Voted in this, but it hurts! Had 2 stand out favourite indie games this year & it was hard to choose between. The Drifter is now by far my favourite point+click of all time, but Seance of Blake Manor surprised me with how addicted & excited I was, talking about it to family constantly! Voted latter.

I am begging games writers in 2026 to stop talking about point and click like it's a dead/dormant genre currently being resurrected by whatever thing you've just noticed

Let’s take back control from the almighty algorithm… We choose every game by hand, playing them first and backing what deserves attention Sometimes that means big names. More often it means the smallest, strangest, most niche projects you’ve never heard of All chosen by real humans who care!

Four games that defined my 2025. (The Drifter, Seance of Blake Manor, Is this seat taken?, Old Skies. If I was allowed a fifth it would be Unforeseen Incidents).

1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but 2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but 3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So 4. Now the LLM code points to malware.

Got son a subscription to @debugmag.com for Christmas. Was great because he didn’t know about it & loves indie games/studios, also whole family play games so we’ve all enjoyed taking a look! When I saw this page I remembered it was a post by @kanaratron.bsky.social that made me aware of Debug 😊

Happy Hogswatch to all who celebrate. Ho! Ho! Ho!

From c. 3,600 years ago, an ancient Egyptian bead in the form of a hedgehog curled-up in a ball! 🦔❤️ Blue faience, c. 1985 -1650 BC. National Museum of Scotland www.nms.ac.uk/search-our-c... 📷 by me

Sorry, I was about to go to sleep and then this arrived and now I’m on high #DuvetKnowItsChristmas alert

I've got to be honest, we may as well call it a night #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

Just finished playing Foolish Mortals by @inklingwood.bsky.social (Christmas present!). Great game, really enjoyed it! Some pretty obscure (old style p+c) puzzles in places but I didn’t have to consult a walkthrough enough to spoil enjoyment of the game 😊 Rarest achievement was post credits scene.

Some absolutely top notch orange cattery here

We Now Know How Much Faster Clocks Will Run on Mars: the planet’s weaker gravity means time passes faster than here spectrum.ieee.org/time-on-mars... by @cqchoi.com for @spectrum.ieee.org

Family trip to RHS Glow light trail at RHS Bridgewater Gardens this evening. 1st time we’ve tried out RHS Glow & it was great, I think we’ll be back! Instead of brash & noisy it was elegant & relaxing, highlighting & enhancing the gardens rather than detracting. #rhsbridgewater #rhsglow #rhsgardens

Toppers Games. This was the toy shop in the centre of Chester when I was a kid. It’s long gone now but lives on in the carrier bag that still holds the family Christmas tinsel! A nice memento and reminder every year. I remember going in to buy marbles! Was full of character. #chester #therows

Recently, as the editor of a journal, I've received *two* different papers with different sets of authors, both citing nonexistent papers where the author was ... me.

Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it

This report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

I had a bit of time near Whitworth Art Gallery today so took the opportunity to see their current Turner exhibition 😊 He painted these dramatic architectural gems when he was only 19 years old! I love the little details included of people going about their lives. #whitworthartgallery #manchester

Have you begun your investigations into the disappearance of Miss Deane? If not now could be the time as The Séance of Blake Manor is 25% off until 5 January as part of the Steam Winter Sale. store.steampowered.com/app/1395520/...

Old Skies is 20% off during the Steam Winter Sale! Journey through seven time periods of New York history in our critically acclaimed time-travel adventure game, which was named Best Adventure Game of 2025 by PC Gamer! store.steampowered.com/app/1346360/...

This is obscene. Why can't other politicians say that? The 25 richest families are collectively $358.7 billion richer than a year ago, with a combined fortune totaling $2.9 trillion.

Auditors and new officials have been turning over stones at the body in charge of Teesworks. Turns out the Tees Valley Combined Authority has been lending hundreds of millions of £ to connected orgs, without loan agreements, and those orgs are now struggling to repay as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...

Hi, we don’t use genAI in any phase of production ESPECIALLY CONCEPTING because doing so would defeat the purpose and role of concepting. Ok bye!

Placeholder assets should scream 'placeholder' at you.

Just finished replaying @valvesoftware.com Half-life. I first played it when it was first released, prior to having children. My teenage son has now played them all (including Alyx)! Yes, I’m getting old! 😆 It was him that inspired me to replay.

Mist clinging to the park in the low winter sun this morning. Beautiful!

Well well well - the desperation of cruel people trying to make us believe they just have “legitimate concerns” has sure been illuminating - while the grotesque misogyny of power remains , they obsessively bully those who fail to hate trans people

📢 One of our NION Women collective responds to the exclusion of trans women from Labour's Women’s Conference. Read our latest blog: notinourname.org.uk/trans-women-excluded-labour-womens-conference/

I dunno. 95% versus 3% seems like *quite* a clear consensus to me.

17 for me. I don’t remember ever using a fax machine (1), I never had an AOL e-mail address (5), and I’ve never used a waterbed (17).

I think the fundamental gap here is that non-creative people think that creative people make things for the end product, when in fact it’s the act of creation and not the end point that makes it worthwhile.

This is actually a MP3 player. The tape does turn as you play, but is just a digital visual display mimicking a cassette.

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Dragging terminally ill people from their death beds to appear in court to plead their case is objectively cruel. Should peers cause the #AssistedDyingBill to fail, it would be unimaginably devastating for terminally ill people and their families. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

If you randomly have this kids 2016 Barcelona kit in the back of your cupboard and can save Christmas in my house please get in touch 🤞

So, we have news... Season 3 is in the works. We have been working very hard on it. Wishlist it now! #indigames #gamedev #adventuregames store.steampowered.com/app/3990360/...

Really looking forward to having to prove my sex repeatedly in a restaurant, in the event I want to do something outrageous like order food or go to the lav

If an old dog with sausage fingers (me) can write alt-text for all their image posts then it can't be that hard.

Today was our 2nd day of receiving Christmas cards through the post this year. 2 of the cards were an identical design, so we have 4 cards so far, 2 of which are the same. Interestingly, although the design is the same the back of the card isn’t, they were bought to support different organisations.

Relatable Corvid

“I question the energy that is being dedicated to harming vulnerable people and children rather than tackling the much bigger and very real risks facing women and girls.” A Brownie parent tackles Girlguiding banning trans girls: “It is an attack on children.” www.independent.co.uk/voices/girlg...

Too many members of the House of Lords, who are fundamentally opposed to the Bill, have been trying to time it out. This undermines genuine amendments to improve the Bill. Peers have every right to oppose it, but not to employ disingenuous tactics to stop it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Woodcraft Folk issued “statement on the exclusion of trans children from Girlguiding” & it’s spot on. If you want somewhere inclusive, intelligent & thought provoking for your kids then #woodcraftfolk is the place to go. Both my kids enjoyed it, 1 still volunteers. woodcraft.org.uk/woodcraft-fo...

Girl Guiding and the Women’s Institute have announced that they will now exclude trans women and girls after legal threats – but organisations can and should remain inclusive: https://goodlaw.social/cpfx

Wes Streeting insists that NHS health records are not for sale. But handing them to a company like Palantir shatters any chance of public trust, warns our data lead Duncan McCann: https://goodlaw.social/i1o0

Are you even an artist if you don't take reference photos of every gross thing you find in the woods?

Where are you getting your coffee tomorrow ?

The Roundworld year for 2026 shall be known as [FX Drum Roll] : The Year of the Curious Squid. Artwork by Discworld artist Paul Kidby.