Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Adam Hartling

@xenosns.bsky.social

390 followers 810 following 1.8K posts

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Citizen archivist of Nova Scotia video game development history. Sometimes hobby game dev. - He/Him https://hgcarchive.wixsite.com/hgc-archive https://linktr.ee/XenosNS https://xenosns.itch.io

hgcarchive.wixsite.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Adam Hartling

shweep @shweep.dev · 4h

Why dont they make an actual FF crossover RPG. Like ff5 levels of derangement where youre junctioning materia onto the license boards tied to weapons that are syncd to the crystarium with every FF character playable.

1 1 1

Reposted by Adam Hartling

TIFF @plushmayhem.bsky.social · 8h

Good morning 🌞
Shipping to the states is moving along safely so consider grabbing a friend for you or a pal!
plushmayhem.etsy.com

6 29

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Design Room @designroom.bsky.social · 9h

🚨🚨🚨

We are live! Welcome to Design Room, a new independent games media site.

• We specialize in oral histories like the Final Fantasy 7 and Street Fighter 2 ones I (@mattleone.bsky.social) did at Polygon
• Our first big story is on Shadow of the Colossus: bit.ly/4hjwz8n
• See more: designroom.site

Design Room

Video game oral histories

designroom.site

12 190 350

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 9h

yup!

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 10h

We often will tell new hires all the past horror stories, kind of like ghost stories around a camp fire haha

1 1

Reposted by Adam Hartling

AlexMacLean @alexmacns.bsky.social · 13h

#HaliSky 🤩

3 6 70

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Nathalie Lawhead @alienmelon.bsky.social · 14h

😱 a horror story based on real events 💀
The Email They Shouldn't Have Read
it-notes.dragas.net/2025/10/08/t...
“Because when a company that claims to “support open source” behaves like that, we all lose.
…And that’s the real horror of the story - not the software, but what people do with it.”

The Email They Shouldn't Have Read

A real-world horror story about contracts, control, and the dark side of managed open source.

it-notes.dragas.net

2 3 13

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 13h

Still reading this, but the line "Sometimes, when public money is involved, people prefer avoiding troubles over doing what’s right." is so true! I've been in gov IT for years and seen that many times.

1 4

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Joël™💜 - Indie Game Dev @jdeepixels.bsky.social · 20h

A pivot for this #TrailerTuesday

Celebrating the upcoming Red's Revenge Demo launch on steam. Optimized and now supporting gamepad!

An eerie powerwash horror game.

#Indiegames #gamedev

Wishlist today to be notified of the demo launch!

store.steampowered.com/app/3993460/...

8 12

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

Check out extended gameplay from Superstar Strategy by @talberon.com during Steam Next Fest!

store.steampowered.com/news/app/175...

Superstar Strategy - Check out extended gameplay from Superstar Strategy during Next Fest! - Steam News

Superstar Strategy is heading into Steam Next Fest! Try out the latest demo and check out some extended gameplay from the full game! See a variety of content including gameplay from the Campaign missi...

store.steampowered.com

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

If anyone knows where to source more Simulations Canada newsletters, or any other materials, please let me know!

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

Discovered Simulations Canada mailed out newsletters for a while, this was the only one I could find to acquire so far. Hoping to source more.

While checking out the game included, found a mail in card for the mentioned newsletter with the disk, nice

1 1

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

Couple of new items for the Nova Scotia game dev archive!

1 1 2

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Kate Gray @hownottodraw.bsky.social · 1d

Some new lines in Hello Kitty Island Adventure that I wrote! Writerly insight in the alt text (along with actual descriptive alt text)

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Cinnamoroll is saying "Or think about things..." and the character can reply with one of the following:
1. The meaning of life?
2. Quantum mechanics?
3. World peace?
4. Fermat's Last Theorem?

Writerly insight: I love to write jokes that imply that Cinnamoroll is actually incredibly smart and just never gets the opportunity to use it, because he's usually cast as a very childlike puppy who loves making friends and being cute. Secretly, at least in my head, he's winning Nobel Prizes for physics.

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. TOPHAT, a glitchy character with a big purple tophat, says "I don't feel like my performance has really... changed in any way." You can reply "gotta boost that FPS" or "do we have a VSync setting?"

Writerly insight: TOPHAT is the character with the most potential for self-aware "oh my god we're in a video game" jokes, I think, especially as he isn't an actual Sanrio character, so we can have more fun with him. This quest, called Bug Report, is an inside joke from the developers to the players, in which TOPHAT tries to figure out what a "bug report" is, by catching bugs, because he's heard that "getting rid of bugs" improves your performance and speed, which he likes the sound of. You, the player, obviously know what it means, so you suggest things that might ACTUALLY improve performance. Get it?

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Chococat is saying "A combination of reverse-wise concave extrusion and shrinking meshes."

Writerly insight: I love when characters spout sciencey jargon. Chococat is the "smart guy", so I usually give it to him. This particular sciencey jargon is pulled from 3D modelling, combined with nonsense. What is "reverse-wise"? Who knows, but it sounds smart, and that's what's important.

A screenshot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Pompompurin says (about pizza) "Do you fold yours? I like to roll mine up and eat it like a tube."

The player can respond:
1. I fold
2. I roll
3. I start with the crust
4. I just eat it normally?

Writerly insight: It's always fun to offer the player a chance to go along with the wacky nonsense that happens in the game, where everyone is just a little bit silly. I wanted to come up with several ways to eat pizza like a maniac, including at least one that I have seen someone do in real life (the crust one). I think it's also fun to have the player play the Straight Man role in their responses, where everyone else is being completely chaotic, and you can be the one to gently point out that they've all gone mad. Hence the last response.

9 11 71

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

I was just talking about this show recently, still have the USB boots you gave me 😊

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Robert Wood @octopodig.bsky.social · 1d

A single-player mission I'm calling "Pruning" whereby you choose a Titan and attempt to get a high score in clearing non-friendly habitats from the board. #Titanomachina

2 2

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 1d

Haha took me a moment to understand that. Never heard of the British Pugwash for many years, never was broadcast here.

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Nocturne: Art at Night @nocturnehalifax.bsky.social · 2d

🌃 🔦 Experience over 90 one-night-only projects on Saturday, October 18, 6PM-midnight in Halifax’s Downtown, Waterfront, North End, Spring Garden & Universities district, and Downtown Dartmouth.

1 3

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Tell him I collect pencils as souvenirs when I travel

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Colours fit

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Looks cool, adding to my play list

Reposted by Adam Hartling

Video Game History Foundation @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social · 2d

VGHF recently archived a LucasArts press CD-ROM from 1996 as part of the GamePro archives, including a full history of the company to date: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/fc835949-e496-47ff-9800-e8f5428e01e2 (The LucasArts .com website got '5,000 visits a day' back in 1996!)

1 34 120

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Good Luck Sign Of The Cross GIF

ALT: Good Luck Sign Of The Cross GIF

media.tenor.com

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Beautiful fall day in Pugwash & Wallace

1 15

Adam Hartling @xenosns.bsky.social · 2d

Beautiful fall day in Pugwash & Wallace