Goldie

Really sad to hear today that Freeplay Independent Games Festival is likely coming to the end of its adventure in 2026 after 22 incredible years. Freeplay has been pivotal to my own career and I have some complex, straight out contradictory feelings about the announcement I wanna try to articulate.

I have thoughts on this, as a former director and a board member for six years, and for one time anyway, a keeper of the flame of Freeplay’s history. But first up I want to say how incredibly disappointing it is that Creative Vic hasn’t funded Freeplay.

Interview: The secret identities that birthed Freeplay We spoke with Katharine Neil in commemoration of Freeplay festival’s 20th anniversary

I interviewed Freeplay's co-founder Katharine Neil a couple of years ago about its origins & legacy. There was SO much fascinating stuff that I couldn't publish but I'm still really proud of the piece & feel as if documenting this stuff holds a tiny bit of importance too.

👏 mirroring much of my discussions today

It's going to be a big year! Reignite your drive with a live music event! 🔥Featuring game tracks and more by 🔺JAMATAR🔺and special guests Dot.AY and LUMA.D! Come try the latest build of the game and experience REIGNITE on January 31st!

www.trybooking.com/events/landi...

#gamedev #indiedev #chiptune

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! @mahliann.bsky.social, @marcuscarter.com, and myself have combined our collective brains and written a wide-reaching introduction to the complex and interdisciplinary field of Game Studies in this forthcoming book for Polity. www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud

Back in my day, AI used to stand for Adobe Illustrator! And we hated that, too!

👇👇👇

bsky home page with the "mossy forest" colour scheme and a moon icon

bsky post editor with the "nice day" colour scheme

bsky profile view with the "cohost" colour scheme

bsky post with the "paperback" colour scheme

🌌 Firmament 🌙
a customisable theme for bsky - v.1.0.0

- Customise colours & fonts!
- Pre-made themes!
- Replace the bsky logo?!
- Hide metrics!

Install with Stylus (Firefox/Chrome): userstyles.world/style/19357
Install with Userscripts (Safari/iOS): github.com/haraiva/userstyles/tree/main/bsky

Dead Static Drive on Steam Dead Static Drive is Grand Theft Cthulhu. An indie survival-horror game following a nightmarish road trip across a 1980s Americana. Evade police. Equip yourself and those close to you, and follow your...

I never thought I would say this .. but Dead Static Drive comes out in an hour
store.steampowered.com/app/1166940/...

I fostered these two kitties for a few months - both very beautiful and friendly cats.

If you know of anyone looking to adopt a pair of enchanting fluffy idiots, here they are 🐈🐈

💙 Delphiniuuum 💙

www.kickstarter.com/projects/cin...

Ricky omg 🥺

Enter the Chronosphere on Steam Enter the Chronosphere is a real-time, turn-based action game where everything moves when you do. In a collapsing universe, each member of your crew is the last echo of their species, united by one go...

In other news, Enter the Chronosphere. Free demo. So good. store.steampowered.com/app/1969810/...

And for the briefest of moments you may have had hot wet socks 😔

Veeery nice

BBC NEWS: Scientists reveal the secret Image of a scruffy looking circular white dog with a very blurry schnauzer in the background.

HOW I LONG TO HUG YOU WITH MY NEW HUGE MUSCLES.

Freeplay’s Mads Mackenzie Talks Indies at Games Events We spoke with Drăculești designer and Freeplay co-head Mads MacKenzie in the lead-up to Parallels, and discussed the impact of physical events on indie games.

Making my @qualbert.com debut with a chat with @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social about indies and games events. :)

fuuuuuck look at that title card at the end, incredibly good.

Game Worlds opens this Thursday. An insane sentence to type out.

Color Study
#art #illustration #digitalart #clipstudiopaint

Letters to Arralla is dropping in exactly ONE week on 16th September, 11am AEST 😱💕🍑💌 Everyone is so excited to meet you, their new island postie!

#indiegamedev #cozygames #wholesomegames

Games Criticism is Dead; Long Live Games Criticism A response to Grace Benfell’s Endless Mode piece, “Silksong Hastens the Death of the Critic” Last week the long-awaited sequel to Team Cherry’s hit search-action game Hollow…

Been thinking about this all week; but really this just brings a bunch of stuff bubbling up that I've been sitting on for way longer. On the death of criticism:

noescapevg.com/games-critic...

Interview with Team Cherry for Hollow Knight Silkson From Ludum Dare beginnings to the highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, explore Team Cherry’s creative journey in this in-depth interview tracing their career.

Silksong is out today - and I am so excited to share my deep-dive into the game's development.
I spoke with Team Cherry about Silksong's design, its origins, and the creative principles that drive their work. I'm thrilled to share it:

I bench pressed 50kg today 😈 (twice…but still!!!)

Production - Online - Funding and Support - Screen Australia Screen Australia offers a range of funding programs and support to content makers from development to screening.

📣 Hey Australian gamemakers!

Screen Australia's Games grants close in 6 days! A reminder to get your applications in! 💪

🛠 Games Production Fund - up to $100k
🎨 Emerging Gamemakers Fund - up to $30k

📆 Applications close Thu 28 Aug, 5pm (AEST)
👉 www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-...

lenny is sat with homer at moe's with some pokemon cards scattered across the bar. Lenny: hey whatcha got there homer? Homer: oh i don't know... it's some crap the boy is into these days Barney: hey! moe! this one looks like you! Moe then snatches the card. Moe: what? gimme that! i oughta sue the hell outta- Moe then contrmplates the Magmar card, and finds recognition within it.

flaming moe's

Parallels returns and early bird tickets are available now.

Check out freeplay.net.au for tickets and info, with a full lineup and general release tickets coming in September

A crucial announcement, ScreenNSW has released a Digital Games Survey! A pivotal moment for NSW games industry to make its voice heard and help influence the future stand alone Screen NSW Digital Games Strategy for the next 3 years.

🚨 createresearch.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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