A blessing on folks that have out of office messages like "I'm out of the office until X. Bye." with no apologies, no alternative contact, and especially no promise to "read your email when I return". ✨

Got this little bugger working again after ~15 years. He's gone the colour of a pub ceiling and mainly speaks french, but his ears still work! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag

I only know Mayday through the card sleeves that I will now never buy. But the pattern of deception here is cartoon villain stuff. Getting customers to "return" faulty items to the next person who buys one...

A neat little quiz game: Is a headline homophobia from the 80s-90s or transphobia from the 2010s-2020s? Because it's all the same bullshit, repackaged for the hate du jour haveigotphobiaforyou.com

CFP for a special issue of Eludamos. What are antifascist games? Proposal deadline is December 19. eludamos.org/index.php/el...

This made me think of the next level for your mean dice: carving them out of cheese.

That sinking feeling when you are reading an interesting article and then the screen fades to the popup and you realise that it is on the newsletter platform that hosts and promotes nazis. No, I won't even continue reading for free.

🚀 NEW MAGAZINE ⌨️ Back in the ’80s there were printed mags of BASIC programs to type in, we’ve brought that back but for web pages! 10 amazing games, toys, puzzles and utilities, no coding knowledge needed vole.wtf/doctype/

Just had to ssh into a pumpkin because it was playing amen break too frequently

Decolonisers of Catan (with dice that only roll 7s) #boardgames #catan

I zine-ified Screw That: A Resource Scarcity game this morning. oliverbates.itch.io/screw-that It's a (very) small frustrating game/LARP sort of thing about a future where your plumbing stops working for some reason. #zines #games #indie

Games to play during protests and sit-ins. www.protestgames.org

from the Dog Internet archives. WHAT DO THEY KNOW?

Sometimes dice in tabletop games are a bit "swing-y". I designed and made this full set of dice for people who prefer more consistent results. I call them Mean Dice. benkirman.itch.io/mean-dice #ttrpg #boardgames #dice #gamedesign #statistilols

@boardgamegeek.com was kind enough to let me publish a designer diary for #crossbronxexpressway boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp... @gmtgames.bsky.social

Hunting a vampire in Tragic Castle Obsession, unfortunately my wooden crucifix caught vampirism and enthralled me. Theres a lesson here somewhere. #morkborg #solitarydefilement #solorpg 1d105.itch.io/tragic-castl...

Three (3) new postdoctoral game studies positions are now open for applications. These are related to the exit phase (2026-27) of the CoE-GameCult, and positions will situated in the Tampere University Game Research Lab, COMS/ITC, Tampere University. tuni.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index...

Looking forward to this event on social justice in tabletop games. Come see/play some games (inc Billionaires and Guillotines, Daybreak, Molly House) and explore the topic, it would be cool to see you there (London 14/11) www.tickettailor.com/events/kings... #gamedesign #gamesresearch

i did it you can stop thinking about it, i just solved The Male Loneliness Epidemic downpour.games/~doruk/solut...

Walked past a bunch of film students on their way to a lecture, and thought it was cute how many of them were wearing movie t shirts. Dune, Jaws, etc. Chuckled to myself and then realised I'm wearing my "Escape the Dark Sector" board game shirt on the way to my teaching...

CÖRK BØRD is "a MÖRK BORG compatible game of police procedural horror". (I don't know much about it, but what a name!) www.kickstarter.com/projects/all...

Next Thursday (September 11th), join @florencesn.bsky.social & myself in discussing #game archaeology and speculative #fiction in relation to my latest novel! The presentation starts at 6 PM at Village Bookstore in Leeds (UK): >> villagebooks.co/blogs/blog/w... <<

Age caught up with me and I've joined glasses gang. I wasn't prepared for the weird pageantry vibes of the opticians. Like a medical coronation.

york folks, i'm starting to run weekly workshops about alternative, low-tech digital tools. running the first, trial session monday next week. come by, play and make a zine!! sign-up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/make-and-b...

bloody eck

The compulsory scam-awareness training uses as an example phishing email of "You are getting a raise", and assures me that my employers would never ever send me such an email.

