#moonshiners — Public Fediverse posts

Dev Pile: Moonshiners V4 Prototype

You know, considering the amount of effort this post is going to represent, it’s pretty funny to me that I’m probably going to be really scrounging for a word count. Anyway, I have been working on improving my playtest kit of Moonshiners. Back in April (April!), I spent a day making a print-and-play version that could be easily put on sticker paper and then playtested from there. And… well, I’m going to give you full-resolution versions of those images here. Right here. Just after the fold.

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TV Production Firm Behind ‘Long Island Medium’ Seeks Gamblers

Posted on: May 12, 2026, 03:33h.  Last updated on: May 12, 2026, 03:35h. A casting call from a…
#NewsBeep #News #Mentalhealth #castingcall #Health #LongIslandMedium #Magilla #MentalHealth #Moonshiners #problemgambler #production #RealityTV #responsiblegambling #Responsiblegaming #Television #tv #UK #UnitedKingdom
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/581376/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/482202/ TV Production Firm Behind ‘Long Island Medium’ Seeks Gamblers #CastingCall #Éire #Health #IE #Ireland #LongIslandMedium #Magilla #MentalHealth #MentalHealth #Moonshiners #ProblemGambler #production #RealityTV #ResponsibleGambling #ResponsibleGaming #television #TV

TV Production Firm Behind ‘Long Island Medium’ Seeks Gamblers

Posted on: May 12, 2026, 03:33h.  Last updated on: May 12, 2026, 03:35h. A casting call from a…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #castingcall #Health #LongIslandMedium #Magilla #MentalHealth #Moonshiners #problemgambler #production #realitytv #responsiblegambling #Responsiblegaming #television #TV
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/639819/

TV Production Firm Behind ‘Long Island Medium’ Seeks Gamblers

Posted on: May 12, 2026, 03:33h.  Last updated on: May 12, 2026, 03:35h. A casting call from a…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #castingcall #Health #LongIslandMedium #Magilla #MentalHealth #Moonshiners #problemgambler #production #realitytv #responsiblegambling #Responsiblegaming #television #TV
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/639819/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/956147/ TV Production Firm Behind ‘Long Island Medium’ Seeks Gamblers #CastingCall #Health #LongIslandMedium #Magilla #MentalHealth #Moonshiners #ProblemGambler #production #RealityTV #ResponsibleGambling #ResponsibleGaming #Television #TV #UK #UnitedKingdom

Dev Pile: Catch-Up Mechanics in Moonshiners

I’m working on playtesting with Moonshiners and reflecting on things I’ve seen in it. You like playtesting notes? Course ya do!

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Dev Pile: Moonshiners Playtesting Notes

I have this spread across a few locations, but! I was able to take the latest version (v3) of Moonshiners to a family gathering and did some play testing with it. Now, part of the point of this play testing is to reflect on feelings I have in the experience, not to, in any way, represent the other people’s opinions. That is to say, no direct quotes, no names or faces of anyone involved in the play testing. But it was a play testing session and it was delightful to finally feel this ‘feature-complete’ version of the game under people’s hands, especially because finally, I was able to see how I felt about things when there was a tension between what I was experiencing and what others were. A lot of the play testing thus far, after all, has been done with either a much simpler version of the game, or, well, me playing with myself. That sounds vulgar. You know what I mean.

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Prototype Notes

Imagine me pulling the rip tab on a drink and sculling half of it in one go, except because I’m in my forties, this time the drink is a bottle of fridge-cooled water. It’s late at night, I spent all day making a new prototype for Moonshiners, and these are some notes of the latest version based on handling the interface of the game with all the information on it, at the scale that the final game is going to be, for the first time.

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Case Study – Prototype Construction Challenges

In the process of developing Moonshiners I have made four different prototypes. Each of them has suffered ignonimous fates and as I write this, I am looking around my house for scraps of each remaining form.

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Case Study – Drafting Part 1

In my thesis, I am working on a series of case studies explaining games and their development. Their playtesting and their production is part of this, and once I’ve made the game’s prototype, I reflect back on the process. How I do this is by starting with a plain-language, general-reference kind of version of the case study.

What’s going to follow here is a template of the process, developed in making Lysen Co, and then the first section of that text template filled out. I dont’ imagine this is going to include much new information if you’re absolutely keyed into how Moonshiners works.

