iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Did just about everything I could in Silksong before the true final boss. Just an astounding game from start to finish.

Screenshot of Silksong. White text on a black background: "Game completion, percentage 100%, time 63h 48m 17s"

Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Finally dusted off the 50th cartridge in UFO 50 on my flight home. My top four: 🏠 Party House / 🔫 Velgress / 🏎️ Paint Chase / 🌴 Seaside Drive. backloggd.com/u/gangles/li...

A screenshot of the UFO game selection screen, sorted by "most played". The top three are Party House, Velgress, and Paint Chase.

The victory screen of Party House. There are 22 party guests of various types. Caption: "YOU THREW THE ULTIMATE PARTY! WIN!"

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

2025 in books read & games completed. www.goodreads.com/user/year_in... backloggd.com/u/gangles/li...

Book covers: The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan, Glad We Met by Steven Rogelberg, Situational Awareness by Leopold Aschenbrenner, Outer Order Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin, The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth, Quiet by Susan Cain, Play Nice by Jason Schreier, The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant, Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Slow Down by Kōhei Saitō, Ravelstein by Saul Bellow, The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica, After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre, Gilgamesh by David Ferry, How a Game Lives by Jacob Geller

Game covers: Before Your Eyes, Indika, Mouthwashing, The Exit 8, Skygunner, Daemonologie, Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk, House of the Dying Sun, A Mortician's Tale, Vanquish, Fear the Spotlight, The Sins of New Wells, The Lemurian Phoenix, Death Stranding, Mant Nights a Whisper, Spilled!, A Game About Digging a Hole, Metaphor ReFantazio, Metroid Dread, Metal Garden, Bernband, Unfair Flips, Despelote, Arctic Eggs, Gris

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

Inspired by a recent episode of @intothecast.bsky.social, I am playing Parasite Eve.

Screenshot of Parasite Eve. A woman in a black dress aims a pistol at a clown in a dressing room. Dialogue caption: “Man: Ahhhh! Here! Take it! Take everything! It’s all on the counter!”

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

My accomplishment for the day 😪

Screenshot from Silksong, Hornet standing next to a dead and disintegrating boss (The Last Judge).

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Enjoyed playing through Metal Garden this weekend. Vibey atmospheric indie FPS; great level design, minimalist but flavourful, punches far above its weight. store.steampowered.com/app/3539440/...

Screenshot of Metal Garden. FPS view: a player with a sniper rifle overlooks a massive grey dam extending into the horizon and getting lost in the fog. Above them the sky is grey and metallic.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Finally checked out Blue Prince this weekend. Got as far as this this heartbreaking near-run, one gem short of the Antechamber.

A screenshot from Blue Prince. Text on screen: "Select a room to draft", with options "Closet", "Lavatory", "Observatory". The first two rooms fail to connect to the final Antechamber, the third option costs a gem and the player doesn't have one.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

PSA: a bunch of classic SEGA games are currently free on iOS ahead of being delisted. Never had a SEGA console growing up so most are new to me!

iOS app icons for various SEGA games: Sonic, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Good signs from the Skin Deep demo.

Screenshot from the Skin Deep demo. A hatch on a spaceship labelled "DEEP FREEZE INSURANCE COMMANDO / UNTHAW IN CASE OF EMERGENCY".

Screenshot from the Skin Deep demo. A sign on a spaceship labelled "Sotnick Informational Signage / DO WHAT THE SIGN TELLS YOU TO DO".

Screenshot from the Skin Deep demo. A pamphlet for "SKULL SAVER Immortality Device. My Head floats away when I'm about to die. Why die? Defy death with SKULL SAVE and live to see another day."

Screenshot from the Skin Deep demo. Tubes in a living quarter labelled: "NUTRIENT TUBE: GREEN FLAVOR / YELLOW FLAVOR"

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

2024 in books read & games completed. www.goodreads.com/user/year_in... www.backloggd.com/u/gangles/li...

Book covers aligned in rows and columns:
Liftoff: Couch to Barbell, Future Home of the Living God, All Joy And No Fun, Saving Time, Technofeudalism
Uncivilisation, Shoal of Time, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Valuable Humans in Transit, Feel Good Productivity
Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, Piransei, 101 Things I Learned in Product Design School, Silent Hill 2, The Wager
The Art of Failure, Hell Yeah or No, ADHD 2.0, The Voltage Effect, Dominion

Game covers aligned in rows and columns:
Diablo IV, Tears of the Kingdom, Game Builder Garage, Octopath Traveler 2, Balatro
FF7 Rebirth, The Minish Cap, Stellar Blade, The Lemurian Empire (DLC), Unicorn Overlord
Lil Gator Game, 1000xRESIST, Costume Quest 2, Kirby & The Forgotten World, Astro Bot
Paranormasight, Slay The Princess, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, The Rise of the Golden Idol

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Always excited to see this category announced, congratulations to all the nominees! 👏 www.thegameawards.com/nominees/inn...

Screenshot of The Game Awards website. "Innovation in Accessibility:
Recognizing software and/or hardware that is pushing the medium forward by adding features, technology and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience."
The nominees are Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Diablo IV, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Star Wars Outlaws.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 28/10/2024

PARANORMASIGHT as the horror inheritor of Phoenix Wright's incredible reaction faces.

