#indie dev shoutout

[springsketches]

I say this with little exaggeration, I am more excited for this game than I am for silksong & the pristine cut. Please go follow the development of this game being made by @tk-sketches! They made one of my favorite comics color space, which is also on tumblr/webtoon, so go give them some love! (I was inspired by ace attorney for this pose)

[trashshouldnt]

im insane about my game so im opening jaymes autism power hour, ask me anything about my game and I'll answer

[thecultofproductivity]

This is like a week later than I meant, but what isn’t.

This blog was created to

Ride along with me and shirt, my journey in game development, many many years ago. It did not do that. Shame really, that the blog did not assist me in this way.

This is in the past.

Now, I am currently committed to making a video game.

Far as I can tell,. It’s hard given we are experiencing it, but it does appear as though we are at the beginning of Andor in the middle of ,. Something of a renaissance for hobbyist Indy game development.

And delightfully, since the last one, I have developed a very particular set of skills.

So yes. I will be using this old side blog for the time being to post about the current work that I am doing.

This is the event, it is open for 2.5 more days until high noon on Friday, the 14th EDT

Just interviewed with P1 Games . That is where you’re gonna wanna start if you’re wanting to get into this as well.

[rexanesolo]

Me:Forgets about reposts somehow

Thrifty Gaming: Games That Won't Blow Your Budget #122

[motziedapul]

Gonna take some time to feel proud of this for a little bit because when Cyrus was talking about his project for years often his tweets would only get 5 to 15 likes and not as many people were talking about it.

When he said it wasn't getting many wishlists, I felt bad but I wasn't surprised because of how little engagement he was getting, even though ostensibly he has a much bigger Twitter audience than I do. It was almost impossible to get his original work in front of eyes because of the absolutely horrendous algorithm.

So since I knew he didn't have a tumblr, I decided to hype him up here. Ever since my post got shared by some massive accounts, they went from 5000 wishlists to 15,000.

Cyrus is someone I look up to, and I've always felt so proud that we became friends. Knowing I helped contribute to his project getting more eyes on it (obviously not alone; my account is only so big) feels really good.

We've come so far since I sent him those E rated Burgerking (Asterius/Theseus) fanfics on his request 😂

He's a great guy. He sincerely deserves this. Lots of devs do of course, but I'm happy to have contributed to this one.

If you haven't wishedlisted this game already, please do! 15000 is amazing but let's not stop there ♥️

Another game I'd like to briefly shoutout from an indie dev is Nightmare Kart, which for legal reasons is definitely not Bloodborne x Mario Kart developed by the tall goth furry trans woman named Lilith who recreated all of Bloodborne in PSX style. If that's your speed go check that out too ♥️ though she doesn't need my help hyping it up given her massive audience~ I just think she's awesome 🙏🏾

[blank-house]

As a fellow 23-year-old, I'm lowkey shook to find out y'all are around my age and able to set aside enough time to undergo such a huge project as Keyframes! How did you guys get started in game development?

aha, only marina is 23. the other two of us are at the opposite end and almost or at 30, lol.

i can't speak for the others, but i started in game development because i applied to a writing job on a whim. lol, i'd been following indie studios up until that point on social media for a while but i didn't actually consider the possibility of making my own game. i got hired, got experience, left and then went on to work on other games! not all of them have seen the light of day, but some have! marina: On god my dev origin story was: I finished playing Blooming Panic during uni and was inspired to make a game lol. So when I saw someone looking for a programmer for a game jam, I volunteered even though I legit had 0 experience in making a game/using ren'py (shoutout to the Shooting Star Otome team for taking a chance on me lol). Two years and some projects later, I've felt confident enough to just dive in on a game of my own, and now here we are! Woo!

Floss: i've been writing for a looong time, but i'm in game dev now thanks to the original keyframes otojam project. it was definitely one of those things where you blink and suddenly you're actually making a Game, not just racing to the finish line for a jam. (couldn't ask for a better team to be doing it with.)

[biggerchallenge]

Shoutouts to all the indie devs making spiritual successors to games Nintendo has zero interest in making playable on modern hardware and secondhand sellers refuse to sell for less than $100, especially if they improve heavily upon the original concept.

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

Roxy: i love 3D glaphics don't get me wrong but it pisses me off that 3D is the AAA standard now, i wish bigger studios were still making more big budget 2D games and shit. shoutout to indie devs for keeping the beauty of it all alive lol

Sollux: glaphiics

Rose: Glaphics.

