iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

As a gamification expert, I question where the leaderboards and achievements are.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

And look I know I live here now, but... I was raised on Brewers' games, so, lol

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

This seems like an important one for Gamescom folks who might be staying north of the show. FRA -> Cologne itself looks okay though?

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I'm about 99 and a half percent sure we're thinking of the same two

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

By my read Steam just made Capybara Samurai mandatory content for incrementals. Weird, but I am 100% here for it

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Game engines are weird. "I wonder if we can add fun resource graphs" - 45 minutes "Can we pretty please make the tooltip on an object under a popup realize that it maybe *shouldn't* draw?" -

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Honestly surprised I've been having as much fun iterating on this little game day to day with an audience of a dozen friends as I did on big ones a million people were playing. Probably a lesson in there somewhere.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Started building an incremental just for fun a while ago...that's almost turned into an actual game? Looking for 2d/pixel art help with backgrounds & boss cards. It's a (hopefully!) charming fantasy RPG crafting themed incremental called The Last Crafter. Recommend someone great? #2dart #pixelart

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Happy Disco day to those who celebrate! Watching this game go from a rough idea pitch, through months of revisions, through building a team, then development, and now to EA launch has really been something else. (1/6) store.steampowered.com/app/3404260/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 20% on Dead as Disco on Steam

Martial arts meets music video in Dead as Disco, a neon-drenched Beat ‘Em Up where every punch, kick, and combo syncs to the music. Join Charlie Disco on a quest to confront the villainous Idols and r...

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I stick to games on purpose, but I mean, "The Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ayatollahbooth" is gd poetry, is what it is

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

And just like that, Friday gets even better

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

We never did get the whole growth hacking thing figured out. Turns out it doesn't mean "make everything on this one specific machine run our game." Alas.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Knock it off. I categorically refuse to rewrite my GDC talk again. Even if "League of Legends, brought to you by Paramount/Oracle" would make a good slide. Nope.

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Reposted by Scott Hartsman

Mike @mcrose14.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

6’s Varsity takes the gold, 6’s JV takes the silver, and 6’s team chaplain takes the bronze.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

hahaha -- And lord help 'em if they want doors.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

If we could reopen the game awards for like five minutes, the Internet and I would like to nominate Flute Man for best orchestral performance by a singularly exuberant human being

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

I've mentioned it to three people so far and GabeCube sure does seem like it could end up the undeniable winner

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Don't see how this could possibly work without 3 different models of various capacities ensuring that developers can only make games for the lowest common denominator while reassuring fans that games actually use all the capabilities of the highest end most expensive version. I mean really.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Nothing against the Dreamhaven folks, who are beyond legendary. And nothing against the developers, who are ridiculously talented and truly want to entertain players. This is about where games are right now: Everyone already has access to infinite entertainment. (1/4)

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Absolutely every MMO is haunted in its own special way, and I think that's beautiful. (ff14)

FF14 patch note: In Sinus Ardorum, a player could get disconnected if they put an item up for sale between 44,442 gil and 49,087 gil

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

I love this. I use: if everything is cozy, nothing is cozy. I like Valheim invasions or night in Minecraft as examples of how I (personally) perceive cozy: You're cozy because of the warmth and safety that's relative to the decidedly non-cozy moments. Also, I'm done saying cozy now.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Chatted with GDC about live games the other day - Talk's up!

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

My favorite genre of non-games tech writeup is "describing innovation that MMOs & live games have been doing for 20+ years" newsletter.scalablethread.com/p/how-featur... (Not to pick on this person - I've heard this same thing recommended as new at least three other times this year)

newsletter.scalablethread.com

How Feature Flags Enable Safer, Faster, and Controlled Rollouts

Understanding Effective Rollouts Using Feature Flags in Distributed Systems

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

I know the feeling, Darth. www.gamefile.news/p/fortnite-a...

