iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

After 6 weeks of working on the game menus my end of Feb deadline is looming. I’ve done 2 out of 10 menus…. Everything in gamedev seems to take ten times longer than you expect! 🫠 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

I’ve finally finished the game shop menu UI. There’s a surprising amount of work in coding up an in game shop! Fitting everything on screen took some figuring out for sure!👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

UI is super hard! I spent the day working in interactable tool tips for the game menus. They were super fiddly. It was hard to get them feeling good. They need to feel snappy but stay alive whilst the player moves to interact with them which feels sluggish. #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

I’ve spent a nice day working on the game’s chest menu. I’ve given each inventory item a category and each category a colour. This means I can add some colourful flair into the menus from now on! 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I’ve been working hard on the Game UI for the past couple of weeks. I’m going for a sci-fi theme. Nearly there now on the pause menu and sub menus. Looking good so far! 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

I put some lights on the main menu buttons today! I think they look pretty nice but does the active button text also need to light up? 🤔 #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

This is the current state of the game’s pause menu. There’s still a lot of work to do (I’ve not worked on the buttons yet) but I can finally say that some of my game is 3D now! #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev

A picture of two glass effect panels with pause menu options.

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

Just hooked up the post processing system to the game engine’s UI framework. You can now give UI widgets bloom, depth of field etc. you can create some pretty snazzy effects. 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Messing about with the post processor today on stream. #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

I’ve started work on the game UI this week. Custom mouse cursors are possible and you can make them huge. I’ve also implemented a bokeh blur effect that appears when you open menus. 👌 #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Today was the first day back on my SciFi gardening game after 5 months of engine coding. Expect some pretty in-game UI pics over the coming months 👌 #gamedev #solodev #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

It feels great to finally have a character running around the world again! It’s been a few months of stripping down the game engine to build out a prefab system and piecing it back together! The bandaid is finally off and I can build levels again! 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

I’ve spent the last few days putting shadows into the renderer. They definitely make scenes look a lot less flat and 2D. 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev | #gameengine

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

I’ve been brainstorming planet biomes for my sci-fi gardening game. How about a planet entirely covered in ankle-deep liquid mercury where plants as tall as buildings soak it all up and rain it back down on the player? 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Spent the day putting reflections into the renderer! It’s coming along. 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

I’ve been working hard on texture generation in the level compiler. Combining textures across prefabs to reduce overdraw is now a thing. You can lay down practically infinite layers of floor textures with zero overdraw. 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Take a look at std::expected. It might be what you need. 😊

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I’ve spent a second day working through c++ coroutines. Once you hide away all the fluff you can actually wrap them up in to a nice little api that’s easy to use. I’m a bit stumped on use cases tho. Question: Anyone have any experience using them in their games? #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Took the day off engine coding to have a look at c++ coroutines…holy moly that was an experience. #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I’m 75% done with the level compiler in my game engine. Animated rigs, rivers, and ponds are now all supported. I’ve got triggers, colliders, and paths to do next but these don’t require any art assets to be compiled into game data, so should be quicker to do! 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Just finished a good week of coding on the game engine. I’ve been working on the content pipeline that transforms text files produced by the level editor into binary game data. It’s 50% done I’d say so one more week should do it! 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Finally, after 2 months of development, the prefab system in my engine is done! A lot of code clean up to do tho! 👌 #happy #gamedev #solodev #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Here's a nice screenshot of the editor in my #gameengine. Still work to do, but getting there now! #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

It’s the end of a productive week! I wrote my first Twitch overlay (to warn viewers/me ads are starting). I also made progress on my level editor. I can now add/remove triggers! 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I’m going to have an experiment with the Twitch API today. The goal is to write an ‘ads starting soon’ overlay for my #gamedev stream. Am I going to be in for a good time? 🤷

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

I’ve been stressing out the new prefab system in my engine today. I integrated triggers and started on colliders. The system held up well overall and it should be straightforward to integrate gameplay specific content when I begin full production on the game in a few weeks! 👌 #gamedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Awesome Twitch stream today! I’ve been spending my days coding up a new iteration of the level editor in my engine. It’s nearly there! Today was the properties panel! Who’d have thought that would be my most popular stream to date!? #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Finally got to the end of implementing prefabs in my game engine. Nearly time to move to full-scale production of my Sci-Fi gardening game! It’ll be nice to get back to some gameplay coding! #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

