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Vale Blackwood

@gorepunk.itch.io
1K followers 1.8K following 131 posts

Indie TTRPG designer based in Dundee | Queer as fuck | Cryptid | Fae/They/Her | Member of @biomecollective.bsky.social Check out at my stuff at gorepunk.itch.io

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Reposted by Vale Blackwood
Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 30/09/2026
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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sage the anagogue @anagogue.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
FUCK IT WE BALL PRAISE THE HAWKMOTH KING HAS RETURNED TO ITCH DOT IO FOR NOW 140 PAGES OF HORNY EROGURO TTRPG BULLSHIT anagogue.itch.io/praise-the-h...
anagogue.itch.io
PRAISE THE HAWKMOTH KING by Sage The Anagogue
The gonzo dark eroguro TTRPG about teenage zombies killing devils
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 20/09/2026
To celebrate making it through another year, you can pick up my anti-game Bite Down or Let Go for 50% off! Sharing this around would be a pretty sick birthday gift, just saying- gorepunk.itch.io/bite-down-or...
gorepunk.itch.io
Bite Down or Let Go by Gorepunk
An anti-game about trauma
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 20/09/2026
To celebrate making it through another year, you can pick up my anti-game Bite Down or Let Go for 50% off! Sharing this around would be a pretty sick birthday gift, just saying- gorepunk.itch.io/bite-down-or...
gorepunk.itch.io
Bite Down or Let Go by Gorepunk
An anti-game about trauma
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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...
reddit comment: 

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply: 