Terezi: GL4PH1CS

Roxy: it was on purpose. i know cooler words than all you im not owned. i always say glaphics all the time forever

[slugdragoon]

Devlog #0.2

Wow, I have had an incredibly productive past two days in terms of my game development. I've been sticking to naming my devlogs 0.x because I didn't consider them "real" until my prototype was playable/not embarrassing, and I didn't want to start with #1 until I thought I'd be doing it regularly, but all of a sudden, it seems very close.

I thought that, after my Devlog #0, I wouldn't post about it at all for some time, but it's been 24 days and I felt the need already to provide two more updates. Every time I post my thoughts about other games (which is fun), I always think I'd love to have something to show for mine, and coming back keeps me connected and working on it.

I think posting on Tumblr has really motivated me. Really, indie devs, and particularly solo devs are so motivating to me (shoutout to artists too), and I feel more accountable to the 5-10 or so people who have been viewing my posts so far. If that's you, thank you, if you even just took a small look.

Just a text post this time, but just in the past two days:

Party members are now implemented with their own stats and skills. Currently I have dummies hard-coded in there, but it is possible to add new ones to the party. Probably recruitable enemies will have a method to create a party-version of themselves.

The basics of the battle system work. There is a system in place to maintain turn order between party members and enemies. For the player turn, we have skills that target either your own party members (healing spells) or enemies (hurting spells), and both have single and multi-target variations. Enemies do basic attacks. Death of party members is not yet implemented.

New UI elements (ugly ones for testing functionality) have party member stat windows in-battle displaying their remaining health and magic, which update when they change. These windows are outlined in a highlight currently for the player whose turn it is, and selector arrows are shown for targeting of spells at both the party and enemies.

Oh, also for at least few days before the last two of coding, I wrote out a decent bit more in my design doc for planned skills/mechanics/enemy types, and worked on some art. They go hand-in-hand in my workflow, and each side pushes each other along, as I need to know what's going in the game to know what assets I need, but sometimes drawing and animating makes a idea clear that goes back in the design doc. Just in a creative zone right now!

The next stretch will be doing some work on items, NPCs (especially shops, and an out-of-battle menu for accessing Party Info, Skills, and the Items.

[bahamutgames]

GCPL Game Jam 2024

Hello! Recently the county I live in held an event where you could go and play some games made by local people for the county's game jam they held! I had no idea this was happening until just a few days before, so sadly I didn't enter the jam, but I did get to go to the event and play the games!

I had a great time, the whole Free Comic Book Day event was neat, I got cards from a lot of local artists, saw some cool cosplays, got to play some jam games, met some cool indie devs, and even got a free Monster High comic. Neat.

Anyway, I figure it would be a shame and also just downright rude to not talk about what I got to play during the event! So I figured, hey, let's just make little post solely devoted to it :)

Before we begin, here's the link to the jam page (x) so you can see all the submissions. The theme was "Tales from the Abyss" so a lot of them are horror themed!

Abyssal Assault - by Link362

This one is a pretty basic top down shooter. But for some reason I can't stop thinking about how good it felt. You'll play it yourself and see how simple it is, but for some reason the mouse control for aiming just feels particularly good to me. I think there's a lot of potential in this game for some serious improvement if they add more enemy types and upgrades. I can see sniping enemies with arrows from across the screen being SO satisfying and using the deadzones as cover from enemy fire could be really cool and make for some unique mechanics in a VS-like. If they care to iterate on the game, of course lol

Abyssal Eats - by Poyomain

DUDE this game absolutely rules actually! I had a very difficult time with it during the event and couldn't beat it at all. But after coming back to it today to make this post I seriously LOVE the concept. All the mechanics and stuff really came together and I genuinely love this game!

This is a neat game where you use cards to cook recipes for monsters, it's a little difficult to understand because there's no tutorial, but I really think this game has TONS of potential to be fleshed out into a full project! It's also one of the nicest presentations from this jam, having cute custom graphics and even an original song made just for it! This one is super neat!

Bell-Punk - by Ingward

One of my personal favorites from the jam! When I came up to play it, the person who made it told me they were waiting for me to come over cause they wanted someone who knew what they were doing to try the game... Do I really just give off the gamer aura? Terrifying thought.

Regardless, this is a top down twin stick shooter where you use a harpoon gun to beat up sharks, grab a pearl, then slowly bring it back to your ship. It's nothing super fleshed out, but it's a REALLY good concept in my opinion, and I think deep sea stuff is SUCH a good concept for a shooter / horror / abyss theme that really doesn't get used enough. Just this base with some upgrades, level and enemy variety, other objectives, ect ect would be KILLER! But the creator told me some of their plans for the concept going forward, and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about them, but they sound REALLY cool, so I'll absolutely be keeping up with this one!

