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Carolyn VanEseltine

@mossdogmusic.bsky.social
131 followers 88 following 94 posts

Still game dev, Amazon, she/her, etc. Just much quieter these days.

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Reposted by Carolyn VanEseltine
Failbetter Games | Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 30/09/2026
We're hiring! We're looking for a Writer and Narrative Designer to join the Fallen London team at a senior or mid level. This position is permanent, remote, and full time, which for us means 35 hours a week. #GamesJobs
Night. The House of Chimes - a tower which you might immediately think of as Big Ben - is adrift in the River Thames. It still seems to be keeping time. In the background, a large, alien building looms over the city of London.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Optimist: the glass is half full Pessimist: the glass is half empty Principal engineer: I'm not sure you've scaled this cup correctly based on the amount of liquid that's actually in it. Let's go through your business use case.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Let's say that ten years ago, you wrote a IF game which had multiple endings and a fancy hidden puzzle. And let's say that, so far as you know, no one in the IF community has ever discovered the puzzle. ... would it be worth following up on? If so, how would you do it? Asking for a friend.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 03/08/2026
Super useful. I figure a lot of us here in the Sky know this stuff already, but it might be handy to hand to parents, grandparents and pals who are less technically minded. www.librarian.net/NoToAI/
librarian.net
How to disable or avoid intrusive AI – librarian.net
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Rep. Jim McGovern @repmcgovern.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
WE WILL STOP FASCISM. 🇺🇸
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R. Eric Reuss @rericreuss.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Interesting thread on supply-chain food-safety vulnerabilities in the food industry and how things can go sideways (endlinked for maximum unroll)
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Did Google just offer to help me with high stakes corporate sabotage???
Screenshot of Google. Input: "they sent me to take you down" Output: "Tell them they are going to need a much bigger squad.What's the play here? Are we talking about a video game boss fight, a high-stakes corporate sabotage, or do you just need me to roast whoever sent you? Let me know how I can help you outsmart this mission!"
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Reposted by Carolyn VanEseltine
Danielle @cirne.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
It's time, folks. Unfucking The World launches in just a bit over 12 hours, and it isn't just going to be a newsletter and podcast, we're on YouTube now too. Check it out at UTW.vote, subscribe, and spread the word. #UTW
youtu.be
Welcome. If you want to help, you're in the right place
YouTube video by Unfucking The World
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Without downloading any new pics, describe your gender with one image.
A pencil drawing of a porcupine whose quills end in poppies and wheat. It is waddling industriously along and showing off its long sharp claws.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
It's true. Given my social circle, I've likely thought about it more than most cis folks - but my answer is always basically "nope" and then I move on.
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Roopika Risam @roopikarisam.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
An excellent use case for why people really need to be able to define “AI” and recognize it’s an umbrella term, not a synonym for heavyweight commercial LLMs/frontier models.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I also heard that. (Malden, MA)
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Caves of Qud
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Props to the alt text also
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 24/04/2026
A couple people are asking if they need to play BG3 first, and the problem here is that if you play BG3, this book is “wow, it’s the tragic backstory!” If you don’t play it, the book is “wtf, why did Kingfisher write a book about this vampire being tormented that has such a downer ending?!?”
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🐔 Brian Bucklew 🐔 ₑͤ>∿<ₑͤ ∞🌮 @unormal.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
we're gonna actually succsesfully translate caves of qud, at least into our first target language. We've got per-file project burndown tracking and have a big enough team on it (our biggest so far!) that it's just gonna get there 99% of people will be like "ho hum" and 1% will be like WHAT THE FUCK
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
This is a dance off. If you see this, repost a dance.
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Kim Acuff Steiner @emberdione.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
www.emberdione.com/on-rejection... Want to read a blog post I wrote about how to handle rejection from game dev jobs in 2026 that INCLUDES me getting a job rejection in the middle of writing it? TLDR: The Industry is Fucked Yo, it's not you.
emberdione.com
On Rejection and Competition | Kim Acuff Steiner
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Joel Cunningham @joelevard.com · 16/04/2026
guys, this is how you lose the time war
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Erich with an Axe @erichwithanh.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
We take you live to Meow-ssion Control
Cat watching the safe return of Artemis II, with great interest.Cat watching the return of Artemis II
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Micro SF/F by O. Westin @microsff.com · 07/04/2026
"No," the swordmaster said. "One does not refuse the king," the herald said. "I do. I will not train his soldiers or officers, I will not tell my students to join his army, I will not support his unjust war." "You will regret this!" "No," the swordmaster said.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The effectiveness of a professional software engineer is directly related to their ability to work with other people.
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Marc Quill / WON/F4W / QB1 Publishing @marcquill.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
my view is if you're posting anything other than The Horrors, it doesn't make you a bad person. You're just trying to find joy in the small things to keep sane. It's not apathy, it's a part of being human.
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Kitfox Games 🦊 @kitfoxgames.com · 14/02/2026
Happy Valentine's Day from Caves of Qud!
A stock photo of a woman sitting on the floor of a kitchen with a glass of water, a plate of two croissants, a closed laptop with an airpod case on top. She is holding a device and smiling. Overlaid with An alert from Caves of Qud which reads, "You fall in love with the sign!"
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Micah @rincewind.run · 26/01/2026
for me it was the fact that the author is one of the main driving forces behind the global movement to kill my trans friends and erase their existence hope that helps
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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 30/01/2026
"Rewriting the Player Contract" suggests 4 framings for managing high trust with your players: 1 - Tiered commitments (core pillars vs possibility spaces) 2 - Trust Reserves (over-deliver small promises) 3 - Provisional language 4 - Protect mysteries Read more: polarisgamedesign.com/2025/rewriti...
polarisgamedesign.com
Rewriting the Player Contract: Legibility and Trust in Game Development
Whether you mean to or not, as a game developer, you will find yourself embedded in contracts with your players, of both explicit and implicit varieties.
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Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Another question I came here with was: how effective are the whistles and honking? Does it stop abductions? And the answer is, surprisingly to my cynical self, yes, and often. I have talked to so many people who have successfully interrupted kidnappings.
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I think we’ve got better and more culturally-varied street food than I could have imagined, cool jackets galore, and drugs that make us think we’re really fast and strong before they kill us.
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
There are not two kinds of citizens, 'naturalized' and 'born' or 'heritage' or whatever bigoted nonsense they have. There is one kind of citizen: citizen. That's it. We're one group. You wrongly arrested a citizen. You fuckwits.
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Caves of Qud @cavesofqud.com · 01/01/2026
🍄 happy new year ✨ may the ritual nourish you
Screenshot of dialog with Barathrum the Old from Caves of Qud:

