#dev diaries 2023

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

Jan 1, 2023

Where to start, where to start...

Firstly, Happy New Year! I’ve never been one for resolutions, but I am goal oriented. That being said, the past couple years have really kicked my ass (and last year had HANDS 😂).

This year? I am starting even smaller. I am not taking on more than I can bear. I’m here to tell stories, and if I can accomplish that, then maybe the rest will come.

Some updates??

“Gem’s Game Gems”

I think there is merit in having a central location for a game studio to just be updates and quality of life announcements. I also think that as long as I’m here, I won’t be silent about games I’m having fun with. So, if you’re interested I’ve created a side blog! It’s gonna go live sometimes this month/early next month.

You’ll get all my commentary, some NSFW stuff (if the game has said content and I’m interacting with said content ahaha) and just my overall brand of #Extra. This way, those who follow this blog for the information aspect will get what they signed up for.

(That being said, I will still highlight games on this blog BUT in depth reviews and reactions will no longer live here 😁)

New Projects, Old Friends

Black VN game jam is upon us, and I am working hard to make something in the spirit of the event. I don’t know if I’ll make the jam deadline but not pushing to do so at the expense of my health is making things a bit easier.

I know beyond the shadow of a doubt I want to make a HSDJY sequel, but it’s going to take a hot minute and a much longer development process than it took for the first game. Before I jump into the trenches with that, I want to pivot left and work on a short project that won’t demand my first unborn kid.  

#CrushedVN

People can be so out of pocket when it comes to female-protagonist games and it just boggles my mind? Like you’re bullying an indie studio when another game dev has made the exact content you want? Or in the process of doing so?

Be for real now. Be so very for real.

Anyway, I said I was going to continue making games with f!MCs and those who didn’t like that could leave me alone. Which was fine and great until I decided I wanted to participate in Black VN jam and make an honest attempt to work on something new...

I’ve always loved BL stories. Never thought I’d attempt one. Not with the nonsense I just mentioned. But a few of the games I played (and loved) las t year specifically got me to thinking about certain stories I still wasn’t seeing in the slice of life gaming space. And from a teenage perspective of course.

So Corey was born! This anxious Black boy with an ex-girlfriend he can’t completely shake. Who has a support system of friends and family even when he forgets to lean on it. Who falls hard and fast for a quiet but self-assured boy he’s just met and doesn’t exactly know what to do with those feelings. Who has to bring a book wherever he goes because sometimes real-life sucks!

This isn’t a coming out story, but it is a coming-of-age tale. And love plays a huge role, but it’s not strictly romantic. 

At the time of this post, the script is complete, around 20k words, and not all content will be seen in one playthrough 🤭 I’ll be sending it to some readers for general thoughts and feelings. 

I’m not active on Twitter anymore (sorry y’all) so I’ll extend an invitation here and maybe in one of the Discord groups I’m in: if any mutuals who identify as Black and/or queer want to be added to the read list, shoot me a DM! 

Housekeeping

Mini goals for the year? 

#CrushedVN completion

Side review blog setup

Accessibility options + updated build for HSD:JY 

poooosssssiibly take part in this (we’ll see!)

Find and apply for game grants and search for alternative forms of funding for the studio!

And with that, I hope you have a lovely week!

- Gemini 💛

[lapinlunaire-games]

Happy lunar new year!!!

Instead of a special short story this year, I worked on getting a ✨personal website✨ and I figured it'd be fun to launch it with the start of the Year of the Rabbit (lunar new year, year of the rabbit, username means "lunar rabbit", you can see where the thought thread went).

So here we are :) This was more of a personal project than anything interactive, but I had a lot of fun and I wanted to share it with you all. It feels super satisfying to build something from scratch (using the same skills I learned to customize the UI of my Twine games! woohoo transferrable skills hahaha).

I have also been working on game projects - I was planning to release a character creator for H&H, but I've decided that I'd rather jump all in and share the demo with you sooner rather than later, even if it's short. I've learned a lot over the past year and I'm trying to let myself believe in my own capabilities instead of being afraid that what I share publicly won't be perfect. Thanks for supporting me through everything - I'll be back with more soon!

