Took 307 days, but Wonderful Elephant® has a US Trademark! 🎉 TL;DR: Day 0: Application, proof of usage Day 1: Filing is public, spam calls/texts/emails nonstop (even now) Day 140: US attorney requests additional proof of usage Day 252: Passed! Day 258: Published for public opposition Day 307: 🎉

Reflecting on #GDC2026: - Friendships, colleagues, and spontaneous joy still the highlight to attend - International folks very, very absent :( - Good meetings yay! - Passes are way too expensive (my cheapest option was $1,199 USD, didn't buy) - GDC needs to leave SF, I say this as a local

I bought a couple of koroks, been hiding them so my kids can go on TOTK quests when they get home from school

Hey, #gdc2026. This isn't okay

GDC for only one day, Thursday. About all I have time for this year message me if you want to catch up!

Happy 9 Year Anniversary to The Flash Games Postmortem! This talk is absolutely my favorite, most stressful, most important talk I've ever given, 141k views (!?) on Youtube. See young John Cooney wear a plaid shirt (whoh!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=65cr...

Enough about the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about what’s INSIDE it. Namely, 15 weird, wonderful minigames of all types to delight, dazzle, and discombobulate you. Wishlist Good Things Vol 1 on Steam, and play the #SteamNextFest demo store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #gamedev #indiegame

Enough about the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about what’s INSIDE it. Namely, 15 weird, wonderful minigames of all types to delight, dazzle, and discombobulate you. Wishlist Good Things Vol 1 on Steam, and play the #SteamNextFest demo store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #gamedev #indiegame

I’m making Good Things Vol 1 because I love the weird creativity and energy of the Flash era, and wanted to bring that back through a whole bunch of minigames. Also so I could make this GIF :) Wishlist and play the #SteamNextFest demo: store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #gamedev #indiegame

Found a great hack to increase your death count in Coyote Time in the Good Things Vol 1 demo. :) Download the demo and try it for yourself today! What do you mean that’s not the point store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #gamedev #steamnextfest #indiegame

The demo for Good Things Vol 1 is live for #SteamNextFest! These games embody everything that I love about the Flash game era; they’re weird, they’re experimental, they’re different, and most importantly… they were fun to make! Download the demo and wishlist!🐘 store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/...

The demo for Good Things Vol 1 is live for #SteamNextFest! These games embody everything that I love about the Flash game era; they’re weird, they’re experimental, they’re different, and most importantly… they were fun to make! Download the demo and wishlist!🐘 store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/...

Can you really claim to love your boyfriend if you don’t shrink yourself down to unobstruct his guts for him? You won’t find THAT in Wuthering Heights, pal. Download the demo (with three whole games!) for Good Things Vol 1 now, for love, for #SteamNextFest! store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/...

The Elephant Collection is a video game. It's 50% off and proceeds benefiting Type 1 Diabetes research. store.steampowered.com/app/2274110/...

The Elephant Collection is 50% OFF as part of the Game Over T1D Sale, alongside 50+ other games/DLC! Check out the event, each company involved will also donate to Breakthrough T1D to help find cures for #type1diabetes! 💙 store.steampowered.com/app/2274110/...

My Gmail is this and its getting so weird. Three ads all formatted the same way, as if there wasn't other ways to format ads

When I was 18 I made a short animated film about climate change It screened at film festivals in New York (HBO!), in Santa Fe, in San Francisco, San Jose, and won several awards I'm 39 now, and the US is still fighting the idea that climate change doesn't exist www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSOM...

Fuck me this is just naked transphobia being pedaled as fact. Zero evidence given and the argument is logically nonsensical. Of course many people don't, because you're making sure it's impossible to do so. Cool you're demanding teachers out kids to potentially abusive parents though. Real nice 😑

Our studio @wonderfulelephant.com joins the battle! $10+ donation gets you our game FOUR SECOND FOREVER + 1,438 other great works all for a donation, drop in:

UPDATE: Following user backlash Adobe has changed plans, saying that while active development on Animate will cease, it will remain available for download.

