iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I play on my Steam Deck more than any console probably. But this totally lets me know I should be careful on how I market the terminal bits, thx for the feedback 😁

100

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Yeah, a refresher menu is always nice. Well there isn't actually any typing on a keyboard in the game. Aiming to keep things as accessible as possible for various devices.

100

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Potentially, I do like when games have a simple refresher in the settings in-case something is forgotten.

100

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I've gotten a lot of feedback that my game's wall of intro text is bad. Been implementing a more user friendly tutorial that explains the game's core fundamentals interactively. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #terminal #unity3d #screenshotsaturday #retrofuture #darkfuture

2196

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Yeah it's really hard to get them looking good. Especially when you have such a huge battlefield like in my scenario. I may need to implement some sort of soft number scaling system.

010

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yep, I've been aggressively designing everything first on Steam Deck screen sizes. That said I definitely need to rework some numbers in combat that are hard to read. @thaddeus-psarris.bsky.social convinced me a while back to check everything on Steam Deck sizes

110

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Decided to redesign my boring text tutorial boxes to these sleek new UI elements. I've been adding in just a little orange with my UI's red tints and I think it's really helping text punch through. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #terminal #unity3d #screenshotsaturday #retrofuture #darkfuture

1167

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I got this in a bundle at some point and forgot to play it. I'll need to move it up higher in my backlog.

000

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Well, this terminal only appears at the player's base and important narrative events. So technically it pauses the game when it pops up.

000

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

An interactive terminal system that pops up for important system messages. I pulled from my many years as a front-end developer to create a retro future hybrid that's easier to read than a generic wall of text. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #terminal #unity3d #screenshotsaturday #retrofuture

1175

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

After a couple passes I finally got my game's start screen fully functional. I designed it based on how I remember old VR games back in the early 90s I played at my local mall. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #tron #scifi #shaders #unity3d #virtualboy

1354

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Combat previews before a battle weren't displaying much relevant information. So I reworked the UI to crawl the combat data and create a combat preview. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #roguelike #scifi #retrofuture

0204

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Some rough flats for a new enemy. I like to do a flat model pass before I do final models / textures. A few extra hours in the modeling process, but it avoids major pitfalls like shader/transparency issues. #screenshotsunday #gamedev #indiegames #blender3d #substancepainter #scifi

0266

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Bosses in my game were kinda boring since they all have the same shape. I've created a grouping system with knockback handling that allows me to group a boss into multiple parts that can be destroyed or moved. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #roguelike #prototyping

0214

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

After many struggles with wireframe baking, I think I've finally nailed a full toolset for rapidly creating new wireframe models. This latest area was done in under 2 weeks #screenshotsunday #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #roguelike #blender #blender3d #gamedesign #gameart #virtualboy

0112

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

A friend was recently asking how I concept a lot of units. Sometimes I just freehand model units in Blender. Other times I draw sketches like this boss that has multiple states. Helps prove out the general silhouette. #gamedev #indiegames #sketches #blender #blender3d #gamedesign #gameart

0186

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Great convo about V1997. Glad to hear you're using open source images and CC licensed materials instead of AI. I was curious if you had any particular resources you really love to use? I'm a huge fan of game-icons.net and frequently remix their icons to create new cards for my game.

game-icons.net

4180 free SVG and PNG icons for your games or apps | Game-icons.net

000

Reposted by Ash Blue

Mike Bithell @mikebithell.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Proud to announce the next game Vampirium: 1997 Dracula is king of the United British Empire. Kill his enemies and find your own path through a minimalist immersive sim sandbox. Wishlists and retweets massively appreciated (and, you know, massively helpful) store.steampowered.com/app/4035190/...

store.steampowered.com

Vampirium: 1997 on Steam

1997. Dracula is King of England. At his command, master your dark gifts to assassinate his enemies and secure his vampiric empire. Infiltrate locked-down locations, adapt and survive in living enviro...

1402502817

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Finished an event sample location mockup. For this I tried blending multiple models with Z depth shaders to create a supernatural glowing effect. Would love feedback on this if you're feeling up to it. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #roguelike #blender #blender3d #gamedesign #gameart

1121

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Finished a huge batch of new cards. Here are just a few of the new ones. Game is roughly 50 cards at this point. Also huge props to game-icons.net which I use to rapidly prototype a lot of my card art. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike #deckbuilder

0141

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Rolling out new unit abilities with colored tiles that give a quick visual snapshot of what's going on. The colors of friendly (blue), heal (green), and attack (red) make first time plays with new cards much easier too. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike #deckbuilder

0134

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Finished up equipment cards to help break up the game's complexity. This lets you weaponize deployed walls, change how units attack, and even apply special debuffs to enemies. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike #deckbuilder

0193

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Yep, otherwise your tutorial might just be hiding issues. I show a few simple screens to give players context in an early build. But what people get stuck on without handholding is usually indicative of bigger problems.

010

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

How soon should you create a tutorial for your game? IMO you should do it last right before a public demo or launch in early access. It's really painful to watch people struggle in live play tests. But solving their struggles with intuitive UI/mechanics will make your game much better long term.

