iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I turned all of my thumbnail background sketches into rough digital sketches for my #GDEXGameJam project. Now I'm laying out rough collisions in the engine to figure out the scale and positioning of everything. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Here's a close-up of the run cycle in Photoshop before I imported it into the engine too. I wanted to really focus on the highlights and contrast in the shading. I was inspired by the SNES game DBZ Hyper Dimension for the art style.

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I finished the protagonist Yaguzi's run cycle for my #GDEXGameDev project! I imported it into #RPGMaker and got to test him running around the map too. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 20/09/2026

I sketched the background designs for the rest of the maps that I'm planning for my #GDEXGameJam project. I like planning them on paper first so I can be rough and focus on the layout of them all. I decided Lilim Town is gonna be vertical instead of horizontal, unlike the others. #GameDev #IndieDev

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I spent most of today programming the core mechanics in my #GDEXGameJam project! @nimbusstev.bsky.social joined me to draw one of the major backgrounds too. I added new placeholder UI related to the new character ability mechanics we came up with. Making good progress! #RPGMaker #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 19/09/2026

The #GDEXGameJam started today, so I decided to concept a little game idea centered around Sir Dude World for it! I threw together this little test in #RPGMaker for a dialogue box. Not sure about the transition and font yet, but just trying some things out to see what works best. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 13/09/2026

I'm usually not a fan of the flashlight mechanic in games, but I decided to make one for this short room in my #RPGMaker side project, Vote Milkshake. It works similarly to how the follow light did in my Stage Left game, using events and player position to track it. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 19/07/2026

I made a running animation for Ralphie in the Linkship Competition. I wanted to focus on running instead of walking because the pace is a bit faster. I also implemented 4 frames instead of the typical 3 in #RPGMaker games. And used a plugin to allow for a different idle animation #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 18/07/2026

I made some progress on our Linkship Competition game today! I've been working on some cooldown mechanics. Once you use an ability, their icon fills up until the cooldown is complete. Then, you can use it again and repeat! Health bars and resource bars are working too. #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 31/05/2026

@nimbusstev.bsky.social and I made a lot of progress on our Linkship Competition game today! I made some basic battle mechanics like cooldown timers, button mashing, and holding buttons. Here's the Navigator's rechargeable weapon used to sabotage the enemy's linkship. #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 23/05/2026

It's been that time of year where work takes over my personal life, so I haven't had a lot of time to work on personal projects. I'm hoping I can get back into things again soon, though! In the meantime, I've just been trying to stay creative while playing games that let me draw and customize.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! I really want to get back into my personal projects, but I've been working extra hours, and when I'm not working, I've been a bit too drained, so I've just been playing video games in my free time.

These games include Videoverse, Tomodachi Life, and Desktop Explorers.

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 26/04/2026

The other night, I decided to make an old-style website using HTML and CSS, designed to look like it was made 20 years ago. I used p5.js, so I wouldn't have to figure out hosting for it. This was a fun little project I made in a night! 🔗 Check it out here: editor.p5js.org/Sarena/full/...

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 28/03/2026

I'm heading back into development on our game, previously called The Note Competition! We still don't have a title (tentatively WING Competition), but we had a brainstorming session the other night. So I looked through our inspirations and drew a few sprite style tests for Urom. #IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 24/03/2026

I updated some of the visuals in our little #RPGMaker personality quiz side project. Then I added a results screen with information about the character, a way to learn more about them, and the option to retake the quiz. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 22/03/2026

My friends and I were talking about making our own personality quizzes for our characters, so I spontaneously made this quick little test in #RPGMaker. When you select a choice, it adds points to a specific character, and then at the end of the questions, picks who has the most. #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 15/03/2026

I'm happy to share that we officially finished our #GGJ26 project, Macca Masquerade! We've been working nonstop, debugging and adding more features over the past month. I'll share the link to play it tomorrow, but for now, some screenshots for #ScreenshotSaturday. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 06/03/2026

I updated the challenger selection UI in our #GGJ26 project to match the battle UI and dialogue boxes a bit more now that we have a more centralized theming. Also not pictured here, but I made a lot of enemy behavior updates tonight too! #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 05/03/2026

I finally wrote the rest of the dialogue for our #GGJ26 project tonight! I also did a lot of bug testing and overall tried to finalize the last major parts that are left. Still working through some bugs, but hoping to wrap this game up in the next week or so! #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 04/03/2026

