Ben Chandler

https://mastodon.social/@ThreeOhFour

I make games!

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threeohfour_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqsd2mw4x0eerqfuz43kuegck03u6rqqmsh3l3qj7ad7kl8utk28f8qprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntg7ankp

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Last Notes

2025-10-03 13:51:04 UTC

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Great details! I love finding hidden animations like this in old background animations. One that comes to mind is this little car crashing into fleeing pedestrians in Baryon. Such a cool little detail that you hardly see while dodging bullets... https://dos-ist-gut.tumblr.com/post/84313138307/ive-really-enjoyed-taking-screenshots-from-dos

2025-10-02 00:43:04 UTC

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I like the ones where they look like some kind of alien key, with circles connected by lines. Those are the classics and it's what I'm here for. Not the modern crap that look like the logo of a new LED lit PC with 'gaming vents' and liquid cooling filled with Monster Energy.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/301/789/754/734/157/original/b322e0a32e11e8e8.webp
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/301/789/770/907/205/original/6abc9515e3bff4d8.webp

2025-10-01 22:51:44 UTC

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Actually you just know that extra-terrestrial beings would have a fourth dimensional form of reddit where they roast each other's choice of crop circle font.

2025-10-01 13:40:13 UTC

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I am rational enough to understand that crop circles are not celestial keys to unlocking forgotten arcane knowledge, but romantic enough to imagine a world in which they are.

2025-10-01 13:23:47 UTC

When I was small I did not daydream about jetpacks, flying cars or space travel. I daydreamed about crop circles, arcane alphabets, secret places, Gods hidden in nature. I think that's why I'm making an adventure game.

2025-09-30 23:07:30 UTC

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Beautiful area!

2025-09-29 13:49:16 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 This might interest you, if you haven't seen it already: https://www.galacticstudios.org/the-other-star-trek-game/

2025-09-24 21:20:05 UTC

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Yes, overlays is my favourite thing about the updates that have happened since I last used AGS, but there’s also a ton of very small, specific things that are now just easy to do that I use to have to do in such backwards ways. And all to make a game that still feels exactly like an AGS game, haha.

2025-09-24 20:35:13 UTC

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A mix of both. I completely forgot how to think like a programmer, and had to re-learn how to take something from idea to prototype.
But also my ideas have expanded a little in the time since I last did things - I used to be quite content with just using the inbuilt systems of AGS, and now I want to do more. So I had to relearn old things while also learning new things.

2025-09-24 19:53:45 UTC

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For me it’s more “why the hell did I make myself suffer like this?!” When trying to deal with my poor choices these days. :’D

2025-09-24 19:28:15 UTC

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Very true. And it’s not like he doesn’t have the work ethic to make this happen. I think it’s probably just a lack of foresight at one point that has resulted in him putting up with this system which works for him, and only him.

2025-09-24 19:17:00 UTC

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I also imagine that over thirty years he’s used all of this so much that he just knows it off by heart, whereas a lot of the times I have to define things more clearly for this for myself because I wrote the function two weeks ago and have used it twice and so of course I don’t remember any of it. So in that long term case, of course a magic number shorthand makes at least some sense.

2025-09-24 18:57:15 UTC

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As I return to programming I have often berated myself for using ‘magic numbers’ and for the fact that this is somewhat inherent in AGS anyway for some things. So it was fun to see Jeff being like “oh if I set entry 0 for this brain rat to 2 that means it can’t move” and realise that he’s developed a system much more obscure and arcane to use than anything I’ve build for myself so far.

2025-09-21 13:21:47 UTC

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(the ornate dragon was also very hard to track down because of the camouflage pattern, but I’m patient and determined!)

2025-09-21 11:38:28 UTC

Another perfect spring day! I ended up walking 35km this weekend. I have missed the sun, and I can feel myself recharged by it. Now I spring to life like a thorny weed in the garden - unexpected and strange, and full of vigour.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/242/067/481/965/983/original/d9e2aeb77a1fd16b.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/242/070/534/828/750/original/78857643ccffe4ca.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/242/072/659/749/604/original/80a2b9d5706de666.jpg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/242/085/755/979/512/original/347d76f1fab855ef.jpg

2025-09-20 23:30:53 UTC

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Even better! Now you get jam *and* apples. Do you do any stewed fruit to freeze for baking into pies and such later? I’ll often do that if I get given a load of fruit by people.

