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Zach Gage

@stfj.net
5.7K followers 85 following 482 posts

artist game maker co-created puzzmo

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Reposted by Zach Gage
Orta Therox @orta.io · 28/09/2026
Welcome back to the week, for folks who might have missed it. I've been working on allowing 3rd party games on @puzzmo.com this year and we're opening the doors just an inch to test the waters for this week bsky.app/profile/stfj...
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Reposted by Zach Gage
Orta Therox @orta.io · 28/09/2026
New blog post: On realising I need to evaluate my engineering principles in a post-LLM world This year, I've come to understand that the values (which have paid off incredible dividends) for the last decade aren't as applicable today as they were blog.puzzmo.com/posts/2026/0...
A screenshot of my blog post masthead, it reads: 

A link I have relied on for the last 8 years broke:

<https://github.com/artsy/README/blob/main/culture/engineering-principles.md>

The link was a markdown document in Artsy's shared open-source documentation repo, it was the result of a few introspective sessions by the Artsy dev team where we settled on a series of principles that describe our general approach to software. I used the link in blog posts, hiring notices and in private chats a bunch.

Here's [the fixed link btw](https://github.com/artsy/README/blob/e4b7dff3209b43f4ab63bad919f2500972aade1b/culture/engineering-principles.md) because it's a git repo. I think the removal of the engineering principles isn't some ominous mark against the current day Artsy dev team, but I wonder if they just spotted a cultural change before I noticed it.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 26/09/2026
the android app is managed by @noodlecake.bsky.social . we dont have a puzzmo android app (yet) but the site works great as a pwa
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 26/09/2026
Yes
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Reposted by Zach Gage
Orta Therox @orta.io · 25/09/2026
For almost a year the largest project I have been working on is building support for non-Puzzmo games on @puzzmo.com Ribbit was built in 90% of that system, and Hue Complete Me was 100% in it. A month ago I ported the Crossword to it. Got a game? We're exploring opening up bsky.app/profile/stfj...
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 25/09/2026
📣 We're trying something new over here in Puzzmo land — community games. We still have plenty of our own games coming, but if you've got a game you think would be a fit for Puzzmo, reach out! More info & the submission form here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Submissions run through October 2.
docs.google.com
Submit A Game To Puzzmo
We're thinking about having a handful of games from members of our community appear on Puzzmo later this year. We’re always working towards Puzzmo being the place for thoughtful puzzles, so this proje...
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Reposted by Zach Gage
Frank Lantz @flantz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 21/09/2026
Been a while since I had a no core words solve puzzmo.com/play/typeshi...
puzzmo.com
@helvetica's finished Typeshift #1071
Play the best daily puzzles on Puzzmo
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 12/09/2026
I really loved this post! I’m sorry for triggering your crash out. I do think it’s important to face these things and be pragmatic as quickly as is possible. I feel like the options you landed on are right and its so healthy to move forward with clear eyes and clear values
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 10/09/2026
we have fixed this
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
Yeah totally. It has had a wild impact in a ton of large and small ways good and bad. Differences- roblox is closed, centralized and limited to a very specific context/environment for games. That stuff really matters in terms of reach and inventiveness.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
It’s me. Yeah good bet! Hope I’m right for more than just the glory
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
I was talking to Bennett about this who had the same pushback, but I do think there is a meaningful distinction --
Two things that I think will be different, but again, who knows, is 

1: I think a lot more people will make games for their friends that are really good that they all play together as a group in a similar way to how a lot of people start bands with their friends in school

