iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

for almost the entire past year i've been working on a comprehensive procedural animation system essentially so i can make cutscenes using code and avoid learning actual animation and i've finally gotten things to a point where i can make things happen that don't look horrifying and terrible

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 02/10/2026

I'll be at PRGE on Saturday showing BYTE!! I haven't been to PRGE in quite literally over a decade so I'm excited to be back for it 🧛‍♀️🩸🧛‍♀️

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ’em.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 08/09/2026

my only opinion on new ocarina of time is rest in peace jpeg town ⚰️⚰️⚰️ gone but not forgotten ❤️‍🔥

An image of hyrule castle town from the N64 Ocarina of Time. The town is one static panoramic image that the 3D characters are just rendered on top of.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 07/09/2026

Just got out of the bikini kill show and feel pretty confident that kathleen hanna is the coolest human to ever live

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lex luddy needs a nap @lexluddy.xyz · 13/08/2026

Now's probably a good time to share the original conclusion of my Black Ops 7 review, which did get published for a few hours, only for someone high up at Moonrock (or above) to get upset about it, resulting in one rather noticeable cut.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 08/08/2026

I am currently in the Lloyd Center food court

Byte placed on a chair in the Lloyd center food court

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 08/08/2026

To Portland people planning on being at Lloyd Center for its last day tomorrow (💀), I’ll be hopefully setting up to sell my BYTE DVDs at Lloyderpalooza from 11-3 🩸🧛‍♀️

Center of the BYTE DVD, showing the disc and the back of the booklet

Back of the BYTE DVD, showing the soundtrack CD

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Shawn Alexander Allen @shawndoublea.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Indie devs need to start selling games drm free on CDs with printed art & potentially small manuals (and probably a steam key in the box). Go the full indie merch route. Give your fans another way to support. Indie mucisians sell singles on CDs...

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Aftermath @aftermath.site · 31/07/2026

The ghouls who run EA deserve to burn aftermath.site/ea-saudi-arabi...

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 30/07/2026

I wrote game reviews for a media site in college for about a year and across almost two dozen reviews I never received even a single note on anything I wrote

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 05/07/2026

one might choose to describe this as the greatest day of my life

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loren schmidt @lorenschmidt.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

when folks say that manual procedural generation work is not the same as generative AI, this is what we mean. it's all just humans making artistic decisions, even if it is generated. it's more often than not a highly manual process as detail oriented as when i'm manually making environments.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 26/06/2026

a couple of little announcements today of new(ish) stuff. The first is that BYTE is now available on @itch.io! Because of itch's significantly lower cut, the base price is a little less than on Steam (and this one is completely DRM-free ;P) ⚰️⚰️⚰️⚰️ jamesmartini.itch.io/byte

jamesmartini.itch.io

BYTE by James Martini

To love for all eternity is hard. To live for all eternity is even harder.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 26/06/2026

secondly, I have a new issue of my whale watching zine out now!! This one is largely about The Vampire Lestat, the show, the book, and the very real guy that I am obsessed with. Johnny Pandora also appears and a few notes from showcasing at PIGCON jamesmartini.me/posts/2026-0...

cover of Whale Watching Quarterly's June 2026 issue, styled after a punk concert poster. On the top is the vampire lestat, and on the bottom is Johnny Pandora

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 26/06/2026

jamesmartini.itch.io

BYTE by James Martini

To love for all eternity is hard. To live for all eternity is even harder.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 16/06/2026

I guess I’m still dependent on steam because I keep putting off making a new itch page for byte but I’ve long thought that Steam is a functionally useless platform for new and smaller developers now

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cain @cmddx.itch.io · 11/06/2026

alright, here's my thing for manifesto jam cmddx.itch.io/i-hate-your-...

cmddx.itch.io

I Hate Your Cozy Game by cain

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 09/06/2026

As something of a vampire expert let me tell you that if you’re not watching the vampire lestat you’re missing out on the biggest innovations in the vampire space in decades

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🐔 Brian Bucklew 🐔 ₑͤ＞∿＜ₑͤ ∞🌮 @unormal.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

we used to think games needed systems and interactivity but the truly wise know they only need systems

