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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]

@ebornian.bsky.social
1K followers 63 following 4K posts

Indie dev, writer, and visual artist. ~ 🎮 thaumaturge-art.itch.io ~ 📺 www.youtube.com/channel/UCTcOFMvYj1…

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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 14h
Aha! Back on Vivaldi! :D All thanks to the power of "Not-Using-Snap-Installation"! :D
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Cinnamon--the tasty Digimon. :P
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A question (sort of two) for the artists in my follows! Are any of you planning a 2027 art calendar? Or know of another artist planning one? (I'm starting to think about what calendar I want!) PS: One that I already know about is @maxinevee.bsky.social's! Seriously, go check that one out! ^_^
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Reposted by Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]
Maxine Vee @maxinevee.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
2027 Calendar pre-orders are live! 🎉🗓️ maxinevee.com
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Reposted by Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]
LindenShieldARTs (she/they) @lindenshieldarts.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Violet Woods", gouache & coloured pencil 💜 Prints and stickers available: lindenshieldarts.com #TraditionalArt
A photo of a painting on purple paper, placed on a wooden desk and surrounded by paint tubs, paint brushes, coloured pencils, crystals, and leaves. The painting features a forest bathed in soft yellow light, carpets of purple flowers covering the ground. In the foreground, long-stemmed yellow flowers resembling buttercups grow out of the clusters of purple ones. The foreground is popping out of the frame on the paper.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Well, looks like I'm accessing the internet through Firefox again for a bit. :/ (Some sort of bug--currently thought to be a bug in Ubuntu--is causing Chromium-based browsers on my system to consistently fail to load pages. My main browers, Vivaldi, is Chromium-based. Firefox is, I gather, not.)
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Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever
A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities
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Reposted by Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]
Chris Perry @perridot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
OH!WARE, my first commercial release, IS OUT NOW! Your ancestors whisper guidance. The Gods all watch. They want you to check it out and give it a review 🙏♥️ store.steampowered.com/app/4121430/...
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Reposted by Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]
𝒦𝓊𝓇𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓁 🌙🍄 *⊹˚ ・゚✧ @kuridelblack.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
✧・゚:🌙🍄 September Fantasy Mail🍄🌙:・゚✧ #Snailmail #Fairycore #Faefolk
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Star @starlightskyes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm trying to design a hub screen for my game. My mind is blank, I can't think of any good examples 🤔 What's your favorite hub area in a game?
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Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed
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Úna-Minh's ✨ Open to Work ✨ @unaminh.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Oh hey artists, is this YOU? LMK 🌱
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Maxine Vee @maxinevee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
2027 Calendar pre-orders will go live on Oct 2nd at 12 PM EST in my shop: maxinevee.com 🎉 International shipping is available! #art
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My #9Games! Or an attempt, at least--I find that I struggle with lists of this sort!
A 3-by-3 grid of game-tiles. From top-to-bottom, left-to-right, they are:

Quest for Glory 3
World Class Leaderboard
ShadowCaster
Heretic
Ultima 7: The Black Gate
Pagan: Ultima 8
Deus Ex
Aquaria
Jill of the Jungle
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𝒦𝓊𝓇𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓁 🌙🍄 *⊹˚ ・゚✧ @kuridelblack.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Autumn Fairy 🍂🍁🍄 It's time to enjoy one of the best seasons of the year ☺️ This will be a mini Print for this Month Fantasy Mail~ #fairycore #whimsicalart #traditionalart
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Dave Gilbert @wadjeteyegames.com · 22/09/2026
Nighthawks is OUT! When the sun sets, outcasts rise. Gather new friends, face old prejudices, and prepare to seize the night in Nighthawks, the vampire RPG where the secret is out... but the hunt continues. Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/1221950/... GOG: www.gog.com/en/game/nigh...
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Richard Cobbett @richardcobbett.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Nighthawks! It's out! Please buy and like it! That is the best marketing slogan my tired brain can come up with right now! store.steampowered.com/app/1221950/...
store.steampowered.com
Save 10% on Nighthawks on Steam
The secret is out. Vampires have been exposed to the world… and you’re one of them. Seize the night as a modern monster, stepping out of the shadows to build a thriving nightclub empire through fear, ...
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PAUL CONWAY @doomcube.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
thevintageweb.com
thevintageweb.com
The Vintage Web
Websites aged like fine wine.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
@mostlyalright.com Greetings! Per a recent post from @debugmag.com, let me tell you about my work-in-progress game! ^_^ In short, 🌖"Moons in Crystal" is an isometric fantasy "space" metroidvania.🔮 (cont.)
A screenshot from the work-in-progress video-game "Moons in Crystal".

Specifically, it shows combat within the Plant Moon. A snapping-plant is extended to attack, while also flashing white in response to the player's blast hitting it. Nearby are the pods of more snapping-plants, and on the floor lurks a massive flytrap. The vegetative "walls" are lush with red leaves.A screenshot from the work-in-progress video-game "Moons in Crystal".

Specifically, it shows a view from within the Ossuary Moon.

Here all is made of bones--even the moon itself. Bone walls surround statues composed of bones, and the way is shut by a door of great long-bones and skulls.

