iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

This is an *old pattern* from maybe 2022 or 2023 I was proud of it then but now I feel it's prescriptive and breaks the flow. Doesn't exercise the core gameplay. It's actively "unfun" to dodge thru. Gonna have to take my medicine and remove this. #shmups #stg #gamedev

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Reworked the 1up item drop visual. It's glowing and gold now... way more enticing. It now drop down instead of bouncing around the screen - creating more pressure to grab it. Also now grants a very small amount of iframes on collection #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Working on the 4b true boss. Also remove the "point containers" that drop medals from all bosses and have them drop from enemies that pop in. This forces the player to be at a certain point to get it. They also give 0.5 seconds of iframes now. #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame #arcade #retrogaming

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

4b boss - probably the easier variant... too few bullets for this late in the game but I like the patterns. Will need to figure out how to ratchet it up. #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame #retrogaming #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Wrapped up the 4b level revamp. The original design of the level was 3+ years old and a rough draft at that. I've improved in shmups and shmup design a lot since then. #stg #shmups #indiegame #gamedev #arcade #retrogaming

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Nearing the end of level 7/4b revamp. The hard line bullet patterns tend to restrict flow and limit design options. They can feel "unfun" to dodge. I've purged most from the design, but decided to keep this one. #shmups #stg #gamdev #retrogaming #arcade #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Remembered I needed to make an easy version variant so the the current one became the easy version and I made the regular version harder. also check out the highly illegal dodge at the 6 second mark 😆 #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame #bullethell #retrogames #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Slowly increasing the density and viciousness of level 4b. #shmups #stg #arcade #retro #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Takes hours making encounters dense... I've spent several on this ~15 second section. Still not in love with it yet. You have to make sure that it feels fun and the patterns are readable. Not just the individual patterns - but the ones that emerge from multiple enemies #shmups #stg #retro #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Made another update to the demo -some bug fixes but mostly work on level 2a. Found a lot of encounters felt "choppy". Check out the updated demo on #itchio #shmups #stg #gamedev #retro #arcade #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Just did a quick patch that fixed a number of bugs - including the broken caravan mode. Reminder Stellar fury demo contains a full caravan mode. This will be free forever. Encourage everyone to go try it out. #shmups #stg #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

New Year, new demo. Updated public demo of Stellar Fury is available on the #itchio page #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame #NewYear2026

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Can't believe it took me this long to figure it out. Massive bullet visibility boost by simply having the entire bullet (and glow) sit on black instead of transparent. Better contrast against the bg. #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Interesting feeling route. Gotta do this little dance on the edge of a knife. The midboss will timeout and if you don't get enough dmg you won't kill it otherwise. Easier to dodge going to the far edge but you won't dmg it there. #shmups #stg #gamedev #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Feel like this guys needs one or two more moves... but maybe not. idk. #shmups #stg

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

These might be patterns sufficiently scary for the level 4a secret boss. #shmup #stg #gamedev

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Added section indicators (both popup and in the side panel hud). Should make it easier if you want to jump over to practice a section (and actually know what section you want to practice). My time with Eschatos reminded me that I wanted to do this. #shmups #stg #gamedev

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Some people really like tea. There are tea houses they can go to to sample different flavors and varieties of tea. People have their own tools for preparing and consuming tea. Brewing tea has a particular process and everyone has their own techniques. #Shmups #stg

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Dying in a shmup is already punishment enough. I decided to add some mechanics to make it feel less bad. #stg #gamedev #indiegame #shmups

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Committing to at least 15hrs of scheduled game dev time a week - really what you gotta do when you have a kid. 2025 has got to be the year I finally finish this game #gamedev #stg #arcade #shmups #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Stoked to be living in a world where this needed to be clarified.

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 08/10/2024

At this point we should all remember the reason for the season. Optimus died so we could have great deals.

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

Blazing Star #shmup #arcade sighting at Gizmos Arcade and Eatery in Astoria OR

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 18/09/2024

Hey all - after the journey after my employer went under- I was able to find a new job and start beginning of Oct. Hoped I'd have more time for #shmup #gamedev but the amount of energy and time it takes to hunt for jobs left me empty. Gonna to get back at it now! #indiegame #stg

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 03/06/2024

Past few weeks I revamped the player sprite graphics. I wanted to make the sprites about 30% bigger (hit box remaining the same size) just to improve visibility. Took the time to clean it up and add some more details #shmup #stg #pixelart #gamedev

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 24/11/2023

Working on some graphics updates for a new style of enemies. These are a bit "made to order" for the specific enemy vs others I can massage in some existing bits. There are far less of this style though than the other (20 vs 90)

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 18/11/2023

Been working on some visual updates to some of the enemies in the game this week (more before/after pics in the comments). #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegame #shmup #stg #pixelart #retrogaming #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 15/11/2023

Updated design for the regular boss for level 1

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

Updated the Level 1 secret boss design to be more menacing - to match the updated attacks

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 09/11/2023

Updating the "secret bosses" to be tougher (more hp and with more/harder moves). Also putting them behind a level no-miss requirement instead of just rank. Trying to make them substantially different than the regular bosses. #shmup #stg #indiegame #gamedev #retrogaming #arcade

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 07/11/2023

Since I can't upload a video - gonna describe this. I was able to add a bullet pattern where it spawns a bunch of bullets at once but with incrementing speeds. Was able to add it without any code changes #shmups #stg #dohashtagswork? #indiegame

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 28/10/2023

Wrapping up on incorporating recent feedback -about to release an updated demo. Last change I added percentage indicators of health on larger enemies. This is helpful for scoring/chaning.

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fiGames / Stellar Fury @figames.bsky.social · 26/10/2023

Hello bluesky - see Jack Dorsey is keeping it old school with the gif only support - so enjoy that beautiful 15fps. Also, do hashtags work? #shmup #stg #indiegame

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