why yes I AM a qualified actor.

2026 update

I wish I I didn't have a professional obligation to understand how Copilot works which means I have to kick its tires sometimes. I saw a post discussing its response to public domain texts, so I had a play. For example, here it is telling me that the Raven is still under copyright:

One of the barriers to game development that nobody discusses is when squirrels get into your attic and eat your electrical cables so you have no electricity and therefore can't work on your game. I did have a lot of fun walking around my house last night like this though:

🙌 So exciting! Firelight Isle is one of my favourite comics by just about every metric I can think of, the artwork, the craft of visual storytelling, the story. Can't wait to have the full set!

Libraries are great.

Once again sharing this phenomenal report proposing a £1.5m UK Comics Fund, on top of also being a bangin' evidenced manifesto for comics in general: www.thecomicsculturalimpactcollective.org/CCIC%20DCMS%...

The Beekeeper's Picnic has hit 10k in sales! I'm delighted that this niche little game which brought me so much joy to create has resonated with so many people. I don't know how to articulate how grateful I am to everyone who has supported it!🐝

It's #Zinetopia launch day!! We'll be running a oneshot of The Deepest Dark on @tincanaudio.co.uk today and Wednesday, 8pm GMT/3pm EST, with LIVE SCORING from Amber!! Featuring: @theneoncaster.bsky.social @masquewren.bsky.social @pmakesthings.bsky.social @georgiacooked.bsky.social and yours truly!

Bookbinding update! A while ago I came across this great mystery short story set in Ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Peters, in which the priest and scholar Amhotep investigates a crime accompanied by his friend Wadjsen, a scribe. I thought it would be fun to create a small book with the story in!

Thank you so much for the feature! You've also increased my to-play list significantly, what a great collection of games!

I'm getting the feeling I'm brightening my postie's day with my nerdy pursuits. "Last week you got a letter from Sherlock Holmes, and today something's come from Discworld?!" (Courtesy of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the Discworld Emporium!)

My January Newsletter is out! Now with ADDED VIDEO! www.thewonderroom.uk/blog-2/art-s... If you enjoyed and want more, you can subscribe to get the newsletter straight to your inbox.

I'm going to be at the Into Games Festival taking place at the Midlands Arts Centre on Saturday, showcasing The Beekeeper's Picnic and concept art (and giving out more Newt Facts, of course) It's the largest event specifically for games career seekers in the UK, and it's 100% free!

Some visual development for my Next Game! I wonder who lives here and what their deal is? I did most of this while listening to @tincanaudio.co.uk's twitch stream which provided the perfect soundtrack 💪

Tonight we will be finishing our remix of a track from @jochiang.bsky.social's 'Hearthbound' with a choir made from clips sent in by our Ko-Fi members and Twitch subscribers. I can't wait to hear how it all sounds. 8pm UK/3pm Eastern twitch.tv/tincanaudio

I was determined that Next Game would be longer than Beekeeper's Picnic but I'm starting to feel like it won't be... And I think that's ok! I can't be the only person who really appreciates narrative-led games that can be completed in a few evenings... right?!

Small, free act you can do to bring some good in this world: add positive reviews to ALL you Steam games, especially the small indies. You don't need to write anything smart, just "game good" is enough. Every positive steam review tips the algorithm and helps your fav artists get more sales

Little coworker.

The Gayming Award nominations are open! Please consider taking five minutes to nominate the Beekeeper's Picnic for Best LGBTQ+ Indie Game Award ❤️ gaymingawards.com/nominate/

Registered to give blood!

Looks like the Open Access version isn't available yet, but I'm excited that it *will* be!

I just finished playing Pentiment (after saving it for a rainy day for far too long) and it's very beautiful, and ironically makes me worry about not ever making anything quite so beautiful.

Aww thank you! 🥰 You can play it again one day, do things in a different order, and make slightly different choices! And show everyone absolutely everything!

Well deserved! ❤️ I found the art in Rosewater so aspirational.

I saw this yesterday and it gets my stamp of approval, do catch it if it's touring near you! Fast-paced spy thriller isn't my favourite genre for Holmes stories, but I think it pulled it off with panache. The characterisations of all the major players made my fannish heart happy.

In Great Expectations, Joe Gargery tells Pip that life "is made of ever so many partings welded together." At some point a few months ago, I ate my last Sainsbury's chocolate twist, but I didn't *know* it was my last Sainsbury's chocolate twist. Really makes you think, doesn't it?

You know, the best thing to come out of this Hiveworks situation for me is that I can go through the threads talking about it and track down all the comics people who I used to follow on twitter.

The 2025 @agotyawards.bsky.social will be handed out on Monday, January 19th! Watch me present my top three as part of the international jury.

Very wise words! I've been asked a few times lately how I've built a (small but lovely!) audience, and I have no good answer because it's not from one thing?

Inventor Robert Pittis Scott's Cycling Art, Energy, and Locomotion (1889) offers a whimsical and illustrated tour through the previous century of “man-motor locomotion” including a second half dedicated to unusual patents: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cycling-art

As a longstanding indie creator collective, we stand with Hiveworks Artist Guild in the spirit of support for the broader comics community. We express solidarity with our peers in the right to respectful, transparent, accountable work relationships. cartoonist.coop/hiveworks-gu...

Thank you! 🥰 My biggest hope for this game is that it will be there for people when they need it, I think that's one of the biggest honours a story can have.

Unwind with The Beekeeper’s Picnic, now half price for Steam Detective Fest! A tender story about Sherlock Holmes' retirement wrapped in cosy point‑and‑click puzzles. store.steampowered.com/app/2248890/...

Once upon a time getting a comic into Hiveworks would have been a dream come true for me - a sobering reminder that you often don't know the mess going on behind the scenes. (I feel the same way about Unbound)

It means so much!!! The single biggest thing which resulted in more eyes on my game, more than national press coverage, more than attending industry events, more than coverage on game journalism sites... ...was a mention from a teenager on TikTok.

I waited way too long to do this.

You know, I can't actually think of a mystery where the butler did it?

Not inaccurate photo of the sky over my house at 11pm last night (I think the pink colour is a bit brighter than it was in person)

Last night I had a very detailed dream set in the world of my Proposed Next Game, which probably means I'm getting suitably unhinged about it.

Beekeeper's Picnic might just about sell 10k copies in its first year, which is wild. If everyone who has bought the game was a bee, we'd have a small but possibly sustainable hive 💪

New year, new haircut, same cat.

Sickness, prep for January exams and visiting relatives meant that December was a write-off for working on game ideation/pre-production... ... and yet apparently my mind was still tumbling ideas around. I sat down today and the solutions to various storytelling snags clicked into place.

Here's my final newsletter of 2025! Or is it my first of 2026? afootgames.squarespace.com/blog-2/goodb...

Miss Malkin FAQ! Q: How do you pronounce her name? A: I pronounce it Moll-kin. She sometimes gets called Molly. Q: What does it mean? A: I'm very pretentious. Q: Seriously though. A: It's a cute/diminutive form of Matilda, which is used to be a common English name for female cats!

Ways I'd troll people if I had a time machine #154: Go to 1941, sneak this into codebreaker Dilly Knox's desk.

I am begging games writers in 2026 to stop talking about point and click like it's a dead/dormant genre currently being resurrected by whatever thing you've just noticed

I'm having a tidy-up deep in the depths of my office, and I found some comics I don't remember at all!