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Adriaan

@adriaan.games
11K followers 262 following 3.6K posts

Director at Hidden Folks (hiddenfolks.com). Game designer of many games (adriaan.games). Usability contributor for the Godot Engine. Organizer & investor at midgame.fund.

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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 04/10/2026
A few more ideas made it into the proposal. and we're gonna need another proposal to get rid of the close button across the entire editor, but that would make this window look like the second image. squeaky clean!
mockup of proposed changes to the Export window in Godotmockup of proposed changes to the Export window in Godot, without the close button in the right bottom corner
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 03/10/2026
proposal to redesign Godot's export panel: github.com/godotengine/... soooo much cleaner! give it a thumbs up on GitHub or make suggestions for improvements there! #godotengine
comparison between the godot export window before and after the redesign proposed by the proposal.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 02/10/2026
I'm in love with portal.app on my desktop. The rotating, high quality, moving backgrounds (which I don't find distracting) together with the always on ambient sound (at an adjustable perfect low volume) give me so much joy. I regularly just close all my windows just to experience it for a little.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 29/09/2026
PSA for Godot users soon upgrading to 4.8 (still in development): The built-in Script editor has become a regular dock and to pop it out, use the context menu (opened by right mouse click) on the Script tab and select 'Make Floating'. The previously dedicated button has been removed. #godotengine
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 26/09/2026
1st img: what i see 2nd img: what you see
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 25/09/2026
iterated on my proposal to improve Godot's FileSystem header. give it a thumbs up on GitHub if you too want to get rid of the file path field that is utterly useless! github.com/godotengine/...
before and after images of the filesystem header according to the proposal
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 18/09/2026
Folk animations in Hidden Folks 2; how we make 'em in Godot #gamedev #godotengine
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
We save the atlas next to the level in the filesystem. and we rerun the tool occasionally. workflow is important to us, so running the tool isn't necessary for the game to work! it just undoes some of the optimization until we rerun it.
screenshot of three space_launchpad resources: a scene, the atlas, and the level resource with metadata
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
3. we replace all references to textures with a custom AtlasTextureWithMeta texture type, which is just an AtlasTexture but with with additional references to the original texture – so that we can rerun the tool without issues.
screenshot of the AtlasTextureWithMeta classscreenshot of our AtlasTextureWithMeta on a sprite2d node.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
The level in the screenshot has 37k+ objects (!) but draws no more than 1000 unique textures, and those will pack into this single 4096×4096 texture. TexturePacker is really good at packing efficiently! these look so neat :D :D
screenshot of a texture atlas with nearly 1000 objects
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
2. we use TexturePacker to generate a highly optimized atlas from all the textures. I wrote a custom 'bridge' from Godot to TexturePacker that uses its command line interface, and parse the output so we get it in a format we can use. in truth I didn't know there was a TexturePacker plugin. lol.
screenshot of a pack_textures_and_get_atlas_textures function
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
The tools @franzlazerte.bsky.social and I wrote basically do the following: 1. we scan the opened scene for all textures referenced by the built-in Sprite2D and our custom classes. we do this in the simplest and dumbest way possible! it's fine. it works.
screenshot of a _get_textures_from_children_recursive functionscreenshot of a _update_texture_array function
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
We optimized draw calls by 99% (lol) in Hidden Folks 2 by writing some tools to find all textures used in a level, generate a level-specific atlas, and replace individual texture references with atlas textures. Thread below 🧵👇🏼 #godotengine
Two side-by-side screenshots showing before and after we applied a texture atlas optimization to our game Hidden Folks two, the before showing 13318 draw calls and the after showing 113 draw calls
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/09/2026
For the game devs coming out of @gamediscoverco.bsky.social's latest newsletter all depressed, keep in mind that the article's conclusion is based on data that only looks at Steam, and puts ALL games on one pile including AI slop & games with completely different genres / audiences than yours.
Is the game biz.. sustainable for the average indie?
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 04/09/2026
wurdweb's launch screen has a fake newspaper with some absolute banger dad-joke headline + subtitles: Next Week's Weather Report Still no weather. Local Hippie Learns About Words "Everything is connected, man!" Voting For Best Vowel Opens Today U expected to finally overtake i.
A screenshot of the opening screen of the word game wurdweb, showing a fake newspaper with the headline "Flat as a pancake" and the subtitle "New research suggests there are only 2 dimensions."