Dante's Diner - by cjoyner150

So, I absolutely SUCKED at this game. Couldn't do it during the event and can't do it now. But I still wanted to give it a shoutout cause it's such a good use of the theme. Basically the abyss is the diner you work in and demons will come in, and sit at the table, and you just have to cook for them. Easy peasy. The creators told me the tables were based on the circles of hell, and if that's what they're going for that's GENIUS. I could seriously see a ton of potential in the concept especially if, say, different types of customers sat at different tables, reflecting their sin. Also, this cooking dinerdash game has enemies. Neat! They should put combat into it to

Dimension - by cbianca168

Simple, but OH so addicting. I could NOT stop playing this one. I gave it so many tries at the actual event, but had to give up. However, once I got home and could play it with a controller, it was a lot easier. This is a simple game where you have to pick up orbs while dodging scrap and not get knocked into a black hole. But it's got a nice presentation with its visuals and particularly its music. The creator told me their siblings made the song, and it actually changes to match how far you are into the level! Which is VERY neat! Think you can beat my score?

Hansel And Gretel's Summoning - by kingofthedregs

Another simple one with a really good presentation. This is a cute game where you have to quickly search for candy in a room, and hide whenever a witch comes by. It's easy when you get the hang of it but it was a good challenge when I started. I really like the original artwork in this one and I actually think there's a lot of potential too! I didn't realize the set up for a big plot that appears at the end, so I'd love to see more of what the creator has in store here!

Melt - by p3arldiv3r

So by the time I'm writing this I still haven't gotten an ending in this (sorry to everyone who made visual novels READING IS HARD FOR ME) but I wanted to give a shout out to this one in particular. The creator told me they made all this stuff brand new and original for the game jam. Including the writing, the character designs, and the art. Which is CRAZY! I've only participated in one jam and a lot of the art in that game was pretty small so I feel like doing all the art and writing in such a short time is very impressive. If stuff about angels sounds interesting, maybe check it out, the creator said it's roughly the size of a chunk of a novel, and with multiple endings is a pretty loaded jam game!

Pirate Tales: Lighting The Abyss - by ChokladGames

Another one I couldn't beat, but still wanted to give a shoutout to. This is another impressively large game considering it was made for a game jam. You control a pirate ship, and have to search a large ocean to find clues on where towers are to shoot them down and get rid of the evil fog over the ocean. It's a little lengthy of a game that you have to beat in one sitting, but the concept is very cool and over all I think it's an impressive project! I was also particularly impressed with the use of actual wind physics, where sailing in the direction of the wind makes you go faster! Neat!

Sticky's Dream Job - by MeganG

A shoot 'em up!! You already know I love those! And it's a vampire survivor like, which is cool! I really enjoy this game, since this genre is a personal favorite, and I think this one in specific is very cute with its scribbly aesthetic and being on paper. But it's also a very impressive jam game overall, having multiple classes (they all share the same weapons, but still) with different music tracks for each, lots of upgrades, and actual achievements which is NUTS to me. There's also some cool weapons I feel like I hadn't seen before like a radius shield and giant weapons you lob in an arc similar to Castlevania. I believe this one won the jam over all if I remember correctly, and it certainly earned it, neat game! I got to year 79 and became so powerful I couldn't die. Typical day for a game dev am I right fellas?

Under the Sea - by htesdev

A neat little side scrolling platformer! The whole point of this one is to complete the obstacle course as quickly as possible! You collect coins to increase your speed, and collect gems for checkpoints. It's simple but I think it's a great premise for a side scroller to take place underwater! Especially since water levels are pretty notorious lol. I think this could be expanded and they could really expand on the idea of the level getting harder to see the deeper you get. Anyway, I only got to 67 seconds (66 appears to be the best time) so try and see if you can get that quick!!

VOID - by FoxTrot

Another cool top down shooter! This one is admittedly a lot more polished, having a lot of mechanics such as dashing and shielding. But coolest of all is that you unlock a new spell every floor and can spend coins to swap out your abilities to a load out you enjoy! I keep saying this but this is super impressive for a jam game in my opinion! I think this game can be expanded even more into something really cool! I just like being able to change my abilities on the fly lol

---

And that's just a bit of what I played at the event! There's even more games in the jam I didn't get to check out or that weren't showcased there! And there were TONS of horror games, so if you're interested in some bite sized indie horror, you should check out what else is available!