2025-09-20 18:46:57 UTC

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That’s a good harvest!

2025-09-19 01:20:15 UTC

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And on the other hand sometimes they hand you that puppy and the puppy is N3al St3ph3ns0n pissing all over your carpet and they're like isn't this clever!!! and you're like excuse me but why would I was piss on my carpet :') (sorry N3al I loved one of your books just not the others!)

2025-09-19 01:15:59 UTC

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Recommending things you love to people you like talking to is possibly one of the worst or best experiences you can have as a human.

2025-09-19 01:08:22 UTC

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I'm so grateful for your recommendation!

2025-09-19 01:04:00 UTC

Also, friends, I think Red Mars might be the Moby-Dick of hard science fiction. I'm enjoying it so much.

2025-09-18 16:17:25 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 I tried mixing brown and white wax to make an interesting swirled design in sealing wax but it came out like this, I promise you that the next letter you get from me doesn’t have bird poo on it, just a poorly thought out colour scheme. :’D
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/226/196/560/224/318/original/1c6144492faaa2f6.png

2025-09-18 01:32:46 UTC

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Yeah, interesting that there's nothing in those later games that captures my attention like these do. It makes me think of Rick Parks' work on things like Lands of Lore 1 and Kyrandia 1-2 vs the later stuff he was doing in LoL 2 and Kyrandia 3. Hard to see any of it as a step up!

2025-09-17 16:15:15 UTC

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I would have loved to see the process of drawing one of these scenes. When I go back and look at stuff like this, Simon the Sorcerer, anything Westwood were doing around this time, I think - well there’s people working at the very top of their game. Great stuff.

2025-09-16 02:33:11 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/211/630/461/564/509/original/aeae259f0ac00e6b.jpg

2025-09-16 02:17:41 UTC

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Yes, looking back it feels like a whole aesthetic movement. One of my friends had a Ti-83 Plus that was in translucent blue and I was very jealous.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/211/569/773/120/015/original/3a56613c00643f8c.jpg

2025-09-16 00:46:32 UTC

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Man, this was the time. This was the stuff. So good.

2025-09-15 22:44:16 UTC

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When I was small I had a small Ice Planet 2002 LEGO set - LEGO catalogs always had such wonderful dioramas and I used to love admiring the layouts and colour schemes. That translucent orange feature colour always stuck in my mind, it was so handsome to me, so I used it here.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/210/730/916/186/396/original/cd454d45362196c2.jpg

2025-09-15 15:50:33 UTC

This scene had been waiting for me to paint the details in properly for forever. I finally got there last week. :)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/209/103/178/557/666/original/458ba990631143e7.png

2025-09-14 16:28:16 UTC

That strange term, ‘magical realism’. As if the reality of being a symbiotic cluster of countless cells and electrical impulses that exists cohesively enough to assume an identity and hold opinions, all while hurtling around a ball of life-giving plasma, isn’t ‘magical’ enough.

2025-09-11 22:02:35 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 Been getting through Red Mars very slowly and yesterday I hit a moment where a number of seemingly disparate elements of it coalesced and it really was a beautiful part of the book. Really caught me and left me thoughtful. :)

2025-09-11 08:04:57 UTC

Every day I stop by this bobtail and say hello to it. At first it was very wary of me but it's gotten quite used to me now. Today it was so warm and sleepy in the sun that it just opened one eye a tiny bit and then went straight back to dozing.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/184/624/182/294/185/original/cf468979f1c79213.jpg

2025-09-09 23:59:21 UTC

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Last computer I genuinely loved was my VAIO back in 2012. Everything since then has just seemed boring to me.

2025-09-09 23:10:01 UTC

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You're right, I remember paying about this much in 2005 for a PC and felt like a king, but now I'd wonder why I'm spending so much on something so boring as a new computer. :)

2025-09-08 14:11:50 UTC

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That iMac ad still looks just as appealing all these years later.

