iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 4h

Especially when you brought Marin along and she wound up accidentally picking up the ticket vendor instead of a prize!

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 4h

Absolutely correct approach, and also fuck the lot of them.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 29/09/2026

@geekcritique.org "Hey, did you ever notice that fans of our games tend to imagine eyes on various inanimate objects?" "We should lean INTO that!"

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 29/09/2026

They've done the Virtual Boy, now let's see those magnificent bastards handle the 32X.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 29/09/2026

Nobody: ... Me: Yeah but they could shadowdrop Worms (SNES), Worms (Mega Drive) and Worms Armageddon (N64) on Nintendo Switch Online, like tomorrow or something, and they'd have the online functionality for free. You never know! [Resumes silent contemplation]

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 28/09/2026

I'm going to introduce a new holiday where the remorseless supernatural character chases you around the world on a demonic motorbike and lops your fingers off with a comb because the UI of your game is so miniscule as to be unreadable. I'll probably call him Fontzie.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 27/09/2026

An increasingly common thing I see: people assuming that very small teams, making the childhood games we loved, only had really compartmentalised roles like "manual" or "producer". Everyone needs a job title, but there was a ton of creative overlap that mostly goes unacknowledged! It got messy.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

Good god, I assumed this was lost media... This taught me binary and other computer concepts when I was 5! www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-PF...

youtube.com

The Matics - Episode 0

YouTube video by Shadoks & Co.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

What else are you meant to do with your dragon?

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

Possible dragon names: Jambles Jr. Jet Set Killy Sodderlottovum Kegs Benedict Reversible Edgewick Morris Major Fizzy Elliot

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

I'm not giving it a name that makes it sound like that one kid in class who's eternally shamed for calling the teacher 'Mum' once.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

I think the main reason I've never seriously considered getting a dragon is the amount of time I'd spend going back-and-forth about what to name it.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 26/09/2026

My immediate take is that a muffin has a thicker batter that leads to something that goes harder on the outside, and you almost wouldn't want to put frosting on it as a result. Whereas a cupcake's cake-bit is a lot fluffier, soft all the way, and it supports frosting just like any sponge cake would.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 25/09/2026

Oh, goody; we've now moved into the "A Dystopian Timeline so hilariously improbable, we get a gag where unfrozen super-cop Sylvester Stallone side-eyes this whole ridiculous advertising endeavour before deservedly smashing the screen with his fist" phase of 2026.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 25/09/2026

Our Gen Zedders are already learning colouring, maths and aluminium.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 25/09/2026

We're slowly getting better at Mexican food, but I do hope you had some outstanding curries while you were here!

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 25/09/2026

Just unironically used the term "snackable" to refer to a video and now I'm going to have to exile myself to the Barren Lands.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 24/09/2026

I saw this post and it suddenly reminded me of the 2000s-era emulation rush , where truly hardware-accurate code was overshadowed by quick, sloppy jobs to get games running "like what you remember", particularly in 3D. I have to hope that quality, deliberate work will ultimately win out here, too.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 23/09/2026

I used to have (Star Trek) white noise playing until I found out that even when it's plugged it, it annihilates the battery life of my iPhone leaving it on all night. And I'm too lazy to set up an old, backup, white noise phone that doesn't even have a SIM and is just on the WiFi. Although...

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 22/09/2026

Or should that be any MORE unmade? This is why I'm not a Sleepastician.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 22/09/2026

It's not going to get any less unmade if nobody's in it.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 22/09/2026

Just realising that I've probably imbibed too much Joe Pera in the last couple of days.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 22/09/2026

I have a routine these days. A short while before I actually need to sleep, I'll head upstairs. Close the curtains. Put the lamp on. Make the bed. Make sure I've got a full water bottle in arm's reach. Take my phone up and plug it in, with a YouTube video queued to sleep to. Pre-bedding helps.

