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Trick Weekes

@trickweekes.bsky.social
16K followers 195 following 5.4K posts

Narrative Designer by day (Mass Effect, Dragon Age), Novelist by night (The Palace Job, Feeder). (they/them, views strictly mine, OC do not steal)

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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 28m
Briefly lost writing momentum as angel and devil perched on my shoulder had spirited debate about whether to add ANOTHER diacritical mark to a character's name. (They already have 1, plus 2 apostrophes.) Leaving it out for now, but shoulder-devil reminds me that search-replace can be a thing later.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 47m
Hell, yes!
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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
let me proclaim with my WHOLE CHEST that @erikaishii.bsky.social is a true buckaroo who proves love. we actually know each other in my unmasked way (i dont think she was aware of this so SURPRISE) and erikas just SO kind and creative and enthusiastic about makin art. any project is lucky to have her
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Brennan Lee Mulligan @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social · 8h
I am thrilled and proud beyond measure to support the amazing workers who create and design the games I and my loved ones have spent a lifetime playing. I implore everybody to sign the petition and signal boost the campaign as far and wide as we can!
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 8h
I would not have had the cursed knowledge of Malfoid in my head without you, so tit for tat, old chum.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 10h
I assumed Malfoid was Vivian James’s self-insert.
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Bruce Venne @bvenne.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Hey Alberta folks, you can now book appointments for this year’s flu and covid shots.
myhealth.alberta.ca
Book an immunization appointment
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Jo Berry @joberry.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
📣 Publication news -- my flash story "Tea; Service" is out in The Colored Lens #61! See if you can guess which Alan Rickman line helped to inspire the ending ☕ www.amazon.ca/dp/B0HKYPC5NX
amazon.ca
The Colored Lens: Autumn 2026: Mannix, Joshua, Mae, S.C., Yao, Jess, Devenport, Emily, Wilson, Benjamin, Ma, Imogen, Jones, Richard, Oechsle, Sarah, Erickson, L., Berry, Joanna: 9798176432930: Books -...
The Colored Lens: Autumn 2026: Mannix, Joshua, Mae, S.C., Yao, Jess, Devenport, Emily, Wilson, Benjamin, Ma, Imogen, Jones, Richard, Oechsle, Sarah, Erickson, L., Berry, Joanna: 9798176432930: Books -...
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Also this means we could have had a wisecracking fourth-wall-breaking mercenary named Totren.
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Aysha U. Farah @ayshaufarah.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I still think about the conversation I had with an uber driver Him: so what do you do Me: I’m a video game writer Him: wait, video games? They have writing? What do you write? Me: you know when you open up a game and you see the words? Him: yeah? Me: those
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 05/10/2026
Spooky bird stories. My Halloween comic from 2024.
A comic titled Spooky Bird Stories. In panel 1, a turkey vulture is telling stories to other vultures, and it says, "She walked toward the source of the terrible smell. She got closer and closer, and then, to her horror, she saw... No dead body." A black vulture says "No!" and a turkey vulture says "Did someone already eat it??" In panel 2, a northern cardinal is telling a story to some songbirds. It says "They peered through the windows of the house at the gory scene. Zombies had smashed through the door in the night. The homeowner was dead. But worst of all... He hadn't refilled the feeders." An eastern bluebird says "Aaah!" and an American goldfinch says "It can't be!". In panel 3, A screech owl is telling a story to other owls. It says "And then the ghost fluffed itself up really big to appear scarier." A saw-whet owl gasps, and a long-eared owl says "Horrifying!". In panel 4, a downy woodpecker is telling a story to other woodpeckers, and says "The eerie sound rang through the dark woods. Tap-tap. Tap-tap. It was the distinctive two-part knock of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. The species had returned from the dead... FOR REVENGE." A red-cockaded woodpecker says "Yesss".
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Is not the crackling flame of a burning data centre, in its own way, a work of art?
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C. L. Polk @clpolk.com · 05/10/2026
I love Bluesky. I said "misinformation and dinosaurs" and someone found the book
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 05/10/2026
Sorry I’m not gonna do idea landlords discourse today. You want authors to not get paid? Cool go totally rework society so that we also don’t have to pay for things.
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I don’t care where you started out on the political spectrum If your kid comes out as trans & you don’t become a rainbow-clad, parade-cheering ally & rock-solid supportive girl/boy/enby dad/mom? You were never a parent at all You were a doll collector furious they didn’t stay in their packaging.
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Sable, Sapphic Wet Nightmare 🏳️‍⚧️ @ghostlysable.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
In 2026, turn all your sorries into thank yous. Instead of "Sorry for being a sinister and manipulative woman," say "Thank you for being innocent and easily corrupted according to my carnal and scarlet desires."
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Erin Bow @erinbowbooks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I am thrilled to learn that WITCHWARD BOUND is #8 in Top 100 Books of the Year at Indigo! Check it out: www.indigo.ca/collec... And it is #3 in it's age category - ages 9+! www.indigo.ca/collec...
A screenshot of Indigo’s announcement, featuring a stack of books.  I spy I certain spine.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
(Also, if anyone has a better source on Sumerian vocabulary than the basic Wikipedia page or the Swadesh List, I would love to grab a book so that it is less likely I am writing something like "campfire-duck" for "dragon".)
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Finished another chapter, so now I can close the tabs I had open on Wikipedia's Sumerian vocabulary, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, an online bible opened to the Book of Matthew, and a few other pages that were just weird.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"I like eating this because it is trying to eat me back, but I am going to win!"
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
One of my cats would steal the leafy tops of strawberries and attempt to defeat sliced red peppers. Little guy loved his flavors.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Not sure how close they are, but Fights in Tight Spaces is the chill-and-stop-thinking game I have a zillion hours in, and Steamworld Quest: The Hand of Gilgamech has a really fun story!
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Museum of Twitter @museum-of-twitter.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Tweet from Film Daze (@filmdaze):

