And there's also a wee handful of games that I've made with my son. I'm rather proud of them. sloanysoft.itch.io

Happy birthday to the ZX Spectrum on St George's day!

Happy 44th Birthday to All Time Greatest Computer of All Time™️, the ZX Spectrum.

Today marks the 44th anniversary of the ZX Spectrum, the weird little goblin of a computer that changed my life. My ongoing book series Speccy Nation is my attempt to explore why this period of gaming captivated me so deeply. Buy 'em here: www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=speccy+n... #ZXSpectrum

Isometric rendering optimisations, what an exciting topic! Read more at bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

I've been working on how the A and B buttons will work in Melkhior's Tower. It's been a headache! Read more at bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

Some of my quick concepts for the Lumo 2 version of Lumo. I need to go make an Ultimate Play The Game box cover, now.

Some of the special baddies from the original Melkhior's Mansion will be making an appearance in Melkhior's Tower. Not 100% sure what they'll do yet, I need to figure that out. bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

ICYMI: Roguecraft is coming to the ZX Spectrum Next in 2026! Bookmark the itch page or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates! Itch: thalamus.link/roguedx-next Subscribe: thalamus.link/subscribe #roguecraft #roguelike ⁠⁠#gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #retrogames

Ludonarrative dissonance. WTF is that? A new Melkhior's Tower dev log entry: bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

Testing the new Bandcamp embeds feature! (sorry for the double post) @ericretro.bsky.social @craigstevenson.bsky.social mcalby.bandcamp.com/album/melkhi...

Been tinkering with the title screen and screen transitions in Melkhior's Tower. More info about the game in the devlog: itch.io/dashboard/ga... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

Aces to see a Melkhior’s Mansion screen on the latest Retro Gamer subscriber cover. The love that went and is still going into the making of that game could power a 1st world country for decades. You’ll also see those characters again soon as they’ll be appearing in Melkhior’s Tower.

In Melkhior's Tower, Lester the Serf will have the special ability of being able to fire weapons. More info in the devlog: itch.io/dashboard/ga... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

A behind the scenes demo of the map editor used to edit the Melkhior's Tower game world. Written in C# using Monogame. #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #monogame More info here: bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to...

Melkhior's Tower dev log update: bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to... #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

Each object in Melkhior's Tower now has a weight property. This is to facilitate Sir Stamperlot's special ability of strength. #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart More info here: bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to...

My new Playdate project, Melkhior's Tower, has a new home on Itch, where I'll post more frequent dev updates to avoid spamming the socials with too many updates. #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart bitglint.itch.io/melkhiors-to...

Started working on locked chests in my new game, Melkhior's Tower. Clues to the combination will be hidden somewhere around the place, and only Princess Ashby will be able to crank the locks. #melkhiorstower #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart www.bitglint.co.uk

Levels in Melkhior's Tower (as it's now called) will be traversed via one way trapdoors. Not quite as easily as the video shows, this is just a test. 😀 #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart www.bitglint.co.uk

I worked on the score and message system for my (not-so-small-anymore) mini-game. There’s now a countdown at the start, a silly remark when you crash, and praise plus a big bonus for reaching the finish line. #pixelart #gamedev #solodev #godotengine #indiegames #godot #indiedev #devlog

Bit of a longer gameplay video that shows progress so far on Melkhior's for Playdate. Merry Christmas.🎄 #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart www.bitglint.co.uk

Character collaboration will feature in many of the puzzles in my new Melkhior's Mansion spin-off for the Playdate. A quick turn of the crank switches between characters. #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart www.bitglint.co.uk

Tackling blocked doors in my new Melkhior's Mansion spin-off project for Playdate. I need to give this game a name, and start posting more updates. #playdate #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart www.bitglint.co.uk

The Melkhior's Mansion crew are coming to the Playdate. It's not going to be a straight conversion, it's going to be a different game, featuring graphics from the original by the awesome pixel artist @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

Still playing with this, but going in no particular direction. It's just fun seeing the Melkhior's Mansion characters come to life on the PlayDate. #melkhiorsmansion #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

A knight, a hobby horse, and an obstacle. That’s already enough elements for a mini game. Let’s see if I can cook up something fun out of it … #pixelart #gamedev #animation #gif

Another project I'm tinkering with is a possible PlayDate exclusive Melkhior's Mansion spin off. Very early days, but it looks really neat on the actual device. #melkhiorsmansion #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

Zyphatron's teleport sequence is now complete. On this project I'm looking to complete features as I do them, rather than improve the features with subsequent iterations. Might work, might not. #zyphatron #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

We're utterly thrilled to announce that "Return to Blacktooth: A Head Over Heels Adventure" is coming soon to Atari ST & Amiga! Get ready to dive into Colin Porch's epic sequel, a game almost 40 years in the making! #HeadOverHeels #JonAndBernie #Fish

Playing with some of the new tile graphics from @craigstevenson.bsky.social. Still far from the finished look, but coming along nicely. #zyphatron #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

I mean, I couldn’t say no! I also get the chance to do 1-bit chunky pixel-y robots!

Back on this PlayDate project. Graphics are starting to appear from pixel supremo @craigstevenson.bsky.social and I've started work on the robot interface sub game. The game is called Zyphatron. #zyphatron #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

Added more movement intelligence to the NPC robots in my new Playdate project, and also made the whole play area visible, just for testing, but it actually looks quite good. Might keep it like that. #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

My new Playdate project is progressing well. Maps are created using the excellent Tiled. Rooms can be either small static areas, or larger scrolling areas. #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate www.bitglint.co.uk

Got myself a Playdate, it's lovely! This isn't a real project, just wanted to see what the awesome graphics by @craigstevenson.bsky.social look like on the device. #melkhiorsmansion #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #playdate

There's a joy in hand-drawn maps..

Rewritten all the existing popup dialogues to use common functionality for the fiddly effects, making future popups and whole loads easier to implement. @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric youtu.be/xx972n2_wyE

More work on the popups to make them feel lovely. It's fiddly, and time consuming, but well worth the effort to ensure the interface doesn't feel hard and abrupt. @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric #screenshotsaturday youtu.be/gEJC2GlDkEc

Adding some nice tactile effects to popup windows, including transparency, animation and wibbly bits. Love doing this sort of thing. @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric youtu.be/uCyrs2fMN38

Melkhior's Mansion is 2 years old today, and the cast have been partying hard! Download Melkhior's Mansion, Undrium and Klass of 99 for free at bitglint.itch.io @craigstevenson.bsky.social @mcalby.bsky.social #melkhiorsmansion #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart

Here's Mr Placeholder's world using a CRT shader created by @Jjagg_dev. Been stripping out some stuff I don't need to use, and by some miracle (given my sketchy shader skills) it still works! 😯😀 @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric

Mr Placeholder takes a walk around his new, exciting looking world. Shame he's not long for this place! @craigstevenson.bsky.social #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric youtu.be/qzndfsDuQp4

Mr Placeholder's days are nearly up! The world around him has evolved into actual game graphics and it won't be long before he gets the chop. Pixels courtesy of @craigstevenson.bsky.social. This is starting to feel like a real project. #gamedev #monogame #indiedev #pixelart #isometric

I have absolutely no new artwork to show, so here’s a couple of oldies. Unused portraits of Steve Mayles from Platonic and Rare. Done in 2 resolutions, these bad boys were originally produced for Bitmap Books’ SNES/Super Famicom: a visual compendium.