[hpowellsmith]

New Game Announcement: Honor Bound, Crème de la Crème Series Book 4

Honor Bound is a standalone game that takes place four years after Royal Affairs, with a brand new player character.

The story so far: I started working on this game in March 2023. I'm currently writing the first draft of Chapter 4.

Chapter 1 is publicly available for everyone to play. Chapter 2 is going up on Patreon on 1st August. I also hope to post (roughly) fortnightly progress updates.

Play the public demo here!

You're a promising officer in the Teranese military, a force which has not seen major engagement in decades but which holds vast influence. Thanks to an injury, you're no longer in the field. Thanks to the circumstances of that injury, you've been quietly reassigned.

Now you're to be the bodyguard to the child of a famous scientist who is attending a wilderness boarding school for the children of the richest and most powerful figures of Teran society.

According to your mentor, it's an easy assignment. The school sits close to your own hometown, so you'll be familiar with the area; you can recover your health and get your career back on track. What could go wrong?

Bond with those around you or impress with aloof competence. Be a kind, trusted confidante to your charge, or a strict, stern caretaker. Work hard for glowing reports from your charge, your military superiors, or the Headteacher to get your life back on track - or risk it all as you uncover secrets that put you and everyone around you in peril.

Play as male, female, or non-binary; cis or trans; gay, straight, or bisexual; asexual and/or aromantic; allosexual and/or alloromantic; monogamous or polyamorous

Play a junior officer in your 20s, a mid-ranking officer in your 30s, or a senior officer in your 40s

Befriend or romance a severe military officer, a bold, easygoing outdoors expert, a determined and overworked priest, an earnest but airheaded fellow bodyguard, or the anxious, serious single parent of your charge

Shape the school life of your teenage charge: encourage her to make friends or sabotage her rivals, let her slack off or push her to achieve

Protect the school, town, and your charge from natural disasters and criminals, or use chaos to further your agendas. Build a warm community, stand apart to focus on yourself, or push tensions higher in a place where gossip is rife

Negotiate a cushy promotion, or open other doors, through heroic or devious actions. Or become such a disaster that only bandits will give you the time of day

Unearth and thwart shadowy schemes, or enact them yourself for your own ends

This tightly-knit desert boarding school is a sanctuary for artists and scientists of the future to flourish. But as danger closes in, how far will you go for your ambitions, your commanders, and your country?

FEEDBACK THREAD, INFO, & DEV DIARY | CHARACTER INTROS | PATREON DEMO | PUBLIC DEMO | BONUS PLAYABLE PROLOGUE

[facet-project]

what is facet-project?

it's the farming simulator i'm developing! it's been going strong since october 2023. it's currently being built in godot 3.6.

i started out making it for my girlfriend, who has trouble playing traditional farming sim games. it has turned into a little bit of a love letter to my mom's upbringing in rural kentucky and my love of stories about fucked up time travel.

in the current build i'm making, you play as the granddaughter of a small village's farmer, who is set to inherit the land once he passes - but the more you work the land, the more you realize that the land doesn't want you living here - and is doing all it can to make sure you leave.

but that's fine! you can have as many tries as you want to survive, thanks to a time-traveling pocketwatch your mother sent you off with. it shouldn't take that long, right?

i'm still in the middle of visual development (excuse the visual mess on everything, no art on here is final etc etc), but the mechanical and story development are pretty robust already. it, however, is still early enough in development that i have no idea when this is coming out. i just figured i should make a dev diary so i can look back at this in like five years and remember simpler times

this devblog is still vaguely under construction as i set up exactly how much i'm gonna talk about on here, but it's generally going to be one devlog at the end of the month! maybe some little random stuff around too. we'll see

[dreamdiaryjam]

Dream Diary Jam 7!

Jam runs from May 15th, 2023 to June 26th, 2023. You can join before or during those dates!

