iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Nikhil Murthy

Simon Byron @byronicman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We are hiring! Come join us as our Games Scout and help grow our portfolio of brilliant indie games. The right person with a love of the right games is more important than specific scouting experience. Full job description and details in the folder here: lnkd.in/egHyP7Xs. (UK only please)

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Colin Spacetwinks @spacetwinks.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

you already know (after some delay) what's up (steam sale rec thread is what's up) as always, i focus primarily on older, obscure, or just plain weirder games, as big name titles don't tend to need the help. with that said, onwards!

an edited version of the box art for the dreamcast survival horror game Blue Stinger. the face in the background has been replaced with a picture of my fursona (a pink kangaroo), and the title now says Spacetwinks Rec Thread. 'Sega Dreamcast' has been changed to say 'Online Kangaroo', 'Sega' was changed to say 'Dogs Bower', Activision is changed to say 'VideoGames', and 'Rated M for Mature' now says 'The Letter M', above the letter M.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Indonesian statue of unclear origin. It’s speculated to be a depiction of a European.

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Edwin Evans-Thirlwell @edwinet.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'm trying to make a text adventure that is also a mind palace and resting place for carefully salvaged, mostly cringey, possibly undead writing from 20 years ago. I'm keen to hear about text games that do a really good job of instilling a navigable and memorable 3D landscape or structure.

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Blaft Publications @blaft.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Live in Bengaluru Sunday October 11 at 6 PM! Kuzhali Manickavel in conversation with Shalini Srinivasan Launching her first novel! RVSP at the link below! champaca.in/blogs/events...

champaca.in

Book Launch | ‘A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Gove

Join us for the book launch of Kuzhali Manickavel's debut novel, which draws from her high school years in small-town Tamil Nadu.

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 02/10/2026

Calling all NYC artists — painters, filmmakers, poets, musicians and more! Did you know our city provides grants to support your work every year? And this year, we're DOUBLING the amount — from $5,000 up to $10,000 per artist! Deadlines are approaching fast — apply today at nyc.gov/artistgrants.

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John Walker - Industry Analcyst @botherer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Moo Yu's game is amazing, and I think "cozy" does it a disservice. It was cheeky and plucky and peculiar and smart and funny and surprising. It was also cozy and cuddly in a number of ways. Just "cozy" too often suggests something without edges, without corners.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Cozy is not a genre like deckbuilder, but cozy might be a genre like autobiographical or even indie? I might not know what gameplay a cozy game will have but I do know a lot about how it will feel to play from the descriptor, even if self-applied?

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NYU Game Center @nyugamecenter.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The debut of NY Games Week is almost here! We're so proud to be an inaugural partner of this city-wide event series and grateful to the many dev orgs around NYC making this happen. Next Thurs Oct 8, 5:30p, join us for a Special Edition of our famous PLAYTEST THURSDAY, in partnership with GameMaker!

Special Playtest Thursday for NY Games Week (Thurs Oct 8, 5:30pm, at NYU Game Center). Industry Guests, Free Snacks, partnered with GameMaker Community of NY/NY

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

IRL #ManifestoJam before and after… people really got into nailing the door

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I just wrote a provocation on immersion arguing that when we say a game is immersive, what we mean is that it had a lot of money spent on it. whynotgames.in/2026/09/29/i...

whynotgames.in

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The key here for a designer is that you have to understand how to control how loud and soft your features are. Armor stats are very loud because the game says that they are important because of how many features use the stats. Armor looks are soft because their value is implicit and not quantified.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When walking around Portugal in snail season, you'll see lots of handmade signs in restaurants advertising that they have snails. Someone made a website of just these signs. hacaracois.pt

hacaracois.pt

Há Caracóis

Photos of the handwritten “Há Caracóis” signs that appear outside cafés, tascas and restaurants across Portugal every summer, when snail season arrives.

