The future of public game arts festivals and non-commercial games culture

Freeplay Parallels in 2024 in Naarm Melbourne, Australia

This year the oldest living art games non-profit in the world, Freeplay (Australia), announced they were like a year away from shutting down, so they're running a survey on what to do. They have some money, enough for one last conference, or one last showcase? Or should they do something else?

It's easy to see this as part of a broader global discourse about the future of non-commercial game arts events around the world. There used to be many more events, but now there's not. What's happening?

A lot of discussion happened on Bluesky, where it was instantly lost and forgotten in the churn of the feed. So I'm writing this post to archive / preserve some of that Discourse. I also want to add some of my own thoughts as an extra-special non-Australian outsider who visits occasionally.

Notes on level design workflow for the 3D platformer Big Hops

overview of the Ocean intro level

I made some levels for the 3D platformer game Big Hops by Luckshot Games, and it's finally released! You can now play it on Steam, Switch, and PS5.

So far the game is getting 7s, 8s, and 9s. Most players like the level design, though some kinda hate it, which is fair -- we went for a chill cozy-ish hands-off no-combat experience that won't hit for everyone, but the people who like it really do like it. I'd compare it to Psychonauts or Banjo Kazooie, with some Mario Galaxy / Breath of the Wild / Sly Cooper bits.

Despite the lack of complete universal adoration, I do think we figured out decent level design practices that worked OK for this scope / type of 3D action game. Some of these dev practices may surprise you; it certainly surprised me when I realized what we were doing. So in this post, I'll talk about some of our level design workflow for Big Hops...

SPOILER ALERT: I spoil some mechanics and levels, but not in detail. I don't spoil any of the story or the ending. Don't worry about it.

new Quake map: "One Need Not Be A House" for Quake Brutalist Jam 3

"One Need Not Be A House" is a large non-linear concrete bunker island / brick brutalism map that I made for Quake Brutalism Jam 3 -- a huge single player mega mod for Quake 1 with 77 (!!!) modernist-inspired levels made by the community.

You can download and play it for free here, as part of the QBJ3 mod at the Quake community hub Slipseer. This time the jam organizers even made a 100% free standalone download with no Quake purchase required!

(BUG REPORT, 13 JANUARY 2026: there's some reports that sometimes my map crashes Ironwail v0.81, which is the engine packaged in the standalone download. Sorry. As a workaround, you can use vkQuake instead. Or just skip it, there's 76 other levels to play anyway!)

In this post I talk about my inspirations, intent, and what happens in the level. 

This is your last SPOILER WARNING: if you care about spoilers, play the level for yourself first.

Life notes (2019-2025) + Sweet Sixteenth (16th) Blog Anniversary Mega-Roundup

I haven't done one of these end-of-the-year blog roundups since December 2018. This blog is now 16 years old. Maybe now's a good time to catch up over the past 6 years of my life??

Here's my "greatest hits" / notable blog posts since 2019, along with some commentary with the benefit of substantial hindsight. 
⭐ = Gay game release / artist statement.

2019

• Thick skin: complexion, realism, and labor in games is still a good one, comparing the tech art of layering multiple texture maps in modern 3D game materials to Lucian Freud's fleshy painting.
• Radiator European Tour 2019 (London, Berlin, Milan) + Lessons from Europe: field reports from EGX Rezzed, Now Play This, and A MAZE Berlin provide a snapshot of the pre-pandemic games festival circuit in Europe. Flying back-to-back weekends between New York and Europe sounds glamorous but it was actually a mild nightmare and it made me realize I didn't have the energy / desire to try to become a "real artist" and all the travel it'd require.
• State of the design blog is when I officially started blogging less. Little did I know that 6 years later, it'd be the year of the blog!!

2020

• The powerful presence of non-presence in "Out For Delivery" is my last VR-centric post, about a remarkable piece of VR filmmaking in Wuhan just as the pandemic was beginning. I think it might even be the last VR thing I ever played?
• My fy_iceworld feature for Rock Paper Shotgun is probably the best thing I've written for RPS. Read the comments in part 2 for a possible tantalizing conclusion to the mystery too -- though without evidence, it's impossible to confirm anything. Thanks to editor Graham Smith for believing in it.
• ⭐ Hard Lads as an important failure. Personally I think this is one of my better gay games / masculinity simulators, and it doesn't even have any explicit nudity. It also happens to be one of my better artist statements / essays too. It's my only game to get reviewed in Art in America -- again, I was on the cusp of entering the art world, and I had to decide whether to commit to it or not.
• I got burnt out on streaming and I started making Quake maps. I can't find a blog post for my first Quake map, but #2 is Smell It In The Street and #3 is It Will Be Summer Eventually. I wouldn't say they're good levels, I was still learning TrenchBroom and figuring out my Quake design voice, but they play OK enough.
• The year of changes - kia ora Aotearoa. And the big one: I announced I was leaving New York City and moving to Aotearoa New Zealand, where I still currently reside today. (You can't get much further from the art world than this?)