Welcome newcomers and veterans to Dream Diary Jam 7, a game jam all about the creation of fangames for the cult classic RPG Maker 2003 game Yume Nikki. The goal is to create a Yume Nikki fangame, a demo of one, or to even update one of your previous entries. You’ll be given 6 weeks to work on your fangame, starting on May 15th and ending on the June 26th — Yume Nikki’s 19th anniversary.

Submission types:

Traditional Yume Nikki Fangame - The most common type of fangame. Typically follows the same formula/style as the original Yume Nikki, but with an original cast of characters and environments, and sometimes new mechanics. You can get as experimental as you want!

Examples of this type include: .flow, Yume 2kki, Lcd Dem, and Answered Prayers

A Fangame of the Yume Nikki setting - A fangame that uses the characters/settings of the original Yume Nikki, rather than a new original cast. Think something along the lines of fanfiction. This can be any kind of genre, JRPG, dating sim, clicker, etc. You can even make a fangame of YUME NIKKI -DREAM DIARY- if you want to.

Examples of this type include: NASU Plus, Memories of Replica, Dream Kombat, and Yume Nikki Hazard

An update to a previous submission - Didn’t get to make as much as you wanted in a previous jam? Need an excuse to work on your fangame? Don’t want to start anew? This is for you! If you can provide a substantial update to one of your previous entries, then it’s also an acceptable submission, even if you’ve been chipping away at it outside of the jams.

Want to participate? Just sign up on our itch.io page! Feeling social, like working in a community of fellow devs and Yume Nikki fans? Check our our DDJ7 Discord! Late to the party, but still looking to hang with fellow devs? Feel free to become a part of our year-round Dream Diary Development community!

And if you have any questions, feel free to send them to this blog or the itch.io page! And as always, be sure to have fun, dreamers!

[outerloop]

Thirsty Suitors Dev Diary: A Recipe for Reconciliation

We recently announced that Thirsty Suitors will be releasing on November 2nd, 2023 for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.

In the lead up to release, we’re going to dive into some key components of Thirsty Suitors, starting with a major element of the game: cooking!

In Thirsty Suitors, Jala must try and impress her Mom or Dad and repair their relationships through action-packed cooking segments that explore a rich menu of South Asian inspired dishes.

Cooking Together

The first recipe you learn in the game is how to make Parathas, a South Asian unleavened flatbread made with whole wheat. 

Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! Jala not only must make the dish, but navigate how she handles the tense relationship she has with her mom, Rukmini, after being absent for three years.

Each time you cook in Thirsty Suitors, you’ll need to open the cookbook on the kitchen table and choose the recipe you’d like to make.

The food Jala makes with her parents not only will help her repair their relationship, but it also affects the gameplay in our turn-based battles where Jala battles her exes and a variety of other eccentric characters in the game.

Making Food More than a Meal

Throughout the development of Thirsty Suitors, Cooking has evolved and changed to heighten the story we’re telling about Jala reconciling with her exes and repairing her relationship to her family.

While the main idea for the Cooking gameplay has stayed consistent–having Jala and her Mom cook recipes together through the player completing a series of quick-time events–the focus of how these sequences are presented and played out has expanded to help our narrative.

Here’s a look at the prototype phase for the Cooking gameplay in Thirsty Suitors. As you can see, we zeroed in on the general idea for how Cooking would work pretty early on with the player following a series of cooking steps in a recipe while Jala and her mom cooked.

A key difference from the prototype versus the final version of Cooking was the presentation and what we focus on. 

Initially, the flow of these sequences had Jala’s Mom teaching her each step through demonstrating the action, and then the player would repeat what they watched, much like how you would in real life if someone was teaching you a recipe.

While it was cool watching the characters perform exaggerated cooking actions to complete each step, we found that the Cooking gameplay could interact more directly with the narrative. 

We decided to make these sequences less about making the dishes 100% accurately and more about what it means for Jala and her mom to cook together, and how it provides them an organic space to work through their issues and get to know each other again.

