The workers at ZA/UM Studio have unionized. First recognised games union in the UK, too. May many others follow. www.gameworkers.co.uk/workers-at-z...

cannot really explain to non-Brits how funny it is that this country has artificially developed an entire economy around a triangle of cities in the lowest quarter of the nation and then keeps failing to connect two of those three cities

Played the new Keep Driving update in Swedish, and found the new hitch-hiking couple were Finns 😅 And in the English version - they're Swedish! So now we're going on a different kind of trip 🌵

Me, reading entries from Roger's Profanisaurus to the family at Christmas:

The Last Stand, 1965, painting by Clarice Hall Pomfret, 1930-2014 (Bolton Library & Museum Services).

Sunday

RIP Kaleb Horton kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/

"It is the belief of this Labour government that it would be better if you or your loved ones did not exist. Can we rely on your vote?"

ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies. Arriving 2026: linktr.ee/zeroparades

A fine follow-up to The Brexit Tackle - "a tackle that doesn’t get the ball, only takes out the player"

Starting to unfollow accounts that relentlessly post screenshots of Twitter. I'm not there for a reason.

It would be good if the only political pushback against Nigel Farage's plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbours, friends, family and colleagues didn't just come from a handful of backbench MPs and one regional mayor

If you've never gone down the US Evangelical 'Left Behind' rapture rabbit-hole (not unusual outside the US), it's well worth it. It was a bit funnier in the 90s, less so in recent years.

UK recognises Palestine as an independent state

Bought some actual newspapers yesterday for a kid's art project (they've chosen the theme of censorship). Not one Kirk story in the pages. A tiny box about the NY Times case being thrown out. A tinier box on Kimmel. Lashings of Royals and mad opinion pieces. Tailored to the non-online.

"Yeah, I'm all you need, I'mma be your idol" 🎶

The parental pride I felt overhearing Eldest quietly tell Youngest: "You got Computer Science today? Cool. Left you some files in the shared area." A conspiratorial nod in return.

Mine considered suspension after I logged in as admin (password: the school's name) and changed a mean kid's surname to a slightly ruder version. My defence was that while it wasn't very mature, calling it 'hacking' was a bit of a stretch. Now, what my kids can do... that's impressive 😈

Went canvassing today. Four different people said they are concerned about immigration, by which they all meant they are concerned by how demonised it is and blame Labour for failing to fight fascism. Inner city Glasgow. Stick that in your narratives

User research is critical for improving internal tools. You have to know who is doing what, when, and why. You cannot make proper improvements without knowing what the issues are. Seems basic, but is often still forgotten.

🚨 BREAKING | 1,339 people have now been arrested on "terrorism" charges in 2025, with almost all of them busted for holding signs at pro-Palestine protests. This is more than any year on record, by far. (Source: Home Office)

My daughter's powers of shopping persuasion know no bounds, I woke up a frugal minimalist and now have two crates of iced coffee and a batch of Sol de Janeiro products en route. Queen of the Little Treat.

sometimes the very thing that the player yearns for would make the experience smooth & consumable, which in this slop-content landscape is, I think, less desirable than we might assume. sometimes the thing that is hard to digest rather than too-easily consumable is what lingers

👇

This is good news. The UK was far behind other countries on this. More children, in absolute terms, get severely ill from chicken pox than get severely ill from meningitis. news.sky.com/story/chicke...

I ordered tea with milk in Paris #LookHowTheyMassacredMyBoy

So everyone at the studio deserves to be punished because of the actions of a few? What about the random artists or writers that have nothing to do with any of that? Do you genuinely believe you NEED to adopt such a severe stance and engage in collective punishment because it’s morally correct?

Not trying to cause drama here or be shitty to you, I just think it’s unfair that so many people have to be dismissed and their work held as having no value because people pick a side. There’s folks at ZA/UM that are being caught in the crossfire unfairly.

if there's anything I've learned about processing 100+ auditions the past while is that people are very confident that they can do 'Irish' accents

Zero Parades (ZA/UM’s Project C4) looking very promising. Really into the concept of being a spy with the “anti-Midas touch”, who’s confronted with a lot of failure. Disco is one of my favourites of all time, eager to see more about how they’re pushing the envelope with this one

I've never actually watched that many trailers at once... Not being funny but don't they all seem a bit samey? Beardy bloke with magic sword, sequels, war stuff. Same tone. Same audience. Felt like there was more variety when I was a kid, obsessed with Street Fighter II and Shining Force.

Who will you be when no one is watching? ZERO PARADES. Wishlist now on Steam: tr.ee/zeroparades

Filing this one under "things that are really difficult to explain to anyone living outside the UK"

A friend told me he had been clearing out his gran’s house. The most amazing thing he’d found was this knitted effigy of the man who had run off and abandoned my friend’s pregnant aunt. Into the effigy had been stuck twenty knitting needles: one for every year since the man had vanished.

Privatisation, you disingenuous fuckwits

every “ancient tradition” was invented between 1848-1870 and every “modern perversion” is so ancient as to predate writing

It's astonishing that the British Library is still not fully recovered from the cyber attack, and simply amazing that the incident doesn't seem to have bothered successive governments in the slightest.

We have a new contender for "worst governmental failure to understand how computers work"

I have given up trying to make "successful" games and am dedicating myself 100% to making games for small batches of sickos. It sounds almost depressing, but its actually unlocked my creative engines immensely.

All I'm saying is if you wanna do cozy Shire life, with fishing, cooking, home decor etc, Lord of the Rings Online is right there.

Not to keep being a dick about this, but given that translate broke months ago after "a minor update" and now the whole Mute concept is down, a) how fragile is this codebase and b) do they even have QA?

Love that Brits now need to be extra-special-protected from the bad things by having their mute lists taken away

Same! I had a ridiculously long list that made this app almost usable, and it's been completely wiped and cannot be added to @support.bsky.team

When the vibes are off

I think Labour will back out of their 16+ can vote scheme once they do some polls and see that 16-17 year olds will vote for left wing parties mainly

This is exactly what the internet is for.

I cannot stop playing this. It's relaxing, looks beautiful, I keep finding new little secrets and I love the music. It is also very Swedish, if you know what you're looking for. Att hitta Vinga fyr gjorde mig glad 🩵

Incredible article about a bunch of children - now in their 50s and 60s - who were taught to read using a doomed alternate alphabet invented by a Tory MP www.theguardian.com/education/20...