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…
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Conlin (wuz) @wuz.quest · 11/08/2026
ope wuz.quest/photochop
wuz.quest
Photochop
CHOP YOUR PHOTOS
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Nicholas Kole @nicholaskole.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
c o l l e c t i o n
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Aimee Cozza Illustration @aimeecozza.com · 28/07/2026
It's here, it's here! 🌟 V2 of Hire Human Artists is now live. We make it easier than ever to find artists who have pledged not to use generative AI in their workflow. HireHumanArtists.com Use the directory to find artists for your project type, that do a certain style, and more! Now with images!
hirehumanartists.com
Find an Artist Who Doesn't Use Generative AI | Hire Human Artists
Looking for an artist for your next project? Our human artist directory is full of over 400 artists who have pledged not to use gen AI.
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Nicholas Kole @nicholaskole.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
enshittification ouroboros
the anti-ai symbol, where ai is depicted as an ouroboros, defecating and devouring it's own feces, while stabbing itself through the heartthe anti-ai symbol, where ai is depicted as an ouroboros, defecating and devouring it's own feces, while stabbing itself through the heart
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Delaney King (She/Her/Whomst) @delaneyking.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Behind every "solo dev success story" is usually a partner working 9-5 for years to pay the bills.
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Bea Livesey-Stephens @soupdragonbea.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
one of the best examples of "the mechanics are the message" I've ever seen. truly a new win for bleed games
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Tanya Floaker @floaker.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Games about feeling always grab my attention 👀
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 08/07/2026
While this was in playtesting, I had one person tell me "I think I finally know what type 3 fun is"
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 07/07/2026
gorepunk.itch.io/bite-down-or... My latest game is now available - Bite Down or Let Go is a solo anti-game that is designed to make you feel terrible and give up on playing it. 50% off for the first week to celebrate it being out, and there's community copies available too!
gorepunk.itch.io
Bite Down or Let Go by Gorepunk
An anti-game about trauma
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 03/07/2026
Mentioned a couple of weeks ago about a project I was working on being mostly done. Great news! It's done now. Digital release to follow soon!
Picture of a printed booklet, the front cover is a black and white illustration of a snake eating its own tail with blood pooling downwards. The title is 'bite down or let go' in a handwritten style font, with a subtitle of 'an anti-game about trauma by vale blackwood'.
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 28/06/2026
One day I'll figure out how to market and promote my work, on a very related note would any of my TTRPG making friends here be open to me asking some questions on the topic?
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 25/06/2026
Little surge of new followers today, hello everyone! Where'd you all come from?
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Peejalien @peejalien.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
LAUNCHING TODAY!!! THE KARROT CAN’T SLEEP KICKSTARTER! I’m so proud of this book. www.kickstarter.com/projects/don...
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 19/06/2026
As of today my latest project is now entirely written, just need to do some minor edits here and there to tighten up the wording in a couple spots - and also get two bits of art in there. I'm excited, this is easily the best thing I've made. I'm also nervous because of how much it means to me
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where the oleander grows @nonblnary.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
this is my game, I Don’t Remember When I Started Killing Bugs Again. to play, you log it every time you kill an insect. this is also available as a web app @transwron.gs made with me. people tell me it changed their behavior- they think twice about hurting insects when they remember the rules.
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 10/06/2026
Been really enjoying working on my latest game, a hostile unplayable thing about trauma - it's been cathartic as fuck and I can't wait until it's at a place where I feel comfortable sharing it
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Peejalien @peejalien.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Just put the kickstarter up for the first two issues of Karrot can't sleep. I'll leave this here in an understated way because I will be getting very loud about it soon! www.kickstarter.com/projects/don...
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LittleKuriboh @littlekuriboh.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
RIP Anthony Stewart Head
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Fabian Blake(he/him)Rose tint my world @glitzydemon.itch.io · 12/04/2026
IT LIVES! (or rather, it doesn't!) who knows what conspiracy lies behind the transcript of this AP that never happened of this game that doesn't exist? Below I'll tag everyone who was definitely not involved as cast / crew, feel free to tell us who you weren't!🤭 pennyblake.itch.io/found-transc...
pennyblake.itch.io
FOUND: Transcript in a bottle by PennyBlake
An AP transcript I found in a bottle
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Daniel Pietersen @pietersender.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Very pleased to tell you that I will be appearing in human form as part of the Fiends In The Furrows folk horror film festival panel discussion, here in Edinburgh. I’ll be joined by the illustrious Drs Catherine Lester and Jonny Murray with host Morvern Cunningham. Full programme and tix linked 👇
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SprintingOwlDesigns @sprintingowl.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Every time I write a bad ttrpg it removes a bad ttrpg from the drop table and the odds of writing a good ttrpg increases.
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Jes the human @jesthehuman.itch.io · 09/02/2026
The No ICE in Minnesota Charity Bundle has officially LAUNCHED! There are 1,439 games to discover for a $10+ donation to Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota! Purchase the bundle here: itch.io/b/3484/no-ic...
graphic that says no ice in Minnesota itch.io charity bundle
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Tanya Floaker @floaker.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Get this occult action thriller ttRPG for 1-7 people. Perfect if you enjoy playing powerful undead revenants embroiled in breakneck action, interpersonal drama, and occult investigation. Soundtrack by @mollynoise.bsky.social and human-made art by @stregawolf.art. Jump in now for early bird deals!
kickstarter.com
Coming soon: The Thunder Perfect Mind
An Occult Action Thriller Tabletop RPG
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jess m. ☕🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
We need MORE walking simulators actually I want to be immersed in pretty, aesthetic worlds more even if I can't do anything
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Jes the human @jesthehuman.itch.io · 27/01/2026