Part of the joy of making games–especially narratively focused ones–is figuring out how to create a perfect marriage between the mechanics you’re designing and the story you’re telling. In a perfect world, these two things are always in a balanced state. 

Think of some of your favorite games out there, they didn’t start perfectly, instead, through years of iteration, teams figure out how to use the tools they’ve built to tell the stories they want in the best way they see fit.

What we found is that by shifting the focus away from trying to create a perfect recreation of the South Asian inspired dishes we have in the game, we could focus more on the characters and what these dishes mean to them.

Outerloop Games Recommends

We’ve talked a lot about food, cooking, and how these things say so much about our identities, our families, and how we connect with others. 

Luckily, we’re in a moment where there are some other games interested in exploring these themes as well. We’d like to highlight one in particular that resonates with us and also features South Asian characters called Venba.

Venba is a narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian immigrant mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more.

While you’re waiting for Thirsty Suitors later this year, check out Venba on Xbox, PS5, Switch, and PC, out now.

There's More to Come

In the lead up to the release of Thirsty Suitors, we’ll continue to shed light on some of the many awesome aspects of the game, our team, and insights we’ve learned along the way. 

If you’re excited about Thirsty, we’d appreciate it if you Wishlisted the game on Steam, it helps put the game in front of more eyes. 

Wishlist on steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1617220/Thirsty_Suitors/?snr=1_5_1100__1100

You can also join our Discord, and follow us on Twitter @outerloopgames. 

Thanks for reading, until next time!

[astraxgame]

AstraX Dev Diary, December 2023

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

I've been working on AstraX 0.4 really hard, but sadly couldn't finish everything before the holidays.

This update is mostly of technical nature and will allow more extensive features (e.g. better navigation and starmap).

The biggest changes affected the targeting/discovery system, graphics, spacecraft and spacecraft systems.

Metaphorically, these changes are like replacing the insides of a melon with the insides of a pomegranate and this took me almost two months of hard work to complete.

However, the result is a piece of software that is optimal for modding, user friendliness and adding more features, such as:

Usability improvements to Sector Map, Sonar (ergo radar mechanisms)

Being able to detect moving NPC alien spacecraft on your radar system that you will be able to trade with later

Being able to render planet and spacecraft graphics on the UI and HUD

Showing UI details for selected spacecraft

Discovery Mechanisms now work for any content added by mods

Furthermore, I added these features:

Better, remappable controls

Asteroid belts are now integrated into orbital structure of a star system

Junk metal belts that yield Scrap Metal as resource

Future Features

Features that I currently have in focus for future versions (+0.5):

Better orbit sectors featuring habitable zones which depend on spectral class of the central star

More discoverable traits for gaseous and moon types

(experimental) Trait scanning mechanics

Spacecraft System failures

Spacecraft Construction Editor. This is quite a large task. I've looked into implementing the editor and came to the conclusion I need to do more research & requirements refining for an effective implementation

Better Galaxy Map

#

AstraX is a casual space exploration game that allows you to discover a multitude of different celestial bodies. Learn more about our universe in this atmospheric and relaxing simulation. Download it on itch

[bakfoo]

Dev Diary: A different type of writer's block.

Ayumi was designed as a homage to my time doing blue-collar work. Someone who was (and is) currently going through the ringer. Strong despite being marred by tough times. A little preview of what her son would grow up to be.

Around this time last year in 2022, I saw the papers for a tumor on my mom's bedside table when I was walking around the house.

She never brought it up. I had to confront her about it that year. Throughout 2022, she said it was "a complication." Never once did she say that it was a tumor, just some complication in one of her arms. She downplayed it, saying it was benign and wouldn't say anything else about it for the rest of the year for the entirety of 2023.

Bit of a spoiler, but Ayumi loves her son and husband a lot. However, she views herself as the one thing keeping her family afloat. It's a lot of responsibility, which can prove to be a source of strain and dishonest communication. A toxic mentality of shouldering burdens with an "It's fine. I'm fine" mentality.

