iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Really excited to have another project I worked on be announced. Can't wait for everyone to get to play! youtube.com/watch?v=HiY8...

youtube.com

Dumb Ways to Build | Official Announcement Trailer

YouTube video by Dumb Ways to Die

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Game of Thrones: War for Westeros @warforwesteros.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Banners will rise in Westeros. The official Gameplay Reveal Trailer for Game of Thrones: War for Westeros is coming to gamescom Opening Night Live. Watch the Gameplay Teaser now. August 25 approaches.

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Kayin @kayin.moe · 09/05/2026

Don't make the game your fans say they want, make the game your fans don't know they want.

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Roguelike Radio @roguelikeradio.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Roguelike Radio episode 172: Seven Day Roguelikes 2026 www.roguelikeradio.com/2026/04/episode-172-seven-days-roguelikes-2026.html

roguelikeradio.com

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Tears rise from the Abyss... Amazing piece of the Sea mother from Pokemon Salt and Shadow. The mix of motherly and monstrous has especially been captured well

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Ian Danskin @innuendostudios.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

I wrote about silksong this just kinda ends when I run outta stuff to say, so I might go back and add to it, but I said what was in my heart and you can read what's there www.grouvee.com/user/Innuend...

grouvee.com

InnuendoStudios's Review of Hollow Knight: Silksong

I need to say more about silksong than "peam." I'm too old for "peam," but "peam" is really funny. I cannot stop reading/watching things about silksong (the best, bar none, is kayin's "[silksong...

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Joe Wintergreen @joewintergreen.com · 06/02/2026

Fave visual trick in Halo 1: swapping out the warthog tire texture for a blurry one when they're spinning fast. Fake motion blurrrr

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Tom Francis @pentadact.com · 08/01/2026

I've been running an indie games studio for 15 years now, and it felt like a good time to boil down what I've learned into 4 pieces of advice: www.pentadact.com/2026-01-08-1... I hope it's of use, not least because goddamn I forgot how long blog posts take to write.

A timeline visually representing the advice from my post, emphasising how dramatically and reliably having more time, with a testable build, converts to your game being better and your studio being safer.

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Joe Baxter-Webb @indiegameclinic.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

The structure/format of roguelikes is such that many naturally suit a "healthy" session shape; A. I play a full session in one sitting and if its a long session I feel satisfied regardless of the outcome. B. I have a session with several false starts, e.g 2 or 3 twenty-min runs of Slay the Spire.

e.gh

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Aaron George @asmoranomardic.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

There's a new article up on the Cryptodex tonight! Today we're looking at a Kappa, a beach ball whale, a chameleon, and a baby Marill. Please come take a look and tell me what you think! lostpokedex.weebly.com/rs-period-1a...

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Fragile female ego @miyamoris.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

#MaryPlaysSaltShadow this game's writing is simply harrowing at times.

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Katie Chironis @kchironis.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

alternative math curriculum for game developers: - probabilities and loot tables, aka If you Fuck This Up Your Endgame Playerbase Will Be So Mad At You, Pay Attention - physics, aka Oh God Is The Player Stuck In That Wall Again - vector math, aka Bullet Logic Is Mostly Raycasts Honestly

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Kasey Gifford @kaseygifford.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

I saw a random reddit comment where someone theorized that Pennywise and Mary Poppins were the same species of primordial psychic entity, but Pennywise feeds on fear while Poppins feeds on joy. both of them eat kid emotions because fear and joy are more intense in kids. This is Canon for me now.

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Max Nichols @maxnichols.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

I think the single most important design decision in the entirety of Destiny 1 or 2 was when they built the inventory/quest screens to be interactable during loading screens Not talked about almost ever, but it was so damn important to the loot game

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Some of my favourite coworkers from my Ubisoft days have teamed up to make this amazing little game. store.steampowered.com/app/1162660/... Give it a wishlist as it's really helpful at the moment as they chat with publishers.

store.steampowered.com

SCAV on Steam

Drive through an alien desert wasteland in your truck, scavenging through monolithic wreckages and slaying ravenous monsters to fulfill contracts.

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

"Oaths are pretty, fleeting things... Like flowers left to rot. They saw my gentle hands as weak. Strength and deed are gossamer-thin. ...I have need of stronger chains."

