Amabel Holland
@amabel.bsky.social
She/her. "Widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers." - The New Yorker
Board games: https://hollandspiele.com
video essays: youtube.com/@hollandspiele
Patreon: patreon.com/amabelholland
sidekicking: youtube.com/@SBPlaysGames
Board games: https://hollandspiele.com
video essays: youtube.com/@hollandspiele
Patreon: patreon.com/amabelholland
sidekicking: youtube.com/@SBPlaysGames
Pinned
Amabel Holland
@amabel.bsky.social
· Jun 16
📌I'm Amabel (she/her), a board game designer. Out of my 80+ games, I'm best known for City of Six Moons and Irish Gauge.
I co-own the publisher Hollandspiele. In my spare time I make video essays about the future & history of games.
I'm a slutty poly trans woman, and I talk about all of the above.
I co-own the publisher Hollandspiele. In my spare time I make video essays about the future & history of games.
I'm a slutty poly trans woman, and I talk about all of the above.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
the legend of Zelda: Madoka's Mask
November 29, 2025 at 1:20 AM
the legend of Zelda: Madoka's Mask
Reposted by Amabel Holland
MIDNIGHT SUNS is pretty fun so far, but the writing is really bad. Like the whole script is written by a guy who heard “They fly now?” And it -changed his fucking life.
November 28, 2025 at 11:56 PM
MIDNIGHT SUNS is pretty fun so far, but the writing is really bad. Like the whole script is written by a guy who heard “They fly now?” And it -changed his fucking life.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
I FUCKING HATE this notion of "it's not the left and right. It's the bottom and top."
NO, ASSHOLE! LEFT REPRESENTS THE BOTTOM, THE WORKERS, THE MARGINALIZED.
NO, ASSHOLE! LEFT REPRESENTS THE BOTTOM, THE WORKERS, THE MARGINALIZED.
November 28, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I FUCKING HATE this notion of "it's not the left and right. It's the bottom and top."
NO, ASSHOLE! LEFT REPRESENTS THE BOTTOM, THE WORKERS, THE MARGINALIZED.
NO, ASSHOLE! LEFT REPRESENTS THE BOTTOM, THE WORKERS, THE MARGINALIZED.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Is Gordon Willis the greatest cinematographer in history? And other such questions.
November 28, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Is Gordon Willis the greatest cinematographer in history? And other such questions.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
everyone who works at openAI should be tried as an accomplice
November 27, 2025 at 6:20 AM
everyone who works at openAI should be tried as an accomplice
the fun part is for most people it almost never works because the part of my brain that does this isn't actually/accurately predicting how person X would feel/react but how other people reacted in my childhood despite knowing they've nothing to do with each other
also: does everyone else create emotional simulacrums of everyone in your life in your head so you can try to predict how the thing you’re about to say to them will make them feel, because you really need to avoid saying anything that will make them unhappy with you?
November 28, 2025 at 2:26 AM
the fun part is for most people it almost never works because the part of my brain that does this isn't actually/accurately predicting how person X would feel/react but how other people reacted in my childhood despite knowing they've nothing to do with each other
Reposted by Amabel Holland
so this is like, one of the biggest free speech infringements by a western democracy in our lifetimes right?
November 28, 2025 at 12:11 AM
so this is like, one of the biggest free speech infringements by a western democracy in our lifetimes right?
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Dorcas Reilly was the hero America needed and I’m not joking.
![Reilly retired in 1988. 31 In 2002, Reilly and Campbell's donated her recipe for green bean casserole to the National Inventors Hall of
Fame. 10]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:p5go7wmeju6ms57bit6kjy4s/bafkreiflevx2oobytunn4og7auzmrjtfjolu6omwhmreju56pcu53yelse@jpeg)
November 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Dorcas Reilly was the hero America needed and I’m not joking.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
stranger things is just a prestige ready player one
November 27, 2025 at 9:44 PM
stranger things is just a prestige ready player one
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Source familiar w/ MC specifically stressed that this does have corporate stressed
i think people should keep in mind that the call center being stressed does not mean the company as a whole is stressed. the target companies make their money by basically taxing a large portion all transactions. even if you 10x the cost of operating their call center, they'll barely notice it
Guys, as a ex call center employee, this is fucking DESPERATION BEHAVIOR.
Pizza and ice cream once may be an entire year's planned discretionary budget for a team, they do NOT value them enough to provide common comfort. If their doing this? Their not just scared, their TERRIFIED.
Pizza and ice cream once may be an entire year's planned discretionary budget for a team, they do NOT value them enough to provide common comfort. If their doing this? Their not just scared, their TERRIFIED.
November 27, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Source familiar w/ MC specifically stressed that this does have corporate stressed
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Calendars are really weird like
Have you ever noticed that every time easter is on a sunday the next two thanksgivings in a row are on thursday
Have you ever noticed that every time easter is on a sunday the next two thanksgivings in a row are on thursday
November 27, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Calendars are really weird like
Have you ever noticed that every time easter is on a sunday the next two thanksgivings in a row are on thursday
Have you ever noticed that every time easter is on a sunday the next two thanksgivings in a row are on thursday
cute and she knows it
November 27, 2025 at 8:50 PM
cute and she knows it
Samhain is explaining Alan Wake to her mother and I forgot what a meta-referential thing this is
November 27, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Samhain is explaining Alan Wake to her mother and I forgot what a meta-referential thing this is
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Can’t think of a better advertisement for @nebula.tv than the fact that the top video on the platform is FD Signifier’s essay on Charlie Kirk, which just got taken down on YouTube, even though YouTube had reviewed that much more censored version of the video and approved it.