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Jaws Slayer 🎃 @jesawyer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

There have been two occasions in my career where I had to go to war with teammates against mistaken understandings of probability. In both cases, it was because people expected large numbers of d6s to occasionally result in maximum damage. But the curves for 3d6 and 15d6 (e.g.) look like this:

Two curves showing the distribution of results across 3d6 and 15d6. At the extreme ends of the first, 3 and 18 are both 0.46% likely. On the second curve, the extremes are 15 and 90 damage, but the probability drops below 0.00% below 29 and above 76.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This does hurt but on the other hand, it gets you to finally ship something

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Verbante @verbante.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

🚨🚨🚨 MURDER TETRIS 🚨🚨🚨 my entry for #fallingblockjam is complete! if you are excited like our detective you can play it here: verbante.itch.io/murder-tetris #pico8 #gamedev

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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 28/09/2026

i’ll beat this drum over & over again: game devs obsessing over Steam as if it’s the only viable platform is self-sabotaging and potentially the death of their business. case in point: rift riff was designed for Steam with $30k marketing spent. yet it makes 6X on the App Store with $0 on marketing

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cmrn knzlmn @ckunzelman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you are a graduate student in the humanities (construed as broadly as possible), what is the MOST EXCITING book published in the last five years to you? Please repost if you’re not a graduate student!

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I appreciate @edwinet.bsky.social for his engagement with the politics of strategy games. I also really like Sin Vega for this and would love to read more of her work.

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boshi's place @boshis.place · 25/09/2026

(reposting to correct the date on the poster) NEW BOSHI PLAYTESTING EVENT wed 10/7 : ) submit your WIP games by wed 9/30 or come playtest other devs' games! (more info and google form on our website boshis.place/events/26-10... )

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Keza MacDonald @mackeza.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Guardian is doing some major hiring right now! If you have 2-3 years' experience in journalism, media and/or content creation, you can apply for the Digital Journalism Scheme - full time roles including 20% training time, £48k pa workwithus.theguardian.com/digital-jour...

workwithus.theguardian.com

Digital Journalist Scheme

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Esther Wright @enwright.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This November we’re hosting a free interactive discussion event as part of Cardiff Univeristy’s @beinghumanfest.bsky.social! Come for history&games, stay for @chriskempshall.bsky.social & @hollynielsen.bsky.social saying excellent things! (I will be there too..) www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fact-versu...

eventbrite.co.uk

Fact versus Fiction in the Gaming World

A free interactive discussion panel to explore and imagine historical video games

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

With that exact quote, I would not consider code an asset

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Peter McDonald @pdmcdonald.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

If anyone is at the intersection of games/art history or games/science and technology studies (or has grad students who are), both ASAP (asapjournal.com/submit/) and Configurations (litsciarts.org/news/books-t...) are looking for people to review The Impossible Reversal!

asapjournal.com

Submit - ASAP/Review

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Gwen Marshall @drgwenmarshall.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The Onion ran this amazing article and thought, I wanna play this! So I made it! 38 pps, PbtA, plus every mechanic mentioned in the article, and a bunch of Rodrigo song references. And it's free! Enjoy! #OliviaRodrigo @theonion.com #theonion #ttrpg #itch.io drgwenmarshall.itch.io/high-winter-...

drgwenmarshall.itch.io

High Winter Elves of Girlville by Gwen Marshall

A satirical game based on an Onion article about Olivia Rodrigo making a TTRPG!

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Here's a quick video explaining how I used friendship to replace XP systems in Hoop Dungeon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=syEK...

youtube.com

Friendship in Hoop Dungeon

YouTube video by Nikhil Murthy

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SMD's pension @anothersmd.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

this is utterly adorable and i think if i saw this show as a kid i would've been bouncing off the walls

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The san’yaku fights of day three and four have been top drama

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[untitled games event] Amsterdam @untitledgamesevent.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

We are so excited to announce the first [untitled games event] weekender: a prototype festival. 3 days of experimental games and playful arts in Amsterdam. 20+ games and a full program of workshops, talks, and collective playthroughs. Free and BYO. Details: buttondown.com/untitledgame...

