iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Me: October seems good Enshrouded: 1.0 is releasing! Me: oh cool Warframe: we are hosting an event that only takes place once Me: oh no Where Winds Meet: here is a huge new open world map to explore Me: please stop Where Winds Meet: on a coast Me: what Starfield: new mod tools Me: please oh no

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Hollow Knight. It was okay. I don't judge folks who enjoy it, but I think its fandom was the result of luck and timing rather than ingenious level design, mechanics, or storytelling.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

They ask the player to decipher clues, investigate the area, and truly explore the space to find substance where there otherwise wouldn't be any in an open world space like this. It's a wonderful feature for a free to play game and something quite effective and resonating with the "wanderer" role.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Wandering Tales are region-specific and dependent on the player speaking with characters or interacting with objects that seem ordinary. They have no marker or guided system in place. You have a journal with notes that grows as you locate each step and complete each objective.

100

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Where Winds Meet does something interesting with its quest design. There are main quests and side quests that follow your standard formula. They come with markers and guides and entire sequences to experience. But then there are "Wandering Tales". An entirely separate framework.

100

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I made a sample Unreal level! You're a cleaner robot dealing with ice buildup in a small chunk of a futuristic city. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kySk...

youtube.com

Mars Ashton - Sample Unreal Level Summary

YouTube video by Mars Ashton

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

This is one of those "reset your algorithm by listening to it 3 times" things. "Hey there traveler".

120

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Incredible. As soon as I heard this during Tennocon I wanted this to happen.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Please share all of them this is cool.

020

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

In the 2D games I made I always maintained the initial direction and had the player to let go before switching it up. I was making a pretty frantic combat system. I found that requiring the player to commit to that new direction felt better overall, since they would be tapping both on/off A LOT.

020

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

We had a whole collection achievement quest in Possessors because one of our amazing enviro artists ran with a community inside joke about lobsters. They had the whole team naming them, we worked on finding locations for them, and none of it was ever officially approved but it was great lol

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

It doesn't matter how it gets sugar coated, thousands of people are now grieving after a major upheaval. Work they've been focused on for years? Gone. People and faces they interacted with every day? Disconnected. What is happening isn't making anything better for anyone that makes things happen.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The Vigilance one was good. Really clever use of some systems to hide secrets here and there. I dug it.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Toying around with a few project ideas while I'm unemployed and looking for work. Sample levels with documentation/downloadable resources? A Starfield "dungeon" mod? Gunsheath or Sire in Unreal?

100

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

In honor of a project I'm no longer working on, I'm going to share random memes I capped or recorded during the process.

110

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Is the stool booby trapped? Does it only recognize the butt DNA of the Staff and will attack you if you aren't one of them? What does this mean?

100

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Starfield has captured me in a way Elder Scrolls and Fallout couldn't. Like any of them, the mods really make it something special. Did you know it is #11 on nexusmods? It has more mod downloads than Morrowind. Almost as many as Fallout 3!

072

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Leo really enjoyed Best in Show. Especially Catherine O'Hara's crooked walk and Parker Posey's emotional outbursts.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

Look at this little strut. Go on there, little buddy. If anyone deserves to collect that data it is you.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Absolutely loving Willbender in #GuildWars2 with the Relic of the Pirate Queen. Perma quickness on top of insane mobility and a ton of buttons to press.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

I can't wait for this hairstyle to drop in #soulframe.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Diablo IV's Paladin has jumps like a Dragoon. :O

020

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

The new Warframe character creation options are quite a step up.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I was banned in Monster Hunter Wilds because I used a mod to get the cool scarf earlier than I was supposed to. I think this says a lot about me.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Witness my failed attempt to connect with the youth.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Where Winds Meet is such an interesting blend of open world games, the messy UI and overabundant notifications of gacha, the bad localization of an early era Dynasty Warriors, and the absolutely wild ability to opt-in to Souls-like boss fight mechanics or ignore that entirely. So it's good.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I think I'm playing a different game.

000

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

The Aquarium ended up being composed of two combined zones we were working on - the Aquarium and the Zoo. Some of the original level concepts for the Zoo involved riding gondolas between animal enclosures. The whole area was like a boss rush. Based on abandoned Zoos.

010

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

In the Royal Peak, a group of human survivors named "Severance" would be found holed up in a radio tower trying to make contact with the outside world. Luca could help them try to get the tower up and running again, much to Rhem's dismay.

110

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Very early on we had a few areas that were cut for scope, understandably. The Observatory. Royal Peak. Highway Wastes. In the Observatory, I wrote about a character named The Artist whose Possessor fed off of their creative energy. The museum-like area would've been covered in layers of graffiti.

110

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Many of the characters had internal names that shifted over time before we landed on their final ones. A few of our support NPCs were originally named after their profession/purpose. The Hunter, The Professor, The Crafter. Rhem was originally called Redd. Dessa was Desha. And Vargus.

110

Mars Ashton @marsashton.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Yo! I worked on levels for @possessors.bsky.social but did a bunch of other things too - narrative, design, writing. I wrote some of the initial drafts for our game levels. Here's a few interesting bits (I'll avoid spoilers, of course):

130

Reposted by Mars Ashton

CGMagazine @cgmagazine.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

"Possessor(s) has got style, it's got charm, and it's genuinely fun to play. Do yourself a favour and give it a look." www.cgmagonline.com/review/game/pos… #Possessors #DevolverDigital #HeartMachine

02512