John Ayliff (Space Goblin)

@[email protected]
373 Followers
372 Following
609 Posts

Text game developer, best known for the text-based game Seedship and its successor, Beyond the Chiron Gate. Now working on a pulp sci-fi adventure narrated by the villain!

More active on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/spacegoblingames.com

Header+avatar by Tom Morley

#GameDev #IndieDev #Twine #InteractiveFiction #GameWriting #NarrativeDesign

Websitehttps://www.spacegoblingames.com/
My gameshttps://spacegoblingames.itch.io/
Bloghttps://write.as/johnayliff/
Pronounshe/him
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)3d ago

Hit a project milestone today! There's now a single path where I can play through the game without encountering any placeholder text. Now I just need to write the rest of it.

https://write.as/johnayliff/foolish-earth-creatures-march-2026

Foolish Earth Creatures: March 2026

Big milestone this month: the game now has one path where I can play all the way from start to finish without encountering any placehold...

Space Goblin Diaries
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 18
Show threadsecurity doritoMar 18
Solo: Illya, are you free?
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 12

Canadians, please consider signing this petition to have Endometriosis and Adenomyosis officially recognized as disabilities.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-6929

Petition e-6929 - Petitions

John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 12

One more day to get the "No ICE in Minnesota" bundle!

$10 for a ton of games including mine and also gems like "Baba Is You" and "Extreme Meatpunks Forever"

https://itch.io/b/3484/no-ice-in-minnesota

No ICE in Minnesota by jesthehuman and 651 others

No ICE in Minnesota: 1439 items for $10.00

itch.io
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 11
I've been thinking lately about game design lessons I've learned from putting achievements in Beyond the Chiron Gate, and I wrote up a little retrospective dev diary: https://write.as/johnayliff/achievements-in-beyond-the-chiron-gate-a-mini-design-retrospective
Achievements in Beyond the Chiron Gate: a mini design retrospective

I've been thinking about the design lessons I've learned from Beyond the Chiron Gate now that it's been out for a few years, and I though...

Space Goblin Diaries
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 9

The Dan Dare kickstarter is live!

As a fan of the original Dan Dare this looks like a really exciting modern take on the story.

And as a fan of, like, comic books about spaceships, this just looks gorgeous.

Very excited to back this!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/798979572/dan-dare-graphic-novel/

John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Mar 4

After days of being blocked I'm making progress again, and have finally reached The End!

(Technically a spoiler I guess, but how else was this game going to end?)

John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Feb 27
New dev diary in which I talk about how endings are hard to write: https://write.as/johnayliff/foolish-earth-creatures-february-2026
Foolish Earth Creatures: February 2026

Progress has been slower this month, in part because I'm now working on the ending of the game, and endings are hard. Endings are espec...

Space Goblin Diaries
Show threadJohn Ayliff (Space Goblin)Feb 23

The artist is posting progress images of on BlueSky and I am ridiculously excited.

https://bsky.app/profile/marclaming.bsky.social/post/3mfjzvvcdb22n

Marc Laming all singing, all dancing comics guy. (@marclaming.bsky.social)

Dan Dare: First Contact pencils Sign up here fot the Kickstarter campaign https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/798979572/dan-dare-graphic-novel

Bluesky Social
John Ayliff (Space Goblin)Feb 23

This is launching next week and looks like it's going to be great - and I say that both as an enjoyer of sci-fi comics and as a fan of the original Dan Dare.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/798979572/dan-dare-graphic-novel