Joas
joasb.bsky.social
Joas
@joasb.bsky.social
Hobbyist game dev, art & media studies nerd, and lots else.
Dutch person based in Glasgow, Scotland.
My games -> https://joasb.itch.io/
My writing -> https://joas.bearblog.dev/
My Backloggd -> https://backloggd.com/u/Joas/
(he/him)
Pinned
I'm a hobbyist game dev, and am going to try posting here! Find my weird little games over at joasb.itch.io and keep an eye out on new releases, as well as some written work I'm hoping to get out soon!
Joas B.
joasb.itch.io
Reposted by Joas
GAME IDEA

SPEC OPS: THE LINE AS A COSY GAME
September 26, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Joas
lamenes, website, excerpt (2001 - 2002) lamenes.myrmid.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Been thinking how Greek myth in art and media feels so different to my experience of having just read The Odyssey. The mythology of it feels more like a set of default archetypes of Western art history than any attempt at adapting Homer's epic poetry
August 26, 2025 at 8:58 PM
I want a Greek myth retelling but it's about the guy who got too drunk on Circe's roof, fell off, and died
August 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Last night I had a far too vivid dream that I was making a... *shudders* Metroidvania 😬

That said it was way cooler and more interesting than other Metroidvanias
August 24, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Wrote a little review of playing Final Fantasy V for the first time as part of the Four Job Fiesta!
backloggd.com/u/Joas/revie...
Joas's review of Final Fantasy V | Backloggd
Played as part of the Four Job Fiesta 2025<br><br>Playing Final Fantasy V for the first time while limiting my options with its famous job system probably isn't "how the designers intended" - but who ...
backloggd.com
August 17, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Reading Walter Scott's Ivanhoe has been interesting because it's the template for every medieval adventure that has been written since, so I didn't expect it to be so slow and so focused on an exploration of division of ethnicity and class in medieval England
August 17, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Joas
And one more time, another one from the weekend: over at @unwinnable.com, @theautumnwright.bsky.social interviewed me about games criticism. I think we had a really great, worthwhile conversation

unwinnable.com/2025/07/11/a...
A Dialogue with Joshua Rivera - Unwinnable
"I don't bill myself as a games critic. It's not good for my career prospects."
unwinnable.com
July 14, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Joas
Sometimes I think the myth of creative genius exists to discourage people from the reality that it's actually very easy to uniquely engage with the world, or uniquely make art, if you just try a little bit to be curious about things
July 11, 2025 at 3:55 AM
I think this perception that games are "the interactive medium" is really reductive, and results in a weird sense of games having to prove their legitimacy both within and as a medium.
Read my full thoughts here:
joas.bearblog.dev/legitimacy-a...
July 9, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Interesting to see the replies to this that seem to defend gambling and skinner box design uncritically because it doesn't involve betting money? You can enjoy Balatro and at the same time recognise that said enjoyment comes from addictive design that springs from the gambling industry
been thinkin a lot lately about how gambling addiction seems to be effecting the types of indie games comin out and making it big. It is kind of making me feel insane
July 8, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Joas
if you post about how people should just make solo game projects or start small indie projects you are now on the hook to personally buy a copy of every single small-indie game you hear about on both steam and itch. if you don't do that you are a poser
July 3, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Joas
That blog post I said that I was going to write was going to be about this. I was going to title it "Faces", because it was the metaphor that I kept coming back to when considering what is lost in the creative process with generative AI. Maybe my longest 🧵ahead...
Given the shitstorm that’s hit the teams behind The Alters, Magic: The Gathering, and Jurassic World Evolution 3 (among other titles), I’d be deeply intrigued to hear why someone would consider it a safe move to use generative AI on their project at this point - let alone go all-in on it.
June 30, 2025 at 7:18 PM
TO CATCH A HERON
joasb.itch.io/to-catch-a-h...

Check out my metaphorical interactive fiction piece I made for the @fxckcapitalism.bsky.social 2025!

Includes music by the amazing @everydaylouie.bsky.social

#FuckCapitalismJam2025 #godot #gamedev #indiedev
To Catch a Heron by Joas B.
Play in your browser
joasb.itch.io
May 31, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I'm a hobbyist game dev, and am going to try posting here! Find my weird little games over at joasb.itch.io and keep an eye out on new releases, as well as some written work I'm hoping to get out soon!
Joas B.
joasb.itch.io
May 31, 2025 at 5:54 PM