iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Seems like a couple of years ago I entered my "Faces with orbs where orbs ought not to be" era.

Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I don't think I've ever been so nervous to start adding colour to a piece. Still have to decide whether to stick with the original blue/orange contrast, or the recolour.

An illustration in moderately detailed comic style, with black outlines and high contrast blue and orange inks. It depicts mixture of organic and mechanical parts, the centrepiece being a human jaw bone hanging beneath a crystal ball and engine intake combined into one, in the place where one might expect the rest of the skull to be. The whole arrangement is connected by flexible tubes, vented metal braces, and bone-like armatures, constructed or perhaps grown for some unknown purpose.

The same image again, this time recoloured into sickly green and purple hues.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Today's semantic satiation word is "size". I mean just look at it, that's not right!

A screenshot of the word "Size" followed by a colon. Contrary to the post, it is in fact perfectly normal and correct.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I played Riven first, probably not all that long after release. Absolute masterpiece: unified setting, developed character and culture, puzzles that integrate into the world. My naive young self was thrilled to receive a copy of the game that came before...

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

These still need cleaning up: a proper scan and closer background removal (not to mention fixing the layout), but I think I've finally settled on an art style for this project.

A page from a roleplaying game book, entitled "Creatures: Living and pseudo-living beings". The illustration is a line and marker pen drawing of a pair of almost human creatures merging together, twisted in tentacles and partially consumed by some huge, dog-like mouth that is mostly obscured. The entire mess of living beings is entwined with dense metal pipework, making it unclear where one ends and the next begins.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Open the project. Make a handful of minor adjustments. Close the project without saving. Repeat every three to four days.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

With apologies to the person who bought just one of the pair before I got the bundle adjusted; if you happen to be reading this and you'd like the other game too, do let me know!

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Better Late Than Never and Time To Kill are both in Drivethru RPG's Solo September Sale, for 50% off. I've just updated the two-for-one bundle to also be 50% off, which means if you buy the bundle you're effectively getting 75% off. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

drivethrurpg.com

DriveThruRPG - The Largest RPG Download Store!

Your one-stop online shop for new and vintage RPG products from the top publishers, delivered fresh to your desktop in electronic format.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Stumbled across these photos of a map of mine from... must have been towards the end of 2019? At some point I should dig it out and restore it.

A photograph of a tabletop game in progress, with dice and miniature figures atop a hand-drawn map of a walled fortress.

A top down view of a hand-drawn and coloured battle map of a walled fortress. Several features are labeled in a crooked, angular old-fashioned script. In the middle is the "White Tower" along with the "Chapel", "Headsman's Block" and "Store Houses". Around these are two concentric walls, with "Traitor's Gate", "Sewer", "The Breach" and "Siege Ladders" labeled. Outside the walls is mostly water, save for a bridge, and a small islands with "War Tent" labeled. In the top left there is a black and white compass rose. Across the map, there are illustrations of arrows, as in archery, to show covered firing positions, as well as red and black striped borders around what would be elevated positions.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I got three. My specialist subject? Being an artist from West Yorkshire who knows what colour the circle line is.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Pro-tip: Don't use the "Hug your loved ones in the two minutes you have left before nuclear obliteration" alert system to tell people not to light the barbecue.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Let's just all pretend we can see the eclipse through there, ok?

A portrait orientated photograph of the sun, darkened by the eclipse, through a dense buddleia with many pink and purple flowers. The sky is clear save for a single wispy cloud to the right of frame, which is reflecting streaks of light. Three cables cross the frame, creating diamond shaped splits in the sky.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

👍 Rules-Lawyering my own game to avoid getting one-shot by the giant monster of my own creation. 👎 Rolling too low and getting one-shot anyway.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

static.klipy.com

Duel 1971: Car vs. Truck Chase

ALT: Duel 1971: Car vs. Truck Chase

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

"Hittite Training Instructions for Chariot Horses in the Second Half of the 2nd Millennium BC and Their Interdisciplinary Context"

