I was so busy, I actually forgot to post here. I worked on adding life int the game! The first chicken and fish arrived. #Hexavale #gamedev #indiegames

Tomorrow! Just one day left till the demo release for Hexavale! 🎉🎉🎉 I don't have huge expectations, but it's one step closer to early access. if you haven't yet: take a look and wishlist on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3872220/... #demo #cozy #indiegames #puzzle #strategy #games

1 week till DEMO-RELEASE! Bug-reporter, steam achievements, steam leader board: check. store.steampowered.com/app/3872220/... #indiegames #gamedev #cozygames #indiedev

Demo-release date! Hexavale will have its demo released on the 18th of December! Official announcement: steamcommunity.com/app/3872220 #indiegames #indiedev #cozy #cozygames

Idyllic viking themed landscape - You can create your own in Hexavale. store.steampowered.com/app/3872220/... #indiegames #indiedev #cozygames #puzzle #strategy #steam

Special Tiles I started implementing Special Tiles. They can be placed everywhere (within the same world) and can be counted as kind of "cheat-tiles". They are limited, so you need to choose wisely when you get and use them. #indiedev #indiegames #cozygames #Hexavale

Pitching #Hexavale for you #PitchYaGame: In this cozy strategy puzzle game, you connect tiles to create two unique landscapes at the same time. Grow your population and shift the world in the direction you desire, while solving quests and using events to your advantage. #indiedev #indiegames

During a great convention last weekend, I got amazing feedback to lift "Hexavale" to the next level. -> added a population counter -> added half tiles (without deco-meshes by now) The half tiles took a bit to make them work with the rest of the system. #indiedev #gamedev #hexavale #cozygames

It's autumn season! So I went back redoing the autumn-trees. They don't look like mushrooms anymore. 😅 #indiedev #indiegames #dorfromantik -inspired puzzle&strategy game

Tile-variations / decoration. To give the worlds a bit more life, I added some first random decoration for some tiles. What else happened? - added leader board for high score - added 39 achievements for now Next: - last bugs #indiedev #indiegames #cozygame #strategy #puzzle

What I really underestimated as a solo dev: the time for adding achievements. - icons (coming up with ideas - and I am not creative!) - adding on steam (gosh, this takes forever!) - adding in game - testing if they work ... What did you underestimate? #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames

I noticed, I haven't put the trailer on youtube yet. Here we go. 👀💪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=obe0... #cozygames #strategygame #indiegames

After a few stressful weeks due to moving, language classes and work, I could work a bit more on Hexavale again. Today I tested the loading of bigger save files again and every time I do this, I think it's satisfying to watch. More updates coming soon! #Hexavale #indiedev #cozygames #strategy

Thank you for the previous feedback to my trailer / sneak peek trailer. I added some texts to add a bit "what are you doing"-flair. It's not the best yet, but enough for the current state of the game and to "just have something". Thank you #gamedev and #indiedevs ! 🎉💙

Help please 🥺 I have a first rough trailer, that should show some gameplay - and I am not good in making trailers. But for a first glimpse, I think this works? Should I add text-blend ins that explain stuff? #indiedev #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

Build beautiful landscapes and match the tiles together. I am still preparing the steam page. So much time spending on a simple page... 😱 But Hexavale will have its page soon! 🎉 #screenshotsaturday #indiegames #indiedev

Slowly preparing the steam page and creating short gifs. And with all the heat here I prefer the winter-world. #gamedev #indiedev #cozygames

In this game session I tried to focus on both worlds at the same time. This is the result of~ 1 hour of game play. #indiedev #indiegames #cozy #strategy #puzzle

Improving visuals: - added some effects for the worlds: snow and birds. - decided to go with a flat color for the sky (color can be changed in the settings) - some more HUD improvements #indiedev #cozygames #relaxing

First test with a steam-build and this is what 100 min game play look like 👀 I tried to make an icy landscape, because it's too hot here right now. - Sadly, it didn't help to cool the room down. #indiedev #indiegames #cozygames #cozygamer

You can mix worlds in "Hexavale" as you like. This is (for now) only cosmetical, but the plan is to add unique traits later. 4 different worlds have basic visuals now (plan is to improve over time): - Vikings - Snow - Heaven / Sky - Hell What do you think? #indiedev #indiegames #cozygames

Game HUD - UI improvements. Slowly it becomes something more serious. And the Steam page is in preparation. 👀 #Dorfromantik -inspired #cozy #indiedev #indiegames

Finally I figured out a nice looking shader (at least in my opinion 🙄 What do you think?). At the moment, I focus on getting a nice looking model-set done. #indiedev #gamedev #dorfromantik -inspired

One game. Two Worlds. Just a stress-test. Saving loading of 4000 tiles works. 💪 #gamedev #indiegames #cozygames

Played 1,5 hours today till it crashed 😭 (whyyy??). But balancing works pretty well now. Could load the save-game to make some screenshots. #indiegames #indiedev #cozygames

