iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 23/09/2026

It is important that developing your game occasionally makes you go "hehehe"

Game screenshot of the player standing near a pneumatic tube thingy with an envelope symbol on it. There is one tube in the slot and one tube on the floor.

Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 19/09/2026

Q: What's got five switches and is going to be in the MAGFest Indie Arcade? A: This guy! nextlevelbanana.itch.io/nuclear-logi... Flip 5 switches to "type" one letter at a time. Try not to blow up the world.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 18/09/2026

You can catch mola molas in Mistria lmaooooooo

Screenshot of an inventory bar from Fields of Mistria showing 2 ocean sunfish in slot 2

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 17/09/2026

Y'all, every time Ragon gives me a new asset it makes the game look 100% more like a game. THE TREES

Screenshot of the Spine demo character standing on a flat plane of grass. A few tall 2D hand drawn pine trees are scattered around. There's a 3D wooden cabin to the players right. And the ground is dotted with placeholder weeds and trash.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 15/09/2026

Clocking in for my donation processing shift for @framefatales.com ! It sure would be a shame if everyone donated a bunch of money in the next few hours and made me work hard

Selfie with my laptop screen showing discord and the tv showing Fatales

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 13/09/2026

It just occurred to me that this is probably going to be part of the task as soon as I hit play again

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 05/09/2026

Found the free Red Bull. Mmm, tastes like grad school

Photo of a hand holding a can of Red Bull

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 05/09/2026

Happy PAX! Here's the annual bad lighting hotel selfie

Full length mirror selfie. I'm wearing a baseball uniform that says Milwaukee 01 on the front

Mirror selfie of the back of the jersey. It says Dugnutt 01

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 04/09/2026

I didn't realize I did this until they asked

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 04/09/2026

The first vowel is a schwa what do you MEAN "Captain Jean-Luc Peacan" get outta here

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 01/09/2026

I have never felt the need to git blame a book until now

John said, "The bad guys are already at the house. I know they are. They have the skins; they just need to feed them to the egg."
John was one of those people who comforted himself by repeating the main plot points out loud.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 22/08/2026

The barista and I agree: it's time for fall

Photo of a cappuccino with latte art of a fanged smiling jack-o'-lantern

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 08/08/2026

Having a garage sale and game store pop-up this weekend! Swing by and help me pay off my new tooth!

Photo of a computer game set up next to a little grid wall of stickers

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 26/07/2026

Me: ok, really gotta lock in and be frugal for awhile until I pay off this surgery Craigslist:

Screenshot of a Craigslist ad for "vintage 1980's Pepsi Neon Sign - Excellent Condition" and a photo of the lit up vintage Pepsi sign

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 31/05/2026

Alt control stage is back today, come on through!

Me standing behind and pointing at my game setup

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 30/05/2026

Too busy to post but come by the stage and play my game!

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 26/05/2026

PIGCON build complete and I'm SO stoked with how it turned out

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 25/05/2026

I wrote up how I got Godot to control LEDs in one of my alt control games. Is a hack? Probably! Is it easy? Sort of! nextlevelbanana.com/blog/reactiv...

A photo of a glowing green orb on a table. Part of the big button controller from the game Guess Hue can be seen in the background.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 24/05/2026

The tutorials available for alt control

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 17/05/2026

Mainframe online (Notice it's not a cardboard box anymore. Also don't notice the computer, because it's ✨ inside the enclosure ✨)

A photo of a black box sitting in front of a monitor. The box has a row of 5 LEDs and under them a row of toggle switches. A glowing white metal push button is centered underneath. On the front face there's a smaller, red metal push button. A binder next to it is labeled NLB/9 terminal interface manual. The monitor is cyan text on a black screen, showing menu options.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 13/05/2026

Today I realized you can just put jump rings through pin backs and convert a pin into a pendant

A selfie showing off a King of All Cosmos pin being worn as a necklace

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 25/04/2026

Upgrading my terminal interface for PIGCON. Aka, adding a billion LEDs. (Hopefully it won't be living in a cardboard box for much longer either! But one thing at a time)

A back box with five toggle switches. Above each switch is an LED, growing green/white/blue/white/green. Below the toggles is a metal button with a glowing ring around it labeled SEND

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 20/04/2026

My new alt control game, Nuclear Logistics Bureau's Typing Challenge, is coming to PIGCON! Come on by and flip some switches (and please try to avoid ending civilization). tickets: pigcon.pigsquad.com

Screenshot of the top of a document labelled NLB/9 Char Map. It shows 2 columns of letters with the five-toggle configurations. All down is A. Down Down Down Down Up is B. Down Down Down Up Down is C, etc.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 19/03/2026

I know no one will be half as excited about this mirror as me, but I'm posting it anyway. I found a mirror for my dining room.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 02/03/2026

I made an alt-control typing game! Toggle 5 switches to talk to an old mainframe 1 character at a time. Also playable with a normal keyboard if you don't have an NLB/9 terminal at home. Be sure to download the PDF, you'll be lost without it. nextlevelbanana.itch.io/nuclear-logi...

