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metajarra.bsky.social
john 🌼
@metajarra.bsky.social
130 followers 860 following 18 posts
(he/him) toronto indie gamedev and artist
articles in Into the Spine and Unwinnable
new games always at http://metajarra.itch.io
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Reposted by john 🌼
santaragione.com
Yesterday, the Epic Games Store decided at the last minute not to distribute the game, after having previously approved a release build. HORSES is otherwise now available on GOG, Itch, and Humble for $4.99. www.horses.wtf
December 2, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
renjender.bsky.social
Since our fucking government isn’t observing World AIDS Day, I will. In 1990, I started taking care of people in the last stages of AIDS in their homes. I did this for nearly two years. The home care company I worked for had meetings for those of us who solely (or nearly solely) took care of PWAs.
December 1, 2025 at 12:16 PM
metajarra.bsky.social
mediterranea inferno was such an important game to me, and it's devastating to see Santa Ragione create another work of art only to get banned from steam :(. if you can, please buy this on another site next week and support a wonderful studio
santaragione.com Santa Ragione @santaragione.com · 7d
Our upcoming game HORSES was preemptively banned from Steam, with no path to appeal. The game will still launch next week on December 2nd and will be available on EGS, GOG, Humble, and Itch for $4.99. Here is a detailed FAQ covering what happened: horses.wtf/BannedFromSt...
HORSES cover with a banned from Steam logo
November 26, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
ramiismail.com
Steam intentionally killing an old, respected, and beloved decade old indie game studio through bullshit policy is fucking wild
santaragione.com Santa Ragione @santaragione.com · 7d
Our upcoming game HORSES was preemptively banned from Steam, with no path to appeal. The game will still launch next week on December 2nd and will be available on EGS, GOG, Humble, and Itch for $4.99. Here is a detailed FAQ covering what happened: horses.wtf/BannedFromSt...
HORSES cover with a banned from Steam logo
November 26, 2025 at 1:08 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
princerosalium.bsky.social
Announcing my new project, Rigmarole! 💙🐈✨

A point-and-click adventure visual novel about a NY-Italian gyaru and her fruity mahjong buddies driving across the country to go snatch back her Nonna's cat from her gay homophobe rock star cousin!

priro.itch.io/rigmarole
This one's gonna be a wild ride.
a classical lolita (pale, redhead with hime cut, greek jewish) , a gyaru (sicilian, fake blonde hair, medium tan), and a visual kei goth (dark-skinned, textured hair in a sujimori style, black) in a paper-scrap art style looking up at a little cat jumping over them. they are surrounded by a collage of italian cookies and the title "rigmarole!" is placed in an arch above them.
November 19, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
dcellgames.com
maybe we could use another splash screen.
Absolutely everything in UNBEATABLE was created by human beings without ANY generative assistance. every frame drawn, every word written, EVERY MODEL SCULPTED, EVERY LINE OF CODE TYPED, every song sung with a real voice, every guitar played with a real hand, every moment flawed and MESSY because we are, also.
November 12, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
dlalonders.bsky.social
if we talking about the game awards can we talk about their silly games for impact category aka the diversity award. its so silly they will put queer games and games with poc leads (all indie btw) in that category but never nominate them in anything else
November 6, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
scumbelievable.bsky.social
once again, Bluesky has deleted Sama'a's account in spite of its minimal activity and strict observance of the site's rules.
scumbelievable.bsky.social Gretchen Felker-Martin 🍉 @scumbelievable.bsky.social · 22d
Sama'a and her husband often go without so that their girls can eat. I have watched them grow thinner and thinner, and I beg you to join me in giving them a little comfort.

gofund.me/db56c7ce3
November 10, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
princerosalium.bsky.social
Well! There we are! Me and Val! The handsomest men to ever grace the Indie game scene!

