iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This week @michellerakar.itch.io is participating in the #GDEXGameJam and I joined in to help with brainstorming and some background art. Finished up the Swiss George map last night. It's a play place with ball pits and tunnels. Took some time but I'm really happy with the shading! #gamdev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

After spending some extra time polishing our #GGJ project, Macca Masquerade is officially ready to play! It's a turn based tactics game where every opponent you defeat in battle gives you a new mask, which in turn unlocks new abilities. thegek.itch.io/macca-masque... #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames

thegek.itch.io

Macca Masquerade by The Gek Games

Unmask the Cult in this Strategy RPG

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Meant to post this a little while ago but got carried away working on last minute #GGJ26 features. I managed to get all of the enemy attack logic fully functional! She has a whole set of conditions that tell her what to do, and her 5 different actions all work now too. #GGJ #gamedev #indiedev

Lots of fun percentages to determine her likely moves

Snull's 5 potential actions she can take

It's hard to type some of these really long if statements in the tiny box in RPG Maker so I found it easier to space it out in Notepad first

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Working on turning this project into an actual playable game. Turn mechanics are live so it alternates between you and the enemy (and has an icon to show it). Also started on my most dreaded part - enemy logic! Got her movement completed, next is making her attack #GGJ26 #GGJ #gamedev #indiedev

The player and enemy icons have a nice transition to move in and out once they swap

Did some more logic planning on paper. Was quite tricky to make the enemy prioritize certain paths and randomize if both paths are equal. Also had to make sure she doesn't step on us

Definitely getting hard to keep all of these if statements straight in here!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Our "Dresser" mechanic is complete! It spawns at a random location (with a fancy teleport animation) and avoids landing on the player or enemy spaces. If you interact with it, a Change Mask button appears to refresh your MP. Also animated the blue Move Range spaces #GGJ26 #GGJ #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

More #GGJ26 progress! I spent the last several hours working on battle mechanics. You can now switch between Move and Atk mode, and perform 4 different Atk actions. Set up a bunch of stats and calculations. It was actually really helpful to write some of this code on paper! #GGJ #gamedev #indiedev

Color coding made this a lot easier to look at when I referenced it

Buttons are placeholder, but.... everything actually worked on my first try! I was kind of shocked

Continuing the practice of calling different common events for various functions to keep the code tidy and efficient

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Day 2 of #GGJ26! I started today by getting some character sprites set up. We decided to go with a low-poly, wooden figures look for the characters. I'm done making the art for the main character, Kali. Now I just need to create some of the enemies and the collectable masks #GGJ #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

It took a while to get this movement to behave correctly. You can move anywhere the blue space touches, and clicking End Turn readjusts the movement range. I ended up using a ton of math to calculate those positions. And a lot of trial and error to get borders to work #GGJ #GGJ26 #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Been working for the last several hours on getting the battle movement mechanics up and running. I was able to draw a grid and have the player move between spaces... but more importantly, prevent movement on blocked spaces. And I did it with common events too! #GGJ #GGJ26 #gamedev #indiedev

Drawing the movement guides on the correct spaces... using common events!

This took a lot of AND and OR conditions throughout our code

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

The #GlobalGameJam is officially underway! We've got a pretty ambitious tactics RPG planned for our project this year, so fingers crossed for a lot of progress this weekend. I've got my yearly energy drink and a checklist full of battle mechanics, so time to get to work! #GGJ26 #gamedev #indiedev

The only time of year that I drink energy drinks!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

@pidgezero.one I gotchu. This file was actually set up really nicely, so it was pretty easy to manipulate the joints. The only issue was that the opacity masks on the textures were a little confusing, so the tail and hair material look a bit weird

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Game 2 of #Nay50 is called Harrugh Ball. This one is a pretty straightforward dodgeball style game with animal creatures competing in the desert. I did the programming on this one and @michellerakar.itch.io did the art. Added walking, ball pick up, throwing, and score keeping #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Our first #Nay50 project was called Dump Typing, a keyboarding educational game that requires you to type phrases within the time limit. The whole theme of the game involves characters racing each other through a garbage dump, which is used to display your progress/timer #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Earlier this month @michellerakar.itch.io and I started on a Unity project called Nay50 (very much inspired by UFO50) where we develop very short experimental games, almost like a rapid-fire game jam. It was very fun and we managed to build the foundations of 2 games in 1 night! #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Got the chance to work on another map for @michellerakar.itch.io's #RPGMaker Game Jam project. This one is the Services/NoHacks map. Lots of servers, computer equipment, wires, and general tech-y looking scenery. It was really fun to design! #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Another new map for our #RPGMaker Game Jam project! This one is a combination of the Lobby and the hallway where the laser puzzles will take place. I tried to give it a sort of futuristic, almost space-ship like feel to it #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Another month, another game jam! @michellerakar.itch.io was interested in participating in the official #RPGMaker Game Jam and came up with a really clever idea. I'm not as involved as I usually am for GGJ but I did volunteer to help with a few backgrounds. This is Bailey's Bikes #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Tonight @michellerakar.itch.io and I decided to make some improvements to our #GGJ25 project. I think we'll still do one more session of work on it before we call it completely done, but we made great progress. I spent most of tonight finally making real art for the world map #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Our #GGJ25 project is ready to go! @michellerakar.itch.io wanted to clean up a few bugs before we shared it, but now it's officially live and playable. Join Piko on his journey through the Bobolo River in this deck building strategy game thegek.itch.io/world-bub #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