I came back to family for Christmas in 2023. After a year of silence about the situation, I came home to realize that that my mom can't use her right arm for (almost) anything. Doctors say the op to get rid of it is too risky. It's too ingrained in the spinal cord. Throughout the entire year, it's steadily gotten worse and my mom kept it from me. She can't play the piano anymore.

Suddenly, I couldn't put pen to tablet. Ayumi's story started to turn into something else. It became too real.

Before, I was writing about my own experience of feeling the pressure for providing for someone who is disabled. She was a representation of the unhealthy "don't worry, it's nothing" mentality I have when I have too much to carry. Not wanting to burden my partner when they've got so much to deal with already.

But now my mom's doing it. The same thing. "Let's not tell our son how bad this is because we don't want to burden him."

"Don't worry, it's nothing."

My mom isn't some larger-than-life character. No stories of grandieur, no big muscles, no gung-ho mentality. She's just a piano teacher who is getting smaller and more frail by the year. No longer filling the mornings or evenings with music.

This house is too quiet.

[smash-64]

2023 Game of the Year Countdown #7 Sea of Stars Nintendo Switch, 2023

I was actually a backer of this game over two years ago! A few people recommended it to me recently, which was cool that some of my friends knew me well enough that they recommended something I was already intrigued by enough to back financially. Shoutouts to @boner-taunt and @hyper-knux for that!

The game is simply gorgeous. The best pixel art I’ve ever seen in a video game. Vibrant colors, perfect lighting that gave the impression of dark and light areas without ever making me feel like I couldn’t see where I was going. Wonderful glowing lights and colors also enhance so many of the attacks and spells, as well as dynamic backgrounds and environments that react to your presence and movement. It’s shocking how talented the devs were to make a game look so good while also making it feel like something that belonged on the Super Nintendo, even if the SNES could never hope to run something that looked so good. It’s like they’ve tricked us into seeing both the past and present simultaneously. And as someone who rarely geeks out about graphics, you know something special is going on for it to happen.

I was expecting quite a bit from the music, and I feel like I was satisfied, but not overly impressed. Perhaps I was expecting too much once I saw Yasunori Mitsuda was involved: the talented composer who did the masterpiece Chrono Cross soundtrack and was in charge of the Xenoblade games as well. The level up music stood out, as well as one of the battle tunes, but I was hoping for a variety of location tracks to catch my ear as well, and it didn’t really happen. I do find the soundtrack to be really good to play in the background while I work, and the soundtrack is extremely long so that fits it really well. 

Despite having combat that is turn based, I was sad to see that you have to take an active role in both attack and defense, much like you do in Super Mario RPG. While some enjoy that aspect, I do not. It was actually one of the main turn-offs for me when I tried Super Mario RPG, so I found it to be a hindrance in Sea of Stars. Likewise, combat does major damage to your characters, and you must constantly cook food to help replenish your health both in and out of battle, since it’s likely that you won’t be able to constantly return to a campsite to rest/recover that way, and healing spells can be costly or don’t heal a significant amount early on. Luckily, I found an item that automatically recovered health after each battle, which was a nice aspect to include for a more casual experience. To be completely honest, I’m not sure if I would have completed the game had I not had the ability to recover after each battle because it was a chore to constantly cook food to keep on hand for healing. 

The story is ok, but it took absolutely forever for me to feel interested in it. Coming from a Trails fan, a series well known to be the slowest of slow burns, that’s a bit of an issue. The game also left me with a lot of questions, as many aspects of the story felt random. I found it hard to follow at times, especially with regard to what to do next. Perhaps this was part of the retro style design, as many older games lacked any sort of real guidance on where to go or what to do, and definitely no journal/diary system to remind you. 

I was not blown away by any of the characters, either, although I do appreciate Garl as a generally positive and caring support character. The “warrior cook” class he creates for himself is also a nice touch.

Overall, the game is fun and I’m glad to have backed it. It’s rare for me to enjoy my time with an old school 2D, top-down type of JRPG, so to have it show up on my Top 10 for the year at all is fairly surprising.

