How do we design games that advance us, instead of appealing to compulsions from our evolutionary history? Evolutionary psychologist Peter Gray contends that some games already do.

In the last grokludo of 2025, Peter Gray explains the evolutionary advantage of play, the "instinct to practice other instincts," and how games are the most effective workout for our cognitive muscles.

Autism expert Tony Attwood explains some of the benefits of gaming for players with autism, and how one of the main ones - emotion regulation - can be a blessing and a curse. Full ep: youtu.be/42bN90Nz6F4

Autism expert Tony Attwood says he is "very concerned" about loot boxes and the rising of gambling in games, especially for gamers with autism. "Often they're not disclosing information to others where someone can be, shall we say ... it may be a partner, parent, friend, of moderation."

Tony Attwood, an adjunct professor at Queensland's Griffith University, operated a private clinic for many years focusing on Level 1 autism. He's also the latest guest on @thejunglist.bsky.social's podcast, #grokludo, and uses the platform to voice his concerns about the rise of gambling in games.

Under a secretive billion dollar new deal, refugees in the Australian community are being ripped out of their homes and sent to Nauru. "It's a wild escalation... Scenes similar to ICE'", says Ogy Simic of the @ASRC1 www.instagram.com/reel/DSCEmf_...

Autism expert Tony Attwood joins grokludo this week to talk about how people with autism experience games, and maintaining healthy hobby habits. www.youtube.com/watch?v=42bN...

Newly discovered Game of Life spaceship looks like a Star Destroyer conwaylife.com/forums/viewt...

Excited for this. Sy Hersh's memoir "Reporter" was a great read.

What can we learn from breaking down game design to its core elements? @jzagal.bsky.social joins grokludo this week to talk about the Game Ontology Project - reducing and categorising game design elements to study them piece by piece.

This was fun and I maintain that stupidity should be one of the guiding principles of game marketing

When press releases go terribly right 😄 @mode7games.bsky.social used to send absurd press releases with Monty Python-esque language, and... it's great? I dug up some old ones for Paul to read out loud. Full ep: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEl1...

If you weren't already convinced of what complict scum our entire political class is

I asked @mode7games.bsky.social about the third-party services & complex architectures forming the "higher end" of difficult end-of-life plans for games. He contends the language itself is problematic, and trying to account for all scenarios in vague regulation will harm indies most.

⅔'s through, @davemilbo.bsky.social talks about the conflict-averse ALP gov & the Ratchet Effect, where Conservative govs have done everything to drag the economics to the Right & Labor has done nothing to reverse it. I didn't hear 'Ratchet' but agreed wholeheartedly. 🫤 youtube.com/shorts/m9L86...

This was a great chat. I'm really calling for people working on games with more complex architectures (and also a greater technical understanding than me - not hard!) to be more transparent about any challenges around preservation.

Regulation looms over publishers ending support for games - but it might hit indies hardest. @mode7games.bsky.social tells grokludo about the technical complexities that neither industry nor Stop Killing Games have planned for. I also got him to read his absurd press releases out loud 😁

These videos are a great illustration of a neural network's regression to the mean - the intent is to upscale/beautify, but every woman just gets resting Midjourney face. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onr...

"4.2 civic organisations is the amount that in Aus, as a middle-aged man, I'd be in 50 years ago. Currently, statistically, it's zero." 👀 @thegameclub.bsky.social founders on the disappearing civic layer of society, and the health benefits of reconstructing it. Full ep: youtu.be/oxOASkhi74U

Big city loneliness is a modern paradox that AI companion companies are aggressively marketing to. @thegameclub.bsky.social has a different take - get people in the same room with shared interests and discussion prompts. Address the problem, not the symptom Full ep: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxOA...