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 04/06/2026

Forgot to actually post anything from pigcon but if I learned one thing over the weekend it’s that my game that’s more a rewriting of the novel Dracula than it is a game really appeals to people who look like they were lit majors more than it does gamers

Picture the BYTE table at PIGCON in Portland, OR. On one monitor is the title screen of the game and the other has the trailer. The DVD-ROM and stickers are also on the table

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 25/05/2026

if you’re at @pigsquad.com’s PIGCON on Saturday, come find my table to buy a physical DVD-ROM edition of BYTE! 🩸🧛‍♀️🩸🧛‍♀️ Not only does it come with the physical disc and TWO digital codes, as well as a game booklet, but it also has an EXCLUSIVE soundtrack CD 💿💿💿💿

Front cover of the BYTE DVD release, with the cover art of Dracula’s castle and an emblem reading “PC - DVD-ROM”

The opened BYTE DVD package, showing the back of the game manual and the game disc

The back of the BYTE DVD package showing the soundtrack disc and a sticker with the contents

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Portland Indie Game Squad @pigsquad.com · 18/05/2026

PIGCON is a great way to share your game and meet other gamedev folks! The show is May 30th & 31st in Portland, and our speaker schedule is up now. pigcon.pigsquad.com Here is another lil trailer to help explain :) youtube.com/shorts/-0G0c...

youtube.com

PIGCON 2026 Trailer - Join the Portland Indie Game Squad for an indie dev con on May 30th & 31st!

YouTube video by PIGSquad

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 06/05/2026

guess who's going to be showing their hit vampire vn/rpg BYTE at @pigsquad.com's PIGCON on May 30th??? (it's me) if you're in portland come say hi and grab a sticker (special-made for this event :P)

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 06/05/2026

guess who's going to be showing their hit vampire vn/rpg BYTE at @pigsquad.com's PIGCON on May 30th??? (it's me) if you're in portland come say hi and grab a sticker (special-made for this event :P)

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Portland Indie Game Squad @pigsquad.com · 06/05/2026

Tickets are live, and the presentation schedule is up now! More details & full games list coming soon 🌲 We're just over 3 weeks away! pigcon.pigsquad.com

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 29/03/2026

last week I finished my next issue of whale watching quarterly In this issue: - Hara-Kiri: Death of a SamurAI - Skate Story: Micro-review - Death Stranding: On Games that Aren’t Games whalewatching.neocities.org/posts/2026-0...

The cover of the March 2026 issue of Whale Watching Quarterly featuring Hideo Kojima in front of a waterfall in Death Stranding holding up his Twitter bio that says “70% of my body is made of movies”. The title of the issue is “I heart games that aren’t games”

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Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I know it’s annoying that I constantly ask people to sub, but subbing makes a huge difference. @aftermath.site has around 5,000 paying subs right now; most of us still work other jobs on the side. we have over 90k bluesky followers. if a fraction subscribed, it would literally change our lives

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 27/01/2026

In a culmination of my long-standing desires to write more, have more fun, and make a zine, I’ve started a little digital zine I’ll be using to contain most of my writing and devlogs from now on whalewatching.neocities.org

whalewatching.neocities.org

Whale Watching

Whale Watching is a blog about art.

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 22/12/2025

Moved onto some other stuff for the time being but I found out about @ambientcg.com pbr materials and have decided that realism is going to be my thing now #blender #godot

A booth in a dimly lit diner with a jukebox in the background

A woman standing a the bar of the diner with counters and a fridge behind her

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 18/12/2025

BYTE’s 50% off for the Steam winter sale right now!! It’s not Halloween anymore but it’s always vampire season 🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧛‍♀️ store.steampowered.com/app/2946750/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 50% on BYTE on Steam

To live for all eternity is hard. To love for all eternity is even harder. You play as Jonathan Harker, Dracula’s real estate agent, completing work tasks while exploring the castle, speaking with its...