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

This amazing 47 page Lets-Play thread of Pokemon Salt and Shadow just started up again with our Moon DLC area. forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.p... Seeing all the discussion and excitment here really brings me pride in what we created.

forums.somethingawful.com

The champion's reign is forever. Let's Play Pokemon Salt and Shadow.

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Another great long form analysis of a game I've never played and barely heard of that fills me with wonder and joy.

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Aaron George @asmoranomardic.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Hi everyone! We've got our first regular article about Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire's development up on the Cryptodex! This time, we're talking about camels, pelicans, and bees. Please check it out! lostpokedex.weebly.com/rs-period-1a...

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BuzzComics @buzzcomics.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Preview de Monstress #60 par Marjorie Liu et @sanatakeda.bsky.social chez @imagecomics.com #ImageComics #Comics #Monstress www.buzzcomics.net/showpost.php...

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

"What do you call trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Hope."

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Incredibly humbled to have one of our fans get a tattoo based on Pokemon Salt and Shadow.

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

The Abyssal Sea Update Pokémon: Salt & Shadow (3.0.0) patch - 30+ new abilities - 35+ new moves - 35+ new species - New items, music, and postgame-only content. - The truth? Download here: www.mediafire.com/file/32yz6t3... See ⁠download-steps for directions on how to update.

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Max Nichols @maxnichols.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Long-shot: I will pay $500 for a recording or transcript, with slides visible, of the 2017 CEDEC “Field Level Design” Breath of the Wild talk by Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Makoto Yunezu, if you’re ok with me sharing it.

A screenshot of Breath of the Wild, with Link standing on a hill looking out at a wide vista. Overlaid on the screenshot are a bunch of highlighted triangular shapes, part of BOTW’s visual design language.

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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 07/08/2025

hi. looking to speak to folks in the games industry getting put through the wringer in the job application process rn. unpaid labour, multiple interviews only to get ghosted, sham job listings, scams, AI screening, any and all of that kinda stuff. DM or email at lukeATaftermathDOTsite, thank you!

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Seb Downie-Blackwell @downieseb.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Games in pre-alpha

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Enter the Chronosphere @effortstar.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

We’re looking for a full time senior 3D artist and animator for Enter the Chronosphere (fully remote). We hope to fill this role ASAP, so take a look at the job description if it sounds like it’s for you. effortstar.games/careers #hiring #indiedev #Australia

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Micro SF/F by O. Westin @microsff.com · 22/05/2025

The sigil was drawn in salt and ash, the candles lit at the pentagram points, the incantation declaimed. There was a shimmer - a demon appeared. "Curious. What ritual is this?" "I got it from ChatGPT. I included all protections in my prompt!" "I see," the demon said and stepped out of the sigil.

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Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Still, there's something inherently violent even about dice rolls. It's like every time you cast a die, something disappears. Some alternative ending, or an entirely different world...

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Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 13/05/2025

Viv is 100% correct here. Your options are always one of three: 1. Do not make an indie game. 2. Get funding, usually by making something that fits a very narrow and useless definition of "safe", and subsequently losing agency over your production reality. 3. Have another income or means.

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Pokémon Fangame News @pokefangamenews.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

A new Eevee Expo, a Nintendo Direct-like presentation for Pokémon Fangames, will air on Monday! ♥️

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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 03/05/2025

FASCINATING they get their own clause in the voting laws!

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Celine & Friends (The Woodlings) @warmfuzzy.games · 28/04/2025

Playlist for the completed run: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... And... attached are some musings that were too long for BSky's character limit. ... Thread, because they were too long for the screenshot and alt text limits, too. >.>;

Actually, I had that link ready to go as far back as the night part 22 happened, but I had some thoughts I wanted to get in order before I posted this.

Since we've completed this playthrough, we've had no shortage of awe and adulation in people's reactions. A good friend of ours recently posted a link and called it one of their favorite challenges ever. Dan Felder himself has been going around spreading the word of our achievement after having doubted us before we proved him wrong, almost like Saint Paul after his conversion.

That said, I do have to warn you all about something with this series, and then expand the point into larger philosophical meandering. Those who have seen the final episode know how the ending is the time for heartfelt soapboxes from everyone involved, so, well, here's mine.

