iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 06/09/2026

Welcome to Indie Connection! 🐔 I've migrated and renamed my Indie Game Blog! I'm settled on this design, and it's also linked from my Linktr.ee so it's real life now. New content coming soon! Come visit at www.indieconnection.cool #gamereview #blog #indiegame Crossposted with @openvibe.social

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 17/08/2026

I'm not sure if this is the final box art for #Cryptsmasher, but it's one I really like. 👹 I prefer the layout without the GBC banner. Maybe that's the Collector's Edition. 🤔 #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #gameboy

A Game Boy Color box art showing Mickey looking over his shoulder in trepidation at an apparition under the title card Cryptsmasher. A round "sticker" in the bottom left corner reads "Adam Holmes' Tales of Mickey the Mouse".

Mickey looking over his shoulder in trepidation at an apparition under the title card Cryptsmasher. A round "sticker" in the bottom left corner reads "Adam Holmes' Tales of Mickey the Mouse".

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 12/08/2026

been having fun with concepts for the game beyond the mickey the mouse #cryptsmasher demo, i'm so excited i have the entire story/levels framed out! #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #indiegamedev #homebrew #gameboy

Concept sketches from Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 04/08/2026

My Mickey the Mouse Game Boy Color demo is available now! I'd love for you to try it! holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

Screenshot from Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher for Game Boy Color

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 02/04/2026

Did not think it was that kind of game. 🫣 Flower, Sun and Rain for #NintendoDS #retrogaming

Picture of game being played on MagicX 040, with the text "Jack-in to me and input your date of birth"

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 02/02/2026

#Bustina carts are back in stock after the first batch sold out almost immediately! Thanks to everyone for your excitement for my game! Ships internationally! retrogametycoon.com/fi/catalogue... #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #nesmaker #6502asm

Box, Instruction Booklet and Cartridge for Bustina and the Search for Booty!

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 23/01/2026

The first PHYSICAL copies of my game #Bustina are up for sale now! Ships internationally! Big thanks to Rewinded Entertainment for publishing!! retrogametycoon.com/fi/catalogue... #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #nesmaker #6502asm

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 21/06/2025

Working on a #Cryptsmasher cutscene! It's nice to take a break and do art for the project. 🐭 ✏️ Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #indiegamedev #gameboy

A photo of a cutscene from Cryptsmasher being drawn on a tablet

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 20/06/2025

Been sick the last few days so not much done on #Cryptsmasher except I've been laying down the music and sound effects. Amazing how much music provides polish to the game! I'll have a video soon ☺️ #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 12/06/2025

I'm happy to share the official poster art for the #Cryptsmasher Demo! I'm hoping to have a version you can try ready in the next few weeks! Final art by @strayyleafy.bsky.social based on my sketchy doodles 👻 #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

poster art showing Mickey running from skeletons and bats

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 11/06/2025

Working on a new area for the #Cryptsmasher demo with criminally tall trees and aerial platforming. Brace yourself for a fall..or three! Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #gameboy #homebrew #gameboydev

Screenshot of GB Studio with a close up of the new area

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 10/06/2025

"Mickey follows the voice in his head into the graveyard. In a dark cave below the graveyard, Mickey stumbles upon a mysterious object." Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #gameboy #homebrew #gameboydev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 09/06/2025

"Mickey continues to explore the graveyard and begins hearing a voice in his mind.. he feels inexorably drawn towards it..." Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #gameboy #homebrew #gameboydev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 09/06/2025

"As the night goes on, the darkness looms deeper and Mickey finds himself in exceedlingly creepy and dangerous environs..." Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #gameboy #homebrew #gameboydev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 07/06/2025

I've been posting lots so for #screenshotsaturday I wasn't sure what to post. I figured this shot of the new heart pickups was as good as any! But wait.. is there something behind that heart? Be careful! #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #indiegamedev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 06/06/2025

Enemies are starting to get a little creepier... flying eyeballs anyone? Project page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio #indiegamedev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 06/06/2025

Hey #PitchYaGame ! Adam Holmes' Tales of Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher is a sPoOkY black & white platformer for the Game Boy Color! Mickey searches for an ancient artifact that grants special powers to help defeat the darkness. In development now! Project Page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma...

