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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

@spacegoblingames.com

1K followers 480 following 440 posts

Indie text game developer, creator of Seedship and Beyond the Chiron Gate. Now working on a pulp sci-fi adventure narrated by the villain! Website: https://www.spacegoblingames.com/ Blog: https://write.as/johnayliff/ Header and avatar by Tom Morley

www.spacegoblingames.com

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · Aug 28

Coming soon* from Space Goblin Games:
(* when it's done)

"Foolish Earth Creatures: You Cannot Defeat ME!"

An interactive pulp sci-fi adventure narrated by the villain!

Follow the developer diaries here: write.as/johnayliff/

Space Goblin Diaries

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) is a creator of text-based games and interactive fiction

write.as

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 1d

Maybe all US presidents should get a special Nobel Peace Prize if they can get through their whole term in office without bombing anyone.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 2d

Apparently teenagers these days aren't going to parties as much as they used to and have fewer friends, so I guess when I never went to parties and had no friends as a teenager I was just ahead of my time.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 3d

Prof Peabody researches the weird but scientifically plausible ecosystem of an alien planet and spends a page explaining it to the rest of the cast, meanwhile Dr Zarkov has built an invisibility ray from scratch.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 3d

Plus a Flash Gordon/Dan Dare crossover would be great fun, obviously.

Dan holds Flash back from doing something stupid and impulsive that would get them into trouble. Later on Flash saves the day by doing something stupid and impulsive while Dan stands around strategising.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 3d

I'm catching up with Dan Schkade's Flash Gordon now right after reading all of Alex Raymond's 1930s-40s strips, and I'm impressed by how he's given the story its own modern identity while being faithful and respectful to the original. I'd love to see his take on Dan Dare!

John Freeman @johnfreeman.bsky.social · 4d

Flash Gordon daily strip artist Dan Schkade recently kicked off discussion of a Dan Dare reboot, prompting suggestions of a crossover with the King Features owned space hero

What If… There was a Dan Dare Flash Gordon crossover?

Space heroes united?

downthetubes.net

Reposted by John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

Dan Schkade @danschkade.bsky.social · 13d

I don't think we've had a new DAN DARE series in a while. We really ought to get on that — a MASTER AND COMMANDER meets MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM type joint maybe, could be a vibe

Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, cuts through space in his ship, The Anastasia.

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Reposted by John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 6d

sci-fi has gotta bring back dudes riding pterodactyls, that was a whole vibe

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Reposted by John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 9d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 8d

Chumbawamba's 'Tubthumping' for a movie about a monster that won't stay dead...

ɪᴍᴍᴀɴᴜᴇʟ ᴋᴜɴᴛ @soberthots.bsky.social · 8d

question for the timeline

Reposted by John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · 9d

Major Avengers: Domesday spoilers....

spoiler space

spoiler space

spoiler space

So after 1066, William the Conqueror realizes he needs a team of heroes to survey a newly conquered England, and there's only one crew heroic enough to compile a complete census of the English polity

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 10d

My writing career summed up in one image:

A goblin gleefully writes something with a quill pen, which he's holding the wrong way round. (Art from the MTG card Crime Novist.)

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 11d

New dev blog in which I talk about writing a text-based game that feels like you're playing a tabletop RPG. write.as/johnayliff/f...

Foolish Earth Creatures: September 2025

I've spent most of this month rewriting the Space Interceptors chapter based on design changes I decided to make after the playtest feedb...

write.as

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 15d

Come to think of it, the TOS-era division colours match pretty well to the MTG colours red, blue, and white (gold)

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 15d

Prediction: decks based on creating and sacrificing 1/1 red crewman tokens

Magic: The Gathering @magic.wizards.com · 15d

We're going to warp! Destination: #MTGxStarTrek in 2026! #StarTrek

A starship flies swiftly through space, surrounded by speed lines and blue light.

This art is for "Warp Speed" by Raymond Swanland.

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 15d

Dale is 100% checking out Flash's ass in this panel, right?

Dale Arden lies on the ground looking at Flash, who is in the background bending over to look at some tree roots or something.

