SHIVERS - Snow falls and there is no answer. Some things are not for mortals to know.

rpgmaker definitely isn't the right tool for everyone, but I think using opinionated pre-baked tools to make some games would be very instructive to a lot of folks setting out to make their epic custom dream game. they're a much lower-stakes way to learn important lessons like "how to tell a story"

Partway through Titanium Court's demo and it's an engrossing, layered trickster, plus one of those Special Games That Galvanizes You To Make More Games Too

sick looking weird train tactics game news AND line 5 finally open in Toronto? pretty amazing train day tbh

The UofT Knowledge Media Design Institute kindly recapped last week's talk. Not featured (reasonably) is the exact wording of how I described my own research practice: "just kinda bumbling through technology to see if it works" kmdi.utoronto.ca/recap-resear...

if a game turns your cursor into a little gauntlet, it automatically gets +1 point

...fortunately I preserved the original zombo.com flash on welcometozombo.com, and will do so for as long as I live

This is an act of cultural vandalism: zombo.com RIP zombocom, 1999-2026. You could do anything at zombocom. Anything at all.

a side-by-side of my favorite print from today's trip, from the Pollock's toy theatre set, "Whittington and His Cat." (One could pay extra for a pre-colored set or buy a cheaper plain one to color themselves)

Pollock's "Victoria" toy theatre, assembled as much as is appropriate in a rare book library

Plugins, Modules, Add-ons, Contraptions: No game is an island blogomancer.bearblog.dev/plugins-modu... (including, with much gratitude, Phinxel's Phield Notes by @ahmwma.bsky.social)

alright everyone line up

Live!

in the spirit of pressuring myself into better process documentation, i've started a production journal for my newest project. it's mostly for myself, but i like peeking at all of yours, so you can peek at mine too blogomancer.bearblog.dev/unnamed-toy-...

the creator of this tiny lovely puzzle platformer, Emlise mentions it is inspired by the works of Kultisti, Daniel Linssen and NamaTakahashi. if you are familiar with any of these devs, there wouldn't be no waste to try it out!

the contemporary online literary journal scene could truly learn a lot from Indiepocalypse and Game Poems about 1. earnest editorial transparency, 2. sustainable and long-term support for contributors, 3. generally making the cultural production and exchange of art retain its humanity along the way

I'll be hopping on Indiepocalypse Radio tomorrow afternoon along with @jordanmagnuson.bsky.social and fellow Game Poems contributors! Andrew's radio shows are a blast, come listen while you digest your lunch

excerpt from Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson (1995), via Internet Archive, via Storyspace, via Eastgate Systems, via MacOS 9.0, via Adobe Reader 4, via InfiniteMac.org, via Firefox, via iMac running MacOS Sequoia, etc., etc., etc...

constantly vacillating between "god why didn't I learn BASIC and dismantle the family computer singlehandedly when I was 11" and "it is a gift of the highest order to be learning HTML for the first time in my 30s"

* The Deena Larsen Collection, an archive of physical and digital primary source materials related to electronic literature, directed by @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social and reviewed by @elikaortega.bsky.social reviewsindh.pubpub.org/pub/deena-la... #ReviewsInDH

Just now starting to sketch out a new weird project: digitizing old toy theatre catalogues and rebuilding them in Decker with interactive elements

text generator bugs have such a particular feel. i'm currently debugging "with abroad, broad band of glass"

Next week! If you're in the Toronto area, I'll be talking about a recent critical edition of the Aperture Science promotional Portal tie-in website (co-edited by Alan Galey, @ellenforget.bsky.social, and myself) as well some of the implications for future born-digital interactive literature.

i've been slowly playing through Game Poems 1 and this is the first one that i Unreservedly Recommend

my lil game poem "lessons in anatomy" is featured in the first issue of GAME POEMS, which is an incredible honor to me. it's a short meditation on pleasure, pain, sex, and the vulva (because my whole thing is games about vulvas). www.gamepoems.com/issue01

Tropic of Dinosaur IS OUT!!! It's a being walked simulator about aging made of clay, tangerine peel, sigarette ends and children's obscene drawings Go check it out in the first issue of Game Poems magazine along with other beautiful games👇 Thank you for playing and sharing!

"A look of glass stops you." -- a bitsy game poem about reaching out and reaching out again. After my favorite three lines from John Ashbery (and maybe my favorite three lines of All Poetry.) In Game Poems #1: www.gamepoems.com/issue01/

Game Poems #1 came out earlier this month, with a small piece of mine and truly engrossing work from my co-contributors! @jordanmagnuson.bsky.social and the Game Poems team are thoughtful editors and curators, and I'm very impressed with the care they've taken in assembling the issue.

Check out the marvellous Game Poems magazine! Yes, I have a little something in there, and, yes, it lives up to the dream of publications that manage to include (and be about) interactive/games stuff! www.gamepoems.com/issue01/

I've been excited for (and getting little peeks of) Game Poems for a little while now and now it's out for everyone to see! "see", which is to say that you, the person reading this, should aside an hour or so and play through these games.

i've been making a lot of wizards lately

I'm not really much for posting here at the moment. Still, if you've stumbled onto this page somehow you're very welcome to play some of my games at bibliomancer.itch.io.

I'm particularly proud of this pioneering digital edition of ApertureScience​.com, part of the #Portal game universe: scholarlyediting.org/issues/42/ap... Edited by Alan Galey, @ellenforget.bsky.social, and @brendanallen.bsky.social. Powered by #TEI and Twine #thecakeisalie #glados #gaminghistory