iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I like using drawings instead of screenshots in my mini recommendations because they help avoid spoilers. I can substitute important characters with myself, and I can use artistic licensing to both avoid spoilers and make it harder to discern what is a spoiler.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Sometimes, I'll think I might have bad media literacy because I often don't see obvious reveals coming. And then I'll see people struggle to understand a scene or certain details that I understood immediately, and I feel like I could have had it much worse.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It's taking a long while to find the right parts to set my computer back up. But I still haven't forgotten about wanting to host a game jam. I don't expect a big jam, probably only a handful of people will join, but I think it'll be fun, it's something I've always wanted to do.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Every day I am thankful for the existence of developer commentary. It's so cool to learn why everything is the way it is.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I think I'd like to host a game jam in the near future. I've always loved game jams, and I would love to come up with my own themes and challenges

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I don't understand why people use AI for placeholders. It literally creates a new problem, which is that it's easy to miss in development that it's a placeholder, so it's just left in the game. It takes less than a minute to draw a placeholder texture or sprite. You don't need AI for that.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I hate it when this happens

*accidentally brings up options on random post and presses an option*

"Wait, I didn't mean to do that. What did I press?"

Headline: WOMAN WHO PRESSED THE WORST BUTTON ON POST WILL BE PUBLICLY EXECUTED FOR HER CRIMES
Nina: "what did i press?"

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I'm going through a creative block, and I think I'm okay with that. I've come to realize I'm not any less creative for not having fresh ideas all the time. I've exhausted the ideas I can achieve at my skill level, and eventually, I will have more ideas.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

I'd rather be niche popular than mainstream popular for multiple reasons. I don't wanna be known by everyone on the internet because not everyone is good people.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

the fun part about a level editor in a puzzle game is that you can go off the assumption that the player has already played the base game, so you can make a puzzle as hard as you want and as niche of a mechanical interaction as you want.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

an important message from my Mii's

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Was trying out Lucid Blocks and came across a shadowy flat creature just standing still. When I walked towards it and looked at it's face my power went out and scared the shit out of me. I thought I was becoming part of an ARG for a brief second.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I want to add a support me button on my itch page for my next game so I can get some money but still let people play for free, but everytime I try to add donations it adds a download button and I want my games played in browser. Does anyone know how to add donations without the download button?

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Hot take, I think more immersive sims should have no combat. Not to say combat in those games are bad, I loved a lot that did, just that the genre might be limiting itself when a majority of these games have combat.

I could hack this robot with my hacking ability

Then move it into this puddle to zap the water

And then throw a rcok at this trash can

So this guard walks towards the noise and gets zapped by the zappy water

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I don't like April Fools. It's the one day where everyone does a gag, and gags are funny in small amounts, but when it’s everyone, I stop trusting anyone until the day is over.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I think I might be dragon brained

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Another batch of reviews. Video games are so cool Games mentioned: Mewgenics, Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo, Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom

Mewgenics is a cat breeding strategy roguelike made by the same dev for Binding of Isaac. The game switches between breeding cats to get better stats, and sending 4 or less out to battle through different ares. There's an endless amount of different strategies the player can do based off the stats, abilities, class, passives, disorders, mutations, and items of each cat. It's hard to explain everything that makes this game great in this small review, but know this game is extremely addicting and well worth the price.

Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times is a nonlinear puzzle game where you collect runes to use in spells in order to solve puzzles. The game has 50 runes, and you can cast up to 5 runes in one spell to combine the effects, making the amount of spells in the game exponentially large. The game also has a built in randomizer for replayability, and challenge puzzles which tasks you to solve them with a limited selection of runes. This game is my favorite puzzle game of the year and I highly recommend it.

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is a Zelda-like metroidvania where your main way of attacking and traversal is a yoyo. This game became a quick favorite of mine, every moment I played was packed full of fun and joy. The abilities you collect are incredibly fujn and versatile, the level design takes full advantage of those abilities, the bosses were tough but satisfying, the puzzles were clever, and exploring every bit of the map was exciting. I adored this game from start to finish and it might be my favorite metroidvania game of all time. I highly recommend this one.

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is a 3D collectathon platformer mixed with Crazy Taxi. You control a taxi in very bright and weird open levels. The controls take a while to get used to, you move with car controls and there is no jump button, but you can jump. There are two types of levels, levels that let you take your time collecting everything, and levels with timers where you need to drive people to different locations on top of finding all the collectibles. It's a very fun game with fun movement and a high skill ceiling, highly recommend.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Out of Nowhere Game: Rain World Downpour

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

I found a bunch of old clips on my nintendo switch I'd like to share semi-daily Game: Portal

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

The idea that modern gaming sucks is actually a skill issue. play better games, there's a lot of them.

