iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 30/09/2026

My controller icons are now implemented into the game, are autodetected appropriately based on the name of the device plugged in, and if by chance it's a Nintendo device the game swaps the A and B button functions in the user interface! (Gameplay buttons can be user-customized.)

Screenshot from a game world with trees in the background and debug textures in the foreground. Controller icons and their functions are shown at the left side and an on-screen keyboard shows the message: "Hey look, it autodetected my Dualshock 4 controller and is showing the appropriate controller icons!"

040

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 28/09/2026

...IT IS DONE. ...and yes, they look tiny zoomed out to see the entire atlas, but keep in mind this is vector art with each icon designed to render at 64x64 native resolution on-screen at 1080p or 128x128 at 4K.

Screenshot from Inkscape showing a massive matrix of controller button icons.

190

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 27/09/2026

At this point, developing strictly for PC, my only certification concerns would be Steam Deck and Steam Frame verification, but as you can see from what I've got so far I'm not going into this haphazardly! ;)

Various button icons for various gamepads.

100

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 27/09/2026

Updated my sketch... way too many inputs to worry about but I gotta do 'em all... >_<

Scribbles showing SDL3 controller input values and their equivalent button references for Microsoft, Sony, and Valve controllers.

120

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 27/09/2026

Progress so far... I have a LONG way to go... >_>

Screenshot of Inkscape showing work progressing on controller button icons, with 0 through 15 across the top and equivalents for different brands of controllers below the first four numbers.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 27/09/2026

Tonight's Task: Make the controller input symbols for my game. Before I can do that appropriately though, I needed to cross reference everything and come up with an appropriate map of which buttons go where for which controller brands... GAZE UPON MY MOUSE-WRITING SKILLS! XP

Scribbled notes showing which SDL3 input numbers line up with which controller functions for Sony, Microsoft, and Valve controllers.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 24/09/2026

Deluxe Paint 2E ...no seriously, making stuff in that was how I laid out a ton of my game ideas... NONE of these are real screenshots; all drawn in DP2E! :D (And are also all games I likely will never make, thus why I don't mind sharing them.)

Conceptual screenshot of an overhead shooting game with various gauges alone the edges.

Conceptual screenshot of an adventure game in a dirt-filled area with grey rock formations, a volcano in the background, and a building with a high-tech door. A score of 2 of 183 shown at the top, "pull top lever" as the command the player has input, and a message of "The lever is stuck and won't budge."

Conceptual screenshot of an RPG showing an overhead perspective on the left, various stats and equipment on the right, and a number of messages of actions being performed at the bottom.

Conceptual screenshot of a racing game from an overhead perspective with various grey walls, tan track pieces, and blue water, along with various status panels in each corner of the screen.

121

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 12/09/2026

The beta build of my new DOS game: "LETTERGUN - The Run 'N Gun Board Game", written in over 3,000 lines of QBASIC code, is now up for my $4+ Patreon supporters to try out! :D For everyone else, the full game will go up as a free download on my website (with source code) one week from now! ;)

Title screen for a game called "Lettergun - The Run 'N Gun Board Game", along with a 2026 copyright to "Pixelmusement" and a multi-coloured message saying "Press any key to continue."

0159

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 10/09/2026

Equally Bad Idea: When you first boot the game there's no audio options. You have to unlock them first by finding an Earbuds item in the game and then each audio setting only adjusts by dB increments so it's impossible to re-balance things appropriately and... ...wait... I'm receiving a photo...

Game boxes for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. The left box depicts a mythical dog holding a sword in its mouth, the right box depicts a mythical dog roaring as its mane juts out like a shield.

080

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 24/08/2026

OK! I have the shift/caps/alt states working for my on-screen keyboard! Hopefully I chose a good set of alternate characters and mapped them in a sensible way. The first screenshot is the alternate characters normally while the second is alt + shift.

Screenshot of an on-screen keyboard showing alternative characters.

Screenshot of an on-screen keyboard showing alternative characters with a shift state applied.

360

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 11/08/2026

Text parsing of my special $ codes is working! :D The reason for doing it this way instead of allowing direct BBCode access is threefold: 1. Easier for players to learn/use. 2. I have total control over what rich text features can be used. 3. Security. Direct BBCode access can be VERY abused... :P

Screenshot of an on-screen keyboard with a message being typed in. The message is a little strange as there are dollar signs strewn throughout to indicate appearance changes once the message is parsed.

