iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 27/09/2026

that's not a chibi anime andy burnham it's an AI-slop chibi anime andy burnham cosplaying jon snow

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D.W.A.P. (Ben) @andwap.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When your gamedev friend shows you progress on their new engine.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 25/09/2026

That is possibly the most authentic feeling bit of set-dressing I've ever seen in a video game. Astounding that anyone would call it out as a negative.

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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 09/09/2026

the Ocarina of Time remake looks fine. shut up about it. it doesn't look mind-blowingly beautiful. aesthetically interesting in places, but not ugly. it's fine. shut up.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 06/09/2026

You want Tuvix? Because this is how you get Tuvix. Or, at least, this is how you get Uhulu and Chott.

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Scottish Greens @scottishgreens.org · 04/09/2026

💚HISTORIC GREEN WIN! Local housing campaigner Lorenzo Martinico has made history by becoming the first Scottish Green to win a council by-election in Edinburgh. Congratulations to Lorenzo and the Edinburgh Greens.

Lorenzo Martinico. Scottish Greens Councillor elected

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The Skinny @theskinnymag.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The Scottish Government have confirmed a Basic Income for Artists scheme, following the success of a similar scheme in Ireland Find out more about the campaign that achieved this much-needed relief for Scotland's arts scene in our article below www.theskinny.co.uk/intersection...

theskinny.co.uk

Future Funds: Unpacking the Basic Income for Artists Scotland campaign – The Skinny

Low pay, precarious contracts – Scotland’s creative workers want change. We speak to organisers and artists involved in the Basic Income for Artists Scotland campaign about creative freedom, class…

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 01/09/2026

Listening to the BBC radio drama of The Lord of the Rings (again!) and appreciating The One Gollum, played by Peter Woodthorpe in both the BBC and Bakshi versions. (And Pigsy in the English dub of Monkey, which was basically also Gollum.) (Can't say I'm looking forward to The Hunt for Gollum.)

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 29/08/2026

This is a whole new configuration of the leopards eating people's faces metaphor. This is like, "oh no! I never thought I'd be eating my own face!"

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 27/08/2026

still time to grab it, if you haven't already!

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 25/08/2026

Writers: you need to come up with a better turn of phrase than "plotting or pantsing". Or, at least the plotters need to workshop it a bit. That's a dichotomy coined by a pantser if ever I heard one.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 14/08/2026

this is genuinely how I feel about Realms of the Haunting bsky.app/profile/dosn...

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 13/08/2026

for the next person who says "all" game devs/studios are using it

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 10/08/2026

Luis is right. But also, I keep seeing this screenshot everywhere, and it sure looks like slop to me.

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Alasdair Beckett-King @misterabk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The modern conservative hates winning more than losing. There are no games journalists left, all the devs have been fired and everyone in a position of influence is terrified of offending reactionaries. They got what they asked for, and they still hate it! Because a woman said a thing!

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Amicable Animal - New CRT7 demo OUT NOW! 🦝🏳️‍🌈 @amicableanimal.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Today I can share we'll be showing the latest version of GenSea by @nick.aetheric-games.com (and Edinburgh College in partnership with Inchcape Offshore Ltd) Build infrastructure with a focus on the sea and offshore wind turbines! Free tickets for this Thursday here: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...

A screenshot of the game in GenSea. In the top left there is a Checklist (25%) window, asking the player to build an Offshore Substation, with blueprints beneath it to build. In the bottom right is a grid of size people: Emma, Kit, Matthew, Lachlan, Mr Corrie, and Susan. Behind all of these is some sea with turbines in, and land to the left, built out of hexagonal tiles.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 30/07/2026

This is always a good time! Come and play some game dev projects from masters students, from the Heriot-Watt MD Game Design course, led by @amicableanimal.bsky.social Plus some demos from local indies, including me with a little something-something. Tickets and info ⤵🧵 #scotgamedev

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Amicable Animal - New CRT7 demo OUT NOW! 🦝🏳️‍🌈 @amicableanimal.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Over the next week I'll post our MDes Showcase guest games! Starting with Stealth Crossword by @computerjames.bsky.social! An anarchic game about crosswords... Or maybe stealth missions? There is at least one European in it! Get a free ticket here and come try it: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...

A screenshot from Stealth Crossword. It is a top down view into some sort of warehouse, which a started crossword answer across the middle, and 4 classic 'view cones' for 4 guards labelled 'D'. A message from our commander says "We don't want a diplomatic incident on our hands" in the bottom left.