2025-09-05 01:04:16 UTC

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Nobody even tried to hide it, either. That's probably the part that interests me the most - it was just honest greed a lot of the time.

2025-09-05 00:03:50 UTC

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Honestly I bet they just thought "people will buy this no matter what we do, so screw it! Make the portraits and GUI higher res and 3 of the objects, and then put 'high resolution 3D graphics!' on the box!" Meanwhile this is every customer's face when they load it up and see the "high resolution 3D graphics":
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/148/757/180/511/900/original/d2e403419d6319f0.png

2025-09-04 23:29:31 UTC

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I bet it's so stupid and annoying haha. I bet there's like zero intelligence involved in the decision making.

2025-09-04 23:19:44 UTC

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Yes, it might be the most baffling "Somebody signed off on this?" game release I can think of. "Half assed" is too generous. It's not even one-tenth of an ass.

2025-09-04 22:44:42 UTC

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And some of the approaches to using it were so half assed. Gabriel Knight 1’s “SVGA” edition is particularly telling about how little money and effort was allocated to the idea (when presumably they had the lovely background art that could have easily been re-scanned).

2025-09-04 22:28:53 UTC

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Yes, I think in the classical canon it isn’t thought of much because a lot of games moved to filmed actors, 3D elements and such by the SVGA era. But it really is a nice space to work in for keeping things feeling cohesive, without being too blocky.

2025-09-04 22:09:18 UTC

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This is 640x360. Same resolution as Unavowed!

2025-09-04 12:58:03 UTC

I'm making a point & click adventure game about unusual places and unusual ideas.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/146/140/194/709/555/original/3f48df3d30ed7986.png

2025-09-03 14:01:19 UTC

Trying out Neyyah the way you knew I would - doing all the maps and notes myself. So far the puzzles have been satisfying to solve.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/140/726/888/842/745/original/436761524bb5264b.jpg

2025-09-01 20:03:45 UTC

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I think I actually started this system when I played King’s Quest 4 and took too long figuring everything out the first time around, and it turned to night before I was ready. So I restarted, flew through the puzzles quickly because I’d made notes about it all, and then the night fall triggered because of getting the right item, not running out of time.

2025-09-01 14:43:00 UTC

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My process for most Infocom games is to kind of work things out slowly with notes and maps, and then when I know how I can mess things up, to start over and just do a ‘correct’ run to complete the game. It’s pretty quick to restart once you know where to go and what to do, so I feel like walking deads really don’t bother me that much. I know, nobody expected me to get to the point where I’m defending them, haha.

2025-09-01 14:22:06 UTC

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One thing I like about the exploration phase is that it gave me *just enough* food to be able to unlock the kitchen in time to use the food dispenser. Between the need to sleep and eat, there’s a nice kind of resource/time management tension to the early mapping period. It’s well done. Kind of similar to how in Lurking Horror they require you to keep sipping cola to keep yourself awake haha.

2025-09-01 14:17:21 UTC

Too tired to do anything productive tonight so I'm playing a text adventure in bed. Planetfall this time. So far I'm enjoying it, mapped out most of Kalamontee Kompleks and have started exploring Lawanda Kompleks.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/129/465/551/448/693/original/5a23b15821976d36.jpg

2025-08-28 23:41:00 UTC

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Keyboard definitely makes this a good candidate for text adventures! It’s a very charming looking little device.

2025-08-28 02:45:49 UTC

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Yes, as a kid I just took the qualities that a game had to be face value credibility of the associated publisher. I never thought about any of it as "products" or "marketing" or "investments" back then.

2025-08-27 23:37:58 UTC

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It is weird how much logos change - even just from a player point of view. The mid 90s Activision logo animation used to fill me with such excitement at whatever I was about to see. They'd done Mechwarrior 2! And Interstate 76! And Zork Grand Inquisitor! (my brain conveniently ignored all the other crap haha)
I still see the old Microprose logo and get that thrill, too. Civ II! European Air War! Transport Tycoon!
I can't imagine feeling that sort of loyalty to any big publisher now. :)

2025-08-27 22:42:27 UTC

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Oh yes, number 4 is “my” Logitech logo!

