iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 01/10/2026

I don't write here often but I do have a podcast! You can listen to me talk about random topics including collecting Lego, game design, parenting a toddler etc etc. open.spotify.com/show/02JIP2A...

open.spotify.com

Matthew Gatland’s low effort podcast

Podcast · Matthew Gatland · Taking about whatever’s on my mind which may be about toy collecting, game design or living in a world.

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 19/09/2026

Reason number X for why low budget indie games have better gamefeel than AAA

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Elizabeth DeLoria, Pope of Chili-Town @yourdadloves.me · 18/09/2026

People would be shocked how often a romance mechanic is planned or pitched for a game that could genuinely benefit from it, only to be blocked by a single oldhead dude in leadership despite everyone else being into the idea because he thinks romance game play is "weird" or "cringe."

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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

rip annie dillard

One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

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✧ SkyMagpie ✧ (left my ❤︎ in Undermine) @skymagpie.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I was worried if my comic is perhaps too self indulgent, but then I remembered the words of Björk and now I need to make it even more self indulgent 🥰

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Douglas Wilson @doougle.net · 09/09/2026

This Imbroglio post (Part 3) in particular is an all-timer: mightyvision.blogspot.com/2016/06/imbr... Genuinely, it's worth playing Imbroglio just so that you can read this. Beautifully insightful density of design process and idiosyncratic thinking:

mightyvision.blogspot.com

imbroglio notes 3 - monsters

I expected each enemy to have a simple rule variation like in 868-HACK - this one moves faster, this one has a ranged attack. Maybe element...

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droqen and 24 others @droqen.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

i was disappointed as a kid when majora's mask ended and it was like a cutscene of this happy town but you couldn't walk around it and see how happy everyone was

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Brendon Chung @blendogames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I wrote a post about how I love BSP/brush mapping: blendogames.com/news/post/20...

a screenshot of the DarkRadiant level editor, showing a level from the game Skin Deep

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Jake Eakle @jseakle.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

a hot take i'm developing is that the existence of LLMs is forcing a lot of people to really think about and articulate, for the first time, what art /is/, and that's good. not like, good enough to offset many bad things, but really very good.

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 10/08/2026

Dad: Do you want water? Toddler: No. Dad: Do you want water inside this cup? T: No. Dad: I’ll put water inside this cup and leave it on the table. Anyone who wants it can take it. T (taking the water): T wants it.

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Holly Gramazio @hollygramazio.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I have started a new todo list system where each week if something fills me with a sense of immense dread and guilt it goes on a separate Shame List and as soon as I've done one thing from the Shame List each week I don't have to look at it or think about it again until the following Monday

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Tom Francis @pentadact.com · 31/07/2026

"We call these boomer shooters." "Right, cos of all the booming." 'Oh, no that's not why." "Then why?" (Deep breath) "So in the aftermath of the second world war..."

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shmuplations.com @shmuplations.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Today we have something special: a newly translated interview from July 1996 between Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Eno! Conducted just weeks after the launch of Mario 64, Eno takes Miyamoto to task (in a friendly way) with several fascinating critiques of its design. shmuplations.com/miyamotoxeno/

shmuplations.com

Shigeru Miyamoto x Kenji Eno (1996) - shmuplations.com

In July 1996, Kenji Eno visited Nintendo HQ to speak with Shigeru Miyamoto as the first of his "cross-talk" series.

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Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

For a while I've been noodling on a taxonomy of decision types. I'm not convinced it's fully baked, but I already have been using it successfully in my design process, so I thought I might share it here in its current form. At the moment there's 5 types.

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Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 16/06/2026

The social internet got turned into a giant dopamine farm by a handful of companies who literally hired the same psychologists who design casino floor layouts, and the policy-makers just threw up their hands and said "guess we better ban kids from using the internet then"

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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I wrote a manifesto for making games, and (not) selling them, for #manifestojam illomens.itch.io/no-one-is-go...

illomens.itch.io

NO-ONE IS GOING TO BUY YOUR GAME by ill omens

A Manifesto For Making Games

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wolf pupy @wolfpupy.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

The Mandalorian and Grogu introduces a second smaller Baby Grogu (Known as Little Grogu in Japan and Small Grogu in Europe) that follows the original Grogu around, eating things and doing funny stuff.

a still from The Mandalorian and Grogu featuring Grogu and Baby Grogu

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Leigh Alexander @leighalexander.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

“what is an adventure game?”

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Laurie Voss @seldo.com · 01/06/2026

Computers are just Wrong By Default now.