Screenshot of a user interface showing metadata which can be changed. There is a World Name of "The World Name Goes Here", an Author of "Name of the Author", and a Description which reads, "Test number two! This time, the first line is centred and itallic, plus bold?? Nah, let's go back to PURPLE!! ...and now green... underline it all but now back to white... and finally back to normal!" There is a cleared checkbox for "Allow Others to Edit", a "Back" button, and a message saying "Edit the description of the world. Use this space to describe what your world is about, what players can do in the world, or why you made it."

140

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 01/08/2026

I was playing PalmOS games in 2003... and even planning on making my own! ;) (I never made this one into a real game but I got as far as being able to write simple apps and load them onto my Palm device!)

Various conceptual screenshots of a PalmOS game called "SGX", showing a title on the right, ship editor in the middle, and combat on the left, with greyscale examples up top and colour examples at the bottom.

030

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 01/08/2026

Who would've ever thought in a 3D/VR project with a layer of realism the hardest thing to make would be the freaking on-screen keyboard? >_>; Also, using @kenney.nl assets for the symbols on the side temporarily as I want to make my own but REALLY want to get this OSK freaking finished. :P

Screenshot from a game in development showing trees in the background, grey grid textures up close, and an on-screen keyboard with the message: "Just so we're clear here, this on-screen keyboard thing has been kicking my butt something fierce. Nevertheless, it's slowly but surely coming along. The buttons below work as intended, I can insert bold tags, or even a pink colour tag (then go back to white) easily... and I'm temporarily using Kenney symbols for the control map on the side; I want to make my own."

1110

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 25/06/2026

This is where I'm at with the on-screen keyboard in Project AB so far. Nothing works yet, this is just most of the elements arranged, positioned, and staged so I can make them function. I still need to set up key/button icons for the bottom labels and space them appropriately, among other things. :P

Screenshot of an on-screen keyboard with a text entry field above and a large amount of debug text which reads: "Let's see how well this works? Stuff will get typed here which will have bold tags among others using a dollar sign symbol... which yes, looks like two dollar sign symbols in the editor, but that's because a single dollar sign followed by a letter will be translated internally into the proper justification, typeface, or colour desired, with N going back to normal."

120

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 16/06/2026

I still use this little VisualBASIC program I wrote 22 years ago! :D

Screenshot of a dice rolling app with selections for "Dice Types", "Number of Dice", "Enable Sound", and a "Clear" button, along with a roll of 5 plus 3 plus 2 equals 10.

050

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 16/05/2026

For reference, here's what the effect originally looked like... I didn't look back at this until now and comparing to what I just accomplished all that's different is how deep the perspective effect is and the tileset itself. (I just grabbed tiles from very early in the original design.)

Screenshot from a pre-alpha game with a red ship cutting its way through various coloured walls.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 16/05/2026

Oooh... Anyone remember way back when I was trying to make my "Ivxscape" game idea and the tile mapping was done in such a way to produce a sort of additive-blended perspective effect? I just figured out how to easily reproduce it in Godot Engine! :D

An overhead view of a test tilemap from a game, showing solid red areas bordered with glowing yellow lines with a subtle perspective effect.

240

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 14/05/2026

Actually, no, THIS NPC is probably the most obscure of them all, just by nature of what it takes to even be ALLOWED to find them! :o

Screenshot from the video game "Undertale", with some orange platforms, grey conveyor belts, deep red lava, and a fiery monster talking to a Human kid, saying, "No one will EVER know. It's the perfect crime..."

150

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 14/05/2026

One thing I never did in Undertale until now, despite knowing the game did this, is go back and talk to the NPCs representing the monsters you show mercy to, as they don't actually show up until after clearing the boss for an area. This one's particularly easy to miss. :B

Screenshot from the video game "Undertale", where a Human kid is talking to a miniature volcano monster who is saying: "Oh... When you encourage me, I feel... so nicey."

160

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 22/04/2026

EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I start a new run of Undertale, I discover something I never knew about! This time: How to win FIFTY gold from the snowball game! :O

Screenshot from Undertale showing a snowy landscape, a hole with a red flag sticking out, and a message box which reads "You are awarded 50 G."

180

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 16/04/2026

Whoops! Looks like someone translated that one correctly. Here, I've fixed it for you. ;)

Ominous cyborg named "Cats" wearing a purple robe, saying, "Sorry but I am AI Language Model cannot help assist with that."