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 06/06/2025

Playing with dialogues for the first cutscene but when my brain gets silly and I start writing stuff like this it's usually time to call it a day 😜 #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 05/06/2025

Discovering the magic of palette swapping so that the owls can be in the background more and also so you can actually see Mickey in darker, Crypt-ier environments. 👻 #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 04/06/2025

The new skeleton walk cycle is in the game! What do you think? I like it, but feedback is welcome! Project page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 04/06/2025

Just busted out the old iPad 1 and working on laying the bones for the skeleton walk animation for Cryptsmasher! #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 02/06/2025

Updated footage of Tales of Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher! Demonstrating the game loop a little bit. I gotta animate those skeletons! Game project page: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #pixelart #solodev #gameboydev #indiedev #retrogaming #mickeymouse #gbstudio #gbdev

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 02/06/2025

I'm pretty happy with how these little bats and background owls turned out. And I got them working without compromising too much resources! I'm getting the hang of this Game Boy stuff! #pixelart #solodev #indiedev #retrogame #gamedev #mickeymouse #gbdev

Cryptsmasher screenshot showing Mickey with a skeleton, bat and owl

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 01/06/2025

For #screenshotsaturday, thought I'd show off I'm getting the important stuff in to Cryptsmasher - Health UI and SGB border! You know, the essentials 😎👍 #pixelart #solodev #gbstudio #mickeymouse #gameboy #indiedev #homebrew

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 30/05/2025

Just learned that the cause of slowdown on Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher was because my sprites are too animated and large. Now I'm crying because I don't want to go back to my old 16x16 sprites. Gonna have to rework a lot I think. #gbstudio #pixelart #homebrew #gameboy #gbdev #indiedev #solodev

Close up of way too many tiles in my player character

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 29/05/2025

Hello folks! I'm getting back into the development of Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher! I've also updated the itch page for it, check it out here and follow along with development: holmadegames.itch.io/mtm-cryptsma... #GBStudio #GameBoyDev #IndieDev #PixelArt #RetroGames #Chiptune #Homebrew

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 29/05/2025

🎵 Calling all chiptune musicians! 🎵 I'm looking for someone with experience composing for GB Studio to create music for a Spooky Mickey Mouse Game Boy game I'm working on. If you're interested, please DM me! #Chiptune #GBStudio #GameBoyDev #IndieDev #PixelArt #RetroGames #ChiptuneMusic #Homebrew

Screenshot of Cryptsmasher for Game Boy, currently in development

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 20/05/2025

Going back to my roots with a new simple retro-style arcade game for PC called Chucky McBomb 💣💥 Just started on it, here are some early sprites! Thoughts about my little spaceman bomber? #indiegame #indiedev #solodev #retro #pixel #indievideogame #gamedev #pixelgame #aliens #explosions #indiepcgame

Spritesheet showing main character, aliens, bombs and explosive barrels from a new game in development, Chucky McBomb.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 22/04/2025

I’ve been working hard on revamping my community site The Fun Zone, and it’s now the official hub for Holmade Games! Come by to chat about my games, share bug reports, fan art and more. Let me know what you think! 😁 #IndieDev #GameDev #IndieGames #GamingCommunity Link: hgfunzone.com

screenshot of the Holmade Games Fun Zone, my community site

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 26/02/2025

Working on Tales of Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher. Getting some weird performance issues when I instantiate too many skeletons but my test room is getting there. 👻🐁 #gamedev #retrogame #indiegamedev #gbstudio

GB Studio with Mickey the Mouse Cryptsmasher opened for editting

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 17/02/2025

i was planning on polishing this to look arcadey like Hurdle Turtle .. but I'm falling in love with the placeholder art which is making me laugh the whole time I'm coding this little microgame 🤣 paintbrush aesthetic for the win? #indiegamedev #screenshotsaturday #paintbrush #gamedev #retrogame

screenshot of Yippee Surf with placeholder art

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 11/02/2025

Not sure if this is going anywhere but for now I'm spending tonight having fun finishing off a level I left abandoned over a decade ago #indiegamedev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedev

Screen capture of Game Maker Studio editting the game Eight Bits.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 10/02/2025

This is a pre-alpha build for a game called Eight Bits that I worked on in 2014. If there's enough interest perhaps it will one day become a full game! For now, I'd love feedback from my Patrons which will ultimately help shape the game! #indiegamedev #retrogame #pc www.patreon.com/posts/121937...

