So yesterday was the 2-year anniversary of when I walked away from my 20+ year career and set off to become a full-time #indiedev #solodev. This was, by most normal evaluations, an insane thing to do! But at this 2-year mark, I thought I'd look back at how it's gone so far.
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Screenshot of Twine 2.12.0 showing the new tag display, where they're shown as labels on passage cards.
Twine 2.12.0 is now out! Major highlights include a new way to see tags in the story map and a better tag autocomplete.
www.patreon.com/posts/155317...
Twine devlog: wrapping up a new, but not dramatically different, ways tags will show up in the story map. www.patreon.com/posts/154878...
My post-GDC report. Twine! Visible Zorker! The Botanical Garden! The Letterform Archive! (That last one was totally new to me.)
blog.zarfhome.com/2026/03/twin...
I belong to a different generation--my own experience was more Apple II than Mac--but I felt this essay in my bones.
This year's Game Developer's Conference, GDC Festival of Gaming, will be held March 9-13, 206 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. For the first time ever, the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation will be represented! IFTF will have a booth on the show floor Wed-Fri so please stop by.
This was the first time I’ve done a game jam with other people and shout-out to @jhaddock.bsky.social and @chrisklimas.com for leading the way! I think we landed on something super fun.
Here it is: Block by Frozen Block is a short, interactive poem I made in Twine as a vessel for ... all the stuff roiling around in my head as everyone here is fighting for our neighbors in big ways and small.
adeniro.itch.io/block-by-fro...
🦊
“Artificial intelligence isn’t going anywhere. It’s the future.”
I hear that line a lot. The thing is, futures are tricky.
ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/the-li...
With the passing of Rebecca Heineman today, I wanted to share some images from her last, now forever unfinished project. She was working on amazing stuff right up until the end.
It was Dragon Wars remastered.
Jennell Jaquays was art directing.
Tass Times in Tonetown screenshot
Huge influence on me.
What a great post about community, the people, the narcissists, governance, funding, overtakes, political backwaters, change, loss, and feeling lost.
okayfail.com/2025/in-prai...
Murderworld is now available!
A text adventure where you play as the 1989 lineup of the X-Men as they fight to win back their weekend. It's got several playable characters over the course of multiple hours-worth of grand adventure and superhero drama.
patientrock.itch.io/murderworld 🦹🏼♀️
VN-like Twine template progress: more UI tweaks + hover over a sprite to bring it into the foreground #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev art by @saltycryptid.bsky.social
You can grab Station Zeta right now in the Steam Autumn Sale for less than the price of a tariff-adjusted cup of coffee. Run, jump, and puzzle your way through the worst station in space today!
store.steampowered.com/app/2950320/...
Crab Crawl is always inexpensive but its even cheaper right now.
How about a game that you can finish on a weeknight? Is cheerful? Has got great music? Steam Deck friendly? Play as a crab!
🦀 s.team/a/3254550
The game art for my text adventure, Murderworld. It features the title and my name. It's styled like the X-Men uniform with the team's badge serving as the "O" in the Murderworld name.
I've entered a game into IFComp for the first time! It's a text adventure called Murderworld and it's about the X-Men. (Though, you don't need to know anything about the characters to play.)
Superhero drama, action, and above all: teamwork!
The IRS wants Americans to weigh in on Direct File, the agency's free tax filing program.
We already know Direct File has been widely popular and successful.
The program could save Americans billions annually between filing fees and time costs.
www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs...
Station Zeta is still half off for just a bit longer
🔹 Save the crew, though they don't deserve it!
🔹 Shoot some robots and question whether they deserve it!
🔹 Push some crates knowing full well they totally deserve it!
#indiegame #thinkygame #indiedev
store.steampowered.com/app/2950320/...
Less than 24 hours left to grab Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer during our Steam launch sale! Don't miss your chance to grab the perfect game for beating back the mid-summer blues at a 15% launch discount! #indiegame #turnbased #indiedev
store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/...
Hey folks - I am super excited to announce Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer has a release date - July 14th! What better way to spend the height of summer (or winter, hemisphere-dependent) than by diving into the deep, dark forest and keeping terrible monsters at bay! #indiedev #indiegame #turnbased
Pile of postcards for The Twine Cookbook
Chris and I have even more Twine Cookbook postcards. If you are at @narrascope.org and want one, please talk to me or @chrisklimas.com.
(I'll also be at @eliterature.bsky.social in a few weeks with some.)
Hello fellow IF fans, game writers, players and story enjoyers! Our annual conference on narrative games, NarraScope, is less than a month away. As the event draws closer, I wanted to turn your attention to the trademark Big Thermometer on narrascope.org, which tracks fundraising for the event. We are currently at $15,005, which is 60% of our $25,000 goal. To be clear: NarraScope is not in danger of going under or being canceled. However, we rely on donations from both sponsors and individuals to make sure that we don't need to dig so deep into IFTF's treasury that it could impact our other programs you love – things like IFComp, IFDB, the Twine committee, and more. This year, contributions from both individuals and institutions have been lower than in the past, for reasons we can likely deduce by looking at the world around us. These contributions are what allow us to offer attendance at a significantly lower price point than many other conferences. The conference team is working as always to continue to fundraise, but we wanted to ask that if you have the stability and ability to do so, to consider sending IFTF a small donation. You can do so at iftechfoundation.org/give/, and if you want, put a note indicating that it is directed at NarraScope and how you would like to be credited, if you so desire. Additionally, if you know any institutions that may be interested in a sponsorship, please email sponsorship@narrascope.org with the details. This year's event looks to be our largest yet, with more programming, attendees and events than any in the past! Your support helps keep NarraScope and IFTF sustainable and ensures that the event goes off without a hitch. Our in-person tickets have totally sold out, but passes to stream talks live are still available through 18 June 2025. As always, we appreciate your support, and I’m excited to see many of you next month in Philadelphia! - Justin Bortnick, President, Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation
A message from IFTF's president about this year's event (don't panic!):
Today is the last day for in-person registration for NarraScope. (Registration for remote attendance is open until June 18th.)
narrascope.org
The comment period for this ends in 3 DAYS. Please leave a comment telling them EVERYONE should be able to get covid boosters.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/FD...
Great news for your weekend: the demo for Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer is now live on Steam!
Get a head start on your summer and save some campers today!
#indiegame #indiedev #demo #gaming
store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/...
Promo graphic that reads, “Indie Game Fest. Saturday, June 7, 11am to 4pm”.
On Saturday, June 7 I'll be at Indie Game Fest at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore showing off my game, Crab Crawl!
Cool lineup of speakers, great indie games to play, and more:
calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/indie_... 🦀