[alisheaburgess]

Dev Diaries: Day 9- Setting a good base!

Dev Diaries, Masterlist

June 5, 2023

Okie dokie!

Today, my goal is to finish up the UX Prototyping course. It's a bit boring because I'm not planning on using these programs myself. I want a good understanding of the basics of most programs though. It's probably a ✨sparkle worry ✨ issue, but hey. I did see a lot of posts and content by UX designers saying that they wish they knew more programs. It makes sense to me, but I love learning. 😋

I'll probably get in a HMTL and/or CSS course today. I did the math...it's about 40+ hours of video time between the two courses. That's a lot. I want to make sure I really absorb it so I'm gonna take a bit longer. I don't plan on finishing them this week, that is for sure. I'm going for balance this month, no cramming! 😅😂

I am going to start my first portfolio project today!!! I don't know which one I'm gonna do yet, but I'm gonna do it! I'll probably find a challenge somewhere first, maybe. Even if it doesn't make it to my portfolio, it will be good practice. I have a project of sorts that I was working on, but I'm not sure it would work for this. It will take awhile to get done though, so I'll be doing it along with the other projects.

The AI got to me!

So, you know how I said I was gonna get seduced by the AI dev classes... They found me, and I think I'm a goner. 😋😁 I wanna take courses that discuss it but don't cover any coding yet. Like I said yesterday, I need to know what it's gonna do before I learn how.

I'm also looking at Learning Experience Design. This is something I've always been interested. Might as well take a course on it while it's available. Try it on for size, if you will...

P.S. I'm not sure I like having a list of things I'm "supposed" to do each day. I have tried it a couple times and it feels like a demand (no bueno) and I have more fun when it's just written about instead...😊

I have a list of things I wanna get done eventually and that tend to work better. Making a daily list just adds too much to do. Little lists tend to turn into big lists no matter what I do. If I make something bite size, I just take bigger bites...

Here's to code snacking! 😂🥰

[itsdaarcy]

darcy's short ramblings about side order

spoilers ahead ofc, im not holding back from anything so be warned

so i beat side order to 100%. every palette is done and i got every colored chip so that the collection is done. i guess what im missing is just the collectibles and a "hackless" run, which i will do in the next days (i need a break for today.. ive been playing side order for 10h today and yesterday it was over 15h).

here a lil list of things i enjoyed:

agent 8 content and lore !!! shes my fav agent (excluding agent 3 as shes now the captain) and i loved seeing her in almost all cutscenes !! i was super happy to see that she was part of marinas dev diaries and that she had her own weapon palette (that has its own unique design to it when u go to the menu !). thanking the devs for finally showing more of the relationship 8 has with oth

pearlina canon (u cannot deny it)

acht/dedf1sh lore ! loved loved loved finally getting some more info regarding acht , even if some info is wrong (im guessing its a translation error)

the environment. god the environment.. i love the aesthetic that side order has, from the square outside to the lil training room u have before entering the elevator. the stages are cool designed, especially the background stuff and overall just love the scenery of the dlc

the music. THE MUSIC. ear blessing, so so good

gameplay. huge fan that the devs took a leap and made a campaign with a totally new perspective of gameplay. i had so much fun playing thru the tower with different palettes, thinking which ones would fit best for my weapon and playstyle

but even with all these positive things i do have some stuff i dislike (? dislike is a pretty strong word for this):

not enough lore. i know we got SO MUCH lore bits, but i wished we got more. be it from more dev diaries, flashback cutscenes or sth

length of the dlc. this is sth that has so many ppl disappointed and i kinda get it ? the dlc is to be played several times (since its a rogue-like), but i wish the thing would be just a tiny bit longer. i finished my first full run in 2 1/2h (and that with the fact i had to re-do the tower all over again bc i died at floor 27), and from then on i just replayed it all with the other palettes i got over time. oe was longer in a sense, and i wished side order was like that too

story. now dont get me wrong, i LOVE the story of side order with everythign i have. but if i compare it with how i felt with octo expansion, it just didnt quiet hit the same. oe was a pretty emotional dlc to me (i cried at the end credits), while side order just.. didnt give that. i shed a tear at the end credits of side order, but not fully cried like i did for oe. i wished it had just more, power more emotion yk? but like i said, i still love love love the story !!

