"In this slot-machine roguelike deck-builder you’re a gambling addict. Deep in debt, a little drunk, and out of time. Just one more spin, and then you'll quit." realizing my player fantasy is a game about addiction, and the difficult choices addicts are faced with.

"the CEO symbol gains +10 for destroying adjacent employees..." wait is my game turning into a commentary on class politics. do I actually have something meaningful to say here other than current class hierarchy bad.

I love when a code architecture starts to come together. Now I can write short one-liner methods to interface with the game logic. Cinema

More scope lessons, this current game I'm working on is a little too big for a solo dev of my level in 400 hours. Like I'm spread pretty thin between the myriad of mechanics/animations/UI instead of just polishing a tight core loop. Next game I'll get it right (even smaller)

been using a living game design document (1 page), and it's been really helpful in preventing additional scope screep.

Bladerunner 2049 inspired room, just for fun #godot

particle effects really are the spice of #godot

Obvious realization, but it is significantly easier to develop in a genre you're familiar with. I'm not able to even re-use any code from Checkmate Advance (different language), but I am re-using architecture decisions, and it's significantly faster. Aiming to keep the project under 400 hours.

Punch the monkey visual novel about trying to befriend a pack of macaque monkeys.

#godot if the game doesn't load a variable for whatever reason, what's the best way for it to fail for the player. Do you push_error, silently fail? what's the best way to handle this in Godot

WIP a tense moment in a roguelike deckbuilder I'm making #screenshotsaturday #godot

Godot UI themes has finally clicked for me. The final piece I needed is that you can make different variations for the base types, like PanelForeground, PanelBackground etc... now I know how to make all of my simple game's UI in one theme. and can add a text size menu option with one variable!

second game I've played from a chinese studio where the English translation is bad enough to interfere with the gameplay. Dicey Hacker 1999 has so much potential, but just unapproachable due to the bad AI translation.

Dicey Hacker 1999 has so much potential but an AI translation makes it unplayable. Still, second game from a Chinese studio I've played recently that's impressed me. (Cat God Ranch being the first)

biggest lesson as a new dev, it's better to polish one mechanic really well in a small game, rather than spread yourself too thin with a more ambitious project.

Raccoin (coin pusher Balatro) is the best find I've had from NextFest so far, any other gems anyone's found? #nextfest

i just keep booting up Megabonk. It’s so fun

I think I need 9 first person hand animations for my game. And I think I’m model in blender and do the animations in Godot w/o an animation rig. Also gonna film everything for reference. absolutely regretting putting first person hands in the game lmao

new game progress. lots unfinished, but narrowing down on art-style right now

less encouraging is median playtime of 8 minutes -- but this is good imo considering how new I am. Like it's a miracle at all anyone is even installing let alone playing for a few minutes. I'm very hungry for more game dev.

also some encouraging news -- a couple people played my game (despite the marketing) -- and played it a full 30 minutes. So I think I def hit my goal of "making a game" -- like I've proven to myself I can make a game. Now it's about optimizing and improving in the future.

hmmm seems like indie devs hire artists a lot -- I feel like this might be a viable path for me, as I'm pretty capable of building games but pretty amateur at art. I wonder how much that costs for an artist for an entire steam game with small scope.

I am HUMBLED, but i am also very hungry for the next Next Fest, where I'll be bringing a game with medium sauce (passable player fantasy, strong art style, good gameplay), and then for final Next Fest I'm optimizing solely on idea, like small scope game that hooks people solely on the concept.

