iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 14/09/2026

Man, Canadians are up here _innovating_. I just got a giant bowl of chicken shawarma poutine. In unrelated news, I overate and now wish to lie down.

A paper takeout bowl filled with french fries, brown gravy, cheese curds, shaved spit-roasted chicken, a white garlic sauce, and a red hot sauce. A bit of the top layer of meat has been eaten away to reveal the fries and gravy underneath.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 06/09/2026

This was also the first big outing for my new business cards, which have a tiny roll-and-write game on the back! Folks who picked up a card were generally delighted to see the game, and for a market in was nice to have a cool little freebie to hand out to everyone.

Two of my business cards on a table, one front face up and one back face up. The front face has my name and some contact information. The back face has a board on which two players can play Confetti, as well as a QR code that points to the rules (same link as in the body of the next post)

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 06/09/2026

As part of my demos, the market collectively played about 2.5 solo games. The two finished games ended with scores of 19 (nearly perfect!) and 17 (not bad!). The best possible score is 21.

A top-down photo of the demo area on the table from the customer side. There’s two finished DAGnabbit! boards in the top left corner with their scores circled, and the rest of the space is occupied by a game in progress, with 11 arrows drawn so far.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 06/09/2026

Six minutes until the market opens!

It’s me! I’m sitting at a table with a bunch of copies of DAGnabbit!

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 05/09/2026

One day and a few hours from now, DAGnabbit! will be available at the PNW Tabletop Game Market, along with a bunch of other fantastic games by local designers. Find us all on Summit level 0 from 7-10pm tomorrow!

A close-up of a bag of DAGnabbit!. The label describes it as “A puzzly little flip-and-write game for 1-6 players, in 15 or so minutes, designed by David Hollis”

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 28/08/2026

Made the table sign for the game market and finished packaging the last few copies of DAGnabbit!. 9 days left, but almost everything is in order.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 21/08/2026

Picked up some buckwheat flour for another recipe, but I figured I’d try my hand at a galette breton. It may not be perfectly shaped, but it was delicious.

A buckwheat crepe with a fried egg in the center. The edges are partially folded over the egg, but kinda raggedly and unevenly. Not pictured: there’s some Gruyère under the egg.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 14/08/2026

I’ve been messing with some of the more fun-sounding (to me) fishwife flavors. I was thinking about what I could do with the chili crisp smoked salmon (other than just eat it), and the package very helpfully suggested onigiri, so… I made chili crisp smoked salmon onigiri!

Three small onigiri on a plate. They’re folded inexpertly, but still delicious.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 07/08/2026

I don’t know why sausage, peppers, and onions are such a powerfully synergistic combination, but damn they sure are.

Two halves of a sandwich containing kielbasa, bell peppers, and onions. The fillings have been cooked on a griddle until the vegetables are barely holding together. The sandwich has been wrapped in parchment paper, compressed, then cut in half. The halves are arranged on a plate to show off their cross sections.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/07/2026

All three are now actively fermenting away. A little chorus of burbling sounds in the back hallway!

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/07/2026

Pitched yeast into all three new brews last night. The cherry and blackberry are showing a tiny bit of activity (some small bubbles starting to accumulate here and there), but a mere 9 hours later the peach mead is GOING

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

Finally, lat year’s blackberry-rosemary mead (which I named Ravenna Blvd because you can find both growing all over Ravenna) turned out so well that I think it might be an annual thing! The only note I have from last year is that I can go even more aggressive with the rosemary, so I’ll do just that!

A 5-gallon bucket full of some purple liquid that you’ll just have to trust me is a mixture of blackberries, honey, and water.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

And while I was grabbing those peaches, I couldn’t resist getting some late-season dark Lapins cherries. I also pitted and froze them to help them break down. Sweet cherries can sometimes end up producing medicinal flavors in meads, so I’m expecting to need some oak to mellow those out.

