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Caitlin

@mholiv.bsky.social
100 followers 43 following 101 posts

Person passionate about open source software, open hardware and the human right to not be controlled by mega corps. She/Her

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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Really happy to show off the #GameDev work over the past month. Long story short Demo 2 is announced. This post contains lots on new content, a few technical details, and a good amount of game dev thoughts. Lots of images and videos too. #rust #bevy #indiedev exofactory.net/blog/2026-09...
exofactory.net
New Demo, New Buildings, New Architecture
Demo 2 is targeting early November! This month brought walls, doors, ladders, and 2.5 new buildings. Proper factories at last, with Exoframes finding their own way between floors. Lots done, lots of p...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
At the risk of sounding like a #herzner shill, working with #ovhcloud really makes me appreciate them. With OVH had to apply to get a server using my govID. (Fine ok) Then when I was approved for one month. I had to apply for the ability to automatically pay each month. How is OVH alive?l
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I was encouraged to document the process around the no mess, warm and delicious camping egg & cheese breakfast burritos I have been making while camping. Useful for both festivals and hacker camps. Here is that documentation. #cooking #Camping #Documentation dubiose.dev/blog/easy-ca...
Two breakfast burritos in front of a clean pan at a campsite. One still wrapped in aluminum foil.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Am I the only person who judges applications to do #SelfHosting with by what language they are written in? #rust and #GoLang give me faith that the app will be performant and simple to manage. JS, TS, PHP/fpm, and Ruby make me think twice. There are great apps in these langs but I get nervous.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
More technical #rust #GameDev update where I primarily cover migration to #bevy 0.19 and how much I like bsn. I do also cover a 3D building I/O visual issue where buildings now properly have dark portals #Satisfactory style. Happy to answer any questions etc. exofactory.net/blog/2026-08...
exofactory.net
Bevy 0.19 Migration & Better Buildings
Migrated Exofactory to Bevy 0.19. bsn cut 7,364 lines out of my UI code and made Bevy UI genuinely pleasant to write for the first time. Lot's of bsn! note here. Also fixed light and shadow on buildin...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Always nice to be back at #bornhack wouldn’t be the same without these little guys. If you’re around come visit us at the game dev village directly behind the main speakers tent. We’d be happy to talk #bevy or #Godot
A very very large slug in a gravel road.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Huge congratulations to the #bevy team with their #bsn implementstion. It’s a huge quality of life change for bevy #GameDev / #IndieGameDev In my settings panel alone switching to composed bsn! Resulted in 3000 line of code reduction. I’m excited to be able to move bsn into files eventually.
A terminal screen shot showing -4600 / +1600 lines of code for a reduction of 3000 lines of code.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Latest Exofactory work. Lots of videos and technical charts in this one. The exoframe robots now can auto navigate and do things. That and I cover how, why, and the outcomes of doing a major refactor from a crate to workspace. #rust #GameDev #indiedev #refactor #bevy exofactory.net/blog/2026-07...
exofactory.net
Exoframe Autonavigation and Refactoring into a Workspace
Exoframe robots can now navigate the world. Now with cool videos! Also, a ton of technical details on refactoring a Bevy game into a Rust workspace. Now with graphs! Lots done despite the heat.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
I helped run a #Bevy workshop at #RustWeek and ran one at #gpn24 I wrote up a post with some of the differences that were encountered and how bevy (or even #rust ) workshops can made better going forward. I know I will be changing my approach going forward. dubiose.dev/blog/bevy-wo...
dubiose.dev
Die Dubiose Dev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Tip for #IndieGameDev / #GameDev working on LARGE games in #bevy Focus harder on plugin isolation. I am breaking my game into workspace crates and the “exceptions” I made are painful. If I knew I would have to break things out into crates I would not have treated isolation as an academic nicety.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
A ton of videos, technical details and explanation of how/why I did things as an #IndieGameDev / #GameDev . As someone who played a lot of #Satisfactory I am really happy with building auto alignment. I think I may have them beat (or at least potentially) #bevy #rust exofactory.net/blog/2026-06...