A few fixtures of brass and crystal add variety, as well as lighting the exhibits in this specific area, which serves as an art-gallery.A screenshot from the work-in-progress video-game "Moons in Crystal".

Specifically, it shows a view within "space", with the player hovering near the edge of a solar-system and thus the surface of the great crystal sphere that bounds it. Between the player and that surface is the bright sun, and all around are colourful gemstone stars.A screenshot from the work-in-progress video-game "Moons in Crystal".

Specifically, it shows a view deep within the Plant Moon, with the player surrounded by thick, woody stems. They're looking towards a large, circular space, ringed all about with sharp thorn-branches...
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
A question: When you discover new music, how does it happen? What's the vector for it?
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SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This isn't a metaphor. Just a story about a roach. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/roach-2 PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
4-panel SMBC comic update. The first panel shows a cartoon little roach happily saying "oh man! The stupid human put food in here. fool!" The next panel shows the roach walking away from a poison trap as he says "I’m gonna give it to everyone!" The third panel shows a human at his computer with a similar expression to that of the cartoon roach. The man says "this stupid company made a controversial ad. How embarrassing for them!" The man then walks away from the computer desk, at an angle reminiscent to the panel where the roach walks away from the poison trap. The man says "better share with all my friends and family so everyone knows which ad not to look at."
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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
An ancient Egyptian crocodile that bites! 🐊 More than 3,000 years ago, someone carved this crocodile from wood and gave it a movable jaw. Perhaps a child’s toy, it offers a small glimpse into the playful side of ancient life. From Thebes, c. 1540-1075 BC Neues Museum Berlin 📷 me #Archaeology
My photo shows an ancient Egyptian wooden crocodile with a movable lower jaw, resting on a white museum display surface. The elongated crocodile is carved to show its rough textured body, with carved scales along its back, raised eyes, and a hinged mouth with the jaw extended open. Perhaps it was once a toy. From Thebes, Egypt. Dated to the New Kingdom, 1540-1075 BC.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
That age-old question of: "This feature will (I can reasonably assume) make the end-result better--but is it worth all the work incurred...?" #GameDev #IndieDev
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Diana Chan @thingsbydiana.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🏳️‍⚧️ Sharing one of my favorite trans creature designs~
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Faith @faithschaffer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Happy #swordtember⚔️
Ink drawing- a woman sits in a tree with a sword on her hip. She is eating an apple from the tree. There's a face in the tree!! Woah!
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Here's what I actually think these incidents reveal (instead of a rogue AI terminator situation): Much of the infra we expect to be hardened is actually being held together by glue and popsicle sticks.
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Dave Gilbert @wadjeteyegames.com · 13/09/2026
If anyone has contacts at Valve who can help expedite this, we certainly wouldn't say no to the help. In the meantime, I'll be here swimming in cortisol.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
That feeling when you're looking for an old video-game, and it seems to be vanishingly rare on the ground. :/ (It's not on Amazon, or on local sites. A "wanted" ad in a local trading forum has had no responses. eBay has one copy--and it's a French version.) I'm really not sure of where to look. :/
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Tara O’Connor @taraocomics.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Hey all, need your help! John’s been made redundant at the game studio he’s been working at for the last 4 years. He’s not on here but maybe y’all can help cheer him up by checking out some of his game jams. The latest one is ADEPTH! Shares appreciated! Spooky games ahead! 👻 guddies.itch.io/a-depth
guddies.itch.io
Adepth by Guddies
Escape a sinking submarine, fear what lurks in the deep.
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Des Walsh @deswalsh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I think the argument of dialling back super fine details that run the risk of becoming noisy is far feedback a lot of games can follow. Even just a little to help things be readable when it’s all on screen at once. When it’s all flying past the camera it can be a bit overwhelming and hard to read.
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Úna-Minh's ✨ Open to Work ✨ @unaminh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
@yarnspinner.dev have a super great stance on it! yarnspinner.dev/blog/why-we-...
yarnspinner.dev
Why We Don't Use AI | Yarn Spinner
We get asked about AI a lot. Whether we’re going to add it to Yarn Spinner, whether we use it ourselves, what we think about it. Fair questions. Time to write it all down. Yarn Spinner doesn’t use the...
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Reposted by Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮]
Natasha Joseph @tashjoeza.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Thanks to tiny Togo 🇹🇬 for leading this campaign on behalf of all the African states at the UN!
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"Lich"/"liche", as you may know, refers (in v. brief) to an undead sorcerer. What you may not know is that "liche" is not a fantasy/made-up word. It's a real--if archaic--word. It means "corpse", or "body". It still exists in "lichgate": the gate in a churchyard through which the coffin enters.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
An update on that side-project of mine! Aside from various changes and tweaks, I think that I have a draft of the game's node-layout complete! ^_^ You can see it here, if you're interested--with spoilery text blurred out, of course... ;) #GameDev #IndieDev #VisualNovel #Gamebook #VNDev
A screenshot from the editor for a work-in-progress video-game.

