iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by John Hopson

Rebecca von Groote @beccavongroote.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

My friend loves the Gnoles in @tkingfisher.com 's World of the White Rat books. So I dressed up this little guy for her (I did not make the plush- not that many spoons). But the advantage of being a reenactment nerd is when you ask friends for Wool scraps, they deliver.

Side view of a badger plush in a crazy quilt vest.

Other side view of a badger plush in a crazy quilt vest.

1539243

Reposted by John Hopson

Games User Research @gamesur.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

ICYMI: Tickets are now on sale for the #GamesUR Conference 2026 held in Helsinki on October 22–23, 2026. A General Admission or Student ticket is required for attending the conference in-person. Hope to see you in there! Purchase Tickets on Eventbrite now! www.eventbrite.fi/e/gamesur-co...

eventbrite.fi

#GamesUR Conference 2026

The #GamesUR Conference is the annual gathering of the Games User Research community

035

Reposted by John Hopson

Lissanna @lissanna.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Tickets are now on sale for the #GamesUR Conference 2026, which is the annual gathering of the Games User Research Community. The conference will be held in Helsinki on October 22–23, 2026. We hope to see you in October! www.eventbrite.fi/e/gamesur-co...

eventbrite.fi

#GamesUR Conference 2026

The #GamesUR Conference is the annual gathering of the Games User Research community

046

Reposted by John Hopson

Pile Of Garbage @pileofgarbage.net · 01/09/2026

I love how Werner Herzog is ALWAYS like this:

10869471793

Reposted by John Hopson

Kim Acuff Steiner @emberdione.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I saw this picture and immediately had to show it to some level designers.

214394780

Reposted by John Hopson

Tara Voelker @tarav.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

So, who’s hiring? (Yes, I was impacted by the Netflix layoffs even though I was the single accessibility person in gaming.)

1825690

Reposted by John Hopson

Maytera Marble @mayteramarble.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Harrison Ford, the actor behind loveable scoundrels Han Solo and Indiana Jones, started his career as an on-set carpenter. That makes him a roguelike deckbuilder.

3540141131

Reposted by John Hopson

Norm Charlatan @normcharlatan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Rainier Cherries the 2 weeks each year they have them at my Costco $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying

331825131

Reposted by John Hopson

Max Hoberman @maxhoberman.com · 20/05/2026

I’ve spent the last decade applying my game and UX design background to a new project: a high-fidelity, plant-based restoration of Persian cuisine. No fake meats. Just a strict protocol to fix standard cookbook chaos. The beta site is live: verdanttablecookbook.com

verdanttablecookbook.com

The Verdant Table

Classic & Regional Plant-Based Persian Cooking

051

Reposted by John Hopson

Dan Johnson, 💀Socialist💀 @coil.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Don't make me get the whole meme

Two panels from the first Calvin & Hobbes comic strip.

1. Calvin's dad washing dishes as Calvin walks by in a pith helmet. Dad: "they like making games, huh?" Calvin: "Game devs will do ANYTHING for making games."

2. Hobbes hanging upside down in a trap, eating a sandwich. "We're kind of stupid that way."

0153

Reposted by John Hopson

WRONG or METAPHYSICAL IN NATURE @jsthrill.modphi.com · 07/05/2026

Calvin’s dad voice: The two types of philosophy are mysticism and lists. All philosophy falls into one of these two categories. Plato? Mysticism. Aristotle? Lists. Confucius? Lists. Zhuangzi? Mysticism. Despite constantly talking about true essences and infinite attributes, Spinoza is lists.

1536390

Reposted by John Hopson

Ryan Moulton @moultano.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Generational tweet that might even spawn a school of architecture.

Cairo Smith:
There's a common misconception that Brutalist buildings were unpainted, but thanks to microscopic analysis of the exteriors we can now recreate what they looked like in their prime.

17494481745

Reposted by John Hopson

Charles Harte @chuckduck365.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

If your job doesn’t revolve around video games and you’re constantly thinking, “god, I wish I had more time to play video games,” I am devastated to report that my job does revolve around games and I still think that exact thought every day of my life

1996094

Reposted by John Hopson

Retro Computers @retrocomps.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Forbes: Corporate Warrior (1997)

In the red and gold grid background, a businessman faces a scrolling screen of business statistics. In the foreground, a suited businessman wears a VR helmet, with green light streaming from the interface. The title promises "The Only Action-Packed 3D Business Strategy Game", the motto states "Business is WAR!", and a brief pull quote says "Doom meets Wharton School. Aspiring capitalists test their mettle in FORBES CORPORAE WARRIOR where aggressiveness and savvy decision making can build empires. - Crain's"

3486

Reposted by John Hopson

Erin Roseberry 🔜 SPX B5 @roseberrycomix.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Today's my birthday and I'd like to share a new comic with you, it's called Marginalia. It's a love letter to all the weirdness of medieval manuscripts, and you can read it by unfolding a single sheet of paper! 1/5

hands holding a small, folded up comic, titled Marginalia with a medieval dragon-snail creature on its cover.

