iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Neither. The game is coming out almost exactly as I wanted — I’m not cutting scope, and Im not ashamed of the result. The shame is about how much time it cost, because of me.

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The Blessed Fool on Steam

That's why shame wins. A couple hours of gameplay cost 2 years. But you know what kept me going all this time? I knew for certain I was doing something important — not just for myself, but for millions of others. If even one person says the game helped them somehow, those 2 years were worth it.

store.steampowered.com

The blessed fool arrives in a strange city consumed by fear and violence to save its people from a new regime. But do they even want to be saved? Immerse yourself in a world where every step is a chal...

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I can't blame the "bad" programmers who kept leaving. Can't blame the first artist for drawing poorly. Can't excuse myself for ditching the project for weeks. I picked those programmers. I wrote the brief. I approved the work. I, and only I, am to blame for these 2 years.

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And here we smoothly arrive at why shame outweighs joy. This game could've been made in six months, a year at most. But because of my own laziness, stupidity, constant frustration, lack of money, and other life circumstances, this project stretched to two years and four months.

There was a catch too: the mentor got paid for the last tasks but never delivered — by then they likely wouldn't have helped anyway. I built all the systems myself and merged the locations. Only the composer stayed the whole way — her music was so good, testing it 30 times over never wore me out.

We started working in September 2025. I'll describe this in detail — it might help someone. First we wrote technical documentation listing all the game's systems and entities. Then, for each system, the mentor wrote fairly detailed tasks. Those task constraints helped the most.

From then on I decided to do everything myself and started the Godot project again. You're probably wondering why not just finish the almost-done project. Because back then I still couldn't tell a method from a class. To make sure I'd finish, I found a mentor who helped a lot early on.

Finding programmers was the most interesting part — there were four. #1 vanished right away, #2 did ~20% and vanished, #3 built 3 systems and vanished. #4 was the most brutal — he did almost everything, then honestly said he couldn't continue, too busy. That's when I lost faith in programmers.

While the artist drew, I tried to learn Godot. It went terribly. At best I'd reach the inventory system, and that wore me out completely. I started looking for a programmer to save time, while working on it myself. I restarted the project 25-30 times — the chaos I made was impossible to escape.

Development started in June 2024. I quickly found an artist, and we drew 70% of the sprites in six months, but in February 2025 the main artist I worked with on Plowing came back. We had to redraw everything. Look at the attached screenshots — the question "why" should disappear right away.

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

One week left until The Blessed Fool is released. I'm so glad I finally finished this project — it took me 2 years. Two feelings are boiling inside me: joy and shame. Below is a short story of how these two years went, and why shame outweighs joy in me🧵 #pixelart #gamedev #gaming #indiegame

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Thank you! It’s nice to hear that. Although Dostoevsky wasn’t the main reference.

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Thanks a lot! I hope you like it.

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who played The Blessed Fool demo during Steam Next Fest🎉 Your feedback, bug reports, and comments helped a lot. I’ve already fixed several reported issues and will keep improving the game before release. The Blessed Fool releases September 30, 2026. #pixelart #indiegame

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The Blessed Fool is participating in Steam Next Fest (June 15–22). If you enjoy atmospheric games and pixel art, give the demo a try. Found a bug or have feedback? Feel free to message me. If you enjoy the demo, please Wishlist the game! store.steampowered.com/app/3396560/...

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Thank you for opening this discussion. I’ve posted a reply on Steam. I also appreciate the feedback.

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Thank you very much! I already knew about this bug. I'm already working on a solution.

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

The demo version of The Blessed Fool is finally out🥳 Don’t forget to add the game to your wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/3396560/... And please, if you want to share your thoughts or report a bug, feel free to message me. #pixel #pixelart #gamedev #GodotEngine #gaming #indiegame

store.steampowered.com

The Blessed Fool on Steam

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been polishing the demo for my main game while also continuing work on my card game. And today, my project officially passed Steam moderation — which means I’m now confirmed to take part in the June 2026 Steam Next Fest🎉 #gamedev #GodotEngine #gaming #indiegame

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YouTube video by Grazhdanskaya Oborona - Topic

I want to share the album I listened to the most this week. It’s an old favorite of mine — “Zvezdopad” by Grazhdanskaya Oborona. I’ve been listening to it for over ten years, but this time it revealed itself in a completely new way: youtube.com/watch?v=FXWq... See you next week.

youtube.com

На дальней станции сойду

The second is a defeat animation. When you lose, the cards simply collapse and fall flat. To me, both animations are still missing something — sound. I tried several options, but none of them felt right🔽

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The first one is a victory animation. I’m still experimenting with different parameters — the number of cards flying out, their speed, and so on. The toughest decision so far is the direction: should the cards fly upward or downward?🔽 #gamedev #2D #GodotEngine #GameDesign

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This May Saturday, I felt a strong urge to sit down and write about the work I’ve done this week. I dedicated the entire week to my second game — Aces Up Magic. I added background music, fixed bugs, and, most importantly, implemented two animations🧵 #SaturdayDevlog #indiegame

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This week, I can’t stop listening to “Elegy” by Leonid Fedorov, set to the poetry of Vvedensky. It’s a captivating, mesmerizing piece of music that seems to wrap around you with a kind of quiet magic. Highly recommend giving it a listen: music.apple.com/in/album/%D1...