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Excellent thread. tl;dr Publishers are signing games that don't need publishers, and that's about it. It sucks, but this is the way it is for the time being. Entire coincidentally, this is also a line in my GDC talk next monday morning @ 9:30

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

If you clip this thread just right, you can paste it to your friends to see who did and didn't spend time in the absolute wrongest places on the internet in their formative years

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

This is a great callout - And so generally massively misunderstood. I wince whenever I hear "Well why didn't they just give it X more months?" Those months are the most expensive ones a game will ever see, usually by a whole lot.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I love when videos come out where I can slowly turn them up until I hear "okay what the HELL" from the other room. This is 100% one of those. Maybe 300%

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Help a friend out. Kick in a buck if you can!

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

100% cannot wait for this. Man, did these books ever grab me

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

"Let’s just hope that the good news starts outweighing the bad." Amen to that, @deantak.bsky.social

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Having worked with Morgan on multiple games, my reaction is 50% "This is amazing, hilarious and spot on" and 50% "hey....wait"

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Sandra was one of those rare hyper-competent people who quietly worked their ass off behind the scenes to make sure we were doing our best for teams and players. She cared very deeply about everything we did and everyone who did it. We were so fortunate she joined us. She was truly fantastic ❤️

massivelyop.com

Obituary: Project Gorgon developer Sandra Powers has passed away | Massively Overpowered

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Also, car license place not the same as people license place. I feel like I'm missing important backstory here

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Welp, just officially SURRENDERED (i've never liked that word) my license for a shiny new temporary WA one. Feels a little weird. Looks like I do live here now

Rorschach: I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Something "we all know," but neat to see some work behind it. He scraped all scrapeable steam reviews, and there's inference but: "...half of players that leave negative reviews but then come back and update their review after a developer has directly responded to them, change to positive."

truthfultoast.substack.com

You Should Respond to Negative Steam Reviews

Looking at the efficacy of Dev Responses to User Reviews on Steam

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

The past couple years I've talked at GDC's f2p summit opener, doing the PC & Console part, with interesting stuff from the previous year. This year it's the Live Game Summit. What do you think I should talk about?

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

New Matt Ball State of Gaming report is out and it's really solid. Dense and thoughtful as hell, and I love it for that. www.matthewball.co/all/stateofv...

matthewball.co

PRESENTATION: The State of Video Gaming in 2025 — MatthewBall.co

A (free) 220 page presentation on the past, present and potential future of the video game industry.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

In my absolutely biased opinion, this is worth a follow on Kickstarter if you have an account there and are into those MMO kinds of things! www.kickstarter.com/projects/sta...

kickstarter.com

Coming soon: STARS REACH: A Living Galaxy Sandbox MMORPG🌌

Explore a living galaxy in a shardless sandbox MMORPG from the visionary team led by Raph Koster, designer of Ultima Online & SWG.

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Reposted by Scott Hartsman

MassivelyOP @massivelyop.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

Big MMORPG news tonight - Raph Koster’s Stars Reach MMORPG is launching a Kickstarter in February - the chat is still ongoing @raphkoster.bsky.social @playstarsreach.bsky.social

massivelyop.com

Raph Koster’s Stars Reach MMORPG is launching a Kickstarter in February

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Reposted by Scott Hartsman

maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Oh gosh I can’t pick, I like them all so much, I’ll just take the whole lot! -me, choosing my battles

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Also works logistically - Be in a play, launch a big MMO, tell me it's not damn near the same feeling.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Wealthy celebrity who enjoys games, has strong opinions, wants to start their own studio. That's new. Maybe a government wants to chip in. What could possibly go wrong. www.polygon.com/news/486495/...

polygon.com

Elon Musk wants to ‘make games great again’ with AI studio

Why

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Hey, we're back from a harrowing night of windy darkness, spotty LTE service, and an 8 hour assault of branches and pinecones. 1216 outages remain.

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Scott Hartsman @hartsman.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I know we're going to have a bomb cyclone and all, but we found a place that sells Longans up here that's only a couple miles away. I may have been so excited that I ate the entire bag for dinner. And it was absolutely worth it.

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