I think the way to game Steam algorithm is to be really strong in one of three ways: idea, gameplay, artstyle. Ideally all three, but realistically choose one. Like a game about being Moisture Farmer is gonna go hard even if the artstyle is passable (genre dependent).

so I have some perspective and honestly I would write off my own game instantly as beginner dev. Like I think the game right below The Creeping Gap is so much more enticing for just having a clear fantasy, and clearer art, despite them not hiring capsule artist. Live and learn

Steam games the marketing at the indie level happens instantly. You have one screenshot (capsule art) and .5 seconds to sell your game. Like the clearer a capsule sells a fantasy the better. Some one's I downloaded: "Dicey Hacker 1999", "Crit Happens", "I can only speak Doner" -- clear fantasy's imo

huh so some Next Fest observations. #1: Streaming is cool (will do that for next game), #2: I literally cannot find my own game, didn't tag it right? #3: there's so many cool games to play

hi! The demo for my second game is FINALLY out for steam next fest!! This is Piecewise, a simple daily-challenge puzzle game about putting shapes in slots! play the demo here: store.steampowered.com/app/4119640/... #gamedev #indiegame #indiedev

it is truly bizarre the amount of Israeli propaganda I’ve been subjected to just being an American ethnic jew. so much unlearning I had to do regarding being a “chosen people” and having to return to a “promised land”.

I find it so funny that Jeffrey Epstein was a Jewish ethno-suprematist when a single milk chocolate can put me in the hospital. Like bro Ashkenazi Jews are not superior, our ancestors were IN 👏 BREED 👏 ING 👏 and now I can’t have milk.

welp, had to stay overnight in the hospital (I’m ok). Not the Next Fest experience I was expecting 🙃 had some plans to push festival patch… oops next time

the biggest difference between godot and love2d, is that my wrist hurts from all the GUI clicking in Godot, whereas in love2d my brain hurts from the lack of a GUI.

Git is a livesaver. Literally ruined my entire project right now, but was able to walk it back to yesterday's commits. Unbelievable tool #gamedev Backup early and often people!

I designed some cool interlocking systems inspired by Ball x Pit's core game loop, but decided to throw it away as it clashed with some other mechanics already in the game. Next game I'll design some cool systems like BallxPit, but it really has to be done from ground up and can't be tacked on.

A game about being an alien bartender

oh so curve->paths in blender are not only easy, but completely busted. Whole thing took me 10 minutes to model, and 10,000 triangles total. #blender will add materials in engine

Five games I've been playing recently that are good if you like slot-machine roguelike deckbuilders: Runeborn (early access), End-game of Devil, Slots & Daggers, Cat God Ranch, Luck Be a Landlord

first "re-use" of my game dev career. I learned when building Checkmate Advance that to build a board, you need classes for columns, OR rows but NOT both. Because you can get a "row" from a column index and vice versa. Like to get row #2 just go into each column and get that index.

hit 100 wishlists on Zero Warning! wooo. also cooking something big behind the scenes.

evilgames.eu/flashgames/m... I still have the muscle memory after like 15 years.

We gotta bring back the guillotine.

I've sent ~7 emails to youtubers + IGN. Extremely slow work that I'll continue for the next month till I get to about 200. Interesting dynamic at play though, where you want to make a game that content creators will play, but also players will like.

store.steampowered.com/app/2797340/... why is this game so good. I can't figure it out but I really like it

let's gooo! I have my first demo on Steam.

demo build was approved! probably gonna release it tomorrow.

I got recommended Cat God Ranch, a slot machine-roguelike deck builder. I don't care for the aesthetic, but the gameplay is deceptively deep. Like I actually find myself coming back to it in a similiar way to Balatro. There's something about the balance/mechanics that is actually goated. sleeperpick

Unfair Flips really is a perfect game. every joke landed for me. 10/10 (coin flips).

Ball X Pit is crazy good. really clever take on brickbreaker with an unbelievable amount of juice, the game almost plays itself. It's a little over stimulating for my tastes, but I see the appeal in a big way.

For slot-machine roguelike deckbuilder's -- do you prefer purchasing symbols at the end of a round (Slots & Daggers/Cloverpit/Balatro) or after every spin (Luck Be a Landlord, Cat God Ranch,)? #gamedesign #

playing Ball x Pit and Unfair Flips today. Runeborn and Endgame of Devil are on the backlog