iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Playing With Form

Radio San Lazaro @radiosanlazaro.cozyaf.media · 30/08/2026

Goooooood Morning, San Lazaro!! 🌄 That's right! Season 1 of Radio San Lazaro is premiering 🌞 September 18, 2026 🌞 You can follow the feed anywhere you get your fiction podcasts. Find your favored app here: pod.link/1886518955

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Bonus Episode: Subtle Sounds with a Sizeable Sword The closest I've come to a game review. I didn't give Monster Hunter enough time in episode 11, and I aim to rectify that, in a very soundscapey way. pod.link/1464965964/e...

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Bonus: Subtle Sounds with a Sizeable Sword

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

And with that, the Bluesky is caught up to present day. As promised, a new episode is coming shortly :)

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Bonus Episode: The Mythic Cicada An addendum to episode 11, this time we're talking about bugs not birds. pod.link/1464965964/e...

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Bonus: The Mythic Cicada

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I'm enjoying keeping track of birds during my tv-watching. I may not recommend it to everyone, but if you're the same kind of geek as me, try it out. Do it enough and you get a weird pride about it. Legitimately a few days ago I shouted at my screen "Blackbird at the golf course let's goooo!"

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

So you'll notice, this is all North American birds. And that's simply because that's where a lot of the early sound effect collections came from. International TV, you'll usually get their local soundscape instead, but animated or fantasy and there's a good chance it's back to the NA classics.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Mountain Chickadee This one's a staple of the American West. Tiny fellow, high beeps to low beeps. You may recognize it from Skyrim, especially Helgen Keep because you're stuck in the opening cutscene as it sings. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mounta...

allaboutbirds.org

Mountain Chickadee Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The tiny Mountain Chickadee is a busy presence overhead in the dry evergreen forests of the mountainous West. Often the nucleus in mixed flocks of small birds, Mountain Chickadees flit through high br...

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

American Robin You hear this little guy everywhere in North America, and all over TV. It's the bird I hear most often after the Hollywood Edge birds. They can do either a rhythmic string of up-down-up whistles, or a rapid laugh-like chirp. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Americ...

allaboutbirds.org

American Robin Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The quintessential early bird, American Robins are common sights on lawns across North America, where you often see them tugging earthworms out of the ground. Robins are popular birds for their warm o...

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Since writing this episode I've gotten a lot more curious about birds, and have started identifying more of them from my own life and from media. Below are a few super-common ones I think are worth knowing.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Episode 11: Pandora's Squawks Forbidden knowledge about birds. Very few videogames. You've been warned. I've gotten such amazing feedback for this episode, and I'm really glad so many people enjoyed it. Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

pod.link

Pandora's Squawks

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Looking up information for Warcraft 3 is now also signing up for drama, which to a casual player like me seems like it would be a hassle, but it was actually quite vindicating. Shows that I'm not the odd one for caring about these sounds.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

It's funny because in other episodes (episode 4 especially), I talk about varied sound being an entirely good thing, but RTS games are their own animal. Information over everything. By the time I hopped on to record, the game had a Classic toggle for everything. Lucky me.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

New visuals and connectivity needed work, but so did the death sounds. Instead of 1 sound per unit, it was a random choice of 4 or 5, and made it next to impossible to keep track of combat without your eyes. Eventually they added a classic sound effects toggle, 4 years later in November 2024...

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

And on that note, I mentioned that in Warcraft 3, each unit has one death sound. What I didn't mention is the period where that wasn't true. Warcraft 3 Reforged was a remaster made in 2020, which redid the graphics and sound, and the community HATED it, because it didn't inform clearly.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The original inspiration for this episode wasn't actually Warcraft. On a whim I replayed Age of Mythology, and this villager sound got stuck in my head: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yN9... I built the script around that first, but then while researching, Warcraft took over. You can see why lol

youtube.com

Prostagma?