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Amicable Animal - New CRT7 demo OUT NOW! 🦝🏳️‍🌈 @amicableanimal.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Our MDes Graduation Showcase will be on the 6th of August 17:00 to 19:30 at CodeBase, Edinburgh. We'll have student games, plus games from local developers! Alt controllers! Physical Puzzle Games! Nibbles if I get those sorted in time! Free tickets and deets here: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...

A picture of a handheld gaming device with the words Heriot-Watt Master of Design Graduation Showcase written in green text on the screen

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 28/07/2026

I would play the heck out of a Mabinogion game!

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 27/07/2026

If I ran an venerable game studio known as masters of a genre that publishers won't touch in 2026, got burned by crowd funding & AI, I'd release a really nice trailer for a cancelled project. Fans go nuts. Generate hype, quotes, numbers. A lure for funding. Call it "Project Anglerfish" or something.

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Ben McCarthy @benricem.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I'm just back from a trip to Germany to visit one of my closest friends, Daniel, who's been held in solitary confinement 23h a day for the past ten months in a 2 × 5m cell. They get one hour of visitation per month.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 24/07/2026

It's been nearly 24 hours and I've not seen any Ebeneezer Goode jokes. Kids today, man.

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Kurtis Heimerl @kurti.sh · 20/07/2026

It's always funny to me how people equate LLMs to other, less understood things. We don't know how neurons make consciousness, but we absolutely know how LLMs work. They are not a black box. They are intricately designed, often public white boxes. There's no consciousness because we can look at it.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 18/07/2026

Do you like learning new words? Especially obscure or archaic ones? Do you think etymology is neat? Then why not try reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, with Wiktionary open, today! You won't read fast, but you probably won't regret it.

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Amicable Animal - New CRT7 demo OUT NOW! 🦝🏳️‍🌈 @amicableanimal.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The tech and entertainment industries are having a normal one again, I see...

A screen clip from Kotaku watch reads:

Industry News: EA VP Urges Companies To Think About In-Game Ads During Development: ‘That’s A Huge Opportunity’

Games: A24 Reportedly Copyright-Striking Backrooms Indie Games And Artwork

Commentary: Sex Doll Company Plans To Create AI Teachers For New York School District

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 15/07/2026

the latest GamesMaster reboot looks rubbish

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 12/07/2026

Wait, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell are two different people? How many evil old white have you got over there?

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 08/07/2026

that radge wee fly from Irving Welsh's The Acid House has gotten in here. utter rocket. trying to ignore the bam

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 06/07/2026

What's this? The appropriative, patriarchal, colonialist bias-machine is inspiring sexism? Who could have seen that coming?

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 30/06/2026

oh you know they were trying to make Weird A.I. Yankovoc happen

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Amy-Leigh Shaw @diveamydive.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

I know we all know this, but just to reiterate, when a company lays off workforce *without itself closing* what the executives are actually doing is stealing the future wages of their workers - wealth that the workers themselves generated - to line their own cash-stuffed pockets.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 26/06/2026

💯 Additional reason: you were in a starter pack. Unfollowing weirdos who bubble up after a while is my new hobby. Maybe I'm *your* starter pack weirdo!

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Tommy Thompson @tommy.aiandgames.com · 26/06/2026

Don't forget, Sweeney can and will repeatedly talk out of his ass. The value the industry holds in Unreal Engine has very little to do with what he brings to the table nowadays. bsky.app/profile/tomm...

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 25/06/2026

so, Big Tim, let me get this right: - people don't want to buy games made with genAI - you want to scam them into buying it anyway - Valve lightly discourages this - you say that discouraging you and your pals from scamming people is irresponsible - you're happy to say this out loud, on the record?

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doctober @docseuss.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

layoffs should be seen as a failure state. if a ceo has to lay people off, that ceo is bad at their job. like, satya nadella laid off what, 20,000 workers at microsoft? that's a massive amount of people whose lives were upended as a failure of his leadership. he should bear the cost of that first.

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 25/06/2026

(this was sarcasm, by the way 😉)

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nickbell 🆗️ @nick.aetheric-games.com · 25/06/2026

Lots of US citizens on here are really educated and insightful about other cultures and places, especially with regards to the practicalities, requirements and options of air-conditioning adoption. I encourage them to keep talking loudly about it.

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