2021

• ⭐ We Dwell in Possibility as queer gardening simulation was a Manchester International Festival commission and represents the height of my fine art dabbling. I still feel a bit cheated by the pandemic here -- it would've been great to attend MIF in-person and experience it firsthand. At least the game turned out pretty good! One art critic said it was surprisingly subtle and open, compared to my other games -- I forget his exact words, but it was something like -- it's my least American game.
• Three more Quake maps: #4 is Daughter Drink This Water, #5 is Tell Me It's Raining, and #6 is When There Were Wolves. I believe Daughter is regarded as one of my better maps, an adaptation of Hang 'Em High from Halo 1 that gradually unfolds itself. It represents the point when I finally became proficient and fluent enough in TrenchBroom and Quake mapping, culminating in my Quake Renaissance series for Rock Paper Shotgun.
• Open world studies: for some reason this is the year I wrote big design analysis blog posts about big meaty open-ish RPGs -- Deathloop, Enderal, and The Forgotten City (2021).

new game: Rainbows Are Carnivores, a gay fishing / aquaculture romance

Rainbows Are Carnivores is a gay fishing / aquaculture romance video game about using your pole to catch some high quality hogs.

"Hog” is, of course, angler slang for a big fish, like a rainbow trout. It could also refer to the many rainbow men who happen to inhabit this video game lake.

You can play the game for free in your web browser, on desktop or mobile. Though I must warn you, it's a bit difficult, so be patient. It'll take 10-20 minutes depending on your luck / prior aquaculture expertise.

CONTENT WARNING: the game is rated-R, but this post is mostly PG-13. There's a butt.

SPOILER WARNING: this post SPOILS the gameplay and ending. Play it first if you care about spoilers.

The bleak and poignant open world sidequest design of Dread Delusion

talking to the "Inquisitor" at the beginning of the game

Dread Delusion (2024) by Lovely Hellplace is a retro-style indie first person RPG about exploring strange floating islands and talking to the NPCs who live there. It takes about 15-20 hours to complete.

inventory screen

Many compare it to The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, with its emphasis on charming low poly 3D world design and worldbuilding. It also shares Morrowind's weightless combat -- but it's not as bad as failed dice rolls to stab a rat. It just treats combat with the contempt it deserves; there's no real benefit to killing stuff, no XP to grind. Pacifist builds are not only viable but very OP. (In the last dungeon, I just ran past everything at 50 MPH.)

So I want to focus on Dread Delusion's great strengths, specifically its world region / quest design. I've tried to write this for a general gamer audience to unpack what the game does. Consider this your last SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to talk about what happens in this game and what you do in it.

Postcards from TikTokland (month 1) + comparing TikTok to Bluesky

So I've now been playing the weird MMO known as TikTok for more than a month, and I thought I should reflect on my time there. 

In contrast to my first week on TikTok where I posted every day, I've now been uploading videos every 2-4 days. Which is much better. I highly recommend not posting every day, everywhere.

I've been making more local Australia / New Zealand game industry event vlogs. Here's a vlog from when I attended Wireframe conference here in Auckland, and here's another vlog (and yet another vlog) from my time at the Freeplay Angles festival in Melbourne. I tried to keep these pretty light and casual since I imagine most people aren't really sure what a game conference is.

I've also been making some more outdoor waterway videos. Here's a progress update on the backyard stream, a comprehensive review of the water fountains at the Auckland Domain Winter Gardens, and a waterfall walking tour. While I realize this could've been a savvy content strategy to try to capitalize on my most popular video, it actually wasn't a conscious strategy, I just like recording water and talking about it.

I'm keynoting Freeplay Angles 2025 in Melbourne, July 31 - August 2... + support the Australian indie game hub Sabby!

In about 2 weeks, I'll be giving a keynote at Freeplay Angles 2025, an indie video game festival in Melbourne, Australia, running from July 31 - August 2, 2025.

I'd give a hint for what my keynote's about, but I'm still in the middle of writing it, so you'll just have to wait in suspense a little while longer. (It'll probably have some sex in it I don't know)... For now, some logistics: I'll be keynoting the first festival day on Thursday, July 31, but there's also two more keynotes + full slates of interesting talks planned for both Friday and Saturday, August 1-2 too. 

Full schedule and tickets are available on the Freeplay website. Ticket prices are on a sliding scale, from $20 AUD for those on a budget, to $150 AUD for those who can afford to pay more to keep it cheaper for everyone else.

Submissions are open for the WIP Night (July 31) to show off your work-in-progress projects for free -- tables, chairs, and power are provided. Submissions are also open for the Night Market (August 2) with free vendor stalls to sell your games, arts, and crafts -- tables, chairs, and power are provided.