150

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Putting the finishing touches on a new card based trap system you can use to defend lanes. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike

0151

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Thx, definitely getting faster at modeling. I really noticed a big boost in speed on character modeling at around the 30 character mark. Hoping to have a demo to share with you before end of year, but we'll see.

000

Reposted by Ash Blue

Renee Nejo @reneedo.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

What does “art direction” actually mean on a small game team? I put together a breakdown of my work on Reclaim! Azhegiiwewining—covering visual language, color scripting, and building a production pipeline from scratch. 🔗 www.artstation.com/artwork/5WAwk1 #gamedev #artdirection #gameart

artstation.com

Reclaim! Azhegiiwewining — Art Direction for a Narrative Exploration Game, Renee Nejo

I served as Art Director on Reclaim! Azhegiiwewining, a narrative exploration game centered on cultural storytelling and environmental discovery. I led visual development across the project, defining ...

062

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Tweaked the flats after stepping away for a few hours and looking at it again. Time away really helps.

120

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Every time I create a rough model pass and flats for a character it really helps significantly. Can't stress how important it is to do this before final textures in #gamedev #3dModeling and #characterDesign. Especially if you do shape discovery / concept exploration while 3D modeling #indiegames

1194

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Finished a new 1 HP enemy that explodes on death. Granting block/armor to nearby allies and spreading tile grime. The extra block forces you to strategically think about your kill order. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike

0113

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Working on a new level with units that create terrain when attacked. You'll have to cleverly play cards to work around their defense mechanism. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #cardgame #roguelike

0235

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I wasn't sure why my game's builds were pumping out 200FPS+ and causing my GPU to scream. I thought it was just a badly optimized scene. But it looks like the default Unity setup had vsync shut off for whatever reason in settings... Game builds barely make any GPU noise now #unity3D #gamedev

0123

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

And here is the result when the game starts of the editor pic for my grid editor.

010

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Here is how the wave data is stored in the inspector window.

010

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Struggling to store wave data in a visual format for my card game. I created a simple grid editing system to store wave data in a ScriptableObject. Now I rapidly prototype levels by painting onto the map. More details in the comments. #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity #unity3d #screenshotsaturday

2124

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

The game that heavily inspired my card game Burn The Hive is deeply discounted for less than $3 right now. An absolute must play if you like games like Into The Breach, FTL, and tower defense. store.steampowered.com/app/1105670/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 90% on The Last Spell on Steam

Defend the last bastion of humanity with your squad of heroes! Exterminate fiendish monsters with magic and brute force by night and re-build your battered city defenses by day in this tactical RPG wi...

020

Reposted by Ash Blue

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Slay the Spire 2 has sold 3 million copies in 1 week store.steampowered.com/news/app/286...

446261

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Thx. I really want positioning to matter like Into The Breach. But also aiming for cards to have secondary utility functions.

000

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Was really unhappy with the old rewards menu at the end of combat so I rewrote it. Players now get credits and a reward card from each deck. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #scifi #unity3d #gameui #roguelike #cardgame

0103

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Added a new "Flare Gun" like card that allows you to debuff a target and scatter neighboring units. It can also be used to make your own units reposition if you're clever when playing it. #gamedev #indiegames #cardgame #madewithunity #unity3d

1123

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

A cyberpunk JRPG game prototype I made back in 2023. Ultimately dropped the game due to scoping issues. But I still love the concept and my modeling/animation skills have improved significantly since this was made (a lot of mixamo animations in here). #jrpg #gamedev #indiegames #videogames

1193

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Finished up a pass on the shop system and started playing with light bleed effects to create a more retro-future feeling interface. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #retrofuture #scifi #shaders #unity3d #screenshotsaturday

093

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Not necessarily, hopefully the team can come back to it someday

010

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Thx for doing so much lifting on the coding and project management. Project couldn't have finished without you.

110

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I made the art for Tavern Trickster with my partner in just 2 days this weekend for Global Game Jam 2026. An inscription / shotgun roulette inspired shell game. #screenshotsaturday #ggj2026 #gamedev #indiegames #madewithunity

0163

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Check out my new fully animated exploration system. It lets you select a path to power up your cards and gear. What do you think? #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #retrofuture #tron #bladerunner #scifi #unity3d #roguelike #cardgame

0193

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

An early look at my game's exploration art. Going for a retro future style computer system similar to the Alien universe. As simple as this looks it took me way longer than expected to get all the shaders working correctly. #gamedev #madewithunity #indiegames #tron #scifi #shaders #unity3d

0235

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

I'm on 4.x and the quality of life improvements since then have been massive.

000

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Don't forget to upgrade to Blender 5 which has a bunch of new features and a ton of QOL improvements. www.blender.org/download/rel... #blender #3dModeling #gamedev

blender.org

5.0 — Blender

The Free and Open Source 3D Creation Software — blender.org

1102

Ash Blue @ashbluex.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

No direct download as it's in a larger project. Take a look at this youtu.be/FQFk2hR89XA?.... For the baked cubes they're mostly substance painter with uv edge face detection to draw a line. Then crank up bloom on post processing VFX

youtu.be

Unity URP Wireframe Shader

YouTube video by Firnox

110