Chris Thursten

5 Jan

My post-layoff professional hiatus has come to an end and I'm looking to rebuild my contact book. If you're in need of: ✏️ Fiction! Produced entirely by my human brain and hands! 🧙‍♂️ Narrative design, worldbuilding or creative direction! 🎺 Comms, bizdev or marketing support! ...then get in touch!

I genuinely would not be in the games industry without BioWare. In the traditional sense, because Mass Effect was the series that accompanied me through uni and Dragon Age arrived right after, when I was back home doing a data entry job and trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.

View full thread

...and more recently, in a personal sense, because of the ex-BioWare folks I worked with at Hypixel Studios, people who massively enhanced the last few years of that experience and from whom I learned a lot.

I want to commemorate what the studio represented, but, at the end of the day... good luck to everyone who lost their jobs today, godspeed, I firmly believe that a better industry than this is possible even if it has to be reclaimed piece by piece from the wreckage of the last 15 years.

...and in a literal sense, because I was playing Dragon Age 2 at EGX in 2010 when the Xbox red-ringed and the people behind me started laughing and *those* people were games journalists and my career started then and there (or at least in the pub, a few hours later.)

Everybody's raving about Galactic Racer's great muppets, and they're right, but I want to acknowledge that there's just a completely ordinary guy who sits next to Sebulba. Sebulba's friend Jason. I want to write his Wookieepedia entry.

Chris Thursten reposted

Mike Cook

@mtrc.bsky.social

22 Sept

New Post: Why I Love AI Next month it'll be twenty years since I went to university, learned to program, and studied AI. I wrote about why I loved it, why I still love it, and why, unfortunately, it no longer exists. www.possibilityspace.org/blog/posts/i...

18 Sept

Massive congrats to @marshdavies.bsky.social and @rossignol.bsky.social on GOLD TEETH! Which I guess is out now, because I have it. The book's come out beautifully, and I'm a big fan of Marsh's decision to disembowel himself on page 44.

13 Sept

It’s not the Toho crossover I was expecting, but sure, this tracks.

5 Sept

Last weekend was pretty great.

8 July

I've sent the email and now Book Four is off to my editor. These moments feel so strange. It's like being one of those big dockside gantry cranes watching a boat plop out to sea. Bye, boat! I'll just stand here, then.

3 June

So sad to hear about John Blanche. Hard to say anything that hasn't been said about the impact his art has had on so many of us. For me, writing Warhammer means building out from - and always arcing back toward - images like these and all of the ideas and feelings bound up in them. Rest in peace.

31 May

Thought I'd kick off the year by painting a Blood Bowl team, having never done one before. That was January. Now it's basically June. Anyway, here are some Bretonnians.

goonhammer.comBlack Library Weekly: See You in Two Months' TimeThe Black Library Weekly is here! Some bittersweet news about the future of the feature, but some great new features in the Black Library are coming as well!

31 Mar

It’s a shame to see the Black Library Weekly coming to an end, but I’m glad to have had the chance to contribute some book recs to this penultimate edition.

Tabletop Battles@tabletopbattles.com

The Black Library Weekly is here! Some bittersweet news about the future of the feature, but some great new features in the Black Library are coming as well!

29 Mar

Great weekend of Age of Sigmar at the Big Bristol Brawl. Came away with Best Army, Best Painted, and Best Chaos! Potato for scale.

18 Mar

The new Black Library app is now available, and my first novel Darkoath is free for the first month! Including the audiobook, if you’d like to hear Jon Rand’s excellent narration.

warhammer-community.comA new Black Library app is on the way – here’s what you need to knowCollect all your eBooks and audiobooks in one place.

18 Feb

There's a new Black Library app on the way, and if you link your account in the first month you can get Darkoath for free in ebook and audiobook! That's two of the different kinds of book it is! www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articl...

1 Feb

Wrapped up Brotherhood 2026 in Cardiff with two pieces of glass for army painting! First place in the player vote, second place with the judges. Really happy - this is the first time I’ve won the vote at an event. Please do not ask any follow up questions about my win/loss ratio over the weekend.

31 Jan

I’m at Firestorm in Cardiff this weekend for team Age of Sigmar. First proper outing for Abraxia and her various hangers-on since I finished my Slaves to Darkness project at the start of the year.

@cinderfallgaming.bsky.social

31 Jan

Grombrindal: Ancestor’s Burden is out now in paperback! Some of these stories have previously been available as six magazines, a hardback, an audiobook, an ebook, and a Word document on my computer. This is perhaps the most convenient iteration yet!

Chris Thursten reposted

Cinderfall Gaming

29 Jan

In today’s Black Library review we check out Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen by @cjpt.bsky.social , the first full length story focussing on the everchosen’s herald. youtu.be/A4AEusMVX5g?...

youtu.beAge of Sigmar Black Library Review: Abraxia Spear of the Everchosen by Chris ThurstonYouTube video by Cinderfall Gaming

Chris Thursten reposted

Graham Smith

@grahamsmith.bsky.social

27 Jan

A new website about PC games, from me, @brendyc.bsky.social and @jonhicks.com. Reader-supported, which means no ads, no guff, and lots of games blogging about delightful things to play. If you liked our work on RPS, we think you'll like @jank.cool.

Jank@jank.cool

Welcome to Jank! www.jank.cool/welcome-to-j...

jank.coolWelcome to JankIt's safer here.