A 1-gallon glass carboy full of cherries, honey, and water

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

Earlier this week, I picked up a box of _very_ ripe donut peaches from Collins Family Orchards and froze them. I understand that delicate peach flavors often don’t survive fermentation, so I expect to add more peaches in secondary, as well as maybe some vanilla and/or powdered acids.

A 1-gallon glass carboy full of honey, water, and peaches.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

I ended up with ten 375ml bottles of the London Fog and (twenty 750ml bottles plus four 375ml bottles) of the Bocheted Capsicumel.

All of the bottles described in the post, arrayed on a wooden table.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

Next: a weird experimental mead I’ve named “Bocheted Capsicumel”. It starts with a bochet—a mead brewed with caramelized honey and beer yeast—and then I added vanilla, cinnamon, oak, and the other title ingredient: morita chile peppers.

A hand holding a clear 750ml bottle full of dark, reddish brown mead. There’s no visible cloudiness or sediment.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 25/07/2026

First up: the London Fog mead is finally done! Turns out the way to get the tea flavor to come through was to just drop an infuser with a few grams of loose-leaf tea into the mead and letting it sit for a few weeks. Adding brewed tea just wasn’t enough, but it’s probably still worth doing since …

A hand holding a clear 375ml bottle of cloudy golden mead

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 22/07/2026

Okay, well Plan A for today was to press 59 heat transfers onto linen bags, but then it was 92°F inside, so instead I pitted and froze a buncha peaches and cherries

A large cardboard box full of donut peaches next to a smaller box of dark red cherries.

A freezer drawer containing six gallon ziplock bags full of pitted and chopped peaches and one bag of pitted cherries.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 21/07/2026

DAGnabbit! is feeling one step more real! The components and the heat transfer film just arrived from the manufacturer, so I now have everything I need to assemble the game! I’ve done a test press, and I’m happy with the results. The goal is now to get everything put together over the next two days

A box full of shrink-wrapped board game components. On top is a stack of instruction manuals, and under those is a pile of dry-erase markers and wooden cubes in plastic bags. The cards and boards are under the markers, but they’re not visible in the photo.

All of the components of a single game laid out on a table. There’s a deck of cards, an instruction manual, six small dry-erase boards, and a bag with six markers and 18 small wooden cubes

The linen bag from the previous photo, but stuffed with the components from the one before that. One of the dry-erase boards peeks out of the top of the bag.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 12/07/2026

It’s a word that also currently applies to me!

A lake, which the author of this post is currently beside.

Well, there are some trees and chairs and a grill and a smoker between the author and the lake. But I don’t think it’s arguable that I’m not “lakeside”

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 04/07/2026

It’s pasta salad season, motherfuckers.

A large stainless steel mixing bowl full of colorful pasta salad, the rough recipe for which can be found in the replies to this post.

The same salad in the same bowl, but prior to being mixed and dressed.

The dressing for the salad in a smaller mixing bowl, with a small whisk resting against the side of the bowl.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 16/06/2026

Same kind of story west of the mountains, too. Mercifully a _little_ cooler, but still, damn.

Screenshot of a weather info panel indicating that today was 26°F hotter than average in Seattle, with an observed high of 90°F compared to an average of 64°F for this time of year.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 09/06/2026

First test print for my game just arrived!

A drawstring fabric bag that clearly has some objects inside

A colorful dry-erase game board with the letters A-G in rainbow colors. Several arrows have been drawn between letters. A few cards showing multiple arrow options are visible above the board, as are some wooden cubes and a card identifying itself as a “Challenge!”

A similar setup, but with the board flipped over to a side with fewer colors, but with dashed lines as guides for drawing arrows

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 23/05/2026

Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash these beets Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.

My hand, dyed purplish red from chopping roasted beets, hovering above a bowl of chopped beets

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 03/05/2026

This weekend’s work has been redesigning the player board to 4x6" (up from 3.5x5, jumbo card size). Next up will be fixing the colors on the cards and convincing my rendering system to output them in the format my printer wants. I’m hoping early next week I can order a test print.

