Ben Ward

One of life's small pleasures: successfully melding the remaining sliver of your old bar of soap to the hulking mass of your incoming new bar of soap.
Bonus points for eventually chaining enough of these melds to get into a Theseus' Soap situation.

@2dforever.com does amazing animation and often posts stuff he did for fun, like his amazing Frasier brawler mock-ups.
@imajunation.bsky.social is the person behind those excellent DOTT and Discworld fan animations.
@jonkk.bsky.social does a great line in Xmas animations and much more.

A Warhammer Miniature, yes.

YouTubers: PLEASE stop using AI voiceovers. The most awkward, unprofessional, nasal, echoey human VO in the world is still going to be less grating and distracting than a robot that says every sentence exactly the same way and doesn't know how to pronounce a bunch of words or where to put emphasis.

If you really don't want to do it yourself, or can't, get a friend or family member or colleague to do it. Get your nan to do it. Get your local newsagent to do it. Hell, I'LL do it for you. Just please no more BZZZT DID YOU KNOW THE NINTENDAW SNESS BLEEP BLOOP

YouTubers: PLEASE stop using AI voiceovers. The most awkward, unprofessional, nasal, echoey human VO in the world is still going to be less grating and distracting than a robot that says every sentence exactly the same way and doesn't know how to pronounce a bunch of words or where to put emphasis.

WhatsApp conversation: Sibling: Did someone order Pretty Woman on Amazon prime using my gift card balance? Me: Definitely not me! Sibling: I thought not... Me: Thinking it was me would have been a big mistake. Big. Huge. Sibling: (posts big mistake gif) Good job I'm not those snobby women ey Me: Yep! Good job you were not there thinking it was me and are not now saying "l was very angry with him".

Parent: Have you been hacked? Sibling: Paid a lot of money to be able to say that

Me: I wouldn't get confused by the Amazon payment system anyway, it's so simple. It corners like it's on rails. Parent: I wouldn't know how to do it anyway! Me: The only thing I bought recently was a 223.52cm massage blanket for 2267.32. So, basically, we are talking about eighty-eight inches of therapy wrapped around me for the bargain price of three thousand dollars.

Okay, I have now run out of Pretty Woman quotes to entertain/confuse my family with.

It took me a lot of thought to make the "88 inches of therapy wrapped around you" line not weird in a family group chat, I don't think that one's workable.

Of course! Why didn't I think of that one?!

WhatsApp conversation: Sibling: Did someone order Pretty Woman on Amazon prime using my gift card balance? Me: Definitely not me! Sibling: I thought not... Me: Thinking it was me would have been a big mistake. Big. Huge. Sibling: (posts big mistake gif) Good job I'm not those snobby women ey Me: Yep! Good job you were not there thinking it was me and are not now saying "l was very angry with him".

Parent: Have you been hacked? Sibling: Paid a lot of money to be able to say that

Me: I wouldn't get confused by the Amazon payment system anyway, it's so simple. It corners like it's on rails. Parent: I wouldn't know how to do it anyway! Me: The only thing I bought recently was a 223.52cm massage blanket for 2267.32. So, basically, we are talking about eighty-eight inches of therapy wrapped around me for the bargain price of three thousand dollars.

Okay, I have now run out of Pretty Woman quotes to entertain/confuse my family with.

Hooray! The original freeware game was a lot of fun. Hopefully Octavi and White Blanket won't get fucked over by spineless payment processors and shithead far-right pressure groups.

I've been wondering if this whole thing is going to force some kind of move by Steam and Itch (and then many others) to Paypal or crypto or something like that. Maybe even Gabe getting pissed off enough that he creates Steam Bucks or whatever.

Would also love one for Labyrinth. And Magnum PI, of course, hang out at King Kamehameha Club after a hard day's work hacking Higgins' security systems and avoiding The Lads!
What fictional tv/movie spaces would you love a VR hangout of?

YouTube video by Moises Naves BACK TO THE FUTURE 2025 -- Unreal Engine 5 - Updated Gameplay

It's just a fan map, from the least good section of the entire BTTF trilogy, and it still needs a bit of spit and polish, BUT this is still really awesome & impressive and the kind of thing I'd throw a few quid at a VR version to hang out in if they added some more content.
youtu.be/gGbexiNH2Zg...

TOM'S AVAILABLE. TOM'S AVAILABLE.

If you need an artist and you're not leaping at Tom, you're doing gamedev wrong. One of those people who brings SO MUCH to a project, hire him before someone else does.

10/10 man and 10/10 artist would recommend.

My input on that game was minimal, but I fucking love it and also yes I am very very old :(

I am informed The Swindle is somehow TEN years old today. Let's all celebrate by buying several copies of it!

store.steampowered.com/app/369110/T...

(thanks for the head's up @botherer.bsky.social!)

"Deep dive", though >:(

So either InGen are making money on the side selling bog-standard equipment to black ops government facilities, or there's a level of that prison we don't get to see where they're using velociraptors as guards. [2/2]

An InGen-branded medical cabinet in the midst of a hi-octane prison escape scene from the movie Face/Off.

To combat a quantum of internet misinformation: yes, there is an InGen (Jurassic Park company)-branded medical cabinet in Face/Off. No, it is not in the face-swapping lab. It's in the super-prison electroshock room, unrelated to the face-swapping tech. [1/2]

Please make sure you're pointing your anger in the correct direction.

How to survive as an indie developer for 20 years "Size Five has always just plodded along without a colossal success, which is fine by me. I'm still here."

Woo, PCG published my interview with @danthat.bsky.social! He'll be embarrassed to hear it but this chat is stuffed with wisdom. For two decades Size Five has made games sustainably, frugally, experimentally and funnilyly. A lesson for a criminally wasteful industry. www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...

Fantastic Four is like the flipside of Superman: also starts very much in media res and does what's needed for its cinematic universe going forward, with fewer big swings but more confident breathing space.

Also, I'm not the first person ever to say this, but: Brendan Fraser as Bizarro, please.

An in-game render of Ozzy Osbourne, with the logo for Brutal Legend and text that reads, "Free for the next 666 minutes" and the itch.io logo in the bottom right corner

To honor Ozzy's larger-than-life rock and roll legacy, we're making Brütal Legend *FREE* on itch.io: doublefine.itch.io/brutal-legend

But this incredible deal will only last for 666 minutes, as the prophecy foretold. So get yourself clicking, before it disappears like a demon in the night...

🤘 🖤

Sweet as fucking pie!

I enjoyed Superman, but I'd only recommend it if you're in the mood for a Superman movie with big George Of The Jungle vibes that feels like a VFX showreel pretty much the whole way through.

(Because we have a new game releasing soonish, I mean. That wasn't an attempt at a post hoc quid pro quo for following you!)

I appreciate it! Hopefully one more will be on there soonish..!

Followed! Only 77 left to go!