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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦

@raphlife.bsky.social

5.6K followers 680 following 2.8K posts

He/Him. Get over it. Exploring apocalypses. I founded and lead Hinterland, and created THE LONG DARK. Director, writer, designer, human. Proud Canadian. Just doing my best.

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · Dec 13

So excited for the fantastic team at @hinterland.bsky.social . We just announced BLACKFROST: The Long Dark 2, at @thegameawardsfeed.bsky.social.

Can't wait to bring you into this new world and a different take on the "quiet apocalypse".

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wlt...

BLACKFROST -- The Long Dark 2 -- Announcement Trailer

YouTube video by Hinterland

www.youtube.com

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 3h

Wow, today I learned Jason Blum is a fucking idiot.

britt hayes @britthates.bsky.social · 12h

Jason Blum's take on AI sucks. an AI takeover isn't inevitable, and treating it as such (while also referring to filmmaking as "content creation," smdh) helps AI companies promote the lie that their deeply unprofitable, destructive tech is more powerful and useful than it actually is.

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 3h

"This thing we completely don't understand and that super well-funded grifters have convinced us we really need surely isn't going away! We'd better learn to live with it."

...said nobody with a brain and a modicum of critical thinking skills, ever.

Reposted by Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦

Sam Barlow 🔥 @mrsambarlow.bsky.social · 9h

Utter spineless failure

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 10h

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Reposted by Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 18h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 15h

If someone on my team used it, it's against my strict instructions and will be dealt with internally.

If one of our forum mods took action around the original post, it wasn't via instruction from me.

I'm just gathering info. I appreciate this being brought to light. But not your motivations.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 23h

What exactly are your motivations for sharing it then?

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 1d

Fascinating.

www.theguardian.com/games/2025/o...

Cold war power play: how the Stasi got into computer games

A new exhibition in Berlin shows how the notoriously paranoid East German state greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm

www.theguardian.com

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 1d

I'm pretty shocked to see the image on the left. I'm investigating to see if this is real.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 1d

Words to live by, from an author who knows.

H e t e r o t o p ia @artsofexistence.bsky.social · 1d

"Don't let the bastards grind you down."
-- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale #BookSky

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Reposted by Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦

Ash McAllan @acegiak.bsky.social · 1d

Welp, Im a casualty from last weeks Stockholm Gamedev Bloodbath
10+yrs makin stuff, "an unstoppable creative force" & "patient, clear, & deft at design"
Here for creative leadership, game design, narrative, & good-trouble-making roles so reach out if you need me
linkedin.com/in/acegiak & acegiak.net

Generation Zero Cover Image featuring A person with dog robot companion firing a rocket launcher at a giant bipedal robot.

Cover image of Game Of Thrones: Tale Of Crows featuring 3 dioramas of the frozen north and the wall of ice

Cover image of City Of Red Waters featuring cedar trees in a red bayou

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Reposted by Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦

Abigail Larson @abigaillarson.com · 1d

In honor of Edgar Allan Poe's 176th deathday, here are a few of my recent pieces inspired by Poe's works 🫀

Illustration by Abigail Larson depicting a scene from Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Annabel Lee". Two lovers embrace at the edge of the sea, water splashes around them and the surrounding rocks. A full moon shines over them, and storm clouds loom.
Published in "Sticker Jigsaw: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection" 2024 Macmillan

illustration by Abigail Larson of a raven perched on a skull with a teal curtain backdrop

illustration by Abigail Larson depicting a scene from Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" showing a man restrained as a pendulum blade swings close to him. Rats have swarmed around him, chewing the ropes that hold him down. This illustration is featured in "Sticker Jigsaw: The Edgar Allan Poe Collection" for Macmillan Books.

Illustration by Abigail Larson for Macmillan's "Edgar Allan Poe Sticker Jigsaw" book. The illustration is a scene from Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven". The narrator is at the center of the image looking up at at raven perched above an open doorway. Behind the narrator is a tall window with red curtains, and the ghost of Lenore lurks nearby. A black cat is watching the scene from the lower right corner.

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 1d

Holy crap, I'm a huge huge fan of what you did with GENERATION ZERO. I put 120 hours into that game and often think about going back to explore 1980s Sweden. Very much an under-appreciated sandbox IMO. Well done.

I hope you find something equally intriguing as your next project.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 1d

This is actually much worse than how stupid that was.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

🔥

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

Oh god I know. They are absolute magic.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

(My other near run-in with Scott was when his production company tried to have a TV show called THE LONG DARK made and yeah, we put a stop to that.)

(Also, I'm not sure I'd agree that all movies are shit now, but many many of them are! Especially noticeable when you watch pre-2000s stuff.)

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

I'm a big Ridley fan. I hope he does justice to Dog Stars (it was one of the novels that inspired TLD and I even tried to option it at one point, but it went to Scott instead...which is entirely fair 😅).

Alex James Kane @alexjkane.itch.io · 2d

King of the haters, bitchiest artist ever to do it, made Blade Runner and knows it,

Johnny @doctorvenkman.com · 2d

My king

variety.com/2025/film/gl...

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

The world is literally burning and these AI goons want to completely destroy it in search of endless money so they can escape to the Offworld Colonies or whatever.

OpenAI does not deserve to exist & its customers are some of the worst people.

Yes, if you use it, that means you too, you dumbass.

Kittie @kittiepeters.com · 2d

delete chatgpt and stop using generative AI 🖤🤍

Sam Altman’s AI empire will devour as much power as New York City and San Diego combined. Experts say it’s ‘scary’ | Fortune

Andrew Chien told Fortune he’s been a computer scientist for 40 years but we’re close to “some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.”

fortune.com

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

Imagine appearing before the Canadian supreme court and realizing you're in a country where what they're wearing can be your biggest concern.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

"Shut your stupid fucking face."

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, I've been a paid subscriber to The Guardian for years. Sadly they have almost no Canadian coverage at all (which is odd b/c I see endless Australian news...)

Not happy with their AI stance, though. It's got me rethinking that subscription too.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

Yup. Just picked up our library cards this past weekend. 👍🏻

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

I know. Every time my wife and I walk into our local bookstore we walk out with a stack of new books that then get added to the growing pile.

It's like a Steam list of shame but it takes up a lot more space. 😅

We've started cycling our books through little lending libraries dotted around us.

Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

Also, and this is quite subjective and probably speaks to privilege, but if you have any kind of leadership responsibility in your work, there's nothing better than having one place you can go to where someone else makes the decisions and tells you what to do, and you just do them.

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Raphael van Lierop 🇨🇦 @raphlife.bsky.social · 2d

The trainer piece is important IMO, because unless you have a lot of time or have free access to people who really know what they are doing, you can spend a lot of time going to the gym and getting nowhere.

Work with a professional who understands your goals. Or you can really fuck up your body.

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