Like 7 days before I'm supposed to have this Steam NextFest demo ready to go, hold my mead #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup #stg

Added a ton of new monsters, enemy spawn groups/formations, and improved the spawning algorithm for pacing! These guys are the new Carrion Birds, undead vulture spreadgun helicopters. Huge shoutout to Faultbox for most of the art you see on screen here! #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #shmup #stg

Its rough but it works! World map level selection roughed in. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

I was chatting with someone the other day and in-game bestiaries came up, thought I'd give it a try. Fortunately I purposely did data-derived content for this game so it was super straightforward! Now I gotta make it look nice #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

OK! disk-world map is starting to take shape. Nodes don't have an enforced order or adjacency, but difficulty increases each Night that passes. You have to clear at least 3 nodes before you can attempt The Moon and finish the run! #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #roguelite #shmup

So per usual I was having an existential crisis about game structure and loops etc, but its fun to scoot around a little star map and do things so I'm gonna go with it. The game's a procgen-ish rogueliteish shmup #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev

POV: You're making a small shmup but you have a crippling addiction to world maps. You have a psychological condition that forces you to put world maps in all games you make. The thought of a game without a world map confuses and frightens you. #indiedev #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

I'm sure this has been done other places but it felt neat to me. At the end of each Night an Upgrade Triskell appears, and you can collect 1 of 3 Upgrade Orbs. Neat how there's a bit of crossover really between shmups and roguelikes. #pixelart #indiegame #indedev #gamedev #shmup #stg #roguelike

Since it has a tiny bit of roguelite DNA, Moonbeam Mayhem has procgen levels. I overhauled my spawn manager, giving the spawnGroups roles, power levels, and some sequencing rules to make sure they're fun to play against. #pixelart #indiegame #indedev #gamedev #shmup #stg #screenshotsaturday

OK, some proof of concepting here with my background systems. I can now set target scroll speeds and the bgs lerp to the goal. Testing it out here by having you zoom out into the Ether after protecting the city! #pixelart #indiegame #indedev #gamedev #shmup #stg #screenshotsaturday

OK, tested out my Tilemap importer and it works! I can now queue up maps and repeat sections etc. Now I can start building out the Witch's entire flight from the besieged Twilight City to the core of the Broken Moon. #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #shmup

So my buddy pointed out the lack of texture in the HUD panels was kind of disorienting to the old eye orbs. I need to mask the texture off of the edges, but basically I really dig this. Now I can make little insets for the health/focus etc.

OK, HUD's getting there. It does at least now have all the parts it is supposed to. Ultimately I want a more interesting way to communicate the Focus Shot than the bar, but we'll get there. Need some texture on the panel too. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup #screenshotsaturday

Working on HUD stuff today, just playing around with how things can look. I might segment the "widgets" with their own boxes too. I think I'm gonna collapse the HUD into one side panel per-player, and have some art in the unused side panel. #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #shmup

Okay, people like story in games right? How much story is necessary/appropriate for a shmup? I'm thinking about some dialogue sequences between waves maybe? A couple of NES / SNES style stills with some text? #indiedev #gamedev #shmup

Doodled an evil wizard, but I needed a boss really. I'm gonna start looking at old voltron robeasts for some boss/villain concepts. #sketch #doodle #indiedev #gamedev

trying to get a little storytelling in with the props that get spawned as you progress through Nights/(stages). You'll start out flying over countryside, progress into clouds, then open sky, then the ether of space and finally the False Moon. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup

In typical gamedev fashion, did a ton of systems work that made the game look pretty much the same. I can queue and repeat background segments now though, so I can change the parallax and props when you hit a new Night. Thinking about little dialogues between? #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup

Oh, also added some helical bits to your hyper shot, because helixes are cool. Also added a nice bursty vfx when you activate the Lantern Crash. #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #shmup #screenshotsaturday #wip

There's a lot on screen when you start to get into Night 15! Density of monsters feels good. I need more types of enemy bullets though, probably. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup #screenshotsaturday

A little while back some friends and I were working on this space game concept. It had a strategic layer/star map and a combat layer with top down dogfighting. I'd like to come back to some variant of this concept someday. #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Inching towards steam wishlistable status! Submitted for Steam's review, then the page should be up. #pixelart #shmup #indiedev #gamedev

OK, very very alpha, but playable! Had no idea how to do capsule/poster art for a fantasy shmup. This kinda works as a start maybe? Looking at it, needs more monsters. #indiedev #gamedev #shmup #wip #illustration theinfamousmrmeow.itch.io/moonbeam-may...