Screenshot of a conversation where Claude initially calculated total playtime as 76 minutes 18 seconds, but was told to use Python to calculate the actual result and got 80 minutes 58 seconds instead, then apologized.

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Rick Brewster @rickbrew.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

I GOT THE DOMAIN! I FINALLY GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!1 🥳🎉 Paint.NET is now at paint.net! Well, it will be just as soon as I push all the buttons to migrate content and set up redirects from getpaint.net etc. For now it's just a "hey go here" redirect page.

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WebDesignMuseum @webdesignmuseum.org · 19/05/2026

Photoshop logo evolution 1988–2025

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sylvie @sylviefluff.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I like when older games have a distinctive flavour because they have elements that fell out of fashion over time, and those elements start to feel novel when compared with newer games, and that's a big part of why playing older games is exciting to me.

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kastelpls (かすっち) @highimpactsex.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

bennett foddy posted a deeply insightful comment on @sylviefluff.bsky.social’s games and i think it captures a lot why i found her games so reinvigorating to play. rather than finding rules to solve problems, why not find funny interactions? itch.io/post/14821693

> After playing Discover the World, I started to wonder: are these effects really 'mechanics'? We teach people at game design school that games are made up of mechanics, and mechanics are rules that are invented by the game designer to control the flow of play. Of course it sometimes happens that a side-effect of the rules or maybe an unintended effect of the implementation will be enjoyable and will end up being kept. But couldn't someone try to make a project of creating whole games out of 'allowing effects to exist' instead of 'inventing rules to produce specific effects'? I think that would look a lot like your library of work.

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maybe: annie rauwerda @annierau.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

"openai.com" was once the personal homepage of a guy named glenn (2001), and "tiktok.com" was the quaint shared homepage of a couple as their relationship progressed from dating to married with a baby (2000). THREAD!!!

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Scott Santens @scottsantens.com · 25/04/2026

After reading this newest essay of mine, one of my readers said via email, "This is probably the best article I've ever read advocating for UBI. And one of the best you've ever written." If you haven't read it yet, please do. Maybe you will feel the same way. 🎲 www.scottsantens.com/the-angine-d...

scottsantens.com

The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI

Why Angine de Poitrine's viral microtonal math rock KEXP session, Ireland's permanent basic income for artists, and Albert Einstein are three sides of the same human triangle Two guys in papier-mâc...

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BearhAHHH!!t @fussybabybit.ch · 21/04/2026

Hey man, we cool? I just noticed that when I look at you the reticle turns red.

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Cara Ellison @caraellison.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Doom is a form of mum game. Any game in which you clean the level meticulously and thoroughly before moving on and then the next time you return its a mess again is a mum game

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Jon Deadvies 🦖 🔜 Pixel Art Park (Tokyo) @sovanjedi.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Okay so you might see this video with the audio muted. Now imagine how the music must sound like. I urge you to unmute and listen to what it's actually like because I guarantee you you're not prepared for it.

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revolution.social Podcast @revolution.social · 20/03/2026

“Listen wherever you get your podcasts” is the simplest explanation of decentralization. @bridgettodd.bsky.social, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet, explains how podcasts are portable and resistant to centralized control. Full ep, out now.

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Mr. Hands is making SuccuDeck 😈🃏 @mrhands31.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

If we're doing game design doc discourse, I highly, highly recommend following this template from @kchironis.bsky.social

Clown Nose Feature

For a game that doesn't exist, called World of Clowncraft

Goals

Add thematic content to our upcoming "Everything Is More Clowns" DLC

Give players a new method of communication which touches on our project pillar of Horrifying Nonverbal Player Communication

Flesh out the available player customization options in response to player feedback that "there are honestly just not enough nose customization options"

Players have especially called out the lack of humorous/silly customization as a pain point and are requesting more content in this category

Proposed Design

On the wearer

The clown nose is a nose players can equip in the dressing room menu.

When activated, the clown nose occupies the nose customization slot.

If the player is wearing the clown nose, they see a honk button added to their primary player Ul when they are in explore mode. This button is to the right of the other player interaction options in the hotbar.

Hitting the honk button does the following:

Produces "honk" SFX

Spawns a "honk" VFX (maybe a red toon-y sparkle from the player's face?)

The honk has no cooldown. Honking in valid Morse Code causes the honks to be translated using our in-game subtitle system for other players to see and read.

On listening players

The honk noise can be heard from up to 100 meters away.

If any players have the turn player sounds off setting active, the honk cannot be heard.

The first time a player receives a honk sfx, if they do not have turn player sounds off active, they get a small Ul toast in the corner of their screen with a message noting that these sfx can be turned off via that menu.

