iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I went so far as to do sobel filtering on the paper to make little ridges where the paper folds stack up. It’s one of those almost invisible #gamedev improvements that you feel 😆

0164

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A puzzle game about communication. A love story about distance. A world you can fold. A Fold Apart: Recrafted – coming soon ❤️📃 #indiedev #puzzlegames #screenshotsaturday

01813

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

#gamedev and #gameart problems are just an opportunity to learn something new... and I feel like I am constantly learning... 😭

092

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

A puzzle game about communication. A love story about distance. A world you can fold. A Fold Apart: Recrafted – coming soon ❤️📃 #indiedev #puzzlegames #screenshotsaturday

01813

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I can't wait for people to see this on a bigger screen. All of the art, across hundreds of scenes, was changed to make it look great on modern machines. #gamedev

0126

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Making it work takes patience, communication, understanding… …and occasionally folding reality in half ❤️📃 A Fold Apart: Recrafted – coming soon! #indiedev #puzzlegame #wishlistwednesday

0177

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I should do a video about the A Fold Apart #gamedev process and data layout to show all the weird hoops we needed to jump through to: make the Unity editor run without totally bogging down, let the team work on the same parts of the game at the same time, and make the runtime work with <1.25GB RAM.

083

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If you like puzzle games with heart, then we think you'll love A Fold Apart: Recrafted ❤️ More info coming soon! #puzzlegame #indiedev #trailertuesday

0118

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A Fold Apart: Recrafted is a story about distance, communication, and finding your way back to each other — one fold at a time ❤️📃🫶 Coming soon! #puzzlegame #indiedev #wishlistwednesday

02913

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

#tbt to some #gamedev prototyping. Gravity, folding, and pushing/dragging blocks.

083

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Iffi Mooz’pan @iffimoozipan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A Fold Apart originally came out in 2020, and it’s getting a new upgraded releases (Recrafted) soon! It’s such a beautiful concept. I had the fortune of meeting one of the devs this summer and they were super sweet. Definitely one to wishlist and watch out for! 💙✨

store.steampowered.com

A Fold Apart on Steam

A puzzle game that explores the emotional rollercoaster of a long-distance relationship — in a world of folding paper! Flip, fold, unfold and rotate paper puzzles to help a couple navigate the complex...

091

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A LOT of work has gone into this. On most platforms, it will release as a new game, and we're working to make sure that owners of the original A Fold Apart will be able to get it for free. Please signal boost if you can!

097

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A Fold Apart: Recrafted is a story about distance, communication, and finding your way back to each other — one fold at a time ❤️📃🫶 Coming soon! #puzzlegame #indiedev #wishlistwednesday

02913

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

#tbt to some #gamedev prototyping. Gravity, folding, and pushing/dragging blocks.

083

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

I lament how paper flipping never captured properly in GIFs because it happened too fast. I'll make a slow version to show it off because this new lighting looks so good and it looks even better in motion. #gamedev #gameart

One cartoon world rendered in cooler colours folded over another cartoon world lit in warm colours. A cartoon woman rendered in warm colours stands on a purple platform and looks from the cool world into the warm world where unfriendly looking shapes stand on other purple platforms.

The same view as the previous picture but viewed at an angle (with the paper slightly curled) revealing that we are looking into 3D worlds and not looking at a 2D image.

094

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Love a good beard, but sometimes different normals across adjacent meshes give you an unwanted one. Here's how to fix it with @blender.org and the DataTransfer modifier. Add the modifier to one of the meshes and have it target the mesh with the normals you want to copy. Fixed! #gamedev #gameart

The left side of the image shows a cartoon man rendered in warm colours. He looks like he has a dark 5:00 shadow. In the centre of the image is a screenshot of a DataTransfer modifier in blender attached to the mesh with the shadow. It has a vertex group set for its edge vertices and targets the mesh that it wants to have continuous normals with. The right side of the image shows the same cartoon man, but the beard-like shadow is gone.

092

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In #Unity3D, you need to worry about dependencies. If a scene references an asset, it will get loaded into memory (EVEN IF HIDDEN). We broke our game into hundreds of environment-only scenes that can be dynamically loaded, and then made tools so we could work without creating dependencies. #gamedev

A cartoon office lit by a sunset. There are lineups of characters standing at different angles to demonstrate lighting.

A list of buttons showing various tools options.

A zoomed out view of the office scene showing that the only objects that exist are the objects visible to the camera.

072

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Real-time shadows go a long way to help characters feel connected to the environment. Sadly, you can't always afford them (computationally). Blob or projector shadows are a good solution, and having multiple levels of projector shadows (for body, feet, etc.) are even better. #gamedev #gameart

Tree nearly identical images of a cartoon woman stand in a forest environment to demonstrate blob shadows. In the leftmost image, there is no shadow and she appears to float above the ground. In the centre image, there is a circular shadow projected on the ground underneath her. It is clear that she is on or close to the ground, but she still feels a bit disconnected from the environment. The rightmost images shows the same circular shadow, but additional (much smaller and darker) shadows are on the ground where her feet make contact. It is clear that she is standing on the ground and that her feet are pressing on it.

1163

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Was digging through some old assets and found this from a one-pager for A Fold Apart. Thought it was cute and worth posting. So much work went into the characters and the shape language of the game. It seems simple and obvious because it took a lot of work to get it that way. #gamedev #gameart

A cartoon woman drawn with warm colours and round shapes sits perched atop the words A Fold Apart. A cartoon man drawn with cool colours and hard edges sits perched on the other end. The both look relaxed and are holding their phones. Two heart-shaped word bubbles come out of each phone and merge in the middle. The text reads: Distance means so little when someone means so much.