YouTube video by Arynor

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Episode 10: Where the Magic Happens Earworms and Warcraft. Film sound and acoustic theory too! Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

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Where the Magic Happens

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

And archive.org has a pdf of Danse Macabre itself. You love to see it. ia903201.us.archive.org/19/items/cal...

archive.org

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

And here's those! People online have been kind enough to recreate the lists, not including the asterisks for King's favorites, but close enough. Films www.imdb.com/list/ls05179... Books www.librarything.com/list/47263/a...

imdb.com

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Reading Danse Macabre researching Episode 8 was my way of making up for lost time, and not just for the theory. In that book, King has an appendix listing 100 films and 100 books from 1950-1980 he finds important, and in the reprint he does another list after 1980, so I've got a lot to check out 😁

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Eventually, as I learned how horror pushed a lot of artistic techniques, in stage makeup, lighting, spatial sound design, I began to respect the genre, but I still wasn't sure if I liked it, until one day I realized I had internalized the party poopers around me. That day was only a few years ago.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

And why didn't I know it? Because if I said I liked Twin Peaks or The Thing and might be getting into horror, the genre geeks would come at me with a "well that's not real horror, that's psychological horror" and the snobs would be all "don't get into horror it's stupid". And I listened.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I'd like to talk about how I was gatekept out of being a horror fan for most of my life. Growing up, my favorite novel was Dracula. My favorite short story was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. My favorite anime director was Satoshi Kon. It's clear that I was a horror fan and didn't know it.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Episode 9: Behind the Closed Door It's the spooky(?) episode. Fear of the unknown expressed mechanically, with some hammy acting thrown in. Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

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Behind the Closed Door

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Tool-assisted speedrunning though, unlike speedrunning and challenge runs, I think comes from a different urge. Feels more about creating art in the form of a playthrough, rather than reengaging with a game's challenge. It's got that Composition Instrument itch, or at least that's how I see it.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This might worm into an episode later, but I like challenge runs as a concept. If you love a game, but have run out of new experiences by playing normally, simply play it abnormally. Same reason people start speedrunning. I died 60 times instead of the usual 0, and I had a lot more fun doing it.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Well, first things first, here's my twitch run for Metroid Prime Low% Hard Mode. www.twitch.tv/videos/17929... I don't stream these days, and Twitch did crack down on how much video I can store permanently, but I made darn sure that one of the few things preserved was this run.

twitch.tv

Hard Mode Low% Challenge Run (1/4) - profoats on Twitch

profoats went live on Twitch. Catch up on their Metroid Prime Remastered VOD now.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Episode 8: Know Your Limits The longest episode yet. Metroid, self-discovery, save points, the benefits of fear, putting on pants. Lots of twists and turns down this rabbit hole. Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

pod.link

Know Your Limits

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The multiplayer is more like an actual mech shooter, though good luck finding people to play this with, and the custom levels are Mario Maker 7 years early. I love this game because of how truly unique it is. If you're curious and are in the practice of emulating DS games, it's worth checking out.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The game is a collection of missions, usually eliminating a target, and the opposition can only be described as overwhelming. In fact it's such a hard shooter that it becomes a puzzle game. You have to find a way around rather than through, and that's hidden by the veneer of boosters and missiles.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

And the rest of this is just me gushing about a game I cut from the script. I mention it right at the end briefly. Bangai-O, specifically the remakequel Bangai-O Spirits, is a silly little 2d mech shooter for the Nintendo DS.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So first, the LittleBigPlanet scene was mostly done in game. I had to put my money where my mouth was. I made a custom level of walkways and radio objects, with each instrument of the song, all together, and then custom "mixes", and I walked and stood in front of each.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Episode 7: The Building Blocks of Life Can a game be an instrument? When blurring the line between player and composer, what's in the middle? And what are the Lumiloops up to? Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

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The Building Blocks of Life

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Reposted by Playing With Form

Radio San Lazaro @radiosanlazaro.cozyaf.media · 10/07/2026

I've started posting about PwF a bit. For one, it just got a Bsky. Second, Jason Foley is assisting on RSL now with some tasks on the backend PwF is not audio fiction, but it was probably the most influential auditory experience shaping my love for the medium In addition, ever hear of Papa Sangre?

