iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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AK Fedeau @akfedeau.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

this is one of those games where the simplicity mandated by a jam deadline was exactly what it needed. it's stark and raw and embodies the principle of writing about small moments to capture big themes like grief. proof that devan makes great art even when everything's awful. give it a play 🐈‍⬛

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I made a small game about the day my cat died for the Game Poem Jam. The jam lasted 24 hours, so I only had a couple of hours after work to slam this together, but it helped to do something with my feelings. I live in a high rise, and Hell is an elevator. kender.itch.io/hell-is-an-e...

kender.itch.io

Hell is an Elevator by Kender

A short game about a difficult task.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

kender.itch.io

Hell is an Elevator by Kender

A short game about a difficult task.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Sports Bluesky, is anyone else watching the Syracuse-Pitt game right now, because,

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Me: After 3.5 years in Germany, have I misremembered or exaggerated the heat tolerance of your average American? My in-laws: It is 94F/34C, 55% humidity, no cloud cover, and we will go on an hour-long bike ride for fun Me: ah yes

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If a writer, especially a journalist, uses a single-line paragraph...pay attention to what's in that line. It's for emphasis. (This is also an easy way to spot LLM-generated text. It abuses the single line for exactly that reason. It doesn't understand restraint or contrast.)

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Jenna "the" Yow @jannouna.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

So with the news of the layoffs at KO_OP, I'm officially looking for work later this fall. I'm an experienced narrative designer that's worked on both sprawling open world stories and intimate cinematic narratives, even netting some award wins and noms. More details on my experience below!

key art for Goodbye Volcano High by KO_OP

key art for Spirit Swap by Soft Not Weak

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In the U.S. for the next 2 weeks, starting it off right with a pumpkin pastry breakfast and then some football and craft beer with the in-laws

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C ✊ UVW-CWA @ckjong.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

These wins are incredible!!! Minimum 4 weeks severance + 1 week for every 6 months employment, AND recall rights, AND hybrid work + AI protections, AND up to 34% wage increases! This would have been unthinkable before the industry started to unionize!

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'm not buying the Ocarina of Time remake because I'm not beating the water temple again. I'm not and you just can't make me. I did it once and I left my trauma in the past and I'm not a person who needs to torture herself anymore.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I made a game poem today. It's not ready to share because it's ugly as sin, but it felt nice to just make something functional and personal and FAST. Can't believe I have a new little twine, just from one evening after work.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Today we donated Basil's things to an animal shelter. I expected to be a mess, but it was a nice time. They were really happy to get donations, and when we explained it was because our cat had died, and asked if we could maybe pet some cats while there, they let us, even without an appointment.

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United Videogame Workers-CWA @videogameworkers.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Next round of trainings is available for signup! 1: INTRO TO UNIONS on September 13th 2: ORGANIZING YOUR COWORKERS on September 20th 3: BUILDING YOUR COMMITTEE on September 27th! Sign up below 👇

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Eve @evegoldenwoods.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

You will not believe how excited I am for everyone to get to listen to this ep. Definitely our best yet (until next time...)

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This book was wild; if you've never heard anything about it, don't look it up, just read it without reading the synopsis on the back. Or--even better!--listen to this ep of the podcast

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My perfect little Basil is gone. It's agony to lose him so young and so cruelly. But it was a privilege to show him the kindness of the world after his rough start, and see him become a cat that was happy and secure. All he wanted was to love and be loved, and he did and was, until the very end.

I am typing on a laptop while Basil the black cat sits in my lap, under my arm. We are both looking up at the picture-taker with the same expression (smiling, but surprised to be photographed).

Basil the black cat in a bed under a gray blanket. His green eyes are a little wide: he wants to play a game

Basil the black cat being silly, hanging half-upside down from his cat tree with round eyes.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Shoutout to Control: Resonant for doing my favorite thing that trailers do, aka syncing shots of big punches and etc. with the music

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Tough time to be out of town, but I'm at Gamescom Dev to give a workshop about writing within tight word/character limits. Shout out if you see me around!

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

He has admirers here, so I wanted to share the crushing news that Basil has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. We took him to the vet at the first sign at something being off; she said there was no way we could've known. He had a biopsy and soon we'll find out if we're looking at months or weeks.

A black cat with green eyes lounges in a cat tree bed with one paw stretched out

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United Videogame Workers-CWA @videogameworkers.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Well, well... Look who got a name drop for a second year in a row 👀

In the State of the Industry survey, the question reads "Are you part of a union?" and the top answer reads, Yes, an industry-wide union (e.g: United Videogame Workers-CWA)

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

2 days of charging up my soul again, for I am water-powered

Lake Constance at sundown. The small castle Monfort is in the distance.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I logged out of Big Walk early while my gang stayed on to play, and according to them, my dude immediately started spasming and ragdolling. But it was still interactable. So they picked me up and threw me in the ocean for a viking burial and sent me pics later. 10/10 game

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Dr Holly Nielsen @hollynielsen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

The Writers’ Guild guidelines for payment are *so* useful. I wish more areas had them. It stops juniors from undercharging, and also allows people to budget accordingly and realistically

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Rik Godwin @rikgodwin.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Remedy continues to demonstrate that narrative is worthy of investment. People want stories. Good stories take time, expertise and patience/trust from devs who are less au fait with its mechanics (because it IS every bit as mechanical and design heavy as every other aspect of your game).

