The problem in writing a book where sad things happen a lot... is that sad things happen A LOT and people think about sad things a bunch and oh no, you're writing chapter after chapter of misery and it somehow feels wrong to insert a dumb comedy chapter. It is just despair all the way down. #writing

I loved Expedition 33 and I hope it wins game of the year. I think it deserves it. It was great and it's great to see a narrative game handle interesting themes again, specifically ones I really like. The issue is that fans of the game are awful and insane and embarrassing.

This time of year is always super weird because it gets so immediately dark while still being kind of warm. It's barely gone half past five! Anyway, I'm sat in Hyde Park by myself reading, killing time before a date.

Dating life update: everything is bad. Something inside me hurts. It twists and drags everything with it into a painful dense pip. The only solace is it is another experience to fuel my writing, another part of me to remove and trap in a book somewhere. I just wish I were a better writer.

I think I'm going through a big juicy bout of depression right now. The positive is that it is giving me all sorts of writing material and the urge to reinvent my video style. The negative is the great malaise that makes me want to do nothing but wallow. #writing

Dating can be great! Sometimes you meet an incredible person that you want to talk to forever. Then further down the line you're at work nursing a hangover worrying if you managed to ruin everything by being too neurotic during your most recent date.

At the start of this week I finished writing a chapter that I ended up really liking. Solidly tight. Great stuff. Anyway, the rest of this week I've been writing a chapter that is probably utter garbage. I just need the first draft done so I can then finally fix everything. #writing

Recently finished Katabasis by R. F. Kuang and it is... okay. A bit disappointing compared to Babel and the whole "Academia is hell" concept seems to manifest mostly as the main character walking around empty plains observing things and sometimes thinking about uni. Maybe just read Dante's Inferno?

Imagine you're at a writers' retreat with the lads and you're all showing off a draft after dinner and then your mate's girlfriend goes here is the novel Frankenstein which I just wrote

I made a new video! It's a quick and fun board game review of an equally quick and fun game: The Crew! The simple act of collaborative trick taking becomes something incredibly mind bending as you and your friends have a great time solving puzzles. Delicious puzzles. youtu.be/oAO79F_9n70?...

Please! I have videos to make, I have things to write... I had plans for the year! Why must two indie big shots absolutely blow out my back end of calendar like this?

"Then, the wooden bat swung down and crushed his skull." I fear my attempt at a lighter and more fun toned novel has got away from me as I end a chapter with the POV having their face stoved in. It's not funny "ha ha", but it might just be something else... #writing

Just writing some of the worst prose I've ever written. Just day after day, writing terrible paragraph after terrible paragraph. Each line hurts me. I'm suffering, I'm drowning, it is not going well. I've never been happier. I love writing. #writing

I recently read both Strange Pictures and Strange Houses by Uketsu - the former is really enthralling with good twists, the latter is just kind of bad. Give the first a go for an interesting idea executed well! You could get through it in a day or two! A nice breezy bit of horror.

Well, I know what I'm doing in September. I had hoped for a shadow drop, but in literally 2 weeks also works for me. So excited for Silksong.

Finally released my new video about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - it is honestly outstanding and feels like it was made for me. All those years of chasing the dragon may finally have been fulfilled! It's just really delightful! @expedition33.bsky.social youtu.be/GdXKRUOmdoo?...

I've been having writer's block on a chapter for a bit and yesterday managed to break through it and get some words and a bit of direction down. Maybe some goods words, even. Turns out it didn't save and now I'm faced with the same wall, and no memory of what I wrote. Gah! #writing

My latest read is Norwegian Wood by Murakami - yes, I'm apparently entering that phase of my life. It is a line I walk carefully before becoming the worst type of man. It was an interesting read, very quick, at times haunting with the suddeness of it all, but then, sometimes life is sudden.

It's my birthday today! I turn 32, even though I think I've been saying I'm that for about 8 months already... I'll be spending it travelling back from a surfing holiday in Ireland with my friends where we also played loads of board games! Good times.

One of my coworkers has this annoying tendency to go "what's the point as nothing will change" when it comes to caring about things, to which i often lose patience and go with "we could all just kill ourselves then, couldn't we, then?" I have no time for nihilistic politics.

Another evening of live music! This time it was seeing Hobo Johnson at Scala. A good time to be had, and one of the opening acts, Really Big Really Clever, is now also on my to watch list.

I've been putting off writing the next chapter of my book as I feel like I don't really know what it's doing. Wrote a small plan with ideas, felt good... then started writing in the opposite direction. #writing

10 Years Ago, I Died. (Content warning: suicide, mental health, self harm)

Spent a whole day recording and re-recording audio for the video I'm working on. Just crouched under a blanket in the middle of a heatwave. The thing is, it still sounds a bit whack and I'm going to go insane. Please don't make me go back under the blanket. I've got no liquid left!

Just finished This Is How You Lose The Time War by @amalelmohtar.com & @maxgladstone.bsky.social and it was fantastic! An incredibly unique book with a fun spy vs spy idea that establishes two characters very well!