thegek.itch.io

World Bub by The Gek Games

Strategy Deck Builder: Traveling on a Journey

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Didn't get the chance to make full art for the world map (you know when you spend more than 5 mins on "placeholder" art, it's gonna end up as more than just a placeholder lol). But with Quijiu's lighting plugin, I managed to at least spruce it up a bit #GGJ25 #GlobalGameJam #indiedev #gamedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I think I dozed off at one point while I was working on this but I'm still pretty happy with how it turned out! This is the main map/UI where battles take place. Running on pure adrenaline at this point. Let's all finish strong! #GGJ25 #GlobalGameJam #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

It's getting down to the wire for #GGJ25 and we're trying to squeeze in every last feature we can before the deadline! I spent the most of the morning implementing battle mechanics. Got movement, melee atk, range atk, and healing abilities working. Also enemy AI! #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Just solved a difficult programming hurdle in our #GGJ25 project! @michellerakar.itch.io was working on deck/discard mechanics and running into some issues, so we got on screen share and talked through all of the logic until we figured out the bugs. Great collab! #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Been making lots of progress on #GGJ25 today! I sketched out, designed, and implemented Chilzby's Lounge, which is the opening area of the game. I've been messing around with lighting and fog effects, so the bottom image is how it appears in-game with VFX turned on #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Just finished implementing my World Map into the game. Navigation between spaces works flawlessly and an "error" sfx plays on blocked spaces. Set up the rank system and battle spaces check if you're at the proper rank before initiating battle #GGJ25 #GlobalGameJam #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Made good progress on a Location Preview Window that will appear on the world map when you step on different spaces. It shows basic info about your opponent like rank an rewards. Did a very quick concept then spent quite a bit of time on the full version #GGJ25 #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

Face art is not final and is using a drawing that @Sarena did for something else

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

Day 1 of #GGJ25 has begun! @michellerakar.itch.io got the project setup and did some sprite work earlier in the day and I started on the world map. First I sketched a little diagram to plan it out, then I put in a rough grid placeholder art asset to use for testing #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

Rest stops are placed where events happen and the other spaces are for battles. You need to increase your rank to the required level to fight the character on the space

I translated the diagram into a working map design. This is just placeholder art (at least hopefully, unless we run out of time). But it should serve as a good layout for getting the mechanics up and running

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

It's officially #GlobalGameJam season again! Full development of our game won't really kick off til the weekend, but the #GGJ25 theme has already been revealed so we've been doing some brainstorming. We've settled on a main character, so I did a little sketch of Piko to get things started #gamedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 28/01/2024

I've had a productive #GGJ24 day so far! Managed to program most of the database entries & event logic for the recruitment system. Also made placeholder maps and a navigation guide for all of the environments. Not bad for a few hours of work! #globalgamejam2024 #gamedev #indiedev

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 27/01/2024

Sneak preview of some behind-the-scenes plans for our game. The basic idea revolves around recruiting characters by performing the correct actions. This spreadsheet helps us keep all of those requirements and conditions straight #GGJ2024 #gamedev #indiedev #GlobalGameJam

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 27/01/2024

It's that time of year again. The Global Game Jam! @michellerakar.bsky.social got an early start this afternoon and drew an awesome character for our protagonist. I've spent the evening doing some BG tests in various styles. We're gonna make 3D environments this year, something a bit different!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/11/2023

Happy Halloween everyone! Been a while since I've done a full drawing like this, so I decided to dust off my tablet and draw a fun Halloween scene of The Nays in The Gek World. It was pretty fun to do all of the lighting effects for the candles and Gek jack-o-lanterns

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

I'm going to #WhenWeWereYoung music festival in Vegas this weekend. So many bands that I want to see playing across 4 different stages! So I decided to draw up my own little schedule. This is gonna be so much fun!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

I guess this is home now. I was actually thinking of returning to the early internet era where you're known by your user name and not your real name. But I realize a lot of Twitter folks might not recognize me in these transitional days. So keeping both for now, TBD on what I end up going with

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