It's an absolute honor to say Parfum Nostalgique has been featured on @polygon.com . I'm gonna go scream now.

www.polygon.com/steam-adult-...
As Steam cracks down on adult games, one dev urges taking back control
Game developers fear for the future of games with LGBTQ themes, which is leading some to pursue alternate (and way cooler) forms of distribution
www.polygon.com
October 12, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
acvalens.com
“She was not the only developer who reported the company singling out yuri content.”

Games journalists really dropped the ball on itchio targeting yuri content, both SFW and NSFW

The censorship of Toxic Yuri Game Jam hasn’t gotten any coverage from the games press
'We're not safe here' In the immediate days after, creators have found themselves at a loss of what to do. Game developer krispycat, also known as ButterflyLatte, reports that her NSFW game demo, known as "The Seventh Bride," was deindexed, and is only shown when specifically searched for. It wasn't just this game, either. "On a whim, I tried to search up my SFW games as well - Wendy, warm, Like Seafoam. These games are fairly innocent and wholesome; 'warm' and 'Wendy' star children. However, they don't appear in the suggestions either - I suspect it's because they're yuri games," she recounted, describing a genre of fiction which depicts romance between two female characters and has no inherent sexual elements. Some creators report that an entire game jam - or collection of games developed in a short period to build community - was affected. The Toxic Yuri Game Jam, consisting of over 200 different games, saw significant hits, with over half of the games delisted and several being completely removed from the site. One user, known as Kastel, describes how a joke game they made was delisted squarely for having the tag "erotic." They mention how this jam was filled with first time developers, and how the occurrence of these bans led to mass panic, watching a happy community turn into people feeling completely doomed. "I've done a bunch of these game jams, so I'm giving them advice. And then I'm looking at all this and it's just... what do I even say? This is a pretty bad situation. I can't pretend that this is good. This isn't a wonderful thing we can all survive. It's pretty rough. I feel bad for everyone, especially because it's their first wave of censorship."
August 11, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
radiantg.bsky.social
On itch io, payment processors, and the developers and creatives affected

I wrote about the itch deindexing, stripe, a religious group & a call to action + shared amazing words from 25 affected creators who took their time to write me.

🔁 RTs Appreciated 🔁
#itch #indiedev #visualnovel #comic #novel
On itch.io, payment processors, and the developers and creatives affected - Press SPACE to Jump
Itch.io deindexed adult, LGBTQIA+ and Furry media en masse across their site on July 23 due to pressure from payment processors, so creators are speaking up.
pressspacetojump.com
July 26, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
taylortitmouse.bsky.social
you can be frustrated with how itch handled the situation but you also have Got to focus on the actual source of the problem. i for one am going to call some credit card companies today.
July 24, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
meltingcomet.com
i worked with our director RJ to put together a web page compiling phone numbers, emails, and petitions where you can make your voice heard - protect queer artists and sex workers and tell payment processing companies to end their awful policies harming safe spaces for creative art
July 24, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
aclu.org
BREAKING: President Trump signed an executive order directing states to criminalize and institutionalize people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health disabilities.
July 24, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
radiantg.bsky.social
📢 ISO of Devs Affected by Itch 📢

If your game got:
• Deindexed
• Removed
• Payouts turned off

Especially if you make Adult &/or LGBTQ+ #IndieGame or #VisualNovel, I want to talk to you.

🗣️ Please reply below with how you were affected. This is for a #Journalism piece.

🔁 RTs Appreciated 🔁
July 24, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
princerosalium.bsky.social
if you are an indie game dev and the art you want to make is being censored, don't let these fucking websites take away your creativity.
do not depend on them for your audience. talk to each other. we will get through this if we fully internalize that we are developers responsible for our own work
July 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
triplchii.bsky.social
Mercury, planet of bureaucracy