Everyone who participated in this jam is SUPER talented and if you're interested in ANYTHING that was shared here, I encourage you to go give it a look! I love seeing things made locally where I'm from so it was really exciting to see some Georgia game devs at work :)

If anyone from the Free Comic Book Day event stumbles upon this post, reach out! I'd love to talk more with other Georgia gamers!

[zeatheninteractive]

Hueniverse: A Colorful Challenge

Hey Tumblr fam! Just wanted to share some thoughts about our game, Hueniverse, in case you’re into indie games or just like seeing what devs are up to.

What is Hueniverse?

Hueniverse is our addictive color-matching puzzle game. The whole idea came from wanting to make something simple yet engaging, where you can really test your eye for color. Your goal is to sort different hues in the correct order. It sounds easy, but as the shades get more subtle, the challenge ramps up, making it a perfect brain teaser for anyone who loves colors.

Relaxing Yet Challenging

We wanted to create something that felt relaxing but still offered a real challenge. One of the coolest things is how each palette can go from easy to "okay, I really have to focus now." It’s all about sharpening your color perception, and it’s super satisfying when you get it right. We’ve got endless puzzles, and it’s easy to pick up if you’re looking for a quick break or want something to really dig into.

A Big Thank You

We’ve got 36 downloads so far (which honestly feels surreal to me—shoutout to all of you who’ve tried it already!). It’s a small number, sure, but it’s 36 people out there enjoying something we made. And that’s a big win for our little team. If you ever decide to check it out, I hope you have fun and maybe even find a favorite color that changes how you see the game.

Join Us on This Colorful Journey

Anyway, just felt like sharing that today. Thanks for reading, and for being here with us on this colorful journey. :)

If you want to try it out, search for "Hueniverse" in the Google Play Store.

[gameartistry]

4 conferences in 10 days….. 

After a weekend of rest, I have taken a moment to reflect on what has been an intense yet rewarding few weeks, attending four different conferences back-to-back across two countries: IndieDevDay in Barcelona, Leadership Day by IGDA Finland, Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki, and W Love Games.

This year was especially significant as W Love Games had a booth at IndieDevDay, shared with IGDA, where we introduced the WLG Indie Alliance and upcoming programs for indie developers. The energy was absolutely incredible with three days of insightful talks, countless indie games on display, and valuable discussions with peers from across the industry. I was honoured to host a panel featuring amazing women in the industry - Anna Guxens, Elena Flores and Suzanne Freyjadis, and participate in another panel alongside Carolina Bonnin, Eulalia García and Alexandra Vo.

With little time to catch our breath, we headed back to Helsinki to prepare for Finnish Games Week—a brand-new event in the Finnish gaming scene that has been years in the making. But what exactly is Finnish Games Week?

Finnish Games Week: A Milestone for the Nordic Games Industry

As the Chairperson of W Love Games and Lead Organizer of this event, I am incredibly proud of our team initiating the first-ever Finnish Games Week. Our vision was to create an event that would provide a variety of opportunities for game developers, whether they were looking to advance their businesses or grow individually within their careers. To achieve this, we collaborated with IGDA Finland and Steel Media, merging three of Finland's major gaming events into a single, impactful week.

The result? A carefully curated, five-day program designed to meet the diverse needs of developers, creators, and professionals across the gaming industry. Finnish Games Week kicked off with Leadership Day by IGDA Finland, aimed at industry professionals and future leaders. It was here that many meaningful connections were made, laying the foundation for what would be an incredibly successful week. Following that, Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki took the spotlight for the next two days, offering a business-centric focus with networking opportunities for companies looking to grow in the global market. Finally, we wrapped up the week with W Love Games—a hybrid event that saw over 1k participants worldwide. This final event was all about a dev-to-dev approach, offering talks, workshops, and mentorship designed to provide practical knowledge in a safe and inclusive space for developers to share their stories and expertise.

What is next?

I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved with Finnish Games Week, and we would not be able to do so without our team of volunteers, speakers, workshop facilitators, mentors, partners and sponsors. Big shoutout to Supercell, MiTale, Suomen pelinkehittäjät ry, Metaplay, Fingersoft, Game Makers of Finland, IGDA Finland, Brazil Embassy in Helsinki.   The response has been overwhelming, and we are already starting the preparations for Finnish Games Week 2025. If you would like to get involved or host a side event, don’t hesitate to reach out—we are open to new ideas and collaborations!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make this week a success. Finnish Games Week is just the beginning, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds as we continue to grow this incredible community. Stay tuned for the 2025 announcements and upcoming plans! (These awesome friendship-bracelets were made at W Love Games party hosted by Supercell, big thanks to their team for making such a memorable evening! 💜)

[hummingbird-games]

2022 IN REVIEW (VN/INDIE GAMES EDITION)

(Missed last year’s?? Check me out!!)