🚨 If you submitted a game to the No ICE In Minnesota charity bundle jam, please approve your submissions here itch.io/b/3484/no-ic... 🚨 All submissions unapproved by Febr 6 will be pruned so the bundle can start on time on Feb 9. Please share for visibility & tell your friends who joined the bundle
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Rascal News @rascal.news · 23/01/2026
Announcing a new podcast: Rascal Reading Club! Join @newmadras.bsky.social as he analyzes RPG texts in an inviting, conversational framework. First up: the Warden's Operations Manual for @mothership.bsky.social.
rascal.news
We just launched a new podcast
And we yearn for your responses.
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Charlie Rat Bastard Is Writing About Oceans and Storms @feralcharlie.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Back from page with news: The Vast in the Dark reprint is here!
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 18/01/2026
Kind of love this picrew???
picrew image of a white masculine leaning person with blue eyes, long black hair, dog ears, and wearing a black shirt with a plaid shirt over it with a non-binary badge
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Ghoula RPGs @gilarpgs.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Dreaming of WYRM Art by @nightjargames.bsky.social
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Olivia Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Okay. I need a boost here. Looking for artists. We're talking about some potential comic book style art and/or concept art for the #iHunt film. We're privately funding development, so budget isn't Hollywood. I want queer and/or nonwhite artists. I want cool styles. Links? Tags? Self-promo?
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Dr. Emily Friedman @ecfriedman.com · 11/01/2026
The "traditional" structure of TTRPGs puts an enormous amount of pressure on the GM to learn/refine & very little on the players. Which is somehow seen as more reasonable than spreading the load of learning/contribution across the whole table. Broader implications about community in there, y'all.
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Jackal @forestfright.art · 09/01/2026
I know that you're empty, I know that you're empty #ffrightart
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Jes the human @jesthehuman.itch.io · 07/01/2026
The No ICE in Minnesota charity bundle submission period is now open: itch.io/jam/no-ice-i... All games, free and paid, TTRPG and browser based-alike are welcome Submissions are open until January 26 & the charity bundle supporting a Minnesota based Immigrants' rights org will go live in February
graphic that says no ice in Minnesota itch.io charity bundle
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GM Connie Chang 🌈🐸 @byconniechang.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
How many times have I been told to give this racist game and its racist creators grace, and second chances? and empathy, and good faith, and and and? Nah. This isn’t just a fundamental misunderstanding of Ghibli. It is colonialist fucking desecration. @obojima.bsky.social Go fuck yourselves.
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Nana Moon { game dev } - WISHLIST BATHORY @moonana.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Why spend $1,000,000 on a Game Awards Trailer when you can spend $10 on $20,000 of royalty free commercial use video game music. All proceeds go directly to funding us making more games: moonanagames.itch.io/80-songs-pack #gamedev 🎮 #ttrpg #vtuber
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Sir_Lazz @sirlazz.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
💥Commissions are OPEN !💥 Here is my commission price list ! I draw anything and everything your heart desire, just ask me ! Feel free to DM me here or discord (@Sir_Lazz). Note that prices are flowy ! not everything can be put in a box, so feel free to discuss prices! Pixelart/3D prices below !
Lazz's prices for character commissions. Sketches are 35€, mildly rendered images are 70, fully rendered are 100€ and up. Prices may vary and those categories are fluid.Lazz's price for bigger illustrations. Simpler illustrations that are mainly monochrome are 130€ and up, and really detailed ones are 160€ and up. Those are not set categories but rather fluid, as no two illustrations are the same.Lazz's price sheets for icons and heraldry. Most simpler icons are 30€, can increase to 40€ with more complicated design or lots of vfx, or up to 60 and more for very detailed pieces of iconography
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itch.io @itch.io · 28/11/2025
🚨 Creator Day is LIVE! 🚨 For the next 24 hours we are waiving our platform fee! Creators will get the most they can from each transaction. Support your favorite developers and check out over 15,000 projects participating in our Black Friday sale itch.io
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Aaron Lim 林家丰 @ehronlime.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
What's the flavour of the current era of TTRPG design? Social Media Refragmentation? Is it a consolidation cycle? What are the new upcoming designers struggling with and against now?
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RP @rpdeshaies.farirpgs.com · 25/11/2025
The fact that itch posted this and not even an hour later I got a bunch of new sales proves how big it is when other people talk about your games. It can literally be a life changing events. When John Harper made a nice quote tweet about Breathless, hundreds of people looked at the game. Wild
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Chequered Ink @chequered.ink · 17/11/2025
Our All Fonts Pack is on sale again for 30 days! All 1200+ fonts we've ever made, commercial use, one low price. Pay once and use the fonts forever for game dev, TTRPGs, web comics, videos, streams, merchandise, whatever! ci.itch.io/all-fonts-pack #gamedev #fonts
Previews of a bunch of fonts from the All Fonts Pack in a wide variety of stylesPreviews of a bunch of fonts from the All Fonts Pack in a wide variety of stylesPreviews of a bunch of fonts from the All Fonts Pack in a wide variety of stylesPreviews of a bunch of fonts from the All Fonts Pack in a wide variety of styles
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𓇢𓆸𝑭𝒆𝒅𝒆ꫂ❀ @fsohns.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Listening to people say D&D has no negative bearing on the indie creative space at large has me tweaking. This is a creative monopoly unlike anything seen before or ever. I have a list of marketing outreach channels where 95 out of a 100 contacts exclusively cover D&D/OSR (D&D adjacent)...
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Vale Blackwood @gorepunk.itch.io · 24/10/2025
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Triple-Q @triple-q.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
"A website that catalogues the fonts used in video games. Fuck, it's genius... why didn't I think of that...!" www.gamefontlibrary.com
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Lydia @coyoteprince.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Highly recommend: throwing any and all creatives a DM/comment/email to let them know how their work touched you, whether now or in the past. I never expect a reply. But doing this regularly not only helps others see their art is valued, but improves your own confidence & connection.
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Exeunt Press 💀🎲 @exeunt.press · 17/10/2025
You know that kind review you left for an indie game on itch? The creator read it and it meant the world to them. And they will go on to make more cool stuff because you took the time to say something positive. Being nice is cool. Keep it up.
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