Sign in

Gleb Volkov

@glebv.bsky.social
35 followers 73 following 44 posts

Making games with less than I probably should 🙃 💾 Byte-sized games, tiny screens, odd game jams & other bad ideas. Sharing tricks and weird discoveries along the way. Find me elsewhere → linktr.ee/volkov_ayyy

PostsRepliesMedia
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 6h
In SUPAPONG, every move costs time. You can stop and think as long as you want - but every move pushes the ball forward. PONG meets SUPERHOT in 843 compressed bytes. Play here: glebv.itch.io/supapong or find SUPAPONG in Splore. #Pico1k #PICO8 #GameDev #IndieDev #IndieGame
1155
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Original Atari PONG had no random serve. After a point, the ball vanished for ~1.7s, but its vertical counter kept running. When play resumed, the ball reappeared at whatever height the counter had reached. What looked random was just electronics. Here’s how it could look in SUPAPONG for #pico1k.
110
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
@cabel.panic.com once said: “There’s something special about loading a thing on a thing and then playing it ON THAT THING.” Now I totally get it 😄 Thanks to #pico8 being able to run on a real handheld, my tiny game now does too. Play SUPAPONG in Splore → search “SUPAPONG”
000
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
What happens if you put Tempest on the beat, add a unicorn and rainbows, then squeeze it all into 13KB? UNxR. Ta-da! 🦄🌈 #ScreenshotSaturday #js13k
141
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
After removing `with(Math)`, I profiled the 1KB ray tracer to understand the 4–7× speedup. Surprise: D and Q barely changed. Most of the win came from the hot intersection loop, where free-name lookups checked Math first. That pointed straight at the next bottlenecks. #JavaScript #performance
100
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My 1KB JavaScript ray tracer got a lot of feedback for being painfully slow 😅 One anonymous reviewer pointed at `with(Math)` as a likely culprit, so I benchmarked it. Removing it made the same render 4.26× faster in Chrome and 6.96× faster in Firefox. Cost: +1 packed byte. #codegolf #JavaScript
102
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
SUPAPONG!
static.klipy.com
Leonardo DiCaprio Points: 'Yes, That's It!'
ALT: Leonardo DiCaprio Points: 'Yes, That's It!'
010
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Since 2021, #js13k has grown into five games, each within 13 KB: Space Arcade, Enchanted Dungeon, XIII Floor, Catapoolt and UNxR. Along the way: Miniracers, a 64×64 px PICO-8 racer for #LOWREZJAM. Latest: SUPAPONG - PONG × SUPERHOT in less than 1 KB for #pico1k. So far ↓
031
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
My new game, SUPAPONG 🏓 PONG meets SUPERHOT - time moves only when you move. 843 compressed bytes, made for the PICO-1K Jam 2026 ✨ Play now: glebv.itch.io/supapong #pico8 #pico1k #sizecoding #gamedev #indiedev #indiegames
14314
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Here’s a 64×64 PICO-8 demake of the UNxR logo reveal animation from my #js13k 2026 entry. Source code: just 292 chars 👇 www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=159... Play UNxR & vote for it: js13kgames.com/2026/games/u... #pico8 #postcart #gamedev #pixelart #demake #indiedev
0174
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Meet UNxR 🦄🌈 - my @js13kGames 2026 “Unicorns & Rainbows” entry. 13KB. 99 levels. 16 arenas. 5 enemy types, each with unique behavior - Tempest × rhythm game crossover. Miss the beat, lose your turn! Play & vote 👇 js13kgames.com/2026/games/u... #js13k #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame
182
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Spotted Cathy de Monchaux’s famous Unicorn at Palais de Tokyo in Paris 🦄 Meanwhile, I was there making my game UNxR for the #js13k contest with a very similar theme: “Unicorns and Rainbows.” 🌈 js13kgames.com/2026/games/u... Check it out!
011
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Here is my entry for this year's #js1024fun A JavaScript port of the famous Business Card Raytracer that fits in just 1016 bytes js1024.fun/demos/2026/9... Please be patient - the rendering takes a while 🙃
100
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
It's kind of mesmerizing to see sand (and water!) falling in space #SpaceArcadeRemastered #gamedev
051
