Really sad to hear today that Freeplay Independent Games Festival is likely coming to the end of its adventure in 2026 after 22 incredible years. Freeplay has been pivotal to my own career and I have some complex, straight out contradictory feelings about the announcement I wanna try to articulate.

I have thoughts on this, as a former director and a board member for six years, and for one time anyway, a keeper of the flame of Freeplay’s history. But first up I want to say how incredibly disappointing it is that Creative Vic hasn’t funded Freeplay.

I interviewed Freeplay's co-founder Katharine Neil a couple of years ago about its origins & legacy. There was SO much fascinating stuff that I couldn't publish but I'm still really proud of the piece & feel as if documenting this stuff holds a tiny bit of importance too.

It's going to be a big year! Reignite your drive with a live music event! 🔥Featuring game tracks and more by 🔺JAMATAR🔺and special guests Dot.AY and LUMA.D! Come try the latest build of the game and experience REIGNITE on January 31st! www.trybooking.com/events/landi... #gamedev #indiedev #chiptune

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!

👇👇👇

🌌 Firmament 🌙 a customisable theme for bsky - v.1.0.0 - Customise colours & fonts! - Pre-made themes! - Replace the bsky logo?! - Hide metrics! Install with Stylus (Firefox/Chrome): userstyles.world/style/19357 Install with Userscripts (Safari/iOS): github.com/haraiva/userstyles/tree/main/bsky

I never thought I would say this .. but Dead Static Drive comes out in an hour store.steampowered.com/app/1166940/...

I fostered these two kitties for a few months - both very beautiful and friendly cats. If you know of anyone looking to adopt a pair of enchanting fluffy idiots, here they are 🐈🐈

💙 Delphiniuuum 💙 www.kickstarter.com/projects/cin...

In other news, Enter the Chronosphere. Free demo. So good. store.steampowered.com/app/1969810/...

HOW I LONG TO HUG YOU WITH MY NEW HUGE MUSCLES.

Making my @qualbert.com debut with a chat with @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social about indies and games events. :)

fuuuuuck look at that title card at the end, incredibly good.

Game Worlds opens this Thursday. An insane sentence to type out.

Color Study #art #illustration #digitalart #clipstudiopaint

Letters to Arralla is dropping in exactly ONE week on 16th September, 11am AEST 😱💕🍑💌 Everyone is so excited to meet you, their new island postie! #indiegamedev #cozygames #wholesomegames

Been thinking about this all week; but really this just brings a bunch of stuff bubbling up that I've been sitting on for way longer. On the death of criticism: noescapevg.com/games-critic...

Silksong is out today - and I am so excited to share my deep-dive into the game's development. I spoke with Team Cherry about Silksong's design, its origins, and the creative principles that drive their work. I'm thrilled to share it:

I bench pressed 50kg today 😈 (twice…but still!!!)

📣 Hey Australian gamemakers! Screen Australia's Games grants close in 6 days! A reminder to get your applications in! 💪 🛠 Games Production Fund - up to $100k 🎨 Emerging Gamemakers Fund - up to $30k 📆 Applications close Thu 28 Aug, 5pm (AEST) 👉 www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-...

flaming moe's

Parallels returns and early bird tickets are available now. Check out freeplay.net.au for tickets and info, with a full lineup and general release tickets coming in September

A crucial announcement, ScreenNSW has released a Digital Games Survey! A pivotal moment for NSW games industry to make its voice heard and help influence the future stand alone Screen NSW Digital Games Strategy for the next 3 years. 🚨 createresearch.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... READ BELOW 🧵

we did it! I found a notebook from five years ago recently which had the original plan for running a KS campaign 'someday', as well as another idea I'll... have more to say about very soon. it's been a long road and so many people have helped us walk it. thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Just over 2 years ago ACMI in Melbourne invited me to develop the concept for their next headline videogame exhibition. Since then this show has grown up to be 'Game Worlds' which will open its doors this Sept... au.variety.com/2025/digital...