10380146

Reposted by John Hopson

Andrew Weldon @andrew-weldon.design · 25/03/2026

So hey! In more concrete terms: I got hit by the Epic layoff yesterday. - Looking for Senior/Principal/Lead-ish roles around Level Design, Technical Design, Systems Design, etc. - Strong preference for US/Seattle/Remote Site is a little rough from the last time around, but: andrew-weldon.design

andrew-weldon.design

Andrew Weldon

Game design portfolio for Andrew Weldon

12245149

Reposted by John Hopson

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 14/02/2026

So much of our present crisis is coddled, ignorant, and short sighted people tearing down the institutions that protect them because they don’t understand that bad things can happen.

That old saw about how "good times make weak men" is true in the sense that stable times with material abundance create reactionaries who want to destroy the systems that protect them because they're too sheltered and stupid to understand that things can get meaningfully worse.
Jason CO
@jasonc_nc. 2/8/25
I don't think a lot of people appreciate how much of their overall lifestyle and relative certainty is backstopped by a steady, boring stability of systems they don't understand or even realize exist.
• 24
L7 1.8K
15K
Ill 399K
...
Max Dubler
@maxdubler
True decadence looks like people who are three generations removed from the cultural memory of polio refusing to vaccinate their children against deadly communicable diseases because they don't like needles and don't think there will be any consequences, not queer

313225795

Reposted by John Hopson

Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

My favorite artifact in the "you don't need AI to do art" discourse is, of course, screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's sketch of the facehugger to explain it to Giger.

A 2 panel sketch disgram of a 1 meter tall pod. in the second panel, an oval section pops off and a demonic little face with short tentacles flies out, crudely drawn.

7592312859

Reposted by John Hopson

Bill Amend @billamend.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

4851111151

Reposted by John Hopson

Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 02/02/2026

Today, judging the games at the Groningen Global Game Jam location, one of the developers said "Oh, and you can press `F` to call your mom" and so I pressed it but I was a tiny green alien so then mom alien appeared on in-game voice chat and obliterated the enemies around me with an orbital cannon

1734732

Reposted by John Hopson

The Game Accessibility Conference @gaconf.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The winner of the MVP Award for Unsung Hero at the 2025 GAConf Accessibility Awards is.. @lissanna.bsky.social! Info on all the finalists & winners: www.gaconf.com/gaconf-award...

1152

Reposted by John Hopson

Aram Shabanian @aramshabanian.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

via Minneapolis photographer Chris Juhn on Facebook

23572203110

Reposted by John Hopson

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 17/12/2025

The US Administration has banned Americans from *adopting babies* from much of the African continent. Adopting. Babies. What trait do those babies have that, when they grow up as fully American adults, would make them a threat to our country in any form?

134271159

Reposted by John Hopson

Cliff PervoSCARY @pervocracy.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

The older I get, the more my politics mature from childish, naïve beliefs like "the world is complicated and leaders have to make hard decisions" to more serious, adult principles like "hurting people is bad and helping people is good."

45253425500

Reposted by John Hopson

Emmanuel Clement @clementcomposer.com · 11/12/2025

'Let it Snow' with all the positive lines removed

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

And since we've no place to go

It doesn't show signs of stopping

How I hate going out in the storm

The fire is slowly dying

10741881058

Reposted by John Hopson

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 04/09/2023

balance of power, game over screen, msx (1988) mobygames.com/game/259/bal...

text: you have ignited a nuclear war. and no, there's no animated display of a mushroom cloud with parts of bodies flying through the air.

we do not reward failure.

121897612

Reposted by John Hopson

Lissanna @lissanna.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

The biggest surprise in this year's GUR Speaker Summit is that we didn't have enough data for the 2025 salary survey. Games User Researchers, please fill out the survey now! Also please share the survey link with your GUR friends/coworkers! gamesursalarysurvey.com

gamesursalarysurvey.com

GamesUR Salary Survey 2025/2026

134

Reposted by John Hopson

Jordan DeVries 🔜 NYCC @jordandevries.com · 27/11/2025

"ooh! what if we—" what if we stuck to the plan we originally agreed to and i mentally prepared for. what if we did that

58015

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

The fastest time to die in a video game is the original Karateka. The player spawns next to a cliff and can die immediately by taking one step backwards.

030

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I loved this talk from @rich-lem.bsky.social when I first saw it at GDC, and it inspired me to push for our own in-engine data visualizations for Destiny.

A 3d visualization from the in-house game editor for Destiny, showing yellow lines between locations where players (blue dots) were killed by enemies (red dots).