This week at fractals.coop we’re launching our new service: Games for research, engagement, and impact. Want to turn your research into an engaging and impactful experience? We bring games design, play and immersion. You bring the research. fractals.coop/blog/games-f...

Me, Caleb, and @kierancutting.bsky.social have been working to evolve Meal Deal from research through design artefact to a something we might sell. Find Caleb and enjoy the latest(ish) version! Sadly kieran and I can’t be there this year. Og version is here: oliverbates.itch.io/meal-deal

I feel like you could replace "AI coding tools" with a lot of things and the graph would look the same - "Refactoring Codebase", "Using new Javascript framework", "Switching IDE to Dark Mode", "Making your own Mechanical Keyboard"

Great news from a kickstarter project that's collecting fart noises

Played Thousand Year Old Vampire and was killed in a sunlight-related incident at age 34 ⚰️

Agree with Joe, great to see so many people responding. alt.chi was the heart of culture at CHI and the conference is diminished now.

"Jessica... what fucking size shoe do you have?!" - best line from the horror film Clown in a Cornfield (2025)

Been playing Star Trek: Captain's Chair #boardgame a bunch and really enjoy it. Kind of amazed it exists - rare to see a licenced game so heavy and intricate. Full of deep cut references, but also deeply thematic and joyful in play. Defo not for the faint of heart (rules + play >= 3hrs)

a fun growing collection of creative and weird drum machines for your browser: 10kdrummachines.com (via @b3ta.com )

The countdown for the open call is real. We will close the applications for our 1500 EUR grant on 24th of May! Wanna make a short artsy game about CHEESE and get sweet cheese for it? You got three days left! Share, repost, AND APPLY! #indiedev #gamedev www.goldextra.com/en/briefs-20...

Fun tour of the emerging irreverent voice in UK games magazines in the 80s from Robin Bootes at #BDiGRA25 . Tag urself im a wally/gremlin

Some links from our lightning talk: - Tea Towels, Meal Deal and design outputs: crankandfile.co.uk, - Screw That: oliverbates.itch.io/screw-that, - Our Zine: oliverbates.itch.io/rtgd,

A Zine for #BDiGRA25 by me and @ben.kirman.org about what making games in our research can look and feel like, and us wondering about ways to talk about our research games without measuring and evaluating. I have physical copies and games on my person! oliverbates.itch.io/rtgd

Great to hear from Prasad on his great applied game work at #BDiGRA25 good to see some @iggi-phd.bsky.social folks here!

I was recommended the "ALL THE PROBLEMS IN THIS WORLD" store in Berlin. A really special place filled with a treasure of zines, games, cassette tapes, art books and graphic novels. If I was travelling with a larger bag I could fill it. alltheproblemsinthisworld.com

One of the first things I saw at A MAZE was a performance featuring an Axolotl and Godzilla singing about the health benefits of coconut water, followed by a scene featuring two xenomorphs having sex, so it has set a good benchmark.

I am at #AMAZE2025 (@amazefest.bsky.social) in Berlin this week, then at #BDiGRA2025 in Birmingham next week. Please say hello and show me weird games. As described in recent student feedback I am "surprisingly chill".

Fortune has now picked up on the story of Coca-Cola using AI to make an ad campaign that mistakes my book and translation for The Real Thing fortune.com/2025/05/14/a...

YOU ARE INVITED to come to the next iGGi Conference!!! 🏵️ iGGi CON 2025 🏵️ 🍃 10+11 September, York 🌱 REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! 🌱 Register via our website: 🟩 iggi2025.org 🟩 @york.ac.uk @cs-uoy-research.bsky.social @qmuleecs.bsky.social @qmul-dc.bsky.social #games #gamedev #research #PhD #conference

Colleagues of mine are seeking to commission a graphic novel that captures their research project's findings. Commission value £24,000, application deadline 7th May To apply: Send CV and portfolio to [email protected] Further details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/nuri-k...

Dog biscuit 3d printer www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHiX... www.printables.com/model/123961... Step 7: "Load the gravy into the syringe."

"SCREW THAT!" a free mini game to play at home, about dealing with infrastructure breakdown, from @oliverbates.co.uk oliverbates.itch.io/screw-that