I'm enjoying writing my current novel, and I recently had some great and positive feedback on my first three chapters! But currently I keep swinging between thinking it is going well, and suddenly wondering if I've lost the tone entirely and the whole thing should be drowned. #writing

A recent read of mine was this collection of short stories by Harlan Ellison. I skipped the foreword, for obvious reasons, but there were some really interesting things in here - one even made me cry on the tube! Different style of writing than I'm used to, but it made my brain fizz.

We've gone from Horse Armour DLC is bad in Oblivion, to Horse Girl Racing is good in Umamusume. If I had the time, I'd make a script that looks into this. It's a great parallel

Apparently Starmer wants 7.5 million people (10% of the UK's total population) "trained in AI" by 2030... whatever that means. Working in "Cyber" has hit new levels of confused dad. Or we're going to be plugged into those big goo vats like in The Matrix, being used for food for our new robot lords.

Just finished Clair Obscura Expedition 33, I think I picked the sad ending because good lord and I a weepy boy. Honestly, an exceptional game with themes that felt made for me. This game was made for me. It was so good!

I made a new video! Back either a board game review of Star Realms Rise of Empire from @wisewizardgames.bsky.social ! As someone who loves Star Realms, this felt like such a delightful treat of a game. youtu.be/I4ratNMMLZs?...

The UK really is that elderly relative who lost thousands to some AI scam of their son saying there in trouble, please send Crypto/iTunes vouchers. Except it's like... anywhere between 5 and 10% of the countries GDP.

Another great night of music seeing Wet Leg and Mary in the Junkyard. Excited to have seen Mary in the Junkyard again, they're probably my favourite up and coming band.

Wee woo, wee woo, new video alert! It's about @blueprincegame.bsky.social, and in the style of Blue Prince here is a puzzle. Something will happen if you go to the video below, I've already said what. Oooh, a real brain scratcher. youtu.be/d1kIbB8vvqE?...

Happy to be book writing again, but I've very rapidly hit the old snag of trying to write conversation that is both thematic, interesting and not just... shit. From a confident chapter 1 to a wobbling Chapter 2. Oh no. #writing

Starmer/Labour's latest dog whistle statement is awful. "A country of strangers" is a statement designed to whip up racists and build a sense of disquiet and othering of those around them. Truly vile stuff.

Just saw Sorry live at the Electric Ballroom. A great show! The first opener was... rogue, but the second, RIP Magic, and then Sorry themselves brought great energy. God I love music.

I have finally finished a work project so I can start writing my next novel idea! At last, back on the writing grindstone. I immediately feel like I've forgotten how to write, and have hit a block. Oh no.

I recently went to the Hiroshige exhibit that just opened up at The British Museum and it was so good! Bought a print and a very fancy art book. My cat son would prefer me to pay attention to him, rather than delicious art.

I'm officially tapping out of Blue Prince. There's only so many hours one can spend hoping for the correct sequence of events to pop out of the random number generator before I stop having fun. The first half is absolutely great, the "post-game" is a lesson of frustration.

Having finished a video, I could go back to Blue Prince and... I sort of love it, but it's also one of the most frustrating things ever. I've "finished" it, but i have no sense of what lies beyond, despite there obviously being something more. I'm stuck in the same rooms, but now there's a gift shop

I have a new video out! This one is about Monster Hunter Wilds and how I grapple between my love of the series and the slightly awkward additions brought in by this game. Check it out! youtu.be/BLpVrIVJj6Y?...

I've had this video game idea in my head for a while now, and keep toying with the idea of trying to make it... but I also feel like the last thing I need to do is pick up ANOTHER creative project hobby (Novel writing & video making being the two currently)

A year and a half ago I went on ONE date with a girl and it didn't work out. She then sent a ceaseless tirade but eventually faded into the fog. Anyway, out of nowhere she's just poster a wild comment on my video. She's found me again!

I really want to sink my teeth into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 but I've got so many projects that I need to put my nose to the grindstone on first! Finish Monster Hunter video Finish Blue Prince and do a video Board game video And I'm meant to be social and try and form some kind of relationship?

I really want to start writing my next book idea (I'm fairly sure my first isn't going to go anywhere now...) but I can't until I finish a project at work, but that project is the most mind numbing data entry in the world! I just want to go back to writing a book on the sly, not... actual work!

I was meant to spend my morning editing, before heading out for a day of boozing, instead I "accidentally" spent it having a dance with my cat, Jeremy Clawbyn. My arms have been gnawed.

I had a lovely day playing more of the Star Realms legacy board game - Rise of Empire. I managed to break my losing streak and its hotting up! A very exciting game!

Just finished reading Displeasure Island by @abeewords.bsky.social and it was an absolute delight! Very fun, very silly - like reading an Ace Attorney game, but with more Millenial tragedy (the tragedy of being a millenial). Would recommend!

Just finished my latest video script for my review of Monster Hunter Wilds - it's 6,500 words long! A better writer would edit this heavily down to 4,000 words knowing no one is going to listen beyond the first 700... but I have lots of complicated thoughts about the game! It'll be interesting!