Clara Fernandez-Vara
@clarafv.bsky.social
NYU Game Center faculty & Narrative design & game writing at Fiction Control. Media scholar, cinephile, puzzle head, mystery wrangler. https://clarafv.com
After talking to a young writer last night, I want to remind you all that it's okay to write without an assignment or goal. Write to explore a new technique, get an idea out of your head, or as emotional exhalation. Write for the raw joy of it. For you alone. It doesn't need to go into a portfolio
If this clue needed to be a nerdy reference, it could have been to a character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
AVCX Classic@avcx.bsky.social · 3d agoJust thinking maybe, perhaps, possibly, it’s time to stop putting JK Rowling things in the crossword puzzle
"The universal lies in the particular" is a well-known motto which seems completely arcane to video game execs. It's also yet another instance of why gen AI cannot take over the role of human creators, since its output is generic and bland.
VGC@videogameschronicle.com · 2w agoShigeru Miyamoto says the games that resonate most with players all around the world aren’t those deliberately designed for global appeal, but those based on a developer’s personal interests. www.videogameschronicle.com/news/miyamot...
Back to regular internet connection, trying to go through piles and piles of messages in 6 hours 😰 Best part is finding out that the messages that I responded to on the go didn't get sent because I was hopping from crap wifi to crappier wifi.
Working on Saltsea Chronicles was a career highlight. If you haven't played it yet, it's on sale for the Nintendo Switch. It's a great game to play during the summer!
Die Gute Fabrik@gutefabrik.bsky.social · 2w agoOur Summer Sa(i)l(e) continues with Saltsea Chronicles being discounted 50% for Nintendo Switch for the first time. Make it the game equivalent of the beach read for your summer vacation. It's also still discounted on Steam and PS Store. www.nintendo.com/us/store/pro...
Beatdown City Survivors is part of the nonbinary coded games fest! (because of the launch discount cooldown, the game will be on sale for a week starting the 18th) You can play the demo right now! And if you're feeling generous, it's $9.99 beatdown.city/bdcsrstm
Shawn Alexander Allen@shawndoublea.bsky.social · 2mo ago🧟Beatdown City Survivors🧟 Eradicate hordes of monsters in this 🗽Immersive 👥survivors roguelite 🌃set in a destructible city OUT NOW! 🛠️fun weapon crafting 🐱large cast of characters 🏗️dynamic environments 🔊pumping soundtrack Play the demo/check it out today! beatdown.city/bdcsrstm
I am so exceptionally proud of the work we did on Saltsea Chronicles and I would LOVE if you checked our game out. If you love art, story and everything in between in a community-driven epic across many islands, this is for you!
Die Gute Fabrik@gutefabrik.bsky.social · 3w agoSet sail for Summer Sa(i)l(e) with Saltsea Chronicles. 50% off on Steam and Playstation. (Nintendo starts next week). Have a lovely summer everyone! store.steampowered.com/app/1419620/...
If you’re in NYC, go see this gem. It features a wonderful Bernard Herrmann score that is key to the plot. The music was also an inspiration for Stephen Sondheim when he composed Sweeney Todd.
The Paris Theater - NYC@paristheaternyc.bsky.social · 4w agoA moody gaslight noir featuring a never-creepier performance from Laird Cregar, HANGOVER SQUARE follows a classical composer with a deadly compulsion. NOIR CITY: NEW YORK, co-presented with @noirfoundation.bsky.social, continues with this gem on July 12! www.paristheaternyc.com/film/hangove...
Hey, I hate to ask, but if you read my game writing guide and found it helpful in any way, I'd appreciate a review. Someone decided to give me 2 stars because it was too "woke" for them and it hurt my rating 🫠 www.amazon.com/Game-Writing...
The Game Writing Guide
Amazon.com: The Game Writing Guide: 9781032252360: Megill, Anna: Books
amazon.com
Family trip to London means hopping into the bookstore to buy @sharnajackson.com's books for my kid.