exofactory.net
A Really Big One: Exoframe Feel, Finished Belts, & Baseplates
Biggest update yet. RustWeek feedback led to major feel improvements for the Exoframe and Global Mode. Spline belts are finally in a place I'm happy with, and building snapping and baseplates make fac...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Why have I never used #Dune3D before. It feels like the best of #OpenSCAD mixed with the best of #FreeCAD Parametric 3D constrains and 3D “sketches” feel amazing.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The feeling when you realize that you need to clean your laptop screen before tuning camera dirt params. It’s a feel of “duh” mixed with relief, mixed with a bit of self judgement. #GameDev #IndieGameDev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
That feeling when your personal infrastructure is #postquantum Feels… cozy…
Screenshot of an OpenSSL command showing post quantum algos being used.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Me last year: Man #Satisfactory belt splines are really janky and rough. Me today working on belt systems: I’m so sorry Sarisfsctoy game devs for every bad thought I ever had for your belts. Belts splines are hard.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Lot of #GameDev / #IndieGameDev stuff here along with lots of technical with video. We now have full 3d spline based belts and a factory planning mode. I go over the why and how of moving from #Factorio style belts to #Satisfactory style. exofactory.net/blog/2026-05... #bevy #rust
exofactory.net
Technical Rework of Belts, and Global Planning Mode
A lot came together this month. Global Planning Mode gives the player a new way to plan factories from above before building them in the Exoframe, while spline belts finally address the tension betwee...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Really happy with the new building animation. Yay #WGSL #shaders the #Bevy implementations are really nice. Also a new trailer and some back end #GameDev / #indiedev stuff. Not too much technical but a few cool visuals. exofactory.net/blog/2026-04...
exofactory.net
Building Animation, Trailer, & Pitch Deck Stuff
This month was quieter on the technical front, but I still had two cool things to show off: a new building spawn animation and a new more gameplay focused trailer. Beyond that, most of the month went ...
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Reposted by Caitlin
Nicolas Roman Posner @nrposner.com · 24/03/2026
Cheering Vectorware on in the hopes they retroactively validate my laziness in never learning CUDA
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
My partner is learning #javascript atm and their discovering the quirks in real time has been endlessly amusing. #programming Funny to see real time reactions. (Shared with permission obs)
A chat showing the strangeness of string int interaction in JS.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
That feeling when you break your hearing aid charger trying to mod it but still need it to hear. #hearingaids #failure #diy #electronics I replaced the battery but ripped off TWO of the usb pads while trying to take off the old connector. Couldn’t get a connection with my old TS80 iron.
A “U” shaped circuit board attached to a bench power supply via wires and clips. Looks pretty dodgy.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Shoutout to the #bevy team for their work on AutoDirectionalNavigation. Almost 700 lines of manual layout building ui code deleted. Huge win for bevy devs and the engine as a whole. #GameDev #indiedev
A screenshot of the terminal running a git command that shows almost 700 lines of code deleted.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Sometimes it just comes down to feel. #GameDev #indiedev
A four-panel comic by Skeleton Claw showing a game playtester in a clinical setting.
• Panel 1: A male doctor asks a seated man, "So did the gameplay feel more balanced?" A female doctor stands nearby holding a clipboard.
• Panel 2: The man rubs his chin thoughtfully and replies, "Shotgun is now pretty op [overpowered]."
• Panel 3: The male doctor points at the man and laughs, revealing, "We only added screenshake and bass!" The female doctor laughs along, with a thought bubble reading "SO GULLIBLE." The man looks mildly annoyed.
• Panel 4: The two doctors high-five enthusiastically, celebrating by chanting "Game dev! Game dev!" while the man sits looking unamused.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Deep technical dive on optimization. The game is MUCH more performant now. If you are into #bevy , #rust , #GameDev , or #indiedev I recommend this one. Sadly no facy images on this one. Just a ton of technical depth. exofactory.net/blog/2026-03...