071

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Playing through to look for problems and found a couple. Can you spot the artifacting because one shader doesn't have double-sided global illumination? #gamedev #gameart #afoldapart (yes, I did add that hashtag just because it rhymed 😌)

161

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Maybe! This is an older game (where the artists had some pretty big memory constrains) that I'm playing with. Right now I'm having fun doing this on purpose, but I just discovered (or re-discovered) that Unity doesn't let me bake different layers separately on the same map. bsky.app/profile/ligh...

000

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Agreed! Doing it on purpose now. bsky.app/profile/ligh...

010

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

When you crank the indirect multiplier on purpose #gamedev #gameart

0103

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

When you accidentally crank the indirect multiplier #gamedev #gameart

292

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Sometimes, I love the looks when a bunch of scenes get loaded together and the lighting explodes. #unity3d #gamedev #indiedev

The Unity editor view of some apartment buildings atop floating islands with very bright lights and a giant heart floating in the air nearby. The lighting is vivid and the bloom is extreme. It is pretty, but it might hurt your eyes if you stare for too long. Some elements of the image have been censored with a pixel distortion filter. There's probably no reason for that.

094

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

It's important to know where to stop. How much will people really look at the background water? They'll probably be reading the text messages. Doesn't that dialogue look compelling!? #gamedev #indiedev #gameart

0122

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Does fixing mistakes feel better than not making them? #gamedev #indiedev #unity3d

An orange cartoon woman throws both fists in the air, celebrating something great. There is a blue explosion behind her. She is very happy about it all.

051

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Making a water shader that looks like crumpled paper. Funny when you accidentally invert the colours. #unity3d #gamedev

0112

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

A Fold Apart used emissive glow so the player stood out in puzzles on small screens. They popped too much on big ones though. I wanted to try fresnel edge glow, but it made the character look like a cutout. But then adding a smoothstep to the world normal y made them pop AND blend #unity3d #gamedev

A screen capture of the Unity Scene editor showing two blue cartoon characters. The one on the right is glowing slightly and doesn't look like they're part of the larger office scene that they're standing in. The one on the left has a slight glow around most of them that makes them stand out from the background, but the glow is not present under their feet, so they still look like they're standing in the room. There is a screen capture of a shader tool showing how the glow was limited with an arrow pointing to the character on the left.

083

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

A composer sent me their portfolio and they used AI images as the visuals for their tracks on YouTube. My gut reaction was that the music was AI too. I suppressed that reaction, did some digging, and figured the music was legit, BUT that first impression put a stink on the whole thing.

161

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

The time and resource crunch meant A Fold Apart, though very pretty, was left with some rough edges. We took some time to port it to #unity3d 6 and I've been looking at what it would take to bring back some of the rendering techniques we had to set aside for performance. #gamedev #devlog #indiedev

094

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

At the start, A Fold Apart was thought to be too complex to work on mobile hardware, but a series of coincidences set the groundwork to make it possible. A thread. #gamedev #indiedev #devlog

073

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

The workflow broke each level into dozens of scenes. The intent was to just let us keep making the game, but it also organized data so that we could load exactly what was needed on the screen, and no more. So the answer wasn't "No", it was "Maybe?" And by the time Apple came along, it was "Yes"

A blue cartoon woman with square features smiles at the camera, her eyes are closed, and she is adjusting her square glasses. She looks very pleased with herself.

000

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Each paper looks into two completely different worlds and there can be dozens of papers in a level. Early in development, we totally overwhelmed the Unity editor. The scenes got so big that they were impossible to work with, and I had to create a new workflow. This is what saved our butts.

A blue cartoon woman with square features screaming and holding her hands against her face. The background has purple streaks in the same direction her body is lurching in order to emphasize the scream.

100

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

But then some friends at a little Polish publisher (known for emotionally compelling games) asked us if we could make it work on mobile. I was skeptical but as a rule, you should never say no to such things. Instead, we decided to check. Just what would it take for this to work.

A blue cartoon woman with square feature and square glasses typing furiously on a keyboard. Her hands are motion blurred and orange sparks are flying out of the keyboard.

100

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

A Fold Apart had a tricky dev cycle. It was first intended to be a PC/Console game. This was mostly because I thought the amount of runtime math required to fold the paper, and the magical paper effects relying on GPU fill-rate, would make it impossible on mobile hardware. But then...

A blue, cartoon, woman, with square angular features, and square glasses, tilts her head to the side and looks quizzically at the camera. Two large question marks float next to her head.

120

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

We are not hiring, but I was responding to cold-call apps. today and it occurred to me that I need to be taking precautions against AI in that process. This skepticism is going to hurt juniors a lot! 2D artists might need to put extra work into their portfolios to prove they're real, and that sucks.

011

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

I probably should have paired this with an enticing photo... really get 'em going. #indiedev #gamedev

082

Reposted by Lightning Rod Games

Steven B Smith 👻 @sbsmith.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

If any #gamedev (pro or student) were curious about anything let me know and maybe I can do a post about it. I can try to answer just about anything that isn't covered by a partner NDA.

051

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

We're skinning our profile to A Fold Apart because now that I (mostly Steven posting these days) have some distance from it, I want to go back and explore it: the technology, the art, the design, and launching it on 7 platforms, in 15 languages, in #Unity3d. Follow along for #gamedev #indiedev

092

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

And for ~$2, this Halloween treat is hard to beat!

020

Lightning Rod Games @lightningrod.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Halloween has officially begun (at least in our timezone) and there is no better time for a spooky, point-and-click adventure, that you can finish all the endings in one sitting. Finish a Halloween game on Halloween! store.steampowered.com/app/1776080/...

store.steampowered.com

Save 33% on LiveScream on Steam

Armed with nothing but your curiosity, streaming equipment, and insatiable need to impress others, you approach a long-abandoned house in your small town. What could possibly go wrong?

010