I got prefabs working in the editor today! You can now draw in a bunch of sprite sheet tiles and add collision, particle effects, scripts etc. Save this as a prefab brush and stamp instances of it around the level. Prefabs can also contain other prefabs and it’s turtles all the way down! #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I’ve been building a new pc and installing the new CPU may have been the scariest thing I’ve ever done! 😬 #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Great day coding up the game engine’s editor. I’ve been working hard on a content cache that allows for asset hot loading across the entire engine. The goal is to be able to slot in new asset types and have it all just work. 👌 #gamedev | #indiedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

This week I’ll be reworking the Content Cache in the game engine. It has responsibility for loading and managing editor assets. Adding a new asset type currently requires a fair bit of boiler plate. But,I think I can eliminate almost all of it! 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

You know when a morning’s work turns into a several day slog? I revisited the engine’s lighting system. The plan was to fix a particularly unfriendly crash bug in the lighting generation…it turns out there is quite a lot that needs improving and the bug is probably due to bad design. 🫠 #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Just my finished my longest ever #gamedev stream! 7.5 hours of none stop c++ coding. Mainly refining code and fixing bugs. The engine is heading towards a pretty stable state now! Thanks to all the chatters! It makes streaming super fun! 🥰 #solodev #indiedev #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

You know when you get to the end of a milestone/project and there’s that huge “todo” list that you’ve been putting off? Well I’m wading through that monstrosity atm! 🫠 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Currently spending some time designing RPG mechanics for my game. It’s quite amazing just how much work it adds. Every single stat needs at least one complimentary gameplay system. It’s not just a number that goes up or down. #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

I’ve been spending the past weeks tightening up engine features. Feeling the pull back to gameplay coding now. There’s just one more feature to prototype before I’m off preproduction and onto building real game stuff! Exciting times! 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

I added a nice feature into the engine’s behaviour tree system today. You can now add “override” behaviours programmatically whenever you might need to interrupt the tree. Eg the player gets hit by an enemy and you want to use that event to trigger a cutscene? This feature allows for that! #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Good stream today! I finally got off the NPC instancing stuff and moved on to Path Finding Context. Eg when an enemy is finding cover they can pick the context that only allows paths that avoid the player location. This means NPCs can essentially avoid areas dynamically 👌 #gamedev #solodev #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Busy day working on the engine. I’m about 70% through an NPC instancing system. The goal is to be able to define behaviour/dialogue/quests/attributes etc for an instance of an NPC type. Eg enemy instances of the same type could react differently to different situations. #gamedev #solodev #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Two steps forward today! Path finding is fully working using background threads with and without a nav mesh! Even on my super low end laptop there’s no perceived delay when calculating paths for NPCs! 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Today was a “one step back for two steps forward” kind of day. Except I’ve yet to take the two steps forward. 🫠 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Big love to all the devs affected by the layoffs over at Microsoft today! Hopefully a bunch of you come over to the indie space. Your passion project may turn out to be the best thing you ever made! #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Good day of coding today! I finally moved NPC path finding onto background threads in the engine. It was stalling the game occasionally but now NPCs can just wait around playing some nice animations until a path becomes available for them to take! #gamedev | #solodev | #indiegame | #indiedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Fell down a rabbit hole this weekend. I’ve been trying to reduce dynamic memory allocations in my game engine so I extended my string class with Small String Optimization. I also went over all my support classes to see what’s what and it turned into a major refactor. It was epic codage! #gamedev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Today I came up with a cool system where I can assign temporary state to a region of space in the game world. It sounds abstract, but is very useful. Eg: dropping a loot bag for someone else to pick up or creating temporary impassable swamp. This system is built for that stuff. #gamedev | #solodev

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

LIVE NOW! Custom Engine Coding C++ (Day 57) twitch.tv/lazybengames #gamedev

Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Just one more day of development left on the game’s combat system. It’ll be the largest gameplay system I’ve written to date! Just a couple of tweaks to make to the stamina attribute and it’s done. 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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Lazy Ben @lazybengames.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I worked on loot drops today. There’s now a nice system in the engine that randomly generates loot based on “template” loot bags. These define item drop rates and include other custom logic such as game-state conditions. Super flexible and easy to use 👌 #gamedev | #solodev | #indiedev | #indiegame

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