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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 9h

Ok, first small video of Shin Sophstar in a while. This is all work in progress. Does this look too hard?

Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Didn't give a LOT of thought, but yeah, now I'm in the trend. There was no Castle Excellent there, so I picked The Castle, and also no Another World so.. Out Of This World. Not my fav games, but I guess the ones that impacted me the most.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Damn, right now Shin Sophstar has 60 enemy types not counting bosses / midbosses Funny how we are making shorter levels but with more enemy types.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The "You control the buttons you press" discourse should be "This game gives you a bunch of resources and you can choose which ones you use or not, giving you different experiences". Which I'm really ok with. Not "drop the control and the game plays itself". This is horrible.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Shin Sophstar has a replay system. I am right now coding a system where if for some reason uploading a score to the online leaderboard fails, you can do it through the replay saved. The game will save the best 10 scoring replays, but you can lock replays to not be overwritten.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I'm thinking about add 1 point to the score everytime you use a continue in Shin Sophstar, so the score reflects you used one continue. 2nd place here obviously used a continue but there's nothing reflecting that.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

More boring screens from Shin Sophstar. I should start posting gifs.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Not the most exciting screenshot ever, but we also need to work on boring things sometimes.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I offered keys from our games to people who said "No, I want to support you guys and buy the game." I've been offered keys from devs where I said the same and they replied "The fuck you will buy it, TAKE THIS KEY RIGHT NOW". I never know what to do, hehe

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

When we made Sophstar, the idea was to have a super easy mode which anyone could beat, and one so ridiculous hard no one would even try. Stupid idea to call the first one "child" (I believe Steam wouldn't even accept this anymore), and stupid idea to think no one would try it.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I wish we could have just a "SPANISH" and "PORTUGUESE" option when updating a game page on Steam, instead of having to updating "Spanish - Latin America"/"Spanish - Spain" and "Portuguese-Brazil"/"Portuguese-Portugal" if you are writing the exact same thing on both,

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It may be silly, but I usually try to avoid the word "kill" regarding videogames if you are not explicitly killing creatures. So in a shmup you "destroy enemies", you don't "kill enemies". I think this started at some point when I wanted to convince people videogames aren't about mindless violence

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

How do we get more followers here? Any tips or suggestions?

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In Sophstar, we had two speed buttons: one very slow, one at half speed. The idea was that players should use one and ignore the other, but people found it confusing. So in Shin Sophstar, there’s just one now. (Right now coding input systems for the replay system, heh)

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

We are telling Soph's story properly on Shin Sophstar. I know it's a shmup and no one cares about the plot. But still, hope people enjoy it :)

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

With Yellow Nina on Shin Sophstar, when you teleport and leave the ghost drone behind, both the main ship and the ghost shoots - And both can collect medals; (Maybe I should start making some gifs)

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

With the Rigby ships on Shin Sophstar, you can now use the super beetles a lot more often (If you hold button to use them as shield your special bar will deplete very quickly) They can also pick medals for you :D

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

I have a theory (maybe wrong?) In a shmup you're moving a hitbox. The avatar around it is just to tell you where the hitbox is. That's why, in principle, the only thing that should alter the hitbox position is player input, and animations shouldn't change this position.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

If you optimize scoring in the 1st stage of Shin Sophstar, you will spawn more enemies, which may lead to better score, which can spawn even more enemies. It may get really hectic if you play it properly, and I am wondering if I should tune it down a bit. Random options screen:

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Tracking a new found bug in Sophstar. Strange now to play a game with Reyka, Nina, Katha etc and choosing only 1 ship at the start, heh

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Testing Shin Sophstar with the MSX 1 filter. I really like those colors. Of course the game gfx weren't optmized to make proper use of this palette, but it could make some gorgeous gfx when well used. Maybe I could try to polish the filter to make better use of the game gfx.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Working on Shin Sophstar cutscenes. Gonna change the title to Metal Shin Sophstar Solid.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I really think Shin Sophstar is shaping up to be a very, very good game. There are right now 30 playable ship types. And yes, they are very different between each other, with very specific strategies for each type. We keep refining each type so they are fun to play with.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I can deeply dislike a game you like and it doesn't mean I hate you or I think you are stupid or something.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What kind of new you want about Shin Sophstar? We are planning to add a "tips section" on the options for each stage. As you play each stage, it will unlock tips on how to score better and get secret bonuses on each stage.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

If you care about physical media, just stop buying anything from Sony right now. Cancel their subscription. The only thing they will hear are your wallets.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

This is an interview with our Director, it's about Psyvariar 3 but also about shmups, our future, etc. It was pretty nice to be interviewed by them :) It's in Spanish, but I think anyone can read it with a translator these days. bitmag.es/pixelos/post...

