Hello there! For my first post on this here social network, here's a new thing I've been working on, a live sampler where you scrub through the sound by pulling a string. It has a filter!

"Dead Wife Detective Simulator" (Mercy (2026)) - Episode 596 @theweeklyplanet.bsky.social #weeklyplanetpod

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

Gabby Bates (my sister) released her song For Jack this week. Check it out on your streaming or digital music platform of choice! distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

🚨 Our new investigation out today reveals how thousands of people who've taken their bosses to employment tribunals & won, never got paid, even after they approached the government for help. This has serious implications for the Employment rights bill. www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

GAME IDEA SPEC OPS: THE LINE AS A COSY GAME

GAME IDEA YOU HAVE TO LOCATE, PICK UP, AND CARRY ALL THOSE TINY LITTLE BROKEN-OFF PIECES OF STYROFOAM YOU EVER PUT OUT INTO THE WORLD IN YOUR LIFE

Signatures needed! Uber and Lyft drivers are on the precipice of a wage theft settlement and need to push CA AG Bonta to represent what Uber/Lyft really stole, not just a token amount. Please sign and share this petition. www.drivers-united.org/wage-theft-s...

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

It’s been a blast being part of this Zine bundle! Check it out!

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-...

GAME IDEA CantBan A KanBan board simulator that can't.

Come play LoserLane at the Art Gallery of Ontario tomorrow? Watch out world, we're rolling into the museums! marieflanagan.com/loserlane ago.ca/events/video...

For ICT4S 2024 we hosted a zine jam to make a space for ideas and work about tech and sustainability. The result was Liminal Excavations. We've uploaded to itch.io (oliverbates.itch.io/liminal-exca...) and HCommons (works.hcommons.org/records/fh0v...). #zine #sustainability #ict4s #tech #academia

You read this. It reminded me of a workshop I used to run with clients, designed to push back against endless techno-optimism. One of the biggest elements was getting people to realize that not all bad actors are external. I should revisit that... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Hob's Barrow is still 50% off for 2 more days!

Now working in browser with pesky iPhone touchscreens. #BUGSQUASHED

Round D6 - a tiny game prototype experimenting with the physics of a D6 and my inner chaos. Made hastily with p5.js. oliverbates.itch.io/round-d6 #indiedev #freegames #itch.io #dice

sorry you're experiencing record breaking temperatures and drought. Have you tried deleted some of photos of your grandmother about it?

We’ll be hosting GachaCon 2026, a hybrid academic conference on gacha games with Genshin Impact as the theme, on 12–13 February 2026 at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. 🇭🇰🇨🇳 Call for Papers: tinyurl.com/gachaconcfp

I just released PAGER on Steam! It's a 1-bit Severance-like horror game. Please RT & leave a review. It really helps 🤍 Thank you! :)

Academic folks, how are you LLM-proofing (or otherwise) your research methods modules? I'm finding this a desperately difficult activity. But we need to teach students how to read papers so they have the skills to be able to question the LLMs :( Open to suggestions! #academicsky #ukhe

@jessemakkonen.com the art and sound design on Without a Dawn is incredible. The game is beautiful and resonated my experiences of insomnia and anxiety. I was hooked. Thanks @dannyodwyer.bsky.social for the recommendation on NoClip Crewcast @noclipvideo.bsky.social

Let the purge of the mid 00s commence.

Announcing the new journal: "Historical Materialism: Workers and Capital" We've launched a new Historical Materialism project with a CfP for the first issue. Abstracts due 31st of October Full details and the new website here: workersandcapital.historicalmaterialism.org/index.php/jo...

so ready to do some strollplaying on my evening walk!

Orientation was born after experiencing the "mourning walk" (hosted by my friend Minna) and conversations about the collapse of big tech. Orientation encourages playful outdoor exploration, communication, and mapping skills that might be useful in an emergent future. #zines #indiegames #free

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

UK scholars 👇

New York, baby ❤️ Please share with any NYC queer data nerds. kevinguyan.com/2025/07/15/r...

📣 Friends, fans, enemies! Has #SavetheAI impacted you in any way? Got our stickers on your laptop and our posters at your water fountains? We would love to hear your thoughts. Please take 10 minutes to complete this anonymous survey and share it with others: cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/for...

Flip That is taking form. It’s the never asked for sequel to Screw That @ben.kirman.org threatened the world with. Prepare yourself for another little experimental game.

bloody eck

Orientation is being released today! oliverbates.itch.io/orientation It's a game/zine about learning to map in a world where the map apps we took for granted are no longer accessible. #indiegames #zines #rpg

Tickled this morning by “The player wearing the thickest socks go first” whilst exploring different sizes of cards thanks @samillingworth.com and @pfwgames.bsky.social

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.

Me, a rube: governments procure a technology when a specific need is identified. UK: “lol, no”

Dear walkers, wanderers, drifters, loiterers, & ... psychogeographers. I have attempted to build my very first feed for psychogeography. You can find it at: bsky.app/profile/did:... It's a work in progress. Please do let me know if you would like to be removed from or added to it.

So... here's why I havent posted much. Been writing a book! Thrilled to share The Feminist Art of Walking is out on Pluto October 20th www.plutobooks.com/978074535100... Thanks so much to everyone who has helped make this happen, I am excited and a bit scared for you to read it

We are finally ready to announce that EMF 2026 will happen on July 16-19, 2026, at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire. Expect more updates soon as we start spinning up the organisation again.

We're looking for freelance devs with aligned politics to work on some upcoming projects (TypeScript, Next.js, Python, WordPress) at £275/day. If you're interested and available to start in the next month, email [email protected] with a short intro, relevant experience and project links.

Please join us for the Co-Constructing the Future of Digital Intimacy workshop at #CSCW2025! (with @lucyq.bsky.social, @allismc.bsky.social, @dianafreed.bsky.social, @jevan.bsky.social, @eredmil1.bsky.social, @zahrastardust.bsky.social, @mirandawei.bsky.social ++) futureofdigitalintimacy.github.io

Metahorror Therapy Session: Take control of a psychologist in a mysterious never-ending therapy session. meiri.itch.io/metahorror-t...

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"

never underestimate the capacity for people who count things for a living to forget that counting things is a social practice even better, get the computer to count things for you

The 1 Hour or Less Jam kicks off TOMORROW through Aug 11th! Join @diceexploder.com as Dice Exploder runs a game jam inspired by their hectic schedules! #TTRPG #RPGs #games itch.io/jam/1-hour-o...

the five rules of comedy

Musing on manifesto titles for some work on energy management. Abolish hoary energy management - AHEM Feels good.