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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐

@gareththegeek.bsky.social
236 followers 424 following 105 posts

I'm making Loadstar, FTL meets Elite space-trader with 16bit retro vibes

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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Designing a mission editor using #csharp #lua and #godot Adding missions to my 2D spacetrader Loadstar #ftl #space #elite store.steampowered.com/news/app/394...
store.steampowered.com
Loadstar - Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 7 - Missions 🎯 - Steam News
Wow 129 days since alpha 6! A lot has been added to Loadstar in the past 4 months. I set out to implement the mission system for Loadstar and I've done it, but I wasn't prepared for the amount of work...
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The laws of physics be a harsh mistress #gamedev #spacesim #elitedangerous #solodev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Excited to be working on the mission editor for my indie game! Feels like a real milestone! #indiedev #spacesim #coding
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Just published the latest #devlog for Loadstar. In this update I added police, smuggling, stolen goods, pirate havens and more! #spacesim #pirates #openworld store.steampowered.com/news/app/394...
store.steampowered.com
Loadstar - Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 6 - Law & Order ⚖️ - Steam News
This update brings police, bounty hunters, smuggling and a conversation dialog system. It's another big update to Loadstar. Legal status All ships in the Loadstar universe now have a legal status with...
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Creating a #retro terminal in my 2D spacetrader Loadstar complete with 1980s Acornsoft inspired user manual #pixelart #8bit #computer
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Is something wrong officers? #spacesim #elite #police #pirates #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Trouble with relativity in my #spacesim Loadstar #relativity #moon #indiegame #retro
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
New gameplay trailer for Loadstar demonstrating #ftl style combat with crew management and #elitedangerous style #openworld exploration, piracy and trade #spacesim #strategy #indiegame youtu.be/etfbx_WGR9Y
youtu.be
Loadstar Gameplay Trailer
YouTube video by Gareththegeek Games
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Just posted my latest devlog for Loadstar introducing NPC traffic to my space trader store.steampowered.com/news/app/394... #devlog #spacesim #solodev #indiegames
store.steampowered.com
Loadstar - Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 5 - Traffic ⛗ - Steam News
This one is a biggie, I didn't realise how much I had done until I came to write this devlog. During the past couple of months I've focused on adding NPC traffic to the galaxy and improving the combat...
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Adding some juice to combat in my ftlike spacetrader Loadstar #pixel #lasers #strategy #spacesim #pewpew
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
A little hyperspace animation from my #space #trader Loadstar
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Designing the #pirate plunder dialog for my #spacetrader Loadstar #aseprite #pixelart #figma #design
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Thinking about making space stations so you can walk about in them in my 2D space trader -sort of like final fantasy or star dew valley vs just having menus like Elite 🤔 #spacesim #gamedesign #stardewvalley #finalfantasy #elite
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
My first performance stability test for Loadstar was...unsuccessful 😅 #gamedev #spacesim #godot
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Been a while since my last update. I'm still alive, just deep in the code! 40,000 lines of hand crafted code and counting. #deepInTheCode #gamedev #solodev #indiedev #code #coding
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Working on adding some npc traffic to make the solar systems feel more alive #spacesim #simulation #traffic #elite #ftl #solodev #indiedev #indiegame
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Just posted my latest Loadstar devlog all about generating a fake real milky way galaxy store.steampowered.com/news/app/394... #devlog #gamedev #proceduralgeneration #astronomy
store.steampowered.com
Loadstar - Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 4 - Hyperspace & the Galaxy - Steam News
Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 4 - Hyperspace & the Galaxy 🌌 As I approach the one year mark in development of Loadstar, I have completed alpha 4 which is focussed on hyperspace and the galaxy. This is a big...
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
After every major new feature there's the inevitable bug fixing grind #solodev #gamedev #CodingLife
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Working on a classic hyperspace effect for my game which combines #FTL combat with #Elite #openworld space exploration in 2D with a #retro 16bit vibe. What do you think?
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Adding grid lines to my galaxy map using a shader in #godot #spacesim #gamedev #elite
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
When you're so close to breaking 1k but then someone unwishlists </3 #solodev #gamedev #steam
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Randomly generating solar systems in Loadstar Using real stars from SIMBAD database and generating solar systems modelling planet mass, distance and temperature to determine planet type #space #stars #solar #spacesim #elite #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Solo game dev - one day you're creating pixel art using a 48 colour palette, the next day you're trying to relearn how logarithms work! #solodev #gamedev #maths
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Over 15,000 Real Stars in my Game's Galaxy Map I used an astronomical database to take a slice of the milkyway 200 parsecs across for my open world spacetrader Loadstar. Every dot is a star with a solar system which can be visited #space #astronomy #spacetrader #elite #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Old school motherboard pixel art Background art for Loadstar - Elite meets FTL #retro #pcgaming #90s #pixelart #spacesim
