Still unpacking and decompressing from #emfcamp, a million astonishing, inspirational, and moving moments. A highlight was receiving a lovely handwritten letter from an attendee of our 1d game workshop. What an amazing event filled with magical people #emf2026 🌈

Oh #emfcamp, I love you so much.

Had a blast at #emf2026 with the museum of manky tea towels, loads of cool creations and reimaginings

The Museum of Manky Tea Towels is coming to #EMFcamp 2026! (emfcamp.org) Meet our collection of hundreds of tea towels, dry your mugs, and join us in reclaiming and remaking them to tell new stories. Bring donations! Any old souvenir tea towels lying around? manky.website #emf2026

Made a demo game for my #emf2026 workshop on games for fairy lights: You have to fill the pint without spilling, but the kind of beer you pour is random from the #emfcamp live bar data. The quantity relates to how much of that beer is left in the real bars. www.emfcamp.org/schedule/202...

The Museum of Manky Tea Towels is coming to #EMFcamp 2026! (emfcamp.org) Meet our collection of hundreds of tea towels, dry your mugs, and join us in reclaiming and remaking them to tell new stories. Bring donations! Any old souvenir tea towels lying around? manky.website #emf2026

making a thread of my favourite short games ive made 🧵(so i can link to it in applications)

Me and @ben.kirman.org are zine making this week ready for the Museum of Manky Tea Towels (manky.website) and tea towel making workshop at @emfcamp.bsky.social next week! Get in touch to donate your tea towels!

🎲We're hiring! Modiphius is looking for a new Games Designer to join our team based in Nottingham. Based in the Nottingham studio, this is a full-time position in tabletop game design to help us deliver projects in 2027 and beyond! Apply here: buff.ly/5vT1puW #GamesDev #Hiring

The demons Ahyabaztud and Fuhfukzake have heard your call and performed the binding ritual.

Prepping for my workshop on making games for fairy lights at @emfcamp.bsky.social next week! Just adding some header pins and sample code to these @pimoroni.com Plasma boards, sealed with the magical swear words I invoke when soldering my fingers.

important travel advisory regarding our eldest's school prom.

Did a favour for someone a while ago and they put "me" in their board game as thanks. The photo and nationality are not accurate, but they nailed the stats: zero cool, always slow, and easily stressed.

Had a great time at #BDiGRA conference at USW in Cardiff this week. Lots of great work. Some standouts were talks on dress up and cosy games, virtual pets, interfaces, games and conspiracies, reflections on Game City festivals. Also great to see momentum growing for practice as research.

i do not think it means what you think it means dot gif

This was not a hard decision

remember when the script for Jurassic Park 4 was to have a team of Raptors working as a SWAT team with machine guns. Look what they took from us www.theguardian.com/film/2007/au...

this project from @dorukb.bsky.social tempts me to make a 2 hr long video essay. which would be bad for everyone.

Preserving this for posterity.

Delighted to discover that our tea towels are now appearing alongside papers in google scholar searches ("critical tea towels") - thanks @oliverbates.co.uk for uploading them. and a reminder that "article" is a very broad term so maybe that weird thing you made is also one?

I wrote a manifesto for making games, and (not) selling them, for #manifestojam illomens.itch.io/no-one-is-go...

good morning to everyone at #drs2026 except for this wee eejit who wakes me up at 5am every morning. theres no oysters here you weapon, try the sea.

This was fun! Turns out the Q&A goes easier when you are brandishing a screwdriver in your fist. The paper is here: doi.org/10.21606/drs...

On my way to #DRS2026 in Edinburgh this week, presenting "Research through Game Design" on Tuesday, w/ @oliverbates.co.uk , Marcia Tavares Smith and @dpgreen.bsky.social. I just deleted "GAMES ARE INDUSTRIAL WASTE FOR DWEEBS" from the talk. But what did I replace it with...? drs2026.thedrs.org/home

working with an illustrator on a project and asked if there could be a dog wearing sunglasses (for personal branding reasons)

I really like this article. Also makes me think of @hollygramazio.bsky.social's wonderful article "How Not To Play" which talks about ways of engaging with games without hands-on playing with them. wellcomecollection.org/stories/XeEL...

Our next project is the Museum of Manky Tea Towels. Me and @ben.kirman.org need your help! Got any novelty/souvenir tea towels you could donate? Here’s a longer call for tea towels: crankandfile.co.uk/museum-of-ma... If you’re in the UK drop me a dm so we can arrange postage or a collection.

Hearty recommend from me too - quite dark in places, but really fantastic. The sound design and music is class.

Just in time for #UKGE2026 the new website for PLaY group is up at play-group.org !

Hey... is it normal to find a Kuwaiti paramilitary uniform sized for a 5 year old (with 2 berets), stuffed inside wall vents in houses in Lincolnshire? just checking if it's maybe in the regs, or structural.

Virtua Hamster is one of SEGA's more unusual lost projects. Think S.T.U.N Runner with rodents. Nearly finished on 32X, but cancelled before release, with a Saturn version never even started.

co-signed: mssv.net/2026/05/18/w...

Accidentally cut my forehead in the shower this morning. with a _towel_.

Feeling a bit conflicted: emailed a board game designer I respect to say I'm disappointed they've used AI instead of hiring an illustrator. On one hand you don't want to be an "unsolicited opinion guy" but also we've got to call it out, right? What's your move here?

Enjoy this video of a bloke spending a year trying to design and 3d print a replica of a big whistle from a steam train. choo choo www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCrr...

(Ben) House is in the middle, along from our Street (Rob)

Great to catch League One champions @lincolncityfc.bsky.social celebrating with an open bus parade in the city today! #lincolncity #ballballballfootyfootyfooty

For those interested in Historical Games Studies (and adjacent fields) the University of Luxembourg are offering what looks to be an amazing Doctoral Researcher in Historical Game Studies position. 🗃️ www.uni.lu/en/jobs/doct...

Super cool - high hopes for this production. All in for this speculative game design trend

A nice time today at the Play for the Planet network conference in York. (www.york.ac.uk/yesi/network...) Love making a zine page as a way to round off events!

Extremely @ben.kirman.org coded.

It's a shame they killed alt.CHI because I'm already thinking about how to write an adversarial paper that only exists to fuck with the ACM AI slopcast generator.

Great opportunity for one of you nerds! I love working with theatre people, it is a joy

This is such a great idea for a game - i half-made a prototype of a game that uses expired/surplus covid tests, but didn't get very far. this looks way better.

the first paper from my phd project is now out and i'm presenting it tomorrow morning at #chi2026! it's an explorative design project about supporting players' rule experimentation through game design. you can read/download from this link dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Made a new game: "It's (almost) as if you are playing a board game". It's a board game about playing games, almost. It's on Itch, BGG, and there are more details on my website. benkirman.itch.io/its-almost-a... ben.kirman.org/projects/its... #boardgames #newrelease #indiegames #aprilseriousday

@dracos.co.uk thanks for the suggestion to visit Penge this morning. I've never been, but a pleasant rush of memories of weird and funny books. I owe you a pint of large and a woodbine!

Horse Magnifier (@sketbordcat.bsky.social) "game where you magnify horses" Free - Browser: warpdoor.com/2026/03/28/h...

it often takes the water guys a few attempts before they find a vein

Great to finally sit down and play Twelve Years at Sea, by @maxmoon.bsky.social . My first crew, two captains and two pacifists on a raft, spent 3 years lost in the fae mists, fled from a dragon, finally discovered a marshy island and immediately got eaten by crocodiles. 10/10 🐊