iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nova @novasquirrel.com · 01/10/2026

Today I learned that poison ivy is not poisonous (that's actually an allergic reaction that not everyone has) and it's not an ivy (actually a member of the cashew family apparently)

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Ms. Washywishes @washy.works · 30/09/2026

don’t you want to buy tickets to the island with a copy of petal crash 2! please oh please buy petal crash 2! it would make washy so happy galaxytrail.itch.io/petal-crash-2 or store.steampowered.com/app/2697670/...

seafoam washy going to the island with the petal crash 2 copy on it and it says its 15.29 right now in early access early adopter price and 1-8 passengers can ride her to it.

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Ramiel 🐇 comms OPEN @pawberry.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Playing dress up 🐭🐰🍓

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🌸Petal Crash 2 is OUT NOW!!🌸 @petalcrash.com · 29/09/2026

🌸Petal Crash 2 is OUT NOW!!🎉🌸 The freshest in arcade puzzle action blossoms again! The Early Access release has lots to enjoy, including a single-player Arcade Mode, local multiplayer, and a built-in puzzle editor! Check out the game on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/2697670/...

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 29/09/2026

I went searching through a bunch of networks recently to see what IRC networks are like these days, and to see what channels exist that are active and have topics I want to talk about, and it's kinda cozy to use it to actually talk to people again

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 28/09/2026

I realized that Shinx Maffi would probably be Electric+Ground type because immunity from electricity makes sense for rubber, as does resistance from poison. Would be interesting to have a typing that's only used by one official Pokémon (Sandy Shocks).

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 27/09/2026

I've got a nonsexual chat on here for people who have (or appreciate) toy characters, like pooltoys and plushies and balloons and such: fluxfur.com/invite/nmpsf... I've never been able to find a chat for that that wasn't erotic so might as well put one somewhere where people will be able to find it

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/09/2026

I think there might have been a wider fad of photo backgrounds in arcade games around that time? I guess it makes sense if being able to show large high-color images was something you weren't able to do before. Bust-a-Move '99 made a pretty unfortunate background choice: youtu.be/iMY9UO7JFdc?...

youtu.be

Longplay of Bust-A-Move '99/Bust-A-Move 3

YouTube video by LongplayArchive

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/09/2026

Bubble Memories in particular feels kind of tacky to me since it's mostly random close-up photos of animals (though that can be good if you're intentionally trying to go for a surreal feel?) but with Umihara Kawase it feels more like the foreground and background fit and make a scene together

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/09/2026

I forgot that game did it too; I'll take that as more assurance that cartoony sprites on top of photo backgrounds can be fine when done carefully

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 26/09/2026

I feel like chili is a good way to have beans be pretty prominent alongside other stuff you know you like

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SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! @segasaturnshiro.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Is there any harm in using AI to work on — or entirely create — projects for the Sega Saturn and elsewhere in the retro gaming scene? Yes, PandaMonium says in this opinion column, equating such work to digital asbestos: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/09/24/c... #sega #saturn #segasaturn #retrogaming

segasaturnshiro.com

Column: All A.I. Projects Are Digital Asbestos

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of all SHIRO! Media Group contributors. The cost of modern day video game consoles and personal computers have skyrocketed…

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 24/09/2026

And Game Bub has been getting vibecoded ports of cores that are, in some cases, also vibecoded. There was a port of a SNES core done by someone who thought SuperFX was built into the SNES itself. Downloaded Vivado to try and do it myself eventually.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 23/09/2026

I figure that nearly all legit site visitors either want to download a release, look at the most recent version of some of the source files, or clone the repository if they want to actually work with the code. Very few of them are interested in old commits on projects I haven't worked on in years.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 23/09/2026

I noticed my Forgejo instance has been getting totally hammered by what are obviously scraper bots, and CPU usage had been spiking to 10% or worse a few times a minute, but I think I managed to reduce the load a lot by blocking the ability to access random commits from users that don't have a cookie

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 23/09/2026

Either that or Tetris Attack needed to go on there. I actually bought my Nintendo 64 specifically to play Pokémon Puzzle League.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 23/09/2026

These are probably not particularly surprising. Chip's Challenge keeps influencing my game design so I put it right in the middle. I think a lot of my sense of humor came from WarioWare. my9games.net/en

"My 9 games: The 9 games That Shaped Who I am": Pokémon Puzzle League, Minecraft, WarioWare for GBA, Animal Crossing, Chip's Challenge, Kirby Super Star, Cave Story, RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, Yoshi's Island

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 22/09/2026

I think toony platformer mascot automatically tilts things towards scrimblo, considering where the word seems to have come from

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 22/09/2026

Looking forward to whenever the new game comes out, which should give everyone a bunch of new interesting lore and worldbuilding to play with. Though there's a lot of fun stuff to play with already; I think it'd be funny to have my Elfilin hold a grudge about not being invited to go racing.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 22/09/2026

It's really funny to me that the best currently-active outlet I've found to do non-erotic freeform roleplay (where people are open to more sincere attempt at stories instead of just goofing around) has been F-List of all places, in Kirby chats, in which I play a transfem Elfilin finding herself.