This year had lots of personal high highs and lower lows, so I’m glad I had games to distract from things 😂Without further ado, here’s my year in review:

DEMOS

Pivot of Heart - I’m unsure of the current status of this one, but I played it earlier this year and fell in love with the MC, the art, and was intrigued by the tarot inspired gameplay!

My Alien Roommate - I will 100% be supporting the Kickstarter the MOMENT it’s live. I was actually upset when I reached the end of the demo knowing good and well it was only a demo so that’s how you know I had a fun time 🤣 also, how can you not wanna romance an alien?? That’s what I thought. 

Our Life Now and Forever - On one hand, if you’re plugged into the VN scene, you’re already aware of this game and there’s no need for me to draw attention to it. On the other hand, to quote Billie Stevenson, “I do what I want.”

Infinite Blue - Oh man did I have fun with this one! To say I’m excited for the full game is an understatement! (review for this one is on the blog too btw)

Error143 - Seeing people simp for Micah Yujin has added 10 years to my life because a dark-skinned love interest getting THIS much attention??? Players be ready to risk it all for him and I love it. Also yeah he has my attention too, I am not immune, TF you thought this was???☠️

Garden of Seif - I’m not much help in selling this game because I just straight up inhaled it?? Everything was on point, from the characters, to the unraveling story, to our LIs and supporting cast, and of course, can’t love a game with loving the MC (at least, that’s how I work)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

Gilded Shadows - The brain rot for this game is so real??? So. Damn. Real. It got to a point where after I played so many routes and unlocked multiple endings that I had to stop playing so I could work on my game! And there’s still content on the way?????? Oh to live at the same time as GS 🤗

Sifting Thyme - I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t my favorite high school otome game.  And I thought long and hard about the many other games I’ve played. And I have played a lot of high school romance/dating sim games ☠️ But this one takes the cake!!--and because food is involved, pun intended. If I could have played this in one sitting I totally would have.

An Everyday Love - Check the tags on this blog. I never shut up about this game. Seriously. 

Butterfly Soup 2 - Sequel’s only been out for like 2 months and I’m already begging for a third.  

Blanket Cat & Teacup - The first is a cozy visual novel that gives storybook/ younger me watching Reading Rainbow vibes, and the second is a puzzle, point and click narrative about an introverted frog girl who needs to get tea ingredients for her party, and both these games reminded me of the healing power of gaming. 

Still Shinning - Simply and lovely in its execution. I need to check out this dev’s other titles as well!

Portrait of a Texas Family - If you play no other games on this list, play this one. I don’t have any better words other than “I love it” and “this family and their love and their worry stick with you”.

Dusk & Dawn - SFHJSHFJSEJE THIS WAS SO GOOD LIKE WHAAA??? Black female MC, demi rep, superheroes, 2 dating options, multiple endings/dead ends, ughhh this game had it all. The only thing stopping it from being perfect is a sequel. And no, there’s no announced sequel so we can sulk together...

Fully Released (& still on 1st playthrough)

Wylde Flowers - I suck at farming sims in general, but this game has a special place in my heart. It’s the definition of charming + cozy and it was made to be played in bed so shoutout to the Switch port!!

ValiDate: Struggling Singles in your Area - I want to go in depth about this game when I’ve played all or majority of the routes, but for now just know I also believe this game was made for playing in bed LOL.

Gemi’s Gushies

(a list within a list of games that have devs trucking along in the background and I want to spotlight for y’all)

Band Camp Boyfriend

Ise and Kai

The Closet Door

Herotome

College Craze

Trouble Comes Twice

[slasheru]

Heyyyyy Slasher Nation! 🖤 First of all - HOLY CRAP THANK YOU!! Even though the Kickstarter didn't hit the goal, the fact that 98 of y'all (!!) got us a SIGNIFICANT part of the way there (almost $3,000!!) is MINDBLOWING!! <3333 I can't thank you enough 😭

So What Now / Wait you had a Plan B the whole time?!