bitmag.es

Entrevista a Banana Bytes sobre Psyvariar 3 — PIXEL

Rafael Lima de Souza, director de Psyvariar 3 y cabeza de Banana Bytes, nos habla del sistema Buzz, de heredar una saga de culto, de la accesibilidad del género y del futuro del estudio.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I really wish more "old school gamedevs" could understand there's more score systems than "Speed runs"

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Last week my main SSD just died out of nowhere. Where the Shin Sophstar project was. Thank god for GitHub :) Still lost a couple of days of work because I'm dumb and hadn't updated the repository, but it was quick to redo it.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Finished coding the background routines for stage 1 of Shin Sophstar..... ..... just before the Brazil x Scotland game starts. Yay! By the way remember to wishlist the game on Steam if you haven't yet :) store.steampowered.com/app/2477360/...

store.steampowered.com

Shin Sophstar on Steam

Shin Sophstar is a high-voltage remix built for speed and scoring. With 25+ ship variants, mid-run ship switching, and an aggressive, deeply layered scoring system, it delivers a faster, sharper arcad...

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Everytime I see a picture like that, I think "This is just for show, right?" Because, damn it. I have a piece of furniture similar to that and there are always cables and controllers all over the place.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

There's a ship on Shin Sophstar that's obliterating midbosses if you stay on top of them. It's a bug... ..or... maybe... it becomes a feature? Hehe.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Of course we added a new issue with the latest update of Sophstar. Already pushed a new update fixing the last one :)

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Of course we added a new issue with the latest update of Sophstar. Already pushed a new update fixing the last one :)

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Sophstar has just received its first major update in nearly 3 years! Version 1.12 adds a revamped Training Mode, enemy bullet outlines, player shot transparency options, background dimming settings, bug fixes, and more. #Sophstar #shmup

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Back in 2018 our programmer (me) and @Emppixel made a game called "Santa Chaos" for the Amiga. We made this in like.. 2 or 3 days, as a xmas gift for the Amiga community. It was just Atari 2600 Kaboom with a Xmas theme.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I was very lucky to have experienced, during my young days, gaming on arcades, home computers (MSX and Amiga) and consoles. This really gave me a lot of insight on the differences between USA, Japan and Europe regarding game design.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

We got Devil Blade Reboot during the sale. The bomb/shield mechanic made this a very easy and short 1cc. Not a big fan of dodging lines of future positions of bullets/enemies. But overall, amazing presentation, the berzerk/bomb system is very interesting and there's a LOT of fun to be had here.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

We are planning an update for Sophstar on the next weeks.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Man, I love the World Cup so much :D There is a lot wrong with the institutions and all but the event itself, the passion, the matches, the atmosphere, it's all so awesome.

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Banana Bytes @bananabytes.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

This last weekend I played The Guardian Legend for the first time. Being such a big "Hidden Gem" on the NES library, I expected a game a little better. It's not bad, but it's never as good as Golvellius or Zanac, the other Compile games it obviously try to be simultaneously.

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Reposted by Banana Bytes

Will Freeman @spadgy.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Finally, here's my review of Psyvariar 3, for The Wand Report. I've adored the Psyvariar series since 2003. I'd have been happy with it's return being decent. Thanks to @bananabytes.bsky.social clear love for the game, we get much more than 'decent'! report.wand.com/reviews/psyv... #shmups #smhup

report.wand.com

Psyvariar 3 Review: A brush with brilliance - The Wand Report

Charge bullets, avoid shooting, and chain invincibility? An arcade great that does things differently is back.

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Reposted by Banana Bytes

The Average Rook @theaveragerook.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

New First Impressions vid up, trying out the vertical SHMUP #Psyvariar3 by SUCCESS, @bananabytes.bsky.social & @redartgames.bsky.social! No clip today, unfortunately. 🙏 NOTE: This game is a review key gifted via @pressengine.net. #PressEngine #Gaming #ANZCreators youtu.be/f3K2ktrg1gY

youtu.be

THEM DEATH BEAMS BE BUZZIN'!!! | Psyvariar 3 - First Impressions

YouTube video by The Average Rook

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Reposted by Banana Bytes

Vinicius Tarouco @viniciustarouco.com.br · 01/06/2026

A @bananabytes.bsky.social já havia trazido o incrível shmup SophStar para Nintendo Switch. Agora é a vez de Psyvariar 3, jogo de "navinha" cheio de modos e com um sistema bem único. Confira a análise no @universonintendo.com universonintendo.com/analise-psyv... Curta, comente e compartilhe ;)

universonintendo.com

Análise -Psyvariar 3

Mais um jogo de "navinha" chega ao Nintendo Switch pela indie BR Banana Bytes: Psyvariar 3. Confira a análise.

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