iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 13/09/2026

I wrote about taking my daughter to start university, and the ways tech is making her feel helpless rotational.co.uk/2026/09/next/

A view over London from her accommodation's window, with a hanging tag saying "WARNING"

"She said, “How did you get around when you first lived in London?” knowing that it was before anyone had phones. And I told her about the pocket A-Z map I, and every other London immigrant I knew, carried always.

She said, “I don’t know how to read maps,” in despair, because her maps plan her route for her.

She said, “I don’t know how to spell any more,” explaining how she stopped learning to spell after autocorrect began doing it for her.

She said, “My attention span is nothing.” I tried, lamely, to suggest she puts her phone in a different room when she needs to get on with something.

She said, “I hate it,” referring to the iPhone she carries always. Its constant distraction, its..."

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Will Wiles @willwiles.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

How I think my working day is going to feel, vs how it actually feels

St Jerome in his Study, painted by Antonello da Messina. A perfect picture of academic serenity in idealised architectural surroundings. Jerome sits calmly attentive, straight-backed, reading.

Saint Jerome painted by Pieter Coecke van Aelst from the quoted post. Jerome is slumped, one hand supporting his head, the other with a finger on a tumbled skull. He looks flustered and miserable and his desk is untidy.

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

In surprising computer game news: Sir, You Are Being Hunted finally made it to console, just fourteen years after release on PC. It's out now on Switch, PS5, and Xbox. (And Steam and GoG, of course.)

youtube.com

Sir, You Are Being Hunted: Out now on Switch, PS5, Xbox (and Steam, of course.)

YouTube video by Jim Rossignol

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

One thing I never did was a post-mortem of Sir. Perhaps this is as good a time and place as any to talk about some of that. It started in 2010 when Channel 4 had some money to spend on making educational games. For some reason they asked me. ->thread

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Wes Fenlon @wes.readonlymemo.com · 28/06/2026

Remember the internet before Google, before algorithmic feeds, before monolithic social media corralled us onto the same handful of apps? When small, *personal websites* and webrings linking them together reigned supreme? Time to bring it back.

readonlymemo.com

Introducing Warp Point, a Web 1.0 gaming blog directory built for 2026

It's a webring! And a website!

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Tom Francis @pentadact.com · 24/06/2026

Git still hiring poets to write error messages.

A git error message reading "fatal: you are on a branch yet to be born"

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Steve Lee @stevelee.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Posted my first new youtube video in months yesterday - chatting about the idea of interactive environmental storytelling, using examples from the Dust District, the level I worked on in Dishonored 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeG3...

youtube.com

Interactive Environmental Storytelling for level designers

YouTube video by Steve Lee (Level and Game Design)

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conner fawcett @badbucket.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

‘The Orrery of The Seven-Part Pact’ commissioned game board for @possumcreekgames.com and @jdragsky.bsky.social’s upcoming game ‘Seven-Part Pact’ kickstarter.com/projects/sjgames/seven-part-pact

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Jamie Brittain @matronboy.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Feel so very honoured to have spent the last 3 years as Lead Writer on this incredible game, and am especially proud of the amazing cast of characters we've created. Thanks so much for having me @maverick-games.com & @flawlessc0wboy.bsky.social!

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Catsuka @catsuka.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Opening titles of "Dealies", the new animated series by the creators of "Common Side Effects" and "Scavenger's Reign". Coming to Netflix in 2027.

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Mahdi Bahrami @bahrami.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

I’m super excited to see what my American game dev friends have been making, while American bombs did this to my neighbourhood

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Marsh Davies @marshdavies.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

GOLD TEETH has launched! It's a piratical TTRPG set in a cursed version of the Age of Sail, with 350 pages of briny phantasmagoria, colonial terror and nauseating seafood. It's part Master & Commander, part Blackadder, left to ripen in the sun like a beached porpoise. teethrpg.itch.io/gold-teeth

Exploded diagram of a ship's cargo hold with many annotations. It appears to be filling with water, which is generally not ideal.

