I cut my thumb open pretty badly this weekend, whilst cutting up old magazines for collage materials. I bled onto this cut up magazine, which I figure is as good a reason as any to treat that as a writing prompt. kierancutting.substack.com/p/a-prompt-a...

When I checked in the doctor was ‘on time’. Last time it said he was running fifteen minutes late and it ended up being thirty minutes late. He was lovely to talk to, though. Exactly the doctor you’d want to squeeze your balls to see what’s going on. kierancutting.substack.com/p/every-time...

I have been absolutely VACANT from bluesky so OOPS hi again, I'm kieran, I'm a writer and designer, and over the past three years or so I've finally built a writing habit that is LASTING! I'd love if you'd take a read of how I taught myself to just fucking write...

I hate when recipes tell me to enjoy as an instruction. Like, I love the written fluff before the recipe, but if we're in the recipe itself I need no-fluff all-instruction. Enjoy is not an instruction!

oh no I'm feeling the urge to make an anthology zine again someone stop me

I was super excited to see that this year's @goldencobra.bsky.social theme is "Connection and Community". I feel like I mostly make social technology games, so this is my jam. Here's a game I made a few years ago to help end the year with purpose. kierancutting.co.uk/blog/a-game-...

The cold dark months can be hard. Your friends with seasonal depression are about to really struggle, and you're going to find it a lot harder to leave the house. That's why you need to start playing The Roasties. Because there's nothing roast potatoes won't solve. xenolight.itch.io/the-roasties

Right now, the ?game? described as "holy shit","absolutely incredible work", and also "I don't understand this" is part of a FREE bundle with 146 other zines. That's crazy! You could have so many zines! (go ?play? Chaos Magic omg) xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

We have a FREE bundle of 147 zines from 63 creators (including us 🧡), and you can get it all through September 14th! itch.io/b/3247/free-...

Completely fascinated by this piece. I love the way it invites you to do deep exploration – both within the text and outside the text – without actually *demanding* anything of you.

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

We’re at the Corn Exchange in Leeds today - come pick up some books we recently brought back from the land of the paper-freaks and the book perverts

We're thinking about developing a playtesting recruitment service, bringing together our expertise as researchers and games designers. Designers: would you use it? What are your current struggles with recruiting play testers or getting playtest feedback? #games #ttrpg #gamesdesign

Speculative praxis

@kierancutting.bsky.social giving the last talk of the day, ‘Rituals for building futures’

Today I’m speaking at Multiplatform on our work using games as part of “speculative praxis” - using creativity to experimentally act towards creating more possibilities (for a better future). Then, later today, I’ll be hosting an exclusive pop up of A NEW VERSION OF THE MUSEUM OF LOST FUTURES?!

Another launch from me today, just before Easter! Originally written at the height of LOST FUTURES but never released, Dreaming Spires is a psyschogeographic sort-of-true story about healing by revisiting the parts of ourselves that we cut off. xenolight.itch.io/dreaming-spi...

It's devlog Monday! SCREW THAT needed a little bit of context adding to the little game. oliverbates.itch.io/screw-that/d... #indiegames #devlog #solorpg #ttrpg

Free print at home copies of Meal Deal can be found on @itch.io here oliverbates.itch.io/meal-deal

two days left to get all my stuff on itch for just $2! itch.io/s/150744/eve...

There’s something coming soon for those of you who were fans of LOST FUTURES…

Fun fact about Chaos Magic, is that whilst it's a 'game', there actually IS a game that I wrote a while back that shares an opening segment with it. So please enjoy this incredibly beautiful character sheet. I'll definitely finish this sometime soon. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

Finally getting round to editing a zine from four years ago...

Right now, every issue of LOST FUTURES - worlds that could have been, should have been, or weren't - is available for $2, in a bundle with my new zine/game Chaos Magic. itch.io/s/150744/eve...

Finally getting round to editing a zine from four years ago...

