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Michael

@graydiance.bsky.social
198 followers 294 following 514 posts

A guy (he/him) who loves interconnected systems of intricately, humanly crafted parts that excite everyone differently; all artistic expressions made of love and joy. Personal account. Occasionally a Senior Designer on Progression @Riot on League

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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
over the last few months, i decided to write by hand more. With work being hectic, my short-term memory's been suffering. Writing's helped immensely. I'm left-handed; I've never liked my handwriting. The fountain pen helps me relax, be methodical. Need lots more practice, but it's getting better.
a photo of a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen in a brass finish over a hand-written paragraph of jibberish words written cursive
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
i need to update my do it for her board with 2xko lux redesign she's got everything i wanted
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
same, Lux. I'm on a week off; decided now's a good a time as ever to actually finish the story of demacia rising, even if i've already done every other 100% completion requirement for it lol it's a sendoff; a year of my life I get to put behind me. I'm glad I got to make this. it was a ton of fun.
Screenshot from near the ending of Demacia Rising, where Luxanna Crownguard is talking with her aunt, Tianna, about the end of her lessons she's taken over the course of the game, saying "To be honest, it feels a little bittersweet for it all to be over."
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
marathon compiler clear ill be real i was dragged through it lmao, we failed it once at the boss but got it second time i have so much more to learn and figure out for cryo, it's -so- interesting. seriously one of the coolest things done in mmo-adjacent 'raid' design in the last ten years
photo of the loot screen for the marathon game's current end-game fight, showing the loot earned and the unique weapon unlocked from beating the boss.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
this reminds me of the time on a study abroad trip in japan where we went to a Shiseido plant and we all did an "interview" test where we'd have to organize 50 shades in order. I got 46/50 correct, which meant I failed by 1 pair. ... Of 1/4th the total test. I was the best rated in our class.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
i had to do it and now i need to commit to this further anyone got a repository of yoshi noises i need to replace every swear word in bonfire, which to my count is uh. a lot
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
@megacrit.com we have run into a very funny situation where we've effectively infinite looped block application with two Beacon of Hopes on turn 1 and auto-applied shields and a single combat turn's been going for like ten minutes please send help (also it's giving zero block many many times over)
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Act 2 of Demacia Rising is live!
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Also, im pretty sure everyone knows this, but this line references the Season 1 cinematic my favorite joke in-dev was editing this line to say "Deer Mages" for a few days because the trailer had those strange deer chasing Yunara lol (no the deer aren't mages, tbh i have no idea what they are)
A dialogue line from Demacia Rising, the league of legends metagame. In it, the character Lux is speaking with her brother Garen, who says that "I'm fine. Mages ambushed us in the formest. My brothers-in-arms fought valiantly - and I avenged them."
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Did you know? In Demacia Rising, you (Luxanna Crownguard) can pet the bird (Quinn's Azurite Eagle, Valor)
A screenshot of Demacia Rising, the league of legends metagame where you build a kingdom by getting resources, building towns, and fighting off hostile foes. A dialogue is on screen featuring two characters, Lux and Quinn, and Quinn is saying "... You really want to pet Valor, don't you? Fine. Just hold out your arm and he'll come."
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
brb
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Fun Demacia Rising Dev Fact: the Guard's attack is based on a video of me wielding a broom in my living room after I watched like 45 minutes of historical French and English spear technique videos
An imagine of a Demacian Guard from the league of legends minigame "Demacia Rising." The guard's arms are at chest height, the left forward in full extension, in a strong thrusting motion.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
i would like to explode party finder groups with my mind
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Welcome to Demacia! I'm so excited for everyone to play this labor of love. Our team has been hard at work this last year on DR, and I hope you all enjoy this unique metagame. Personally, it's been wonderful to get the chance to design a game starring my favorite champion.
a screenshot of the patch notes for League of Legends patch 26.1, focused on the section titled "Demacia Rising", which describes a new client metagame for League of Legends. The text in the image states:

Demacia Rising is a new metagame that will be playable for the entirety of Season 1.

You play as Lux, who is being mentored by her aunt Tianna in the ways of military strategy. This begins with a history lesson — the founding of Zeffira, Demacia's first settlement, in the great petricite forests of old.

In Demacia Rising, you will expand the kingdom, produce resources, train an army, research powerful upgrades to your army and towns, and defend the burgeoning nation from threats alongside several of League's champions.