Shmup player of BlueSky, what makes a good co-op shmup? #shmup #indiedev #gamedev #coop #gaming

Doing an audio and vfx pass, trying to tighten things up and make the game a little more readable overall. A buddy of mine made this track for another game a while back but I really like how it feels here!!! Steam SOOOOOOON #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #screenshotsaturday #wip #shmup

Today was just tightening up some menu and HUD elements. Started the Steam process for Moonbeam Mayhem! Want to get a basic little landing page up. Then playtest on Itch and see if I can get some feedback. No new game stuff, so here's a skeleton we drew for promo! #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

Was thinking about Moonbeam Mayhem as a possible title for this small shmup spin-off of Witchling Grove? #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #wip

eemster bnuuy 🐰🌈✨ #pixelart

Alexus 2040 is a 'hard retro' space shooter for mobile. - Randomised progression - Original power-ups to stack - Bosses - Paint your own spaceships App Store: apple.co/4fLrHHw Google Play: play.google.com/store/apps/d... #gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #indiegamedev #AppStore #arcade #pixelart

I'm finally pretty happy with the lighting effect. I've got nice dithery-pixel chunky light cookies. Next I can play with the ambient light to really drive home things like your lantern flash. Starting to look like a real game! #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #shmup #screenshotsaturday

Still kinda just messing around with light, stars, and clouds. Needs work of course, some bugs. I think I might move to dithery light cookies instead of the hard edges on lights. Its a little bit magical though. #shmup #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #wip

Briefly messed around with a lighting concept. I didn't like it until the stars got a full-bright treatment. Probably too noisy for this project but its kind of neat. #pixelart #shmup #indiedev #gamedev.

Some juice work today. A jitter on hit enemies, some screenstop when you get hit, and screenshake when defeating large enemies. Looking at the gameplay the lantern crash is still slightly confusing. I'll do that tomorrow. #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #shmup #wip

Alright, the Witch's mechanics are in-game! Ready a Hyper shot by not firing for a few seconds. Hyper shots pierce enemies and destroy enemy bullets. Your Lantern Crash recharges over time. It destroys bullets in its radius, and Dazzles enemies! Now,🍎JUICE🍎 #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev #shmup

OK, cooking on something. Wanted a twist on a Bomb mechanic. As the Nightwatch Witch, you've got a Lantern. It destroys enemy projectiles when used, and I think it'll Dazzle enemies rather than damage them. #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #shmup

OK, worked a bit more on my sand for yesterday's #pixeldailies Plopped it into my village tileset. faultbox's monsters for scale/reference. Not sure what to do for today's Farm theme. Maybe tilled rows or something? #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev

Alright, little more tuning on wave timings. Game is finally starting to feel how I wanted it to! I was a little nervous for a while I couldn't make a randomized shmup interesting enough. Existential dread has abated slightly, and now I can work MORE FUN. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup

Today was tightening up wave spawning so we could do more concurrent waves. Looking much more like a #shmup! Waves are randomly composed from applicable spawnGroups I have predefined, so its a bit tricky to make sure they all fit nicely. Fun challenge though! #pixelart #indiedev #gamedev

bumped up the view height a little to give us some more maneuver room. Feels pretty good! Need to get the chaff enemy spawn density up a little but feels good on the minibosses. #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

Figured out some cool shot pattern stuff like bullet hell spokes. Getting closer! Happy with most of my systems and starting to shift into creating content for the game.🔮🧚 #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

Loot Frog is a demo incremental bullet hell idler where you smash pots for gems, upgrade gear and abilities, explore varied biomes, and dive deeper into cult-filled chaos. Play the demo: playtester.io/loot-frog #IndieGaming #GameDev #Gaming #IndieDev #IndieGame

Two scenes share the same stage 🔆

I'm developing some game design axioms. #1 - Flying Castles are fucking sick. Rygar, Secret of Mana, Dragonlance. All sick, all have flying castles. ActRaiser gets bonus points for you starting off in the flying castle. #gamedev #indiedev

Golden Axe (1989) by SEGA for arcade, Mega Drive and Master System.

Okay, these two shmups here look EXTREMELY legit from the trailers, but have four user-reviews between them. What gives? store.steampowered.com/app/2262880/... store.steampowered.com/app/3091520/... I swear, every time I go looking at Steam for more than five minutes I dig up something cool.

OK! Worked on some enemy variety a bit. Big mobs of weird floaty guys you can push around with shots, chasing Vampire Moths, strafing Eyebats and classic dive-attacking birds. This is with a lot of the volley metaprogress upgrades :D #pixelart #shmup #gamedev #indiedev

Starting to look a little more like a shmup! Improved my spawnGroups concept so multiple groups can be clustered together. Did a big AI/Behavior overhaul where Behaviors can be sequenced and completed by the Actors. Next I have to make that scriptable! #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #shmup

OK! Basic bullet feels good, think that's locked down. Some hemming and hawing with the UI, but I think I'm gonna keep it super minimalist. Might make some elements oscillate for enhanced spooky. Working on Familiars (who'll be equipable options I think) #pixelart #shmup #indiedev #gamedev

Wrote some `shotPattern` data structures so I can have alternating fire patterns and stuff. Too many bullets? Too many bullets. Tempting though lol. #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #shmup

Found this game I worked on as a kid and managed to get the source code to build! It was based on a kind of 1-2 bit style and had some light Metroidvania and eco-sim elements. It was almost done and pretty playable, might toss it up on itch.io. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart