iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Do you like beaches + murders + a dash of oceanography? Maybe you'd like to preorder my novel! www.amazon.com/Sun-Stripped...

amazon.com

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I have hinted about my novel, and it drops Aug 21! Before jumping into fantasy, I first wrote a BEACHY THRILLER, perfect for the end of summer. Preorders help with the algorithm, or you can grab a free Advance Reader Copy here: booksirens.com/book/TCDF87E... Reviews optional, but help so much!

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I think there are a lot of interesting parallels between writing fiction and game design that would be fun to explore, such as the when to meet versus subvert expectations, or the role of anticipation or foreshadowing.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I have this specific form of insomnia that happened because news about the fate of our studio always arrived from China in the middle of the night

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Gamers in 2026: Development teams are so bloated. Why does it take 500 people to make AAA? Also gamers: I noticed this puddle in the alley doesn't accurately reflect the angle of the neon light. Zero stars.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Some of you asked what I have been up to. In November, my previous studio, Fantastic Pixel Castle, sadly closed, as it seems like a majority of game studios are still doing. Fortunately I was able to get a new job that I hope to discuss soon. I also have a novel coming out to talk about soon!

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I haven't made a post on here in about 9 months, but I will try to be back. How y'all doing?

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

I wanted to share the news that Fantastic Pixel Castle’s time as a first party studio within NetEase Games is coming to an end.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I look forward to changing the name of every body of water and military base every 4-8 years. That won’t get old at all.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

We are really going to do this Friday! Join in or watch later!

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Reposted by Ghostcrawler

Fantastic Pixel Castle @fpcstudio.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

dev_stream_announcement_final_FINAL_actually.png Come join us on Friday 4/4 at 11:00 AM PT to take a look at the progress we've made on the Wychwood! We'll be live on our Twitch and YouTube channels - you know where to find the links.

A dev stream announcement for Fantastic Pixel Castle, the studio developing the MMO codenamed Ghost. It says: "FPC Dev Stream: The Wychwood Blue Zone Showcase. Join us for a look into our Wychwood Blue Zone progress and a Dev Q&A! April 4th, 11:00 AM PT - 12:00 PM PT, twitch.tv/fantasticpixelcastle, youtube.com/@FantasticPixelCastle. (See, we weren't kidding.)" Below the text is a misty screenshot of the game, showing craggy rock faces, twisting trees, waterfalls, and a wooden tower.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

We have a melee class in our game now. It’s not shippable of course but directionally it’s ours and not stand in. Starting a healer next. Then just 20 or so to go! :)

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

We are at the stage of combat where some folks on the team are like oh no will it ever be fun? I’m not worried. I have been here before. Combat takes so many little things to get right. 1/

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Stop being surprised at the hypocrisy. Their worldview is that they are good so their actions are by definition good, and we are sus so our actions are by definition sus, even if they are the same actions

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Since I live in video meetings so much now, I try to show my hands on camera so the other people know I'm focused on them and not multitasking. This is not a natural position so I have defaulted to steepling my fingers like some kind of Bond villain

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Wrote this on the other site. At the root of it, quests are never that interesting, mechanically, in any game: get this, kill that, go here. It’s the context, story, writing that makes them memorable.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Playtest went really well! This was a test of three different blue zones with really different gameplay (we can only vary the look so much with out limited assets so far). Lots of laughing among the players, which is always a good sign.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

We are doing a public playtest tonight! I share this not to cause fomo (because we just can’t get all y’all in quite yet) but as evidence the game dev is going well. Hoping we can remove the NDA later this year.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Thanks for folks who have reached out with NetEase in the news. FPC has not been affected. We are still funded, growing and hiring.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

Our game isn't a "procgen" game in the vein of Spore, No Man's Sky, or Caves of Qud. We use random maps for a lot of our content, similar to Age of Empires or Civilization. The monsters, terrain, POIs and quests are all handcrafted. That said, there is a lot we are learning from the procgen games!

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

What do I enjoy more - hunting for the perfect Steam game I’ve never heard of, or actually buying and playing it?

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Reposted by Ghostcrawler

MassivelyOP @massivelyop.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Ghost MMO’s devs talk pre-production of blue zones, red zones, and character progression in latest podcast @fpcstudio.bsky.social

massivelyop.com

Ghost MMO’s devs talk pre-production of blue zones, red zones, and character progression in latest podcast

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Design all of your game's characters for cosplay

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Had a red tailed hawk try to grab a chicken right in front of me and the dog, like 10 m away. Everyone is okay but it was scary. Had this problem last February too, so maybe the hawks are particularly bold and hungry since it's their breeding season. Anyway no outdoor foraging for a bit!

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

About 50% of US households have a dog, 30% a cat, and 13% chickens. Chickens are likely the third most popular US pet. (Mine are pets. I’m sure some people just think of them as food.) (Pet fish and reptiles are sub 10% of households)

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

In the world for our MMO some dreadful things happened in the past but it’s now sort of post-post-apocalyptic and civilization is growing again. We settled on this for a couple of reasons…

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Hawks been hanging out at the henhouse (which sounds like a movie title). I don't think they can get in, but it scares the girls. I purchased two fake crows, because hawks are scared of crows. Will report back! I know you have to move the fake crows regularly so the hawks don't learn they are fake.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

Every automatic sink: that’s all you get. I’m trying to save water. Every automatic toilet: imma flush 5-6 times

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Upside down jellyfish (with the delightful genus name of Cassiopeia) LARP as coral, sitting on the bottom with their flat heads down and photosynthesizing. But they can get up and swim away too. Ubiquitous in tropical mangrove shallows.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Morning preening. I can watch my girls from 800 miles away

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Don’t make single player narrative games, live service multiplayer games, or indie games. got it

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Overheard at Home Depot: I thought I was done but now I gotta work another shift. They didn’t show up. I don’t blame them. This timeline sucks. If I were them I wouldn’t show up either.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

The freeze has ended and supervised foraging can resume. They are ferocious to things smaller than them and chickenshits (heh) to anything larger.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

We'll probably end up with some kind of group finder / matchmaking in our game, but man, I am so tempted to try without it just because I think groups work a lot better when there is some friction to just dumping someone and replacing them with another anonymous healer or whoever.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Me, a broken record on worldbuilding: okay guys I love the detail but don’t make them so awesome that you’re going to make players feel guilty when they have to butcher hundreds of them cuz it’s an MMO

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Today I polled the team to see if we should call the main currency in our world gold (familiar, boring) or something else (flavorful, potentially off-putting, potentially cringe). I’m talking main currency. It’s an MMO so there will be exactly 10,000 other currencies. Some will even be cringe.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Overheard on my morning jaunt to brunch: “As I get older, I also get more European.” (I am in Texas, not Europe)

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

There are only two kinds of game design books: “I am an elder sage weep ye peons” and “IDKWTF I am doing but I have made a ton of mistakes so please don’t make these same ones” I’ll let you guess which is me

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Why do I feel like our new studio can make something as titanic as an MMO faster than the big boys can make? The three things that take the longest on big games are in my experience: making a new engine, making a shit load of content, and stabilizing the design. 1/

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Crunch is a weird concept for our studio. We will never mandate crunch time like I did at Blizzard and Microsoft. But it’s a remote global studio so we can’t easily track how many hours someone does work. And we are a startup and we do need a sense of urgency.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

My actual contribution to yellow paint is that, as in most aspects of game design, you want players to feel smart. If they are fumbling around for too long to accomplish X they get frustrated. If they are trivially solving every challenge, they won’t feel smart because the challenge was too dumb.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

In addition to getting rid of yellow paint in game levels, we should get rid of health bars because it’s unrealistic I know exactly how much more damage I can take

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Our blue zones seem to work best with about 3-5 players. We’ll support other sizes, including solo, but that’s what feels good right now. Question for you all is whether you think we should allow any kind of “comps” or really build around the assumption of a tank and healer or 2?

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

I discovered Tactical Breach Wizards on Steam today. Great XCOM like with really clever dialogue. Recommend.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

I finished Veilguard last night. I agree the tone is a little different from the other DAs, but I enjoyed the combat a lot, and I am having that “I miss my protagonist” feels that I got from say BG3 or Cyberpunk.

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Ghostcrawler @ghostcrawler.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Merry Christmas Eve. Hope you too enjoy a good dust bath

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