100

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 13/04/2026

I know someone who very much agrees with you... >;)

Mostly black image with a small, smiling kid in the centre

010

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 08/04/2026

So... how many people have noticed that the ADG-se logo uses the standard 16-colour EGA palette? ;) Dithering goes a long way when done right!

1233

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 02/04/2026

"Hail to the keys, baby!" ;D (Yes, I intentionally set this up to look like a gun; that's kinda Duke Nukem's thing...) (Also yes, I digitally altered the keys in both photos to remove their teeth.)

A set of keys framed to look like a gun with a circular fob attached showing the Statue of Liberty in front of a radiation symbol, along with the text "Duke Nukem, Manhattan Project"

071

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 02/04/2026

Ah damnit, the fob for my keys which I've had since the 90s broke. :( ...WAITAMINUTE... I have a solution to this! Just hold on a moment...

A set of keys next to a broken fob which reads "I didn't lose the keys, this time I lost the whole damn car"

150

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 24/03/2026

For awhile back in the mid-2010s I was considering making a bunch of games which ran at 160x120 resolution internally. ;)

Screenshot of a low-resolution mock status display titled "Damage Control" showing the components of a spaceship on the right and various stats along the left and bottom.

250

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 04/03/2026

To be frank, I expect the eventual release of Windows 12 to be more like this... :P

150

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 17/02/2026

My thumb also goes WAY back; No one else in my family is like this. I have a sneaking suspicion this was caused by my many days of NES and Genesis gaming as a kid. :B

A white hand showing an awkward thumb's up against a backdrop of blue and black panels.

000

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 08/02/2026

Just as an example: Moraff's Dungeons of The Unforgiven supports a wide range of video modes and if you select a Super VGA mode you have to ALSO select a compatible chipset because NONE of them work the same! D:

Screenshot of the video mode list for Moraff's Dungeons of the Unforgiven.

Screenshot of the SuperVGA 1024x768 256-colour chipset list for Moraff's Dungeons of the Unforgiven.

350

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 05/02/2026

Took me a few attempts but finally got another board into a state it would crash from! This time though, the screen just went black following. :P

Screenshot of the NES game "Pipe Dream" with a grid filled with white pipes, score details up top, and a small selection of pipes in the top-left corner.

100

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 05/02/2026

So... can anyone guess what game I'm playing? >;) Hint #1: It's an NES game. Hint #2: Yes, the game has crashed. Hint #3: This is easily repeatable and I technically did not do anything out of the ordinary, other than using a built-in cheat to play the game in an unintended way.

Screenshot of an NES game which has crashed; All of the graphics are garbled and make no sense.

141

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 03/02/2026

I had to learn more about Blender's rendering algorithms and material handling than I ever cared to, but in the end, I have made my OWN mid-day, HDR, cloudscape environment map! :)

Screenshot from a game with grey debug textures forming a floor which a blue tool and a sword are resting atop of with clouds blanketing most of the background with the rest of the sky being a clear blue.

140

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 03/02/2026

Getting there... Probably want to do a few more minor tweaks to get these clouds looking their best, then will do a final render, properly cap the HDR values manually, and see where it all ends up! :B

Screenshot from a first person perspective in a game world with debug textures and a blue tool in the bottom right with the rest of the image being a partially cloudy sky.

010

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 01/02/2026

Slowly figuring out the whole clouds thing. Blender allows for volumetrics which means being able to generate three-dimensional noise which produces cloud-like effects, though I need to get a little creative to really make it feel like proper clouds. Also, still have to work on the colours. :P

Screenshot from Blender showing an grey interface around the edges and a white, cloud-like structure in the middle with three smaller cubes inside.

051

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 01/02/2026

Guess I'm gonna have to make this myself, hunh? :P After about 45 minutes of work I've got this so far. Still a long way to go but getting this far at all is promising that I MIGHT be able to do this myself using some noise textures and clever shader tricks in the Godot Engine. :B

A pale blue sky with white clouds underneath which have strange patterns of light and dark since they're not real clouds. A tag in the top left says "Perspective" and a 3D gizmo is in the top right.

150

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 21/01/2026

Just take a screenshot of the code and say, "Do you REALLY want me to explain this??" Like this! *ahem* ... "This is the node network for my shader which makes any object look like it has a galaxy inside it. Do you REALLY want me to explain this??"

