Ep. 154: Gathering Community with Ben Rausch and Anja Venter (Playtopia)
Rob and Doug are joined by two co-organizers of Cape Town's
@playtopia.bsky.social Festival (Ben & Anja), as well as familiar guests @chouxsalad.bsky.social and @alt254.bsky.social.
secretlives.games/154-gatherin...
a lot of folks around GDC at the "all chat" event at tiat last week saw me do a bite sized version of this talk about childhood memories of new age, pure moods, and how it ties into conspiracy theories & much more. anyway, reminder: you can watch the full version here www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6wg...
new TSLOG! @doougle.net and i went to the inspiring @playtopia.bsky.social fest in cape town, with podfriends @chouxsalad.bsky.social and @alt254.bsky.social. we invited two of its dev-organizers (ben and anja) to chat about scenes, local events, and how to make it all work: overcast.fm/+AAR9o0RXEUY
Tthe only moment of FOMO I had this week of not being at GDC was this panel: absolute stars talking about teaching about gen AI - @alt254.bsky.social @chouxsalad.bsky.social @n-w-f.bsky.social @codingcrafter.bsky.social @recardona.bsky.social @cheesetalk.bsky.social @flantz.bsky.social
I’m not the fastest at phone typing but will do my best to try and post from the Experimental Games Showcase at GDC 2025!
I have at times live-posted GDC sessions and now I’ve picked “Teaching Games with Games” where @alt254.bsky.social & @chouxsalad.bsky.social have designated this year’s 4-person panel topic as “teaching students about generative AI” without doing what S.B. describes as “cop shit” (policing AI usage)
This is also a rare chance to see Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Beginning of a New Era. It’s at the Metreon on
Monday 3/9 at 3:15pm
Tuesday 3/10 at 5:00pm
Wednesday 3/11 at 7:45pm
No joke—Kubrick inspired queer coming of age sports anime based on historic Japanese horse races that took place in 2001 🐎
Hey! Listen! I'm playing an hour of modular synth music for the ROMchip fundraiser! www.twitch.tv/romchipJournal
Schedule of streamers for the ROMchip fundraiser
There are a bunch of amazing folks streaming as part of the ROMchip fundraiser—excited to be a part of the stream again this year :)
Hey! At 1PM PST/4PM EST I'm playing a modular synth set focusing on house music and samples of home themes for the @romchip.bsky.social fundraiser!
Learn more at donate.romchip.org and watch the stream (live now) at www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal
we got the full schedule out for the ROMchip fundraiser! we definitely need a treat: donate.romchip.org
(and we're almost a $2K in early donor contributions!)
miracle of miracles, it's finally HERE
📣 The full schedule drop for the ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories 🎮 @romchip.bsky.social Twitch Fundraiser on Feb 21st
Check out everything we got coming down the line: donate.romchip.org/2026-schedul...
I think this was my favorite segment of the marathon—your enthusiasm for Cubivore was infectious!
What a finale! Thanks so much to @alt254.bsky.social and @chouxsalad.bsky.social for hosting and @nyugamecenter.bsky.social for putting together another amazing No Quarter! See you next year!
had the great honor of playing on the little baby apple team at the hexidecipadathon on saturday!!
this was the craziest tetris match i’ve ever played
what a great time
Loved seeing you at No Quarter @essaygames.bsky.social! Wish Steph and I could have stayed in NY a little longer to catch up—next time :)
If you missed the HEXADECIPADATHON you can watch the whole VOD at www.twitch.tv/videos/26255...
0:51:55 Pre Show
1:04:55 Forming Teams
1:18:05 Seeding Brackets
1:31:00 Schedule
1:35:09 Round 1
1:57:00 Round 2
2:11:55 Round 3
2:23:55 Round 4
2:46:35 Semifinals 1
3:08:45 Semifinals 2
3:44:08 Finals
The tournament deserves a full analysis but the semifinals between @boshis.place's Little Baby Apples and @wonderville.nyc was ELECTRIC!
Luckily @ma.lloc.ca clipped the final moment feat iconic commentary by @lainenooney.bsky.social: "WELCOME TO NEW YORK CITY BABY!"
www.twitch.tv/nyugamecente...
Sheesh, this is so good and completely under my radar.
In October I got obsessed with importing Deadlock's map into Unity to use as a playground for coding experiments. Here's some pics from that journey!
NYU Game Center presents: NO QUARTER - an exhibition of new games by Jana Romanova * Julian Cordero * Nicole He & Remi Forcadell * Patrick Lemieux & Stephanie Boluk - 7:00 PM November 22, 2025, NYU, 370 Jay Street, 2nd Floor Ballroom. Brooklyn New York
Finally, as if a week of events wasn't enough:
SATURDAY NOV 22 at 7PM NYC's pile of weirdo/artsy/indie game-makers hosts the 14th annual NO QUARTER exhibition of games, with four never-before-seen works of play at a big party.
RSVP for a free ticket WHILE THEY LAST: noquarter2025.eventbrite.com
I-PAC forever. love these things.
Ending the night with some classics
Spotted an I-PAC in the pink, circuitboard-studded bathroom
One thing I need to implement in the tournament is an “untangle round”
In all my years of showing the Octopad I’ve never seen so many wells formed in the middle of the field (vs on the right or left). NY style multiplayer Tetris?
Some cozy 4v4s taking place in classic Tetris! We’re using Eric Anderson’s TAUS to excavate Nintendo’s unfinished two-player mode: github.com/ejona86/taus
We’re in the cabana near the bar—gonna start with some chill single player games before breaking out Player 2!
A blue poster featuring two hands grasping bundles of NES controllers but instead of 8 buttons on 1 controller here there’s 1 button on 8 controllers…times two! The text reads “The Octopad Open at Wonderville; Saturday Nov. 8 from 3-8pm; 1186 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11221.”
Ding ding ding! We are now here at @wonderville.nyc for the third and final session of the OCTOPAD OPEN!
You can find us at 1186 Broadway in Brooklyn from 3-8PM! For more info check out:
www.wonderville.nyc/events/the-o...
Of course we’re following it up woth some chill 8-player Final Fantasy VII Demake
