iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Oath coin currently on my PC mousepad, a constant reminder of my sworn duty to *checks notes* invest in long term modular shelving solutions

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Were you able to check out Bloodrage Summer Fight Club tho

110

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Just gonna photo dump, guess I'm a game dev now ¯\_°>°)_/¯

superrrr (franky poses with the fishtank)

240

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Huge thanks to the rest of the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social team for having me in the space / not giving me too much surprise work in December so I could finish it. And to peeps like @goferboy.bsky.social and @smashriot.bsky.social for being VERY LOUD about how much they loved the game from hour 1!

191

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Had a 4 day out of body experience watching people have fun with my first ever game and first "art thing i brought to a festival" my god. An absolutely unhinged @magfest.org this year. I saw strangers setting 4 hour timers on their phones, or running to my table with 6 badges from their friends.

A young lady scans her badge at the MAGFish tank

The game said "scan banana" and they sure did

2122

Reposted by Matty!?

Henry @goferboy.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I also was obsessed with @mtylpg.bsky.social's fish badge game. Set timers the entire con. Seemed like "cheating" to get friends to scan your badge, but having people came together to take care of each other's fishes made it even more communal and fun. My boy Low Guevara got so big, I love him

2102

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

for the record you're in 5th, pretty massive gulf from you to 6th place but I am astounded there are 4 ahead of you (no idea who bits mayo is) Really looks like the group feeds on the final day are what heavily skewed things (lots of bonus perfect feeds for folks who kept their fish on-screen)

010

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Legit hurt my shoulder on Panic Park day one and have no regrets, amazing cabinet

110

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Damn magfest2 lookin sick

Signage for HenrySchein Dental Supllier Fair Together Aligned Moving Forward

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

A new fish has entered the tank

101

Reposted by Matty!?

MAGFest Indie Arcade @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

ONE WEEK REMAINS SUBMIT YR DANG GAMES DON'T WASTE YOUR HOLIDAY WEEKEND FRETTING ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION, SUBMIT IT NOW AND EDIT IT LATER NO EXTENSIONS SEPT 2 IS THE END GET IT IN super.magfest.org/apply/

super.magfest.org

Apply — Super Magfest

01816

Reposted by Matty!?

yanslop (fix your heart or die) @ohnoitsyan.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

This year's Super Magfest held a David Lynch shrine. As the weekend progressed, it grew and grew, at one point including a Blue Velvet screening on repeat (pictured bottom right). What a lovely gesture from fans.

0189

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

HEY IF U WERE AT MAG FILL THIS OUT REAL QUICK - Had fun in the Indie Arcade? MIVS? MAGPIE? Anywhere else? LET US KNOW! Your feedback helps the convention grow! - Liked Quantum Jungle? Wanna see more weird art? Thems thangs take 💰big moni🤑 and your 📋feedback☑️ helps get that 💸good green💶 🚚movin🛫

032

Matty!? @mtylpg.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Also for fans of the MAGPIE space: let us know! Lots of new initiatives start up at MAGFest every year, and attendee feedback can do wonders for helping new teams grow (and if you had a good time in the Indie Arcade post about that too and help me out ty luv u) super.magfest.org/feedback

super.magfest.org

Feedback — Super Magfest

This year I just sorta just threw a bunch of APX flashcards around the room to get convos started and it worked out! This was in a new space at MAG devoted to inclusion and equity, def going to scale up the session a lot next year now that I know there's a folks interested in learning more 🌱

100

It ended up being less a workshop and more a round table but it was lovely! Great mix of experience, both in terms of personal ability and relation to gamedev/design (some brand new indie devs, some folks with AAA experience), lots of new contacts made so that's a win in my book ✔️

I was only in that room for a bit and can't take any credit, but MAGPIE was a brand new team at mag as of this year! I can't find the folks who run it on bsky but they made an incredible lil corner, I'm excited to see how it grows! Awesome to see new groups pop up every year at this con

Great meeting you too! As well as @designermonicat.bsky.social and @majesticgaming.bsky.social in that great lil MAGPIE session! I wasn't able to get to any of the major accessibility panels this year (dept head work was real this year) but hoping Default Options are Boring will be on MAG's youtube🤞

330

I am of course also lucky that I now get to go home and sit in a quiet room and watch one piece.

100

ohmygosh I forgot to include this incredible pic in the larger thread, but thank you so so much for coming! Was lovely hanging out with you and @ninfadp.bsky.social! Let's get that place to the full ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ it deserves.