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Max Nichols @maxnichols.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I sought out and read Tolkien's 'On Fairy Stories' essay after seeing part of this quote. It's great. It's practically a manifesto about how Tolkien thinks the "fairy tale" genre should be defined, and why. Incisive. To me this also speaks to iconic vs representational art in games. IE: Pixel art

However good in themselves, illustrations do little good to fairy-stories. The radical distinction between all art (including drama) that offers a visible presentation and true literature is that it imposes one visible form. Literature works from mind to mind and is thus more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular. If it speaks of bread or wine or stone or tree, it appeals to the whole of these things, to their ideas; yet each hearer will give to them a peculiar personal embodiment in his imagination. Should the story say "he ate bread”, the dramatic producer or painter can only show "a piece of bread” according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own. If a story says ‘he climbed a hill and saw a river in the valley below’, the illustrator may catch, or nearly catch, his own vision of such a scene; but every hearer of the words will have his own picture, and it will be made out of all the hills and rivers and dales he has ever seen, but specially out of The Hill, The River, The Valley which were for him the first embodiment of the word.

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Coraline Jortay 喬海霖 @qiaoj.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Got a new google scholar notification, so I go check and find this very cool poem by Wang Jibing 王计兵, the recent Lu Xun prize winner, prefacing a PhD thesis on women migrant workers and the gig economy PhD students in all disciplines: more poems in theses please, we love to see them! ✨💫

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Eve @evegoldenwoods.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I hope you all appreciate that I HAD to pick this cover, in order for you to understand Simon

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Making Heyer @makingheyer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

You come to Making Heyer for exactly such erudite discussion and insight into the hosts as this. (Also I (eve, obviously) really don't think I'm alone in my affection for Richard iii. I know you're out there!)

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I called a doctor here in Germany when I had Covid and she said, "What do you want me to do about it?" MA'AM LITERALLY ANYTHING, THAT'S WHY I CALLED YOU

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Making Heyer @makingheyer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It's Making Heyer day! Simon the Coldheart is out, and Devan and Eve spend two hours dissecting Georgette Heyer's most specialest little boy ever sites.libsyn.com/612150/simon...

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

NEW WEIRD ACCOMPLISHMENT UNLOCKED、 CHIITAN LIKED THIS POST????????? @chiitan.love, ご支援ありがとうございます！🥹💜🖤🤍

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I wrote the first asexual love interest by an asexual person in any mainstream romance app (first ace LI overall was written a few months earlier in the same app, with care and sensitivity, by @francesmaples.bsky.social) And I counted how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop as a kid

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Rebekah Valentine @duckvalentine.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I've been chatting with a bunch of video game contractors who have recently worked with major AAA companies about how the relentless budget cuts are affecting them (spoiler: badly)

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OneBGS - Bethesda Game Studios Union @bethesdaunion.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Bethesda Games Studios’ Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it. Here are the details. If this upsets you let Microsoft know: feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/ide...

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Bruno Dias @brunodias.dev · 20/07/2026

A side project I've been working on—a curated link page of important essays on video game narrative—is now live. You can read about it on my blog: azhdarchid.com/the-game-nar... Or you can go straight to the dedicated website: www.gamenarrativereader.org

azhdarchid.com

The Game Narrative Reader, Zeroth Edition

Announcing a curated, thematic link page of important essays and articles about video game narrative.

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The game feels like it's keeping all the european bedtimes hostage. Somebody score I'm so sleepy

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OneBGS - Bethesda Game Studios Union @bethesdaunion.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"CWA & CWA Canada have jointly filed unfair labor practice complaints against Microsoft alleging the company has unlawfully fired people without giving notice to or discussing it with the union as the employer is legally obliged to do"

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Making Heyer @makingheyer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Episode 4, powder and patch is out! A relatively brief episode from us this month, it's "only" an hour and a half long. (This will not prove to be a trend, the next few are BEASTS.) The novel isn't as substantial as the last few, but we have Things to say anyway directory.libsyn.com/episode/inde...

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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

CHOCOLATE MUFFINS RECIPE what you must first know is that I had borne a thousand wounds by Fortunato, yet never before this day an insult. He told me my muffins were dry, and I smiled and did not reveal to him my inner tumult, but I resolved in that moment he must die. He had a wea SKIP TO RECIPE

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Anna 🌿👁️ @annacwebs.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

If you want to get started with organizing or want to learn the basics of unionization, these free trainings from CODE-CWA are the real deal. Highly recommend signing up!!

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Nathan Grayson @nathangrayson.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

if you’d like to communicate securely about today’s layoffs, you can do so via signal (nathangrayson.666) or proton mail (aftermathdotsite@proton.me). interested in hearing not just from those who’ve lost jobs, but also those tasked with picking up the pieces after teams have been cut the to bone

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Devan Soyka @windmilljouster.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I enjoyed writing with AK so much that even after we moved on to different companies, we've continued to work on projects together. She's an incredibly skilled writer and generous teammate, and you should be so lucky.

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OneBGS - Bethesda Game Studios Union @bethesdaunion.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Because of our One BGS union, we have the right to negotiate over the impacts of these layoffs, helping secure stronger severance packages and better support for those leaving the company. We will do everything we can to make sure our friends are properly taken care of.

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brendan mordheim @brendanmcleod.dev · 01/07/2026

This month on PAPER LABYRINTHS, we talk with Eve Golden-Woods @evegoldenwoods.bsky.social about her award winning Book of Kells-inspired ttrpg THE CREATION OF WONDER, and the process reconsidering what you "know" about history. sites.libsyn.com/568595/site/...

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Aysha U. Farah @ayshaufarah.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

the least realistic part of alan wake is that people treat a writer like a celebrity

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United Videogame Workers-CWA @videogameworkers.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

If you are one of the many valuable workers callously laid off for corporate interests today, please consider applying to our hardship fund.

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