Alex Jaffe
@blinkity.bsky.social
Indie game dev and design consultant. Prev. Lead Champ Designer on Riot's 2XKO, Spry Fox, Kongregate, SuperBot, UW CSE PhD. Cursed problems, player mythologies, immersive designer, game master, dad, a lot of sincerely giving a shit. alexjaffe.games
2.5 years later, my GDC talk "Player Mythologies" is free on the vault! gdcvault.com/play/1034601... I'm really proud of this one. It tries to rewire your brain wrt what games actually do, what they are for, and thus why-and-how we should make them. Stand out from the crowd by changing lives.
Player Mythologies
Designers build games around player fantasies. These typically concern something the player
gdcvault.com
We just updated the Poly Fighter demo on steam!! store.steampowered.com/app/3977340/... It's a HUGE upgrade on the previous version! More moves, new UI, lots of new VOs, visual upgrade, AI upgrade, etc... Please check it out and spread the word!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYkb...
Poly Fighter New Demo
YouTube video by Poly Fighter
youtube.com
I got to be on one of my favorite podcasts! Had a super fun time, give it a listen. Thanks for the clutch hosting, @nictringali.bsky.social. ❤️
brendan mordheim@brendanmcleod.dev · 2w agoAnyway! This month on PAPER LABYRINTHS, nic talks with Alex Jaffe @blinkity.bsky.social about his upcoming card game Chrysalis: Dungeonwake, 2XKO, improvisation, and the theater-like ephermality of a game session. sites.libsyn.com/568595/site/...
I AM STILL SAD ABOUT 2XKO A few of us had a little wake last night 😢
Psyched to talk about the game I'm designing! In Chrysalis: Dungeonwake, 1-3 players search a dungeon for treasure, while that dungeon is built out of cards, by an additional player. It bottles some of the creative magic of DMing into a compact PvP experience. blinkity.substack.com/p/chrysalis-...
Chrysalis: Dungeonwake
Build a dungeon of cards to torment your friends
blinkity.substack.com
Just posted to my substack, on tabletop game design as nature's medicine open.substack.com/pub/blinkity...
On the Table
A video game designer on making videoless games
open.substack.com
Lil’ life update thread: I’ve gone rogue baby, OR, I’m an indie dev and game design consultant now
Today I'm making a website about me. I last did this when I was 15, which seems about right. Just writing out all the things I've done, like I'm a Dwarf Fortress dwarf. I guess lots of you do this too, but it is PRETTY SILLY.
Been so impressed watching @fourbitfriday.bsky.social and co put together this clean-as-hell multiplayer roguelike faster than anyone has a right to. Can't wait to poke all the buttons.
Odd Object@oddobject.zone · 6mo agoGuess what? Scrubbin' Trubble has a launch date! It's MARCH 31st! The world's first cooperative roguelike clean-em-up is coming soon. SOON. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtU5...
Now a week til GDC. Register for the Systems Design Meetup to Meet Up about Systems Design!
Alex Jaffe@blinkity.bsky.social · 7mo agoA monthish until GDC, and so too until the GDC Systems Design Meetup. Our 11th annual meet - not official, but delightful. Come wade through a sea of crunchy design topics and lovely people. Wed, March 11, 12 PM luma.com/dzii8av8 Will likely fill fast, but please read the page before registering!
A monthish until GDC, and so too until the GDC Systems Design Meetup. Our 11th annual meet - not official, but delightful. Come wade through a sea of crunchy design topics and lovely people. Wed, March 11, 12 PM luma.com/dzii8av8 Will likely fill fast, but please read the page before registering!
GDC Systems Design Meetup 2026 · Luma
Hello! It's the eleventh annual GDC Systems Design Meetup. Come on over! GDC is changing, who knows how or why or what, but I know that I'll be running this…
luma.com
That's all for me. So proud of this thing and the people who made it. 8 great years of my life. I got to design Ekko! And lead the champs team! Dreamy. Devastating goodbyes all around. But I want this game to go hard for the FGC, and for those who remain. YOU CAN DO IT 2XKO.
Game Developer@gamedeveloper.bsky.social · 7mo agoRiot Games lays off roughly 80 employees from 2XKO team
Dispatch from fighting game land: 2XKO is out in Closed Beta today, which means for some people it exists forever, and for everyone else it will exist forever soon, and I simply cannot believe it. I love this game, I am very grateful I got to spend a good chunk of my life making it.
Okay, 2XKO calling, we've got a Vi, we've got a global Beta on PC that is on from Sep 9 and there on out, we've got an EVO booth, we've got extremely earnest intent to deliver you an extremely sick fighting game youtu.be/quGZjIkigu4?... youtu.be/vr6Y96D3_Ro?...
Vi Gameplay Reveal Trailer | 2XKO
YouTube video by 2XKO
youtu.be
An absolute honor-and-hoot to guest on one of my favoritest sources of game design wisdom there is
The Secret Lives of Games@secretlivesofgames.bsky.social · last yr.Eggplant Presents: A Year of UFO 50 - Hyper Contender We're joined by @impossible.bsky.social @sxezskoz.bsky.social @blinkity.bsky.social to discuss the 36th game in the UFO 50 collection. “The daring, desperate, and indebted fight for money in the pits of Phogon.” eggplant.show/ep-a-year-of...
Burned my brain out playing 2XKO today - a special kind of melt I've only really had from long sets of tag fighters. Oh shit it works. 🙏
If you're in Alpha Lab 2, we're trying to cram a bunch of folks into Ranked Lobbies right about for now testing. Come play!
Man, games hit different when you get to play them with people who aren't making them. I had SO much fun playing ranked duos in 2XKO today. Can't wait til we get the rest of the world in there.
Five people—three researchers and two test subjects—have just seen a color no human has ever seen before.
Only Five People Have Seen This New Impossible Color
Researchers discover a new color outside the range of human color vision, but you have to laser your retinas to see it
scientificamerican.com
When I joined Spry Fox 12 years ago, I worked on Road Not Taken, a roguelike narrative puzzle adventure, a game I loved. Blue Prince is also a roguelike narrative puzzle adventure, somehow managing to have absolutely nothing in common with Road Not Taken. 👏
Blue Prince is the intersection of like five separate that I've wanted to make, god I love it