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Reposted by Nina_Birb

Whitethorn Games @whitethorngames.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

We're looking for Part Time UFO fans! #Clawsome

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Might switch away from MSpaint, cause I'm starting to see the benefit of being able to fix spelling mistakes without needing to manually crop text. Games Mentioned: Slay the Princess, Heavenly Bodies, Here Comes Niko!, Opus Magnum

Slay the Princess is a horror romance visual novel. Describing it anymore would spoil a lot, this game is best gone into blind. Something I will say, don't be afraid to choose an option that looks evil. Often the best moments of the game came from making a bad decision. This game put me through a ride of every emotion, and I highly recommend it.

Heavenly Bodies is a ragdoll physics game in space. You control your left and right arm separately and must do tasks in zero gravity. The lack of gravity adds a ripple into the already difficult controls. Levers are harder to pull, dropping something can derail a mission entirely, and getting stuck floating with nothing to grab is a death sentence. This game was challenging yet fun for its short length.

Here Comes Niko! is a charming comfy collectathon 3D platformer. The stakes aren't too high, just journeying to different open ended levels, meeting a variety of furry characters. Nice platforming, fun minigames and side missions, got me laughing at certain point with cute humor. The game is just overall charming. Highly recommend if you just want a chill platformer.

Opus Magnum is an automation puzzle game about programming machines to assemble alchemic symbols into different arrangements. It sounds complex, and it sort of is, but the game does a pretty good job at easing you into it at the start. There is no right answer to any puzzle, so you can make something that's fast, or compact, or low cost, or the complete opposite and make the ultimate bullshit machine. In the end I was always proud of whatever solution I came up with. Highly recommend if you want a challenging automation puzzle game.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Trying to use any art program other than MSpaint. Wtf is a layer. Why does everything take 4 extra steps? What are all these tools? If you're wondering why this isn't a comic, it's because the program I used didn't save any of the panels properly.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Censorship of LGBTQ+ topics has always been to protect parents, not kids. Kids can understand these topics fine, it's the parents that struggle with them.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

I really hate the "Don't make a (insert genre) game, they don't sell" advice. I can't be the only one who thinks that's really bad game dev advice.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Sorry for my bad English, it's my worst language and also my only language.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Something personal to me The Stranger

Nina: Who are you?

Stranger: I was you... or you were me, or we used to be each other, long before you knew yourself as Nina

Nina: Are you... still a part of me?

Stranger: I was briefly when you finally came out... But as time went on I slowly disappeared. Right now, I've been long dead.

Nina: Do you miss being me?

Stranger: No

Stranger: I was pessimistic, I was edgy, I wanted people to feel as much hurt as I felt.

Stranger: I was mad that I couldn't fit myself. Turns out I never belonged here. I'm just a stranger.

Nina: Is there anything I can do for you?

Stranger: You've already helped. Just let me stay dead, I was never going to make you happy

Stranger: I'm so proud of who you became. Don't ever ruin that by bringing me back.

Nina: Okay... I won't. I promise

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This doesn't even come close to fully expressing my burning hatred for AI generated games.

I love everything about video games, it's an infinite medium that has so many ways of expression that all have intentionality behind each part of their design. I love seeing al the ways a games mechanics, art, and story work together. I love analyzing all the details ofa game and how they create a bigger whole. I love seeing the ways people interact with them.

So with that being said, I fucking hate the "AI generated games are the future" bullshit. There's no intentionality, there's no reason for design choices other than it looks like it would be in a game. There's no innovation because all it can do is steal. There's nothing to analyze because AI games are just noise that's randomly arranged to look like a game. It goes against everything I love about video games.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

I hate them but they make games I enjoy. Toxic Yuri

I'm done with Nintendo, I'll never play another Nintendo game.

Nintendo: New Tomodachi Life Game! Now with more customization!

Nina: You can't just win me over with my favorite childhood game.

Nintendo: There's gay now.

Nina: Damnit

Nina: Why can't April 16th come sooner?

The Hypocrite Replaying Tomodachi Life as she waits for the sequel.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

When I get my hands on the new Tomodachi Life game there will be so many lesbians on my island.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

it's my 3 year trannsiversary, yay

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I'm not a good judge of what games are popular. I find and play a game and think everyone has heard of it, but then whenever I bring it up in conversation, nobody knows it, and when I look it up there's only a handful of letsplays of the game.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Some more reviews. Games Mentioned: Windswept, moonleap, Corgispace, Yooka-Replaylee

Windswept is a 2D platformer inspired by Donkey Kong Country. You play as Marbles and Checkers, a duck and turtle duo both with their own unique moveset. This game is not for casual players, you will die a lot, and there aren't a lot of checkpoints. The base game is retro 80's levels of difficulty, while optional content is Celeste B side levels of difficult, requiring the player to master the full moveset of both characters. I personally loved this level of difficulty, but if this isn't your thing the accessibility options are great, like spawing checkpoints or invincibility. I highly recommend this game as someone who likes difficult platformers.

moonleap is a short puzzle platformer where jumping swaps the state of level objects. Grassy platforms swap between safe and spiky, enemy behavior swaps, etc. The goal of each level is to collect every flower. The game is short, having only around 64 levels, but there are optional goals like least swaps or optional collectibles, and hidden bonus levels. I highly recommend this game for anyone who wants a short but fun puzzle game.