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Put two screenshots side by side - only changed pixel size normalization + mapped colors to the NTSC palette, and it just clicks. Way more cohesive and readable. Go go Atari 2600 vibes 🚀 Next step: real terraforming via simulation! #SpaceArcadeRemastered #Atari2600 #gamedev
041
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Remastering my first #js13k entry from 2021 - SPACE ARCADE 👾 Just noticed that converting from Cartesian to polar coordinates creates noticeable horizontal stretching of shapes toward the screen edges - giving off strong Atari 2600 vibes, where pixels weren't square:
061
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Sorry, I couldn't resist 🫡
Glory to Arstotzka!
010
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Experiments with a plotter ahead of Christmas - testing forms, density, and rhythm, one tree at a time 🎄 #GenerativeArt #PlotterArt #CreativeCoding
030
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
The main takeaway from #js13k 2025: don't sink time into big, complex, self-contained concepts you don't have resources to finish properly. Start small but complete - then polish it as far as you can. Next year's goal: get the game to playtests and tune the gameplay from there 🚀
161
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
I ranked 14th overall and an insane 4th in the Mobile category at #js13k 2025 with my game Catapoolt 🎯 👉 js13kgames.com/2025/games/c... Not bad for a game made in just 2 days 😅 Huge thanks to everyone who helped, supported, and made this year’s compo so tough and awesome!
js13kgames.com
Catapoolt
A game in the js13kGames 2025 competition. Play it now, for free!
031
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
All sounds & music in my #js13k entry Catapoolt were made in #pico8 🎶 Playing them on Web (desktop + mobile) was made possible thanks to the awesome 'pico8-music' library by Cody Ebberson - took a few tweaks, but totally worth it 🙌 Huge thanks for helping my game sound! 🔊
141
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
In my #js13k game Catapoolt, the “hard-to-catch” mice are actually Autonomous Agents 🐭✨ They roam the game field using wander behavior and evade the cat with flee behavior - straight from the fantastic #theNatureOfCode book by @shiffman.lol
031
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
The main source of inspiration for the Catapoolt game 🫠
000
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Surprisingly fast decisions under #js13k limits: needed cat tail aligned to body. Instead of proper math - pushing tail's anchor along normal between two adjacent soft-body points towards center (super unstable), I just increased body outline thickness. Hacky, but perfect! 😶‍🌫️ #gamedev #indiedev
1135
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Here’s how the cat, the main character of the Catapoolt game for the #js13k contest, was made 👀 Big shoutout to Argonautcode, whose awesome tutorial youtu.be/GXh0Vxg7AnQ goes into detail on how to build a soft-body physics simulation #gamedev
1103
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Here is my entry for #js13k 2025 competition - it's called Catapoolt 🙀💩 After changing the concept twice, it ended up being made in just 2 days! Play it here js13kgames.com/2025/games/c... Beautiful cover art by @tangreee to catch the eye:
021
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
🐈‍⬛
000
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Making a flight over the voxel rendered terrain-like plasma in 300 chars 'cause what else to do at home when you're sick 🤒 #demoscene #voxel #pico8 #postcart gif/src: www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=164...
1100
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
What golden words: “The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.” – Orson Welles
000
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
I've collected all the resources related to my #gamedev activity in one place linktr.ee/volkov_ayyy to make it easier for you to follow 👈 Photo of me with John Romero to get attention!
John Romero with me
160
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
If you are in desperate need of a brand identity and your art skills are close to zero #asciiart comes to the rescue 🥳 Soon on every splash screen of my games.
040
Gleb Volkov @glebv.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
🎄Merry Christmas! #asciiart #pico8 #postcart (300 chars) gif/src: lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=159...
0557