[…]

Dev Pile: The Actual Moonshiners PnP

I did it, I finally did it. I wanted to do it weeks ago and I’m going to complain about that a little bit, but I finally, tonight was able to sit down and get all the files together despite the slow loading times and all it took was lowering a significant quantity of my standards and accept that getting it done was so much more important than getting it done perfectly or prettily.

Content Non-Warning: This is a version of the Moonshiners Print-And-Play that doesn’t involve any generative art. You can look at it without being shocked or surprised.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-44-the-actual-moonshiners-pnp/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Art Direction Guide

In the last post I talked about the problems of using generative images, but I did use them. This week, I’ve put together the results of reflecting on those, which is specific art direction to consider those character artworks in a way that I can present them to an artist in a way that’s useful. Ready? Go go go.

This is going to be a post about generative images, but I’m not going to include any. This is because I don’t think you, the audience, want to see it, and also, the point of this post is art direction. You don’t need to see the art to know this process is about reflecting on that process of what to ask for in art.

Plus, you know, every time I put gen images on this blog there’s just such a disclaimer to do.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-43-art-direction-guide/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Not Showing My Cards

It’s important to have a plan.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-42-not-showing-my-cards/

#lysenCo #moonshiners

Dev Pile: Don’t Worry, No Gen Art In This One

Grrrrrrrrr art problems in Moonshiners and thick descriptions of my feelings about art direction experiences.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-40-dont-worry-no-gen-art-in-this-one/

#moonshiners

I have a suspicion. 🤔

Every summer, right around mid-June, the cane sugar disappears off the grocery store shelves for about four weeks around here.

I mean completely out. If I haven't stocked up beforehand, me and my coffee addiction are just out of luck until mid-July.

Then it hit me... Somebody up here is making a fruit mash moonshine whiskey y'all. 😂

#Moonshiners
#OldPeopleOfMastodon

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Faces

The aim for this week is to construct the digital components that are necessary for making a printable prototype of Moonshiners. The aim is to have something so that in about a week I can print-out and play with a version with other humans that let me see how the basic ideas work out.

Content Warning: This post is going to feature Image Generator material. I made it using a free website called Dezgo, and it’s done to have example objects. I didn’t pay anyone for these images.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-33-moonshiners-faces/

#lysenCo #moonshiners

Dev Pile: The Second Mouse

Let’s do something wildly different this week and talk about a cute game with mice in it.

Content Warning: I include a generative image in this post.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-32-the-second-mouse/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Contemplating The Crush Depth

Something I’m trying to do with the ongoing diarising of game development is to consider games in terms not just of a narrative thread of X to Y to Z, but rather in terms of the pieces that go in. I want to open the box of the game and pull out everything that’s in there, but also crucially, pull out what’s not in there.

‘That sounds like nonsense,’ yes but don’t worry, we’ll get there.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-30-contemplating-the-crush-depth/

#lysenCo #moonshiners

Dev Pile: How Did I Make Lysen Co?, Part 5

This is the last piece of reflective writing on making Lysen Co. This is the plain text writing that will be formalised into academic language and given proper citations to become a case study in my PhD.

[…]

Dev Pile: How Did I Make Lysen Co?, Part 5

This is the last piece of reflective writing on making Lysen Co. This is the plain text writing that will be formalised into academic language and given proper citations to become a case study in my PhD.

[…]

Dev Pile: How Did I Make Lysen Co?, Part 5

This is the last piece of reflective writing on making Lysen Co. This is the plain text writing that will be formalised into academic language and given proper citations to become a case study in my PhD.

[…]

Dev Pile: How Did I Make Lysen Co?, Part 5

This is the last piece of reflective writing on making Lysen Co. This is the plain text writing that will be formalised into academic language and given proper citations to become a case study in my PhD.

[…]

Dev Pile: So Many Bones!

Alright, today has been a lot of work and it’s been very fiddly, so let’s talk about what I have. Today I made what I call a paper skeleton for Moonshiners. That is, as of right now, I have all the card titles, mechanics, and values for Moonshiners. I essentially know what all the cards should be, and I’m ready to proceed making a playtesting copy that I can bring to a stranger and see what they think of it.

This article is going to be a bunch of lists, some short, some long, but I’ll try and fill out the heading area with explanations to make sure it’s clear what these sections are trying to express.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-21/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Reflection on the Botch

Sorry, folks, calling something of an easy mode on this one. See, this week has featured some vet visits and an election and some general bad times for sleep so I’m taking an easy route here and going to talk about a game that’s not part of the ongoing Moonshiners and Bloodwork game designs.