Hey, @adobe.com, my name is John Cooney. I would like to help convert Animate into an open-source product I've spent decades making games, gave the Flash Games Postmortem (and the second one!) at GDC, ran Armor Games, was part of your Youth Voices program, and did your roundtables (for free!) <3

Participated in the Adobe Youth Voices program in my late teens. Screened an animation I made in Flash in their offices in San Jose Sat in roundtables in my early 20's for Adobe, helping them shape the applications they made To their previous care, they ruled. Today, they just don't care

wow this sucks

The final sealed Blue Elephant plushie sold for $202.50(!), 100% in-benefit to @alotrolado-org.bsky.social and their direct support to deportees, migrants, and refugees in the United States and Mexico www.alotrolado.org/letsdosometh... Thank you for chipping in, let's keep going 💙

An elephant never forgets, which means if you don't wishlist Good Things Vol 1 on Steam, it will haunt him until the end of his days. You wouldn't haunt an elephant, would you? :( store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #indiegame #gamedev

We're at less than 24 hours until the auction of the final sealed Blue Elephant plushie ends! 100% benefiting AL OTRO LADO, providing humanitarian and legal aid at the US border for migrants, refugees, and deportees See the details beneath this deeply regrettable elephant gif we just made:

sharing the draft as the real one is healing up :). This is the Only Tattoo, he looks incredible <3

Good Things Vol 1 is coming to Steam, and bringing with it your WILDEST DREAMS, where you can do things like PUT ORANGE ON CAPYBARA and PICK EXTRA LEGS OFF HORSE. What more could the heart desire? 💙🐘 Wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/3900940/... #indiegame #gamedev #wishlistwednesday

god salad spinners are so much fun

baseball is a soccervania

Want a blue elephant plushie? We are donating 100% of the proceeds of the final, sealed, brand-new Blue Elephant plush to Al Otro Lado, an organization supporting refugees, deportees, and migrants in the US and Mexico. See the next post for details on how to adopt him 🐘💙

Our game studio @wonderfulelephant.com will be shutting down on Fri, Jan 23 in alignment with Minnesota and their General Strike While we're tiny and far away (Davis, CA), we stand with MN. No community should bear this pain alone We also have plans:

Our game studio @wonderfulelephant.com will be shutting down on Fri, Jan 23 in alignment with Minnesota and their General Strike While we're tiny and far away (Davis, CA), we stand with MN. No community should bear this pain alone We also have plans:

Growing up in the USA question, for everyone else: Have you ever had to deal with a "retention specialist"?

Don't forget; artists, writers, composers, anyone in game dev... you can also put a "no AI" clause in your work contracts! Protect yourself and the work you do while taking a stance.

...no one ever questioned that I poop pastries

being left on read 😭😭😭

applying for US Trademark is full of scams, but this one is the most egregious so far I was told that someone was trying to apply for my existing trademark (they aren't) Likewise they have "received my tm application from the USPTO" no they just scraped my details from the app

I think a lot about how one day I emailed @newgrounds.com about wiring up 250 achievements into a game and they said, "YEAH LETS GO"

Local public media is critical through all these crises: Excellent reporting, solid interviews/viewpoints, and a care for the local community (not just my community, learning about your community too!) Don't wait for a pledge drive, this shit is too important. Just upped my monthly dono

I didn't realize how much of an upgrade to work these bad boys would be

at our local library you can request a book, they will ship you a NEW book directly to your home from wherever (Amazon, etc), and then you take it to the library after you read it so it goes into circulation!

Bulldozer

made a hotpot for the family last night, it's slowly becoming a Christmas tradition :)

Happy Holidays from the smallest ornament on the tree :)

Elephant Rave 2 is FREE during the Steam Winter Sale! (It's also free after the Steam Winter Sale) store.steampowered.com/app/950230/E...

Going into 2026, a reminder for everyone who's fallen off the creative wagon, game dev, writing, art, music, whatever, no matter how long:

chase those feels, half off now store.steampowered.com/app/2274110/...

The Elephant Collection is 50% off RIGHT NOW as part of the Steam Winter Sale! store.steampowered.com/app/2274110/...

It's that time of the year where I need to go to Christmas parties and people ask me how work is going and this is the last thing I've made