Элегия by Leonid Fedorov on Apple Music

Song · 2014 · Duration 6:27

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In my second game, Aces Up, I updated the UI. What’s left now is optimizing it for different devices, adding background music, and introducing more visual variety with different backgrounds.

This time, I built an interesting location that required creating a new state for the main character. This is just a test animation🔽

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Hello everyone! A quick reminder — I’ve started a new series: #SaturdayDevlog. Every Saturday I share what I’ve been working on throughout the week🔽 #gamedev #2D #GodotEngine #gaming #GameDesign #indiegame

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For example, in the track “Прощание со степью,” it feels more like a shamanic ritual, where the author moves through the entire history of the steppe, trying to do something with it—but there’s nothing left to be done. Even without understanding Russian.

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Also this week I discovered another remarkable album by Alexey Khvostenko🔽 music.apple.com/in/album/%D0...

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

This week, I returned to working on my game Aces Up Magic, as my artist is creating new assets. What remains now is to refine the sound design and polish the UI elements. #SaturdayDevlog #gamedev #2D #GodotEngine #gaming #GameDesign #indiegame

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Next week, I’ll try creating a separate shadow and then dynamically adjusting it based on the character’s movement. See you next week!

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But, of course, there’s always a catch. I’ve spent three days trying to get proper shadows working in one location. The issue is that I have pre-rendered shadows for NPCs, but that approach doesn’t work for the main character since they’re constantly moving🔽

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The composer delivered the soundtrack for the final locations—and for the first time in my life, I didn’t have to tweak anything. It turned out flawlessly, almost suspiciously perfect🔽

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

My Saturday morning doesn’t start with coffee, but with writing a post for my regular #SaturdayDevlog series🔽 #pixel #pixelartist #pixelart #gamedev #2D #GodotEngine #gaming #GameDesign #indiegame #pointandclick

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Oh my God, your vinyl collection is incredible. I’ve been dreaming of something like this for a long time. Which recording of the St. Matthew Passion is your go-to?

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

This time I want to share a piece I’ve been listening to for over 10 years. This week, it revealed new colors to me — a composition by Bach from the album Bach: St. Matthew Passion: music.apple.com/in/album/mat...

Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 · Oratorium in 2 Teilen (1989 Remastered Version), 2.Teil: Nr. 47 Arie: Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott (Alt - Solo-Violine & Orchester I) by Consortium Musicum, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Su...

Song · 1969 · Duration 7:32

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I celebrated it quite modestly, but got a good rest. I walked all over the city and went through my entire music library. Still, the rest felt somewhat strained—as if I were trying to make up for all the days I had gone without days off.

Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Today, as usual, it’s time for #SaturdayDevlog. But this week I don’t have much to show—just two completed locations—because on April 1st I celebrated my 30th birthday.

And as tradition goes, I want to share the album that stayed with me this week — the soundtrack to Dead Man, a film by Jim Jarmusch, composed and performed by Neil Young. It’s perfect for working — it really helps me focus: music.apple.com/in/album/dea... See you next week!

Dead Man (Music from and Inspired By the Motion Picture) by Neil Young on Apple Music

Album · 1996 · 13 Songs

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That said, it doesn’t take much time, and more importantly, it doesn’t create confusion or chaos in the codebase🔽

This week I created three more locations. I’ve noticed that the main difficulty in each one is the unique NPCs. Even if it’s just a few lines of code, each of them has its own quirk that forces me to create child classes. That probably means I didn’t design the base class well enough🔽

I thought I’d get tired of it by the second week, but I actually enjoy it. It’s a kind of written reflection🔽

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

It’s been over a month since I started a new series — #SaturdayDevlog — where I post every Saturday about the progress of my game🔽 #pixel #pixelartist #pixelart #gamedev #2D #GodotEngine #gaming #GameDesign #indiegame #pointandclick

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It’s a fascinating piece — something childlike and playful on the surface, but with a deeper, more mature awareness underneath. Many of you have probably heard this album, but I highly recommend diving back into this strange and beautiful ride. See you next week!

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Nikita Myshkin @nmyshkin.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

This week I spent time with the remarkable album “Tangerine Dream” (1967) by Kaleidoscope🔽: music.apple.com/in/album/tan...

Tangerine Dream by Kaleidoscope on Apple Music

Album · 1967 · 11 Songs