Here’s what the first UGE Weekender looks like:

FRIDAY 18 SEPTEMBER
[untitled games event] at the Rijksakademie

SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
UGE Workshop DLC

SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER
[untitled games event] #9: “dreams and disquiet”

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I regret not doing this on my last game

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⚡️Marina Díez is finishing a new game! @ninfadp.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A rule I established for my team when Im directing: No one in the production works outside of the engine It saves a lot of time and headaches and eventually the team members that felt more insecure end up feeling super empowered.

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Adrian Hon @adrianhon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Esther Wright and Nick Webber from the Historical Games Network; how do players think about history, how do games (and their marketing) depict it? Webber on oral histories, the artefacts produced by players (scorecards, chat logs, folk and household rules, etc). It’s giving @florencesn.bsky.social!

Dr. Esther Wright
Cardiff University
@enwright.bsky.social
Dr. lain Donald
Edinburgh Napier University
@doni.bsky.social
Prof. Nick Webber
Birmingham City University
@doktomick.bsky.social
www.historicalgames.net
@HistoryGamesNet.bsky.social

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Busta talks about how Dilla beats are not built on the metronome but instead have a human rhythm to them. I've never really thought about how much of my games are on quantized, perfectly repeating intervals. I'm going to see if I can put in a little drunkenness to the timings of my next game.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Docs as blueprints - nearly worthless Docs as a quick and cheap way to prototype an idea for yourself - deeply underrated

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I enjoyed reading Run and Jump but I think that I do not get as much from projecting profundity on unsuspecting video games any more. I am very glad it exists as a lens to read games and I think designers need to be able to use it and to engage with its use but I want two-way dialogue instead.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

This is an excellent point on secret design from Run and Jump

Achieving that uncanny effect is not about the rewards the player discovers but the process of hiding.
The placement of secrets needs to establish new rules, and the level designer must follow them consistently.
Moreover, those rules must differ from the stated goals of play while remaining within the scope of a player's imagination.

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

That’s a fun deck. What’s the leftmost card?

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Aura/Moom @moomanibe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

These testers have zero investment - they didn't spend 60 dollars on the game. These days their recordings probably are also being analyzed by "AI" LLMs that pipe random comments into buckets like "NEGATIVE - THE USER WAS CONFUSED FOR 0.5 SECONDS".

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Having made Syphilisation, I really don’t think people want game remakes like James. I don’t know if there’s any appetite for high concept reimaginings over mechanical iterations.

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Dr Holly Nielsen @hollynielsen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Thousand Hells is out NOW. A tactical narrative game about staging heists in different hells that blends mythology and surrealism from the creators of King of Dragon Pass and Six Ages - there’s nothing like it. I’m delighted to be one of the writers involved store.steampowered.com/app/3794210/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 10% on Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists on Steam

Recruit your team, choose your path, and descend into hell. Four heroes must overcome the trials of the underworlds in tactical narrative encounters. A new systemic storybook experience blending mytho...

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Scare-on Lim 林家丰 @ PAX Aus @ehronlime.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

games excel under rules, constraints, and friction; why can’t designing games also be a game

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Robert Yang @radiatoryang.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

for game design, I think technical constraints are mostly good for creativity. you react to the brick wall and figure out how to wall jump. the wall is a tool

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

For Hoop Dungeon, watch: 2007 NBA WCF (Suns vs Spurs) 2008 NBA Finals (Lakers vs Celtics) 2009 NBA WCF (Nuggets vs Lakers) 2015 NBA ECF (Bulls vs Cavs) and Blue Lock and Haikyuu!

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Now that Gandhi is coming back to the Civ series, it is a great time to read my article on how games fail Gandhi by reducing him to a joke about a bug that probably never existed. www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-video-ga...

rockpapershotgun.com

How video games consistently fail Gandhi

Gandhi was something completely different, and yet games try to represent him with the same pieces they use for everyone else - and so they always make him some

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Nikhil Murthy @murthynikhil.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

What you do with this is up to you, but if you ignore it, you will almost certainly end up with Terra Nullius. You have to reckon with it just as the nonviolent game designer has to reckon with Gandhi's coercion of Ambedkar for the Poona Pact lest they end up with shallow liberalism.

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