iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 1h

A week-long heatwave hitting Oakland today is an attack on me, personally.

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

IRL #ManifestoJam before and after… people really got into nailing the door

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Mike Schuster @mcs212.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

There is a fifth wave of ska, beyond that which is known to rude boys

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Jeremy Kun @jeremykun.com · 29/09/2026

3rd circuit rules AI training on copyrighted material is NOT fair use. Wow! chatgptiseatingtheworld.substack.com/p/breaking-n...

chatgptiseatingtheworld.substack.com

BREAKING News: Third Circuit affirms summary judgment rejection of fair use defense by ROSS Intelligence in AI training

Opinion under seal for now.

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"The current level of political animosity is exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s citizens." There are not enough exclamation points to convey how I felt reading this paragraph

Screenshot of article which reads: From this perspective, the “both sides” frame falls apart. The prob-
lem is not that the parties are divided. The problem is the existential
threat that a reempowered ethnonationalist strain poses to pluralistic
U.S. democracy writ large. The current level of political animosity is
exactly what one would expect to see if an extremist faction attempted
to rescind the hard-earned rights of the vast majority of the country’s
citizens. The only way to re-oppress most of a country is to use anti-
democratic and authoritarian tactics. And the only way to oppose those
tactics is to push back as a population and clearly reject them. This is
the argument happening in the United States, and its pathology is not
anger—it is the movement to undermine a generation of rights.

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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

On this day, Oct. 2, 1984, Twin/Tone Records released the Replacements’ “Let It Be” album and rooftop photo. Fans who for six weeks had been spinning the “I Will Dare” single relentlessly finally got to hear the full new LP, which has come to be considered an all-timer @mplsmusichistory.bsky.social

REPLACEMENTS
LET IT BE
released: October 2, 1984
Twin/Tone Records - TTR 8441

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Cartoon baphomet boyfriend @kokorozek.satan.social · 01/10/2026

Pastors are notorious for being joke thieves. Went to a Methodist church a few weeks ago and half the sermon was identifiably pulled from Dril tweets

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When witches are cackling and telling you “Fire burn and cauldron bubble,” take a step back. Breathe. Those are normal things for fire and cauldrons to do. They’re trying to mess with you.

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Science has not yet found an explanation for why, in homes with more than one bathroom, they somehow get dirty simultaneously, but only become clean individually.

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lumpley @lumpley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

15 years ago when Apocalypse World was new and people were beginning to understand and work with it, it was seductive to look at "acting under fire" and see, not one basic move of several, but the template underlying all the game's moves. Like @kierongillen.bsky.social 's classic gag:

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

yo #nzgdc come to Communion aucklandmakes.games/wireframe … I even made a tiktok

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I can’t believe the New York Times is not crediting me for my role in reporting this story when I mentioned it to my dad.

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Privaty Business @wanwanattack.qtbrewer.moe · 28/09/2026

Genuinely, this completely rules

－Recently, the game has been going viral on X for its beautiful undressing animations. I’ve even read in one of your previous interviews that the development team practiced stripping themselves as reference for the undressing animations. What was the process behind making the animations actually like?

Matsui:

I’d love to know how far that story has spread. It’s true.

First, we write a plot for each undressing scene, then draw storyboards, exactly as the original team did. Then the real work begins, because the animation is essentially all keyed by hand. A designer moves the clothing’s 3D model, frame by frame, manually. It really is pretty much like the claymation method I mentioned.

We did try automating it with physics simulation first, but it was a total failure. The cloth moved in a physically correct way, but had absolutely no allure. We learned a profound lesson: accuracy and sensuality are two unrelated properties. In the end, we accepted that humans would have to do all of it.

Then VR adds its own weight. In a normal game, if something becomes awkward, you can cut away or swap models between scenes. In VR, the player can look from any angle at any time, so none of those tricks are available. The same model has to undress convincingly no matter where you’re standing. When I described this to a designer at another studio, he said, “I would never do that.” I’ve chosen to take it as a compliment.

And then, yes, the part you’ve read about. The undressing motions themselves use motion capture, but the deeper problem was that nobody actually knew the correct rhythm and order in which a person takes off clothes. So, the directors gathered and undressed themselves as reference. “That zipper is coming down too fast.” “She’d pause once before slipping her shoulder out.” These were serious, sober discussions. For compliance reasons, the Super Real Mahjong Venus Returns team works in a walled-off section of our office – and that was the moment those walls truly earned their keep.

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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 28/09/2026

mukhtar ibrahim, founder of the sahan journal, and ubah ali, a former WCCO reporter, have just launched the somali brief, an independent media outlet where somali americans can tell their own stories www.thesomalibrief.com

thesomalibrief.com

The Somali Brief

The Somali Brief is a digital-first media platform covering the stories shaping Somali American life.

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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mcc @dryad.technology · 28/09/2026

"Dr. Robotnik is sleepy" is actually a completely incredible concept. Opens up so many possibilities

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Betrayal At Club Low did a great job of handling this by 1) Putting interesting opportunities behind roll failures 2) Giving permanent failure points a fail-forward vibe 3) Being relatively short and multi-ending, while encouraging players to try and find paths to all the possible outcomes.

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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

WHAT HAPPEN?

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

E.T. during its initial release. The first movie I have any memory of seeing.