tone change from the first concept trailer we got. the first ever trailer we got made side order look so, odd and creepy in a way ? and i wished they stayed more with that. i love the aesthetic it has rn ! but i also wish we got more of that cryptic vibe

that one stupid fucking fish that spawns those exploding lil fishies.. when i catch u ricky.. ricky when i catch u ricky.

i love side order with everything i have inside of me. ive been waiting for it since it was announced back in february 2023. and im happy we got it. im thanking the devs for creating such a wonderful dlc.

it will always have a special place in my heart, just like octo expansion does.

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

January 30th, 2024

January was so...bonkers for me in my personal, work, and even game development life??? I'm talking this is the type of shit that should be on a sitcom not my actual life, HELLO?!?! So, I've decided it can belong to 2023, and the new year officially starts in February 😭 Yup.

(This was originally a very long post with an actual tl;dr at the bottom, so I'm breaking it up into parts. This is the shortest part. You're welcome.)

I should take this moment to briefly reflect on the things accomplished last year even if they all weren’t the original goals I set out to tackle. A list below?

In 2023, Hummingbird Games…

Participated in and submitted to 2 game jams

Released its second project, Crushed

Officially began work on HSD:JY #2 (late in flippin' December, but more on that laterrrr)

Started posting content again on our Ko-Fi 🎊

Nuked the official Twitter account 💥

Transitioned game developer Gemini’s screaming, unsolicited gaming-for-fun thoughts to a cute side blog

TURNED 3 YEARS OLD!!!! (so…still a toddler dev for one more year, yaaaay)

Alrighty, this was "part one". The next one will focus on "sapphic project" aka The Knight Dance. And the next will center HSD:JY + tentative goals for the studio in 2024. And then we'll all be caught up!! Yaaaay!!!

- Gemini 🥰

[sincerely-sofie]

Hi! My name is Sofie. Welcome to my blog!

I'm a college student who loves God, nature, creepy-crawlies, and anything creative. I started this blog in July 2023 so I could have a place to record my experiences as I make a concentrated effort to try new things, find silver linings in every day, and be a stalwart disciple of Christ. You can expect a lot of things from this blog, including:

Art, comics, and maybe a written piece or two of my characters

Book notes and reviews (especially nonfiction and self-help)

Crafting misadventures

30-day challenges that range from learning how to write with my left hand, to writing and recording a new song, to drawing 100 portraits in 10 days

Diary comics about my day-to-day misadventures as an awkward but sincere crybaby doing her best

Essays about weirdly specific subjects that I'm obsessed with (the societal impact of fandom, cryptids throughout history, how a book about feral cats singlehandedly changed my opinion on reading, critiques of Webtoon and how it has impacted webcomic culture, etc)

Game dev diaries as I try to make text adventures, visual novels, and short RPGs

My valiant efforts to learn how to code despite being horribly incompetent with tech

Memes I make about daily life

Quotes that changed my entire perspective on life because they're just That Good

My testimony of the Gospel

And much, much more!

If that sounds appealing to you, stick around to read a few posts and maybe even follow me! I hope you enjoy your stay 'v'

Sincerely,

Sofie

[vickysaurus]

New Prehistoric Kingdom dev diary! I love the adorable gif of Scelidosaurus and Protoceratops trotting past the camera. But most intriguing is of course the new animal teaser:

So we're getting something big, with neither scales nor much hair, and, although I could see it being a big non-mammalian synapsid like Moschops or Cotylorhynchus, I think I'll join everyone in calling this as Paraceratherium. The game has only three mammals, and it'd be so cool to see them hanging out with the sauropods, so it'd be a pretty good addition. What I think really makes it interesting though, is that the previous patch added three animals all from roughly the same time period (late Triassic and early Jurassic). If that's a conscious design choice and not just coincidence, we could be looking at some very cool Oligocene/Paleogene mammals filling out the roster. Andrewsarchus, maybe? Arsinoitherium? An amphicyonid or entelodont? Gastornis for a non-mammalian curveball? Even Ambulocetus might be an option, though the current lack of aquatic animals is probably a sign the game can't handle them yet.