exofactory.net
Optimizations, PRs, Tooling, & Funds
Spent the month cutting down memory usage and learning tracy. Turns out storing everything in system memory and using PNGs was a bad combo. Also shipped a Bevy bug fix, built a crate search tool, and ...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
For people working in the #Bevy ecosystem I just wrote a simple little site that lets you explore the bevy #crate ecosystem filtering by bevy version. Quite happy with the search system. It’s very basic but I am happy to make improvements and plan on it. bevydex.dev/dex
bevydex.dev
BevyDex - Crate Browser
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
This dev log has a ton of technical detail about moving from a single player game to a multi player game in Bevy with diagrams and everything. I also talk about the #bevy 0.18 migration and the bevy meetup at #FOSDEM exofactory.net/blog/2026-02... #rust #GameDev #indiedev #multiplayer #diagrams
exofactory.net
Multiplayer, Bevy 0.18, and Fosdem
This month was all about adding multiplayer. Turns out it should've been planned for from the start, but the refactor wasn't too bad. Replicon made the networking side approachable. Bevy 0.18 migratio...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
How I feel moving from a single player game to a network multiplayer game with an authoritative server architecture. #bevy #GameDev #indiedev
The opera meme where she is giving everyone a car. Instead the text overlay talks about everything being an event
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
In light or recent events I think a strong European Union founded in shared values is essential. Yes there are flaws. And yes we can purity check our selfs into micro groups but given the global scale of power we need to start with something. #EU #Venezuela #Ukraine
Top half: large USA and chine cubes next to many small Europe country cubes. Bottom half: Large EU, USA, and China cubes. All of equal size.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Ironically a rather productive holiday update. Some technical notes on real time settings application in this one. See you all next year! #rust #bevy #GameDev #indiedev exofactory.net/blog/2025-12...
exofactory.net
Real Time Settings, Save Overhaul, & a Wiki
This month brought auto-saves, crash reporting, and real-time settings. No more restarting the game to change graphics options. ECS made that easier than expected. There's also a wiki now, mostly empt...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
That feeling when your train needs a new cmos battery. #DeutscheBahn #trains #ice2
The clock on an ice train reading 01.01.1970 03:35
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
My induction burner started shorting every time I plugged it in. Conveniently 2 months after the warrantee ended. A bit of multi metering later I found that the Rectifier and one of the IGBTs were dead. €4 in parts fixed it. Saved like €200 by fixing instead of replacing. #RightToRepair #soldering
Two IGBTs and a Bridge along with many other THT parts on a tan PCB. Bulky thick soldering on a high power PCB.The reassembled and working induction burner sitting on the kitchen counter.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Lots of videos in this one. Turns out full screen shaders and drag to place belts are harder than one might think. I think I have a cool thing to contribute to the #Factory game genre. exofactory.net/blog/2025-12... #bevy #GameDev #rust #WGSL
exofactory.net
Draggable Belts, Electricity, & View Modes
This month brought draggable belts, electricity, and new view modes. Belt placement is way less tedious now, buildings need power to run, and global mode finally has useful overlays. The productivity ...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
This one covers porting to #bevy 0.17, moving to Avian for physics, and a lot of QoL fixed. #rust #GameDev #indiedev Lots of images and videos in this one. exofactory.net/blog/2025-11...
exofactory.net
Real Factory Game Quality of Life Changes
A month of fixing things that should’ve been clearer from the start. Building costs actually show up now, machines tell you what they’re doing, and movement got a small upgrade with jumping. The setti...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Just ported my game to #bevy 0.17 and switched physics engines. The Avian physics engine has been a dream. Collider::convex_hull alone brings a tear of joy to my eye. So much nicer to work with compared to Rapier3D #IndieGameDev #Gamedev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Protip for those of you porting your games from #bevy 0.16 to 0.17. Make sure to set Pickable properly on full screen entries. I spent too much time getting scroll working. TLDR: the loading screen that I tweened transparent was still there and was intercepting everything. #IndieGameDev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Maybe it’s all the hours I’ve spent building a factory game, but I wanted to relax with something different. I’ve heard great things about #SilkSong and finally picked it up. It’s fantastic but good god, not relaxing. I just wanted to avoid that “veterinarian in a zoo” feeling while doing #GameDev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Latest Exofactory dev blog post reflecting on Steam next fest and the new updated timeline. I’m pretty exhausted and I hope it doesn’t show through too much lol. Long story short lots of learning. exofactory.net/blog/2025-10...
exofactory.net
Steam Next Fest Reflections
The timeline has shifted after what I learned from Steam Next Fest. The focus now is on building a more polished and feature-rich demo. The event brought a ton of feedback, bug reports, and lessons ab...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
The Exifactory Demo is officially out. Way fewer bugs thanks to the testers particularly on the #Linux build. The game is part of Steam Next and the algorithm really matteres for #IndieGameDev so I would recommend checking and playing the demo early this week store.steampowered.com/app/3615720/...