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Reposted by Chris Allcock

barleybap @barleybap.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Batman: TAS implies the existence of Batman: Any%.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 21/09/2026

Unfortunately Yahtzee explicitly references the Commodore 64 version, so the opinion - while correct - is invalidated. I didn't start the Speccy/C64 wars, but that doesn't mean they're forgiven.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 21/09/2026

It's Fantasy World Dizzy, I'm afraid. Sorry, everyone. It introduced me to so many notions I hadn't encountered in video games before; from conversations with NPCs, red herrings, item persistence, metahumour, how to walk on clouds... It wasn't even the first Dizzy, but it was MY first Dizzy.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 19/09/2026

The pond of the giant talking koi that accepts children as sacrifice. Other than that, though, I hope you're having a lovely Saturday at Zora's Domain!

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 19/09/2026

Sometimes you're just my muse, and you inspire me.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 19/09/2026

"Now, this is a three-minute game, we're going to need all five of you to do it, and I'm afraid it's an automatic lock-in. K. Mumsy insisted."

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 18/09/2026

Nobody: ... Me: Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy is a technical marvel on the NES! The ability to set down and have it remember positions of basically all the objects in the game, changing time of day, smooth scrolling, Dizzy's face changing depending on the situation, dynamic music...

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 17/09/2026

No... No, the video wasn't like this. It was 18% longer, and there was a commercial break! For Factor... no, Corsair gaming chairs! Yes...

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 17/09/2026

No look I love singing One-Winged Angel as much as the next guy

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 17/09/2026

What if, instead of figuring out how to limit his powers for a Superman game, you just leaned fully into them and made a musou at an insane scale? Let me rip up skyscrapers and hit people with them. For gameplay pressure, add a time limit because Jimmy Olsen has fallen into quicksand, or something.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 16/09/2026

Astonishingly good stuff! I especially love the way her braid is used to amplify whatever emotion she's currently expressing.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 16/09/2026

I am Toby Fox My game music rocks There are Undertale socks TOBY FOX (Boom-boom, boom-boom)

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 16/09/2026

I'm not genuinely cross about how they've grouped the metallic elements of the Periodic Table, I just actinoid.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 14/09/2026

The instructions on my ready meal said "pierce film lid in several places" so I went to the library, the park, a greengrocers.. These things aren't as convenient as they're made out to be.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 14/09/2026

"Hello, shopkeep. I would like to experience all of your Metroid games in an optimal fashion. Please instruct me as to the most correct route through them, that I might abide by it." "I'll be honest, this might not be the best genre for you..."

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 13/09/2026

They're following me as well and I've never been anything other than openly dismissive and spiteful towards the entire thieving, destructive, contemptible AI ecosystem. A sure sign of a quality product!

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 13/09/2026

Where's my Unreal Engine 5-quality remake of Sonic 3D Blast, please?

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 13/09/2026

What, you mean the kids aren't taking every picture as a 360' panorama coupled with eye-blistering HDR?!

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 12/09/2026

Schools were not dismissed early in the UK on 9/11. My Mum was a schoolteacher and she went through her day entirely normally, whereas I got home from my early-shift job in time to see my American friends on IRC freak out and I put the news on in time to see the second tower. I'm with Columbo here.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 12/09/2026

The silly thing is, whenever his hint status upgraded it would flash up a little Navi-style "Ortho Icon" with the button to talk to him. That never triggers if he's already at his maximum hint level, though, so it actually made his hints harder to discover. 🙃 I cringed through lots of Let's Plays.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 12/09/2026

Right at the end, the call was made that Ortho would be set to "immediately give the most obvious hint by default", because playtesters didn't want the slightest amount of friction. I was gutted. "Adaptive" Ortho still exists, but it's not the default option. I really feel for whoever coded Navi.

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Chris Allcock @taskbaarchitect.com · 12/09/2026

My idea was that Ortho could start out by offering a "oh, you're vaguely going here next" reminder, move onto a vague hint, and finally an explicit solution as different thresholds were met because it was pretty clear the player was stuck or off-task by then. I wrote hundreds of these.

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