The front and back faces of the redesigned player board, printed out on my home printer and cropped to size, with safe zones marked on the edges. The front face has the letters A through G arranged in a 7-gon, with triangular segments in rainbow colors. The back face trades the colorful shapes for a more mathematical-looking diagram where circled letters are connected by dashed lines to form a complete graph on seven vertices.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 29/04/2026

Apparently if you’re me and you’re in a funk because of a frustratingly unproductive day, one possible cure for that condition is improvising a corn chowder

A hand holds aloft a matte black soup bowl, contrasting sharply with a deep golden soup inside it. The bowl is slightly tilted, giving a sense that the soup is quite thick and rich.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 28/02/2026

Damn, as much as I love them I don’t know why I don’t make lentils and rice more often. Just way over in the best quadrant of the “effort vs delicious” plot

A shallow white bowl with a wide rim, in which is a steaming pile of white rice, red lentil curry, and a small topping of fried onions and bell peppers.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 15/02/2026

Very happy with myself right now. Found myself with a thin pantry but no desire to actually go to the store (currently wearing pajama pants), yet I still threw together an improvised yangnyeom fried tofu. Pretty damn delicious.

On a white plate, a pile of fried tofu tossed in a bright red sauce. A layer of rice is just visible underneath in some spots, and it’s been garnished with sesame seeds.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 14/12/2025

I never knew how good I had it in Atlanta until I went somewhere that I couldn’t find Red Rock

A 10-oz glass bottle of Red Rock Golden Ginger Ale. “Just The Right Bite!™”

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 30/11/2025

@breetz.zone as a #thankful Kentuckian, you’ll appreciate this: leftover turkey hot brown

A cast-iron pan with some sourdough toast, roasted tomatoes, and re-roasted thick-cut turkey thighs.

The same cast iron pan, only it’s now been topped with a bechamel sauce and some bacon, then broiled until the sauce became bubbly.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

And here’s a plate with everything we brought! Turkey thigh confit with chimichurri, stuffing, parsnip purée, and turkey gravy.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

Oh, one more prep photo. We put the stuffing in the oven to get a little color on top before bringing them over.

A foil pan with the stuffing from upthread, but now with the top nicely toasted. The pan is covered with foil, which has been peeled back to serve

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

And now just that quickly, they’re beautiful! (There’s only 7 now because one of them was going a little too fast and we had to take it out early. Rest assured, we’re eating all 8)

The same thighs from the prior post, except now the skin is gorgeously browned and crispy

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

After 17 and a half hours, the turkey comes out. Looks kinda gross, right? Well, next it’s going in a 500°F oven to crisp up the skin!

Eight turkey thighs with pale, flabby skin on a sheet tray, about to go into an oven to fix that skin problem. It’s truly unfortunate that you can’t smell them through the alt text, though. They’re phenomenal.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

Stuffing saga continues: alliums (leeks, shallots, onions, and garlic) and celery sweating out in a mixture of butter and bacon fat. You cannot imagine how good the place smells right now.

A dutch oven with a bunch of finely diced vegetables, softened after cooking. There’s a wooden spoon with the end fully immersed in the veggies.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

Stuffing time: we start by rendering just a little bacon

A pan with perhaps more than “just a little” bacon, cut into lardons

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 27/11/2025

And here’s the pasta we made with the parsnip cream

A wide pasta bowl filled with cavatappi covered in a stark white cream sauce

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/11/2025

Turkey’s starting now! In a repeat of last year’s central dish, we’re confiting twelve entire turkey thighs. It’s sealed up in bags with duck fat and bay leaves, and it’ll sit in the immersion circulator for about 20 hours at 158°F.