The latest round of Screen Australia funded games has been announced, with over $1.4 million in direct project funding. A massive congratulations to the 26 teams who have received support! 💖 www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-cen...

'The Prince and the Pack.' (1912) Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, often known simply as Amadeo, was one of the few pioneers of Portuguese Modernism at the turn of the 20thC. He trained in Paris around 1906 and later exhibited with Braque, Picasso, Duchamp, Matisse, Kandinsky, and Léger.

ATUEL is out NOW on Steam & Google Play for free! 🙌✨ 🌄 Explore dreamlike landscapes 🦊 Shapeshift into different animals 📻 Listen to real testimonies Atuel is an award-winning surrealist documentary game about the climate crisis. Help us out with a RT! 🙏 store.steampowered.com/app/2794330/...

Over the past few months we've been finalising something delightful & very unexpected. With agreements now signed & files shared we can officially say that our machinima doc The Grannies has been officially acquired by the BFI (British Film Institute) & is now part of their permanent archive. 🤠

EOIs open now until July 17th for Play Now Melbourne 💚 vicscreen.vic.gov.au/playnow/

Good opportunity here in Melbourne!!

🔴🟡🔵 BIG WALK 🔴🟡🔵 Join us for a tour around our new game. Coming 2026.

Tomorrow's the big day! ❄️ Catch the show live on our YouTube and Twitch channels! Expect world premieres, announcements, and so much more. 🔴 YouTube: youtu.be/3ff3YxX7Cgw 🟣 Twitch: www.twitch.tv/frostygamesf...

Deathloop is free on the Epic Games Store. Fantastically creative FPS/immersive sim with a unique puzzle box structure. And excellent art direction, but it's Arkane Lyon, that kinda goes without saying. store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/deat...

This is a top 5 game for me and it’s free this week on the Epic games store.

Happy pride everyone, Being gay rules. Being trans rules. Being queer rules. Being an ally rules. Pride is ours forever and fuck anyone who claims to deny it 💛 they’re scared of literally the cutest smartest people on the planet??? Weird if you ask me. Happy pride!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️❤️🧡💛💚💙

tag two blokes who do fuck all

Big Walk news incoming! We're taking part in the @dayofthedevs.org Summer Game Fest Edition, streaming live at 4pm June 6 PT / 9am June 7 AET. We'll also have something special to announce tomorrow. More soon! 🔴🟡🔵

I’m a lucky duck this week. I’m going through a breakup, and it’s just been astonishing to see so many friends step up, check in, check in again, and pamper and ply me with the tools for self love and self soothing. Wildly lucky.

Big News! The Drifter is coming to Steam on JULY 17! A pulp adventure thriller where you play as a drifter trying to solve their own murder. 🔪🔪🔪 Wishlist now! store.steampowered.com/app/1170570/...

Excerpt from the ongoing Mushroom Murders trial, a digital forensics expert is currently being cross examined - reminds me of talking to older relatives about game dev 😅 "Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC asks if that raw information is "gobbledygook". Mr Fox-Henry says he prefers the term "data"."

Help: any TV tech heads out there…my dear old ma wants a new 32 inch TV. I thought about getting her a monitor and Apple TV, is there a better solution? Would need to be something extraordinarily user friendly, which is making me think ‘just a tv’ would be a better option. Anyone know what’s good?

Delighted to announce that Frosty is joining the official Summer Game Fest showcase lineup! ☀️🍦 Mark your calendars for a jam packed weekend of games 🗓️

Hey Bluesky, it's #WishlistWednesday! Near-Mage: Study Magick in Transylvania comes to Steam & GOG on May 27th, and is currently very much wishlist-able!

Free shipping Friday at my store (great for non US residents), and here are some available pics that are old and I don't share often, but am still fond of: www.inprnt.com/gallery/luis...

☺️

Introducing the line up of Australian games we'll be sending off to Jakarta, Indonesia as part of the Games Exchange! 🥰 Check out the Games Exchange landing page for more details about the Jakarta event at Binus University, on the 17th of May! Link: noblesteedgames.com/culture/game...