Corgispace is a collection of 13 small thinky games. The concepts are simple but original, like a sokoban about being able to destroy terrain by merging gems, a dinosaur sorting game where you need to satisfy certain conditions, a reflex gem sorting game, etc. All the games are unique and fun. I highly recommend this for fellow puzzle heads.

Yooka-Replaylee is a remaster of Yooka-Laylee, and I say far exceeds it. It fixes a lot of flaws of the original, like making the roll move no longer take stamina, having levels fully unlocked from the beginning, the player moveset now being fully unlocked from the start, and removing a lot of annoying sections. Also new content added, with more collectibles than the original, and levels are tweaked to be more fun than the original. I actually found myself wanting to play more after beating the game.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Made some rough concept sketches of an idea I had for a world building thing. If this does become of thing, these images are likely not going to be canon.

The Loners Head: A strange energy keeps the mind alive
(Image depicts a titan head laying in the center of a forest)

The Projected Hollows: A world builds itself inside, mental projections of a long dead being

Spectruls: Mental ghosts turned flesh, ranging complex to simple

Danger Spectruls: Hostile memories, connected to strong emotions.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Nintendo was a gateway drug to indie games.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

controversial opinion. video games are pretty cool.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Been trying Elden Ring (Mild Blood Warning)

This game is kicking my ass, I'm not sure if this is for me.

Okay, I'll quit this game if I can't beat this lobster

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

Every time there's a small quirk in the mechanics for a puzzle game this happens.

Dev: "Oh, looks like this cube bounces slightly when we place it on the ladder. It's probably fine, none of our puzzles are really affected by it.

Player: "I made 100 puzzles about cubes bouncing slightly on ladders in the level editor"

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Game review? Ramble? Yeah ramble. A YEAR OF SPRINGS

A YEAR OF SPRINGS is a 3 part visual novel about a group of three girls, with lots on different LGBTQ+ topics. Since this is a short story, I won't spoil it. However, I did want to make this review special, because this game became special to me from start to finish.

As a trans women, finding representation in media is rare. So to find a game that has a trans woman as one of the main characters, and for us to actually see her struggles that come with being trans, for the first time in a long time, I felt seen. I couldn't help but cry seeing things I always thought I could never find the words for be so easily verbalized, seeing myself so much in a character, having a game basically tell me over and over "I understand".

This is the kind of representation I want. Even if this representation is few, I cherish them every time I find it. The kind where being trans isn't just a one and done thing that's brought up and then never again, but the kind where it bleeds into multiple parts of the characters life, from social to personal to legal. Showing how unfair things are now, but hopeful of how things could be.

Thank you for reading a sappy trans woman describe how much she loved a visual novel. I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants more stories about trans women, plus some extra representation I won't spoil. It only took me 2 hours to beat, and I have never felt more seen from any other media. I hope to someday live in a world where this kind of representation becomes the norm.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Thinking with ADHD is like a constant game of word association.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I really like video games :3

Nina's Steam Replay
2,416 Sessions
148 New Games
202 Games Played
1,100 Achievements

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Something I learned from making puzzle games

Sometimes when I'm making a puzzle game, I find an interaction that's useless as a solution. When I was making Transition, there was an interaction where a non-green player could have their reset point blocked by a green object. While this was interesting, it ultimately would delete the player, leaving the level unbeatable.

I still wanted this interaction in the game, so ultimately I realized the problem with the interaction is that deleting the player is useless. So I added a respawn clone, an inactive clone that becomes the player when the original player is deleted. This fixed the issue of the previous interaction, as now the player could respawn once, and let me create a simple puzzle with it.

This one mechanic lead to several new puzzles that I hadn't planned for. Puzzles requiring the player to find ways to delete themself, puzzles requiring changing the players reset point, puzzles about trying to get to another room as a non-green player, the list goes on. Suddenly this game that I was planning on abandoning due to a lack of interesting puzzles now had loads of new puzzles because of a mechanic purely meant to fix one problem.

I learned something important from that moment in making Transition. If there is a cool interaction that doesn't have any use as a solution, don't leave it out of the game. Adding a new mechanic to make the interaction useful allows for the interaction to stay, and allows for even more puzzles.

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Nina_Birb @ninabirb.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Recently I've started doing a thing where if I have something I want to say, I'll do it as a comic. I'm not good at completely vocalizing my thoughts, but am good at it when I can attach those thoughts to a drawing. Turning jokes into comics and shortening rants into 4 panels.

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