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I loved this, to be clear. The controls and concept both being new made me myself a newcomer, which for a while has been absent from my gaming life. To my knowledge, no fanmade ports of Papa Sangre exist yet. If someone learns about one, please let me know. This is media worth reviving.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Papa Sangre's lack of visuals is already tough to get used to, it's on a very unique control setup. Two buttons for each thumb, left step right step, and then a wheel which turns your character, and the binaural audio with it.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Something we don't think about enough is controller familiarity. I may save part of this thought for an episode, but I've had my hands positioned around 4 face buttons, a directional pad and two control sticks for decades now. That matters.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I don't think I'm bad at videogames. I'm the kinda guy who can unintentionally make his friends mad by getting too good too quickly. So when I say I was awful at Papa Sangre, I really really mean it.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Episode 6: To See With Your Ears A guided tour through sound studies in the land of the dead, quite literally because Papa Sangre is now lost media. Behind the scenes bits in the replies! pod.link/1464965964/e...

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To See With Your Ears

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Here's the link to Honor and Joel. Really good talk, they get into detail in a way I wish most conference discussions did, and for more than just panning. www.thirdcoastfestival.org/feature/dark...

thirdcoastfestival.org

Dark & Funny, Like Your Life: Sound Design With Feeling

Sound-rich audio stories from around the world, galore!

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Overall thoughts? It's a cool trick almost never considered in nonfiction, could separate mental states or multiple points in a voice's timeline as show-not-tell, but it's hard to find moments to do it. Because I've tried it more since, and usually cut it because, like film, mostly it's jarring.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I wanted to try it, and I did have a few "me"s to distinguish: - Me narrating Raph, pushed 30% right w/keyboard foley - Me narrating me, center, normal - Me narrating MUD text, slight EQ with FFT blips (sounded more retro than Phoenix Wright) - Me playing MUD live, room tone louder, panned 30% left

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

What I was trying was...not that. I had seen Honor Eastly and Joel Werner talk about editing the podcast "No Feeling Is Final". One thing they were concerned with is having Honor play multiple "characters", flashback, intrusive thoughts, normal internal monologue, dialogue, all had to sound unique.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

But in radio plays, this wasn't as abandoned a practice. Panning a voice to the side can draw attention to someone entering a room, or could move your audioposition to a character who is also hearing someone from the corner of their ear. It happens now and then, and sounds okay. Different medium.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Something in this episode I haven't done before or since is panning my voice. There were experiments with putting voices in just one ear since way back, mainly to spatialize. In theory, guy on left, sound on left, it makes sense. In practice, it didn't go too well in film, often feels jarring.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Episode 5: A Story About A Story About A Tree So far my only crack at a more investigative plotline, and one of the most unique entries to the show. Uncover a mystery from the ancient internet. Behind the scenes bits in the replies! (this one's for the sound folk) pod.link/1464965964/e...

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A Story About A Story About A Tree

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Lowkey I feel most of the deep cuts are either a game I played as a kid or something I read that I liked, and I just wait until there's a topic relevant to it, as long as it takes. I'm still fiending to talk about Ogre Battle 64. I'm gonna find something for it, mark my words.

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

"Best ever" is a lot of faith in me, wow. Thanks buddy, I won't let you down.

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Reposted by Playing With Form

Barrik @barrikb.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I've known Jason since HS and he's always been a a font of interesting analysis and critical thought. His podcast is no exception, definitely worth a listen if you are a gamer and like hearing about game design and sound analysis. The absolute deep cuts he pulls out of nowhere are insane! 🤯

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Playing With Form @playingwithform.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

And I realize I never actually said where the Martin O'Donnell quotes came from. It's here! My quotes were very surface-level, so there's a lot more in here worth checking out, he gets very into the weeds. www.gamedeveloper.com/audio/produc...

gamedeveloper.com

Producing Audio for Halo

Halo evolved over a number of years, and the audio design for it evolved as well. Some of this evolution had to do with a desire to reach for higher production values, but much of it had to do with ho...

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