Elissa
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elissablack.com
Elissa
@elissablack.com
830 followers 230 following 1.7K posts
Makes games, shoots photos, does other stuff, etc. 🏳️‍🌈🧛🏻‍♀️ she/her

Currently: Death by Scrolling (Out October 28th on PC!), Deck & Conn, Dungeons of Freeport.

The lesbian roadkill of the information superhighway.
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elissablack.com
Ohh THAT'S what I've been doing wrong...
"The first step is winning" reads the text from this information sign.
November 7, 2025 at 1:15 AM
elissablack.com
Decided which cameras to bring for my trip this weekend.

Leica M5, the Cadillac of Rangefinders, and my new Fujifilm X-E5.
A basically brand new jet black Fujifilm X-E5 compact APS-C mirrorless camera with a vintage Leica lens on it, and a Leica M5 Rangefinder with a fast 50mm lens on it, sitting beside a small Fujinon pancake 23mm lens.
November 7, 2025 at 1:09 AM
elissablack.com
Filling out the GDC State of the Game Industry survey...

gdconf.typeform.com/SOTI26
Question: What considerations or values guide your decisions about if, when, or how to use generative Al tools in your work? My answer: Ignoring that GenAl is morally unethical, terrible for the environment, and means junior developers lose out on gaining experience, it also produces incredibly mediocre work that lowers of the quality of projects they're used on|
November 5, 2025 at 11:41 PM
elissablack.com
Welcome to Monday.

Adding banking establishments to Dungeons of Freeport. Even in video games, finance will fuck you.

#GameDev #IndieDev #Roguelike
A screen shot of Dungeons of Freeport, a classical roguelike variation. The player is standing next to a sign advertising the Freeport Banking Co. Ltd.
November 2, 2025 at 9:55 PM
elissablack.com
Breaking the silence of an early Sunday morning, echoing around the courtyard of a neighbouring apartment building, come the fetid screechings of AM talk-back radio.

I've heard things no woman should hear.
A courtyard, with various tropical plants blocking most of the view to a brick apartment complex.
November 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
elissablack.com
Happy Halloween, mothafuckas. I look the same as every other day of the year.
A curvy pale white woman with dyed red hair and intense dark makeup.
October 31, 2025 at 8:02 AM
elissablack.com
Aaand the friend just sent me this. You see? You see what pressures I have to put up with?
A camera phone photo of a Nikon Zf, back screen flipped out, preparing to take a photo of a beach in the tropics, with palm trees bent over the sand.
October 31, 2025 at 7:59 AM
elissablack.com
Opened up the bad-ass little ArgonLight case. This is a seriously cool little computer.
An Agon Light 2, showing the full board.
October 28, 2025 at 1:57 AM
elissablack.com
#DeathByScrolling
The Monkey Island 1 cutscene where Guybrush says "Never pay more than $20 for a video game", but it's been changed to read "Never pay more than $7.99 for a video game", which is the price in USD of Death by Scrolling.
October 28, 2025 at 1:56 AM
elissablack.com
Dungeons of Freeport.

How it started, how it’s going. 2023 vs 2025.

#GameDev #IndieDev #Roguelike
An ANSI graphics screenshot of dungeons of freeport. The player is by a sign as they enter the town. As the other, but with graphics. Sort of. ANSI art with a pixel art boundary; and for the signs.
October 23, 2025 at 5:40 AM
elissablack.com
I feel like I was in a grumpy mood when I wrote this dialogue. #GameDev #IndieDev
Screen shot of a pixel art game, showing dialogue. "You ever get into metalurgy?" asks an NPC called Mari. "Yeah, I'm a skilled metalurge; that's why I'm getting paid a pittence to crawl around dungeons," is one valid reply by the player character.
October 23, 2025 at 3:06 AM
elissablack.com
Game dev is weird.
Ron Gilbert posts: Last minute bug fix today: Stop chainsaw when you go the afterlife. I kid you not. Making game is weird.
October 22, 2025 at 4:51 AM
elissablack.com
One week until Death by Scrolling.
Death by Scrolling’s start screen.
October 20, 2025 at 11:47 PM
elissablack.com
With each passing day at SXSW I get more goth.

By tomorrow I’ll just be Morticia Addams.
White goth chick with red hair and intense makeup.
October 16, 2025 at 11:40 PM
elissablack.com
The SXSW Sydney posters VS The SXSW Sydney games stream content is a wonderful juxtaposition.

(Shout out to @annahollinrake.com for this one, in her talk on kickstarters for digital games.)
"The AI to Z of Innovation" reads a poster advertising SXSW focused on the "Tech" & "Innovation" stream. (Basically, the tech-bro side) A slide from Anna Hollinrake's talk on digital games kickstarters in 2025, which reads, principally, "DO NOT USE AI". Bad-ass queer game devs VS Techbros is a contrast.
October 16, 2025 at 9:40 PM
elissablack.com
Shout out to the death screen left indefinitely at this booth.
“You Fucked It” reads the screen on some displays in this SXSW booth.
October 16, 2025 at 8:07 AM
elissablack.com
Took a brief break from SXSW this afternoon to selfie with the fishes.
A curvy pale woman with fierce death femme makeup and a black dress. Behind her is a school of fish swimming, via digital projector.
October 15, 2025 at 4:56 AM
elissablack.com
The correct way to take coffee on a 30c day - the espresso & tonic.
A glass of a brown liquid with froth on top, trees out of focus behind it.
October 4, 2025 at 11:42 PM
elissablack.com
Honestly, the thing I’m most excited for in GTA VI is another sprawling virtual wilderness to lose myself in like Red Dead 2.
A person in a canoe, paddling past a flood water sign. Screen shot from GTA VI.
September 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
elissablack.com
Yep.
A playstation 2, jailbroken, playing Beyond Good & Evil on a Sony PVM display.
September 23, 2025 at 11:57 AM
elissablack.com
Oh boy. Just checked the news.
Worf saying “Perhaps today is a good day to die”, but with ‘to die’ replaced with ‘be offline’.
September 11, 2025 at 12:42 AM
elissablack.com
Did Australia, as a country, learn NOTHING from the Emu Wars?
“NSW Coalition embroiled in koala wars” reads the relevant part of this Guardian AU headline.
September 9, 2025 at 10:35 PM
elissablack.com
The greatest, but most dangerous stage a game can be in is when you open it up to test for a bug and lose yourself playing it for a while.

Now to hope it’s not just me who feels that way about Dungeons of Freeport…

#GameDev #IndieDev #RogueLike #AnsiArt #AnotherHashtag
A screen shot of Dungeons of Freeport, a roguelike game with ANSI-style graphics. A sign is visible - “Freeport Hollows - a nice place to work!”
September 8, 2025 at 11:51 PM
elissablack.com
My dream job in space: chief corkscrew woman.
The bridge of the Lexington in Wing Commander IV. Various nerdy looking women operate consoles around the protagonist, Mark "I've Done More Scifi Than Just Star Wars" Hamill. One of them is operating a free-standing podium like set of controls in the middle of the room seemingly home to naught but a single large corkscrew-like handle.
August 31, 2025 at 10:19 PM
elissablack.com
Appropriate Sunday morning fare.
"For a vegetarian, Rent, you're a fucking evil shite." Trainspotting (1996). Renton and Sick Boy lie on the grass. Renton is wearing John Lennon sunglasses and smoking a cigarette while Sick Boy holds a low calibre sniper rifle.
August 30, 2025 at 11:22 PM