nickbell 🆗️
@nick.aetheric-games.com
Indie game generalist at Aetheric Games some of the time, and game dev lecturer at Edinburgh College other times. Undercover, queerly neurospicy nerd, attempting to infiltrate the normals with a big coat and a fake moustache. https://aetheric-games.com
Today I can share we'll be showing the latest version of GenSea by @nick.aetheric-games.com (and Edinburgh College in partnership with Inchcape Offshore Ltd) Build infrastructure with a focus on the sea and offshore wind turbines! Free tickets for this Thursday here: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...
If you're based in Scotland (or in the UK), please consider signing this!! petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE...
Petition: Moratorium on planning applications for all hyperscale data centres until their environmental impacts have been fully assessed
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce a moratorium to prohibit planning permission from being granted for any hyperscale data centres, until it has carried ou...
petitions.parliament.scot
This is always a good time! Come and play some game dev projects from masters students, from the Heriot-Watt MD Game Design course, led by @amicableanimal.bsky.social Plus some demos from local indies, including me with a little something-something. Tickets and info ⤵🧵 #scotgamedev
Amicable Animal - New CRT7 demo OUT NOW! 🦝🏳️🌈@amicableanimal.bsky.social · 2w agoOur MDes Graduation Showcase will be on the 6th of August 17:00 to 19:30 at CodeBase, Edinburgh. We'll have student games, plus games from local developers! Alt controllers! Physical Puzzle Games! Nibbles if I get those sorted in time! Free tickets and deets here: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...
Over the next week I'll post our MDes Showcase guest games! Starting with Stealth Crossword by @computerjames.bsky.social! An anarchic game about crosswords... Or maybe stealth missions? There is at least one European in it! Get a free ticket here and come try it: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...
Our MDes Graduation Showcase will be on the 6th of August 17:00 to 19:30 at CodeBase, Edinburgh. We'll have student games, plus games from local developers! Alt controllers! Physical Puzzle Games! Nibbles if I get those sorted in time! Free tickets and deets here: buytickets.at/mdesingames/...
AAAA Costa Rica was able to fully reverse deforestation HOPECOREEEE earth.org/how-costa-ri...
How Costa Rica Reversed Deforestation and Became an Environmental Model | Earth.Org
Costa Rica is the first tropical country to have stopped, and subsequently reversed, deforestation. What can the rest of the world learn from the country?
earth.org
I would play the heck out of a Mabinogion game!
Tales from the Mabinogion@mabinogiongame.bsky.social · 2mo ago#PitchYaGame Before Games of Thrones, before Lord of the Rings, before even Geoffrey of Monmouth compiled the legends of King Arthur - before all of these came the Mabinogion. Discover the magical stories of this ancient book in Tales from the Mabinogion.
If I ran an venerable game studio known as masters of a genre that publishers won't touch in 2026, got burned by crowd funding & AI, I'd release a really nice trailer for a cancelled project. Fans go nuts. Generate hype, quotes, numbers. A lure for funding. Call it "Project Anglerfish" or something.
I'm just back from a trip to Germany to visit one of my closest friends, Daniel, who's been held in solitary confinement 23h a day for the past ten months in a 2 × 5m cell. They get one hour of visitation per month.
It's been nearly 24 hours and I've not seen any Ebeneezer Goode jokes. Kids today, man.
It's always funny to me how people equate LLMs to other, less understood things. We don't know how neurons make consciousness, but we absolutely know how LLMs work. They are not a black box. They are intricately designed, often public white boxes. There's no consciousness because we can look at it.
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 2w agoMany, and especially he, love to do that. So glad others see it too. More here from me on this including many more collected examples in the appendix: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Do you like learning new words? Especially obscure or archaic ones? Do you think etymology is neat? Then why not try reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, with Wiktionary open, today! You won't read fast, but you probably won't regret it.
The tech and entertainment industries are having a normal one again, I see...
Wait, Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell are two different people? How many evil old white have you got over there?
that radge wee fly from Irving Welsh's The Acid House has gotten in here. utter rocket. trying to ignore the bam
What's this? The appropriative, patriarchal, colonialist bias-machine is inspiring sexism? Who could have seen that coming?
David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · last mo.Women’s use of AI is perceived as a sign of incompetence, while men’s use of AI is seen as an indication of initiative. 🤦🏻♂️
Women’s use of AI is perceived as a sign of incompetence, while men’s use of AI is seen as an indication of initiative. 🤦🏻♂️
Women Who Use AI Seen As Incompetent; Men Who Use AI Seen As Pragmatic
A 2026 study found that when women and men use AI tools to create identical resumes, evaluators view the women as less competent, while crediting the men with initiative.
forbes.com
oh you know they were trying to make Weird A.I. Yankovoc happen
I can't handle the Rodeo Burger@tonygoldmark.bsky.social · last mo."Weird Al" Yankovic has always been a real one. Just learned that he very recently turned down "a nice pile of money" to shill for A.I. Damn right he did. @alyankovic.bsky.social www.syracuse.com/entertainmen...
Carimara was bloody lovely. Equal measures funny, creepy and heartwarming. Gorgeous too. And dirt cheap right now. store.steampowered.com/app/3570370/...
Save 30% on CARIMARA: Beneath the forlorn limbs on Steam
A mute little thing with borrowed magic. A house that murmurs back. Ask wrong, and you might wake something that remembers your name.
store.steampowered.com
Come LLMs to roost in Slough and boil up all the humans now with endless slop us all endow. Hyperscale it, Death! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘Slough is like an experiment’: Europe’s largest datacentre hub leaves town sweltering
Emerging research suggests datacentres create a heat island effect, pushing up temperatures in the immediate vicinity by as much as 9C
theguardian.com
I know we all know this, but just to reiterate, when a company lays off workforce *without itself closing* what the executives are actually doing is stealing the future wages of their workers - wealth that the workers themselves generated - to line their own cash-stuffed pockets.
💯 Additional reason: you were in a starter pack. Unfollowing weirdos who bubble up after a while is my new hobby. Maybe I'm *your* starter pack weirdo!
Úna-Minh's ✨ Open to Work ✨@unaminh.bsky.social · last mo.You know what's totally ok: Unfollowing people There are so many reasons why people do. Sometimes because of disagreement, sometimes it's because you're not their cup of tea, sometimes it's because they're looking after their mental health. Sometimes. Sometimes... It's so freeeeeing not to care.
Don't forget, Sweeney can and will repeatedly talk out of his ass. The value the industry holds in Unreal Engine has very little to do with what he brings to the table nowadays. bsky.app/profile/tomm...
Tommy Thompson@tommy.aiandgames.com · 8mo agoHave you ever stopped to consider that maybe, just maybe, Tim Sweeney is full of shit?
so, Big Tim, let me get this right: - people don't want to buy games made with genAI - you want to scam them into buying it anyway - Valve lightly discourages this - you say that discouraging you and your pals from scamming people is irresponsible - you're happy to say this out loud, on the record?
Mike Bithell@mikebithell.bsky.social · last mo.My absolute respect to the 3D artist who convinced Tim that an aesthetically original flower pot was a costly expense. Live well, king. www.gamesradar.com/games/epic-g...
layoffs should be seen as a failure state. if a ceo has to lay people off, that ceo is bad at their job. like, satya nadella laid off what, 20,000 workers at microsoft? that's a massive amount of people whose lives were upended as a failure of his leadership. he should bear the cost of that first.