I updated some of the UI buttons in our #GGJ26 project. Because I added the keys/buttons you press to use them, it caused some overlap. So I rearranged them to be in the places you'd expect and ended up redesigning them a bit to fit into the new layout. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 03/03/2026

I finally added the defeat animations for all of the characters to our #GGJ26 project tonight! Once you defeat an enemy, you unmask them and take their mask, which you can use in battle. I drew the faces previously, it was just a matter of saving assets out to use here. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 01/03/2026

We made a lot of big updates to our #GGJ26 project tonight! We gave ourselves a deadline to finish it up in the next week or so, so I'm looking forward to sharing the final version then. In the meantime, here's the finished character select screen with all the characters! #GGJ #IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 23/02/2026

I added some abilities that extend the player's movement range in our #GGJ26 project. This meant rewriting our movement code and adding to how the tiles are spawned. #GGJ #IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 22/02/2026

We made some more progress on our #GGJ26 game today! I drew Gold Mask, and we worked together to add ranged attacks for the player. I updated some of our button icons to include PS4 support and be bigger. And I used parameters to set up multiple battles and mask abilities! #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 17/02/2026

I spent today adding controller support to our #GGJ26 project! It ended up being more involved than I thought it'd be, so I ended up writing a plugin to remap keys to specific controller buttons. But it's now fully playable with a controller! #GGJ #GameDevIndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 16/02/2026

I've been adding keyboard support to the mask equip menu in our #GGJ26 project. I added the ability to use the arrow keys to move left, right, up, and down to the nearest mask (including gaps for locked masks). It also highlights the current one. I'll add UI keys next! #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 15/02/2026

I added keyboard support for the character selection screen in our #GGJ26 project! Now you can use the mouse to hover or the arrow keys to move between characters. I also added the confirm key that appears over their name to indicate what button to press. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 14/02/2026

I'm working on adding some keyboard/controller functionality to our #GGJ26 game. I have it mostly all set up in the battles, so it displays the current key that's bound, and then when you press that key, it emulates clicking the image files. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 13/02/2026

I added descriptions to the attack buttons when you hover over them in our #GGJ26 project. This way, the player can know what the attacks do before clicking on them. I based the logic on the Mask Menu that I made earlier. #GGJ #IndieDev #GameDev

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 09/02/2026

I made a lot of progress on our #GGJ26 project today! I programmed a Mask Menu so the player can now collect different masks and equip them after defeating enemies. Once equipped, Kali wears it in battle and dialogue too. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 08/02/2026

I updated the enemy attacks in our #GGJ26 project so that it now shows the range of the attack they're using before they use it. This works for all types of ranges, whether it's close or far away. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 06/02/2026

I ended up reformatting a lot of our enemy movement and attack code logic for our #GGJ26 project so we could scale it up for multiple types of battles. I also fixed the diagonal movement and spawn points of the attack squares too. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 05/02/2026

I made some minor updates today to our #GGJ26 project. I updated the save screen and wrote a script to rotate out the first mask when you get a new one. I also added some color and sound effects to the battles. Wrapping up the minor updates to start on bigger upcoming ones! #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 04/02/2026

I fixed the last high-priority bug for our #GGJ26 project! The player could walk on top of the enemy due to how we had the movement set up, so I added a bunch more checks for the ranges and inputs to prevent that from happening. I also added attack squares and a tutorial. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 03/02/2026

I had some major breakthroughs on debugging our #GGJ26 project tonight! I figured out the logic to fix our movement spaces bug and how to prevent diagonal attacks. Then I also made a little tutorial text pop up when you first use all of your MP to better guide the player. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 03/02/2026

I've been working on some minor bug fixes and cleaning up some code today for our #GGJ26 project! I started by tracking all of our picture IDs in a sheet. Then I updated masks and attacks to use Database Classes and Skills so I could store them more easily in variables. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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We wrapped up our #GGJ26 project with some last-minute bug fixing up until the end! We finished a very short version of our idea, but we're planning to make updates and expand it in the weeks to come. I'll post the link then, but here are a few last areas I helped out on! #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

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I spent more time making the title screen than I usually do for our #GGJ project this year! I had a lot of fun playing around with lighting effects and gradients to get the lighting I was envisioning for this scene. I just need to import it into the game next. #GGJ26 #GameDev #IndieDev

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I've been working on the challenger select screen for our #GGJ project, and finally finished the three characters we're focusing on for this first demo. Not sure if they'll all make it in, but we have options now! I also added buttons for the UI. #GGJ26 #GameDev #IndieDev

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