Mare Sheppard

We don’t use generative AI at Strange Scaffold and I can confirm that a *lot* of other studios are not—whether indie or AAA.

Get outta here with this normalization bullshit.

TEN++ bonus update! We've added support for Steam Cloud and fixed the save corruption issue -- hooray! Hope this helps everyone have an even better time playing N++ <3
store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N...

And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.

Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...

Homer Simpson, acting like he’s always been a Isotopes fan.

Jays win!!!

It’s always so delightful to hear @raiganburns.bsky.social cackling with glee as players encounter the gotchas in his fave N++ levels 😅

Re-posting for the weekend crowd -- it's TEN++, the 10th Anniversary of N++, and we're celebrating! <3

@raiganburns.bsky.social will be playing some of the new levels at 3pm EST! If you want to join in the fun, we'll be streaming here: www.twitch.tv/metanet_soft...
and you can sign up in the discord to play (details below)!

😭 thank you so much Nick! This means a LOT — I’m so glad we met and am even more glad we’re friends. Your support and feedback made N++ better, and you’re one of my favourite people, so you continue to make life in general better too ❤️

AND ALSO, the lede buried in our blog post -- we're working on something new! 👀 Want to find out about it (soonish)? Sign up here: www.metanetsoftware.com/newgame

ひや麦 - Twitch N++ - !?, ?! Tab

Want to get a sneak peak of the super-secret TEN++ Solo levels? One of the best players in the world is streaming them right now! :D

www.twitch.tv/hiya_5

Join the N++ Discord Server! N++ is a fast-paced, momentum-based platformer about dodging around obstacles and narrowly evading enemies. | 4390 members

And the celebrations don't stop here! This weekend, @raiganburns.bsky.social will be playing through the brand new multiplayer levels on twitch with fans - want to play too? He'll be arranging things on the multiplayer channel of the N++ discord, so get on over there! :D discord.com/invite/nplusplus

a stack of black hats each with an embroidered image of N++'s ninja in a falling pose, in white. Each ninja has a red headband fluttering behind them.

Three colourful level prints representing N++ levels, made by Mare

A navy blue tshirt featuring the TEN++ logo

A gray tshirt featuring the extruded N++ logo

We've also made a bunch of limited-edition merch to commemorate TEN++! @maresheppard.bsky.social made some very special level art, plus we created a TEN++ logo tshirt, a ninja hat, a super cool extruded N++ logo tshirt, a merch pack for the superfans out there, and more: www.etsy.com/shop/metanet

N++ It's here, the 10th Anniversary of N++! To celebrate, we've updated the game (on Steam, consoles coming soon) with new super secret super hard Solo levels and some very hard multiplayer levels as...

The TEN++ celebrations continue with ten (natch) new Featured Levels, hand-picked by the intrepid community curation team from over a hundred thousand (!!!) userlevels made over the last decade.

Hear about these amazing levels here: metanetsoftware.tumblr.com/post/7975845...
And then go play them!

So many feelings! We wrote about them over on our blog: www.metanetsoftware.com/2025/celebra...

YouTube video by metanetsoftware Happy 10th Anniversary, N++!

TEN++ is a big thank you to everyone who has played the game and supported us over the years -- you rock! Check out this amazing video community member abho made for us to help celebrate: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8gs...

Save 75% on N++ (NPLUSPLUS) on Steam N++ is a fast-paced, momentum-based platformer about darting around obstacles, narrowly evading enemies and collecting gold in a beautiful minimalist landscape.

It's time! Today we're celebrating N++'s 10th Anniversary, aka TEN++, with style -- a fancy free update to the game and a Daily Deal on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/230270/N...

Congratulations! You all rock 🎉💖

Whatever you do, please don’t stop reading.

Read for joy. Read for education. Read for resistance. Read banned books. Read books by marginalized authors. Read about experiences that differ from your own.

Just. Keep. Reading.

exp. 2600, 2601 and 2602 together.

Feel like I should make a bigger deal of this. You can pre-order, right now, all three issues of exp. and get my extraordinarily funny and insightful writing on video games and the 1970s for just $20 USD (+shipping) in a bundle. And the set looks really cool! expzine.com/product/exp-...

And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death.

Maru the Box-Loving Cat, Once the Most Viewed Animal on YouTube, Dies at 18 Maru the cat, a Scottish Fold feline, died at the age of 18 following a decline in health and a cancer diagnosis. The feline is famous for squeezing into boxes, antics that were documented in popular ...

Oh no! This is actually devastating. He was such a sweet baby and instrumental in creating the cat-based internet we love today. He lived a very long a full life.

lately when i’m feeling hopeless i just think of the Katamari cat wearing scuba gear. if she can survive in an inhospitable environment then so can i

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/h...

The Play for Peace: Games for Palestine charity bundle is now live! Nearly 400 games from creators all around the world, with proceeds going directly to Gaza relief efforts.

Bundle link: itch.io/b/2979/play-...

We made a launch trailer to celebrate this moment👇 Please RT.

xSkylighter - Twitch the only one being read here is me (DAY 14)

Want to see the hardest N++ level ever made? Tune in right now!! :D

www.twitch.tv/xskylighter

Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please Human writers have always used the em dash. In fact, it’s the most human punctuation mark there is.

As someone who loves an em dash—and is no fan of AI—yes to all of this: www.theringer.com/2025/08/20/p...

The process is at least half the point. This is true for research as art. You cannot make a thing without learning how to use the tools of making, and learning why, and what effects they produce, and how making it... I'm going to be slightly weird here: making it makes you, too.

Make games for yourself and for your friends. Make things because they don't exist and you want to see them in the world, because you have an itch you need to scratch. Art made with love and passion and quirkiness will find an audience who appreciates that love and passion and quirkiness.

i know "artist" is an abstract/multifaceted term but games are indeed art and they're a very complicated art. you don't need to pretend your main reason to exist is to be like some kind of playful interface designer - you can aim higher than that. you honestly should aim higher than that tbh.