iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

you sent me down a mini research rabbit hole, and I am amending my cost prediction to "tbd."

Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It is unfortunate, but hopefully temporary. That amount of coding is expensive as shit, right now it's a combination of subsidization by the AI companies, and people overpaying to satisfy their curiosity. Won't last and CERTAINLY won't get any cheaper. Might not get any smarter.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Coding Summoner Wars Online on stream today. Starts in 3 minutes. twitch.tv/joepinion

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Did you use hole punches for the smaller and larger round tokens?

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Nick, thx for sharing stuff like this, VERY rare to get insight on this zone of publishing.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

When working with Isaac on Forgotten Waters, I thought he'd be all artsy and I'd be all thinky.... but we overlapped a lot more than I expected. Any mix can work. The more opposite you are, the more you can delegate and trust the other person. The more you overlap, the more important chemistry is.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

2 additional interviews with awesome people already recorded for the next 2 weeks so subscribe if you want to see those. For those who don't have time to sit through the whole hour, I'll post some shorts later this week. Thx to Zoë for being a part of it!

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Introducing the BrumbleCast, a 3 part series that's an excuse for me to chat with cool 🎲✂️ folks like @dxdydz.northsky.social who create games as experiences and art first instead of as products. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR3L...

youtube.com

Board Games You Don't Buy: Brumble Cast Ep 1 with Zoë

YouTube video by BrumbleCast

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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Right now, you have an economy where people are getting choked out because they don’t have the basic means for a dignified life because we are more focused on allowing a billionaire to make another billion” - Abdul El-Sayed ~~ No lies detected.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I made this with my elementary school-aged kid. We don't know what we're doing with lighting or sound, but I still found the result really fun XD

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Oh man I cannot WAIT for lunchtime to arrive so I can watch this 20 minute video of former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin showcasing his 10-year quest to make an massive elaborate minecraft city. Wildest thing I've seen this week.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This story is so beautiful, thank you for sharing!

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Z @dxdydz.northsky.social · 28/09/2026

One night, when my oldest kid was 1 or 2, as I was putting her to bed, she said, "We need to do the Ceremony of Time." Well, who can resist an offer like that?

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

3 levels of concentration while working: 1. Unfocused. Music playing over speakers. Not particularly focused. Casual easy work. 2. Focused. Music off. Need to think to be productive, no distractions. 3. Super focused. Headphones on. Music at dangerous volume levels. Completely locked in.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

You made me lol. Not only is it intimidating, there's a massive swath of people that it's just not gonna be fun for due to the high level of crunch, no matter how experienced they are with gaming. (And I love the game!) My group played a rule wrong for years until the digital version corrected us.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

yeah been watching taskmaster. Got the bike on fb marketplace for $15. Just BARELY squeezed it into my car.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I actually love it but my skeleton is too fragile. I've given it up finally due to always getting injured. Unfortunately it's just too rough. Been doing stationary bike lately, much gentler.

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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Going from claiming your company is working on technology that might destroy humanity to leaking you’re on track to generate $100 billion in sales this year, just in time for the IPO. Makes it hard to defend the claims that this hasn’t all been a cynical form of marketing and regulatory capture.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

but media never stops falling for the grift.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Weird 🎲✂️ takes a lot longer than designing a more conventional game, maybe by an order of magnitude. Either one can yield an awesome or sucky game, but the weird games take longer.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I love a thoughtful comment on a low ranking.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I just mean instead of being like "instead of doing x, you should do y!" I ask "what's the thought process behind x vs the other options"

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If I can tell they have a high standard of quality, I really just play and ask questions abt the design. As a designer I know from experience they just need to watch me play. If it's an inexperienced designer who might trick themselves into thinking silence = game is perfect, I'll chat a lot more.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A hard to describe 🎲✂️ concept is explicit rules theming vs implicit "feel" theming. Easy to overdo rules that explicitly model a theme, like a complex, slow, boring race car game. Sometimes you just need 1 or 2 good hooks for a theme to punch. Positive example: Engelstein's Super Skill Pinball.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Finally started watching Taskmaster and it's as good as I hoped. My advice is just start with the Mantzoukas season to get hooked. Then watch seasons at random. Man I am such a sucker for game show+comedy. Would love to sink my 🎲✂️ teeth into such a venture some day.

static.klipy.com

Taskmaster Alex Horne

ALT: Taskmaster Alex Horne

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

haha, no, here, people wanting to join us

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Was sick for a few days, just found the 5 additional msgs about our game, sorry for the delayed responses!

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

What percentage of the work day do you all spend selecting the ideal gif reaction for the work chat? Above or below 80%?

static.klipy.com

ALT:

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Yeah I like playing them (well, the good ones) but I can't imagine demanding that much from players.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm dumbfounded as to how complex board games get 🎲✂️'d. I love complex games. Every time I make something heavy, people get confused and I have to streamline. Prototype UX problems get multiply with complexity. I'm thinking you need a playtest group that really REALLY loves complex games.

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Buy Mass Effect The Board Game! @ithayla.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

just played this. it freaking rules. if this finds the right audience plaid hat has a hit on their hands.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

send me a chat if you're interested, can get you involved.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Response to this is actually getting hard to manage! lol love the bsky game design feed. I do want to be clear I am the DEVELOPER of this game hence why I said "developing" a new game. But I've been deeply involved in shaping it for over a year like I said. Many many iterations.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

would love to show it to you! send me a chat and we can figure it out.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Hi 🎲✂️ friends, for over a year I've been developing a new, highly asymmetric 2-player game for Plaid Hat with a fantasy theme and a lot of Netrunner inspiration. Please send me a chat here if you are interested in playtesting it on screentop.gg or via print and play.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Working on Summoner Wars Online live on twitch today. About to start: twitch.tv/joepinion

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Good game hosts and game teachers are as valuable (and as rare) as good DMs.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Yeah just personal preference from me, I want something different from those customers.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

don't know why I used the word "directly" 3 times in 1 post lol

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It's crazy, Colby didn't mention it directly, but when we don't include a deluxe tier, or exclusives, people actually complain to you directly. So at a certain point, it's not even manipulation, it's giving people directly what they ask for. Why do they want it? I don't know, it's not for me.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Ha. Sometimes I just don't have the energy and that's when a video game wins out. But otherwise, confused as to how people seem to do both.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Meanwhile, movies, TV, and novels pretty much haven't happened for a few years except for the shows I love the most.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

How do ya'll balance creative output tasks like 🎲✂️ with things like watching movies and playing video games? I find that I only have time for one or the other, so if I have the energy for game design, I do that and no video games get played. Too tired? Video games. So I'm missing out no matter what.

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Cool to see that we are objectively awesome. 😁

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Rosalina wearing her derpy face this morning.

Black and white pet snake with a derby face

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Joseph Arthur Ellis @jarthurellis.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I dont solve problems this way, its just a surefire method for getting me back to sleep haha

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