Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
@sdob.bsky.social
Senior Programmer at Failbetter Games. He/him.
Yarn Spinner continues to look more and more interesting with every release. Built-in fallthrough support at choice points is a really exciting feature.
Yarn Spinner 3.1 just dropped. option fallthrough so your game doesn't stop, async everything, new typewriter system, and if you grab the storefront version you get Text Animator support (huge thanks to @febucci.com!) out of the box.
we're pretty happy with this one
yarnspinner.dev/blog/yarn-sp...
we're pretty happy with this one
yarnspinner.dev/blog/yarn-sp...
Yarn Spinner 3.1 is Here | Yarn Spinner
Yarn Spinner 3.1 is out now. This release brings async dialogue runner methods, option fallthrough for graceful branching, a completely reworked typewriter system, and our first included paid add-on: ...
yarnspinner.dev
December 3, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Yarn Spinner continues to look more and more interesting with every release. Built-in fallthrough support at choice points is a really exciting feature.
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
We can only describe our character designs as preposterously luscious!
Here's a detailed look at how we created the neighbours you'll be meeting in our upcoming game, Mandrake.
#indiedev #indiegames (Please do share!)
Here's a detailed look at how we created the neighbours you'll be meeting in our upcoming game, Mandrake.
#indiedev #indiegames (Please do share!)
December 2, 2025 at 12:10 PM
We can only describe our character designs as preposterously luscious!
Here's a detailed look at how we created the neighbours you'll be meeting in our upcoming game, Mandrake.
#indiedev #indiegames (Please do share!)
Here's a detailed look at how we created the neighbours you'll be meeting in our upcoming game, Mandrake.
#indiedev #indiegames (Please do share!)
I played through Duskpunk over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it; strongly recommended to my fellow Fallen London heads.
100% this. Duskpunk could be reaching soooo many more people!
Speaking of:
store.steampowered.com/app/2610880/...
Speaking of:
store.steampowered.com/app/2610880/...
December 1, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I played through Duskpunk over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it; strongly recommended to my fellow Fallen London heads.
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
Zork is now open source
Two years ago, I wrote: Microsoft-the-company does not care about Infocom. But a lot of people in Microsoft must care. Microsoft is heavily populated by greying GenX nerds just like me. Folks who grew...
blog.zarfhome.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
At Develop 2024 I gave a talk on how we tested the narrative logic in Mask of the Rose, now up on YouTube. If you're interested in testing branching narratives with millions of possible states, but you also love dumb jokes delivered in a monotone, then hold onto your hat: youtu.be/7nxGsml1DUY?...
Testing Branching Narrative at Scale: Lessons from Mask of the Rose | Develop:Brighton 2024
YouTube video by Develop:Brighton
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 8:34 AM
At Develop 2024 I gave a talk on how we tested the narrative logic in Mask of the Rose, now up on YouTube. If you're interested in testing branching narratives with millions of possible states, but you also love dumb jokes delivered in a monotone, then hold onto your hat: youtu.be/7nxGsml1DUY?...
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Tag yourself in this 1800s list of supernatural entities of the British isles
October 10, 2024 at 10:35 PM
Tag yourself in this 1800s list of supernatural entities of the British isles
This is correct!
I think it’s time for everyone to sack off the other games they are playing and just play Blake Manor. I will also accept if you are saving it for Thanksgiving or other festive holidays
November 17, 2025 at 2:50 PM
This is correct!
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
🧵I've posted them before, but here's my thread of horror/kids' TV double-bill cinema posters. Happy Halloween...
#halloween #cinema #graphicdesign #poster
#halloween #cinema #graphicdesign #poster
October 31, 2025 at 9:39 AM
🧵I've posted them before, but here's my thread of horror/kids' TV double-bill cinema posters. Happy Halloween...
#halloween #cinema #graphicdesign #poster
#halloween #cinema #graphicdesign #poster
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.
October 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
NUTS is the party cannon of the steam halloween thing lol
October 28, 2025 at 11:02 AM
NUTS is the party cannon of the steam halloween thing lol
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
August 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
“What’s the charge? Eating a seal?”
October 13, 2025 at 10:37 AM
“What’s the charge? Eating a seal?”
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
just spotted that cyberpunk does doom-style sprites for distant cars and characters... amazing
October 9, 2025 at 9:30 AM
just spotted that cyberpunk does doom-style sprites for distant cars and characters... amazing
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
September 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
I previewed Mandrake for The Guardian. Everything I heard about the game sounds delightful, a narrative-focused, folkloric take on the rural life sim with weirdness to burn.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/a...
