Ryan Thompson

@bardicknowledge

Game audio professor and radio host (Monday 7:00 PM, wkar.org) at Michigan State. Musicology via game studies. Go green! Thompson.RyanC@gmail.com Watch me and my best friends stream Thursday evenings 9-11 PM Eastern at Twitch.tv/BardicKnowledge

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Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· 2d

Four words today nobody else has found; high word rarity of 66 with word score 88. Total score on the day: 779. Fight me! playoutlier.com/c/rbkaj9

Picture of "Outlier" score of 779 with today's board consisting of letters as follows:

S I E L E O N R F U A D H W O Y T J M U I G P B A

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· 10d

Looks like the database I usually look to for this one doesn't yet have it -- probably worth submitting? Here's two relevant spreadsheets from the community. (Purple highlight in attached image is mine) docs.google.com/spreadsheets... docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Picture of a spreadsheet of sound sources from Final Fantasy X. Full link in main post.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jul 9

One highlight picture from the trip courtesy Sarah -- sunset at Grand Haven is absolutely spectactular.

Image of sunset in Grand Haven, Michigan before the musical fountain show began.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jul 6

I am on a beach vacation and get to miss all of the politics this week. Headed to the boardwalk for Pronto Pups and fried pickles instead before the fountain show. If you can similarly escape, do so. Here is last year:

Grand Haven Musical fountain light show, 2025

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jun 30

Here, Linda :p

RAYGUN shirt website selling a plain sky-blue shirt with pink lettering saying "BUT IT'S A WET HEAT."

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jun 20

Welp

Kefka Palazzo appearing to poison the Washington D.C. reflecting pool.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jun 16

Summer is good, everyone.

Picture of my wife Addie and myself on a boat between Lakes Huron and Michigan as we sail underneath the Mackinac Bridge.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Jun 5

Love this.

Handwritten note for Victoria that reads:

Hi, Victoria! We’re streaming Mina The Hollower tonight. Fun community prompt I’ll use with my students this fall. Thanks! :)

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· May 6

Traveling the world with your two best friends is highly recommended. And in @musicologess.bsky.social’s words, taking in the Burkian sublime with them is a step beyond. Incredible Sunday for us all.

Myself with Dana and Sarah at the bottom of Niagara Falls’ tunnel

Image of Niagara Falls, taken by Sarah PC

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Apr 17

Same, so ready for today to end

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Apr 15

age verification I lost my manual for Prince of Persia between moves and didn't learn the cheat code for a full year afterword -- the hardest stage in the game is definitely guessing random letters in the hopes the door unlocks. (There's no best letter to pick, many have two entries in the table.)

Image of copy protection micro-stage in Prince of Persia 1.3 -- the correct letter to drink is "K" for this example and presumably it is on the screen to the right.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Apr 3

It's my favorite day of my Wwise course here at @mediainfomsu.bsky.social! My students are making bird canopies today! Full assignment in the image + alt text. Thanks to @berrak.bsky.social for selling a great set of bird sounds, and to @damiankastbauer.bsky.social for being so supportive.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 29

PSA for tech things: Genki has really stepped up the quality of their products for this go around. I liked the Shadowcast 2 Pro and the first few covert socks but these look and feel great — and came with matching international adaptors to boot. Highly recommend them if you’re in their market.

Image of the Genki Covert Dock 3 and the Genki Shadowcast 3 Pro, both of which I just received in the mail.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 16

I posted the following to the MSU students who asked about it and I can’t believe this wasn’t at least raised internally. It looks terrible IMO and not just the first image.

Full text of the image as follows:

I am going to voice an uncomfortable thing here, and be advised I will moderate commentary on this relatively heavily.

*Lots of training data for what computers think women should look like come from spaces where female body representation is something directly curated for straight men. Think Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, Maxim / Playboy magazine from the 20th century, and even less savory sources from the 21st.*

This filter is revealing and reinforcing these biases. Like many others here, I am of the opinion that the original image on the left looks much better than the filtered one as a result.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 13

the Marcus Rhoades early career award! See picture, ica! :)

Picture of Addie Thompson with her early career award, given to her during a recent trip to Germany.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 13

This site needs a break. Post 3 good things, none of which are the cessation of a negative. 1. I was just at the GDC concert! See pic of Jillian and I. 2. I’m having fun on an asynchronous Archipelago.gg game! 3. My wife won an international award in plant genetics last week! Addie is a rockstar.

