From a salvaged retro arcade cabinet with a CRT monitor to a custom community game platform, @frankchiarulli.com and many other Recursers came together to make something that we couldn't have imagined alone:
A concept sketch page for Bigma, one of the mascots for the Mega Man inspired theme for Super MAGFest 2026. It includes different views of his face, poses, emotes, and iconography. He's a past mascot for MAGFest that was reimagined to align with role of Sigma, a villain in Mega Man X.
A concept sketch page of Sawtooth, aka Sunny McShreds, for Super MAGFest 2026. Multiple poses of her looking over her shoulder, one without her helmet on, and other ideas. She's a past mascot as well.
A concept sketch page for Alpha Pulse, the main mascot for Super MAGFest 2026's Mega Man theme. This page has multiple sketches and perspectives of the robot character along with a duck.
I had the wonderful pleasure of working on some amazing things this past year that I can now show off!
If you attend Super MAGFest 2026, you may be familiar with some of these characters...
WASD plays in the darkness of Camp Ramblewood with neon lighting effects cast on them and the crowd roaring directly to their left.
The artist alley at MAGStock under tents and decorative flags. Attendees gather as vendors purvey their wares at each booth.
The MAGStock pinecar derby, taken from an angle behind the finish line. A race is currently underway with attendees and competitors looking on from the distance.
Ready to do it all over again? Although Super MAGFest just ended, the wheels are turning and the train is moving along the tracks for our other events
In late 2025 @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social teamed up with @arcadecommons.org to run a game jam called Flip Out - games made using 5 toggle switches. This is the second alt.ctrl game jam following 2024's Lever Up jam.
You can play the games made from this jam here:
itch.io/jam/flip-out
Between at the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social went super well too. It was so cool to see gamers play it 24 hours a day. Special thanks to the Indie Arcade team who found and installed a new projector when mine burned out!
Huge thanks to the rest of the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social team for having me in the space / not giving me too much surprise work in December so I could finish it.
And to peeps like @goferboy.bsky.social and @smashriot.bsky.social for being VERY LOUD about how much they loved the game from hour 1!
its post magfest so now I can showoff my Qualia Machine, lovingly built & designed by @blazinkarp.bsky.social inspired by glass teletypes and retro PC from a future that doesn't exist yet. The booth was decorated by me to reflect a cubicle inside an Intellica office. Lots of secrets there too...
The three Tank Champions, Salt Hill at lvl 57, Oats Larson at lvl 55, and Rev Chang at lvl 53. Good job, fish!
Hello Fish Friends it is time for
🎊🐟The MAGFish Awards🐟🎊
Starting off, let's have a round of applause for our BIGGEST FISH:
ahem drum roll please and thank you
🥁🐟🥁🐟🥁🐟🥁🐟🥁🐟🥁🐟🥁
SALT HILL (from @smashriot.bsky.social!) with a staggering 57 total meals!! 23 feeds is a lot!!! ON ALL 3?!? how.
1/5
A friendly reminder for any who need to hear it: fish never die! It just doesn't happen, nobody understands it and we stopped trying to? Nothing dies I think????
Of course, always have to give it up for the @arcadecommons.org and @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social people.
I've said this during the con, but I've been going to this for 10+ years. To see it go from a little section in the expo hall to becoming one of the main pillars of the con is inspiring.
All of you put years of work into making this grow and it really shows. I am always overhearing people at the con talking about the different cabinets, games, and events from your floor, that attendees love to experience and be a part of, and makes them want to come back each year.
The amount of logistics, ideas, events, and fires you put out is nothing short of incredible. Even though I don't do anything (maybe one year), it's a real blessing to see you grow. Real proud of ya'll.
@mag-indiearcade.bsky.social undefeated
And of course, thank you so much as always to the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social team for having and supporting us. Their commitment to fostering a space for joy and community inspires us and we certainly couldn't do it without them.
A bloodborne cosplayer next to the Nightmare Cart cab at Magfest
At MagFest with my homie as he's posted up as a hunter with @b0tster.yeag.gay's Nightmare Kart cab
Dyebreaker ready for action! right between two MAGFest heavy hitters, Nightmare Kart from @b0tster.yeag.gay and Nothing Good Can Come of This from Cartwheel Games. halls open in 29 minutes 🙇♂️
The Doom Drop cabinet is going strong at #magfest
Hey @magfest.org I'll be on the alt control panel hosted by @emilykoonce.bsky.social at 6PM!
Panels 4 - Chesapeake
I'll be talking strange controllers with Blake Andrews (currently blasting me in the arcade with horse race test), David Antognoli of Night City Games and John Meister of Super Soul!
A mascot suit of a baby chicken, gesticulating on a balcony.
Someone in a chicken suit walked out onto their hotel balcony, and everyone in the atrium started chanting CLUCK! CLUCK! CLUCK!
Welcome to MAGFest, a video game festival
Happy 20th MAGFest!
Come try out #Shootlanzer at the @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social !!
IT TIME
(im not ready)
And surprise! A fan favorite, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS by Michael Consoli is getting a fresh coat of paint, both literally by @chriscariot.bsky.social with new hand-painted side art, and lots of refurbs by Alex Panait, ready to re-emerge @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social !
Did you know we have an annual community showcase @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social ? These include games in all formats from our wider community! This year is one of our best yet, with some real slam dunks:
Claire Kwong's schedule at MAGFest 2026 Rebecca Sugar's Lonely Magic Tour, Thursday 8:10pm on Mainstage aivi & surasshu, Friday 12:00pm at Chipspace Between all day at Indie Arcade
I'm so excited to be at MAGFest this week!
First, I'm performing visuals with Rebecca Sugar's Lonely Magic Tour, Thursday 8:10pm on Mainstage!
Then, I'll do visuals for @aivisura.com, Friday 12:00pm at Chipspace!
Finally, you can play Between all day and all night at @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social!
A game controller with five toggle switches organized in a “V” shape, made from a shoebox.
The insides of a game controller made from a shoebox, showing a breadboard, adafruit circuit playground microcontroller, and a mess of alligator clips and jumper wires.
Jam organized by @arcadecommons.org and @mag-indiearcade.bsky.social ✨ As part of the jam participants also built their own version of the controller, this is our shoebox version by @sadlilrobot.bsky.social
inventing a fun new game where you get really wasted and put all your kitchen knives on the floor with the lights off. i call it Scary Floor
Installing Orbital, YOGAÏE and Crashboard for Play Day Unwrap Festival that took place in Kortrijk, Belgium last Sunday 🌐🧘♂️🛹
Disclaimer: it's not as easy as I make it look... I spend all day setting up everything in there 😅
Y'all did it: Super MAGFest 2026 badges are SOLD! OUT! Super MAGFest badges can ONLY be bought/transferred through our in-house registration system - any others are fraudulent and cannot be honored or refunded. Be vigilant of scams if buying secondhand and use a platform with purchase protection!
An image of The Protomen standing together under the word "PROTOMEN". At the bottom it says "AT MAGFEST 20X6".
The Protomen will debut Act III at Super MAGFest!
Performing ALL THREE ACTS, the whole story, in narrative order. One act per night, catch it all over the weekend!
Also, badges are almost SOLD OUT, and prices increase on Nov 1! So get yours RIGHT NOW! 🎃
super.magfest.org/registration
AND WE'RE LIVE! Our alt ctrl game jam is happening RIGHT NOW at itch.io/jam/flip-out and on the @arcadecommons.org discord!
And any good game jam ofc has a theme to get the creativity flowing and ours this year is....