A sample spread from the book, featuring a map of a Spanish settlement and a biography of its wretched governor.

A large map of the town of Great New Plymouth.

Another spread from the book featuring a large illustration of a ship cresting a wave. On the opposing page is a description of the fictional island of Iguanique and a picture of a skull sprouting tube worms.

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

We're going to close GOLD TEETH pre-orders this weekend. If you want to secure yourself a copy of our book of horribly-cursed pirates, you should do so now. www.kickstarter.com/projects/149...

kickstarter.com

GOLD TEETH: The Tabletop RPG of Piracy & Occult Horror

It's 1781 and you are a horrible pirate. Can you earn redemption? Or will you succumb to a watery doom?

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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The animation chat has me thinking one telling thing - in the years since AI arrived, there's not been a ground-up indie phenomenon, like we saw with earlier tech (Flash, etc). It hasn't unlocked anyone's creativity. For all the anti-gatekeeping rhetroic, nothing anyone cares about has been born.

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 25/05/2026

Correct www.jank.cool/tinkering-wi...

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Brendan Keogh @brkeogh.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

You could write a cool kind of media history where different IP characters appearing in Fortnite etc. is a continuation and industrialisation of a much older practice of modders putting different characters in commercial games over 20 years ago.

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 21/05/2026

We are playing through this now, helmed by wise old wizard @rossignol.bsky.social! It draws together a fantastically consequential and rich tapestry of people, cultures and relationships. Can't get enough of it.

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I've been reading through a near-complete version our next #TTRPG book, GOLD TEETH, and while I am not exactly a neutral commentator I can say that @marshdavies.bsky.social is now operating on another level. Do not miss. You can still secure a late pledge copy: www.kickstarter.com/projects/149...

A mockup of GOLD TEETH, featuring a gold crossbones in a red fabric cover, laying on a sandy beach, of course.

Part of Marsh's astounding exploded diagram of The Magdalena, our starting scenario for the adventure.

A very cursed page of text from the book.

An example of Marsh's superb illustration, writing, and layout.

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Amber Griffiths @amberfirefly.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 17/05/2026

Tiny wood engraving print by Bewick from late 1700s-early 1800s. He engraved his own finger print at life size into this scene, the whole thing is about 4x2cm.

There is a detailed cottage on the right with a little fence, a rider on a horse is half visible with the front half under the carved fingerprint, there are trees behind. It is a black ink print on white paper, reproduced at the original scale in a book called Thomas Bewick, Tale-Pieces.

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Sam Ottewill-Soulsby @samottewillsoulsby.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This summary of different early medieval literature is still one of my favourite things on the internet. #medievalsky

Screenshot of Tumblr post by user sunshinemoonrx, reading:

‘Old Welsh lit: Dave punched Steve. This incurred a fine of twelve cattle and a nine-inch rod of silver and is known as one of the Three Mildly Annoying Blows of the Isle of Britain

Old Irish lit: Dave punched Steve so that the top of his skull came out of his chin, and gore flooded the house, and he drove his fists down the street performing his battle-feats so that the corpses were so numerous there was no room for them to fall down. It was like “the fox among the hens” and “the oncoming tide” and “that time Emily had eight drinks when we all know she should stop at six”

Old English lit: Dave, the hard man, the fierce man, the fist-man, gave Steve such a blow the like has not been seen since the feud between the Hylfings and the Wends. Thus it is rightly said that violence only begets more violence, unless of course it is particularly sicknasty. Amen.’

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Social media was an attempt to make sure everyone was trapped on the same blog.

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Trotim @trotim.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

game UIs got bad when they stopped having orbs and gargoyles

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 25/04/2026

The magnetic man welcomes forces that others dread, because he can extract a precious power therefrom” publicdomainreview.org/essay/magic-...