It is too difficult and too easy at the same time ^^° Balancing is harder than expected. Start is too difficult, but as soon as stuff is running, easy. #gamedev #screenshotsaturady #indiedev

It feels like a game! - but I need to work on the UI soon 🤣 What do you think about the game-visuals right now? Going into the right direction? #screenshotsaturday #indiedev #cozygames

Sometimes it 'just' needs a google sheet to save some work. All tiles are being created based on the sheet-entries (and more to come). Easy set up. Just a bit... tedious. #cozygames #indiegames #indiedev

With the art style, it does not go well. The tiles are not easy to tell apart from each other (not all). So I am still working on the overall visual direction. But: Difficulty sliders exist! for excluding complicated tiles. Or just get rid of a type completely. #indiedev #indiegames #unreal

This took me a bit, but the first water tiles are in the game. The challenge was to make it work with ISMs in a different way than the other grid tiles. Next: adding water with other edge-types. #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

🚀 ISMs 🚀 The solution to drawcalls when instantiating a lot of tiles. Instead of >5000 🤯 drawcalls, I am now down to a bit over 300 . ✨ Read more about it on my linkedin (link in comments). #unrealengine #indiedev #gamedev

There will be 2 types of players.... Player type 2: Placing where it fits and "sorting" afterwards. #gamedev #indiedev #cozygames

There will be 2 types of players.... Player type 1: Sorting from the very beginning. #gamedev #indiedev #cozygames

Spawning some tiles for testing the overall placing system. Not sure if I need to focus on performance. 🥹 With everything being instanced, this is not that easy... Not sure if I should try to setup a HISM-system for all the tile parts and tiles.... #cozygames #indiegames #indiedev

It starts to look like a game 👀 Not final visuals, but I need something nice to work with - and I can better figure out how to setup the tiles early on. What do you think? One game - two worlds. #indiegames #indiedev #cozygames

Working on some more visuals to get a feeling for the direction. 🎨 Didn't expect such a cute outcome with the houses. #indiedev #indiegames #cozygames

Away from the city-builder for now - starting with something much simpler. A hexagon-tiled game, inspired by "Dorfromantik". 👀 First visual test. #indiedev #indiegames #cozygames

Been short on time the past couple of weeks, but still made some progress! - Souls now follow a full work-rest cycle 💤 - Their states save and load correctly 💾 - Movement is now restricted to streets only 🚧 But what next? #gamedev #indiedev #citybuilder

This is the game I am also working on. Support us and put it on your wishlist ❤️

Sunday update. I mostly "polished" existing things, e.g. mouse cursor changes, tool tips, production display. Also, I increased the building and gridcell size from 1 to 2 m to have more freedom with the navmesh. Next step, is implementing the housing again. #indiegames #gamdev #indiedev

🎉 Finally a production loop, that involves storing items to the city-storage. 🎉 Next step will be a bit boring. I want to create some base-C++-classes for the UI and setup the UI again. At the moment it closes every time I click somewhere which is annoying. #indiedev #indiegames #citybuilder

Could work a bit more on the production. Souls generate resources now and the buildings & citizen work state can be saved and loaded properly. I want more time to work more on the game 🥲 #citybuilder #indiedevs #indiegames

The souls are back to generating resources, at least visually. I'm testing further pathfinding improvements. Next step: actually creating resources again. This will work differently than in the prototype, so it'll take a bit more effort. #indiedevs #indiegames #citybuilder

🐣 HAPPY EASTER 🐣 I discovered, Unreal has a build-in tool tip feature for the UI-system. I’ve been working with Unreal for over 1.5 years now and this was another new feature to me. Unreal is packed with so many hidden gems. Always something new to learn! #unrealengine #indiedevs #indiegames

- changed the look of the trees to not-translucent. - added a border to see the size of the forest properly - added a building-timer feedback when selected (but still WIP) - added notifications I like the new look of the forest more in comparison to before. #indiedev #gamedev #citybuilder

The forests are back. I need a better indicator how much space they take. I already ended up in trying to build streets in them, because it's not obvious where the borders are. #citybuilder #indiedev #indiegames

Back to the buildings (placeholder visuals). The are being build over time. In addition to the prototype version, they can also be saved and loaded, while building up. #indiegames #gamedev #indiedev #citybuilder

I used bit-shifting for the street-type calculation in my city builder. I am usually not a fan of bit-shifting due to readability, but for this it was really convenient. What are your use-cases for bit-shifting? Do you use it often? #gamedev #programming #indiedev

HISMs in Unreal Engine: I could finally use them outside foliage. The streets are saved as instances in HISM-components in a global "street renderer"-actor. Draw calls: are staying low. #unrealengine #gamedev #indiedev

Citizen-data and UI is back. Also, they get saved and can be loaded again - except their states/behavior yet. The prototype helps a lot to organize the code much better now. Next step: getting the buildings back. #UnrealEngine #indiedev #citybuilder