Screenshot of PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo. Subtitled dialogue of Richter shouting: "Kankichiro Iwai!" Three other characters react with exagerrated horrified / shocked looks.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 24/06/2024

Hard countered by the boss blind 😵

Screenshot of Balatro. The joker card Pareidolia is hovered, showing the text: "All cards are considered face cards". The boss blind is The Mark: "All face cards are drawn face down."

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 26/05/2024

First Balatro victory! 🃏 Finally managed to get a score engine going with full +chip, +mult, ×mult combo.

Screenshot of Balatro. UI box says "YOU WIN!" with various performance stats on the run.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 02/05/2024

I knew Rebirth had a lot of minigames but I did not see gourmet mushroom picking coming.

Screenshot of FF7 Rebirth. Close up of a mushroom with UI overlay explaining how to tug and pluck the mushroom’s sides in order.

Screenshot of FF7 Rebirth. Cloud kneels, holding a mushroom and cheering the successful harvest. The UI says “Perfect”.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 29/04/2024

A little easter egg I enjoyed: the Sherlock-like priest having a foil partner named “Crick”. 🧬

Octopath Traveler 2 screenshot. Two characters inspect a crime scene in a church. A text box for Temenos says: “Yes, yes… I do believe I have it figured, Crick.”

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 29/04/2024

Finished Octopath Traveler 2 this weekend. A huge improvement on the first game, adding some minimal interaction between the characters, far more compelling individual stories, and better exploration & dungeons. Also incredible art direction, showing an evolving mastery of the “HD-2D” art style.

Octopath Traveller 2 screenshot. The party of eight faces a giant circular window, backlit by the rising sun of dawn.

Octopath Traveler 2 screenshot. A drawing of the party posing happily together, with the text: “Thank you for traveling with us.”

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 14/01/2024

Haven't watched the LEC in a while, had to do a double take at the "spooky hood logos" matchup.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 07/01/2024

Where have I heard that name before…

Quoted footnote: “On this topic, the sociologist Richard Seymour has called social media a “chronophage,” something that “eats time.””

Screenshot of a battle against the Time Devourer from Chrono Cross. It is a red monster with a crystal on top, with a woman inside

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

2023 quantified in books read, games completed, and (almost) weekly sketching practice. www.goodreads.com/user_challen... www.backloggd.com/u/gangles/li... pixelfed.social/i/web/profil...

Book covers laid out in rows and columns:
The Book of Tea, Wabi-Sabi, Final Fantasy V, How to Keep House Without Drowning, The Beauty of Games
No Country for Old Men, Laudate Deum, Master & Commander, The Way of Chuang Tzu, The City & The City
Baldur's Gate II, A Distant Mirror, The Climate Book, Realigners, The Creative Gene
Good-Bye To All That, In The Shadow of the Sword, A Prayer For The Crown-Shy, 1919, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire
A Psalm For The Wild-Built, Disrupting The Game, DARE, Count Belisarius, Of Boys & Men
Peace Is Every Step, The Power of Now, Digital Games After Climate Change, The Last Lecture, The Happiest Kids in the World

Game covers laid out in rows and columns:
Norco, Live A Live, Immortalit, Neon White, Citizen Sleeper
Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Escape Academy, The Case of the Golden Idol, Aperture Desk Job
Inscryption, Attack of the Friday Monsters!, Crimson Shroud, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, God of War Ragnarok
Terra Nil, Dragon Quest, The Spider of Lanka, Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe, Alt-Frequencies
Eliza, Final Fantasy XVI, Tchia, Astro: Playroom, Cocoon
Chants of Sennaar, God of War: Valhalla, Super Mario RPG, Storyteller, Jusant
Bramble: The Mountain King, Venba

40 sketches laid out in rows and columns, drawn in pencil, ink, and digitally.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 18/12/2023

Super Mario RPG was foundational for my childhood love of video games, what a joy to find that it absolutely holds up, thoroughly charming and unique!

The cast of Super Mario RPG takes a bow on stage.

White text on a black screen: “SINCE 1996 / Based on the Work of the Original Development Staff.”

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 08/09/2023

Was fortunate to attend the opening of The Last Of Us at Halloween Horror Nights. Lovely getting to meet the cast and peek a bit behind the scenes, amazing & surreal to see moments from the game recreated in detail with real props & sets.

Matthew behind the scenes with two actors portraying Ellie.

An actor portraying a Bloater covered in blood and attacking someone.

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 28/08/2023

Planned on playing Sea of Stars at launch but incredibly tempted to wait for the Quebec Franglais localization now. ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/200...

Screenshot of Sea of Stars. A ponytailed character named Garl says: “On descend tu d’abord? Y’a yinque un chemin à partir d’icitte anyway!”

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Matthew Gallant @gangles.bsky.social · 21/08/2023

✍️ Been continuing my weekly sketching practice into 2023. A few sketches of the games I've been playing.

A sketch of the main character of Hi-Fi RUSH, a young man in jeans and sneakers with a long red scarf, posed midair with a scrap-metal melee weapon.

A sketch of the main character of Pentiment, a scribe at a medieval writing desk.

A sketch of the card "Stoat" from Inscryption. He has 1 attack and 3 health, and costs 1 blood to summon. The Stoat has a menacing countenance.

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