Ryan with fellow musician Jillian Aversa, watching the GDC concert together

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 12

My return to GDC after twelve years of not being there was exceptional. The game audio community remains the most welcoming and most inspiring group of professionals I work with. I might wear the shell of a Spartan for work, but underneath I'm in the mix together with all of you, always.

Photo of Ryan wearing an MSU Spartan quarter-zip pullover with a VGMTogether shirt underneath, overlooking the Moscone Center carosel barely visible in the distance.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 2

Going to be very mean for a second: the only people I have seen excited about this are the same people online excited by an ad for a mobile phone game entitled "Click this link and we promise you can fuck this fantasy armor-clad lady" (and yes it is always a young lady advertised to straight men)

Image of a post by NBC discussing the AI / fake actress persona "Tilly Norwood," a character that does not exist and is being positioned as a replacement for working actors.

The link is not clickable because I do not want to encourage visitors to the site and purposely captured the screen rather than a more traditional quote affords.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Mar 2

I am spending my first day of spring break reading a lovely book by @mikedrucker.bsky.social and boy did I pump my fist in delight for Past Mike when I arrived to this page knowing that just after writing this book he did, in fact, get to meet Roberta Williams. (Link to interview in alt-text.)

Picture of two pages from Mike Drucker’s excellent “Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games” where Mike describes doing an elementary school presentation on the career of game designer Roberta Williams (one of gaming’s most influential designers) and having the project dismissed as not being focused on someone important.

Mike went on to very recently interview Williams for Game Informer magazine shortly after this book was published: https://gameinformer.com/feature/2026/01/01/roberta-quest

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Dec 30

Repaying cat photos with more cat photos -- here's Link! (And happy holidays, glad to see you over on Bluesky more regularly.)P

Ryan's cat Link lounging on a red blanket atop a blue couch, with lit fireplace in background.

Link the cat stretching out on a green blanket, arms in front of his head.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Dec 29

Dan I don’t hate this :p

Picture of hand, holding two mocked-up tickets for the imagined show “Stay Home and Do Nothing and Go To Bed Early”

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Dec 6

This image set plus “Challenge the Sea” by Home Free.

List of albums I bought this year (photo 1):
Stress Fracture (DiscoCactus single), Hades II, Timespinner, Eternal Strands, Blue Prince, Gathering Sky, Ori and the Blind Forest, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Yooka-Laylee

List of Bandcamp albums I bought this year: Songs for the Cure Esuna, Distant Worlds, Chicory, Garden Story, Moonglow Bay, Final Symphony, Arcology, Super Guital Bros. (single)

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Dec 5

Okay, Trader Joe’s, you don’t have to lie to me, I know what I’m buying (and also having lived in the Philippines for a year I am now eternally snobby about any fruit that is simply better there)

Image of Trader Joe’s dried mango being described as “soft and juicy,” neither of which is particularly true of any dried fruit

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Nov 19

My ten year-old child knows the correct response to this dinner invitation:

Picture of the Dragonlord from Dragon Quest offering to share his rule of Alefgard alongside the Scion of Erdrick with a yes/no prompt. (It, like allyship with Trump, is a false, illusory choice.)

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Nov 18

This shot of the player looking into a mirror from the new release of Dragon Quest II has tenor energy (thanks to @doodlyroses.com for the core concept). Also I cannot recommend this collection enough. Every note the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra circa 1988-1990. It is the realization of a dream.

Picture of Dragon Quest II's Prince of Midenhall (given the name Ryan, as I am playing the game) looking into a mirror, "delighted to see he's handsome as ever."

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Nov 10

Counterpoint: seeing the snow-kissed orange and yellow trees during a long drive through Michigan was amazing yesterday:

Snow-capped autumn trees with a combination of orange and yellow leaves mixed in alongside evergreens in a muted color combination, as taken from Interstate 94 near Lake Michigan.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Nov 4

Hey AMS / SMT gamer friends, check this out! (And thank @jessicagetman.bsky.social for pointing it to me). I will be on the road and miss it but it looks super fun.

Image advertising a D&D adventure on Sunday November 9th from 10:00 AM — 2:00 PM at 416 Cedar Avenue South, in Minneapolis

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Nov 2

My feed is insane atm haha

List of people cursing about the World Series game.

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Oct 27

Few hours in the Denver airport with a pastrami sandwich and then onward to #GameSoundCon

Image of Ryan sitting at a comfy table in the Denver airport

Ryan Thompson@bardicknowledge· Oct 7

Amazing stir fry for supper tonight. Lucky for me that Addie is pretty darn great!