGW? Grab some time to chat about: • Game consulting: technical, design, production, roadmap, or pitch help • Sharing details on your slates or programs • Questions about Xsolla’s ecosystem t.esdin.net/meetme

t.esdin.net

Meet with Ted

Book either a 15 minute or 30 minute meeting from the same link. - Powered by Reclaim.ai

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Auckland Makes Games 🎮 @aucklandmakes.games · 27/09/2026

We couldn't do this event without our staff, volunteers, and contributors. But we also couldn't do this event without @aggrocrabgames.bsky.social ! HUGE thank you for bankrolling us, making this event possible, and encouraging our weird :))) ➡️ events.humanitix.com/wireframe-pr...

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 28/09/2026

Walking around Auckland, looking at plants

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 27/09/2026

t.esdin.net

Meet with Ted

Book either a 15 minute or 30 minute meeting from the same link. - Powered by Reclaim.ai

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 14/09/2026

I missed the tickets before they sold out 🫠

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 07/09/2026

I cannot imagine that the recent rise in “look you can generate a game from a prompt!” is going to do anything to help our ongoing and critical discoverability issue.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 07/09/2026

Was talking about what I do when I take on a project for game consulting and they said “I like that it sounds like part of it is therapy” 😅

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League of Geeks (LoG!) @leagueofgeeks.com · 07/09/2026

Heya friends! We’re on a quest for another awesome addition to our studio. That’s right, we’ve got a shiny new role live on our careers site. Get it while it’s hot! 🎨 2D Artist 🖍️ Check it out at: leagueofgeeks.com/careers#2d-a... Reposts appreciated. Share with your creative and artistic pals! 🙏

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 07/09/2026

What’s that? The PAX Expo floor is closed? Thankfully SIX is still going till 9pm! Come play some indie games!

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 07/09/2026

If you’re over at #PAX today, make sure to swing by the Seattle Indies Expo at Hotel Motif! Many, many great games from indies on display!

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 06/09/2026

Another day of PAX down. Looking forward to wrapping up the week at the Seattle Indies Expo tomorrow! #SIX six.seattleindies.org

Rebuilding a delightfully Escher-esque town in Stepwell

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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 🙏

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 04/09/2026

I haven’t lived in Philly for 20 years but it doesn’t seem to matter

Mydialect map showing an overwhelming overlap with the north east

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 04/09/2026

Saw some video games and video game people #PAXWest #SIMLab

Sign for PAX kickoff showcase at the SIM

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castpixel ⚧️⚢ @castpixel.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I'm no stranger to doing odd jobs. I've been a phonesex operator, a lesbian escort, a construction worker (cement mixing), secretary, magazine illustrator. I studied Medicine. But the one thing I know how to do well is game art. I have a passion for it and 21 years under my belt. I wanna work ❤️‍🩹

12 thumbnails of illustration from my portfolio, including work I did for Space Jam, Hasbro (transformers) and my little pony

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 02/09/2026

Which specific industry topics do you find most concerning? #SLICE26

Word cloud for the topic: Which specific industry topics do you find most concerning, and how do you anticipate that attending SLICE will deepen your understanding of these issues?

Layoffs, AI, and Funding as the biggest items

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 31/08/2026

Heading out to Seattle tomorrow ahead of #SLICE, #PAXWest, and the Seattle Indies Mixer! Looking forward to catching up with folks!

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 24/07/2026

What if we all just walked out into the woods and became cryptids?

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Shawn Alexander Allen @shawndoublea.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Good news! 🧟You can get Beatdown City Survivors 💯Which is 100% Very Positive on Steam 💸For 25% off! beatdown.city/bdcsrstm

Beatdown City Survivors store listing showing 100% Very Positive.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 14/07/2026

Something something Torment Nexus

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 10/07/2026

Co-op Baldur’s Gate: “Ok let’s talk our way into this place” “Oops, sorry, I started a fight”

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 10/07/2026

So I mainlined the entire Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobook series last week and what a delightfully weird world that is.

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Veselekov @veselekov.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Different Penguins #indiedev #gamedev

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Shawn Alexander Allen @shawndoublea.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

If you fux wuth Beatdown City Survivors PLEASE leave a review ASAP! We're still in launch week and hitting 50 would be HUGE for discoverability. Once we hit 50 I'll do a raffle for something cool. We're 11 away.

