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common-or-garden Mads 🦆

@madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social

960 followers 320 following 840 posts

Mads Mackenzie 💀 narrative game dev, mundane birdwatcher, sometimes cosplayer 💀 co-director @ Freeplay 💀 they/them, icon by Penta

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · Oct 18

since my bio on here didn't have enough space and I have some new-new followers

hi, I'm Mads, I'm director/narrative designer at @fine-fiends.bsky.social and co-director at Freeplay

outside games work I'm into cosplay, and I love horror and birdwatching

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 9m

PAX is basically the only event that doesn't do artist alley, everywhere else here it's standard!

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1h

I think it's clear in the case of Hades that it's a key element of the game's identity, so saying it specifically should be different would be missing the point. But, as a bigger trend, I'd love more stuff that plays it straight. I liked Hadestown in this regard for being sincerely tonally 'mythic'.

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1h

This is a fantastic piece; I bounced off Hades for a couple of reasons and I think this captures one of them well.

While the 'casual, modern' tone can help it connect with people who might not be into the source material, it does lose something! It's sad so much SFF defaults to it right now.

Endless Mode @endlessmode.bsky.social · 8h

Hades II demeans the mystery and grandeur of myth through its shallow writing and unserious tone, writes @gracemachine.bsky.social. www.endlessmode.com/video-games/...

Hades II's Ill-Defined, Unserious World Undermines the Depth and Power of Mythology

With its cardboard cutout characters, Hades II flattens the fearful, uneasy mystery of its mythic inspirations.

www.endlessmode.com

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 2h

I am always saying this

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 2h

i'm switching to drac mode 🦇

Lal's holding the fort right now at PAX but if anyone is around and wants to say hi, lmk! I'll be there from 1ish

Drăculești @ PAX Together 🦇 @fine-fiends.bsky.social · 3h

We'll be at PAX Australia this weekend 🧛‍♂️ come visit us in the Together Lounge

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 11h

Please visit Rose Chong's Costumes on Gertrude St for all your Device needs

(Note: the Device is probably too large to travel to NZ)

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 11h

Thanks to everyone who came to Parallels tonight!

And extra special thanks to...

@joshalanb.bsky.social
David and Tyler
@10pmclub.bsky.social
@walistudios.au
@tanamakes.games
@cinnadev.bsky.social
@soyoudontneedto.bsky.social
@tanatb.housefuckinggame.com

For your incredible talks! 🪝

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 11h

tana was the only one who got properly deviced, too

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Reposted by common-or-garden Mads 🦆

🇵🇸 lisa @MIGW @spacewahine.bsky.social · 14h

The Device Strikes

Tana is about to be pulled off stage by Mads with The Device

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Reposted by common-or-garden Mads 🦆

cécile @haraiva.bsky.social · 21h

bro the pollen today... pop a antihistamine before you head outside for parallels folks

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 21h

for real! ask when it's not games week and i can send it over

"Community replaced with robots and public appearances mediated through monitors, where then is the undying Mr House? Should the Courier ally with any of the other factions, they are required to descend into the basement of the Lucky 38, where Mr House’s body is kept on life support in a hermetically sealed chamber, and either kill him or disconnect him from his network of robots and monitors. Each action has the same outcome: Mr House’s impossible longevity is revealed to be a more extreme counterpart to the impossible water features and impossible buildings that populate the Strip as we know it. Unable to leave the Lucky 38 and his humanity so diminished that New Vegas’ enemy classification system designates him an ‘abomination’, Mr House experiences a rough facsimile of immortality that functions so long as his existence has entertainment value. As the ‘masked scarcity’ of water can only continue if water features use maximum amounts to produce spectacle and ‘debased landmarks’ can only be constructed if their hyperkitsch concepts seem unlikely enough to draw crowds, Mr House is shut down by the Courier when they, on behalf of the desert, decide infrastructure, conquest, or independence are more valuable than anything he can offer (Futrell 90, Irazabal 204). His concealment in the innermost chamber of the Lucky 38 is an anthropomorphisation of the other hidden threats to Las Vegas’ sustainability, as well as insurance that he is the sole maintainer of his value set. The single avenue for dissemination of his culture is the Courier’s support of his faction, their natural engagement with other cultures in place of his uncanny robotic outreach. As individuals and institutions from 1941 to 1966 proved, however, the Strip’s cultural existence is a struggle against the natural, a place of purchased control over artificial kingdoms. Expecting Mr House to pursue other avenues of self-preservation is just another impossible dream."

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 21h

the Deep Lore is that I did my Masters thesis on New Vegas and picked through a lot of his talks and interviews on game design for it, so a lot of my education in 'how to be a game director' is based on his work

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 23h

YES THE DEVICE

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 23h

I have an object (non-dangerous) ('beware' in the spiritual sense) that I will wield against speakers who run overtime. They have been warned.

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

this year at Parallels... beware The Device

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

shout out to all the gay goths out there!!

Jam Walker @jamwa.bsky.social · 1d

Making my @qualbert.com debut with a chat with @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social about indies and games events. :)

Freeplay’s Mads Mackenzie Talks Indies at Games Events

We spoke with Drăculești designer and Freeplay co-head Mads MacKenzie in the lead-up to Parallels, and discussed the impact of physical events on indie games.

www.qualbert.com

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

There's a chain here called Market Lane that does two, that's my go-to

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

also let's all hope the shoe repair place got my nice boots fixed in time so i'm not in sneakers

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

i'm doing the most important task of all: washing my nice shirt so i can wear my nice suit. it had better dry in time! stay tuned.

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 1d

it's parallels tomorrow... wait technically it's parallels today. waow.

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 4d

Congrats!! 🎉🎉🎉

common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 4d

it turned out I only had ten minutes left when I set it aside, too

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 4d

nothing like a longstanding rivalry to get you to stop procrastinating on something

(I started Ace Attorney several years back and got so fed up with 1-5 that I never finished it, but last night @itsalex.bsky.social told me he'd started and finished it in a single day. SO,)

The end of case 1-5! A successful defense!

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 4d

I'm just kind of going ❓️❔️❓️ at it, Lal asks 'do you want to DM it sometime'

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common-or-garden Mads 🦆 @madmacsfuryroad.bsky.social · 5d

Now the fall fronts just need buttons! So many buttons...

In the meantime, I'm making the shirt, which is a repeat of the pattern I used for Moriarty but wayyy more straightforward since I'm not embroidering any of the pieces and there are no pintucks to account for. It's so easy it feels wrong.

The front and back of a currently armless shirt