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Cables in their natural state Working on backgrounds for Loadstar, mashup of Elite and FTL #gamedev #solodev #indiegame #pixelart
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Drawing a mug of coffee to add some mundanity to my FTLike spacetrader Loadstar #coffee #pixel #pixelart #gamedev #solodev #coffeeislife
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Galaxy map in Loadstar #milkyway #galaxy #astronomy #gamedev #spacesim
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Figured out what was wrong with my previous galaxy map - fell for the old degrees vs. radians trap - really happy with the new one! Instantly familiar to me from my days playing #elite 2 and #EliteDangerous ! #astronomy #galaxy #map #mathfail
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Building a realistic 2d galaxy map from academic data is hard! Any space travellers who can tell me if this looks right? #galaxy #astronomy #space #map #python
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
3. Brown dwarfs are not quite big enough to be stars and there are loads of them floating about the galaxy not part of any solar system
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
2. There are 88 constellations and they all have three letter abbreviations #stars #astronomy
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Things I've learned this week while making a realistic galaxy map 1. SIMBAD is an awesome database of stars you can access free of charge and query using SQL #astronomy #database #sql #space
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Why does space have to be so big? Looks like I'm moving to double precision floating point! #space #maths #math #coding #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Just published a new #devlog for Loadstar In this version I added crew manipulation store.steampowered.com/news/app/394... #ftl #elite #crew #spacesim #gamedev #indiegames
store.steampowered.com
Loadstar - Loadstar Devlog - Alpha 3 - Crew - Steam News
Annoucing the official Loadstar Discord server - The focus for alpha 3 was crew Rooms Before I could add crew, I wanted the interior of the ship to be made up of individual rooms with doors rather tha...
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Here is the finished font
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Making a #pixel display font for Loadstar using #aseprite #font #pixelart #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Someone on reddit asked if I had an official #discord so now I do! discord.gg/bGPab7CXxp First person to join earns my gratitude* *my gratitude has no intrinsic value #spacesim #gamedev #indiegames #community
discord.gg
Join the gareththegeek games Discord Server!
Official Discord server for gareththegeek's games including Loadstar and Web or Dead | 2 members
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Just realised you can control the enemy's crew, whoops! Maybe it's a mind control feature? #bug #featurenotabug #gamedev #spacesim
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Adding a bit of #diversity to the crew available in Loadstar! Trying to get the most out of 13x13 pixels and 48 colours is an interesting challenge! Any suggestions? #indiegame #spacesim #pixelart #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Nothing ruins your day like trying to fix a performance issue. The #godot profiler tells me it's due to "Physics Time" 🤔 #debugging #coding #gamedev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Crew list hi-fi #wireframe process in #aseprite Step 1 of adding a new component to the Loadstar #UI to list all the player's crew, their health and allow the player to select them #ui #uidesign #gamedev #ftl #process
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
Just posted a new gameplay preview on my YT showing ship design with automatic layout of rooms and doors plus some combat with the new crew control and helm features! youtu.be/NRrC2t_G2hg #Gameplay #gaming #spacesim #spaceship #godot #ftl #elite #elitedangerous
youtu.be
Loadstar - Ship Design and Combat Preview
YouTube video by Gareththegeek Games
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Light goes on, light goes off Currently working on adding crew to my #FTLike #spacetrader Loadstar. Stress testing this little guy's reactions to me flipping the weapons power on and off. #indiedev #pixelart #solodev #gamedev #indiegames
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Might have got distracted while working on my FTLike #spacesim ! There's a long way still to go! #gamedev #spacetrader #animation #funny #godot
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
When things get serious you gotta break out the unit tests even in #gamedev ! Thanks gdUnit4 for having my back writing C# unit tests for my #godot game and interactively debugging in #vscode 💪 github.com/MikeSchulze/... #unittest #testing #indiedev #GodotEngine #solodev
github.com
GitHub - MikeSchulze/gdUnit4: Embedded unit testing framework for Godot 4 supporting GDScript and C#. Features test-driven development, embedded test inspector, extensive assertions, mocking, scene te...
Embedded unit testing framework for Godot 4 supporting GDScript and C#. Features test-driven development, embedded test inspector, extensive assertions, mocking, scene testing. - MikeSchulze/gdUnit4
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
10 games to get to know me I already regret the ones I didn't pick!
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
How #monday feels! Working on crew animations for my FTLlike space trader Loadstar #pixel #pixelart #animation #gamedev #indiedev #solodev
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Added the first crew member to my FTLlike spacetrader Loadstar. It's hard to draw a person with so few pixels and colours available, what do you think? #pixelart #retro #gamedev #ftl #spacetrader #elite #godot #GodotEngine
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gareththegeek 🚀 making Loadstar ⭐ @gareththegeek.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Creating a prototype using #godot 's TileMapLayer to let the player design the layout of their #ftl-like ship for my #spacetrader Loadstar! Link in my profile #gamedev #solodev #GodotEngine #pixelart #gamedesign #prototype
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