[facet-project]

pre-blog catchup diary

*disclaimer: this is ALL pre-alpha art. these screenshots are BEFORE visual development started. it's ugly. it's supposed to be. i was focused on programming and didn't want aesthetics to get in the way. pretend in your heart that this is all beautiful pixel art

anyway go below the readmore for details!!

i started working on this game in october 2023!! i had been learning gdscript before that, a little bit, but i hadn't fully committed to this project until then. pictured below is. the First build of the game vs the most current build. we've come so far.

the prototype was just a one-week build of the farming sim. so i could test how the time mechanic worked (time only moves when you do an action, you're not on a constant ticking clock)(this makes it much easier to strategize what you'll do in a day and letting the player go at their own pace, making the game feel more relaxed)(you can also... undo actions... which was just me testing out the code in this version but in the full version... will have different Implications)

i am all by my lonesome on this project. mechanically at least. my brother, girlfriend, dad, and my best friends are constantly helping me test things and i bounce ideas off of them all the time. it helps that my brother is a master GM and writer and my girlfriend is a software developer. and i lean very heavily on my dad for music/soundscape assistance. so yes, solodev, but also i am not an island

so the prototype was made when i was still learning gdscript past the phase of "tutorials for babies that produce a single number-go-up game" which is. hard!! since this is a much more complex project. it's easy to make anything in isolation, it's harder to figure out how to make new systems weave into a bigger project! fucking hell i didn't even know about custom resources!!!!

the prototype went off with FLYING COLORS though. girlfriend and brother played it over the weekend i gave it to them and it worked, it made sense, and watching the two of them test out the mechanics gave me some very good ideas for future builds. also nothing crashed and gf couldn't find any crazy exploits! (however pictured below is the incredibly fucked up floating rabbit glitch that i couldn't fix)

i finished it in june and took a break in july. august will be the first proper devlog for this! i'm excited to have a little dev journal around! i probably will only post consistently about once a month, with maybe some little posts here and there about characters or concept art i'm excited for

so what's next?

TIME TO GO BUILD ALPHA, BABY!!!!

which sounds exciting but i'm basically. starting from scratch again. new, fresh godot file. so it feels like i'm not very far in, even though i have an entire working prototype on my desktop.

and.... geez.... gotta actually make the pixel art and implement it into a working file???? so that it doesn't look like dogshit???? that would be nice. i didn't want to do it for prototyping/pre-alpha because i really wanted to make sure i had the capacity to code the game before putting my heart and soul into the art. and now i'm very certain i do?? it's not hard, it just takes time. and the time will pass anyway!!

i have two campaigns planned for the game, one that's smaller and one that's larger. the bigger one is the typical make your own character farming simulator, played straight in the setting. but i'm working on the smaller one first! you play as a specific character for the first year of the story. not all of the game mechanics are turned on for this mode, and it's more story-oriented than the straight Farming Simulator, so i think it's a good place to put development energy into. get it all ironed out. make it make sense before blowing it up on a larger scale. and it's more contained to test in which is a bonus

anyway. i'm going to post build updates on this on the last day of every month. and!! i'm not going to say a Lot about how the game works quite yet but the askbox is open. i don't think anyone will ask anything cause this is still in really early stages but it's there if you want it i guess

[crashynews]

Toys for Bob: Dev Diaries - A look into the future of Crash Team Rumble

Listen in as Creative Director Dan shares a look into the future of #CrashTeamRumble pic.twitter.com/cajxaUcnEy — Toys For Bob (@ToysForBob) July 15, 2023