This is a great conversation about AI in relation to the gaming world. Chris Simon does a brilliant job, explaining some of the more technical aspects and limitations in a way that's easy to understand

We cracked the code 👩‍💻 The Game Club founders @yug.bsky.social and Shay P. Leighton reveal their 'cheat code' for community in an interview with @thejunglist.bsky.social. It's not just about games—it's about fighting the loneliness epidemic. Get the full story: tinyurl.com/yn9rfvt3 #thegameclub

Great chat with @thejunglist.bsky.social for his podcast about how games can serve as a tool in rebuilding the civic layer of our communities and our relationships to each other. Matthew Farber, Marshall Ganz, Tracy Fullerton, Robert Putnam, and John Dewey all got a mention. #communityorganizer

The original March for Humanity on the harbour bridge in Sydney was planned for Sun Aug 3, 2025 After the Minns govt took the protest orgs to the NSW Supreme Court, it was held on Sun Aug 31, 2025 But please let's hear again about weekend dates not registering as an issue for the Minns govt 🧐

I asked Tracy Fullerton - author of The Well-Read Game - which games were best to learn "aesthetic readings," bringing ourselves fully to games as art. She didn't even have to think: @unpackinggame.com and Lost Words.

Games are art, but art requires the beholder to fully bring themselves to the experience. Tracy Fullerton's new book, The Well-Read Game, is a handbook for doing just that, & this week we talk about taking the "aesthetic stance" towards games. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwcq...

New Game: Egg terrycavanagh.itch.io/egg

If you're stuck, just add a ball ⚽

This is the unsolvable problem of live service games - the content treadmill has no offramp, but you can't endlessly add complexity. Mechabellum took autobattlers in a more Chess-like direction, and as Bearlike says, "You can't keep adding new pieces to your chessboard."

A poem I wrote some months ago showed up at my door today in the first issue of the relaunched Southerly magazine.

Autobattler Mechabellum went through many different versions before the one we saw in Early Access. It's fascinating to hear Bearlike describe the design problems they solved along the way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NndJ...

"They're lies. These companies are lying to people." @chrissimon.au on the idea of infinite storytelling from an AI Dungeon Master, and how a creative human can prompt them away from the mean.

What happens when we outsource to enterprise LLMs for storytelling, & the inherent biases they were trained on start compounding over many quests? 🤔 @chrissimon.au has researched the LLM supply chain and believes its biases will unavoidably creep into game stories & dialogue.

Really enjoyed chatting with @thejunglist.bsky.social about LLMs and games - although I'm no game dev expert, I do love playing and so it was a natural topic to explore. Thanks for your generous and warm hosting, @thejunglist.bsky.social!

Not every piece of AI is an LLM, but LLMs are a form of generative AI. That said, not all generative AI is an LLM. And now, we're confused. Thankfully, technologist Chris Simon knows what he's talking about, doing so on @thejunglist.bsky.social's grokludo podcast. Have a listen!

This week on grokludo I'm talking with technologist @chrissimon.au about what LLMs can - and can't - do for games, and the hidden costs in the AI supply chain. youtu.be/RQeQMmQWQqU

"I don't think these people feel any shame at all" - Chris Hedges, on being cancelled by the National Press Club of Australia and Western journalistic complicity

“You’re just complaining about headlines aren’t you?” It’s 2025 mate, do you have any idea how many people only read the headlines?

Counter-Strike creator @goosemancs.bsky.social on making the artistic leap - leaving big studios, building anew - and the challenge of rising above the noise in today's saturated gaming market. His new game Alpha Response is "like Payday meets Left 4 Dead". www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdrN...

I interviewed Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Chris Hedges for an hour about the Western media betrayal of Palestinian journalists, the National Press Club of Australia, fascism and a violent empire in decline. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatG...

Take that game idea in the back of your head -- how could it communicate its core idea through mechanics and systems, before aesthetics and narrative? @raphkoster.bsky.social on the difference between thematic experimentation vs mechanical experimentation.

Yo dawg

Raph Koster on what it's like for newcomers a galaxy simulating everything. For some reason, emergent disasters make the best stories 😁 @raphkoster.bsky.social @playstarsreach.bsky.social

I greatly enjoyed this chat with @raphkoster.bsky.social about fun, cognitive theory, and the massive 3D cellular automata powering the @playstarsreach.bsky.social galaxy. Broad simulation, player control, and emergent behaviour ➡️ the best stories in games.

Here you go, my review of Silent Hill f! Yes, it's CYOA. thegapodcast.com/2025/10/08/s...

The latest episode of Jeremy ‘Junglist’ Ray’s podcast, grokludo, continues a series focused on loot boxes, this time lasering in on spending vs psychological distress.