2025-08-21 01:39:55 UTC

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Actually I imagine there were a good amount of Ultima and Might and Magic grannies! Eagerly awaiting Ultima IX and Might & Magic 8 with her beefy rig.

2025-08-20 22:14:12 UTC

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Grandma was absolutely kicking ass in UT99

2025-08-18 04:54:01 UTC

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It is!

2025-08-18 00:26:01 UTC

Years ago I was feeding an orphan lamb & orphan kid at the same time, spending time with them daily. The differences between the two were vast. I've been thinking about this excerpt from Small Gods for weeks. When I first read it I had no experience with goats. It's so accurate.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/046/923/892/611/627/original/44819c1c21760d5d.jpg

2025-08-16 18:42:31 UTC

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Yeah we swapped it all for very curated ‘graphic design’ looks. Which are now all being replaced by generic looking AI images, the next wave of clip art.

2025-08-16 18:27:33 UTC

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That guy has got a LOTTA teeth haha.

2025-08-15 11:28:31 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/032/542/613/808/066/original/5e9b59648c31a624.jpg

2025-08-11 03:29:38 UTC

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Literally a meat grinder waiting for the slightest mishap 😂

2025-08-11 03:12:36 UTC

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The one I remember was a power pulley, up near the engine like in this photo, not run off the PTO shaft. However it was still terrifying just because of the way the flat belt wobbles around when running. This youtube video is a great example of what I remember it looking like in motion, and you can see why I absolutely didn't trust it for a second. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwpTjrUUAKA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/007/941/416/480/439/original/a3d748a5a7c9b302.jpg

2025-08-11 01:54:06 UTC

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Those flat belt pulleys were a death trap. I haven't seen anybody using one of those since I was a kid, when helping my father pour concrete foundations for a cow yard, and we were using one of those to drive a cement mixer. I remember thinking it was the most dangerous thing and being very, very nervous around it.

2025-08-11 00:12:11 UTC

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Yes, there were plenty of Massey-Harris & Massey Ferguson tractors around these parts, too. And yes, I know those PTO shafts well - and still sometimes drive old Chamberlain tractors with those spinning there, waiting to take you out. But those old things were often very reliable, just underpowered for larger operations.

2025-08-10 23:22:47 UTC

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Yeah, it’s interesting to see this sort of stuff! Especially the fact that we’re literally on opposite ends of the earth, no surprise that there’s much that is unknown.
That being said, my father still farms with an 80s model Versatile tractor - which is Canadian! So some things are not that different at all.

2025-08-10 09:41:20 UTC

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I asked my father and he said it wasn't until 1976 that they got 240v power - so yes, all the house lights were 32v until that time. But his grandfather had 240v 10 years earlier despite being in the next town over.

2025-08-08 02:40:06 UTC

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Yes, that does! My great grandfather settled here in 1925 (we just celebrated our family's centenary of being here recently) and so that would have been the only option for power. I'm not sure exactly when the house was wired for 240v power, but I know my father remembers who did it, so it would have been in the 60s at some point.

2025-08-08 00:52:27 UTC

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Lights and fridges! Yes, they had 32 volt fridges back then! haha

2025-08-08 00:36:16 UTC

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No I think I've only EVER seen battery operated clocks, ever, other than clock radios. But also where I live especially, electricity was kind of late in coming along. My grandma's place still has the old 32 volt generator in a shed, haha.

2025-08-07 23:28:29 UTC

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haha a clock with a wall plug, that's amazing

2025-08-07 02:01:02 UTC

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Imagine, being such a big fish that you can swallow an enormous fish whole.

2025-08-07 01:29:08 UTC

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That's magnificent. I can't help but try and imagine it in flesh and life.

2025-08-07 00:58:45 UTC

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Oh that's a wonderful fossil!

2025-08-05 01:48:09 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 so nice to find a letter from you in my mailbox today. I'm saving it until tomorrow when I have time to read it properly!

2025-07-24 03:56:23 UTC

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Please keep me away from the Vista and Win8 loving freaks, please, I'm slightly misguided but I'm not *dangerous* 🥹

2025-07-24 03:31:00 UTC

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PTMSD

2025-07-24 03:08:38 UTC

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I still love Windows ME which proves that I was an idiot then and am an idiot now.