Chris Thursten reposted

Jay “Lorehunter” Kirkman

@theblacklibrarian.bsky.social

17 Jan

The 2025 @goonhammer.com Book Awards! Who will win Best #BlackLibrary Writer? Nominees are: > @johnfrench.bsky.social > @guyhaley.bsky.social > Robbie MacNiven > @aptshadow.bsky.social > @cjpt.bsky.social VOTE NOW! www.goonhammer.com/the-2025-goo... #Warhammer #BookSky

Chris Thursten reposted

Jay “Lorehunter” Kirkman

@theblacklibrarian.bsky.social

17 Jan

2025 @goonhammer.com Book Awards Who will win Best Age of Sigmar Novel? > Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen by @cjpt.bsky.social > Starseer's Ruin by @aptshadow.bsky.social > Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion by @dalelucas.bsky.social VOTE NOW! www.goonhammer.com/the-2025-goo... #Warhammer

Chris Thursten reposted

Tom Francis

@pentadact.com

8 Jan

I've been running an indie games studio for 15 years now, and it felt like a good time to boil down what I've learned into 4 pieces of advice: www.pentadact.com/2026-01-08-1... I hope it's of use, not least because goddamn I forgot how long blog posts take to write.

3 Jan

After maybe 15 months (!) of sporadic effort, I’ve finally finished painting Abraxia and her entourage. I wrote the novel faster.

3 Jan

And, in the same time span, these guys. When I started collecting Age of Sigmar, Varanguard were unimaginably intimidating minis. I have now painted six of them and this is still the case. Also! All of these minis correspond to characters in the novel. According to me, anyway.

3 Jan

I repainted Abraxia’s face after seeing Valera Lutfullina’s cover treatment for the limited edition hardback. Such a great piece.

1 Jan

Happy to have made two contributions to the Black Library in the last year. Thanks to everybody who read Abraxia or Grombrindal - the community response to both was really fun to watch. Unlikely to be much new fiction from me in 2026, as I'm currently working on novel number four. 2027, though...

1 Jan

Happy New Year, all. I'm glad to put 2025 behind me, on balance. But this was also the year that I had a game dev stress dream about herding cats so vivid that it led obliquely but inexorably to the adoption of my golden son, Potato. So thanks, 2025. Thanks, game development. Thanks, Potato.

24 Dec 2025

It’s a dreadful privilege to be so Known. Thank you, friend

This post is unavailable.

Chris Thursten reposted

Marsh Davies

@marshdavies.bsky.social

15 Dec 2025

Hard to think of *any* issue in my life on which the public have been so uniformly opposed to the govt's agenda. The unanimity exceeds any anti-war movement, even. What could the govt even propose that would less popular? Excited to see Starmer try!!

Ed Newton-Rex@ednewtonrex.bsky.social

🚨 The UK government just published a breakdown of the responses to its consultation on AI & copyright: - 95% of respondents want AI companies to pay for their training data (made up of 88% saying strengthen copyright law, & 7% saying leave it as is) 🧵 1/2

17 Dec 2025

Just finished More Everything Forever by @adambecker.bsky.social - really thorough and humane joining-of-the-dots between AI, effective altruism, SF, cosmism and plutocracy that arcs, as most things should, toward the inevitable conclusion that Le Guin was right about everything

warhammer-community.comVote for your favourite Black Library book of 2025May the best book win.

2 Dec 2025

Both Grombrindal and Abraxia are up for 2025's Black Library Book of the Year! Delighted if either of them to get your vote. www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articl...

2 Dec 2025

Due to scheduling weirdness, Grombrindal was also up for the 2024 vote earlier this year, alongside Darkoath. I've managed to split my own vote twice with a single book. Good job, Grombrindal.

28 Nov 2025

For what feels like every possible reason this has been a slow, slow hobby year for me. But I've finished something! Here's my take on the Helsmiths of Hashut Spearhead.

28 Nov 2025

My first Warhammer army was a pile of second hand Chaos Dwarves that I got from a bloke in... Portsmouth, perhaps? In the late 90s. I remember it vividly. It was my first time visiting a weird guy's flat to look at Warhammer. My mum took me. Decades later, I am he. And this is my Warhammer.

28 Nov 2025

I thought it was a cool worldbuilding detail that Hashutite runes are so volatile that they ignite on contact with the air, so I tried to make sure that all of the script on these miniatures is visibly alight. This is why it has taken me two months to paint fourteen models.

18 Oct 2025

Abraxia: Spear of the Everchosen is now available for preorder in hardback, ebook and audiobook! Hardback: www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/h... Ebook/Audiobook: www.blacklibrary.com/prod-home/ne...

Very happy to be contributing narrative design and worldbuilding to this new project at Anego Studios! Goblin is a powerful, powerful designer -- perhaps too powerful -- and it is a delight to get to work with them on something new after our long stint together on Hytale. Cool things to come!

This post is unavailable.

My own Cities of Sigmar project stalled out a little bit, but they’re still some of my favourites to work on. So much storytelling in each mini, and it’s rewarding to put your own twist on them - converting a Khainite whisperblade, for example, or a Morrda-worshipping war surgeon.

For all the amazing centrepiece models that Age of Sigmar has had over the last ten years (not least Abraxia!) my vote has gone to the Freeguild Cavalier Marshall. It’s such a beautiful sculpt - it sells the world as well as a specific character. 100% Warhammer, but full of little subversions.

He’s descending from his hero rock, not climbing it! The wind is hitting him from behind, not in front! All sorts of baroque ornamentation, but also a bedroll, basic tools, human stuff. Just incredibly well conceived. I should probably paint mine.

28 Sept 2025

Unutterably proud of my boy Paul, and his boy, which is… this…

This post is unavailable.