0132

Reposted by John Hopson

Colin Wheelock @satchamobob.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Hey folks. I was impacted by the layoffs at Amazon today. If you or someone you know is in need of a UX Researcher with multiple years of experience leading or supporting research initiatives, games or otherwise, please DM me or reach out to me on LinkedIIn. www.linkedin.com/in/cdwheelock

02616

Reposted by John Hopson

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Elvis is the rare celebrity of yesteryear that if anything would fit in even more today because he was super into self defense and being high on drugs and talking to a crooked President and dating a teenager, he’d 100000% have a crypto thing going on

683219358

Reposted by John Hopson

Nathan Edwards @grackle.space · 22/09/2025

dudes rock

Tumblr post from every-lemon
Sep 8

so my spouse is part of a weirdly intense but mostly benign men's workout group that meets at like, 5:30am outside every day, even in winter. they do a lot of burpees and lugging cinder blocks up hills and stuff.
they take turns leading the workouts and tomorrow is his turn. I asked what he was planning. he handed me a sheet of William Carlos William poems from a large stack he'd printed.
I said "what" and he explained, helpfully, "it's a William Carlos William themed workout." I asked what inspired it and he said "l've been planning this for months."

Follow up tumblr post
every-lemon
Sep 9
it was a smash hit.
a dozen guys showed up (more than usual). spouse brought a red wheelbarrow and they took turns bringing cinder blocks up the hill with it. then they broke up in teams and did a relay with an "icebox" (cooler filled with 40lbs of ice). at the end he opened the cooler to reveal it was full of beach plum lacroix and all the guys cheered. they drank sparkling water as he read 'approach of winter' out loud.
he was home by 6:30am.

9396952170

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

100% this Whenever folks outside the industry say things like “why don’t devs just do [extra thing]?”, it translates in my head to “you’re already juggling twelve greased chainsaws while walking a tightrope. Why can’t you just light them on fire as well?”

050

Reposted by John Hopson

The Game Accessibility Conference @gaconf.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Speaker announcement📢 The full lineup for GAConf USA 2025 is now online, including lots of previously unannounced talks - from FC26 to the Nhuad controller, from AbleToPlay to South of Midnight! gaconf.com/schedule Sept 29th - 30th, registration at gaconf.com #gamedev #indiedev

GAconf, IGDA-GASIG. Advancing accessibility for disabled players. Hybrid online & Archer Hotel, Redmond. September 29th - 30th 2025. TIGA awards winner, CIPT awards winner, MCV Develop awards finalists, EN awards winner, Business Awards UK winner.

04333

Reposted by John Hopson

Retro Computers @retrocomps.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

The Sharp Tranket transistor radio (1960)

A radio that combines the design language of old American muscle cars and the spacerace. The top is forest green with tailfins, the bottom is ivory white, and the front is shining silver, on a silver stand. Up top we find a single antenna, a red power/volume dial, and you turn the 'intake" of the rocket to change the stations (the tuning display is immediately behind the engine, incoporated into the body).

11527111

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

My book, The Secret Science of Games, is free on Kindle today! Disclaimer: This book contains angry rants, embarrassing game dev stories I shouldn’t have included, questionable life advice, and a lot of strong opinions on how to make games. #games #gamedev #ux #uxr www.amazon.com/Secret-Scien...

amazon.com

The Secret Science of Games

Amazon.com: The Secret Science of Games eBook : Hopson, John: Kindle Store

0114

Reposted by John Hopson

Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 31/07/2025

excited to get 'what i do' (my series interviewing individuals about their specific jobs in the games industry) back on the site and this was GREAT, @bentaels.bsky.social has some extremely interesting stuff to say about UX, as well as dispelling some myths about the field

17713

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Amazing things that benefit everyone can come from optimizing for small groups of weirdos. One that sticks in my mind is the small roller bags that we all use for travel, which were originally designed for flight attendants.

130

Reposted by John Hopson

Rake! 🍃🍁🍂 @spriteborne.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Confluence is a detective/mystery game

111217

Reposted by John Hopson

James Berg @jamesbergcanada.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Unfortunately I've been impacted by this round of Xbox layoffs. I'll miss being part of Team Green, and judging from other folks I'm seeing that also got hit, at least I'm in some fantastic company. So, looking for my next opportunity - more info: www.linkedin.com/posts/james-...

linkedin.com

This week's Xbox RIF has me looking for my next opportunity. | James Berg

This week's Xbox RIF has me looking for my next opportunity. Or possibly to retire to a cabin in the deep woods somewhere. To preempt many friends and colleagues, no, I am not in fact accepting vo...

31611

John Hopson @johnhopson.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

In case you're having a bad day, here's a picture of a stone from an ancient roman seal ring showing a mouse riding in a tiny chariot pulled by a rooster.

030

Reposted by John Hopson

Internet Archive @archive.org · 23/06/2025

How do government documents, locked away on tiny sheets of microfiche, become searchable & accessible online? Now you can see it happen in real time. 🎞️⤵️ Watch it live: www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5R... #InternetArchive #LiveStream #LiveNow

youtube.com

lofi Archive radio 🎞️ beats to scan/read microfiche to

Off Hours? Watch a 2hr stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gibUecoF1bEEver wonder how government documents, locked away on tiny sheets of microfiche, b...

4385118

Reposted by John Hopson

Mr. theMoon @sheepthemoon.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Just saw a comedian say "If vaccines caused autism then America would have trains" and I almost spit out my drink.

3883742408