David Cole (@irondavy) / X

David Cole

7,492 posts

David Cole

@irondavy

Design at @castlexyz. Making distinctions.

San Jose, CA

Joined June 2008

Pinned
David Cole
@irondavy
Mar 14, 2025
🌋 After years of being an internet recluse, I’m now bursting with announcements: 1. @castlexyz has been my full focus for >5 years now, and I’m proud to share we recently closed a $15M round led by @khoslaventures to keep pursuing the dream of HyperCard, Flash, MarioPaint et al
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David Cole
@irondavy
Jun 10, 2025
This post is unavailable.
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David Cole
@irondavy
Mar 28, 2024
I struggle to remember most historical dates, even very approximately. I’m a spatial thinker so I’ve tried making a number of different visualizations of history to help me, and this is my latest and favorite: mapping many different time scales to my hand
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David Cole
@irondavy
Apr 23, 2021
Submitted for your approval: my TOP FIFTY design decisions in WarioWare DIY. This game has been a huge influence on me for the design of @castlexyz. What does it look like when Nintendo designs a game development tool that anyone can use? 🧵🪡👇🪡🧵
David Cole
@irondavy
Feb 13, 2022
Found an old iPhone with relics of a time when designers still liked design
David Cole
@irondavy
May 26, 2021
Hey Tools for Thought types, make an app that lets you use iconic video game maps as memory palaces
David Cole
@irondavy
Jul 16, 2020
My 8 y/o and I came up with this chilled out drawing game, Sprout City, a variant on Conway’s Sprouts. It’s been good for passing lockdown time, and easy to mod for more role-play.
David Cole
@irondavy
Jun 10, 2025
Replying to @thekitze
Basically everything depicted was panned at the time
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David Cole
@irondavy
May 6, 2022
I used to write a lot about design but then I completely stopped. My last job was a lesson in how easy it is to generate fancy theories that bear no fruit. These last few years I've been heads down putting theory to practice, and I feel much clearer about my design philosophy.
David Cole
@irondavy
May 14, 2022
I don’t disagree with this but a big 🤯 moment happened for me when I read A Small Matter of Programming, which argues that a major reason Excel brought programming to layfolk is because it’s used inside of organizations where people can just ask each other for help.
Inactive; Bluesky is @hillelwayne(dot)com
@hillelogram
May 13, 2022
The biggest reason Excel is the most popular layfolk programming language is that its UX and IDE is miles miles miles better than any other language
David Cole
@irondavy
Oct 1, 2020
The set of stuff you can "cast" is great: dice, spells, movies, light, steel, votes
David Cole
@irondavy
Dec 28, 2021
Designers really shouldn’t use the term “user”, more accurate would be “mark” or “patsy”
David Cole
@irondavy
Oct 3, 2023
Probably the most underrated episode IMO
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David Cole
@irondavy
May 15, 2020
My strategy of just using one giant Figma file for every single thing is finally starting to break down and I'm really bummed about it