iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I'm working on some new features for self-voicing in South of the March, like some additional UI beeps and boops and some special tutorial pages that only appear when it's active.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The time I tried to google Korean folk singer Im Jihoon

google search for "im jiehoon." The automated AI result responds by welcoming me, seemingly thinking that I am Jiehoon and was simply introducing myself to it.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I watched this a few weeks ago, and while I didn't even especially like it, there's a line where a young criminal guy basically says the Mark Wahlberg "it wouldn't have gone down like that if I was there" 9/11 thing, but about the crucifixion of Jesus. I've been unable to stop thinking about it.

Movie poster for "A Good Woman is Hard to Find" showing star Sarah Bolger holding a hammer. The tagline says "there are no limits to a mother's love."

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I opened a Threads account to take advantage of the extra channels on Buffer. This is the first thing I see. Not sure if this is gonna work out.

Some account called "p1mentality" posting "Hustle = Success"

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Thanks for hosting! We're working on South of the March, a turn-based RPG set in a hand-drawn dark fantasy world. We just released a new version of the demo a few days back with a complete overhaul of the self-voicing accessibility system, among other things. Check it out! s.team/a/4628420

A pen-and-ink style image of a rope bridge over a river on one side, the other showing a number of button options (which display one of the new features in v0.1.4, buttons faded after use)

A battle screen laid out over a partially revealed overhead map. On one side are a pair of black bears, and on the other are the player characters. The screen includes a couple more of the new features in v0.1.4 (letter queues tying enemies to their turn order and countdown timers for status effects)

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I saw a post the other day suggesting people use free tier Buffer to schedule posts, which I think might help my inability to stay on topic. That said, it publishes to three networks, and I basically only use this one. Of these, any thoughts on which (if any) would be worthwhile?

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Status effects have timers now, plus letter markers to tie an enemy to their position in the turn order. Your quality of life, it's improving!

A battle scene from South of the March. It shows a pair of black bears facing off against our heroes. The new additions are small number markers on the status effects, which show a turn countdown, and letter markers on the corner of enemy portraits, which show which enemy is which in the turn order.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

We're fading buttons after use now. You're gonna know if somebody has something new to say to you.

South of the March bridge scene, shows a rope bridge crossing a river. On the right are a series of buttons, two of which are half-faded to show that they've been viewed already.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

One of my most-watched actors of 2026 is a horse.

letterboxd entry for Champion the horse. I've seen him in five films. He's Gene Autry's horse. Is it really the same horse every time? I don't know.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

I've been watching wholesome Gene Autry cowboy movies from the 30s/40s. One thing I like about them is when the posters make him look like he's the king of hell for some reason.

A poster for "The Singing Cowboy." It's all in reds, oranges, and yellows, kind of fiery, with blown out whites. Gene Autry is playing a guitar with a grin, overlooking a chaotic scene.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Entry number one trillion in the "why are we funneling the entire economy into AI" question: today I tried to google famed Korean folk singer Im Jiehoon.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Checking the trending to try to figure out what you guys are talking about. I think I've got it.

#4 trending is "Teddy Roosevelt"
#5 trending is "Music Challenge"

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Vincent Price staring up at a painting of himself and getting scared is peak cinema.

Poster for The Haunted Palace (1963) starring Vincent Price, Debra Paget, and Lon Chaney. Shows some lady strapped to a torture device of some sort at the bottom of a wooden platform in a dungeon.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

South of the March v0.1.3 is up! Mostly bug fixes and some accessibility updates in this one. Steam: s.team/a/4628420 Itch: smallgraygames.itch.io/south-of-the...

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

I was gonna post that tweet where somebody says what a weird coincidence it is that a guy named Odysseus ends up going on an odyssey but I couldn't remember it so I googled it and then this happened and I got so mad I gave up

I googled "crazy that he named him odysseus" because I thought the tweet was something like that and the AI overview responded "it truly is" as I was just talking to it about an incredibly stupid opinion I have

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I hope you guys like not losing progress, because an autosave feature is incoming for South of the March. #indiedev #indiegame #turnbased #rpg #visualnovel

South of the March system menu showing a few saved games available for loading. The top save is labeled "AUTO."

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Revamped the statuses overlay in combat, so now you can see who has each status as well as what they do.

Statuses overlay in South of the March shows a list of active statuses with descriptions and icons signifying which player or enemy has them.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The official South of the March demo is now available on Steam and Itch! It's got exploration and mystery, a diverse cast of characters, and JRPG-style turn-based combat in a dark fantasy world. Try it out, and please let me know what you think! #indiegame #rpg #turnbased #indiedev #fantasy

A shopkeeper named Gytha saying "Don't much care how he sees it. My kitchen, my call"

A combat screen showing players Gemma and Cyrus in 2D turn-based combat set against a group of three bandits.

A overworld map showing a forest area with map nodes on one side and a list of points of interest on the other. One called "Buried in the mud" is selected.

A game screen showing a rope bridge stretching over a river on one side with navigation options on the other. The opton "Look at the river" is selected.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I've watched that movie 100 times! This guy, with the mohawk. He's the Nickelodeon pedophile??

Scuz from Return of the Living Dead. He's in the back of Suicide's car all dressed up in punk gear, with sunglasses and a mohawk.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

This is a hell of a cover, straight into the queue. I feel like a lot of low-budget horror underestimates how much weight something like this carries when you have little else to go on. Like I recall watching this one (not bad!) based on this image alone.