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I didn't want to out your location. Also it's funnier this way.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

30 second battle with a bluebottle where I threaten him with death and he immediately found his way back out the window. I'm not sure which of us was more surprised.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

A local cafe that I've been fond of has switched to AI adverts for its specials since I last went it. Like guys, you've made the food. It's here, it looks good. Just... Just photograph the food. You have ChatGPT but you don't have a camera? The phone that you're using for ChatGPT has a camer- just-

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I'd say some of my creations fall into the same camp as Public Access. www.zacharyelliotthatton.co.uk

A pixelated prompt that reads "Do you wish to continue?" overlaid on a heavily stretched and distorted copy of itself.

A low-fidelity render of a chair with a long shadow that suggests sunset, but instead of a sky there are only progressively more distorted copies of the same chair.

An altered photograph of a spider in the corner of a room, in a combination of burning oranges and moonlight blues.

A low resolution, pixelated and dithered render of a giant animal skull resting on a dimly-lit staircase. The entire image uses perhaps three different tones of greenish-beige and black.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Fun fact #5 Aside from the regular instrument packs, I sampled two specific sounds for the music. Fun fact #5.5, I'm not going to tell you what they are.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Fun fact #4 The video is a single screen capture with no editing. The whole thing plays in real-time in engine. You can detach the camera and fly around, and fast-forward or rewind (although entities don't de-spawn properly when played in reverse).

The washing machine captured in high-contrast black and white, instead of the usual saturated colours.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Fun fact #3 During the first-person shot, the light reflecting off the inside of the washing machine was so bright that it completely washed out the edges of the screen. To compensate, the material is temporarily made almost black for that one shot.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Fun fact #2 The camera spin when the washing machine arrives for the first time was an accident. I'd spun the camera a full 360 degrees in a previous shot, and interpolating back to the default angle during the crash zoom produced that effect.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Fun fact #1 This engine had no editor, or even a graphical interface of any kind. The "animation" part consists of around 3000 lines of C. Object positions were estimated by steering the camera around and printing out its coordinates.

A page of C code, consisting of position and orientation calculations for a camera and different points in the animation.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Two years ago (plus a little bit, I missed the anniversary) I was told that my university had booked out a local cinema for showcasing our work-in-progress projects. At that point I had a barebones homemade engine. Three days later, I had this... thing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyAb...

Distorted, lo-fi close up render of a washing machine inside some sort of structure with archways and lanterns, open to a jet black sky. The washing machine's door is open and the drum is emitting a warm yellow light.

The same washing machine in the same environment, this time shown from the top down and with a hot pink light instead of yellow. The machine is surrounded by multicoloured floppy disks, some bouncing off the ground. A red disk rides on top of the washing machine.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Not really the most urgent thing right now but it annoys me that a red heat warning is hotter than a yellow heat warning.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I might rewrite the perfect skill check mechanic from scratch.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I was certainly one of them, yes! I joined the First Time Printing session as someone who's only done DriveThru print-on-demand up to this point, and wants to pursue other avenues of distribution.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Is that one of those bridges they build so that crabs can migrate over motorways?

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Reposted by Zachary Elliott-Hatton

Seamus Conneely of Cannibal Halfling Gaming @cannibalhalfling.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

#PocketQuest2026 may be ending @drivethrurpg.com, but its bundles are forever - including the Solo RPGs one! You can save more than $30 and gets 18 solo/solo+ games at once (if you already bought some of them, their share is discounted as well)! www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/5...

drivethrurpg.com

PocketQuest 2026 Solo RPGs [BUNDLE] - Seamus Conneely | DriveThruRPG

This special bundle is made up of 1 and 1+ player games created as part of PocketQuest 2026, Time Travel! For previous PocketQuest Solo Bundles, check out 2025, 2024, and 2023! Reloaded - PocketQue...

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Every check to be resolved based on how far you can throw the card.