#art
Digital illustration. On the left is a person with fair skin, short blue hair, and silver/gold eyes. They are dressed in some fancy black, white, grey, and gold clothing. A complex halo of yellow circles and signs floats behind their head. In the top right, an illustration of the planet Mercury. A few city lights are visible on the night side, and some white dots representing space habitats are visible in the planet's vicinity. This illustration is captioned "Mercury, 2660". Below this is a graphic depicting a map of the solar system with various yellow lines spreading across it like a web. This illustration is captioned "Beamed power network". Below this is an illustration depicting some kind of worn-down spherical building on the surface of Mercury, with harsh shadows and some yellow symbols scribbled onto its side. Text around the bottom middle reads out: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies - whose frown, and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command tell that its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things. The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: COUNCIL FOR MANAGEMENT OF THE PISCES-3 BEAM HIGHWAY. During the epoch of Stagnation vast mining infrastructure was constructed in various locales across the surface of Mercury. The Stagnation came to an end before these mining machines could get to work tearing the planet apart to feed the insatiable appetite of their operators, today many of the old buildings and underground tunnels serve as residences for the various bureaucratic activities carried out on Mercury. The planet is considered the hub for ~85% of the solar system's beamed power networks, which form the backbone of the majority of interplanetary transport and energy distribution. If the beamed power network is the solar system's capillaries, then Mercury is the heart."
June 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
torontogamesweek.com
Come celebrate the beginning of Toronto Games Week outdoors at the waterfront! Meet some new folks and get hyped for the big event at sundown: a massive playable projection of Toronto-related games on the historic Canada Malting Silos! #TGW25

🗓️ Thursday, June 12th 8-11pm
🎟️ FREE!
June 7, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
pentopixels.com
My feelings covering Summer Game Fest, in LA, as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant.
pentopixels.com/article/summ...
Summer Game Fest logo
June 11, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
static.transsexual.gay
cis people: a trans care ban is not just "oh they can't get surgeries". a trans care ban is taking away life-saving care. both mentally and physically life-saving.
May 22, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
ruemcclammyhand.bsky.social
Please read. We hoped that one of the many members of the Bluesky community from Gaza could be first to share this letter, but we were worried that their account would get taken down if they did. This letter is for
@moderation.bsky.app, Bluesky leadership, and the wider community here. Thanks!
Open Letter to the Bluesky Team About Their Treatment of Palestinians in Gaza
[CLICK here if you would like your name added to this letter] النسخة العربية من هذه الرسالة متاحة أدناه. Open Letter to the Bluesky Team About Their Treatment of Palestinians in Gaza The signatories...
docs.google.com
May 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
diegoarguello.bsky.social
a decade ago, when i started writing about games as a hobby, someone asked me where i'd like to work someday. polygon was my immediate answer.

i pitched them 12 times until i got my first commission. i've done over 100 stories for them since, and my editors shaped me into the writer I am today.
May 1, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
knoebel.bsky.social
'tuna hake's underwater' now available on PC.

"you are a fish who does tricks"

store.steampowered.com/app/3521300/...
April 25, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by john 🌼
ramiismail.com
AAA is fucked. AAAA is fucked. AA is fucked. Indie is fucked. It's all fucked. I've never seen more across-the-board devastation in this industry in the decade-and-a-half I've been here.
amcosmos.bsky.social am cosmos @amcosmos.bsky.social · Feb 25
I get really irked when I see people post “indies will save us” or “the laid off devs should go indie” THERE IS NO MONEY publishers are cancelling contracts, angel investors/venture capital don’t want small returns. I think they mean hobbyists with a day job working doubletime & that is a rough ask
February 26, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Reposted by john 🌼
treelet.bsky.social
This is my third game, about a small delivery robot in a ruined city. I wanted to explore things like: more descriptive text, game over states, inventories, cutscenes, etc. while telling a simpler story.

Music by @laurentds.bsky.social!

DELIVERY: treelet.itch.io/delivery
#bitsy #interactivefiction
a title screen with a pixel icon envelope: delivery, art and words by danielle taphanel a pixel screenshot of some ruined buildings viewed from afar, emitting signals. a pixel screenshot of a hermetically sealed room viewed from above with a highlighted sprite of a person. a pixel screenshot of the top of a tall building in isometric view with a small highlighted cursor over an entrance shaft.
December 31, 2024 at 3:43 AM