2: I think the general quality of games is gonna go up substantially, and we will have A lot more truly great games. that don’t have the player counts that they deserve
[10:37 AM]But yeah, we will see. I think I wanted to put a stake in the ground here so that we could find out if I’m right in a couple years.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
I’m not sure I’m following can you explain further?
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
Maybe some gdc if it’s not already too late
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
wild reading this previously unpublished interview from 2018 with Jesper about casual vs hardcore, fairness, games and art, and sometimes going against the grain of indie games culture. The whole world has changed, but i still stand by it all.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
Oh man thank you I was trying to find this for the above post and had only a vague memory
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
It seems like a lot of people thought I was saying that games was going to look like the total strip mined wasteland that music is now, but that is not how I understand the colloquialism of us becoming “more like music”
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 08/09/2026
Thinking more about this — what I was saying here is that games has been shocking lucrative as a career as a creative for the past decade and a half, even compared to pre Spotify music creatives, and that now we are turning into something that looks more like the rest of the arts.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
I think my wonder in this context is what it is going to do to the culture of games when there is less of a distinction between what your friend in highschool made and what some indie released on steam
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
Yeah that may very well be. I definitely don’t claim to know. I just have hopes. I fluctuate between thinking “how could we ever know what the real impact of this stuff is going to be before we reach it” and “it’ll probably be kind of like it is now”
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
maybe ill try one more time. Bailey talks about the loss of bottom-up (my term) learning due to these tools, but my sense is that easier tools just bring bottom-up learning higher up into the meta, where a different, larger depth actually lies. not better or worse, but a new accessible depth.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
i dunno did that make any sense? this is my optimistic take on this tech in the arts, and this is intentionally not attempting to address any/all of the harmful externalities from this technology.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
im not sure if i wrote that well, but it's like, the further you get from the basics, the greater the complexity and the greater the depth. e.g.: rock paper scissors. the game itself is very simple, but it becomes deeper, more interesting, and more complex, in its meta. www.npr.org/2026/04/23/n...
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
i really like this post about that - retrobailey.leaflet.pub/3mmsk37ojg22k but i guess where that author and i differ is my experience in creative work throughout my whole career is that the higher the level you operate at, the more depth that is available. and my hope is that holds true now too
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
yeah certainly not with suno around for example. i think it's more like, i was looking for an example of artistic effort that would be easy to understand for most people. but i think what you're asking is what does it mean that anyone can just click a button and output a work these days?
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
yeah i can imagine that. this stuff is all out there.. and its progressing so much faster than i think people who aren't looking at it might assume. ive been watching aigamedev for like 12 months now and the change in the last 6 is unreal.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
yeah thats both true and something to be aware of here.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
mostly i think if you pay attention to whats going on in reddit.com/r/aigamedev it's a mix of cringe and surprising
reddit.com
aigamedev
Exploring "generative AI" technologies to empower game devs and benefit humanity.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
hmm let me see. some i recall: www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/... www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/... www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/... then you also have stuff like 4x3 www.hankgreen.com/fourbythree/ also lots of pitches people email me for puzzmo, and then also from my own experience testing these models
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
This has definitely been going on for a while but a step change has absolutely just occurred. It’s true that it’s never been easier to learn to program or visually code a game, but now you don’t need to learn those things almost at all.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
I think there are (and are going to be) a lot of negative externalities to these tools, and a lot of them necessitate real meaningful regulation. But I guess what I'm trying to figure out in this thread is what lessons artists (game devs) can take to prepare for building sustainable careers.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
In the free-to-play space, there has always been a lot of personalized addiction design, but the cost has restricted it to only the highest-paying whales. It makes sense that as the costs go down, they may start to target people who are paying less than less.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
Yes, I do totally agree with you that the impact is completely different, and these tools likely give companies pushing that kind of addiction the ability to scale up what they're doing.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
i dont think this is true at all! i listen to the same song over and over and it gets stuck in my head and i think about it all the time. i think everyone gets addicted to music but the mechanics of what that addiction looks like and the impact of it are really different
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
So i guess there it is. Please don't shoot the messenger, this is just what i'm seeing out there, and I think it's important to grapple with. i'd love to hear any other lessons y'all think we should be pulling from other arts as we weather this new turbulent era in games.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
This change certainly supports a future filled with rough, personal, non-commercial, games of all sizes, built for friends and communities. All of which adds up to a deeper understanding of games and play. If a more mainstreamed cultural literacy of that stuff matters, that's a positive.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
I know this has been a bummer, but if I am looking for a positive, even though this is bad for individual developers, I do suspect that this is good for games as a media. When I look at the arts, the parts of it that are the most in-culture are the ones that anyone can easily pick up as a hobby.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
When I think about lessons to learn from the music industry, i see that what matters most for stability and success are: attention and community-building. I don't really know more than that. Maybe someone else has some thoughts?
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
I don't really know what that means. It's probably not great for the businesses of most of the people I know (or me?), but I do think we've been creeping up on this for a while so it shouldn't be much of a shock.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
I don't think it is in any way hyperbole to say that these days, anyone with the level of drive needed to learn to write songs and play guitar, could put in the same amount of effort (or less!) and make a game of note. So here we are, games enters it's "music" era.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
Obviously it still requires some real work to fit the bridge into the opera, but I think we’re kidding ourselves if we ever thought that was the bit that kept everyone who wanted to make a game from actually doing it.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
But that is clearly over. It is now fairly trivial to make any game of any complexity within the bounds of complexity that matter for most game ideas. You can build the bridge part in one prompt (and people are, all across the internet, to widely varying degrees of success and quality)
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
But one thing that has always been true about games that was not true about music (or a lot of the other arts) is that games are just incredibly hard to make. As my friend Frank Lantz famously said, "games are operas made out of bridges". (sorry to drag you into this thread @flantz.bsky.social).
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
For years we have been talking about games going in the direction of music (in the sense that there’s more great music out there than anyone can possibly engage with). This trend has driven down prices, made it harder for developers to find audiences, and turned distribution platforms into soup.
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 07/09/2026
Ok im gonna say something here that is going to draw a lot of different feelings from everyone, and I want to be clear i'm not "in support of this" or "against it". i'm just saying it as an observation that seems true to me: I think with the latest frontier LLMs, the “music” era of games is upon us
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 30/08/2026
I like the little thrill when I have to type in an 2FA passcode and I open up my authenticator app and I’ve only got like three seconds remaining
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Reposted by Zach Gage
Messhof @messhof.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Blood Dungeon is OUT NOW on Steam, Xbox Series, Windows Store, Game Pass, Switch 1+2, and PlayStation 5! RTs very much welcome. I love you. #boneup blooddungeon.com youtu.be/rmbXDEdb6Y0
youtu.be
Blood Dungeon: Release Trailer
YouTube video by messhof
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 17/08/2026
The kids and I finished dragon quest 11 tonight. Wow what a totally great game and what a fantastic and fantastically told story. It really became quite a bit more that I expected!
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Zach Gage @stfj.net · 13/08/2026
🐸 🐸 🐸 cdn.puzzmo.com/assets/frogs...
cdn.puzzmo.com
Frogs Forever
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