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 29/08/2026
our hf2 @ gamescom banner is awesome, if i may say so 😏
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 29/08/2026
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 28/08/2026
Hidden Folks 2 demo @ gamescom!
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 21/08/2026
7th for me, which is still a lot better than what you said was 1st on Google :P You can tell kagi it's garbage and it'll never show up ever again.
Screenshot of results of searching 2^64 on kagi.comscreenshot of domain preferences on kagi.com for a shit website
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 21/08/2026
Soon.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 19/08/2026
wurdweb just re-released on iPhones & iPads!! (It left Apple Arcade last month.) Word puzzles with Sunday morning vibes. With different game modes, daily / weekly / monthly puzzles, and much more. Made by @aran.sokpop.co & I. Get it on the App Store: apps.apple.com/us/app/wurdw...
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 17/08/2026
I just helped pinpoint an editor bug using the excellent "Godot Editor Debugger" plugin. It shows all the live Godot editor nodes & lets me inspect and modify them – all in real time 🫣🫣🫣 also great for when you want to mod the editor with a plugin. github.com/Zylann/godot... #godotengine
screenshot of the Godot editor with the EditorDebugger dock open. the EditorRunBar is both highlighted in it's place in the screenshot as well as in the editor tree hierarchy.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 16/08/2026
Feels good to save €2k per year for software I only use once per year just for maintenance! I might have to do a bit of an update marathon though 😅
Confirmation that my Unity Pro's cancelation was scheduled
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 06/08/2026
attached is our current 1on1 checklist (and I'm open to ideas!) the checklist is just a starting point; the conversations always derail which is great as no subjects seem to remain untouched. we used to do these convo's more often but landed on 'every 4 weeks' as they worked well for us.
A checklist for 1 on 1 conversations, with the items:
- last 1on1’s action points
- working hours – sleeping, eating, exercising enough?
- vacation days?
- any more auxiliary activities?
- work station still good?
- hardware & software all good?
- what’s on your mind?
- want to receive some feedback?
- have some feedback for me?
- any small or big worries?
- anything you need from me or from the company?
- anything else you wanted to talk about?
- next 1on1
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 24/07/2026
email from Google urging me to ‘optimize my pricing strategy’ and try their latest price tag: $0,05 wtf?! am i just completely out of touch with reality? i know ‘local purchasing power’ is a legit reasons for low pricing, but in what world could this math ever check out?!
email from google play. highlighted: “ensure the most competitive pricing “email from google. highlighted: price your products as low as the US equivalent of 5 cents
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 24/06/2026
cause im ded
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 23/06/2026
Steam Machine performance is about 250% of the Steam Deck, from www.theverge.com/games/952765...
graphs comparing the steam machine performance compared to the steam deck, where on average the steam machine performs about 250% better than the steam deck
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 19/06/2026
soon
Screenshot of a work-in-progress Sprite Offset Tools plugin on the Godot Asset Store.
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 19/06/2026
offset transforms are Godot 4.7's sexiest new UI feature!!! you can have your UI in a layout and animate it 'on top of' its layout transform. in the example vid, a bunch of tweens are applied on hover, but you can also animate using Animation player, do custom code, set things in the editor, etc
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 06/06/2026
Announcing: Hidden Folks 2 - New themes and areas. - Improved graphical quality. - Second (not text!) clue. - Lots of new mouth sounds. - Various quality-of-life improvements. - Made in #godot. Get an email when it releases: hiddenfolks.com Wishlist on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4480060
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 31/05/2026
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 27/05/2026
great question! right now, applying it after using the sprites does not work (see screenshot; texture becomes invalid and is removed from the Sprite2D texture property). might be good material for a proposal…
screenshot of sprite2d nodes with invalid textures
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 27/05/2026
Today I learned that Godot can generate an atlas out of individual .png's automatically! This is .,~amazing~,. for the performance of 2D games with many sprites, because the draw calls to the GPU can be batched into a single draw call if the sprites reference the same texture. #godotengine
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 22/05/2026
🥹 you too, you too
My question is, do you know how excited i am? I adored hidden folks and am so curious what the announcement will be. Props for continuing to create :D . All the time and care you put into it is amazing and very inspiring to me. Thanks for it all and i truly hope you have a wonderful life (you and any team involved)
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 22/05/2026
🥹 I'm so grateful
My dad and I bond by playing games together - anything from Lemmings or Myst on PC to Zelda and Wii Sports - and Hidden Folks is one of our core games! He showed it to me years ago, put it up on the TV, and we searched and giggled for hours. That was around the time I was graduating and moving out of my childhood home. Now I live states away from my dad, but every email I get about a new level or area is an exciting excuse to give my dad the good news and connect over your game.