Hi! I'm looking to speak to anyone who is finding ways to resist/work around mandatory AI usage policies at work. Mostly games industry-related, but happy to speak to anyone adjacent as well! Published quotes can of course be anon if desired. DM me here or email at luke@aftermath.site, thanks!
SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT📢 Geneva Heyward: How Games Influence Kids to Create Games are a gateway to writing, visual art, and music for young learners. Geneva shares what they've learned teaching grade school students through a games lens. 🎮 #GDoCExpo
The value proposition of working at an AAA studio was that you were trading independence and agency for stability, and that if the game did well, you would keep your job, and if the game did badly, you might lose it. Obviously it wasn’t that cut and dry, but you get it. Now? You just lose your job.
Not so long ago, the continuity of an indie game company depended on the success of their latest game. A flop meant they'd have to close. These days, it doesn't matter if a team releases a good successful award-winning game - investors will sell the company for parts for their own profit. 😡
Kotaku@kotaku.com · 2mo agoXbox Is Planning To Shutter Peabody Award-Winning Compulsion Games https://kotaku.com/xbox-shuttering-south-of-midnight-peabody-award-compulsion-games-2000706065
The Sunday keynote for #narrascope is by @sharangbiswas.bsky.social, who is not only really smart but also doesn’t need a microphone for the whole room to hear him. His talk is an ode to “fluff” I TTRPGs and unapologetically gay. ♥️🧡💛💚💙💜
Who is the criminal that sets hotel TVs to motion smoothing on by default AND DISABLES BEING ABLE TO TURN IT OFF.
On my way to #narrascope. Thanks to Amtrak, I’ll get to Albany more than an hour late and all sweaty because the A/C is bust. 🥵
Spinning up a new agent (me) to utilise tokens (minutes) to output iteratively-generated content (write) against a internal quality metric (reading) while I just make coffee (also me)
JUNE 10 is the * last day * to sign up for online NarraScope talks, which is stream on the @iftechfoundation.org Discord channel. You have to join that channel and get an attendee role by Thursday to access the conference channels. Here's the @narrascope.org schedule (see June 13-14) narrascope.org
NarraScope 2026 | A Hybrid Conference on Interactive Narrative
NarraScope is a conference that brings together the writers, developers, scholars, and players of interactive narrative.
narrascope.org
Sometimes you write a tiny little thing in a couple of minutes and it’s just one task among others during a very very busy day but you find out it lands just right. Anyway, yeah, I came up with that and yes, this was 100% my intent.
Tommy Rae@ellameno.bsky.social · 2mo agotrans rights motto / Twin Peaks reference in the background of Remedy's CONTROL: RESONANT promo image, happy pride :')
Are you attending Narrascope this year? Tomorrow at 6 PM US EDT, @judithpintar.bsky.social and I are presenting a workshop on making Twine imitate Inform and vice versa. Open to all attendees through the Discord, whether you're going in person or online, and at no additional cost!
In all the excitement for this weekends game announcements, don’t forget about all the devs that have been laid off in the last few years. Imagine how much better games could be if people weren’t tossed aside for profit & corporate greed. We may never know how it could have been.
Here's @ellaguro.bsky.social giving excellent insights on what makes Backrooms special and unsettling. I'm also on the "liked but didn't love" camp. The Hollywood tropes in the screenplay and character "motivation" are trite, but they don't get to diminish the power of the imagery of the film.
Molleindustria FUTURE? NO THANKS! DEMO OUT@molleindustria.org · 2mo agoI liked - didn't quite love - Backrooms. Impressive debut, probably the best possible adaptation of a trite meme. Here's @ellaguro.bsky.social making some interesting connections: the modernist malaise of Antonioni, vaporwave, backroom as allegory of mediocrity etc. aftermath.site/backrooms-mo...
IntroComp is underway for 2026! Do you have an idea you want to try out in a small way before a real audience? Do you need a helpful nudge to start on that interactive fiction project you've been thinking about? Here's your chance! Intents to enter are being accepted all this month. introcomp.org
IntroComp
introcomp.org