Movie poster for the 2019 film Rot. Shows a stylized grotesque drawing of gigantic man with an open mouth, a much smaller woman dressed in blood-spattered white struggling between his huge teeth.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Bloodborne runs at 30 FPS. South of the March? 120 FPS. I'm not saying it's four times better. I'm simply making an objective technical observation.

Dev window showing performance stats for South of the March. It's running at a buttery smooth 120.5 fps. Sure, it may be on a screen with a static image, but that's really not the point, is it?

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I'm an indie dev currently working on South of the March, a hand-drawn RPG that combines visual novel exploration with turn-based combat in a dark fantasy world. Wishlist on Steam: s.team/a/4628420 or Itch: smallgraygames.itch.io/south-of-the...

An illustration of a bridge crossing a river into the darkness of trees beyond. To the side are a number of options, the selected one reading "look at the river."

A combat screen showing three wolves on one side. They're facing off against the protagonists, Gemma and Cyrus, who seem to have already taken some damage.

An illustration of a mess hall, complete with dining tables and a hearth, but the whole thing is overlayed by a dialogue window. A woman named Gytha says "Don't much care how he sees it. My kitchen, my call."

The map screen in South of the March. An overhead view shows a map of a woodland area, with various markers peppering the areas that aren't obscured by clouds. On the side is a list of area names, "Buried in the Mud" selected.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

It has Dick Miller the youngest I've ever seen him. In true old movie style, he's only 31 but already looking at least 50.

Dick Miller in A Bucket of Blood. He's messing around with clay and looking worried in the way Dick Miller kind of always did.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I put this on expecting to ignore it as a background movie while I worked, but I ended up watching intently. Very fun.

Poster for the 1959 Roger Corman movie A Bucket of Blood." The tagline says "You'll be sick, sick, sick--from laughing!"

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I saw a Korean movie about this issue. Solution unclear, but at least it's the sink, could be worse.

A shot from the movie "The Hand." Shows a gnarly-looking hand coming out of toilet.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I periodically get these "ending explained" emails from Netflix, and they're invariably for movies with endings so straightforward that I almost can't imagine what a person would even say when asked to explain the ending.

Email subject reading "Spoiler: 'Apex' ending explained."

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

You need to invest in the muscle digging tool.

Big weird plastic blue thing full of knobs that you can use to get at all your various muscles.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The Steam page for South of the March just went live moments ago! It's an RPG that combines visual novel exploration with JRPG-style turn-based combat, all done with hand-drawn art. Check it out, wishlist on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/4628420/...

A dialogue scene in a mess hall, a future options on the right, a character speaking on the left. Her name is Gytha, she says "Don't much care how he sees it. My kitchen, my call."

A combat screen. Two players on the right side, Gemma and Cyrus. On the left side, three wolves plus a series of icons indicating the turn order.

A store page showing a wide variety of stats and upgrades, plus items available for purchase. The shopkeeper at the top of the page says, "yes, miss?"

A map showing a large forest scene with various points of interest marked on it. It's labeled "The Woods" and a bunch of labels show the point names as well.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

This is the first that comes to mind, but it's genuinely impressive in the sheer quantity of ways it fails to pay off. There are *so* many threads carefully set up and then confusingly abandoned that it almost feels like they're trying to do some kind of intentional Brechtian alienation.

Poster for the Netflix movie The Open House, starring that guy from 13 Reasons Why.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I feel like this email is making fun of me.

An email I received today, subject line: "Opportunity to Acquire Domain Name BestSwords.com"

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

It's weird immediately seeing "Reese Witherspoon sucks" news because I watched Freeway for the first time literally last night and laughed stupidly hard at this scene.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

This is fun. I am both grinding and surviving, exactly as the title promised I would be.

Cover art for Grind Survivors. All black white and red, shows a space marine-looking guy with a helmet and glowing eyes.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

This felt like Black Mirror to me. In a bad way.

Movie poster for Companion. Shows the main character, Iris, with her eyes whited out. Jack Quaid is obscured behind her, whispering in her ear.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I actually enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a poster/title combo more fully fail to represent itself. I thought for sure it was gonna be two aging fellas discussing their regrets while horse-wranglin', not schlocky splatter horror.

The poster for "The Price We Pay" starring Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff. It shows their faces, big and somber, above some washed out and very small image of a woman and another person who I only noticed much later is actually menacing her with a scythe.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

We must return to Hays Code disclaimers.

The ending text in the early Hays Code movie The Public Enemy (1931). It reads, "The end of Tom Powers is the end of every hoodlum. 'The Public Enemy' is not a man, nor is it a character -- it is a problem that sooner or later we, the public, must solve."

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Trying out this DLSS 5 thing for South of the March.

Screenshot from South of the March. Gemma saying "I was just curious" while talking at the Blacksmith's Hut. Label says "DLSS5 OFF"

Same screenshot from South of the March. Label now says DLSS5 ON. Gemma's portrait has been replaced with the "hire gamers" yassified Aloy from Horizon image.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Really enjoying the "normal guy for scale" Amazon has included here.

A product listing photo of some ordinary garage shelves. The guy standing next to them for scale is wearing fingerless red leather gloves and a matching sleeveless vest with combat boots and some kind of tactical strap/harness on his thigh. He looks somebody from a knock-off Double Dragon movie.

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Small Gray Games @smallgraygames.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

This is the best kind of letterboxd review, because I laugh, but then realize it's actually extremely informative about what it feels like to watch the movie in question.

Letterboxd review that reads "I don't know why they make that movie"

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