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 30/11/2025

work on my recreation of Portland’s Pearl District continues I now have a whole bunch of buildings, cars, and started on a diner #gamedev #godot #blender

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 29/10/2025

I’ve been trying a few different things at once but for a few different projects I want to work on i want to recreate Portland’s Pearl District in game form. So far I have a little pretty corner in progress

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 27/10/2025

It’s not on sale because it launched less than a month ago but byte’s in the Steam Scream 4 Fest right now!! You might see it buried in the rpg tags as you’re searching for cool new things to play 🧛‍♀️🩸🧛‍♀️🩸🧛‍♀️ store.steampowered.com/app/2946750/...

store.steampowered.com

BYTE on Steam

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 16/10/2025

Just got the email that byte is officially Steam Deck verified!! You can now officially trust that byte will run with full functionality on the go 🏃‍♀️ #indiedev #steamdeck #indiehorror

A screenshot of the Steam admin page showing that byte is completely Steam Deck verified

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 07/10/2025

byte’s out now(🧛‍♀️) but there are lots of punk movies I never got to so here are my letterboxd reviews of four final certified punk! classics™️ - Ikebukuro West Gate Park (2000, show) - Repo Man (1984) - Linda Linda Linda (2005) - Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Letterboxd review of ikebukuro west gate park that reads “just a cool show about boys hanging out in a bathhouse and then a park and then a bathhouse again and then getting into gang wars because a goth ballerina decides they aren’t doing enough crime and then they kiss”

Letterboxd review of Repo Man that says the movies tag line, “it’s 4 am. Do you know where your car is?” but all the letters are equally spaced one space apart

Letterboxd review of Linda Linda Linda that reads “just a wonderful delightful movie truly as fun as it gets”

Letterboxed review of velvet goldmine that reads “david bowie x iggy pop fanfiction with full frontal ewan mcgregor nudity”

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 06/10/2025

Day 5(!!!!!) of waiting for steam to respond to me. today you should watch hackers. It’s maybe the most famous punk movie and it’s awesome. Just wall to wall 90s hacker names and rollerblades

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 04/10/2025

Day 4 today’s movie is slc punk. it’s my favorite punk movie and one of my all-time favorite movies. this typically gets a little underrated in punk movie rankings because it starts out with the usual punk movie absurdity but ends shockingly honestly and seriously. I love the ending tho

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 04/10/2025

Day 3 of not being able to release byte until Steam gets back to me. Today you should watch brass knuckle boys. It’s written AND directed by the great Kankuro Kudo and it understands 21st century punk on a level I haven’t seen anywhere else (except other Kudo works)

Poster for brass knuckle boys. It has the main character, Kanna, with a lollipop in her mouth and the faces of the four band members of brass knuckle boys stamped on her face

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 02/10/2025

Still no response from Steam support so instead I’ll just post about punk movies I’ve been watching lately until byte is out. This image is from wild zero, a 1999 zombie movie that is mostly an excuse for Japanese noise rock band guitar wolf to break stuff and scream about the power of rock and roll

Movie poster for Wild Zero (1999), featuring the three members of Guitar Wolf

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 01/10/2025

Steam still has not gotten back to me about the error (bug?) blocking me from releasing byte so I’m choosing to follow the wise words of my hero guitar wolf and believe in rock and roll in order to get this game out there

An image of guitar wolf, from the band guitar wolf, in the movie wild zero, saying “Believe in rock’n’roll!”

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 01/10/2025

Actively trying to release byte but steam is just throwing an error and their support team hasn’t gotten back to me. promise the game is coming out imminently, but steam is not making it easy

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 29/09/2025

byte comes out in two days!! as part of a retrospective exercise, I wrote a little (kinda big) blog post about how byte came to be, what it is, and how I feel about it if you want to see more behind the scenes of the game open.substack.com/pub/jamesmar...

open.substack.com

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james martini @jamesmartini.me · 14/09/2025

finally got around to releasing the little (big) substack post I wrote a couple months ago about skateboarding games and how much they all annoy me open.substack.com/pub/jamesmar...

open.substack.com

Book Club Issue #3: Session: Skate Sim

Full title, "Session: Skate Sim reminds me that video games are a corporate shithole cosplaying as art", but that's kinda long

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