I’m gunna talk about revising The Botch for a new era.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-20/

#cardGames #devPile #gameMaking #lysenCo #moonshiners #theBotch

Dukes of Hazzard, una storia esistita davvero

#boomerissimo #dukesofhazzard #generallee #jerryrushing #moonshiners

https://boomerissimo.it/2023/09/29/general-lee-dukes-of-hazzard-storia/

Dukes of Hazzard, una storia esistita davvero

#boomerissimo #dukesofhazzard #generallee #jerryrushing #moonshiners

https://boomerissimo.it/2023/09/29/general-lee-dukes-of-hazzard-storia/

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Bid Deck

Hey, check this out.

Man, this was a lot of work.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-19/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Moonshiners Progress

At the start of April, I had the aim that I would have, by the end of April, a Print-And-Play PDF of Moonshiners ready to go, and able to share with you, the audience.

That did not happen.

Some of it was ambitious to start with; even if I was generating art for every card, or had the art already lined up, I still had to . Another part was the way that I kept spacing my work

The aim was that I’d be doing it side-by-side with my students, which meant I could use this mid-semester period to show them the stages of going into game making. Instead, silly me, I forgot to check the schedule, where there’s three weeks of classes where the students are working on a different assignment.

With that said: I want to have something to show them in class at their next class, and that’s what this post is about.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-18/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: The Guff You Gather

Ho boy let’s do something while sleepy, why not.

I said that I need to work on the sets for Moonshiners, that is, the stuff you’re bidding on. This is because Moonshiners is a set collection auction game, where there’s a push-your-luck mechanic for resolving bidding. I’ve done playtesting of the push-your-luck mechanic for bidding and last week had some notes on the way that deck will be constructed, but now I need to work on the materially different second deck, which is going to be a square deck of assets the players bid over.

I’ve talked about the vibes of this in general and how pieces in this set work, but this week I want to talk about the actual breakdown of what goes into this deck, and what they represent. Particularly, this is about a formula I can multiply out and repeat.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-17-the-guff-you-gather/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Playtesting Round

It’s been another week, and class activities haven’t featured a good window of time to do prototyping activity. Don’t worry, it’ll come up this week. Instead, this week, I did something else, something far more exciting.

This week, I got to playtest the core game loop for Moonshiners.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-16-playtesting-round/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Prompt Refinement And Final Product

Well, generative image software has been around for a few years now and it has managed to reach a level of popularity and success that makes it roughly as exciting to most people as in-mall advertisements. The aesthetic of Shrimp Jesus and its associated horrorshows have created an existing language of fascist aesthetics, which is also fascinating because of how the worst people in the world seem to agree on the worst possible choices for this kind of trash. But the tools are capable of more than that and notably, the tools produce stuff like that when you’re using them to produce bulk volume garbage.

Because this month I’ve been working with students to understand these generative tools — to both recognise them, understand their limits and their applications — I brought up a meaningful use case for them . Specifically, one of the use cases is to make prototype art quickly rather than use unrelated stand-in art to help a prototype feel more real.

Content and Spoiler Warning: There’s going to be some examples of generative images in this post, and a discussion of how to get them.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-14-prompt-refinement-and-final-product/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Adversariality!

My plan for this week was to put up a post showing some examples of how I’d step through generative media with my students using Moonshiners as an example. The schedule has changed a little and I want some lead time so instead I’m going to talk about a potential pitfall of Mooonshiners’ design as it relates to time, catch-up, and symmetry.

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https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-13-adversariality/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

[…]

Dev Pile: Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

[…]

Dev Pile: Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

[…]

Dev Pile: Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

[…]

February 2025 Wrapup!

Hey, it’s the end of Smooch Month. Did you miss it? You did? Good news, here’s a set of links and explanations to the stuff I wrote this month so you can go back, check it all out and punch your subway ticket to get closer to a free sandwich.

I think that’s a thing you can do. What do you mean they use an app now? Gross!

