iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 3h

To get this scene started, I found a photo of a German village online. It's just to kick things off, the game's buildings will look totally different when done. This helps make the scene feel more "real", it's easy to fall into the trap of just plopping in a flat row of boring buildings.

A photo of a German city I found online. Here is it scaled down to the GBA's 240x160 resolution.

010

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 3h

I decided to switch over to graphics for the starting work on the fight scene. I'm planning to have them take place on scenes that kinda look like a 2D fighting game. How realistic is this decision? Maybe too ambitious. One way I'll judge that is how long it takes for me to draw this village.

A very early/rough mock up of what a fight might look like. It shows a roughed in city/village in the background that is just white boxes, and a roughed in character standing in the foreground. The UI for the fight is similar to fighting games, with a small portrait, the character's name, and health bars.

130

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 29/09/2026

Now that I have a functional menu system, it's time to start tackling a basic 1-on-1 fight system. My goal is to have a basic, but complete, battle/fight system in place for the Detroit Retro Gaming Show on November 7th. A lofty goal, but I think it's doable.

A screenshot showing the (for now) complete action menu. It has entries for "Move", "Attack" and "End Turn". Move and Attack both cost 1 action point, so they have a '1' icon next to them.

140

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 29/09/2026

Total coincidence, but it does happen sometimes :) (turn the sound on if you're confused)

050

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 27/09/2026

Finally getting somewhere with the ui on the GBA. This is gnarly stuff, and game devs of the past did things like this in their sleep. "Attack" wraps incorrectly, so there's the first of many bugs...

A screenshot showing an action menu being displayed on top of the battle field. Since it's so early, the "field" is just a simple grid, and there's just two basic characters (the player's hero and one enemy).

The menu has "Move", "Attack" and "Done" options.

171

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 25/09/2026

These little bundles of dynamite we're currently fostering are slowing my game dev progress a bit. A worthy, but often exhausting, distraction.

Two small kittens playing on a circular ball track. The cream colored one is Frankie, and the black one is Bruce.

091

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 23/09/2026

I chopped the menu into 8x8 tiles in a way it's not too dense and not too sparse. With these tiles I can grow the menu in both directions as needed.

A screenshot of a menu in Eridin. On the left is a typical "battle action" menu with Move, Attack, Item and Done menu entries. Then to the right the menu is broken down into 8x8 tiles.

050

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 22/09/2026

For fonts, I generate an image like this, which is how the ImpactJS engine did fonts (anyone? ImpactJS?) From there I built a script that can convert this into tile data. Once it is tile data, it can be drawn to the screen using the same technique as in this blog post: mattgreer.dev/blog/gba-dev...

A screenshot of a font png image. It shows the alphabet in both uppercase and lowercase letters. There are black lines below each letter to help show how wide a letter is when processing this image.

020

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 22/09/2026

It's also helpful to see how other games do it. Here in Fire Emblem, "Attack" is drawn onto a background layer, and "Now, strike!" is made out of two sprites.

A screenshot of Fire Emblem for the GBA. It shows the tutorial, with a menu that has a single item in it, "Attack", and a text box that says "Now, strike!".

A screenshot of mGBA's sprite and background viewers, showing the text from Fire Emblem can either be sprites or a background layer.

130

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 22/09/2026

I used Pixel Pup's code as the basis for Eridin. Pixel Pup had simple needs for the most part, so I need to make a lot of improvements. Here I've added support for 2 color fonts and kerning. But text is limited to being drawn onto a 64px wide sprite, which won't cut it, so I need to address that.

A test screenshot from the Game Boy Advance showing the text "Eridin is fun" rendered at three different kerning levels. The second and third example get cut off due to the 64 pixel limitation.

160

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 22/09/2026

Time to start building a menu system. This game will have many and the entries in the menu will change depending on what is going on, so this needs to be quite flexible.

A mock upped menu. It shows a floating gloved hand with a pointing finger acting as the cursor on the left. The menu entries are: Move, Attack, Item and Done. Move, Attack and Item each have a "1" to their right.

160

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 21/09/2026

I'm changing this account to be my dev log in general: coding, pixel art, illustration/drawing, music, the whole shebang. My goal is to post to this account regularly as I work on things. Posts will be raw and show early work. Like this video, where I just got a very basic walk animation in place.

080

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 10/09/2026

Working on some pixel art for my next game. Very much a WIP, there will be 4+ other characters, text, animation, etc.

Pixel art with a fantasy style map in the background with an anthropomorphic rabbit holding a sword in the foreground.

010

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 23/11/2025

I have let my drawing slip! But I did draw this for my wife’s birthday :)

Linda and Bob from Bob’s Burgers entering a house. Linda says “sorry we’re late, Sarah! Bob had diarrhea! But happy birthday!”

020

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 16/10/2025

Bees are really furry! One thing I'm going to try to do with some photo editing magic is make the wings truly translucent.

The E-Reader puzzle pack card for Entomology. It shows a color pencil illustration of a honey bee, on top of an orange geometric background.

040

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 15/10/2025

Mostly happy with this one. But I dunno, it's missing something. I'm sure I'll revisit it.

An E-Reader card for The Nineties puzzle pack. It shows an illustration of a portable game console very similar to a game boy but not actually a game boy. It has a green geometric background.

130

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 11/10/2025

I'm considering maintaining the geometric language throughout the first release. It makes it more cohesive, and, well, I don't have to try and come up with another design :) This is just a rough draft, the bees would be a detailed drawing similar to the dog in the main card.

040

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 08/10/2025

I already posted this on my main account but here's my required drawing for the day :) This one has some minor fixes and is pretty close to what I think will be the final version. Onto drawing lots of bugs next!

021

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 07/10/2025

Actually the real Franny was blind. Something that was too hard to convey in pixel art. But for this I think I’ll do her right

A pencil sketch of Franny with her small, blind eyes instead of full ones.

030

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 07/10/2025

I think I’m narrowing in on what the main PixelPup card will look like. Creating a non pixel Franny has been challenging but I think I’m closing in on her look.

A sketch of the main PixelPup e-reader card. It’s almost entirely just simple pencil lines but with a more detailed ink drawing of Franny the dog smiling. She is wearing a collar that has an “RDC” pendant on it.

120

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 05/10/2025

Not too happy with this one. But hey, that’s why I’m doing this.

030

RetroDotCards.com dev log (alt account) @devlog.retrodotcards.com · 04/10/2025

Drawing for October 4th, my first one! I will try to post a new drawing every day. I am using this account to motivate me to practice and get better. My main account is @retrodotcards.com , I make games for the Nintendo E-Reader. Stop on by!

Three sketches of Franny the dog. The left is her head with a collar on. The collar has a medallion that says "RDC" on it (retro dot cards). The upper right is a line ink drawing of her entire body, and the lower right is a drawing of her holding up a sign that says "pixel pup".

0102