Yeah, man, you thought I was just gonna leave you guys hanging? ;) We're gonna try this again with a WAY smaller goal on Crowdfundr! (I'll talk more about this below!) Short pitch is: $1,125 goal (which we nailed in 48 hours here), keeps SU running, launches September 7th, Crowfundr is being hella cool and sponsoring it for SPX Spotlight, follow along HERE! [https://crowdfundr.com/slasheruact2]

But ALSO, holy crap, you guys are AMAZING:

I can hardly call this thing a wash, though, because the amount of love, attention, and SOLD COPIES OF SLASHER U: ACT 1 have been ABSOLUTELY FUCKING WILD. I just wanted to shout out to:

More than 600 new Slasher U: Act 1 players downloaded the game since the Kickstarter launched

Slasher U: Act 1: Alpha Edition maintains a whopping 4.9 out of 5 Stars average rating on itch (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I sold enough copies of Slasher U: Act 1 to cover MORE THAN HALF MY RENT THIS MONTH!! If this Kickstarter stopped right here, you guys would've been able to cover 4 MORE months of rent & production time! Which is HOG WILD.

We got shoutouts from:

Beautiful Glitch, the team behind Monster Prom, Monster Camp, & Monster Roadtrip!! Beautiful Glitch are one of my most inspirational/aspirational heroes of game dev, and the Monster franchise was a HUGE inspiration for SU, so I can't BELIEVE this happened!!!! Thank you guys SO MUCH!!! <333

WWAC (Women Write About Comics), where journalist Alenka Figa wrote SO MUCH NICE STUFF about my storytelling I'm gonna fuckin cry!!

Corinne Halbert of ACID NUN - she and I are actually gonna do an Acid Nun x Slasher U collab where you'll be able to unlock an Acid Nun player skin!! Shhhh!!

The crew at Lewdgamer who wrote an awesome writeup of the KS campaign!

Indiepocalypse - we made it into Issue #42 and Alex had us on his podcast, which was SO MUCH FUN!! According to Alex, Slasher U had one of the highest audience participation/engagements he's seen on Indiepocalypse Radio, and it was MEGA FUN watching him parse some of your saucy Sawyer questions, LMFAO.

And here's some Slasher U & SUKS stats for you:

More than 2/3rds of you ended up dating either Sawyer or Tate. >:)

In total, 94 of you backed the game here on KS!!! YOU ALL KICK SERIOUS ASS

Almost 1,000 new copies of Slasher U: Act 1 (both Regular and Premium) were downloaded during the campaign!

During the campaign, at least 3 people personally thanked me for Slasher U completely changing their life by discovering something about themselves or making them feel seen and heard, which is going to make me FUCKING CRY and is the ENTIRE REASON WHY I MAKE THIS GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE. I love you all so, so so sosososoososososos much, Student Disembody. :'))))))

So this "Plan B", eh?

Some of you know I'm a cartoonist by trade (I drew for the official FNAF franchise and more!). This year, I ended up talking to some sponsors for this upcoming SPX (Small Press Expo), which is like SDCC for indie comics, including Crowdfundr - one thing led to another, and now I'm partnering up with Crowdfundr and SPX to bring you a WAY SMALLER but also WAY MORE PERSONAL campaign to keep the lights on here at SU, as part of Crowfundr's SPX Spotlight event! For the non-comics folks here, Crowdfundr is basically the indie comics Kickstarter - I've been buddies with this crowd (pun vageuly intended) for a while and I'm psyched to be doing this with people I've been meaning to collab with!!

The new goal will cover the absolute bare minimum of making SU - $1,125, which includes font licenses, the Mac port, and taxes. Then, any EXTRA will go to more production time on Slasher U! Basically, I'm swinging the campaign around so the minimum amount is the goal, and the goal-goal's the reach goal. The GOOD NEWS is we apparently smashed this $1k goal within 48 hours of THIS Kickstarter, so I'm VERY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT ROUND 2 OVER HERE.

(You'll ALSO still be able to snag one of those custom player skins I'm drawing - there's gonna be only 5 slots this time!) Aaaaand you can click to follow when the Crowdfundr launches in a month, here:

P.S: estimating the first Early Access build with *just* Laila's Act 2 content, plus some core extras, in the next month or month and a half >:)))

xoxoxooxoxoxoxo, love you guys SO FUCKIN MUCH, and, as we like to say on campus:

STAY HORNY!! xxoxooxox Professor Plutonium

[rinoaskyes]

Tokyo Game Dungeon

I love going to all kinds of game exhibitions but ones that are focused on indie games will always have a special place in my heart. There's something so human and endearing about getting to meet developers and getting to try games that were made literally by those two hands. No well-oiled production timelines, no marketing pizzaz, just a person (or a couple of people) tinkering away at home on a dream.

Tokyo Game Dungeon by Iwasaki is one of a few regular events that happen in, well, Tokyo. It's only been running since 2022 but has already attracted a formidable number of fans from both the development side and the gamers keen to support the independent scene.