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Marsh Davies @marshdavies.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

friend

Illustration of a hideous glob of greyish flesh wallowing in the ruin of a building. Single roving eye? Check. Lots of spindly legs, erupting seemingly at random from its mass? Check. Multiple recessed mouths? Check. And to top it off, yellow fluted vents of unclear purpose.

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 21/03/2026

FORTUNE DARK is a FREE rules-lite TTRPG system for desperate adventures in service of your covetous god -- freshly updated with tweaked rules and a new layout rotational.co.uk/2026/03/fort...

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v buckenham @v21.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

i don't think i realised how much i was missing this style of writing. something which is both very serious and thoughtful, engaging with the complexities of the subject and the contingent nature of any actual gaming experience... and also absolutely trying to fit a joke into any spare corner.

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 27/01/2026

So happy my friends have gotten back on the old horse* *simultaneously dumb/silly/serious writings about PC games

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Brendy_C @brendyc.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

We're launching a website. Jank is an independent PC games website funded by readers. jank.cool If you like funny, thoughtful games journalism and can't stand adverts, deals posts, affiliate links, and other nonsense - Jank is for you.

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Will Wiles @willwiles.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Q: How do I unlock Sunglasses Macron? A: It's very difficult to unlock Sunglasses Macron in the course of a normal game because it requires a specific and unlikely sequence of events. While default Macron is ruler of France, the USA must choose the monarchy path and then lay claim to Greenland.

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 14/01/2026

Went to Deathmatch Island over the holiday. Played to (nearly) win

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 20/10/2025

I've been running Night's Black Agents for my regular RPG chums, and — HYPER-NICHE-BULLSHIT TIME! — we're using QuickShock rules because we're PbtA narrative sickos who couldn't take NBA's dose of good old-fashioned combat crunch. Here's how I hastily adapted it! rotational.co.uk/2025/10/conv...

rotational.co.uk

Converting Gumshoe QuickShock rules to Night’s Black Agents

For my regular group I’ve been running Night’s Black Agents, a TTRPG in which players are cinematic hyper-competent agents fighting a vampire conspiracy, with QuickShock rules. Here’s how I’ve adapted...

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Metanet Software Inc. @metanetsoftware.com · 16/10/2025

TEN++ is a big thank you to everyone who has played the game and supported us over the years -- you rock! Check out this amazing video community member abho made for us to help celebrate: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8gs...

youtube.com

Happy 10th Anniversary, N++!

YouTube video by metanetsoftware

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_lemon @andylemon.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wubk... Boards of Canada's Olson played thru a 1959 DEC PDP-1 via Lightbulb pulses at the Computer History Museum. Mountain View, California. Hosted on Joe Lynch's YT chan <3 603 bytes of music code on punchpaper :) #chiptune

youtube.com

Boards of Canada "Olson" on a 1959 PDP-1 Computer

YouTube video by Joe Lynch

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Alex Wiltshire @rotational.co.uk · 13/10/2025

Was before your tenure, right, @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social? But do you know who wrote this delight?

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Kieron Gillen @kierongillen.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

I wrote this over the weekend, and was a lot of fun writing something about reading something that's a lot of fun.

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Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Right you lot. Get WYRD SCIENCE Issue 7 ordered: shop.wyrd.science/products/wyr... I am in it talking CAVES OF QUD. I will take it as a personal favour if you pick this up. But don't do it for me, do it for the health of #TTRPG generally, because this is the magazine we all deserve.

shop.wyrd.science

Wyrd Science Vol.1 / Issue 7 [Print]

PLEASE NOTE - THIS ISSUE WILL SHIP IN EARLY/MID SEPTEMBER, ANYTHING ORDERED AT THE SAME TIME WILL BE SENT OUT TOGETHER PLEASE PLEASE NOTE - IF YOU WANT A SUBSCRIPTION, AND TO SAVE 10% ON THE COVER PRI...

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