iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jesse Makkonen @jessemakkonen.com · 02/10/2026

I know there are tons of games on sale atm, so here's one more! 😂 Without a Dawn is a dark and mature one-sitter that offers some food for thought: store.steampowered.com/app/3145620/... #Steam #indiegame #horror #spooky

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Raph Koster @raphkoster.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The full EDGE piece on game industry challenges is out now, has a lot of smart people in it (and me) & I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the games biz. knowledge.edge-online.com/p/the-game-i...

knowledge.edge-online.com

The game industry is broken – can we fix it?

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Kelly Whyte @kellywhyte.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Our campaign is live! Back Sage Council to get our comedic card based #ttrpg about d&d-style fantasy city politics, available in digital and physical versions. With an eye on the polls and the other on your purse, navigate the challenges facing a modern medieval metropolis. #kiwirpg

kickstarter.com

Sage Council

A card-based roleplaying game of local politics and city councils.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 13/08/2026

Currently developing a little engine so you can hack together your own screwthatlike game to create mini LARPs about energy scarcity and other possible climate futures. #LARP #gamedesign #rpg

a command line interface for xThat, a playful tool for generating mini games. The interface prints the title xThat followed by a description:

"xThat is a playful mini game generator for anyone looking to create their own mini game.

To make a game we will:
1. provide you with a title for your game
2. prompt you for a subtitle
3. prompt you for 4 bullet points for game play."

The user is then asked "Are you ready to continue:"

The interface then shows the randomly generated game title "MAKE THAT". It the asks the user to "Enter a subtitle"

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 17/07/2026

These manky tea towels are all too clean at #emfcamp please come use, donate, swap and soil. Don’t forget to take a zine! Or download one here: oliverbates.itch.io/manky More info: Manky.website

A gazebo in a field at a festival with many tea towels hanging up.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 15/07/2026

Lost before it got to tell its story.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 15/07/2026

Another great donation to The Museum of Manky Tea Towels! “this timeless dishrag was restored from on top of the wardrobe in the zebra enclosure at Knowsley Safari Park. During a full moon it shapeshifts into a roll of sellotape. Donated: Apr 1992” #storiesofmankyteatowels

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Modiphius @modiphius.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

🎲We're hiring! Modiphius is looking for a new Games Designer to join our team based in Nottingham. Based in the Nottingham studio, this is a full-time position in tabletop game design to help us deliver projects in 2027 and beyond! Apply here: buff.ly/5vT1puW #GamesDev #Hiring

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 09/07/2026

Me and @ben.kirman.org are zine making this week ready for the Museum of Manky Tea Towels (manky.website) and tea towel making workshop at @emfcamp.bsky.social next week! Get in touch to donate your tea towels!

A sketch of a 4 burner oven with two tea towels hanging from the oven door handle. One tea towel reads “manky tea towels rule” with a purple background. The second tea towel is a rough looking sketch that could be a map of a sea side town or other tourist attraction, with grass, sand and water - and maybe a windmill.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 09/07/2026

It worked for me without tears!

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 09/07/2026

Tah. I did write http. I suspect the domain name doesn’t like forwarding and ssl.

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Ben Kirman @ben.kirman.org · 07/07/2026

Prepping for my workshop on making games for fairy lights at @emfcamp.bsky.social next week! Just adding some header pins and sample code to these @pimoroni.com Plasma boards, sealed with the magical swear words I invoke when soldering my fingers.

A photograph of a tabletop laid out with 15 small Plasma2350W circuit boards on antistatic bags. A tray of header pins, some tape and some motivational geese miniatures sit nearby.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 06/07/2026

The zine covers in their glory

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 06/07/2026

In June I had the immense pleasure of bringing Zines to the ICT4S 2026 conference to encourage alternative voices, ideas and forms of expression about ICT and sustainability. You can find all the zine contributions on my itch.io page here: lnkd.in/ePySFi4Q #zines #digitalsustainability

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 23/06/2026

We keep calling it a workshop, but it feels like a conference. Let’s say it’s an ongoing conversation.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 23/06/2026

Do you think Obsession might be GOTS (Game of the Summer) or GOTH (Game of the heatwave)?

