Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 1d

The term I've been using lately is super specifically nerdy and it's "Hanlon's Macuahuitl"

"Unfortunately these days, you can usually attribute things to both malice *and* stupidity"

James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 2d

It's difficult at times to hold both "this admin is doing lasting and serious damage to our institutions and the globe" and "this admin is full of the most bafflingly incompetent idiots you've ever seen who fall over themselves like a Vaudeville act constantly."

The duality of man is incredible.

Reposted by Zach

Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 2d

Today's video was a hard one for me to make - I wanted to talk about my experiences going through burnout in the last year or so as a game designer, and aspects of the wider tabletop industry that contribute to that.

youtu.be/D2rC_8F10R8

🎲✂️

The reality of being a full time game designer

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan

youtu.be

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 2d

Have you been watching my design posts of PACT with anticipation? Are you going to SPIEL Essen this year? Well I'm setting up the game at booth 3U130 Thursday Morning and Friday Afternoon!

Stop by!
Play!
Ask questions!

questions like "Is this Silksong: The Board Game?"

PACT prototype - play the game with the designer
10/23/25 10:00 AM - 1:30 PM
Hall 3 3U130

PACT prototype - play the game with the designer
10/24/25 1:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Hall 3 3U130

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 2d

🎲✂️
I love that James here honestly tells everybody at this lecture "you will have a hard time making abstracts a product, but it's fun and interesting to design them anyways"
youtu.be/qFxZ4cL6UJM?...

James Ernest: Traditional and Abstract Game Design

YouTube video by James Ernest

youtu.be

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 3d

I feel required to share this RPG about bugs being little bugs in a big world. It's quite a bit more optimistic than my take.

Plus you can build a base on a fox that carries you around, and I love it
felixisaacs.itch.io/pico-core-bo...

PICO Core Book (digital) by Felix Isaacs

A tabletop RPG about tiny bugs, huge adventures, and riding cats

felixisaacs.itch.io

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 3d

Hanlon's Macuahuitl

"Unfortunately these days, you can usually attribute things to malice *and* stupidity"

Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 6d

How dare you say that about my favorite genre, Pagan Vaporpop Punkhop

Michael Meir Saltzman @saltzman.bsky.social · 6d

I say this as someone who really likes electronic music: the overwhelming majority of genres and sub genres have virtually no meaningful distinction & it makes me feel crazy when ppl try to make a new genre label for every other artist they like

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 6d

I feel like NPC movement is non-diagetic in this game. No way me, a demi-god is struggle-bussing to get past some stupid red pods and spikes while Nuu is just waltzing past all the enemies to lick the boss I just killed

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 6d

A screenshot of a boss dragon from the Dark Souls series, with the knight resolutely facing it down and Sherma happily singing within frame

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 6d

It's a stealth horror game, and while you need to sneak past enemies at times (where playing your little bell is necessary to regain FAITH, a critical resource), the way you get past most major bosses is by giving the depressed and cynical NPCs in the area enough hope to deal with the problem.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 7d

🎲✂️
We're starting work on iconography and cards, in the hopes of having something to show off at Essen Spiel.

A variety of small icons for a board game, showing the player icons for 4 players and action icons representing movement of acorn pieces and treasure.

Jenna: Cocoon to show new moth with laurel leaves. laurel leaves are associated with royalty

Orich: Moth shape with broken wing and eye to show that Orich is always watching

Neith: Nothing works better than the web for this character

Matuk: Flame of Revolution plus instead of one matchstick, 2 which also represents bug antenna

Holy Bloodline:
Jenna earns support twice from the (lunae) faction
Jenna may move 3, displace 1, and shift 1

Shows off the action icons for the card

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 8d

I love love love the look of this!

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 9d

ludo-narrative synchrosity

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 10d

All good man, it's an interesting conversation.

I agree cardboard standees feel cheap, but that's because they are the affordable option for many low budget ($5000-, 1000 copies) indie kickstarters.

But if you just, please don't cheap out on the clip

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 10d

I've also been eyeing transparent acrylic with a two sided print as a great way to provide good looking pieces that don't feel chunky

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Reposted by Zach

HELL-azear @lazear.bsky.social · 11d

*after this is all said and done and people are looting the Oval Office.

Hey, this shit is all just spray-painted plastic.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 10d

Give me a better cost effective small batch version of miniatures and I will.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 11d

(It's not correct with standard sailing, where going directly into or with the wind basically locks yours ship movement, but not sailing IN SPAAAAACE, where real physics can be a gentle suggestion)

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 11d

Similar, but the idea is by encoding the arcs in the base, you can simplify both speed and turning radius based on ship orientation.

You could even say that if your ship is against or with the wind you do not move but get extra turning radius

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 12d

Have not tested with a physical prototype so this is a possibility, but my thought is that when you turn you hold down the base and rotate the ship standee.

I didn't imagine the wind changing being a key part of any game this would be included in.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 12d

Idle 🎲✂️ thought: a tabletop game utilizing a "sailing with the wind" where wind direction is inherently coded into the base of every miniature.

Some light doodles of a combination of a printed base and a standee, with a standee is allowed to spin freely within the printed base. On the base are multiple arcs of various angle sizes, and an arrow that allows the base to be oriented in the same direction as a compass on the board.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 14d

So eventually I commandeered another parent to watch for him at the bottom and went in after him. Got him to accept a merely one story tall slide and got the heck out

Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 14d

He wasn't going to leave unless I dragged him out, or he found the top of the slide, and I couldn't go after him without the chance of him finding the top sliding to the bottom and losing himself again.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 14d

Every once in a while while running around the edge desperately looking for him, I could see his signature hoodie as he stopped and recalibrated his location relative to the big spiral slide.

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Zach @zhoekstra.bsky.social · 14d

Goddamn softplay places are anxiety inducing as a parent. My son loves slides, and when he entered he locked onto the big two story tall spiral slide. With an a minute he was gone, lost in a maze of climbing structures I couldn't easily follow him into.

A picture of a soft play place, a series of suspended platforms connected by ramps and bridges.

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