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rae @rae.wtf · 16/06/2026

hello! all of my #playdate games are on sale in catalog! • rowbot rally — my loving, experimental story game — is just $10! • HEXA — an addicting match-six logic puzzle game — only $5! • cloudburst — an on-line weather app?! — just $3! and more!! running until 06.30.2026. play.date/games/search...

Playdate store page showing game listings for "Labsylle", "Cloudburst", "Mission LunaTrix", "Traffic Jam", "Bona Fido", "RowBot Rally", "HEXA", and "First in... Line?".

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Game Devs of Color Expo @gdocexpo.com · 16/06/2026

SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT📢 Geneva Heyward: How Games Influence Kids to Create Games are a gateway to writing, visual art, and music for young learners. Geneva shares what they've learned teaching grade school students through a games lens. 🎮 #GDoCExpo

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auntyr.bsky.social @auntyr.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

A world-class education is now completely free — MIT has opened its entire vault of more than 2,500 courses to the public online. source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2026). About Us: MIT OpenCourseWare. MIT Open Learning. 😊

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 16/06/2026

As of 3 minutes ago, it’s my birthday. I made the mistake of opening social media after an otherwise good day and would like to not doomscroll, so if you want to give me a present, fill my feed with good, exciting, or uplifting stuff you’re doing or working on or looking forward to!

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 16/06/2026

Isn’t it great how, just a week later, a bunch of brilliant acquired studios are being shut down or at risk of closure? 😩

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 16/06/2026

Obsession with the quarter and short-term shareholder value is one of the quickest ways to gut all long term worth from your company.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 16/06/2026

I swear to god if Xbox kills three great Indie Studios instead of literally *any other plan*, they’re demonstrating some severely bad business sense. The market is hungry for new categories right now. You should be empowering your small internal studios, not shuttering them

Wikipedia page for New product development

In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) or simply product development is the complete process of bringing a new product to market. Product development also includes the renewal of an existing product and the introduction of an existing product into a new market. New product development is the realization of a market opportunity by making a product available for purchase.!!! The products developed by a commercial organization provide the means to generate income. A central aspect of NPD is product design.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 16/06/2026

Saw two movies in theater this week. The Amazing Digital Circus was a much better cinematic experience than whatever the heck they were trying to do with Masters of the Universe.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 13/06/2026

Finally documenting the “business therapy” process I’ve used a few times to help companies balance their mission statements, activities, and culture. Derived from the work of a lot of smart people, thrown together with the power of ADHD, and validated by different smart people.

WHY

Mission, Values, and Execution Fidelity

Whether the stated identity of the company is durable, communicable, and credible in the decisions the organization actually makes.

WHAT

Portfolio Discipline and Opportunity Development
Whether current work, new opportunities, vertical health, and strategic adaptation remain subordinate to the company's stated purpose.

HOW

Cultural Operating Health

Whether employees receive enough context, recognition, feedback, accountability, and safety to execute and surface risk honestly.

Cross-Axis Interpretation

The method looks for contradictions across purpose, portfolio, and culture because instability often appears in the relationships between them.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 07/06/2026

Since I was in Canada on Friday, catching up on Summer Game Fest, and love the dichotomy of “Now, more than ever, players want weird stuff from small teams”… “Now here’s a bunch of things that took a decade to make and a bunch of remakes of games from your youth”

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 06/06/2026

I learned the other day from someone that the Chinese name for America is “beautiful country”. For phonetic reasons.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 06/06/2026

Everyone is celebrating Pride month but Orlando does it in October for historical, practical, climatological, and Halloween reasons.

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-𝚖𝚘𝚡 @moxiest.art · 01/06/2026

and here... we... go gayyyyy shit! get'chur gayyyy shit!!! step right up, step right up, and let's have some fun

artbymox.shop

rainbow capitalism | artbymox

We try to make cool things. We are sometimes successful.

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Ted DiNola📍NZGDC🔜MIGW @esdin.net · 06/06/2026

Broke: Follow me on LinkedIn Follow me on X Follow me on BlueSky Follow me on Insta Woke: Follow me into the sea

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arr @arr.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

english isn't for cowards. if you're not saying 'torpify,' that's a skill issue. there's no Académie Française telling you what to do. if you try to type 'pallific' and freak out when you see a little red underline, maybe you're not ready to roll with the big dogs.

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