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 23/06/2026

learning about LÖVE as a low carbon/permacomputing language for artists today at LIMITS - love2d.org looks great. CONSTRAINTS ARE GREAT. Time to make my p5 games even less resource demanding. Cheers Lee Tusman for the talk! (leetusman.com)

love2d.org

LÖVE - Free 2D Game Engine

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 18/06/2026

And I loved 1000xResist.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 17/06/2026

“What’s the h-index of your tea towel?”

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Ben Kirman @ben.kirman.org · 17/06/2026

Delighted to discover that our tea towels are now appearing alongside papers in google scholar searches ("critical tea towels") - thanks @oliverbates.co.uk for uploading them. and a reminder that "article" is a very broad term so maybe that weird thing you made is also one?

Some tea towels and booklets are spread on a table, along with an annotated map of manchester city centre. The tea towels show scenes from York and Edinburgh as gig couriers encounter difficulties and hostile architectures.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 13/06/2026

People look at you funny when you’re going through security and you get your scanner out.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 09/06/2026

Fresh hot Zines! 11 zines contributed to the #ICT4S2026 zine jam oliverbates.itch.io/ict4s2026zines we’ll be making a conference zine this week. I’ll be collecting confessions and questions as prompts for others to collage and sketch zine pages. Come and find me in the coffee break area :)

oliverbates.itch.io

ICT4S 2026 Zine Library by oliver bates

A collection of zines created and curated for the ICT4S 2026 Zine Jam and conference

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 09/06/2026

Be passive with me my friend

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a dawn walker @dcwalker.ca · 09/06/2026

memories of my x220 fan taking off on zoom or if too many tabs open, etc, a more perfect computer has never existed, etc... from this: Un vélo électrique pour l'esprit / an electric bike for the mind by Martin Lafréchoux digital: ebike.nologos.net digital zine: oliverbates.itch.io/ict4s2026zines

Presentation slide with laptop schematic drawing and titled Un vélo électrique pour l'esprit authored by Martin Lafréchoux

Zine on wood table with a schematic drawing of a laptop and the title an electric bike for the mind by Martin Lafréchoux for LIMITS2026 and ICT4S

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 08/06/2026

Yeah the “stuff” book. I was saying “This fucking guy gets it”. I love thinking about ET could be the peak cinema of games because of them perspective of an extraterrestrial stumbling from pit to pit as it navigates human objects, society and infrastructures. I must make more games that are art.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 07/06/2026

I’ve been reading @pippinbarr.bsky.social today. A dog Internet game where we experience the dog Internet as maintainers of the dog Internet. We (human workers) don’t really understand the infrastructure of the dog Internet. The dogs keep calling us “good boy” and patting us?

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 07/06/2026

“EXPERIMENTAL GAMES ARE THE THE BEST BYPRODUCT OF MY EXISTENCE”

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Ben Kirman @ben.kirman.org · 07/06/2026

On my way to #DRS2026 in Edinburgh this week, presenting "Research through Game Design" on Tuesday, w/ @oliverbates.co.uk , Marcia Tavares Smith and @dpgreen.bsky.social. I just deleted "GAMES ARE INDUSTRIAL WASTE FOR DWEEBS" from the talk. But what did I replace it with...? drs2026.thedrs.org/home

Some gothic pixellated text saying "Research through Game Design" by authors Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman, Marcia Tavares Smith and David Philip Green. From Fractals Co-op, University of York, Lancaster University and UKCEH respectively

a photo of a flat head screwdriver, atop a zine called "Screw That, A resource scarcity game" next to a manky pipe and cloth under a toilet somewhere

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 06/06/2026

I’m glad I don’t have to activate a passport like a new bank card.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 03/06/2026

capture questions, thoughts, ideas or concerns you're nervous to share and ask others to respond to them using collage, sketching or writing

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 01/06/2026

I'm hosting a 1 hour zine making workshop next week at a conference about tech and sustainability. I'd love to hear about any engaging any prompts and activities for making zines from fellow creatives, zine makers, and facilitators. #zines #zinemaking #creativity #facilitation

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 29/05/2026

Our next project is the Museum of Manky Tea Towels. Me and @ben.kirman.org need your help! Got any novelty/souvenir tea towels you could donate? Here’s a longer call for tea towels: crankandfile.co.uk/museum-of-ma... If you’re in the UK drop me a dm so we can arrange postage or a collection.

crankandfile.co.uk

Museum of Manky Tea Towels: Call for Tea Towels!