Unlike what its name might indicate, there are no shackles or prison cells at Tokyo Game Dungeon. It's actually very brightly lit, fairly quiet and located (at least in the April 2024 edition) in a fancy building in the Hamamatsucho area. I think the name might be inspired by dungeon crawler games, as you can kind of explore the entire area in a similar way to find new games. But it could also be a ruse to attract basement dwellers to come outside and touch grass!! Be warned, gamers.

What's also really cool about their website is you can actually look back at every past exhibit to see which games were present. It's a nice way to archive the indie scene here. There are also three mascots that I don't really know much about but they are very cute. I love this series of promotional artwork that's like 'Amazing place!' 'Large table!', 'Indie spirit!'. What more could you want from a game exhibition!

I got there around 1 pm and the event went from 12 - 5 pm. There were two levels and they were huge. At the front of the entrance were large tables with pamphlets and flyers relating to all of the games available on that day as well as a map. Attendees get given mini maps also. These are super useful because once you get into trying games, they all start to blend into one. I found circling the games that I've tried/want to try was really useful to aid my failing memory.

Anyway enough stalling, here are some of the games that caught by eye!

Inverted Angel by SCIKA

This is a 2D adventure (visual novel) game about an unknown women who shows up in front of your house claiming to be your girlfriend. Use dialogue to uncover the truth. The art is super, super cute.

Elfie by Sol's Atelier

This is tamagochi, mini games and narrative all rolled into one. Elfie is a small round elephant and also your new roommate. You get to play mini games like vacuuming peanuts in space and making peanut butter (Elfie likes peanuts). My friend Philippe is the solo dev behind this so definitely check it out!

CASSETTE BOY by Wonderland Kazakiri inc.

"All you see is all there is" - Cassette Boy is a seemingly 2D world that asks a lot of philosophical questions while also hiding some very complex dimensions beyond what you can see at a glance (it is actually 3D). You have to turn and twist the map to change your perspective and solve puzzles.

Buzz or Die by Mukanshin Games

The queue to play this demo was unreal. Buzz or Die is a narrative adventure game about death row inmates competing for viewer ratings on a game show. If you win you survive and get money, if you lose, you die. Huge Danganronpa vibes, very excited for this.

ELEMASTA by Team ELEMASTA

This is an open world RPG with stunning pixel art inspired by retro games. Truthfully I didn't get to play this but I thought it was too beautiful to not include. I believe it's a game about meeting characters, collecting over 3,000 types of weapons and armor and defeating enemies. Fairly standard high fantasy but I am in love with the art.

P4ST3L by UsaginO

P4ST3L (very hard to type) is an FPS horror game set in a liminal space with a female protagonist and some creepy creatures. UsaginO also has a YouTube channel that acts like a devlog.

I want to shoutout the girl who was manning the booth for her insanely high energy. She was very cool. Apparently she voiced the Pomeranian in UsaginO's previous game (I can't find it online) and she also sings at the end of P4ST3L so you should definitely play it and complete it so you can hear her melodious voice!!

Holo Yeet by Fried Rice Productions

Is still a work in progress according to the developer but it's a game about yeeting Hololive characters. You play as Mori Calliope and in the demo, I got to yeet Watson Amelia. I hope the Hololivers pick this one up!

MotionRec by HANDSUM

I cannot shut up about MotionRec, ever since I first saw Shoma present it at Tokyo Indies last year. It's pixel platforming with a record and rewind function that allows you to overcome obstacles your little dude character normally cannot. It's truly been a pleasure to watch this game grow over time. It's latest version has a lot of cool design features and the levels look really fleshed out too!

Reso-Seeker by R-ta Games

This is a Metroidvania game about exploring a resort hotel! I think the setting is really cool and leads to some interesting locations and puzzles to overcome when platforming. I've also seen R-ta exhibit at a few different places in the last few years so it was cool to get to try the latest demo. It's pretty hard!

マイクカート by 六方

It looks like a regular racing game until you realise there's a mic in front of you. You use a steering wheel controller to navigate but you need to keep talking for the car to keep moving. Someone playing before me was making vroom sounds but for some reason I ended up just chatting with the developers to power my car. I told them that this would be the perfect game for streamers because we don't shut up! I don't have any photos of this and they don't seem to have a Steam page so I'll link to the 4Gamer article here, please scroll down towards the end to see what it looks like.

Ninjam! by G-Blossom

Is like a very hyper-precise 4 player brawler. You're a ninja who needs to defeat other ninjas but you everyone only has one life so you need to be very very precise with when you decide to attack. It's an amazing party game, I hope they introduce more levels and items to keep the gameplay interesting!