In a world where games and apps seem to hit the market every day, Hidden Folks will be a game that transcends time and fad for me. I will always be a fan!
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 22/05/2026
🖤 watery-eyed grateful to be able to enriched people's lives (the attached image is a screenshot of one of the 100+ responses to announcing 'the next hidden folks announcement' at Wholesome Direct)
Screenshot of email: "My kids were 10 and 12 when Hidden Folks was released. We spent many hours playing, marveling and laughing all the way. It’s the one game we all agree never got boring and never let us down. Over the years each of us has often commented that we wish there was another one. Now my adult children are just as excited as I am to read this announcement (of an announcement)"
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 20/05/2026
sent an email to 30k+ people. you bet i read and reread the mail 6 times, and yet i totally forgot to mention one of the three things I wanted to mention. lol. also asked people to subscribe to another thing and holy moly there’s a lot af activity! i am secretly always very excited about emails
screenshot of email list activity, showing activity by a few dozen entries in just the last minute
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 18/05/2026
The Hidden Folks team is working on something and we'll announce it soon. If you want to make sure you don't miss the news, sign up here to get an email: hiddenfolks.com
illustration in hidden folks style of an astronaut folk in space holding a little heart balloon. (yeah yeah, unrealistic who cares, it's a heart!!!)
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 10/05/2026
When we put the levels together, we work around it. Every object (A) has a danger zone and other objects (Bs) that need to be in it need to be: - taken out of y-sorting, falling back to hierarchy order, often by parenting Bs to A, or… - have their pivots moved, or… - layered to another z-index.
image showing the pivot point as well as the "danger zone" of a y-sorted wall
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 10/05/2026
Hidden Folks has a sorting problem due to its not-axis-aligned isometric perspective. We used manual sorting for the original Hidden Folks and it was an insane amount of work with ~thousands~ of workarounds. We're using y-sorting for the sequel, but it leads to the behavior in the vid. #gamedev
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 09/05/2026
moving fast! 3rd version looks even slicker:
mockup of Audio panel, third iteration
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 09/05/2026
Couldn't stop myself from doing this small redesign of Godot's Audio panel: github.com/godotengine/... #godotengine
Godot's audio panel layout button redesign, before and after
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 09/05/2026
Godot's FileSystem panel could use a cleanup. Made a proposal & mockup here: github.com/godotengine/... Open to suggestions! #godotengine
before and after of a redesign of the file system panel
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 29/04/2026
Godot went through the exact “sponsor is bad, so money is bad” discourse a few months ago, and… nothing of note changed — other than more people were paid to fix your bug reports and improve the engine for everyone. This page was created, too:
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 22/04/2026
doing “sound design” again
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 13/04/2026
designed this cursor, and really proud of it for some reason
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 19/03/2026
I think this latest iteration will meet everyone's needs! I added a second visually distinct panel for fully configurable Run Presets that, when clicked, set the run configuration and run the game. It has one preset by default that is essentially the 'Play Current Scene' button.
third version design mockups of a new run bar for Godot
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 18/03/2026
Iterated on my mockup a bit to include the shortcuts to the various scene options so that it's clear that those are still accessible. A lot of people have indicated they prefer the 'play current scene' button in the bar, but that doesn't fit with my approach for this proposal. More info in the PR.
improved mockup with shortcuts
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 18/03/2026
I researched a dozen ways of putting Godot's new 'game embedding' option in the run bar. I landed on a clean and extendable proposal to improve the entire run bar instead: github.com/godotengine/... feedback always welcome! #godotengine
diagram of before and after the changes my proposal proposes, with dumb comments about what users might be thinking looking at this new design
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Adriaan @adriaan.games · 13/03/2026
Godot's inspector header is full of buttons that are rarely used in the most common workflows. I made a proposal to reduce the clutter & complexity of the header: github.com/godotengine/... Feedback always welcome (on GitHub)! #godotengine
before and after image of the Godot engine's editor inspector
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