I don’t think I’ve ever faced a more meaningful choice in any video game than this one in Baby Steps: do I climb a massive, sheer cliff face called The Manbreaker, or do I just take the conveniently placed stairs

no I'm not "posting through it." it's posting through me

this is how you lose the dish war

Finding myself wishing yet again that David Graeber were still with us

Really loved this new video from @nerd4cities.bsky.social! I often forget that lots of people just really hate cities and what they stand for: coexistence, shared moments, mutual support, public goods, etc. Portland, despite its problems and shortcomings, is a city that’s very good at city things.

Books with Pictures (@bkswpicspdx.bsky.social) in Portland, Oregon is a GREAT comic shop, and its owner in @omgkatiep.bsky.social is one of the best. The shop is going through a hard time right now, and if you want to help BwP out, they opened a GoFundMe to help do just that.

I have written a lot about the perils of poorly maintained (and leaf-filled) bike lanes. That didn’t stop me from wiping out in one just now, falling on my face and scraping up my knee pretty badly. This is a truly hazardous situation, @pbotinfo.bsky.social. When are you going to do something?

Still thinking about Clair Obscur, the game that entered into a staring contest with maximalism and won

i'm just gonna say it: i think the game awards have lost the plot this year with these nominations

do yourself a favor and dont even hate-watch that shit this year, man. go see a movie. edgar wright's new thing is in theatres. demonschool is out in 2 days, birdcage is out tomorrow. play something from your backlog. tron 2.0 is $10 on gog. catch up on some tv. do groceries. whatever.

like i am not going to devote a fraction of my brain to being upset for longer than a minute, but this says about all you need to know about the legitimacy of TGA's awards at least as it applies to music

Summoning the most potent of magicks to get me through this week

Got absolutely roasted by the latest Kurzgesagt video. I admit it! I’m way too stressed out! Emails *do* terrify me!!

It’s so handy having a phone but sometimes I wish it was just in one place — like tethered to a fixed location by a cord or something. Maybe someday someone will invent something like that

On this last warm autumn day of the year, I would give just about anything for a car-free route through my city. There’s nothing nicer than biking in a place like this, except biking in a place like this where almost all of the cars are gone

those of us laid off from Teen Vogue were really fortunate to complete our fundraising goal — the laid-off staffers at VIBE deserve the same support, as Black media outlets and journalists continue to be targeted and discriminated against in “austerity” measures

This might sound like splitting hairs, but I think it's tacky and ill-considered for writers, critics, developers, and enjoyers of games to refer to them as "titles." That's marketing-speak, and it minimizes them pretty significantly when you refer to them that way.

friday soapbox: as a designer, if you want something to be a skillful action for players, and you want growth in this skill to be very deep/meaningful, then you need to also let players be bad at it. sometimes horrendously bad. players hate this pain, and designers often want to mitigate it away.

I’ve seen enough. I’m not calling a race or judging a competition, I just mean like in general

Good thread! It’s hard to predict pricing and market response, but I think the Gabecube will be a small but significant success for Valve. And as someone who values the breadth of PC gaming but dreads rebuilding my 7-year-old 2070 PC, I’m absolutely the part of the target market for this device.

Still thinking about Clair Obscur, the game that entered into a staring contest with maximalism and won

The union is asking that you not patronize any Starbucks, even ones that aren't unionized, for the duration! Time to find your new favoriteocal coffee shop. To donate to their strike fund: sbworkersunited.org

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

I was born and raised in Oregon and I have always believed down to my core that it's mega nasty and bad that we celebrate the whale being blown up

I think it's cool that I made two games that explored unconventional design pathways and both succeeded at their (very different) objectives. I may not know what an extraction shooter is or why people keep buying $80 map games but I do have a compass for discovering meaning & joy off the beaten path

technology that makes people more productive is inherently used to perpetuate capitalism, that’s why I make videogames, technology that makes people less productive

I’m not a big celebrate-my-birthday (or celebrate-anything) person, but I’m already dreading turning 40 and I wonder if planning something positive might mitigate the dread. Is that reasonable? Any advice?

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

trash-tier organization. the craven way they attempted to use the future class as a "30 under 30"-esque fig leaf to make it seem like they were socially engaged, while actively treating that class as if they were trophies rather than humans, is disgusting.

It's time!!! Independent Games Festival judging is wrapping up and thus comes my list of IGF Games I Want To Talk About for the year! As usual, I'll threadpost this later (maybe tomorrow) but people willing to click on a link can read it in full right now on my blog! auratriolo.com/blog/2025/11...

😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎

Normal people are just sick to fucking death of the cruelty and meanness

If you find (buy) my personal phone number and call it enough times to break through my do-not-disturb in order to try to sell my business a SaaS product, I will hire an Etsy witch to curse your name

2003 was the year when I, as a teenager, started to hope I outlived certain atrocities. Many atrocious things continue from that time, and the horrors wrought upon millions will never be repaired, but it is still good to be here today, now that he is not.

Kids these days are so fantastically ignorant that they can't recognize the Grand Nagus himself even when granted a personal audience. The average teenager can barely name 5 or 10 of the Rules of Acquisition.

Lynda Barry is a genius and a treasure. Her full page in today’s @nytimes.com is a perfect example.

That was such a fun postseason I almost forgot what a clown-car disaster the Orioles were this year. And how close the Mariners came to their first Series! Truly, this sport breaks your heart in endlessly novel ways

I just read a phenomenal, bold, and imho correct review of a recent movie on Defector dot com but this place is filled to the brim with weirdo reply guys so instead of linking I’ll just say: if you support independent journalism by subscribing to Defector and read the review you are allowed to reply

Co-signed, and: in my experience, good and stupid are two ends of the baseball ouroboros, and that’s why I love it

more BASE BALL

BASE BALL

Now that I'm past the halfway mark, I'm having some very complicated feelings (complimentary) about the game Baby Steps

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗

I'm absolutely floored by this arrangement. The solo flugelhorn performance is so precise and emotive. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljw3...

I love cow tools

43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.

Game 3 of the World Series will continue until morale improves.

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

2025 postseason:

If you have it please donate cash to the food banks. $10 in their hands will feed more people than the $10 worth of canned goods you can buy for retail prices. Also check on your elders. Many of them will not admit they rely on these programs so grocery gift cards or a surprise bag of staples