As always, I wish I got to try out more games! But my social battery was rapidly draining. All in all I can't recommend Tokyo Game Dungeon any higher. Even if you're not part of the gaming scene, you could definitely treat this as a regular fair/expo to go with friends and just have a blast.

Jun Shen Chia if you made it this far, congrats! And to everyone else, thanks for reading.

[prophecytoad]

My journey so far

My journey as a game dev started later than most. At the age of 26 I decided I would get serious about my dream of work in game development, and so during work breaks and after I got home I followed online courses to learn how to program and watched YouTube tutorials about the Unity game engine (Shoutout to Brackeys for creating content that made starting with the engine easy). Along with this, I applied to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to undertake a Bachelor of Games and Interactive Environments. As of writing this blog, I made these decisions three years ago and have done much since.

Blackjacky and Phaser 3

The first game engine I touched was the Phaser 3 game engine that used JavaScript as its scripting language. I learnt how to use this engine by following a course on Codecademy. Blackjacky was a version of the card game Blackjack that I wrote after completing the course.

Duck Ranger

After finding out about the Unity game engine and its popularity amongst the indie community, I immediately sought to move over and begun working on a 2D platformer called Duck Ranger; A game where you play as a masculine duck that solves puzzles and punches enemies using the power of his massive duck beard.

Whilst working on this project, I began my studies at QUT and switched my focus away from development. This project is on indefinite delay, but working on it helped me immensely before beginning my studies.

Some of the cute pixel art animations I made while working on Duck Ranger

Pond Protector

The first small project I made for an assignment at QUT, Pond Protector is a simple single-screen strafe shooter where you play as a frog protecting its pond from mosquitos and other animals that want to dirty the water. A fun and simple project that was the first time I proved to myself that I could make something that felt complete, no matter how small.

Unnamed RPG

I spent my first Summer break working on this game that I never named. I wanted to code some typical RPG mechanics to push my development skills further before my second year. I absolutely loved working on this project and will definitely return to it if given the opportunity.

The Other Me

My first ever Game Jam submission for The GMTK Game Jam in 2021. Our team of three, named “Pangolin’s in Pyjamas”, which included myself and my friends Jazmin and Grim endeavoured to create a game in 48 hours around the theme “Joined Together”. Our team created a 2D puzzle platformer where the player could astral project their spirit to help them solve puzzles. Our team did incredibly well considering it was our first ever game jam, and the tight deadline!

 Scream Dream

The second coming of Pangolin’s in Pyjamas, this time for the Australian Global Game Jam in 2022. I have forgotten this jam’s theme, but our team created a 2D action platformer in 48 hours with the idea of: “What would the nightmare of a nightmare creature be?”. Thus, we put out nightmare creature into a world of overwhelming cuteness.

Open Day

My first group game project made at QUT with the Unity game engine was a game that we developed with the purpose of inspiring people to attend university. With my friends Emma as artist, Bianca as programmer, and myself as designer, team lead, and supporting programmer, we created something that we were very proud of in less than thirteen weeks while studying other subjects.

Zoolich

The Pangolin’s in Pyjamas strike again! Now with the additional members of Emma and Bianca! The first Brackeys Game Jam of 2023 has just recently passed and, despite a couple of us moving home in the middle of it, we created another fun little puzzle game. The theme of this jam was “The end is a new beginning”.

After some deliberation, we decided we wanted to create a puzzle game where the player was a lich who had been removed from their real body and turned into a slime. Their objective is to solve puzzles and find their way back to their real body to regain their powers and dominate! We fit the theme by making the player have to “die” to an enemy in order to gain the form of that enemy. Each enemy has their own unique abilities (e.g., wombats can push boulders), while ghosts have no abilities at all. The player must choose the correct form while dodging ghosts in order to complete the puzzles!

Our team had a lot of fun working on this jam, and I’ll be writing a post-portem in a later post!

Current Project: Partner Game

Lovers of Neopets, Tamagotchis, Pokemon, and Digimon, unite! My current project aims to be the final destination for all lovers of pets and partner creatures. Combining the love of having a bond with a magical creature, with none of the forced labour, this game will be full of fun, excitement, and adventure!.

Description

Adventure around a world while exploring different locations. Strengthen the bond with your partner creature and help rebuild a city that has been almost destroyed by a trio of evil creatures.

Details about the current development of the project, and future development plans can be found in the next post, and future posts!

Thanks for making it this far into the blog! Here’s your reward: Todays frog; the Malaysian Horned Frog!

Image retrieved from: https://reptilesmagazine.com/malayan-horned-frog-care-and-breeding/