Specifically, it shows several pale-green rectangles against a grey background. In each of these is a cluster of small, lighter-green squares, each representing a node in a narrative. As such, these squares are joined by pale-blue lines--said lines usually remaining within the larger rectangles, but occasionally crossing between.

Much text is blurred out, to avoid spoilers; this can be seen at the tops of the rectangles, as well as in a list on the right-hand side.

On which note, the right-hand side of the image contains a tall list of grey buttons, with a "plus"-button atop the list. At the bottom-left are two buttons: one reads "save" while the other reads "load". At the bottom-right (just left of the tall list) is a third button, which reads "export".
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
An update on that side-project of mine! Aside from various changes and tweaks, I think that I have a draft of the game's node-layout complete! ^_^ You can see it here, if you're interested--with spoilery text blurred out, of course... ;) #GameDev #IndieDev #VisualNovel #Gamebook #VNDev
A screenshot from the editor for a work-in-progress video-game.

Specifically, it shows several pale-green rectangles against a grey background. In each of these is a cluster of small, lighter-green squares, each representing a node in a narrative. As such, these squares are joined by pale-blue lines--said lines usually remaining within the larger rectangles, but occasionally crossing between.

Much text is blurred out, to avoid spoilers; this can be seen at the tops of the rectangles, as well as in a list on the right-hand side.

On which note, the right-hand side of the image contains a tall list of grey buttons, with a "plus"-button atop the list. At the bottom-left are two buttons: one reads "save" while the other reads "load". At the bottom-right (just left of the tall list) is a third button, which reads "export".
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
You hear a keening on the wind, as of a voice, forlorn: "Heed me!" it seems to moan, "Make not my mistake! "Seek not to clean up your save-games afore the campaign you have completed! "This only the more should you be greatly tired that eve! "Heed me!" The voice fades, and is lost...
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Dead Man's Online @spadetheskeleton.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Heads up windows 11 users, microsoft now has this setting enabled by default. Be sure to disable it :]
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Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Hey friends, I have some fantastic news: you do not have to wait until utopia to celebrate small victories Not only is it OK to feel joy even if the world has not been fixed, it's really important to do so. You will burn yourself out and lose the ability to help us get to a better world
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It would seem that the levels of the Autumn Moon are rather "buggy". ;P And with so many legs, one might expect this enemy to be hard to de-feet! :P 🌖"Moons in Crystal" is an isometric fantasy "space" metroidvania.🔮 #MoonsInCrystal #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame #Metroidvania
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Two bits of polish in Moons in Crystal: 💫 An icon indicating the "stunned" state--for enemies and player! ✨ A marker to indicate which object is to be interacted with! 🌖"Moons in Crystal" is an isometric fantasy "space" metroidvania.🔮 #MoonsInCrystal #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame #Metroidvania
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Two bits of polish in Moons in Crystal: 💫 An icon indicating the "stunned" state--for enemies and player! ✨ A marker to indicate which object is to be interacted with! 🌖"Moons in Crystal" is an isometric fantasy "space" metroidvania.🔮 #MoonsInCrystal #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame #Metroidvania
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It would seem that the levels of the Autumn Moon are rather "buggy". ;P And with so many legs, one might expect this enemy to be hard to de-feet! :P 🌖"Moons in Crystal" is an isometric fantasy "space" metroidvania.🔮 #MoonsInCrystal #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame #Metroidvania
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I do like it when a bug turns out to be quick and easy to fix. ^_^ e.g. Just a minor change to a single line. ^_^ #GameDev #IndieDev
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Nathalie Lawhead @alienmelon.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
indie gamedev tip: keep a secret collection of all the nice things people have said about your work on social media or elsewhere. when you’re down you can scroll through it and feel instantly encouraged!
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
A Sunday musing: How integral are corpse-runs to the Soulslike genre...? Imagine there were a game that like Dark Souls in near every respect: Same combat, approach to lore, level design and shortcuts, bosses; etc. Save that they omitted death-drops and thus corpse-runs. Would that be a Soulslike?
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Kim Hu @kim-hu.com · 22/08/2026
post by Zeekerss @ZeekerssRBLX on X on 1/10/26

Concept art is the most poisonous place to use Al. That's when your creative vision is the most fragile and undeveloped. When you see what the Al made and say, "That looks cool, I want my game to look like that!" it's like it's secretly swapping out your baby with its own.
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
In the Renaissance people theorized, since the Aeneid is great, if you wrote poems made only of words & phrases from the Aeneid rearranged they should be great too, since a great source regurgitated should yield greatness. They produced NOTHING we still read. Thinking about that a lot lately.
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Physicist: The cup is half full of fluid in liquid state, half full of fluid in gaseous state. The cup is, in fact, full of fluid. Also: The glass is one of those round-bottomed ones, so that we can approximate it as a sphere. :P
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Ian Eborn ~ [Making "Moons in Crystal" 🌖🔮] @ebornian.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
That feeling when you've recorded a bunch of sounds for gamedev, step away for a bit, come back, listen to one of your recordings--and find yourself trying to figure out just >what< those sounds were supposed to be for... ^^; #GameDev #IndieDev
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