This series starts out slow and honestly kind of hard to watch. The first few videos were more or less intended to be private, just me making a recording for potential verification footage purposes while playing offline and alone. Later ones include some dearly beloved friends (shoutouts to the SeireaSong, the Jade System, and the Blackfeather Court) as we were "softstreaming" them--playing the game streamed to our personal close-knit-friend-chat Discord server should anyone happen to want to pop in, without the intention of streaming them to a larger audience. Only later did I finally decide to make the effort public, at which point we have the Warm Fuzzy Game Room UI, visible chat, and host/presenter demeanor that you're all used to.

Why such a slow and quiet start? Because I had zero confidence that I was going to be able to pull this challenge off. I was hedging my bets (or "hudging my budgies," per one particularly amusing slip of the tongue around the Nitra Mine Foreman fight which I believe is canon now.) The idea was that if this run somehow actually succeeded, we'd have the verification footage for it. It didn't even have to be entertaining; it just had to, well, verify the run, as in show everything on screen to prove we weren't cheating or anything. The developers themselves were the only people who would ever need to see it, and even then, they would only need to see it for verification purposes.

Meanwhile, in the very likely event that attempting No Sacrifices AND Perish Mode at the same time proved to be an incredibly stupid idea, that the challenge proved impossible and I ended up giving up on the whole thing partway through, I could just quietly delete the videos before anyone even knew they'd ever existed; no one would ever have to know we'd even attempted this ridiculous idea in the first place.

This leads me to my main point: I'm desperately afraid of public expectations and failing to meet them. It's easy for anything announced with hype to end up becoming a meme if and when Development Hell happens. Before Silksong won Hard Drive's tongue-in-cheek "best game that's never actually coming out, ever" award, before George R. R. Martin became famous for doing anything and everything in the world BUT writing The Winds of Winter, there was Duke Nukem Forever, Harlan Ellison's The Last Dangerous Visions, The Beach Boys' SMiLE. I always thought the way to avoid that fate was to never, EVER announce that you're working on anything until it's already done and shadow-dropped and out now. All letting anyone have expectations of you does is give them something you can then fail to meet.

I didn't want to face the idea of anyone KNOWING I had tried and failed to do this challenge. If there was the possibility that it was going to die, then at least let it die in complete darkness, away from any potential witnesses.

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Will Quinn @willquinnart.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Daily bunny no.2935 is doing some parkour

A bunch of rabbits practice leaping from a cement wall to a nearby crate, in an urban setting. They are jumping onto some pillows, for safety. One bunny on a high vantage point films their stunts with a camcorder

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

A fan of the Pokemon fangame I worked on has spent 9 months doing a text based "Let's Play" Today it came to a close and it's been delightful reading everyone's commentary and support forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.p...

forums.somethingawful.com

The champion's reign is forever. Let's Play Pokemon Salt and Shadow.

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Sana Takeda @sanatakeda.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Monstress #57 will be released next week!💪✨

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Jesse Walker @notjessewalker.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

One problem with the idea of reserving due process for law-abiding people is that due process is how we figure out which people are law-abiding.

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Always fun watching new players try out Salt and Shadow, its really been popping off recently and the new DLC is coming along really well. Also this thumbnail is amazing! www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S8V...

youtube.com

The New Pokemon Game ACTUALLY inspired by Dark Souls... (Pokemon Salt And Shadow)

YouTube video by SacredAlmighty

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🐔 Brian Bucklew 🐔 ₑͤ＞∿＜ₑͤ ∞🌮 @unormal.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

why is making game so much things

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meredith 🙂‍↕️ @merryh.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

An exhausted & hopeful me asking you all at the end of your working week to take TWO MINUTES submitting anything you've seen this past month to indiedigest.dev - upcoming events, funding rounds, cool resources - anything! I am hoping to send one out this weekend & it's been a Huge Week so pls help

indiedigest.dev

The Indie Dev Digest

A monthly newsletter for digital game developers across Australia and New Zealand, primarily in the independent games space.

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Blue @bluestigma.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

bsky.app/profile/wari...

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Robo 🦀 @ttrpgifs.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

HEARTBREAKING: Person with 20+ unfinished projects has a new idea for a project.

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Deadly Osmanthus Soup is BACK ON THE MENU! @madpierrot.design · 16/02/2025

For reference: Procedural generation is shuffling a deck and dealing from it. genAI is feeding every card deck you can find, including ones not for the game, into a wood chipper, slapping a handful of the bits on some glue, and pretending its a playable hand.

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Reuben Covington @reubencovington.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Time to work on some secret pokemon stuff

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