November 27, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Can’t think of a better advertisement for @nebula.tv than the fact that the top video on the platform is FD Signifier’s essay on Charlie Kirk, which just got taken down on YouTube, even though YouTube had reviewed that much more censored version of the video and approved it.
Reposted by Amabel Holland
I eventually came to the same conclusion Chris did about the reason for the effect.
It's not bulletproof, but it has helped me find a lot of good stuff! For one, this is responsible for me watching We're All Going To The World's Fair when all I knew about it was the title:
It's not bulletproof, but it has helped me find a lot of good stuff! For one, this is responsible for me watching We're All Going To The World's Fair when all I knew about it was the title:
November 27, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I eventually came to the same conclusion Chris did about the reason for the effect.
It's not bulletproof, but it has helped me find a lot of good stuff! For one, this is responsible for me watching We're All Going To The World's Fair when all I knew about it was the title:
It's not bulletproof, but it has helped me find a lot of good stuff! For one, this is responsible for me watching We're All Going To The World's Fair when all I knew about it was the title:
Reposted by Amabel Holland
I noticed a version of this effect years ago that has come to be called the Samhain Ratio in our house: a movie is much more likely to be interesting if its Rotten Tomatoes critic rating is at least 20 points above its publicly contributable ratings (RT audience, IMDB, etc.).
I have gathered my thoughts and turned it into a fun blog about how IMDb is hell. I hope you like a long, under-explained list of movie ratings. aftermath.site/imdb-review-...
November 27, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I noticed a version of this effect years ago that has come to be called the Samhain Ratio in our house: a movie is much more likely to be interesting if its Rotten Tomatoes critic rating is at least 20 points above its publicly contributable ratings (RT audience, IMDB, etc.).
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Absolutely solid rave from the children, just like this Maurice Sendak story! www.openculture.com/2015/09/maur...
November 27, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Absolutely solid rave from the children, just like this Maurice Sendak story! www.openculture.com/2015/09/maur...
so hey actually if you let the commenters on your blog misgender me without censor or reply, it doesn't matter if you don't do it yourself, I absolutely will never send you review copies again
holy fuck people how is this hard
holy fuck people how is this hard
November 27, 2025 at 3:16 AM
so hey actually if you let the commenters on your blog misgender me without censor or reply, it doesn't matter if you don't do it yourself, I absolutely will never send you review copies again
holy fuck people how is this hard
holy fuck people how is this hard
Reposted by Amabel Holland
The reason that we reporters are focused so intensely on the L'affair Nuzzi is that, as Olivia notes, it is a basically apocalyptic scandal in the most literal sense of that term: a dropping of masks. It's acting as confirmation of every hideous story anybody's ever told about political journalists
this was bad before, but these are the most troubling and serious allegations you can make about a journalist. if they’re true, i genuinely can’t think of a worse scandal in the history of political journalism. devastating to our industry, to public trust as a whole, and to everyone in its orbit
November 27, 2025 at 2:14 AM
The reason that we reporters are focused so intensely on the L'affair Nuzzi is that, as Olivia notes, it is a basically apocalyptic scandal in the most literal sense of that term: a dropping of masks. It's acting as confirmation of every hideous story anybody's ever told about political journalists
The main reason the game came out in November instead of our original target date of February 2025 is we were trying to figure out how to affordably include sleeves and just had no luck finding a source
to the tune of “Exhuming McCarthy”!
it bothers me more than it should that a game which mechanically requires sleeves doesn’t come with them.
it bothers me more than it should that a game which mechanically requires sleeves doesn’t come with them.
November 27, 2025 at 1:51 AM
The main reason the game came out in November instead of our original target date of February 2025 is we were trying to figure out how to affordably include sleeves and just had no luck finding a source
once I came out as trans, some women and queer folks in the industry finally told me the stories they told each other about the Dice Tower, and frankly the "neutrality" is a smugly-deniable front
Leave it to The Dice Tower to continue to exhibit anti-trans sentiment by reviewing the much maligned, not-a-secret-that-it’s-controversial-and-awful, transphobic wizard game version of a mediocre party game.
Fuck them some more. God damn. Sanitized, hands-off, noncommittal bullshit people. Ugh.
Fuck them some more. God damn. Sanitized, hands-off, noncommittal bullshit people. Ugh.
November 27, 2025 at 1:29 AM
once I came out as trans, some women and queer folks in the industry finally told me the stories they told each other about the Dice Tower, and frankly the "neutrality" is a smugly-deniable front
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Reposted by Amabel Holland
i take frenzy damage every time i see someone go "well i just use it for the boring stuff". what are you TALKING about? if it's boring or unimportant, why are you putting it in? NPC dialogue is fertile ground for worldbuilding, creating verisimilitude, conveying important information, and hijinks!!
Buy a solo indie dev's game because I want to support them.
Find out it uses OpenAI to write "non-important NPC dialogue".
🫠
Find out it uses OpenAI to write "non-important NPC dialogue".
🫠
November 26, 2025 at 9:08 PM
i take frenzy damage every time i see someone go "well i just use it for the boring stuff". what are you TALKING about? if it's boring or unimportant, why are you putting it in? NPC dialogue is fertile ground for worldbuilding, creating verisimilitude, conveying important information, and hijinks!!