2025-07-24 02:36:16 UTC

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WE WERE ROBBED BY MICROSOFT

2025-07-24 01:41:12 UTC

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This is the same feeling as when I realised that there were another two Full Tilt! pinball tables but Windows only licensed one. (and there was a sequel, too!)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/905/659/240/040/821/original/3984550746b7f97d.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/905/659/964/085/507/original/39dc854ab2115550.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/905/660/277/916/013/original/f827baffa66e9601.png

2025-07-20 23:17:26 UTC

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Had a gig a few weeks ago where I could park my truck *right* near the stage, which was great. Set the gear up, everything tested and working perfectly, plugged my phone in to the PA to play background music before the show started. Got in my truck to move it and all of a sudden my truck is trying to connect to the phone, then disconnecting, then reconnecting as I drove away, leading to the music stopping from the stage and my truck stereo sounding haywire haha.

2025-07-19 18:58:43 UTC

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I've been curious about it! I enjoyed what I played of Islands of the Caliph - it's simple, but charming. Curious if this gets more complex!

2025-07-17 01:10:31 UTC

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/865/904/513/154/000/original/b93d75ec9535c287.png

2025-07-17 00:42:41 UTC

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Oh yeah don't play it on baby mode you're a SERIOUS SNOOD DOOD c'mon

2025-07-16 23:49:35 UTC

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I just played a round and ahhhh sweet nectar of snood, I had FORGOTTEN LIFE and played snood and they made me remember life for a week you don’t take crack away from a junkie just like that!!! >:(

2025-07-16 23:42:40 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 THEY FIXED MY SNOOD BUG oh finally I can play snood on ipad again pitchforks down everybody we’re good now
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/865/566/480/604/055/original/950d8fb103068d0d.png

2025-07-14 13:57:40 UTC

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WOW

2025-07-13 10:45:17 UTC

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oh I love this!

2025-07-12 12:31:32 UTC

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I find Wittgenstein SUCH an interesting figure in general. Revered, controversial, contrarian (even towards himself!) this is such a great anecdote, another piece of such a fascinating puzzle of a man.

2025-07-12 10:51:01 UTC

When I was in high school a visiting English specialist expressed the very sincere belief that it was time for me to stop reading Discworld and move on to more serious literature.
Two decades and lots of serious literature later and I’m here to say Discworld still rules.

2025-07-09 23:08:48 UTC

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We know our happy places haha

2025-07-09 22:58:19 UTC

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I am entirely innocent! I am the victim here!

2025-07-09 22:47:14 UTC

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I’m gonna say that this was inevitable, but also that Dobson forced me into this…
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/825/705/485/697/965/original/3df7a40eefdbc56b.png

2025-07-09 22:15:31 UTC

@npub1yqw…ywz8 Snood on my ipad is broken :’( I was only playing it last night!! How can I go on?! (I mean a sent a bug report but cmon Dave Dobson get it together man)

2025-07-08 02:17:10 UTC

I see everybody is celebrating Final Fantasy IX. A beautiful game. Here's a small tribute I did to it a few years ago.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/815/204/461/193/760/original/bf82bf56e9967ff5.png

2025-07-02 03:46:46 UTC

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this is the 90s equivalent of your mum finding your onlyfans after you teach her how to use a computer 😂

2025-07-02 02:14:12 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/781/221/347/369/525/original/0b1823d7f7f84e60.png

2025-06-27 23:28:28 UTC

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The hardest part, of course, is how to apply everything. Actually the hard part is getting a game *made*. Doing anything extra ambitious with it has been a difficulty cherry on top of that cake! :D

2025-06-27 23:08:46 UTC

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Of course that’s okay, I’ve read it and am ruminating haha

2025-06-27 13:23:17 UTC

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…shocked at how perfectly you just described them haha

2025-06-27 09:29:49 UTC

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The portraits for that game are SO weird.

2025-06-24 03:29:55 UTC

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I struggled with Dostoevsky's The Double, but have been told that's one of his weaker works. I'm planning to at least try The Idiot at some point!