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Viktor Winetrout @viktorwinetrout.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Might fuck around and do unto others as I would have them do unto me

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Everybody hates being investigated by London’s famous Consulting Detective, but if the investigation is carried out by a network of street-smart urchins, it shifts the agency. It’s just a charming dirt-faced child who smells of gin and stolen cigarettes looking out on the world.

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Aura/Moom @moomanibe.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

thinking about this again today, and not even in the context of procgen. The thing about systems design is that it's so easy to get excited about making little sandboxes for yourself that you forget the player needs insight into it, lest it simply appear the same as complete randomness.

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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.

A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future

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Fiona Gallagher @psychic.surgery · 25/09/2026

Amnesia Fortnight 2026 is closing out, and the 4 game demos are up for public evaluation! They're all so different. You really have to play them to understand. Contribute $15 at dfaf2026.com and you'll get them all for your PC! And voting power for which one gets turned into a bigger thing.

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mcc @dryad.technology · 25/09/2026

Men will do literally anything that costs less than $200/hour instead of going to therapy

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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

it’s forbidden content but i have watched this video of the AI songs a man made for his mistress after murdering his wife being played in court maybe 20 times today. It is one of the most compelling things i have ever seen

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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.

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Blacksky Algorithms @blackskyweb.xyz · 23/09/2026

🎉 Acorn is officially open. You can now create a space for your community on the open social web - no wait required. acorn.blacksky.community

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

AI outperform The 1920’s Dada Movement challenge, level: impossible

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am cosmos @amcosmos.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Oh Alecia girl you are so comfy tonight

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

When I was just starting out at EA, they were scrubbing the names off most of the studios they’d acquired, calling them all EA-[location]. They wanted hits from anywhere to raise every studio’s profile. But they found the flops also got freely associated, and hits are rare.

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Francisco González @grundislav.games · 14/09/2026

As we passed this building, @jesshaskins.bsky.social remarked, “I think a level designer lives here.”

The outside of an apartment building with bright yellow gates, window bars, and a fire escape. The gate and bars feature pointing arrows.

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

We’re gonna end up with a Silicon Valley version of 18xx train/stock market games, aren’t we.

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Dave Gilbert @wadjeteyegames.com · 21/09/2026

Nighthawks launches TOMORROW!! Creating this game has taken us eight years. A long time for humans, but just a blink of an eye for an eternal vampire. We are so excited you have no idea. store.steampowered.com/app/1221950/...

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michael lutz @ztul.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Serious question when has the endurance of the misery of life ever opened the way for life's enjoyment

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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 21/09/2026

We’re rooting for Olivia Miles too!

Olivia Miles:
I'm rooting for the lesbians.
I just have to, always.

The gays, the theys, all of them.

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

“A buyers market since 1965!”

Screenshot of a Google search result showing an entry for a grocery store called “New Dick Market”

A review reads: “The friendly service 😊 was an added bonus.”

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

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caitlin rose boyle @caitlinroseboyle.com · 20/09/2026

incredible full indie kickoff talk by @writnelson.bsky.social

a talk at full indie - the screen says “what systems do you engage with? Will you use Linkedin and forever be banished from the light of God?”

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Eli’s Mile High Club is slated to close at the end of October. If you want to write the Oakland City Council and the Mayor, they could still use the show of support. www.instagram.com/p/DdXGCxYkyQ...

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lottie "frog k" lovely ⚧️🏴‍☠️ @vaporlight.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

a poem called 'midvinterblot by carl larsson, 1915'

midvinterblot by carl larsson, 1915

In the disaster year, in the famine
foreshadow, for all the questions in
the air, only one still haunts me: Is there
Is there life out there in Oakland
There In Oakland California or still
The Bay or after the Bay or after Portland
or after the chaz after Toronto after Brooklyn
Is there life in Oakland California
Is there life after the weekend even
if it never dies, is there life in the squat
even if it never dies, is there life in the
scene even if it never dies is there
Life in the Castro or in Greenwich
Village or life in the tunnels beneath
Las Vegas where holdout soldiers
make a final stand for demon dope
Is anyone there for those gay people
on my phone are they getting enough
and can they get by, can we cut them
a break or can we know if they die
or if they live at the end of it all
when the shouting is done and the
rumors go to mill can we know if
they die or do we need to ask some
soft machine or hard-eyed actress
Is there life out there in Oakland
Still in Oakland California

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

“Drummer Like Me” feels like a song that could stand to be covered in an age of AI hamfistedly making stuff, and jobs being suppressed. youtu.be/0whvedyJYlY?...

youtu.be

TRIP SHAKESPEARE - Live at First Avenue 1988

YouTube video by FirstAvenue7StEntry

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Gwen Marshall @drgwenmarshall.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The Onion ran this amazing article and thought, I wanna play this! So I made it! 38 pps, PbtA, plus every mechanic mentioned in the article, and a bunch of Rodrigo song references. And it's free! Enjoy! #OliviaRodrigo @theonion.com #theonion #ttrpg #itch.io drgwenmarshall.itch.io/high-winter-...

drgwenmarshall.itch.io

High Winter Elves of Girlville by Gwen Marshall

A satirical game based on an Onion article about Olivia Rodrigo making a TTRPG!

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Ben Johnson 🏺👻 @gamedesignerben.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Any bat you can touch IS A BAT YOU SHOULD NOT TOUCH

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