Caption: Aided by darkness, Flash pits his woodcraft against the problem of getting through Brazor's thinly-held, but heavily armed and alert line of patrols and outposts.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 15d

Dale Arden: badass.

I feel like a modern comic would have had the gun projecting out of the panel over the gutter rather than cutting it off, but I guess they didn't do that kind of thing in the 1940s.

Dale Arden leans out of the door of a moving rocket boat and shoots a ray gun a something off panel, her lip wrinkled in a determined expression. A dying pterodactyl-like creature flounders in the water.

Caption: While Lieutenant Kolan maneuvers the powerful rocket-car towards the struggling men, Dale hurls ray-bolts at the bloodthirsty whip-hawks--with telling marksmanship.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 15d

Enjoying this a lot so far. More games could have spaceships that look like they're from 1970s book covers, I'm just saying.

Command Deck 🚀 OUT NOW on Steam! @commanddeck.bsky.social · 17d

🚀 Command Deck is OUT NOW in Early Access! 🚀

Jump into the captain's seat and get ready for intense spaceship battles!

Play it now on Steam 👇
store.steampowered.com/app/3084740/...

#indiegame #gamedev

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 17d

Share your favourite black and white movie.

Cosmic Voyage (Космический рейс) (1936). A man in a space uniform floats weightlessly across the cabin of a spaceship. This was one of the first films to realistically depict space travel, including weightlessness.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 18d

Old Skies is amazing. I was expecting fun adventure game puzzles with time travel but I wasn't expecting it to also be that moving. Brilliant piece of games narrative.

(And yes I also posted that as a steam review.)

Wadjet Eye of Sauron @wadjeteyegames.bsky.social · 22d

Old Skies is super close to 700 Steam reviews! If you played and liked the game, we wouldn’t say no to a nice review.

Also I am recovering from covid and could use the serotonin. Nothing produces happy brain chemicals more than seeing numbers go up.

store.steampowered.com/app/1346360/...

Old Skies on Steam

A time travel adventure spanning two hundred years! Dive into the past with time agent Fia Quinn as she embarks on seven trips through time. History is up for grabs, from the speakeasies of Prohibitio...

store.steampowered.com

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 19d

Maybe I'll announce a game called "The Rapture" and then keep pushing back the release date

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Reposted by John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games)

Junch @junchgaming.bsky.social · 19d

LAST 24 HOURS TO SUPPORT THE CHARITY

As we approach the last 24 hours of the Play for Peace: Games for Palestine Charity, I want to share a few thoughts, learnings and thanks for everything these past 10+ months.

Charity bundle link: itch.io/b/2979/play-...

Thread below⬇️

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John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 21d

It's just occurred to me that the 1980 Flash Gordon movie is almost as old now as the first Flash Gordon comics were when that movie came out.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 21d

What movie do you consider "perfect"?

Aliens. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley holding Newt in one hand and a flamethrower in the other looking badass.

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 22d

At last we're back on Mongo, planet of beautiful women in floor-length skirts and uncomfortable looking metal bras.

In an alien jungle, Flash and Dale stand opposite a haughty red-headed woman wearing a gold bra, gold belt, and floor-length white belt.

Caption: Flash Gordon, hero of a thousand adventures--and Queen Desira, the imperious queen of Tropica--stand face to face, measuring each other. For somehow, in that first moment, they both realize that this meeting will change their destinies.

Next week: Fate's Trap

John Ayliff (Space Goblin Games) @spacegoblingames.com · 22d

I don't know, Zarkov, maybe it's the rocket ship design on the wall behind you.

Dale Arden, wearing a 1940s dress and holding a piece of paper, stands with Dr Zarkov, who's wearing a yellow coat and lighting a pipe. They're in his study, on the wall of which is a diagram of a rocket ship.

Caption: Zarkov returns to his study to find Dale fingering Flash's note, which contains just enough information to arouse her suspicions: "You're going to Mongo, aren't you?" Zarkov masks his surprise: "What rot! Whatever gave you that idea?"