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 27/02/2026

Making sure all the paths lead somewhere. My jam game has seven endings

A sketchbook page showing a messy map of numbered nodes. Some paths are highlighted in different colors. Terminal nodes are colored in.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 23/02/2026

I'm writing my jam game as a web game, using HTML/CSS/JS (React). I can't get over how effective this super lazy "CRT effect" is. background: var(--black); text-shadow: -2px 0px 2px var(--pink), 2px 0px 2px var(--darker-cyan); color: var(--cyan); That's it!

A screenshot of ASCII art spelling out in large letters "NLB/9", followed by the text "Next level business machine rev 9. Login? (y)" and a cursor prompt. The letters are cyan on a black background, slightly blurry/fuzzy due to the pink shadow on one side and the blue shadow on the other side.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 16/02/2026

I am also doing a solo jam project this week because I had this idea and now I have to see it through. Made this controller yesterday. You use it to "type", one character at a time.

A diagram labeled NLB/9 char map, with a series of diagrams showing the toggle positions for each letter of the alphabet. All down is A. All down but last up is B. DDDUD is C. Etc.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 14/02/2026

It totally works. Not as a keyboard though. I removed its brain. It is now only a tilt controller d pad. I'll glue the 2 back on later, probably

Inside of keyboard, showing a mat with the numpad section cut off and replaced by an Adafruit Circuit Playground.

Front view of num pad. The two key has been removed and a piece of the new board is sticking up through the hole. That's where you would plug in a battery iirc

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 14/02/2026

The Build Your Own Game Jam has started and I just got the dumbest idea for our controller. Gonna try to shove an accelerometer into a keyboard, let's see if it works

Photo of sacrificial keyboard. It's cheap and already missing a key

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 02/02/2026

New devlog up on my Patreon: crafting a crafting system www.patreon.com/posts/149534... (I'm making a farming sim! It's called Repairia!)

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 09/01/2026

oh hey, shout out to the event photographers for capturing me in my natural habitat (the rhythm arcade)

Photo of me playing the Groove Coaster machine

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 06/01/2026

Let's goooooo (to bed because I only got three hours of sleep before my flight)

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 03/01/2026

The GDQ break channel that @marlowedobbe.com and I made for a jam just got merged! If you're watching #AGDQ this week, keep an eye out for it. I think it turned out really fun. Donations reduce the HP of the foe, and when defeated, a new one spawns. So stoked to see it in action!

Screenshot of the break channel. Styled like a retro RPG, the GDQ character Velocity is on the left with sword and shield, facing off against Softlock, a cloud creature shaped like a lock. A text box in the middle says "Chat donated for 195!"

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 01/01/2026

Day job: * Made a virtual pet for my hackathon project and put it in production * FINALLY got promoted to senior engineer * Survived absolute organizational chaos while dramatically increasing our NPS score * FINALLY shipped a big shiny feature users have begged for since 2021 * Got laid off 🙃

Coworkers playing my MAGFest game during our annual in-person week

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 01/01/2026

Travel: * Visited National Harbor, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle, Maui, Bahamas, Dominican Republic * Flew private for the first and likely only time * Spent the night on the train (while trying and failing to go to GDC) * Went camping exactly once, didn't get ticks, breathed a sigh of relief

View from the interior of the private flight (not a jet. definitely not a jet), featuring me and 2 former coworkers

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 01/01/2026

Some bucket-list-worthy 2025 highlights (🧵) Game Dev: * Showed a game at MAGFest * Showed a game at Portland Retro Gaming Expo * Gave a talk about alt control * Fulfilled a Kickstarter * Built a custom arcade cabinet * Rented an actual office for coworking with gamedev pals

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 17/12/2025

I like yule log videos, but every year the options get more and more drowned out by AI slop. The good internet does still exist though: Today I found a whole channel of Norwegian campfires. www.youtube.com/@NorwegianFi...

Photo of my living room. Laptop and game controller rest on end tables in the foreground. A campfire video is playing on the TV. Christmas tree in the background.

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 06/12/2025

The Banana Panel: an LED display of the information most relevant to me, NextLevelBanana. - Current weekday and date - Next buses at the stops near me - Stats for the PIGSquad Advent of Code leaderboard Still need to add weather, but then I'm out of ideas. Any other fun public APIs I can use?

Photo of a 64x32 led panel that says "FRI" real big and then "Dec 05" underneath it

Photo of a 64x32 LED panel that says "FX2 <- 2" on one line and "70 N 12" below it. (This is bus information)

Photo of a 64x32 LED panel that says "Advent of Code", then a line in yellow that has a star followed by the number 27, then a a line in white that has a star followed by the number 1

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 04/12/2025

If you're in PIGSquad and doing #adventOfCode, join our leaderboard! (It's not a competition. It's about making progress together!) ... I'm a puzzle behind because I got distracted by discovering the API

Photo of a 64x32 LED panel displaying "Advent of Code", then a yellow asterisk next to the number 22, then a white asterisk followed by the number one

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 28/11/2025

Scrolling through an asset pack of bathroom fixtures. You know, just everyday objects

Screenshot of 8 pixel art objects. The first seven are variations of bathtub, but the last one is titled "animated blood altar"

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Nextlevelbanana @ home @nextlevelbanana.online · 26/11/2025

You can now go into the shed AND back out again

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