141

And ofc the people, both new and old. What a lovely group to work with, I'm very lucky to know them and be a part of this weird event every year. c u in 2026 (and also at magstock)

100

- Tons of stickers, again the theme was great cuz it meant more Chao content - My sweet sweet child from the "ugly pokemon $5" bucket - Looking at a development DS prototype that's just a big-ass board - Paying respects to a legend

Sheets of stickers and mini posters, many of which are chaos from sonic adventure 2

A development DS prototype, just a board with 2 screens on it

A shrine to David Lynch, including notes about him and a small TV playing Blue Velvet

100

- Hanging out with Blitzen, the 999/999/999/999 Chao available in the consoles space (amazing theme this year) - Gettin pegged as a MH die-hard on _Wednesday_, and collecting a mess of ribbons etc (can't believe the pattern in that button one...) - Wacca Good (Bocchi good)

A MAGFest Staff badge covered with ribbons and stickers, including one about getting wrecked by Rey Dau in the Wilds beta

Wacca, the circular rhythm game score screen, feat a track from the anime Bocchi the Rock

100

- Really just so many new games this year, including a bunch from student devs and first-time MAGFest attendees which we love to see - Also got to know some of our returning devs a WHOLE lot better - I now play the Digimon TCG pls trade me promo seadramons

100

- Twistin Fingers, Guessing Hues, Plugging Chugs, tbh a banner year for “this is a game so detached from any other game you’ve played you’ll be fine” - Having some 10/10 all star volunteers who already said they wanna help with off season work hell yeah help us pls help us there is so much to do

A woman sits in front of 3 large colored buttons, having just run a round of Guess Hue, an alt control color game

A parent and child playing Crab Volleyball on a home made arcade cabinet

Two people playing Arcade Common's WeatherSys Admin arcade cabinet

My fearless Indie Arcade co-DH Socks playing a game I made on a lever-based controller ty socks <3 u

- Showing off the games from our Lever Up alt ctrl gamejam, admittedly not quite the way we wanted to but still showin em, including my first every game at MAG - Meeting a ton of the jam's participants, trying to fix the console on the show floor, and figuring out what "good enough" looked like

150

- Seeing a CONSTANT stream of people playing with @robinwobbles.bsky.social Quantum Jungle, which has metrics and averaged 5 spring-touches per second over the 72 hour event - Briefly introducing Robin to Beyblade, trying to explain why it is both very dumb and very fun

A group of people around a led-rimmed Beyblade arena, sending tops to battle.

281

Some highlights for me: - Seeing a full body Zaku-2 cosplay with voice modulator in the halls hours before the con technically started - Joining conversations about the philosophy of a11y in game design and learning that maybe I am bad at networking events but I can get better!

I am finding myself on a train home from MAGFest. What a year. Despite years of running this event this was my first year involved in both setup and teardown, watching the venue shift from a corporate void to a living creature and back to bones. Amazing the soul a community can impart to a space.

2140

LEADING WHITESPACE AND TRAILING COMMAS, APPARENTLY ☠️🤦☠️

000

No formal agenda but I’m hoping to dig pretty deep into #gamea11y in the context of conventions, it's particularly relevant to the Indie Arcade space and a fascinating topic. I’ll be leaving APX cards from #AbleGamers around the room to help people get started, and maybe just ranting about Mismatch

000

For me it’s a low obligation year outside of my… daily 8 hour pager duty shifts, but I am hosting a little game accessibility workshop Friday morning where we’ll be having open conversation about inclusive game design! It'll be an open topic in our new MAGPIE space, swing by if you wanna meet peeps!

200

And if you have no idea what the alt ctrl scene is, there’s a panel on that happening on it Friday at 5:30! @koonce.itch.io is moderating, @robinwobbles.bsky.social will talk about wobbles, Erin will talk about academia, @windupthing.bsky.social will talk about punching stuff. It’s gonna be gr8

153

There’s gonna be a whole lil Lever Up! console with all our submissions on it, so swing by and check out the control scheme best described in our planning docs as “how podracers do” Huge thanks to everyone in AC (and the discord!) who helped that all happen!

100

Lever Up - An Alt Ctrl Game Jam

Speaking of 5-year-plan-checked-checkmarks, we partnered with @arcadecommons.org to host an itch.io/jam/lever-up last month, and the games from that jam will be at mag (including my first real playable game, which is a mess but that’s okay jams are for learning and now i understand godot signals)

itch.io

A game jam from 2024-12-06 to 2024-12-09 hosted by Matt! & AndyMakes. Welcome to Lever Up, an alt ctrl game jam and controller workshop by the MAGFest Indie Arcade and Arcade Commons ! Join us in maki...

121

On the way you’ll see a massive installation from @robinwobbles.bsky.social that I’m thrilled about. We’ve talked for years about getting more games outside of the expo halls ❤️ u gifn8r), and this is a huge step. Big thing in our 5 year plan (yes we have one) that we get to check off!

111

For the indie arcade we’ve got some huge stuff this year, so first off if you’re at MAG swing by Expo Hall C and look at our weird cabinets and hats and horses and bikes and drums and chopsticks and punching bags and fishing rods and skateboards and A huge number of first time submissions this year

100

First off a post on the insanity of this org, MAGFest is near entirely volunteer run, and people bring an insane level of professionally to help this event thrive. A delight year over year to sink deeper into the corners of our networks, finding the channels about pickles or ham radios or whatever

100

I am finding myself once again on a train bound for @magfest.org, where I’ve been volunteering as a dept head for the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social for 5(?) years now! Holy heck yall we got a LOT happening this time around. HOPE YOU LIKE WEIRD CONTROLS.

150