Call for Tea Towels! As part of ongoing research with tea towels and storytelling, we are co-organising an event at the arts and science festival Electromagnetic Field called “The Museum of Manky Tea ...

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 27/05/2026

a tea towel would never hurt you this way

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 25/04/2026

Award winning poster alert from NetDrive spring event at Oxford Uni!!! Had fun coming up with a speculative noticeboard from a future where scientific computing is championing digital sufficiency (consuming “just enough”) to reduce the carbon footprint of digital research and scientific computing.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 08/04/2026

Getting ready to sprinkle chaos across notice boards near you.

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Emiliano Mellino @mellino.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I’ve spent the last year investigating how the UK's broken employment tribunal system lets rogue bosses evade justice. But this is the craziest case,by far. A restaurant chain that lost 21 tribunal claims over several years, yet never paid a single one🧵 www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

thebureauinvestigates.com

Meet the restaurant boss who flouted judges’ orders for years

Jason Wells’ restaurant chain has cheated workers, lost 21 tribunal claims – and not paid a single one

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 01/04/2026

#zine jam is still running for ICT4S! If you’d like to contribute or chat dm me. We’re inviting any kind of contribution about sustainability and ICT/tech! We encourage: - Critical perspectives - unfinished ideas - fictions - poems - photo albums - games - absurdity - thinking “otherwise”

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 03/03/2026

We’re inviting game makers, artists, researchers, manifesto makers, and creatives of all kinds to make zines about sustainability and digital tech “otherwise”. The zine jam is one way we’re bringing diy + critical and divergent perspectives to tech and sustainability. #zines #games #diy #jam

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 01/04/2026

“Do not eat” written on the lid of some particularly wet feeling slime that came with a kids magazine. The image of a cake draws me in. I lick my lips. “NOOOOO” screams the child as she swipes it from my mouth. Why is there a picture of a cake on it if I’m not supposed to try a bit?

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 28/03/2026

It was a pleasure to jam with you. I’m excited to hear how it went!

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a dawn walker @dcwalker.ca · 28/03/2026

Posting a day late to say : this was so much fun! Thanks all for playing the first cut of this zine game + coming up with new hospicing tactics. Thanks to @oliverbates.co.uk jamming on this with me. I'll share an updated version soon here + other places + directly with those who've asked.

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Pippin Barr 🤔 @pippinbarr.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

New game: As Slow As Possible Slow down.

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 03/03/2026

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EUphoria Actual Play @euphoriaap.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

TODAY! The final episode of this season of 20 Minute TTRPGs! @drakoniques.itch.io joins @cutestpatoot.itch.io for a deep dive into game design and another spin if the wheel. www.twitch.tv/EUphoriaAP

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 17/02/2026

You’re welcome with or without an idea! Finished concept, half-formed question, or just curiosity? We’ll help you find collaborators and make it together. 🗓 Dates: 24 Jan – 8 May: Register interest 9 Mar – 8 May: Online Zine Jam 8 May: Zine submission deadline 8 – 12 June: Zines at ICT4S, Bern

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 17/02/2026

✨ Three ways to join: - Pre-conference Zine Jam (online): drop in anytime to make, think, and collaborate. - Zine Hub at the conference: read, create, fold and experiment. - Public online Zine Library: contribute to the online Zine library!

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oliver @oliverbates.co.uk · 17/02/2026

📓 ICT4S Zine Jam @ ICT4S 2026 (Bern, Switzerland) We’re excited to host the ICT4S Zine Jam and invite you to explore different ways of doing research on ICT and sustainability. conf.researchr.org/track/ict4s-... We’d love to have you there. The ICT4S Zine Collective More info in thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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