iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

The first in a trilogy of micro games, Driftway is live! I plan to revisit these, but I'm happy to have a build running well. This game helped me gain a better understanding of core code architecture, the importance of data structures, some intro Blender, and a lot about optimization. #unitydev

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

March reflections: @tga.bsky.social Future of Games con was seriously encouraging! I’m also excited about my site relaunch. I flipped it to light mode, and I kinda love it! Next, I'll migrate my tabletop games and continue building this site into a hub for all my gaming projects.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I'm getting close to something I wanna have folks play! Itch prototype build should be ready soon.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

First devlog of the year! The focus has been heavily on UI implementation, which has been a battle. I also manifested some math skills to figure out how much the upgrades should cost vs run amounts. Jumping into Blender for the first time this week was a fun palette cleanser! #indiedev #unitydev

A screenshot of a Google Sheet showing potential upgrade costs per type, level, and number of runs.

Image shows designs of a variety of states for nodes of an in-game upgrade tree.

Screenshot of the Unity Editor showing a line bug within the upgrade tree.

Screenshot of Blender showing two 3d models for the in-game pickups.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

As I get closer to finalizing an upgrade screen design for Driftway, I looked back at previous iterations. I see that figuring out these upgrade tree nodes has truly been an exercise in simplifying until there's nothing left to take away. #unitydev #gamedev #uiux

Image of five different iterations on upgrade tree node designs. The First three versions are a rounded square design, whereas the next two versions are circular in design with radial upgrade pips and dots.

Image of the design layout in figma of the planned in-game UI of the upgrade screen. The screen design includes contextual info windows, buttons and run stats.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

A boy can dream. But it doesn't even feel like it matters anyway. 🫠

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

After going through a few lane gate iterations, I realized the effect I envisioned would work best with a shader. So I nervously worked my way to something I like. I was stuck on having lane gates not spawn on the checkpoint road chunk, but adding a serialized bool to mark the chunk solved it.

Screenshot of the Unity game engine showing a number of road chunks spawned to create the games drivable area.

Screenshot of the visual scripting interface in the Unity game engine. This is the shader graph feature within Unity where users can create custom visual effects.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Although I have a quick and dirty loop to test, I also want to lightly incorporate the upgrade system I'm thinking of to alter runs and offer different challenges. I'm wiring out some UI concepts for that screen currently.

Screenshot image of a Figma project window with user interface wireframes. The screen has three main sections: run-specific modifiers, a small upgrade tree, and a field showing amount of points owned.

Photo of a Siamese-mix cat in autumn, with blue eyes, in midstep walking in front of a tree.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Seeing as it's been a few weeks, let's just call this a November devlog. 😬 Its been chaotic since we unexpectedly rescued a cat a couple weeks ago, but I'm slowly working through the first of a few micro games to help build my game dev skills. Cat pic in 🧵 #gamedev #unitydev #indiedev #indiegamedev

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Busy weekend of creating visual diagrams of my data layer plus getting the road pooling and recycling chunks cleanly. Still so much to tinker with and explore where this could go! #indiedev #unitydev #gamedev

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Note to self: don't open packs while trying to go to sleep.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

With my small AF social battery, I needed a few days to recover from a busy PAX West. I also realized I recently hit my 1-year mark on this game dev journey. I'm excited to keep learning and start exploring some original game ideas! #indiedev #gamedev

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

To stay sane with the current state of things, I’ve been working on a roguelike prototype to practice building harmonious systems that create fun game loops. I’m happy to have the classic roguelike mid-run boosts implemented! #indiedev #gamedev

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

I'm excited to wrap up another game jam! It’s your first day on the job, and you’ve already been asked to exceed expectations. Fight off a rival chef’s army, defend the kitchen…or get fired trying. Yes, Chef: The First Shift is available on Itch! ideomancer.itch.io/yes-chef #indiegamedev #unity

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Got rocked on the very last blind! 😭 #balatro #indiegames

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

I've been 'remastering' the first game I developed over a weekend bootcamp back in August. Still keeping it small, but have been applying a bunch of my game dev learnings since then and having fun with it. How often do y'all revisit old projects and apply new learnings? #Unity #gamedev

Side-by-side image of an early version of a 2D platformer, the first game I ever made, on the left and the remastered version of the same page with upgraded character sprites, level design, and environmental assets.

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ideomancer @ideomancer.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

It's The Grey in PNW, so my wife and I have begun our puzzling ritual. We just finished this 1,000 piece beast. Doesn't even fit on any of our tables 😆

Top down photo of a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is a collection of occult curios; skulls, potions, candles, crystals and many more.

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