part of my neurodivergence is i don't like the sensation of being "perceived" which i have realized is a problem when The Thing To Do as an indiedev is to share lots of screenshots/gifs of your projects and your processes 🤔😅😬 i shall improve on this

golly, character sprite animation in 8 directions for idle, walk, and attack is a little bit of work huh

love that gamedev feeling of working on some animation sprites and it being a lot of work but you still kinda feel ehhh about it then you plug it in to try and it's like, oh... oh. oh this kinda works, THIS ISN'T TOO BAD!!

@dirtyeffinhippy.lianaruppert.com am finding/reading/enjoying/appreciating your writing(s) on photosensitivity for game development considerations, thank you for your work in that area 🙏

Do you want to hear me rave about something cool? Give a listen! 👂

It's time for the **WHEEL OF MANY THINGS** Come to stream let's get some fun games going <3 twitch.tv/KailelleXD

funny gamedev thing where you're doing something tedious and think "there HAS to be a faster way--" --only to suddenly remember you already know the faster way you'd just, temporarily forgotten it for some reason?!?!??

I'm still learning of course, but if I could give one piece of advice to a brand-new solo game developer... In matters of technique, workflow, tools? Borrow, copy, steal! But in matters of style & signature? Do your own thing, find your own voice, practice what feels good. 👍

Five years ago I made a game. It's called Octobug! It's your classic 'quirky platformer.' It might make you laugh, get frustrated, feel feelings. Streamers had a blast with it (you can play through in one sitting). It's about a spider. It costs $3! tinybookshelf.itch.io/octobug

not trying to do a 'hot take' but i'm not completely sold on 'loops' as the be-all, end-all of game design (and gameplay payoff) like, i get it but i'm also kinda less loopy, more 'poke around' in what vibe i gravitate toward ... i dunno if that makes sense, but i feel it

What do you find to contribute to a *satisfying payoff* for your playtime in a video game? Rich visuals? Great music? Tight combat? Puzzles to solve? An engrossing story? A compelling world to explore? Memorable characters/dialogue? Would love to hear your thoughts! 🎮

lol all it took was ONE NIGHT back in game development (after a few months' break) and my brain is already like "we hate our job, why can't we just make games all day instead" 😭😅

welp after a few months away, i logged back into the engine and did some 'game development' tonight happy to report it was ... A SMASHING SUCCESS as i incorporated some strafe controls to a project and it works like a charm right away, heck yeah, still got it, ugh this is fun

This is Sektori! A twin-stick shooter I've been making (and documenting the journey) since April 2021. And it finally launched TODAY on Steam, PS5 and Xbox! Here's a fresh launch trailer, all shares highly appreciated. More game info in replies. #indiegame #ps5 #xbox #steam #indiedev #gamedev

as i work on returning to regular game development (have been on an extended break as i shake off some life/stress stuff), one important mental step i've enjoyed lately: feeling motivated to work on one particular idea because *i want to play it myself* neat gamedev feel, that

Yes, I am on a bit of a game development hiatus. I am dealing with some Life Stuff which, while not urgent or related to my health, has just kinda left in very much... not in a gamedev headspace, ha. Honestly it's a blessing to be able to step away at times when I need.

gamedev is neat 'cause you can mess up a bit of math and the whole thing breaks and falls apart and stops working and doesn't work and sometimes even in a way that makes you have to sorta figure out what the heck happened it's good to learn to love troubleshooting, i think

What kind of game do you love to make?

✨ ATTENTION INDIE DEVELOPERS ✨ If I emailed you a simple list of questions that I would be genuinely interested to learn your answers (as a fellow dev, as a gamer, as a human being), would you be willing to respond to them if I posted such response on a public blog?