Mandrake – the rural life sim that lets you befriend a river and eavesdrop on the dead
Failbetter’s beguiling take on country life has its comforting routines but slowly reveals a richer and stranger life than you expect
www.theguardian.com
August 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
I previewed Mandrake for The Guardian. Everything I heard about the game sounds delightful, a narrative-focused, folkloric take on the rural life sim with weirdness to burn.
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/games/2025/a...
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Hard to express how annoying this is - surely after 30 years of the internet, people who make online forms should have figured out that some people’s names (as recorded in their passports) do have special characters?? (Solidarity with my fellow apostrophe owners!)
July 17, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Hard to express how annoying this is - surely after 30 years of the internet, people who make online forms should have figured out that some people’s names (as recorded in their passports) do have special characters?? (Solidarity with my fellow apostrophe owners!)
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
This is a beautiful article on Fallen London. The FL team put out some of the best writing in games *every single month*, and it’s wonderful to see that recognised.
(Got quite emotional to see shroom-hopping mentioned, too: one of my first pieces of work for games.)
www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/iv...
(Got quite emotional to see shroom-hopping mentioned, too: one of my first pieces of work for games.)
www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/iv...
I've swapped modern live service games for a browser game that's been running since 2009
I’ve found my new favourite book, only it’s interactive and I choose where it goes, if the constables will let me.
www.pcgamer.com
July 12, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This is a beautiful article on Fallen London. The FL team put out some of the best writing in games *every single month*, and it’s wonderful to see that recognised.
(Got quite emotional to see shroom-hopping mentioned, too: one of my first pieces of work for games.)
www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/iv...
(Got quite emotional to see shroom-hopping mentioned, too: one of my first pieces of work for games.)
www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/iv...
I've been really, really looking forward to this. Tributary's last game, King of the Castle, was a banger and I've been waiting a while to find out what they'd do next.
Occlude, the game of cosmic horror Solitaire is out TODAY!
Play through seven fiendishly difficult Rituals, unlock multiple endings, reveal hidden lore and break the world.
Go read our full blog post here: store.steampowered.com/news/app/354...
Play through seven fiendishly difficult Rituals, unlock multiple endings, reveal hidden lore and break the world.
Go read our full blog post here: store.steampowered.com/news/app/354...
July 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
I've been really, really looking forward to this. Tributary's last game, King of the Castle, was a banger and I've been waiting a while to find out what they'd do next.
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
As game dev I often wonder if my intuition about the Steam market matches reality. So I did a small game to test it: Guess how many reviews a random game has. You can now play it too on steamle.com
July 7, 2025 at 8:50 PM
As game dev I often wonder if my intuition about the Steam market matches reality. So I did a small game to test it: Guess how many reviews a random game has. You can now play it too on steamle.com
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
we literally invented an entire scripting language because word handles bulletpoints so badly
Technology will make everything more efficient.
Tech bros are Tech gods who will provide these miracles.
Also Tech Bros - 'What is a bulletpoint?'
Tech bros are Tech gods who will provide these miracles.
Also Tech Bros - 'What is a bulletpoint?'
July 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM
we literally invented an entire scripting language because word handles bulletpoints so badly
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
Tonight! Get your store page ready!
Steam Store Page Reviews!
In pre pandemic days I had a commute and a Twitter following who were in need of Steam marketing advice, so I put those two things together and spent an hour a week doing brief, constructive reviews of their indie game's store page.
Tomorrow I will do so again!
In pre pandemic days I had a commute and a Twitter following who were in need of Steam marketing advice, so I put those two things together and spent an hour a week doing brief, constructive reviews of their indie game's store page.
Tomorrow I will do so again!
July 2, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Tonight! Get your store page ready!
The [shipped] description of Hogslain Market in Mask of the Rose is "Likely just a corruption of ‘Hog’s Lane’, but I'd keep my pet pig on a leash all the same."
Hard to get that kind of placeholder content out of a machine that can't experience true sleep deprivation, I'd imagine.
Hard to get that kind of placeholder content out of a machine that can't experience true sleep deprivation, I'd imagine.
July 1, 2025 at 8:25 PM
The [shipped] description of Hogslain Market in Mask of the Rose is "Likely just a corruption of ‘Hog’s Lane’, but I'd keep my pet pig on a leash all the same."
Hard to get that kind of placeholder content out of a machine that can't experience true sleep deprivation, I'd imagine.
Hard to get that kind of placeholder content out of a machine that can't experience true sleep deprivation, I'd imagine.
Reposted by Séamus Ó Buadhacháin
In case you missed it, we went into some more detail about Mandrake on Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/3710210/...
June 20, 2025 at 9:05 AM
In case you missed it, we went into some more detail about Mandrake on Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/3710210/...