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Princess (she/her - cis♀) (COMMS are OPEN until OCT 13!) @princessnapped.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Being asked to decorate a well-renown princess' private patio is a big task to most, I'm sure! Luckily, Lumina knows some great, natural, plant-safe plastics (made with magic, of course) and non-toxic glowing materials... And glowing stars always feel classic, don't they?

A digital illustration. It is set in a night-time setting. There are dim hallways of a palace in the very background. There are many strings of golden beads strung all over, like christmas lights. Hanging from the deepest dips of these strings are cyan plastic stars filled with some kind of cornflower-blue glowstick-like fluid inside.

There is a porcelain, well-worn, half-moon curved bench in the center of a large, U-shaped hedge. The hedge is very well-trimmed.

There is a "My Little Pony" (Friendship Is Magic) style character standing on her hind legs, one of her hind hooves lifted up on one of the little stepways to the porcelain bench. Her front hooves are both raised in front of her; one atop the aforementioned bench supporting herself, and one finishing placing the final plastic star.

She appears to be a mix of a goat and a deer. She has two small two-pronged antlers on her head above her multi-colored mane. They almost seem to be filled with orange glowstick fluid. Her main fur is a soft black, and she has groups of three white freckles on her nose and her back, meant to imitate the white-spot markings you typically see on deer fawns (babies). She has two pigtails in her mane and is wearing two red ribbons to tie them off. She has a cutie mark that is three glowsticks (one purple, one red, one yellow). She is smiling. She has red eyes. Her mane and tail are the same colors: white base with some purple streaks. The very bottoms of them have changed colors: from white to pastel yellow, and from purple to pastel orange. The scene uses a lot of green and blue to contrast against the warmer character's colors.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 21/09/2026

That restaurant should actually be open again for one day this weekend. If I want to be silly I could cook my own and bring it there to compare them and see what I'm missing to make it closer, but even if I don't do that then it'll still be a helpful reminder of what it's supposed to be like.

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fifi @funnyhat12.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

don’t forget to cuddle your tails today! commission for @novasquirrel.com

a cat kitsune with five tails, some of them are cuddling the cat, some of them are cuddling eachother, and two are normal tails. The cat is red, green, white and brown, and has a pink bow around her neck. She is smiling.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 20/09/2026

Drew a 32x32 sprite of @jschmoe.bsky.social for Tilemap Town. Initially tried to draw a sprite that was vaguely centered and then ended up just pushing everything to the side so I could make the tail as big as I could fit, as is appropriate for a Junie. #pixelart #tilemaptown

32x32 pixel art of an orange fox taur with long brown hair, a black shirt, and a very fluffy tail. She has reddish eyes.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 19/09/2026

It's kind of funny that the last item in my proxy shipping order arrived in the warehouse immediately before Japan gets a rare 5-day weekend. But my Famicom will get here eventually, and I prefer a known wait over an unknown wait.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 18/09/2026

I reference the Game Boy Color version of Petal Crash when I work on finishing up the mechanics in the Super Game Boy version, and I keep forgetting that I can simplify the code a lot because the SNES has a nicer processor to work with. Pointer math to get adjacent tiles turns into "lda Board+8,y"

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🌸Petal Crash 2 is OUT NOW!!🌸 @petalcrash.com · 17/09/2026

Petal Crash 2 is releasing in Early Access on 🌸 September 29th! 🌸 With an arcade versus mode, local multiplayer, and puzzle editor, Petal Crash 2 will launch with about as much content as the first game, with more to come! Wishlist on Steam to get notified! store.steampowered.com/app/2697670/...

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/09/2026

More art by @funnyhat12.bsky.social - the jelly bean themed rabbit was actually an adopt she designed, that I redesigned a little bit. And I noticed Ichugo was one of the few mascot characters I have that didn't have toy art yet.

A white mouse character made of shiny rubber, squishing into one of her own cheeks while looking happy. She has strawberry theming and has a strawberry vine tail, a strawberry decoration on her chest, and a vine on her head. Art by funnyhat12.

Art of a jelly bean themed lop eared rabbit character who's taking a bite of a big purple jelly bean. She has white fur and has jelly bean themed markings in the fur. There's a fluffy dewlap and bunch of puffy fur on the top, like hair. She's wearing colorful bracelets. Art by funnyhat12

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/09/2026

It's fun to get art based on the games I've worked on, and I should do it more often. This picture is by @funnyhat12.bsky.social I will probably continue finding the Volvic bottled water commercials funny forever and keep putting George the Volcano in everything. Also Crusader of Centy sword throw.

Art of a green anthro squirrel character with a blue dress throwing a sword at a large grayish blue volcano who's holding bottled water, and who is sitting on an elevated platform. This is in a forest scene. By funnyhat12

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cabyyy 🌈🌼 @caby.art · 07/09/2026

for novasquirrel! :D

an illustration of a squirrel girl with long, slightly wavy hair with a fringe, she's swinging a giant bubble wand in front of her like a hammer, causing massive bubbles to form in front of her. she's wearing a long, v-neck dress with flowy sleeves and is looking beyond the viewer with a determined smile. behind her, her tail curls with the force of the motion.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 16/09/2026

Even $800 is a "you should probably already be a VR enthusiast before you buy this" price. I was hoping for something $500-ish like a game console.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 15/09/2026

Tilemap Town event tomorrow; going to be funny to treat it like Drawpile, though it should work fine, especially with a feature that lets you have doodle boards appear underneath players so it just looks like floor.

Quest Board
For seeking roleplay participants or who wants to join!
Date: 2026 Sept 16th, 3:00 PM PDT
Host: VAdaPEGA
What if instead of tiles, everything was a big ol canvas?
Hi, let's try to draw on a map using TT's Doodle Board feature.
The only limitation is for everyone to use the same palette (RGB222),
make sure that's selected in your doodle board!
Event will take place in map 1667

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 15/09/2026

But I also have a whole bunch of hobbies I don't have time for and I'm okay not adding more on top of the pile. Especially not hobbies that demand my full attention.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 15/09/2026

I was vaguely interested in the Steam Frame since I previously tried Gear VR and was curious about potentially having a good cheaper non-Meta option, but the price is far above what I'd pay for something I'm not sold on yet and where I haven't seen any games yet that look especially compelling.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 15/09/2026

Nice to see a weekend meetup that isn't outside at a park; been trying to figure out how to make that work as a digital artist

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Yakumono @luigiblood.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Releasing now! Satellaview Super Mario Bros. 2 (BS Super Mario USA) MSU1 ROM containing all 4 episodes with full english dub on project.satellaview.org! #Satellaview #SNES Have fun!

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 13/09/2026

I can see the appeal of programs like Pidgin now. Though maybe I would prefer if the various chat services federated with each other like MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger did 20 years ago. I did see one server let you access it with either through a new protocol or just an IRC client.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 13/09/2026

Tried making this today; turns out using the right cheeses gets the flavor close enough that I'm satisfied that it's meaningfully the same sandwich, and I either got the herbs close enough to what they need to be, or they don't matter as much as I thought. I did use what I thought was a good amount.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 12/09/2026

My phone had a hard time rendering the crowd at the event. I did log on with my Steam Deck, which worked better, but I don't think the event was such an incredible thing to justify being that guy who has a Steam Deck out at the zoo. At least I stayed for one song.

Screenshot of the Second Life client for Android, in which a pony character is standing next to many human characters. However the world is featureless and all characters are white with no textures

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 12/09/2026

This map caused me to change how entity rendering works to make the gallery less laggy to move around on haha. I think a platform should adapt to facilitate the way users are actually using it though.

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VAdaPEGA(E)(M3)[!].7z - MAIM ACOUNT @vadepega.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

📯Our Tilemap Town Gallery Map is insane and still growing

Bluesky is absolutely gonna blurr the hell out of this, if you wanna see the proper version, go to our Mastodon instead

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 12/09/2026

I still kind of want www. mariowiki.com/Dungeon_Dilemma as a bigger game; maybe it could take the form of a battle system where you get at least a dozen word choices every turn, and have to infer what's an attack, guard, spell, or decoy option, and what the strongest helpful options are

mariowiki.com

Dungeon Dilemma

Dungeon Dilemma is Orbulon's boss microgame from the IQ folder in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!. The microgame reprises its role in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!. It...

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 11/09/2026

It's helpful that a lot of languages you would actually want to use to make PC games are actually viable on GBA too, though it does mean that you're making a PC game where you're discouraged from using floating point numbers (except for PC-specific parts?) and that can be a little annoying

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 11/09/2026

I think with most of my consoles there's the dream that I might develop something for them or contribute to emulation research someday, in which case I need the hardware, but that leaves all the consoles that I *didn't* buy because I don't plan on making stuff, and this works great for just playing.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 10/09/2026

www.firestormviewer.org/firestorms-1... This is scheduled for the same day and time as a behind-the-scenes zoo thing I got a reservation for, but that means I have the incredible option of getting on with the Android Second Life client and letting my 7 year old phone struggle to render the crowd.

firestormviewer.org

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/09/2026

Development goal for this month is to try and get the Super Game Boy mode in the Petal Crash port to a point where you can have a fully functional Tug-of-War or Trash Attack versus match. That means implementing garbage, checking for a lose condition, and some sort of minimal menu to start a match.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/09/2026

I wish Nintendo Directs were at a different time or weren't streams, because they consistently overlap with daily standup meetings for work so I have to wait until after those, and then have to wait for the stream is over so I can start from the beginning

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/09/2026

I normally just play on the original console, but that requires me to have or want the original console, which is the case with a SNES, but not as much with the ColecoVision. And maybe sometimes it's nice to have clean graphics and savestates.

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Nova @novasquirrel.com · 09/09/2026

I've been enjoying using my MiSTer more now that there are game consoles I've been interested in lately that I either don't plan on owning (not interested in using power tools on a Philips CD-i Timekeeper chip so I can save) or where I may want a better controller for longer sessions (Pokémon Mini)

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