A vacuum sealed bag containing two turkey thighs, some duck fat, and a bay leaf

Six such bags immersed in a plastic container full of water, with an Anova sous vide cooker heating it. The device is set to 158°F

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/11/2025

Also ongoing, and because I apparently never remember what a pain in the ass it is to make, I’m doing a clarified milk punch. This one has rum, falernum, cranberry simple, lemon juice, orange juice, orange zest, and spices.

A pitcher of cloudy peach-colored liquid on a table next to a bowl with a slightly clearer version of the same. Atop the bowl there’s a fine mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/11/2025

Some of the cream that the parsnips were boiled in (now heavily perfumed) gets strained off, so for dinner tonight it’s going to become a sauce for some pasta.

A different pot containing a thick cream, speckled with black pepper and thyme. There’s a spoon resting across the top and a ladle sitting in the cream. There’s also a phone shadow, but hey, I never claimed to be as good a photographer as I am a cook.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/11/2025

First dish up is the buttermilk garlic parsnip purée. The diced parsnips get boiled in buttermilk and cream, along with some garlic and thyme, then blended until smooth.

Top-down view of a pot containing puréed parsnips. An immersion blender stands proudly in it.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 31/08/2025

The PNW Tabletop Market goes live in 30 minutes! www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

The tabletop market poster, with QR code links to the same information linked in this post

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 26/08/2025

Starter packs and randomized booster packs are done! All that’s left now is to fill out some missing content on the website and design some signs for the table. Saturday’s looming, but everything’s moving apace!

Fifty-three CTF starter packs in a cardboard box. The starter packs are sorted into stacks by variant

130 booster packs arranged in two rows in a foam tray. Two of them have been removed to show the front and back of the pack. The front describes the contents (“contains six cards to customize your CTF decks. One card from each discipline, all with rarity ** or ***, + one foil card of any rarity”). The back features the message “Made with 🖤 in Seattle, WA” and an ASCII art rendition of western Washington state with a heart over Seattle.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 19/08/2025

Had a small collation party last night, putting together my starter packs. Each one has two preconstructed decks with no randomization, so on its own it’s a complete 2-player experience. Later this week I’ll be assembling small randomized booster packs that can be used to customize the decks.

Two sheets of paper with five stacks of cards on each. The top sheet has haphazard piles, each with cards of a single color. The bottom sheet has five starter packs arrayed more neatly. Three of the five starters have been sorted with a full-art card on top; the remaining two still need to be sorted.

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 16/08/2025

My small card game, CTF, now exists! I just received the print run that I’ll be selling at PAX West. If you’ll be there on the 30th (Saturday) stop by the PNW Tabletop Game Market to see it in person and check out 16 other games by amazing local designers! More photos once it’s unpacked and sorted!

Photo of the interior of a cardboard box that contains many stacks of game cards wrapped in paper bands and plastic bags. None of the card faces are visible, but some of the card backs have curly braces and some have @ signs

A poster for the PNW Tabletop Game Market.

Locally made & limited run indie games! One night only
Saturday 7-10pm
PAX West
August 30
Summit Expo Hall
Level 0
Deception Zone

There is a QR Code labeled “Exhibitors” which points to https://www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop-game-market

There is another QR Code labeled “Event Info” which points to https://west.paxsite.com/en-us/schedule/panel-information.html?gtID=907000&panel-name=PNW-Tabletop-Game-Market

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 14/07/2025

There’s a joke in mathematical circles about using a capital Xi (Ξ) to represent a complex number, and dividing by its conjugate.

Eight horizontal lines of various widths, scrawled on grid paper. It’d be frankly ridiculous to suggest that it’s intelligible in any kind of mathematical context

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Hollis makes games @hollis.computer · 14/07/2025

Realized that I forgot to take a photo of the must when I mixed it yesterday, so I made sure to grab one just now when I added the yeast!

Photo looking down into the 5-gallon fermenter from the quoted post. The liquid is a translucent purple color, and a rather large quantity of blackberries floats in it. There’s a few bubbles on top from everything being vigorously mixed, but fermentation hasn’t started in earnest yet.

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