*Barathrum breathes a deep and relieved sigh.*

You are ever a courier of bright tidings, =name=. I am fond of this fact.

Categories and types are decohering in these historic times. Nonetheless, the ritual nourishes us. You are raised to Meyvn, Nyshum. The one who understands.
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Danielle @cirne.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
- osteolaryngology - oncomycology - paleohydrology - arthrodynamics - podagogy - ovipolitics - endobotany - exosophy - astroichthyology - aerocetology - psychogeology - ornichemistry - macrohelminthology - microcosmology - hydroneurology - cryoplasmology - kinetostatics - applied autoeschatology
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Bruno Dies @brunodias.dev · 30/11/2025
I think the corollary that a lot of people miss about "write what you know" is that *you have the power to know more things.* Research and talking to people are a central part of writing!
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Jason Scott @textfiles.com · 20/11/2025
Happy Amazing News Day opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11...
opensource.microsoft.com
Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source
Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License.
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Andrew Plotkin @eblong.com · 21/11/2025
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today! …Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :) Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen. blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
blog.zarfhome.com
Zork is now open source
Two years ago, I wrote: Microsoft-the-company does not care about Infocom. But a lot of people in Microsoft must care. Microsoft is heavily populated by greying GenX nerds just like me. Folks who grew...
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
My name is Ozymandius, king of kings, and ye may only look upon my works after ye click all the squares showing crosswalks.
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
"Write enabled by default"
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Unlike Vegas
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Alanna Smith @alannamode.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Give folks their flowers No, I mean right now. Go tell someone you loved their work right now. They're on social media just say it, it has never been easier "They know how much people love--" no they don't go say it right now to a composer or artist or game dev or writer or anyone AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Black hole star Super far Please stay away from me Black hole star Super far Stay away (black hole star, black hole star)
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Racheline Maltese @racheline.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Trans rights are not the rights of a tiny minority, trans rights are everyone’s rights to self-determination, control of our bodies, and a society where opportunity and aesthetics are not restricted by sex assigned at birth You should support and defend trans people because trans people are people
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
authorsguild.org/news/anthrop...
authorsguild.org
Anthropic AI Class Action: Important Information for Authors - The Authors Guild
Earlier this summer, a federal court in California issued a major ruling in Bartz v. Anthropic, one of the copyright class action lawsuits involving AI. The court held that a trial should occur over w...
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ecta foole @ectafoole.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
I'm hugo award winning narrative designer Caelyn Sandel
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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 18/08/2025
If you want to believe it, check it twice ::clap clap:: If you want to believe it, check it twice ::clap clap:: Doesn’t matter if it’s awful Doesn’t matter if it’s nice If it confirms your bias, check it twice! ::clap clap::
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Hello, I'm a computer programmer in a film. I'm male, and my favorite shirt is a white button-down with pens. There are lots of other programmers around, but we don't really talk. My job centers on typing very fast (green text on black) and reporting whether the hackers have broken in yet.
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Hal Aetus @aetusart.com · 08/07/2025
Rare colorized footage of Peregrine Monroe and her gratuitous billowing underfluffy shot from the 1955 movie "The Seven Year Brood."
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Carolyn VanEseltine @mossdogmusic.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
"Which would you rather have, support for your grandfather’s retirement or the reassuring knowledge that, somewhere, ICE is kidnapping someone else’s grandfather and throwing him into a van?" - @petridishes.bsky.social
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Soren Lorenson is secretly plotting your demise @soren-lorenson.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
The secret to my native gardening success
On the left, some bugs and the text "Thank you for leaving the weeds for us to feed and live in" and in the right a gardener and the text "I am too lazy to clear out the weed" and caption says "Biodiversity can be achieved through executive dysfunction"
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