Fun fact about Chaos Magic, is that whilst it's a 'game', there actually IS a game that I wrote a while back that shares an opening segment with it. So please enjoy this incredibly beautiful character sheet. I'll definitely finish this sometime soon. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

My small disabled-led social justice transcription biz branding is still very much geared towards supporting researchers as we do that spectacularly HOWEVER! I am so keen to support more authors who dictate manuscripts (especially disabled ones) Email us for a quote? #Romancelandia #BookSky

Inside me there are two wolves: dirty commie organiser who does not believe in proletarian shifts towards business ownership, and the other is a small business owner and massive fucking nerd about commerce

An opportunity for game players-, makers-, thinkers- and organizers to come together on 11 July to ask: ** What is the Antifascist Game? ** Organized by RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab in conjunction with this year's Games Transformed Festival Please join us! reimaginingvalue.ca/antifagame/

Save the date. 12/07/25 #gamestransformed #gamesfestival #radicalgames

Right now, every issue of LOST FUTURES - worlds that could have been, should have been, or weren't - is available for $2, in a bundle with my new zine/game Chaos Magic. itch.io/s/150744/eve...

"I can’t answer all your questions, I barely know what’s happening here. It's probably interesting if you like The Beginner's Guide, Melancholy Island, A Collection of Improving Exercises, or lyric games." xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

"I can’t answer all your questions, I barely know what’s happening here. It's probably interesting if you like The Beginner's Guide, Melancholy Island, A Collection of Improving Exercises, or lyric games." xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

There's just one hour left in the Chaos Magic launch sale. Right now, you can get my new lyric game for absolutely free. That means when you hate it, you don't have to feel bad about yourself! xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

"Age verification" laws are actually "upload your ID or get your face scanned to access every website, ending anonymity and associating your identity with everything you do online" laws and if more people understood that they would not be down for this authoritarian nonsense

There's just one hour left in the Chaos Magic launch sale. Right now, you can get my new lyric game for absolutely free. That means when you hate it, you don't have to feel bad about yourself! xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

And also Ferris Bueller's Day Off. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic #lyricgame #sologame #marginalia

Chaos Magic continues the trend of being a not-game, and is a love letter to The Beginner's Guide, exploring queer desire, coming of age, and the cost of centring yourself in someone else's story. There's also quite a lot of games theory. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic #zine #ttrpg #queer

The Beginner's Guide is a 2015 game by Davey Wreden, developer of The Stanley Parable. The Beginner's Guide is not a game. The Beginner's Guide is a not-game where you walk through a series of games created by a friend of the narrator called Coda. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

Do you like lyric games and meta games? Did you think the problem with The Beginner's Guide / The Stanley Parable was that they didn't have enough layers? Do you like late-night Wikipedia binges that only make sense to you? My new 'game' is free for one day only: xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

The creator of Severance was directly influenced by The Stanley Parable when writing the show, and to me, the blueprint of The Stanley Parable is plain in Severance to see. bit.ly/4jbPxNZ

Really like the point being made here about how it's exciting to see (relatively) smaller games being cited as a creative influence in other mediums, and it not just being an example of a straight adaptation

The Beginner's Guide is a 2015 game by Davey Wreden, developer of The Stanley Parable. The Beginner's Guide is not a game. The Beginner's Guide is a not-game where you walk through a series of games created by a friend of the narrator called Coda. xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

Do you like lyric games and meta games? Did you think the problem with The Beginner's Guide / The Stanley Parable was that they didn't have enough layers? Do you like late-night Wikipedia binges that only make sense to you? My new 'game' is free for one day only: xenolight.itch.io/chaos-magic

📢 Calling all residents of #Shieldfield Newcastle! 📢 Dwellbeing Shieldfield seek your thoughts and opinions on how to improve #PublicSpaces in Shieldfield. 🧵 1/3

Really enjoyed today's episode of The Detective and the Log Lady @mikemuncer.bsky.social. I really loved rewatching FWWM last night and how some scenes just stay with you—The Pink Room, the "faster and faster' scene, Philip Jeffries—I'm so excited to hearing you get to The Return!

It’s my birthday and I think this is a truly wonderful collection of things to be given. 🎉🥳

Thanks again @ftmou69.bsky.social for taking time to think & write about my life & art. Includes mentions of collabs w/ @averyhill.bsky.social @colossivepress.bsky.social @kushkomikss.bsky.social & even my tik tok vid @foylesforbooks.bsky.social You can read @ ftmou.blogspot.com/2025/01/patr...

Hello! I’m a freelance researcher and transcriber, with a particular interest in social class, participatory research methods, using lived experience within policy making, and UK employment rights. I’m on the lookout for new work in 2025, and can be contacted at [email protected]

hello game people of Bluesky! I'm designing something at the moment with a set collection/card-drafting mechanic, where the more you have of one set, you gain an ability. can you show me some good examples of games that have done that - and ideally, how their cards visually reference this?