The hero of the "Eight Bits" game jumps gleefully in a grassy level.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 29/12/2024

Suffered a burnout recently and I'm recovering. Starting to gently get back into Mickey Mouse Cryptsmasher; starting off simple with this idle skeleton. ❤️💀 #indiegamedev #pixelart #mickeymouse #art #homebrew #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 11/12/2024

🚨 Box Art Reveal!! 🚨 My son @strayyleafy.bsky.social created this stunning art for Bustina’s upcoming physical releases, inspired by Jek’s original character art! Stay tuned for more updates on Bustina physical releases! 🎮 🎨 #indiegamedev #nes #physical #homebrew #nesmaker #nesdev

a pirate lady walks confidently away from a shipwreck, ready to explore. the title 'Bustina and the Search for Booty' appears at the top.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 24/11/2024

I can do that! (She's so excited the Creator wants to see it!) Here's some photos of it before the SW part is added. All typed by hand while referencing the game! 😊

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 22/11/2024

The Cryptsmasher Demo map is coming together! I have to do more to make Mickey stand out against all the bg elements, also I want to add a bit more detail. 😊 I'm very excited to tie it into the various areas I've created! I'll share more as I go! #indiegamedev #gbstudio #gameboy #mickeymouse

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 20/11/2024

Whether out of a sense of self-punishment or game preservation I'm not sure, but I've started editting code from 2010 to make the original Hurdle Turtle game (Xbox Indie) run on a current Windows system. No promise I'll actually finish but it's keeping me.. entertained? .. for a bit. 😅 #indiegamedev

Screenshot of some very old code for gamepad handling in my Hurdle Turtle XNA project

Screenshot of the original Hurdle Turtle running on a Windows PC today

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 17/11/2024

I just made it so you can now play my game Hurdle Turtle Forever for free in its entirety on my community site, The Fun Zone! (On desktop browsers) I figured hey why not, it'll be Fun! 🎉🎈😁🐢 www.hgfunzone.com/games #indiegamedev #browsergame #freegame

A promo shot of Hurdle Turtle Forever featuring the guest stars that are playable characters in the game: Kratos, Sgt John Captain and Kebako.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 17/11/2024

A little bit of animation/platforming testing for Tales of Mickey the Mouse: Cryptsmasher for Game Boy! It's getting to the point where I'm happy with it and level building is next! I'm so excited, that's my favourite part! 🐭👻🦴 #indiegamedev #gbstudio #mickeymouse #gameboy #homebrew

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 13/11/2024

Pixel Whirled started crashing because - I think? - #Xbox Gamer Services for #XBLIG games must have been shut down in the background. Removed those references and it's working great now on PC. It's like two games of Space Invaders at once with an awesome soundtrack by Walz Music! #indiegamedev

screenshot from Pixel Whirled showing beavers and apples attacking a pirate in a sunny field that has two grounds, one above and the more traditional one below.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 12/11/2024

Getting all these tiles into a proper tilemap. Have some straightening out to do of some of the objects but I'm liking it! Can't wait to get little Mickey Mouse running around on this! And yes, still rocking the OG iPad. (with the SpriteSomething app) #indiegamedev #gbstudio

a tile map is shown on the screen of an iPad. a pen is shown mid-draw. The tilemap shows a graveyard scene with a clocktower and a crypt as well as a spooky forest.

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 08/11/2024

I'm working away on these cute little tiles for the first area map for Mickey the Mouse Cryptsmasher. I'm gonna use my original smaller sprites for the player on the map screen. I'm really happy with how they've started, now it's time for me to get all into it with details 😁 #indiegamedev #gbstudio

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Adam Holmes🍟 @holmadegames.itch.io · 28/10/2024

Ok I think I have the final product, give or take. :) I'm losing the ability to tell what's centered so that usually means I'm done lol #indiegamedev #gbstudio

Final-ish version of the title screen for SS7 Episode 1.5.

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