Doing some #PICO8 gamedev streaming on Twitch (first time in a long time!): www.twitch.tv/itsilluminesce

Y’know yeah I gotta work on this, so: I’m really close to a Steam payout so if you like watercolor art or mysteries please buy the artbook DLC for Serialized Killer! store.steampowered.com/app/2697660/...

I've been quoting this prophetic Derrick Comedy sketch from 2010 for pretty much all tech that has a hype cycle bigger than its usefulness to the world. "Never have users had this much control over their blorkiffability." youtu.be/fKXk1VhAuvE?...

It’s that time of year~~ 12 month tarot spread. I know it looks really intimidating but it’s actually very very beginner friendly. #tarot

A 2025 highlight: It's only been two months, but we’ve had over 150 playthroughs of Spooky Stylin' buff.ly/N9po78I! Thank you to everyone who played our game and shared their creations in the comments. Here are a few of our favorites:

Looking forward to a more worker-owned future in 2026. Did you know the creative team behind Koudelka and Shadow Hearts have to make a "spin-off” of their own work because the IP was owned by a pachinko company?

I know a ton of folks have Thoughts™️ around the PayPro censorship bullshit and the Adult Analysis Anthology is the perfect home to articulate them in. Highly recommend pitching, or if you're not a writer, supporting the fundraiser sale when it goes live. AAA is going to stay important in this fight.

New #blog post on a solo art walk I did in November. buff.ly/37BHnS2 #indieweb

Merry Christmas! Something we're very thankful for this year: With a mix of Ko-Fi subscriptions (!!!) and new client work, we have the funds to pay our localizers and are moving forward slowly with making multiple language versions of Terranova. Yay! 🎉

Another learning: You might wanna make a separate research account for your games. Bubble Butt got me looking at a lot of ass-related content on Instagram, and my algorithm has now been irreversibly peached XD 🍑 By the way, it's currently 40% off!

The next Ren'Py game mabbees and I will be working on is brushing up the prototype of The Frontier ( buff.ly/zznsPuk). I'm really looking forward to implementing more complex features—in particular, I have been poking around with Live2D to do subtle animations in the player sprites.

Bubble Butt is currently 40% off on Steam (buff.ly/oZBCLrV ), so it seems like as good a time as any to repost my specific learnings from the game! This is for Ren'Py—if you're working on a visual novel, these might be useful to you, too. 🧵

Steam Winter Sale is here! Get Bubble Butt for 40% off now! store.steampowered.com/app/3725510/... And if you haven't gotten it yet, Terranova is also 40% off! store.steampowered.com/app/1728700/...

Throwback to our games from the Game Creation Society! Matt helped make Battery Assault, a race to collect five batteries with lasers and missiles flying about: buff.ly/Z8RLWx2 I helped make Arbalith, a dungeon-crawling hack-and-slash: buff.ly/iXoTr4E Share yours?

Speaking of giving back, I wanna give a shout out to an awesome human @chrisdeleon.bsky.social -- he was the co-creator of the Game Creation Society, a game club in Carnegie Mellon where mabbees and I met: www.gamecreation.org

mabbees and I helped our friend @solsatelier.bsky.social showcase his game at Tokyo Game Show last year. It was so much fun, and a great bonding and learning experience for us. Go play it here: buff.ly/phQuv7X

I've heard from participants at ggjtokyo.neocities.org — "I want to volunteer, but I don't think I'm skilled enough…" But here's the thing—last year, our volunteers at our Global Game Jam ran reception or helped organize snacks.

@picopicocafe.bsky.social のマスコット (しっぽなしver) を作ってみました！ Made Pico Pico Café’s mascot in glass (no tail ver.)!

I often give back in the form of organizing events, because that seems to be something I'm good at; making an atmosphere that is warm and friendly. I've been running Global Game Jam (ggjtokyo.neocities.org), a 48-hour game hackathon, here in Tokyo for five years.

Something personal I wanna share: As a nonbinary game dev, I always have this sense that I'm never quite where I'm supposed to be. Do I know enough programming to be called a game developer? Is my game "good enough?" Is my art? Is my writing? Do I belong here? 🧵

How’s everyone feeling with Thanksgiving over and the holidays coming up? I've been feeling pensive, myself. Sometimes I wonder if we have to trade a core part of ourselves for the feeling of belonging. Or if belonging is something that's made, over time through the way we connect with others.

How has everyone's NaNoWriMo been? I didn't participate all that much, but I am currently writing an original story. Feel free to share your project, I'll be happy to retweet it!

動物病院に教科書で出てこない言葉を学んだ 「肛門腺」 「肛門腺炎」

10-year-old me writing my Pokémon fanfic at Internet cafés, saved on 3.5” floppy disks that I carry around, so if there was a computer that was running WordPerfect (not Microsoft Word!), I could pop the disks in and work on them.