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/february-2025-wrapup/

#Moonshiners

Dev Pile: Faces + Prototype

By the end of the month I aimed to have all the card faces, and a skeleton, ready for presenting in a class to show off a game-in-progress. A skeleton for a game is a listing of all the pieces into the game, their uniquely differentiated values, and the structural arrangement for those cards. I know all the parts that go into the game, and now the only consideration about the game systems from that is how to present that information. There are changes that can be made to the game system, but at this point, any changes are going to be

This one’s going to be picture heavy, with explanations.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-09-faces-prototype/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: The Breakdown, Pricing and Prototype

Not gunna lie to you I wish I’d had an extra few days for this post but I’m also not going to kid myself that the things that ate my time this week were more important.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-08-the-breakdown-pricing-and-prototype/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: More Moonshiners Updates – Token time!

Writing this an hour before it goes up, what have I done for Moonshiners!

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-2025-07-more-moonshiners-updates-token-time/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Boardwalk Empire, Werewolves, and Surfaces

I injured myself earlier this month, which meant that a lot of the things I do for work purposes are hard to do. Turns out that writing a thousand words a day is something that can be meaningfully inhibited by busting up an arm for a week. Touch wood. During this time, my ability to play games was stuck on one hand, and that meant I did things that involved a lot of absorbing information rather than constructing it.

It sucked!

During this time I tried to read more academic texts (hard, when you’re in pain) but also to work on Moonshiners. That game requires, amongst other things, shuffling, which I am not good at doing with one hand. It’s not something I can’t do, he says, defensively, but it’s bad and slow and I don’t like how unreliable the movements are. Point is that this is a time where my drive to work has been at odds with an inability I have to do that.

To address this I watched a bunch of Boardwalk Empire, a show about prohibition-era America that very much does not feature werewolves and would be largely improved by their presence.

[…]

https://press.invincible.ink/dev-pile-boardwalk-empire-werewolves-and-surfaces-2025-05/

#moonshiners

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 2

How big is a deck of cards?

This question is a game design quandrary that always comes back to ‘how big do you need it to be?’

Right now I am grappling with the material considerations of the game Moonshiners. This is what I call the ‘stuffness’ and I’ve been holding off on it until I could get my hands on a standard box from our tabletop material printing service (Launch Tabletop) for a larger game. What I got is this cool box for our game Cafe Romantica:

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 2

How big is a deck of cards?

This question is a game design quandrary that always comes back to ‘how big do you need it to be?’

Right now I am grappling with the material considerations of the game Moonshiners. This is what I call the ‘stuffness’ and I’ve been holding off on it until I could get my hands on a standard box from our tabletop material printing service (Launch Tabletop) for a larger game. What I got is this cool box for our game Cafe Romantica:

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 2

How big is a deck of cards?

This question is a game design quandrary that always comes back to ‘how big do you need it to be?’

Right now I am grappling with the material considerations of the game Moonshiners. This is what I call the ‘stuffness’ and I’ve been holding off on it until I could get my hands on a standard box from our tabletop material printing service (Launch Tabletop) for a larger game. What I got is this cool box for our game Cafe Romantica:

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 2

How big is a deck of cards?

This question is a game design quandrary that always comes back to ‘how big do you need it to be?’

Right now I am grappling with the material considerations of the game Moonshiners. This is what I call the ‘stuffness’ and I’ve been holding off on it until I could get my hands on a standard box from our tabletop material printing service (Launch Tabletop) for a larger game. What I got is this cool box for our game Cafe Romantica:

[…]

Kenny Law Dies: ‘Moonshiners’ Star Was 68
#News #Obituaries #Discovery #KennyLaw #Moonshiners #Obitiuary

https://deadline.com/2025/01/kenny-law-moonshiners-dead-1236259118/

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 1

What follows here is a detailed accounting of my notes on the construction of the first prototype of Moonshiners, which I worked on through December. These notes are necessarily a little scattered – there will be points I reference a (number) and the only way to find the number I’m talking about is ctrl-f. This may be something I could use anchors for, ask Fox about that.

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 1

What follows here is a detailed accounting of my notes on the construction of the first prototype of Moonshiners, which I worked on through December. These notes are necessarily a little scattered – there will be points I reference a (number) and the only way to find the number I’m talking about is ctrl-f. This may be something I could use anchors for, ask Fox about that.

[…]

Dev Pile: Moonshiner Prototyping Diary 1

What follows here is a detailed accounting of my notes on the construction of the first prototype of Moonshiners, which I worked on through December. These notes are necessarily a little scattered – there will be points I reference a (number) and the only way to find the number I’m talking about is ctrl-f. This may be something I could use anchors for, ask Fox about that.

[…]