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Fergus Doyle

@mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social

900 followers 610 following 680 posts

Brittunculus. A frightful hobgoblin stalking throughout Europe. Something Yorkshire in the state of Denmark. I write games and sometimes I put them online. Narrative Designer, Sea of Rifts: https://www.seaofrifts.com/ Website: https://mrfergusdoyle.com

www.seaofrifts.com

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · Nov 19

Hey, I'm Fergus! I don't think I ever did an introduction post, so here we go. I'm a British Narrative Designer/writer type who's been living in Copenhagen for nearly 4 years now.

Until recently I've mostly been working on my own interactive fiction stuff and game jams (mrfergusdoyle.itch.io )...

Title screen for BARGHEST OF THE HEATH, imitating the frontispiece of an early modern pamphlet

A scene from DETECTIVE BUNNYCHICKEN were a little fat bunny chicken hybrid in a deerstalker interrogates one dressed as a chef.

A screenshot from THE FORRAY, with drawings of a lift door, a flashlight beam on a mushroom, a hand reaching for a mushroom on the left and text on the right

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 45m

Saw this one the other day - made me laugh that they'd also taken the logo off the back

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 2d

EXTREMOPHILE is probably the best book I've read this year and, if you're quick, you can make it the best book you read this year

Ian Green @ianthegreen.bsky.social · 2d

I've decided that whilst critical success is lovely, I'd like to sell some books.

If you liked EXTREMOPHILE, recommend it to a pal! (If your pal is fucking COOL and not a narc)

Eco-terrorism biohacking body horror, smart shit with dumb characters. Your new favourite book

Ian Green @ianthegreen.bsky.social · Oct 30

'A visceral, doesn't-give-a-damn biopunk thriller that treats the "punk" part of that subgenre not as mere window-dressing but as an antifascist shriek... vital and urgent SF that reaches places realist writing never could' ― @interzone.press

If you like cool shit get this 🕶️

geni.us/extremophile

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 4d

I have a theory that when designing a social simulation / generator, it can be useful to keep in mind a story you’d like your system to be able to organically generate. not every system should generate the same story but I have a short list of high-salience interesting stories I reach for. (1/2)

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Mads @madsfs.bsky.social · 7d

#gamedev 🎮 #dkgame : Yesterday I went to the Danish bi-monthly event "Dev ➤ Test ➤ Repeat" and took some pictures and played some games. If you are in or around Copenhagen, come be part of it next time! It's free and you get pizza!

mads.blog/dev-test-rep...

#indie #games #copenhagen #denmark

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 6d

Sea of Rifts, my current gig, is very much a sickos game and this quote is a much better worded version of how I describe my narrative design work on it (I usually say I get the player to do the hard work of constructing a story for me)

Kitfox community organizer Alexandra Orlando said that the interactions and outputs of those systems invite players to take on the role of storytellers themselves.

"These games force you to sit with what you're seeing. Whether it's because the graphics are lo-fi or Dwarf Fortress' feed being very non-descriptive, it allows you to fill in those gaps in an interesting way," Orlando said. "The heart and soul of it is sitting with your dwarves and figuring out how you see their personalities interact with each other and different situations. That's where the player stories come from."

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 7d

If you're enjoying it, Cherryh's Cyteen books are also great

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 7d

Earth is one of the lost colonies in that setting - humans all come from Hain and Earth is the annoying younger sibling they'd rather forget about, according to the Dispossessed

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · Oct 19

Authority - Jeff VanderMeer

A re-draw of the "this is fine" comic (the one with the dog drinking coffee while everything burns down around them) but with lots of lovely house plants in the place of the burning kitchen.

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 12d

William Gibson voice:

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 12d

Japan days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry due to cyber attack – reports

The attack forced the company to halt production at most of its 30 factories nationwide, including those producing its signature beer The Asahi group, Japan’s biggest brewery, is reportedly just days away from running out of its most popular beer, as it struggles to recover from a cyber-attack that caused a system outage. The ransomware attack, reported on Monday, forced the company to halt production at most of its 30 factories nationwide, including those producing it signature mass-market lager Asahi Super Dry. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Fergus Doyle

disc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 12d

Keir Starmer teams up with suspicious, abusive neckbeard and disgraced customs official, Mark Carney, in a new podcast which promises to be as shitty as you're imagining it to be.