Eval Criteria

Players from our customization-heavy demographic slice report satisfaction.

Players on the receiving end of the clown nose do not feel annoyed or overwhelmed and understand how to opt out of this feature if desired.

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Dia Lacina @dialacina.com · 14/03/2026

Jesus this is insightful banger after banger.

Yes, you will hit the limits of this machine. 8GB of RAM and a phone chip will see to that. But the limits you hit on the Neo are resource limits — memory is finite, silicon has a clock speed, processes cost something. You are learning physics. A Chromebook doesn’t teach you that. A Chromebook’s ceiling is made of web browser, and the things you run into are not the edges of computing but the edges of a product category designed to save you from yourself. The kid who tries to run Blender on a Chromebook doesn’t learn that his machine can’t handle it. He learns that Google decided he’s not allowed to. Those are completely different lessons.

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 06/03/2026

This Lego truck was just a little impulse buy but I had a great time building it tonight. Maybe because it’s from a 3-in-1 pack, it’s full of parts used in creative and unexpected ways. Surprising to the end! Set 31007

A green Lego pickup truck (set 31007). Behind are instruction manuals for building the truck, a helicopter or a robot mech. In front are some unused pieces.

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 05/02/2026

After several nights of practice, my son can fall asleep while holding a Hotwheels car in each hand without dropping them or releasing his grip

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Lars Rosenquist @calvobianco.com · 03/02/2026

1Password not mincing words here: "If you are experimenting with OpenClaw, do not do it on a company device. Full stop." "If you have already run OpenClaw on a work device, treat it as a potential incident and engage your security team immediately." 1password.com/blog/from-ma...

1password.com

From magic to malware: How OpenClaw's agent skills become an attack surface | 1Password

The same capabilities that make OpenClaw a groundbreaking tool also make it an urgent security risk. This blog contains confirmed examples of agent skills being used as malware vectors, and advice on ...

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Holly Gramazio @hollygramazio.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

This NYT-Connections-alike is very upsetting thomaswc.com/2025.html

thomaswc.com

2025

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Derek Yu @mossmouth.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Keep thinking about this term "pre-digested" that Kojima used to describe art that's instantly gratifying. And how it's better when people grow to love something instead. I've gravitated, as player and designer, toward the latter, but that term "pre-digested" is new and feels very strong.

And he said, "If everyone likes it, it means it's mainstream. It means it's conventional. It means it's already pre-digested for people to like it. And I don't want that. I want people to end up liking things they didn't like when they first encountered it, because that's where you really end up loving something."

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Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

at a certain level of any creative or intellectual collaborative job the main task is sin-eater: to fix what you can and get blamed for what you can’t, secretly knowing how much worse it would have been if you hadn’t done what you did.

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kottke.org @kottke.org · 16/10/2025

Good luck losing less than an hour to this: a huge archive of logos for government, non-profit, private, military, and even fictional space agencies and companies. [kottke.org]

kottke.org

The Space Exploration Logo Archive

Good luck losing less than an hour to this: a huge archive of logos for government, non-profit, private, military, and even fictional space agencies and companies. There is also a book, but it looks like it was only

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Katie Chironis @kchironis.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

friday soapbox: as a designer, if you want something to be a skillful action for players, and you want growth in this skill to be very deep/meaningful, then you need to also let players be bad at it. sometimes horrendously bad. players hate this pain, and designers often want to mitigate it away.

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 22/10/2025

I want to get a good price on a Lego set that’s retiring at the end of this year. I’m watching the price in maybe eight different stores, seeing it get discounted (but not enough for me) and then sell out in more and more of them. Will anyone have stock left for the big Black Friday sales?

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 21/10/2025

This might be the one I use the most:

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Katie Chironis @kchironis.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

developer: put it down. we don't need another one concept artist: (clutching tighter) no. this is my emotional support sky whale

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Matthew Gatland @mgatland.com · 09/10/2025

I can’t believe I didn’t know this. The feature was added in 1993!

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Catsuka @catsuka.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe) to direct a "Moomins" animated feature film. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

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Sacha Judd @sachajudd.com · 28/09/2025

OMG this is amazing www.instructables.com/LEGO-Skeleto...

a giant lego skeleton made out of styrofoam as a halloween decoration

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sylvie @sylviefluff.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

it's frustrating when, for example, in a platformer, there's a really hard jump right at the end of the level. so you can come up with game design rules like don't put hard jumps at the end of the level, put something that looks scary but is actually easy to make the player feel good, etc.

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