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Reposted by Zachary Elliott-Hatton

Stephne Tate @quailtea.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

AI never has been about equalizing creative fields, allowing “unskilled” people to rise from obscurity and create great things. No, it’s about convincing people that they’re incapable of learning, growing and creating entirely on their own. It’s selling you the idea you’re too stupid to try

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Of course it can't find much information on my games, I'm a very small-scale publisher and there are very few sources for it to pull from. But the AI will never arrange words like "I can't find what you're looking for" because that doesn't satisfy the end user.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

This is what Google's AI shat out while I was looking at the discoverability of my latest game. None of this is true. The citations link to pages that don't back up the claims. This is what Google's best minds think knowledge looks like.

Screenshot of Google's AI answer:
"System Compatibility: The game is completely system-agnostic, meaning you can play it independently or drop it in to an existing ruleset. It supports numerous popular engines, including: Basic Roleplaying and Old School Revival; Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder; Fate, Cyberpunk, and Savage Worlds."

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Reposted by Zachary Elliott-Hatton

Present & Correct @presentcorrect.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

In 1967 Japan Air Lines issued a set of leaflets to educate their passengers about all aspects of Japanese life. We have scanned 24 of them www.presentandcorrect.com/blogs/blog/j...

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Reposted by Zachary Elliott-Hatton

Finan Oillpheist @finanoillpheist.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Depends if I'm cheeky (it's Sun for me) or respectful (it's Sat for most). #selfpromosaturday I'm doing a content teaser for my #indie #pocketquest 2026 #ttrpg Our Hell In Space: www.drivethrurpg.com//product/564... Someone: Pick between 1-6 for a background. Pick a name. Describe our crew member.

drivethrurpg.com

Our Hell In Space - Finan Oillpheist Press | DriveThruRPG

Our Hell In Space is a modular replayable sci-fi horror for One or more players, and one game master (also known as a GM). Our Hell In Space uses a custom combat absent system, which uses playing card...

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

You need a d4 but all you have is a d20. Do you: A. Take the modulo of the roll B. Divide by 5 and round up C. Check high or low (1-10 = 1-2, 11-20 = 3-4) then check odd or even D. Re-roll 16 out of every 20 rolls E. Give up F. A mysterious sixth thing?

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Reposted by Zachary Elliott-Hatton

Mae Nick Phra Khanong @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Some great PSA paintings about train safety from the State Railway of Thailand Translations in captions

A painting of a man leaning out a train window bloodily bashing his head on a steel beam. The caption reads "Don't lean out of the window while sitting on the train."

A man in anguish holding onto the side of a moving train while his bloodied leg is caught on something underneath. The caption reads "Don't board or alight while the train is moving."

A painting of a stopped train next to a dead buffalo. The caption reads "Don't bring animals under your care onto the railroad track."

A man laying on railroad tracks looking scared while a train with a bright headlight approaches. The caption reads "Don't sleep on the railroad tracks."

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Last night I fell asleep watching RTGame playing Forza Horizon 6, and dreamed about this game before I knew it existed.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Sadly this only applies to the digital versions, and not to the beautiful printed copies. Though if I'm not mistaken buying either title in print also applies a discount to the bundle...? Don't quote me on that. DriveThru's bundle pricing is an arcane mystery to me.

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

A couple of people have bought Better Late Than Never digitally without its counterpart, Time To Kill (or vice versa). You are allowed to do that, it's fine, I'm not stopping you. But you do know about the 2-for-1 bundle, right? www.drivethrurpg.com//product/565...

drivethrurpg.com

Solo Time Traveller - PQ2026 [BUNDLE] - Zachary Elliott-Hatton | DriveThruRPG

Get two time-travelling solo games for the price of one! Hide in plain sight to deliver time-sensitive parcels, or deal out death across the ages, using advanced tech, subtlety, and a willingness to r...

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

(In the context of what I'm trying to achieve)

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I don't want to alarm anyone, but I think I've just designed the perfect skill check mechanic.*

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Zachary Elliott-Hatton @zelliotthatton.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Symbaroum is permanently affixed to my board of layout references.

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