The game will be updated several times during Season 1, and new upgrade tiers, research items, story, units, champions, threats, and events will become available.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
okay so i was not particularly happy with the in-game strategy board in FFXIV being used almost exclusively for memes until today when this one was shared to me and i started laughing so hard my ribs hurt maybe SOME memes are okay
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
I want to write more at work instead of just sending messages to myself, so my Xmas gift was a nice new LEUCHTTURM1917 notebook and pen. Y'all are gonna hear from me about last year's work soon. Next year's bringing a new chapter, a new team assignment - so it's time for a new book & a new pen.
a LEUCHTTURM1917 Stone Blue A5 notebook with a LEUCHTTURM1917 Drehgriffel twist gel pen in a pen loop on the notebook's spine, with the notes on the pen's revival from the 1920s original version.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
i have nothing yet to say about disco elysium that has not already been said, but after hours of bug fixes and tedious, numbing work, sinking into this beautiful game that I've not experienced yet has been unbelievably comforting and thought-provoking it's just wonderful, that's all
Screenshot of the video game disco elysium's dialogue, specifically a choice where the main character can say, "A hug a day keeps the bourgeoisie away."
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
oops accidentally downloaded a handful of BG3 mods to make my longest-standing D&D character possible in it aaaaaaaaaaaaand there went most of my afternoon
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
i wrote a quick list today about games i really want to play over the next months; definitely unordered seriously banking on Metroid Prime 4 being something I don't need to commit to b/c that would jump the list if it's better than expectations lol
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
got what felt like it should be one of the phantom liberty endings today; it opened up more quests instead of rolling credits PL is -so- good, like, it's just SO good
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
by the time it gets to about the 13th this is the collective emotion lmaoo
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
it is done. thank you team cherry. amazing experience
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Every time I get to see @anamanaguchi.bsky.social live, their show gets better
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
obligatory chain letter post this was my second account; when i moved out, my brother kept the older one and I made a new one. need to ask him what the first five are on that account lol
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
relaxing day off for my birthday after a brutally long but incredibly fun week. had a delicious meat pie at a cafe and the manager was also celebrating her birthday today. She offered an absolutely heavenly raspberry yuzu tart to us for the occasion.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
oh, uh, thank you Faker? i have no words, lol www.hotspawn.com/league-of-le...
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
I've peaked But it was on tenderfoot. Lot to learn and get better at Game very good and very silly
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
hmmm
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
wrote this little chord progression in Figure last night on my ipad and decided it was cool enough to get it into ableton to get real drums and bass on it might want to like, sample the thing and mess with it. i've been meaning to play with sampling again first thing i've made in a while loll
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
oh, ipad software makes sense lemme load up some things on ipad and see what i like. Everything I've done on phone / tablet before has been more... programmatic / loop-building. i use ableton (desktop) piano roll for everything tbh, b/c i usually don't break out my midi keyboard to just mess around
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
at least i'm diamond in one riot game (for now. when the game launches i'm assuredly not gonna be diamond there are so many better players out there lol)
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
first time clearing Demon Mode on the live game with a dyad focused build that pivoted into champion-card triads in the lategame. It's low damage and I won with 14 hp remaining on the final boss, so I would have died next turn. Fun to live on the edge a bit.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I've had @dacidbro.bsky.social's wisdom about appreciating the time you have with characters you love repeating in my head all day over FFXIV Black Mage, lol. Applicable far beyond just fighting games. x.com/Dacidbro/sta...
Image of Bang Shishigami from Blazblue, with the text "When you find a character that you truly love with good strengths and tolerable/few weaknesses, please make the most of that version. It is fleeting and you never know how soon a patch will take it from you"
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Finally got the item i made out of the box for it to cure. Pulled this pikachu out of a pack at the pokemon center Ikebukuro, knew Lumee was mostly cute things and wanted to make it a better souvenir with a custom frame. Piping frosting was hard I'm bad at this crafty stuff lol Was definitely fun!
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
The chorus is definitely the weakest part; I wanted to do a "hold and hit the backing vocals" theme, but no particular element shines through in this right now. The outro is perfect. The zombies are representative of the silly dance the Primals (the FFXIV staff band) do while live lol
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
note chart 2/3. this intermission was a ton of fun, and the only time I permitted myself to go outside of the basic enemy types with the Swordmaster, for the big, predictable note hits. Tried to intro them like the game does, with the same-line note 2 beats beforehand. one more video.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
it feels good to make a note chart again... "A Long Fall" from FFXIV! it's rough around the edges, the vibe chains don't work properly, but I feel like I'm doing a good job with the monster choice for theming, and keeping myself to an "easy Hard" difficulty. rest of the track in the next two posts
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
I love digging through old Ableton files and finding tracks I worked on for a single day in which I was absolutely COOKING i need to go back to this and see if i can't make a full track presenting, dec 30 2017 a thing i likely worked on for six hours and then forgot for seven years
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Went and played it alongside some lunch; 100% in 27 minutes isn't bad but i've done better hahah I've never gone for the deathless run. I like using the reset button too much
VVVVVV 100% completion in 26:48 with 104 deaths
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
VVVVVV, as one of my all-time favorite games, that I have had memorized for years. It's a great turn my brain off, collect all the things again, and chill out for 15-20 minutes experience for me. This is only my steam hours. I own this game on several platforms lol
VVVVVV steam page with 105 hours played
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
I don't know why I tried to resolve another hand. It's been 25 minutes.
10 million calculations in a single balatro hand
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
@rtgame.bsky.social thank you for showing off the Cryptid mod. I have now perceived the limits of space, time, mathematics, science, philosophy, the entirety of human existence, and found them wanting. The Jolly Jokers are all that remain, and the m that binds them together and multiplies them.
Final calculation total for previous hand: 5,136,590.
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
It is finished. I'm closing the game.
balatro round score: 8.558e11725
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Over 5.3 million calculations later, the game has resolved the hand. We eagerly await the end of it all.
balatro hand resolving
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
I don't want to know the number this is going to create. I fear it. Truly, I don't. This went from a sense of wonder to a sense of knowing some cosmic entity should smite me for perceiving an amount of something so incredibly unfathomably unknowable.
Balatro scoring where chips is 1.181e215 and multiplier is 7.247e11510
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
I had to turn off animations. Watching this number go up is now my life. This has been increasing, thousands a second, for 11 minutes. I fear how long this would have taken with animations on. I should stop. Put the genie back in the bottle. but I can't.
balatro elapsed calculations over 3.6 million
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
I FOUND THE LIMIT
balatro crashed
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
how is my computer allowed to calculate this number (i'm playing the Cryptid mod on Misprint deck and I have well and truly broken the game, and at this point, I'm on ante 17, and I am scared to continue for the well-being of my computer.)
Balatro round score of 1.977e1365
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
aww that's really nice of y-
street fighter 6 - ed flying through the air after getting back-thrown by ken
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Michael @graydiance.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
back at it again at hoshino coffee 109 magnet (two seats to the left this time, though.)
shibuya scramble crossing photographed from the window of a coffeeshop on its corner
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