iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

September's Mechanic of the Month is Silksong's Swift Step. Unlocking Swift Step transforms the game into an acrobatic dance of dodges and air dashes. Honestly some of the best movement mechanics I can remember playing in a 2D game #Silksong

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Was similarly concerned when the excellent Nemesis System was patented in 2021. In another world we would have seen a whole wave of indie and AAA devs pushing the nemesis system in exciting new directions. Instead, it's appeared in 1 other game since 2014, and then WB closed the studio

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

This kind of thing is bad news for game design. 'Summoning a character and letting it fight another' is far too broad a concept and should never have been taken seriously in court, but it shouldn't be possible to patent game mechanics anyway gamesfray.com/last-week-ni... #gamedesign

gamesfray.com

Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company received a U.S. patent on summoning a character and letting it fight another – games fray

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Now it's been confirmed we're getting Hades 2 and Silksong in the same month, I'm more relieved than ever Slay the Spire 2 pushed their release back today. Love all 3 games, but there's only so many sequels we can squeeze into the back half of 2025! #indiegame www.eurogamer.net/slay-the-spi...

eurogamer.net

Slay the Spire 2 has been delayed but it wasn't Silksong's fault, promise

Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to the roguelike deck-building game that spawned a genre, has been delayed. Developer Mega…

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Nintendo kicking off their Direct with theme parks, museums and movie tie-ins feels significant. Nintendo have always been sitting on some very valuable IP, but haven't always capitalized on it like many other companies would. This definitely feels like it's started to shift now

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

As a British person of a particular age, it’s also reminding me a lot of 90’s television. There’s a bit of Knightmare in there (as well as the board game Atmosfear). The sassiness of the Cryptmaster himself also keeps making me think of Richard O’Brien from The Crystal Maze

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Every mechanic in the game – from puzzles to character abilities – revolves around clever uses of words and letters. I particularly like how you expand your character’s health bar by adding letters to your name

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Cryptmaster (@thecryptmaster.bsky.social) is a wonderfully weird game. It feels like what might have happened if the Typing of the Dead games had continued to evolve in surprising ways, and eventually became a whole new genre. Love that Fighting Fantasy / OSR art style too #indiegame

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

I'm currently playing through Cryptmaster, which has impeccable atmosphere and some brilliantly inventive word-based mechanics

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Caught up with The Royal Writ (@theroyalwrit.bsky.social‬) over the weekend, which is an exceptionally charming roguelike deckbuilder. The animation team really deserve to take a bow on this one #indiegames #animation

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Love the look of the 3d models on this. Wishlisted!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

As excited as I am for Silksong, their surprise September release date must have been scary news for the other devs releasing this month. It might be harder for other indie devs to get press attention this month, so it's a great time to shout out any other new releases you're enjoying #indiegames

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Love the look of these time freezing mechanics!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

There’s nothing flashy about Öoo’s bomb mechanic. You place a bomb (or a segment of your caterpillar body - I’m not really sure!) and then blow it up to create motion. When it comes to extracting all of the potential depth out of a simple concept though, Öoo is an absolute masterclass

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Mechanic of the Month! Each month I'll be highlighting an exceptional game mechanic from a recent game. For August's mechanic I'm choosing the bombs from Öoo by @namataka.bsky.social, which has to be one of the most elegantly designed games I've played all year #indiegame #gamedesign

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Finally got my hands on the Sable book by the folks at @lostincult.co.uk. When playing Sable it always felt like it was a real passion project for everyone involved, so it's great to see the whole creative process captured so well here #indiegame #indiedev

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Played a short game as some grumpy mole people last night, but sadly their civilization was really held back by their leader being an idiot (the idiot was me). Apologies to my mole friends.

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I know I'm a sucker for a sandbox strategy game with a ton of DLC, so for my own safety I've been trying to stay far away from Age of Wonders 4. I finally caved in this week. It's time for bird pirates.

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Sounds like it'd make a great pitch for something like Boss Fight Books! Feel like Infinite would a great one for letting you discuss lots of aspects of game design and the industry. An interestingly messy game for sure

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

As somebody who grew up in England playing systems like the Amiga and BBC Micro, it kinda did feel like this! Oh that Sonic the Hedgehog guy looks ok I guess, but have you spent time with this cursed egg?

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

I do think the prettiness of the Ori games can sometimes be a bit overdone. Sometimes it can be hard to read what's happening on screen because there's so many lighting and particle effects competing for your attention

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Celeste feels like an all timer when it comes to this too

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Both of the Ori games for sure. The progression you get to make from being a little ground creature to rocketing through the air is extremely satisfying

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

100%. I've never cared for space marines, so for years I thought 40k wasn't for me as a setting, but there's so much interesting, weird, often funny, world-building in that universe.

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

The world tour mode on the PSX Alpha 3 was so good! Wish they'd find a way to include it in one of the modern collections

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Very excited to play this incredibly weird skate boarding game soon

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Good in-depth game genre analysis like this is surprisingly rare, and Doc's stuff is always worth a read. Hopefully going to be followed by a part 2!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Looking good! Some very satisfying looking dodge animations and visual effects there

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Good to see that UFO 50 is starting to come to consoles! One of the most ambitious collections of game design ideas you'll ever play. I'll forever be impressed they decided to create 50(!) games when I think people would have been just as impressed with a collection half that number #UFO50

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Oh this looks great! Any game that uses 'waddle around' as it's main mechanic is instantly going on the Steam wishlist

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Thanks! I'd hoped that would be the case. Thanks to arcade emulators I played a lot of fighting games with WASD when I was younger, so I'd hope it'd feel familiar. That being said, I am forever chasing that thing that'll finally make me better at Street Fighter!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Agreed! Remember this really hitting the devs of Before Your Eyes a few years back. The industry as a whole still has way too much baggage around the idea of 'games as product' - particularly assessing a game's worth in terms of the amount of time it fills

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

The animations and effects on these attack animations are excellent!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Actually quite excited about my 3 hour train journey today as it means I have an excuse to take my Switch 2 somewhere. In other news, I am finally trying to complete Tears of the Kingdom. This game is BIG

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

How did you find the learning curve with the leverless controller? I like the idea of them but haven't had a chance to try one before

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

We hear pretty often from industry figures that they feel that games education isn't giving people the skills the industry needs. The industry def needs to put together more programmes and apprenticeships to help people break in (and collaborate more with existing courses)

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Got my eye on this one. Also - fun game title to say out loud!

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

I've no idea what Everwild might have turned into, but it did look like it was going to have some very nice art direction

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

As much as Rare's 40th anniversary deserves to be celebrated, this all feels a bit in poor taste just a month after Microsoft hit Rare with layoffs and cancelled their next big game news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/0...

news.xbox.com

Rare Celebrates 40 Years with Ruby-Themed Exclusives and More - Xbox Wire

Today marks Rare's 40th Anniversary, and they're inviting everyone to join the celebration of this impressive milestone, offering free gifts, discounts, and plenty of swag.

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Watching ever more Silksong memes appear as we get closer to the Nintendo Direct (I assume we won't see anything today). As OTT as some of the Silksong discourse has become, there is something nice about the most anticipated game in the world being a project made by a team of around 10(?) people

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Pixel Primers @pixelprimers.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Given the sheer quantity of games releasing each month, getting discovered is one of the biggest challenges facing indie developers. Lots of people are doing good work in this field, but its good to see somebody attempt such a playful solution to the problem with Ludocene www.ludocene.com

ludocene.com

Ludocene - Game Discovery From People You Trust

Game discovery for people who want to find amazing video games to play.

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