store.steampowered.com
Exofactory on Steam
Awaken as a forgotten AI on an alien world, your every choice reshapes your technology, environment, and identity. Automate deeply transformative factories in a chill open world, where the story evolv...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Upside of using #bevy and open tooling is you can get your games to compile on non corporate approved architectures. I just got the #aarch64 and #RISCV builds running. If you have real RISC-V hardware and want to test let me know. Here is the game running natively on a Pine Book Pro. #GameDev
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
The Exofactory demo has been soft launched and is available to download on Steam. So so so much work. Lots of game dev specific stuff in this one. Will hard launch as part of Steam Next fest but you can play it now. #GameDev #rust #bevy exofactory.net/blog/2025-10...
exofactory.net
Demo Release and Polish
The demo’s out on Steam for Linux and Windows. Trailer too! Packaging was rougher than expected, testing slipped, and I learned a lot. Animations and systems finally are there. Next up: better accessa...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
There are a lot details in this one. The work I did over last month convinced me that ECS might be by far the best way to build a factory game. If you are interested in alpha testing or technical code details I recommend talking a look. #gamedev #bevy #rust #indie exofactory.net/blog/2025-09...
exofactory.net
Private Alpha, Steam, & Core Functionality
This month the focus was on core systems, including belts, logistics, and performance. A private alpha is planned for September, and we are preparing a short demo for Steam Next Fest in October. The e...
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I recently finished my little side project. A custom designed Alice layout #Keyboard focused on being lightweight and travel friendly. Powered by the #rust / #rustlang based RMK firmware, and designed in #kicad Don’t laugh too much at my soldering and bodge wire.
Small Alice keyboard with red key caps and a blue caseThe back of the keyboard with a red bodge wireSoldered on key hot swap socketsThe front of the keyboard with only the WASD letters in place. Light green key switches are showing.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Happy to publish the latest Exofactory devblog. Long story short then Belnder/Bevy Skein plugin is amazing and terrain level of detail is annoying. Way more technical detail in this one. #bevy #GameDev #rust #rustlang exofactory.net/blog/2025-08...
exofactory.net
Exofactory
Exofactory is a indie factory game that explores the id and ego. As you build your factory the story unravels based on how you build your factory. Available to wishlist on Steam now.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
It feels weird to bring a desktop to the woods but #bornhack is the type of place where you can do that. Even with the rain it was worth it. #gamedev
Desktop screen at night in a pavilion. Game dev village sign on a pavilion. Table with several laptops under a pavilion.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
A bit nervous but not seeing much #bevy content. Working on a factory game in #rust with #bevy - just hit Steam! If you’re into #indiedev dev logs, I have an RSS feed. This week: art, but usually ECS challenges and procedural terrain pain. First large-scale game! exofactory.net/blog/2025-07...
exofactory.net
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Tariffs can be smart policy—if they’re stable. Say a 30% chip tariff locked in for 10 years: companies invest, build plants, plan ahead. But if policymakers flop around like a fish, no one bets on it. You get the pain without the payoff.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
really wish #uutils was under a copyleft license. It’s cool but using it just makes it easier for mega corps to lock down things even more. Yah #rust / #rustlang is faster and more secure, but #GPL is better for society.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
For people working in #rustlang / #rust If you are considering a CPU upgrade I strongly recommended NOT putting it off. The faster compile times are nice, but the increased responsiveness of the lsp/rust-analyze is GAME CHANGING. Before everything took a hundred ms. On my new CPU it’s all instant.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Hot take. Curb Your Enthusiasm is a bad show. It’s bad like Sinefeld is bad. Like I don’t get how people enjoy it. I couldn’t even finish the pilot.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a hard drive show up after soldering on a bodge wire to fix a broken pin. Family pictures saved. In other news I suddenly see why people would choose cone topped soldering irons over chisel.
Bottom side of an IDE hard drive. A soldered on wire runs from the logic board to the IDE adapter.
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Caitlin @mholiv.bsky.social · 11/10/2024
Really liking the look of the #gleam programming language. Does anyone have any experience with it? Like I really like the BEAM VM but really don’t like Elixer (and really don’t want to work in Erlang)
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