alienmelon.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

via mastodon, City of Six Moons: hollandspiele.com/products/cit... “Its rules are written in “alien” diagrams and its designer is steadfast in refusing to answer any rules questions about it. It plays around with the question of what is a board game if its rules are ambiguous or even unknowable.”

submitted 17 minutes ago • 1 comment

with the prevalence of things like standards, or best design practices, it’s easy to forget that games & software are all fantasy. the digital world is a collective construct. it doesn’t have to be any one way. games can be anything, so why not design something completely unconventionally unique.

submitted 1 hour ago • 1 comment

Feed: "The Candybox Blog" By: alienmelon on Tuesday, May 20, 2025

submitted 22 hours ago • 0 comments

here’s a small curation of games that exist outside the urge to be understood. “Digital art: I want to be confused. I don’t want to understand. I want to see something for the first time again. Rarely a game does that, and when it does it’s a precious thing.” www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/not...

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

~Not Quite A Game (Games that go beyond the need to be understood)~ "Maybe language is deeper than words. When you take words away there’s this sense of awe you can find when having to learn how to understand something. You need to meet it on its own terms. That’s what’s special about digital art."

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

~Not Quite A Game (Games that go beyond the need to be understood)~ "Maybe language is deeper than words. When you take words away there’s this sense of awe you can find when having to learn how to understand something. You need to meet it on its own terms. That’s what’s special about digital art."

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

“The future of games curation will be bloggers, hobbyists, and small people that take it on themselves to share their passion with others. Where established voices have failed us, there will be true alternatives pursuing something better. We are our own solution.”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Absolutely adore this; the idea of four mice on screen as devs bicker instantly and strongly appeals to me given that one of my favourite parts of playing ttrpgs online is everyone scrambling to make cobbled together images and in-jokes in Google slides whenever they're not actively speaking lmao

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

“The future of games curation will be bloggers, hobbyists, and small people that take it on themselves to share their passion with others. Where established voices have failed us, there will be true alternatives pursuing something better. We are our own solution.”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

These echo my hopes and fears for games media's future, for sure. No one should feel unsafe, least of all those on the margins. Digital play and writing about the potential loveliness of that experience shouldn't be this fraught.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

As always, Nathalie and their work are fascinating. Nathalie does not deserve harassment, at all. I really like their thoughts about the death of mainstream games media (some of it self-inflicted) and how curation of small indie games and art games specifically needs its own ecosystem. Good post.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

i published a post about conversations i had at A MAZE, on an important topic… Conversations About Curation And The Future Of Games Crit: www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/con... "The future is something wildly different. One that will function outside of these outdated norms and compromised values."

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

i published a post about conversations i had at A MAZE, on an important topic… Conversations About Curation And The Future Of Games Crit: www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/con... "The future is something wildly different. One that will function outside of these outdated norms and compromised values."

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

This is an incredible use of Bitsy. It's a messy and scrappy document of a brilliantly unexpected jamming method. I think watching the process was the best part of this, to the point where I reckon with a bit of production it could make a really cool audience event.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

There should be a games press level, cultural boycott of Microsoft.

submitted 47 days ago • 2 comments

Hello world! Welcome to Exhibit Play. We're dedicated to discovering and sharing hyper specific curated game lists. No algorithms, no AI. All human curated.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Will write a blog post about my time at A MAZE. soon. But right now I can say that this experience has deeply changed me. I'm digging through "abandoned" projects, and seeing a lively cosmic presence. Old projects are new again. Future projects are entering into unknown experimental territory.

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

sharing this one last time before letting it vanish into the 👁️social🙀media😱void👁️ forever…

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

And if you have a website, STOP FUCKING PROMOTING THESE THINGS TOO.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

It's true. It's a whole thing. There are hundreds if not thousands of gen z who were or are apart of virtual democracies that have ended in insane and unhinged ways and that doesn't even involve the skullduggery going on in fandom servers.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

today's advertisers are all cowards

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

I've been making video games in some form for 20 years, so I wrote an article about my process - and why I don't use an engine. noelberry.ca/posts/making...

submitted 2 days ago • 39 comments

Implemented a new solitaire where at first the cards have ambiguous suit & value, and you need to move them around to reduce their options until they resolve into specific cards (the two-letter combos are to help identify cards before they resolve)

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

made a zine for my dnd character (hogry hailflurry the tabaxi barbarian) using Electric Zine Maker on itchio which is also part of this bundle that has like 6 hrs left on it go go go get it itch.io/b/2965/crips... #dnd #zine #dungeonsanddragons #oc #originalcharacter #ocsky

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

At some point you have to wonder what's even the point of having independent games criticism if all you're doing is following the same tired treadmill that literally every news outlet that's been hollowed out in the last 5 years has followed to its eventual death.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

what was interesting this week was the discussions about curation & the future of games crit. imo games crit, esp mainstream, hasn’t ever worked well for smaller games. with the way it evolved historically, and from what…imo games are still too new of a medium. i don’t think we “figured it out” yet…

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

i just posted the game made during the A MAZE "massive multiplayer Bitsy" workshop :) alienmelon.itch.io/too-many-gam... "The game posted here is the accumulation of effort from multiple teams. As it turns out, and much like there can never be "too many games", there can never be "too many gamedevs"

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

what was interesting this week was the discussions about curation & the future of games crit. imo games crit, esp mainstream, hasn’t ever worked well for smaller games. with the way it evolved historically, and from what…imo games are still too new of a medium. i don’t think we “figured it out” yet…

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

yay it got posted! it was awesome to see the whole process and being a small part of it, great job everyone <3

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

i just posted the game made during the A MAZE "massive multiplayer Bitsy" workshop :) alienmelon.itch.io/too-many-gam... "The game posted here is the accumulation of effort from multiple teams. As it turns out, and much like there can never be "too many games", there can never be "too many gamedevs"

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

I'll try not to respond fawningly to every post in this thread (though they all deserve it!), but the phrase "interactive-essay-meets-walking-sim about technocapitalism" is like catnip to me. And wow, what an itchio page ahaha. Huge congrats to Nathalie for making something fascinating.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

🥹 yay 🎉😌🙏

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

one fun observation after this being shown at A MAZE is that not being allowed on steam… 1) gives your game clout 2) people that played it pretty consistently say “thank god for itch.io” (i feel like the latter is a good takeaway)

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

one more day left and it’s so close it it’s goal!! 😱🤯 let’s goooooOoOO!

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

A MAZE outfit 💃 felt good. did not delete later. leaving berlin now on a… 🎶 bussSsSssS 🚌💨 (goodbye A MAZE, i had an amazing time 💖)

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

Set up at the last day of AMAZE (but in the x-market this time)

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

3 more days to go and it’s at $84,030 of its $100,000 goal 😱 let’s goooooo!!! “This amount will help Crips for eSims for Gaza replenish their budget and better meet future needs.”

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments