iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 12h

Same here. It boils down to having control for me. LLM-based tools take that away and turn me into a QA tester.

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 13h

Good tips. A good name can even help with motivation in small ways too. A small but non-zero percentage of the reason I started making Starmadillo was *because* of the name.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 14h

In the game...that is. I don't care about means outside of playing the game.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 14h

In the true spirit of a metroidvania, I didn't put any logic to prevent accessing areas that the demo doesn't expect for. That, and laziness. But mostly I kinda just wanna see if anybody can break shit.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 14h

Oh, and yes I left this unfinished area in. I wanted to show it...but I'm also too excited to release the demo and didn't want to model the whole thing first. I'm curious if anybody can find a way to exploit into the ice area, as well. The demo ends before you're able to get the ability to do so.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 18h

And just like that, a new ability mechanic! This area is actually pretty close to the start, but I haven't even started modeling the area you'll get the ability to use it. It makes me happy to be able to tease stuff like this so early in the game. #gamedev #indiedev s.team/a/5268030

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 22h

I hope SI = Sloppy Intelligence catches on

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 22h

"Restriction breeds creativity" once again applying to basically everything. Coding with LLMs encourages bloat, since everything is just a whim and a prompt away.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 30/09/2026

Alternative mechanic. It's nice because it removes the slightly janky controls and just makes it "hold the magnet button to stay attached". Could use this for some fun puzzles where you have to drop off at a certain spot.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 30/09/2026

I don't worry too much about it. Fun game mechanics are fun game mechanics. Nintendo had a head start!

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 29/09/2026

I also needed a controlled vertical movement ability. The horizontal one already massively opens up opportunities to cheese obstacles.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 29/09/2026

Part of me doesn't want to copy *every* ability from Metroid, but it's also just objectively cool to be able to roll up walls. Controls a little janky, but nothing I can't smooth out with good path placement. All I have to do to make these is plop a curve down! #godot #gamedev #indiedev

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 29/09/2026

I'll take a stab at it: As an astronaut lost in an unknown asteroid belt, hop between planets in this physics-based platformer. Along the way, explore foreign worlds, survive the vast loneliness of space, and repair your ship to return home.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 29/09/2026

It's amazing what a little gradient and contrast can do.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 28/09/2026

You know a project is serious when you finally get around to customizing the #godot splash screen

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 28/09/2026

Looks more intimidating with a proper arena.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 28/09/2026

WIP new boss fight 👀 Right now it just spins and shoots lasers...but considering all the weird vector and positional / rotation stuff I had to figure out, I'm pretty happy with the result so far! #godot #gamedev #Indiedev

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 28/09/2026

I appreciate Steam Next Fest acting as a project timeline pacer (talking about next February). It gives me a deadline to shoot for, but if I miss it...it's okay since there are three every year. If everything pans out right, I'll have a finished game releasing after it next spring!

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 27/09/2026

I'm probably gonna redo this anyway though. But visually I like how it looks. Right now the icons are specifically tied to "exits", but that makes the code pretty ugly. I think in the future I'm going to make a POI (point-of-interest) node that I can just easily place where I want.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 27/09/2026

Taking a break from world / level design to do some systems stuff. This time, map icons! Previously they were just labels, but this makes things more readable at a glance and, in other areas, can easily tell you when a door requires a different method to open. #gamedev #indiedev

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Reposted by Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐

sodaraptor ➤ wishlist Hypnagogia 壊れた夢 @sodaraptor.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Have some more early screenshots of the new upcoming Steam launch for the original Hypnagogia Demo out next month💎🗓️

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Reposted by Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

I've been busy modeling this icy cavern area recently. Getting to the point where I think it's time to work on another boss fight though. The next upgrade in the sequence I have planned really opens up a lot of possibilities. #gamedev #Indiedev #godot store.steampowered.com/app/5268030/...

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

The trail was just something I thought would look nice, but in general I'm not trying to hide the Metroid inspirations. And yeah, other environmental hazards (like heat) are planned.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Yeah the morph ball (might as well just call it that) is one of the earlier upgrades. It's actually been hard to find ways to force platforming challenges using it, since you can freely switch at any time. Having underwater platforming sections is one of the ways I do so.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Yeah the time spent on assets is WAY less. I'm very much a fan of Nintendo's philosophy in that regard, which is that the fun is what matters, not necessarily the fidelity of the visuals. Always good to try new things. I might try to do some interior levels soon to switch things up too.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Exactly why I like low poly and retro stuff. It's more manageable and also has an inherent charm. It's like seeing the brush strokes of a painting.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Yeah I think I understand what you mean by that. It's all about breaking things down into smaller shapes, rather than trying to understand the whole thing at once.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

What I mean by that is just a single, small plane. Like one that's only 3-4x the size of my player character. Then I extrude off that and build the ground first and walls a little later. It devolves into madness shortly after that.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

As to where I start...usually it's browsing pinterest. After that, it's just a flat plane in Blender that I extrude from. One thing that's always a given though: I make things as DENSE as possible. It increases the frequency of actions the player can take, which is what makes a game feel fun.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

It actually is one big monolithic one...mostly. I've learned to occasionally make a new one when I need to add platforms to jump on or something. Like in this one, those two pillars are separate objects. That way, I don't have to join things up where they intersect the terrain.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

No worries, just trying to understand. It's funny, because I find interiors more difficult since everything needs to be exact. With landscapes, a misplaced vert is just...a bump in the terrain.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Depends what you mean by "natural" terrain. This isn't natural IMO. I take a lot of inspiration from retro 3D games. One thing you could do is take a look at noclip.website and just fly around your favorite game in there. A lot of my learning just comes from trying to replicate the retro aesthetic.

noclip.website

noclip

A digital museum of video game levels

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 26/09/2026

Some #blender screenshots from the game I'm workin' on. I love being able to make worlds from polygons. #lowpoly #gamedev #indiedev

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 25/09/2026

*gets followed by another gamedev-related account* Oh, it's AI. BLOCK

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 25/09/2026

You know the Tetris effect? I get that for 3D modeling, extruding and pulling on vertices in my head. I also get it for programming and debugging sometimes, but I have to tell my brain "You can't execute code in your head, it doesn't work that way" #gamedev

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 25/09/2026

I feel this with a project in my job. Product manager built the whole thing with a Claude-based workflow. It's very convoluted. Keep wishing he'd have said to me, "We need to make a new thing. Have at it!" when he started building it. Literally a job I could have done. Instead it's a bloated mess.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 23/09/2026

I like to try to add interactivity whenever I'm struggling with level design, and usually that yields fruitful results. Case and point...icicles you can shoot to fall down! I also made a variety that explode and are just there purely for fun. #godot #gamedev #indiedev

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 24/09/2026

Minecraft - I mean...yeah. I got really into minecraft around the time the nether was added. I eventually learned digital logic from the game / redstone, and it arguably semi-affected my choice of degree in college (electrical engineering).

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 24/09/2026

Wind Waker - My first real Zelda experience. I played OoT but I was very young and it didn't stick with me initially. But Wind Waker did, and so did Twilight Princess shortly after (which I played on Wii). I recall putting the Gamecube into a tree house at some point and playing WW on it.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 24/09/2026

Runescape - Played it in middle school for a couple years, I think. Had a membership. It was my first real online gaming experience. I learned from that game that putting "k" after an amount meant "a thousand of that number". And also that tin and copper makes bronze. And what willow trees are.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 24/09/2026

TTYD - Another huge nostalgia pick. I don't think I've ever shared this before, like ever, but I wrote fanfic at some point for the Paper Mario universe. So that should say a lot for how much it means to me, I'd think.

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Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ @doodle.arcticpolygon.com · 24/09/2026

Melee - Another huge party game, arguably played it more than double dash. It basically became the de facto thing to do when hanging out with friends in high school (and later, Brawl)

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