Screenshot showing a complicated network of nodes connected together for a graphics shader. A sphere with a galaxy inside it is in the top-right corner.

120

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 18/01/2026

Portals are coming along. Next step is to integrate it into the existing editing system so I can move it and such, as well as make it possible to change the portal colour to whatever you want. There's also particles and the glow effect pulses in and out. :B

Screenshot from a game featuring a grassy field with trees, a platform with grey debug textures, and a glowing red portal with silver spires beside it atop a marble base.

120

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 17/01/2026

Still working on the model for the portals in Project AB... I think I like this approach better, having the spires twist in place while connecting to a smaller ring up top. Also, each spire twists the exact same amount; It's an optical illusion that the leftmost twists more than the rightmost. ;)

Screenshot from Blender showing a plain-grey model of a platform with four twisting spires attached to a ring at their tips.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 16/01/2026

While I wait for 8:00 PM EDT to make the next ADG public I've been conceptualizing what the portals in Project AB will look like which link the various worlds together... Not completely liking the shape but not quite sure how to make it better...? The cylinder is a stand-in for a 6-foot-tall person.

Screenshot from 3D modelling software showing a cylinder and a pad with four long, curved, protrusions reaching upward.

110

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 15/01/2026

In this example, I have a checkerboard normal map. The first image shows what I get from the Normal Map node itself, but this output looks wrong in Godot Engine. The second image shows what I need to do to get it to look correct in Godot Engine. My silly question is: What is the discrepancy here?

Screenshot of editor nodes creating a normal map which looks like a grid of yellow squares. Text reads: "Does NOT Work Right in Godot Engine"

Screenshot of editor nodes creating a normal map which looks like a grid of yellow squares. Text reads: "Works Correctly in Godot Engine"

110

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 14/01/2026

Don't mind me, just making some marble textures for my game. :B

Screenshot from a first-person game with the player holding a device with an LCD screen on it saying "Press Action Button", with debug textures on the floor, marble walls of varying styles, and trees in the background.

040

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 12/01/2026

Material Rotator tool implemented! :D Again, due to weird ways I had to implement this for optimization sake it made more sense to have this on a separate tool compared to having the feature on the Creation Tool you normally use to create and texture the world.

First-person screenshot from a game where the player is holding a purple tool, pointing it at one of several columns made of wooden panels erected on a checkerboard floor with trees and grass in the background.

010

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 12/01/2026

ANYWAYS, the LED screen and lights on the tool work now. ;)

Screenshot of a purple tool against a grassy background. The tool has an amber dot-matrix LED screen reading "SOUTH" along with an illuminated light.

040

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 10/01/2026

Not actually "ready" yet, just testing to make sure I have the colours right for the glow effect to make it look like there's a dot-matrix LED display in this thing. ;)

A purple tool amongst a grassy background. The word "READY" is illuminated on a screen on the tool.

040

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 10/01/2026

All this work on a new model and tool just to rotate textures on walls and floors and stuff. :P I thought about incorporating texture rotation into the Creation Tool in Project AB, but there's a number of reasons why it made more sense to put that functionality into a separate tool. :B

Screenshot from Blender 3D modelling software; A purple device is being made with a trigger grip and metal rods and rings sticking out of its front end.

140

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 30/12/2025

You know you're doing a good job when your gamedev work makes you think of candy. :3 (Screenshot is from an earlier game I was working on but am not presently pursuing.)

Screenshot from a game where a green player ship is shooting energy pulses at walls, causing the walls to break and shatter into colourful square particles.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 06/12/2025

And now that my galaxy shader is as good as it's gonna get, I went through and made as many distinct colour variations of it as I could, twelve in total! :D They all have proper space-themed names too like "Astro Red" and "Tacyhon Pink" to spoil just a couple of them. ;)

Twelve material demonstration spheres, each showing a variety of different colours and the appearance of galaxies within them.

130

Kris Asick @pixelmusement.com · 01/12/2025

I mean LOOK AT THIS... ...and a still image does not do this shader justice. The centre part stays in the middle as you move around the object and the stars rotate around both the inner AND outer edges, AND this is done in a single pass without touching the slow transparent rendering pipeline! :)

Screenshot of a sphere with a galaxy inside of it to demonstrate a shader program. There are also trees and a blue sky in the background.

150