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 14d

Decided to take the "Big Switch" prompt for #inkJam literally and make a game with... A big (light) switch. Took some time implementing it in Godot, but happy with the tech - now to write the damn thing

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Cassetteboy @cassetteboy.bsky.social · 15d

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer.

This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 14d

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Grant Howitt @gshowitt.bsky.social · 20d

worldbuilding: it's easy and fun

screenshot of two tables. text is as follows:

NU-CIGARETTE BRANDS (1D6)
2-3
LUNGFVCKERS (disgusting stunt cigarettes for punks)
4
Dark Horse Extra Tar (for grown-ups only)
5
Steamboat Williams (old-fashioned taste)
6
Razzberry Ices (heavily flavoured, for ex-vapers)
7
Double Standard Reds (completely average)
8
Double Standard Blues (as above, in a blue packet)
9
Amazon Basics Cigarettes
10
Samsung Smartdarts (app reminds you to smoke)
11-12
Godseye Golds (very expensive, very smooth)

SYNTHETIC ALCOBEVS (1D6)
2-3
CANPAGNE (canned sparkling wine analogue)
4
Kikkoman KICK (developed from legacy soy sauce stockpiles)
5
GUNCH (unidentifiable flavour, very alcoholic)
6
Dogbone Draught (masculinity-themed alcopop)
7
OzBoz (Antipodean-style “lager” with a koala mascot)
8
Buckfast 2: BUCKFASTER
9
ScrumpMax XL (ruinous apple-flavoured ethanol)
10
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vodka (incorrect, you can and will)
11-12
McWiddie 10yr Old (single malt marketed at children)

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 21d

All the -OTUS initialisms sound like one of Immortan Joe's kids you only find out about in the Mad Max game

Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Giada Zavarise @cheerfulgoth.bsky.social · 24d

Today I made an important contribution to humanity: uquiz.com/gaDdV2

Warhammer paint or Makeup palette?

Can you tell which colors are official Warhammer paint names, and which are eye shadows from my girlfriend's makeup bag?

uquiz.com

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 24d

83% - the trickiest ones were the "adjective colour" ones, since I have some vestigial memory of how GW name their paints

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 25d

Thanks to the podcasts i listen to I also had this reaction, despite being a Brit who got brought up catholic/Methodist/C of E/Quaker (long story)

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 28d

Glad they've got the Académie Française approved footnote there

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 28d

Reading The Name of the Rose and someone should make a game based on it! Maybe set it during the reformation, that's a bit more accessible than poverty doctrine and you get the rise of printing, and Germany is a bit more interesting than Italy... maybe shift the perspective to a layperson...

Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 29d

Tbh there were a lot of rural vicars who would be running flat earth YouTube channels if they were alive today

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 29d

And the rest was made up by some victorian guys who couldn't get into the freemasons

Kate Watson @loreandordure.com · 29d

Another in the continuing series loosely titled “just about everything you have been told is ancient Celtic paganism was made up by some dude in the 1970s”:

it's frank-en-SCHTEEN 🏳️‍⚧️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @mxfrankduffy.bsky.social · 29d

your yearly reminder that #Mabon is a Welsh word plucked out of Y Mabinogi by an American Wiccan in the 1970s for some bullshit reason (maybe bc Welsh sounds all Elvish to non-speakers), it has fuck-all to do with the autumn equinox, & the Welsh witches I know refuse to use it #witchsky

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · 29d

I read somewhere that France has the highest tax burden in Europe, but you dont necessarily notice because its spread out so much (unlike here in Denmark where its one big lump)

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Reposted by Fergus Doyle

Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · Sep 13

There's no reason to take any reporting about Tyler Robinson at face value right now. Countless officials, law enforcement agencies, politicians, influencers, and reporters have been wrong, hoaxed, or caught making things up. Social media is making us all crazy and stupid.

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Fergus Doyle @mrfergusdoyle.bsky.social · Sep 13

I got to the first bench and decided it was time to do something else (luckily still don't think I have to be there yet)