Blade Runner 2049 directed by Denis Villeneuve

(image of a cat bathed in pink/purple light looking up at a giant screen with a sexy cat on it)
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Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 02/10/2026
We can't have an actual conversation about AI between people with tech knowledge and those without because they purposefully poisoned the vocabulary specifically so they could ride the coattails of actual science and also use that as a shield against claims they are just big fuckin scammers.
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M Kirby @marykirby.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
You need to listen to this one, Sylvia worked so hard to catch all the spinning plates I threw at her.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Congratulations!
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
(And one tiny subjective addendum) - Groups that voiced opinions about D&D combat feeling slow (each person's turn taking a while, it taking many turns to burn through enemy hit points) have said Daggerheart feels faster and simpler, giving them more time to focus on fun flavor for action.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Is Gusta the stuff that comes out feeling like it's already a loaf? Because yeah, that was a pain to get unstuck.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Wooo, fake-meat burritos are BACK!
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The "We have made adjustments to your claim" email from Anthropic seems to be the least helpful email of all time. Am I reading this right? - They HAVE made changes based on my submissions. - They are NOT telling me what the changes are. - If I go to the portal, the changes WON'T be in there?
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Carly Lane-Perry @carlylane.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Bumping this now that we have the confirmation that both #Reacher Season 6 and #Neagley Season 2 are happening!
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
- Action rolls generate Hope (player currency to unlock cool powers) or Fear (GM currency to unlock cool monster abilities or justify big nasty GM plot complications). - It does some narrative integration in ways that encourage roleplaying. (Which makes sense, since it's by the Critical Role folks.)
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sounds like other people have already answered (it's a TTRPG similar to D&D), but as someone running it right now: - It has simpler overall rules; players just have to know the basics and their own character. - It does some neat stuff with cards to help people keep track of powers. ... (cont'd)
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Samuel Beckett Dirty Tumblr 🤝
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Adding a touch of real-world verisimilitude to the play-by-post game by writing a character who is a big ol' heckin' nerd.
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mmrilla @mmrilla.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Today's Meme from @desveaux.bsky.social
What your favorite obsolete English Letter sags about you

thorn: you are a nerd
eth: you are a nerd
Wynn: you are a nerd
Yogh: you are a nerd
Ash: you are a nerd
Insular G: you are a nerd
long S: you are a nerd
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yeah, for a AAA RPG, you do need enough objective markers and clear quest text that players can get through the main story even if they're coming back from a break after suffering a head injury and also listening to a podcast with the game volume down. But do you need that for this optional puzzle?
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yep. If your game has one pillar of "Delight through Exploration" and another pillar of "Clearly Directed Activities," then those pillars are gonna fight each other as the team that wants to make players feel rewarded exploring for themselves fights with the team that wants clear objective markers.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Where stuff can go wrong is when it's a big group project like a game/movie/show, and one person in leadership thinks that you're making Knives Out while another thinks you're making Reacher as a movie, and there's disagreement over which aspect gets simplified so as not to interfere with the other.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
But I, at least, am not watching Reacher to guess whodunit. I need enough of a plot to know that bad guys are doing some bad shit, and Reacher is punching his way up the food chain until he understands the Evil Plan, and then he makes a grim face and shoves a hired murderer into a wood chipper.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
If the viewer is confused in a Knives Out or Agatha Christie adaptation, that's a problem. Part of the reason people enjoy those movies is trying to see if they're clever enough to guess whodunit and why. If the viewer doesn't guess the twist, you want them to blame themselves and not you.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Quote-posting myself, what has the world come to? A key problem here is that to be able to answer the question of what's best for a show/book/movie/game, you need to have an ironclad and agreed-upon understanding of what you are making and why the average audience member should enjoy it.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It's like how when I get peer-reviewed, I add checkmarks each time someone repeats a point that was already raised. If one person doesn't like a scene, I may or may not fix it. If there are eight checkmarks and the whole room dislikes a scene, it has to change, even if I think they're wrong.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
(Minor Addendum: To be 100% clear, I still want QA to file "Player may be unclear" bugs! That's useful data! If I hear it from a bunch of people, then it's worth changing. The problem is only when someone in senior leadership assumes that every "Player may be unclear" requires action.)
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Which KINDA made it more clear, but did not solve the issue that what I really wanted from those two pieces of media right then was to get back to Reacher throwing someone through a wall and Tom Cruise hanging from a wire while tense music plays. It made things clearer but not more FUN.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I feel like Season 4 of Reacher and the last Mission: Impossible I saw (the second-to-last one) both have these sections where clearly there were exec notes about stuff being confusing, and the answer to the executive notes was "Ving Rhames/this season's two cop sidekicks dump more exposition."
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"Make it so this is as enjoyable as possible," and "Make it so that nobody is confused at any point," are two different goals. There's a lot of overlap in that Venn Diagram, but it is not a circle! Clarity should only be a goal inasmuch as it makes the art more enjoyable.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
One of the banes of my existence as a game writer is the "Player may be unclear" bug. It's so subjective. Yes! Sometimes everyone is confused, and as a result, they don't know where to go next or who to punch when they get there, so they're not having fun. But other times lack of clarity is FINE.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Please tell him he's doing the Maker's work.
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Trick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
QA: Hey, we're getting a result that doesn't make sense. Me: Well, that's impossible. Me: They must've hacked their game state with variable states that can't happen in a legal playthrough. Me: I accounted for everything. Me: ... Me: I mean, not that bit THERE, but... Me: I hate programming.
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