For those signing up to Let's Games! Tokyo -- if you're having trouble accessing the website or having other technical difficulties, please email us at globalgamejamtokyo at gmail dot com! もしWebサイトがアクセスしづらい場合は、globalgamejamtokyo @ gmail . com を連絡ください！よろしくお願いします。

2026年1月30日（金）〜2月1日（日）は、２０２６のGGJ（グローバルゲームジャム）になります！ ３日間で、ビデオゲーム作りのイベントです。無経験でもOK!一人参加もOK!　国籍、言語、経験を限らず、だれでもゲームを作れると強めに思っております。 12月1日（月）から登録が開始されます！ connpassで登録してください。https://buff.ly/qKvNeXT どんなゲームが作れるのかに興味ありますか？ぜひ、Webサイトをご覧ください！ buff.ly/D132F7P

Important info! Let's Games! Tokyo is running a Global Game Jam site next year during the weekend of Jan 30 to Feb 1. We're an international, bilingual project that believes anyone, regardless of nationality, language, or experience, can MAKE A GAME in 48 HOURS! Links in 🧵

Nothing says “Denny’s” quite like carrot dressing

インフルエンザからだいぶん治りました。皆んなさんの優しい言葉、ありがとうございます。💙 I’m more or less recovered from the flu. Thank you to everyone for your kind words 💚

#picotachi を観にピコピコカフェきております‼︎ 次回(12月？)はぜひ日本pico8er皆で集まりましょう〜。 日程決まったら教えてもらいますね笑　#pico8

Marched at the Tokyo Trans March. Feeling so-so; went masked and took lots of breaks. Just the infusion of community and love I needed. Thank you to everyone who showed up and proved we’re not alone. Trans rights are human rights. 🏳️‍⚧️

Repost if you like queer space pirates and/or hate consumerism (you don’t have to specify which).

やっぱりインフルエンザだ。 Welp, I have the flu.

It’s already the middle of NaNoWriMo, and I’m curious what you’re working on! I spent two NaNoWriMos writing the 100K+ words that are in Terranova (wow, that’s a lot!).

Made your avatars in Spooky Stylin’ yet? Totally missing out if you haven’t! Go fix it here: illuminesce.itch.io/spooky-stylin — it’s part of Tomodachi 8-in-1, which takes place in the same universe as Terranova.

@phoenixsimms.bsky.social reflects on why there was an increasing emphasis in the 2010s on IF storytelling via interfaces like desktops and apps.

Good piece! Also, shoutout to @illuminesce.net’s Interface Drama list that catalogues a bunch of these games that are built around the use of some sort of simulated OS interface: illuminesce.net/interface-dr...

The #SteamAnimalFest starts tomorrow! 🐘🦍🐈🐕🐀🐁🐒🐅🐐🐎🦡🦆🦎🐜🦩🐟🐝🐄 But if you'd like to address the elephant on the beach, you can try out the demo for Elfie: A Sand Plan today! 🏖️ store.steampowered.com/app/3784760/... #IndieGame #GameDev #CozyGame

Spooky Stylin’ was originally a game that we wanted to put into Terranova as a minigame. We thought it would be nice to have something to F around with other than Solitaire, and both of us loved dress-up games.

Growing up, my neighbours were people who loved special effects. Every year they'd put on the most incredible Halloween haunted house in their front yard, like a maze for people to walk through where people would jump out at them, and they would make ghost noises and all.

Spooky Stylin’ has been released! Check it out now on buff.ly/utazSbB, available for free as part of itch.io’s Dollmaker Jam! The sixth game in Tomodachi 8-in-1, Spooky Stylin’ is our Halloween game where you can try out different costumes and outfits and take photos of your character.

Spooky Stylin’ has been released! Check it out now on buff.ly/utazSbB, available for free as part of itch.io’s Dollmaker Jam! The sixth game in Tomodachi 8-in-1, Spooky Stylin’ is our Halloween game where you can try out different costumes and outfits and take photos of your character.

It’s Halloween y’all - and you know what time it is — DRESS UP TIME! 🎃 Matt & I loved dressing up so much we even made a game about it: buff.ly/HP6VAE5

Happy (late) Día del Eggbug, in which we drink to remember our friends we made on cohost dot com. It was a website.

おめでとうー！！！

Au revoir, Montréal! Thank you to our friends and family who made our trip special.

Got to play Work and Play from Starlight Soda at QGCon: buff.ly/uL5StVr It’s a short #interfacedrama about balancing wanting to escape and work. 💚

Nostalgic for LJ RP days? You need to play this game.

Montréal, we are in you!