This is a pretty good summary of why this stuff has zero appeal to anyone who actually enjoys making anything, and there will never be anything Ai companies can do about that. (Green absolutely torching his own credibility is just an astonishing unforced error. Write your own words!)

Mike Bithell@mikebithell.bsky.social · 11h ago

The specific focus in this video on the way these tools get under your skin and train you to depend on them is an aspect I personally find existentially terrifying. youtu.be/TtvICev9sBE?...

to make this more enticing to many of my followers, that screenshot is queer couple goals, maybe yuri depending on how you feel? gay

Finji@finjico.bsky.social · 2d ago

868-BACK is part of Steam's Cyberpunk Fest! 👾 Save 10% until August 10th! 💻 Your mission: dismantle capitalism one server at a time in this computer-hacking strategy roguelike game! store.steampowered.com/app/3304110/...

All Systems Brough - HELIX We're joined by @foddy.net, @iznaut.com, and @v21.bsky.social to discuss this classic spiral-action shmup-like about staying alive, the 8th game in our yearlong coverage of @smestorp.bsky.social's wide-ranging catalogue. secretlives.games/all-systems-...

The Secret Lives of Games: All Systems Brough - Helix

We're joined by v buckenham (Downpour, Beasts of Balance), Izzy Kestrel (Electrifying Incident, A Little Game Called Mario), and Bennett Foddy (Baby Steps, QWOP, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy) to discuss Helix, a spiral-action shmuplike about staying alive. It’s the eighth installment in our yearlong special series exploring the work of Michael Brough: All Systems Brough. Next episode: Imbroglio Audio edited by Dylan Shumway. Discussed in this episode: Helix 868-BACK (Out now!! Go buy it!!)     Michael Brough’s Website   Maypole Game Design Deep Dive: The unique touchscreen action game controls of Helix Bit Pilot Tilt to Live Super Hexagon Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved remake Endings (Michael’s 2015 blog) Playdate Nex Playground Hylics Vangers Tools for Creativity class (virtual) with v buckenham School for Poetic Computation bimbo static site generator    

secretlives.games

868-BACK is part of Steam's Cyberpunk Fest! 👾 Save 10% until August 10th! 💻 Your mission: dismantle capitalism one server at a time in this computer-hacking strategy roguelike game! store.steampowered.com/app/3304110/...

Valve offering some ??? with their cyberpunk sale's marketing copy.

postscript to #868BACKHEIST: I wound up having my personal best game. for a taste of how deep the game goes, here's some late game stuff where things get wacky (second one is kinda spoilery but you won't understand it until it happens)

Matt Weiner@mattweiner19.bsky.social · 2w ago

let's talk 868-BACK, a great game! First let's do some basics, with the demo. Which is pretty much a playthrough of one dungeon, but they're not called "dungeons." I'll be getting into spoilers so mute #868BACKHEIST if you don't want to see this. store.steampowered.com/app/3304110/...

In prep for this week's TSLOG recording I've been playing @smestorp.bsky.social's HELIX for the first time in over a decade. Incredible game, legit one of the all-time best iOS action games. Visually super beautiful, I'm really into the vibe. mightyvision.blogspot.com/2014/10/heli...

*sheathes blade* #868back

I reread Neuromancer recently and it holds up remarkably well! There's a movie now? 40 years late & unlikely to capture what's important about it. If you're interested in contemporary work that builds on these ideas in ways that matter, may I point you to store.steampowered.com/app/3304110/...

i made videogame for the ongoing Avoidance Jam. it's rather challenging. but if you don't mind giving it some of your time, it will rewire your brain in a strange way. jseakle.itch.io/cerelix

Cerelix by jseakle

a confusing arcade looper

jseakle.itch.io

my face when I googled something about my game darkwebSTREAMER and the genAI response declared that a man designed the pioneering language system that I, a woman, designed we were talking about erasure of women's achievements by LLMs YESTERDAY and today i see this? goddamn.

Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

One reason I love 868-BACK is that it gives you the sense of getting more powerful and defeating greater obstacles, but not by having your numbers go up while their numbers go up. You face genuinely new problems and gain new ways to deal with them. #868BACKHEIST

IN THE FOOD COURT… SURROUNDED BY DECEPTION… THIS IS THE NATURE OF LIFE IN A CYBERPUNK FUTURE…

The source of that danger is financiers, and they are motivated by a mix of solipsism and a belief in *other people's* solipsism. For them, the most exciting investment hypothesis is that "hell is other people": locusmag.com/feature/comm... 39/

Commentary: Cory Doctorow: Hell Is Other People

“So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the ‘burning marl.’ Old wives’ tales! There’s…

locusmag.com

this talk really stuck with me, it is very worth reading. two things I've been thinking about a lot since: - "games as a service" is not just "monetization" it is the entire frame of mind that all design is compelled to follow. (even as it makes worse and less interesting games)

Eric@mokkograd.net · 2w ago

Here are my slides and a transcript of my talk I gave during Glasgow Indie Games Fest on July 11th: Evil Game Design - An Introduction: mokkograd.net/posts/2026-0...

just as poetry is language subterfuged to express the indirect then video games are a subterfuge of software. every video game is just a piece of software that ultimately wants to quit back to desktop. play corrupts work/living/surviving to create something new and joyful. play is the point 💜

Naomi Clark (@metasynthie) 暗悪直美@halfrobot.com · 2w ago

Good talk worth reading, and I would go even further: all of "design" as a field of practice has gradually compressed into a rhetoric that subordinates creative meaning to the frictionless satisaaficing of users. Luckily this smooth vision is pepetually at odds with the unfathomable horrors of play

I also reveal the Unified x5 server and the bonuses on the Unified x4 and... dang. The x5 has that Polymorphing laser I was complaining about, and other nasties. The x4 has Vibe Progging and Pop-Up Advertisements, which are too evil for words. Time to try the right side of the map! #868BACKHEIST

blog post - prayer for the wealthy mightyvision.blogspot.com/2026/07/pray...

Here are my slides and a transcript of my talk I gave during Glasgow Indie Games Fest on July 11th: Evil Game Design - An Introduction: mokkograd.net/posts/2026-0...

Blog Post

mokkograd.net

thread: matt talks through the play in detail bsky.app/profile/matt...

Matt Weiner@mattweiner19.bsky.social · 2w ago

let's talk 868-BACK, a great game! First let's do some basics, with the demo. Which is pretty much a playthrough of one dungeon, but they're not called "dungeons." I'll be getting into spoilers so mute #868BACKHEIST if you don't want to see this. store.steampowered.com/app/3304110/...

owning property is the modern power fantasy yes

usesthis.com/interviews/m... “uses this” interview about what equipment i use in my work

Uses This / Michael Brough

Game developer, potion brewer

usesthis.com

i'll take a look at the steam reviews i bet they're being normal and chil- GREATEST ROGUELIKE I'VE EVER PLAYED. ONE OF THE BEST GAMES EVER. MASTERPIECE OF THE HIGHEST TIER. ONCE IN A DECADE.

Lao Tzu was onto something

if you're interested in AI or llms or whatever (i am!) you could literally just wait a few years and it'll be less destructive to run. solar power is exploding, chips are still getting smaller and faster, just chill a moment

Elon Musk's xAI has installed more than double the number of gas turbines than it has publicly acknowledged to power its Colossus 2 data center project, without federal permits, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest reut.rs/4bIghEm