iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yaaaay this was the one I voted for! The end of the demo did such a good job dropping teases that I just had to find out what happens next

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

These animations are stunning! There is so much fluidity going on there. I love it!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My favorite place in the world! Congrats, you two. Be sure to take lots of photos

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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

It was a fun challenge to program this game. Movement on a board is trickier than you'd expect, but the real challenge came from implementing all of the enemy logic. Not to mention all of the art and design elements as well! We're really proud of this and hopefully it was worth the extra time spent!

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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 · 26/02/2026

They proudly proclaimed no microtransactions in their writeup so I feel pretty optimistic about that part

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

I actually did this part in 3 steps! First I wrote down all of my ideas for the logic down on paper in color coded psuedo code. Then I wrote out some of the actual JavaScript commands in Notepad since they were pretty long. Finally transferred them over to the actual RPG Maker project

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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

Here's a high quality closeup view of the Dresser Teleportation animation. (It's more of a table than a dresser, but that's just how we've been referring to it in the code). This is where you'll be changing your equipped masks

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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 It looks like Bsky automatically adds a black background to transparent pngs. Feel free to DM me an email address and I can send you the file with proper transparency

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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 · 16/01/2026

This is extremely cool, and very inspiring! I can't wait to see the closeups

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

These characters are so colorful and full of life! I love your style

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. The industry was exploding in growth back when creatives were in charge. But then all of the money-hungry business folks saw opportunity and came in to squeeze every last penny out of it. It's sad how much this space has changed over the past 15 years

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

The c920 is the same one I've been using every day for the past several years and I can definitely recommend it. Very reliable compared to my past cameras. Additional fun fact: I've noticed that this is the same webcam they use to take your photo when you go through immigration at the airport lol

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

It's a necessity for my mouse to be ambidextrous (side buttons on both left and right). I've used the Sades Revolver, Cougar 250M, and Corsair M55 (all of them great but also unfortunately no longer available). Currently looking for a new one so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

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

It was my first time using C# in quite a while, so it was a fun challenge getting back into programming. There were a few hiccups along the way but I'm happy how much we were able to accomplish in just a few hours. For a bonus, here was a crazy bug I encountered when setting up the throwing mechanic

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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 · 11/09/2025

You just described my favorite aesthetic! That's why I love the original Soul Hackers so much. I feel like it nailed that feeling perfectly.

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

Thanks for sharing, this was a really interesting interview. I love hearing developer stories from that era of gaming history! Making Peach's last name Toadstool was a very clever way to fix the localization difference.

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

UFO 50 is back on the menu! I dipped back in myself the other day. Still so many cherries to collect

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

I really need to watch these movies some day. I love the first movie to death and have probably seen it a dozen times. But every time I finally sit down to watch the trilogy, I start over with the first one again and then just never continue with the others

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

As someone who really wants to believe, that's a bit disheartening. But that absolutely sounds like a plausible way for this conversation to go. Thanks for providing some clarity!

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Nimbus (Steve Rakar) @nimbusstev.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

The interviewer did mention Chrono Trigger though, so I'd imagine whatever Horii said in response to that question is where the report is coming from (even if he himself never said the words "Chrono Trigger"). Anybody understand Italian so we can get some clarity?

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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

We both learned game design using super old versions of RPGMaker, so we like to keep with tradition and develop in that for GGJ every year (though we've since upgraded to the modern MZ version instead old school RM2k3 lol). This code snippet in particular is in JavaScript

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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

My girlfriend got me some awesome new Ohuhu watercolor markers for Christmas so I thought this would be a good chance to try them out. I learned some new tips for working with watercolor markers and I thought it came out pretty good. Here are some process photos

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