NEW READABILITY TEST 📣📢📣📢📣📢 Do you think you recognize all the objects/concepts represented by these icons? 🤔

Over at Tiny Blogshelf I wrote about how I'm bad at drawing trees but I won't get any better at drawing trees unless I... draw trees. Even when it's not what I want to do (because I'm bad at it!). Then I drew one I liked, and -- learned about life? tinyblogshelf.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/t...

being a game developer is fun because sometimes your son says "can i play Octobug?" and you can say "yep" 😊

Over at Tiny Blogshelf I wrote about how I'm bad at drawing trees but I won't get any better at drawing trees unless I... draw trees. Even when it's not what I want to do (because I'm bad at it!). Then I drew one I liked, and -- learned about life? tinyblogshelf.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/t...

Been making strides in being more disciplined, more consistently using time in gamedev toward focused progress (been going well past month or so!). ... which makes it sting when "life stuff" gets in the way and I have to put development on the back-burner again. I'm trying, folks! I promise! 😅

open world Pac-Man

there is a groove you hit in gamedev sometimes where it's like... my quality of work right now may not be the best but, gosh darn it, i sure am iterating quickly like a pure hack-and-slash flow state haha

production timeline goals: * end of 2025 -- multi-game burst reveal video * 2026 -- two game releases * 2027 -- one game release * 2028 -- one game release we are sorta on track for this 😶

welp am now not just changing the tone and style of one of my projects but even the whole dang resolution lol there's a first time for everything i suppose ... gamedev woooooooooooooo (officially in my lo-rez era 🥳)

no pressure but if i can pull off a couple pieces of art tonight, i will be completely pivoting one of my projects into a new direction/tone/style really hoping i can pull it off, will be really cool (totally, i promise)

it's nice to occasionally come across a piece of pixel art that makes you think yeah, maybe i am a little too hard on myself sometimes, just draw the thing

pixel art is hard 😭 i cry 😭

fun to see my kids' sentiments shift as to which of my games i should be working on more diligently 👀

I had a thought: Ah! I'll make 'Sirtet.' It's Tetris, but in reverse! I go to search, aaand obviously other people have already had the idea. Interestingly though, none of them are *actually* Tetris in reverse (start with large mass, remove piece by piece under restriction). 🤔

no, YOU made two different 12x24 fonts this week

although i'm sure my pixel art will (continue to) improve naturally over time, i can't help but feel like my next few games exist very much in a vibe of "just grab a hold of your personal style and stick to it -- for better or for worse" heh

Check this game out folks. Released today by one of my good pals @psychicsoftware.com It looks great. store.steampowered.com/app/1315320/... #indiegames #gamedev

gonna do some gamedev tonight 😏

It's taken several years, heh. But it feels really good, in my game development... development, to move from challenges that mostly used to be mechanical ("how do I make this move the way I want?") to now largely polish ("ooo maybe I can add a squish-and-sparkle on hit, here").

last night i had a gamedev goal a small goal, but a goal nonetheless and... i think i hit it i wanted to do something, and i did it ... kinda shocked at how well and smooth and seamless it went, this is nice

might need to actually 'art' some things tonight, sigh

Back when Octobug released, in the height of folks streaming it, there was talk about the Kills counter and people wondering what the max was. I want to confirm (several years later lol): That number is 78. If you're going for a max Kills run, you're aiming for 78 Kills! 👍 🕷️

please stop saying friendslop

Some of the booths at @brilliantindietreasures.com ! Such a lovely celebration of upcoming indie games ❤️

kinda cool: having enough old project files to be able to go back into stuff to see/remember how to do certain things less cool: having enough old project files that i sometimes can't even remember which one did the thing i wanna see/remember 😵‍💫 oops lol

had to touch something called "vector math" last night, ew

well, it's not freezing a few seconds in anymore it's not working right yet, but it's not freezing 👍

been going at the same bug for too long gonna set a hard deadline tonight, a specific time and if it's not solved by then -- will just work on something else instead! danged thing smh

SNEK

you know there's something wrong with indie developers because occasionally you think "hmm, i should make a new font from scratch" disturbing weirdos

can only speak for myself of course but in my experience, one of the more bewildering aspects of the gamedev workflow is how the 20/80 rule applies you often spend 80% of your time just trying to fix/tweak something, but that 20% of time shows sudden leaps of progress forward