iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thank you Balmut!!! That cake looks friggin' delicious 🤩

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Ahhh thanks!! I need to mess with fonts again, it's been way too long. I think I've got like... 5ish in various states of unfinished somewhere on my hard drive? 😅 And I'm hoping to flesh out Eyeroboros a bit if enough people like it! Mostly just small design tweaks (and actually adding music.)

Hey, happy early/current/belated birthday to you too!

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Astra And The New Constellation is also on Steam, if you're willing to wishlist or leave a review! store.steampowered.com/app/2425010/... Regardless of anything else, I'm happy to be back and making games again after too long ✨

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My games are all on Itch, rarelikeaunicorn.itch.io. Eyeroboros is my newest release after a long hiatus, and I have a VVVVVV fangame coming out very soon. If you have the time and inclination, please give something a try and let me know what you think! "Feed the algorithm" etc too, of course 🫠

I lost contact with a lot of mutuals and connections during my hiatus, so any signal boost is appreciated today! I also lost access to my X account during the break so I didn't even get to let folks there know that I'm active over here now.

rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

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(I'm *very* excited about both Unnamed Demake and New Prototype, but if I talk about or share them I'll want to be working on those instead of the project that's 95% complete 😭)

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

VVVVVVV is still coming out Soon™, but one or the other of Unnamed Demake and New Prototype may slip into November depending on a few factors. I'm at least happy that my contingency plan is "only" 2 releases this month!

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I picked up a little bit of con crud at PGRE and have been trying to work through it. Yesterday pretty much sucked, but so far today I've at least been able to knock out a couple of bugs in VVVVVVV and kept on tweaking design stuff. It's coming together, just a little slower than I wanted...

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I'm not a mom or a very small child (I was the Smash retiree in the green hat), but it was great to meet y'all and try the game today. Looking forward to playing more!

increpare @increpare.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Reposted by rare

Stephen's Sausage Roll music generator in your browser - leave it on in the background and chill - music.increpare.com

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At low values you'll flinch at the slighest attention, fold easily to the whims of the world, and hide your stripes. You'll be safe, but empty. At high values you'll bring your pride to any challenge but risk treating the entire world as your stage... and those around you as supporting actors.

Paper Tiger Your internal drive to present and impress. Heart and home for the dramatic flourish that every soul craves, Paper Tiger gives you the gusto to face the atrocities of the world, with style. Cool for: Superstar Cops (current or aspiring), mascots, and community theater performers.

(Clippy for scale, and for the emotional support of course)

Andrew | BUY INDIEPOCALYPSE ➡️ PRGE @pizzapranks.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Got out to Portland Retro Game Expo for the first time in ages! Didn't know @pizzapranks.bsky.social was going to be tabling there, but it was an awesome surprise. Got to pick up physical editions of both @unluckychloe.bsky.social and @brookp8.bsky.social releases that are super sick!

A photo of two cassette cases housing USBs of indie games, published by Indiepocalypse; an enamel pin of Clippy, the Microsoft assistant character; and a bottle opener styled as an NES controller.

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Reposted by rare

Do you make (or have you ever made) games that are short, abrasive, experimental, or otherwise don't fit in the familiar commercial games space? Then you're in luck because Indiepocalypse is out here publishing those sorts of games! Submit here! (or email me) www.indiepocalypse.com/submit

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

What if I hosted a demake game jam...? 👀

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Working on this and [unannounced demake] are really giving me an appreciation of some design choices I've otherwise taken for granted over the years, everyone should do this more

rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm cranky, and therefore I'm committing Gravity Crimes™ and making this part harder for everyone who ends up playing. You're welcome 💖 #pico8 #vvvvvv

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Now that I've got the urge again, are there any game jams coming up that folks are excited about? I feel like doing one collaboratively would be a great change of pace for my solitary self.

I still want to go back and do that for my last GB Jam project, ExoBio, too. It was a mess on release but I'd started cleaning it up at some point and just never quite finished. Maybe I'll work on both this/next month...?

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It also makes me feel good about fleshing out Eyeroboros with a more proper release (recordkeeping, music, multiple modes) sometime soon. The core loop here wasn't an issue, even if difficulty and engagement need improving. I think there's fun potential for the design space that's worth finding!

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Alan Hazelden @alanhazelden.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

GB Jam ratings are out! These scores aren't too far off what I expected, especially after having to leave out over half of the work I did. I wished I'd pivoted to only Eyeroboros just a couple days earlier, which would have made a huge difference, but alas. The jam was still super fun!

A screenshot of the overall ratings for Eyeroboros as a submission to GB Jam. Out of 630 entries, Eyeroboros scored:

Overall: 224th
Quirkiness: 43rd
Gameplay: 74th
Gameboy Soul: 299th
Secondary Theme Interpretation: 340th
Soundtrack/SFX: 475th

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Reposted by rare

I've been looking forward to this for a while - a new tool for making grid-based puzzle games! I haven't used it yet but the design goal seems like it might be "what if PuzzleScript was both more powerful and more approachable", which is very exciting to me.

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Eriq Topson and The Treasure of Hollow Island by arielsan, Esti, Pencilwing

arielsan.itch.io/gbjam14 Special shoutouts to Eriq Topson and The Treasure of Hollow Island for having probably my favorite art of the jam! These are ridiculously good pixels for such a short amount of time, super impressive.

arielsan.itch.io

Help Eriq Topson in his search for the Treasure of Hollow Island

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Build steps out of gold coins to get out!

sanechekz.itch.io/gold-steps Gold Steps was a sleeper hit for me, and a very nifty take on a sokoban. Super successful at integrating the secondary theme, and I could definitely see the game grow into something much bigger.

sanechekz.itch.io

Gold Steps by sanechek

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The Treasure of CrissCross Cove by leafthief, iLKke

leafthief.itch.io/crisscrosscove The Treasure of CrissCross Cove is so, so good. Feeling the need to screenshot or print out the map to track my evolving knowledge of the clues gave me such a childhood nostalgia rush. The clues have some minor issues, but the experience is great otherwise!

leafthief.itch.io

Can you hoist the treasure?

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Midas Crutch by mors, batfeula, olive, Tetraminose, datagoblin

mors-games.itch.io/midas-crutch Midas Crutch nailed this jam from start to end. Just a great concept executed extremely well on every facet, and very worth your time! It'll be a shock if this doesn't end up in the top 3 of *multiple* categories.

mors-games.itch.io

Borrow King Midas's crutch, and turn your obstacles into gold!

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Lucky Leap Maneki by Heartcat, JaviAlgo

heartcat.itch.io/lucky-leap-m... I really love the take on theme that Lucky Leap Maneki went with; a little less Old, but a lot more Gold. The coin flipping as part of its movement just feels *right*, and I'm a huge fan of challenging little platformers like this (no surprise there.)

heartcat.itch.io

Get Those Coins!!!

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GOLD RUSH 1898 by Alphonsus

alphonsus.itch.io/gold-rush-1898 Gold Rush 1898 is damn near perfect at what it does: Loot, Upgrade, Repeat. A lot of love feels like it went into this one, from the core play design to the art (those palette swaps!) to the details like the bonus level(s, plural!)

alphonsus.itch.io

A block-smashin’, cart-jumpin’, gold-lootin’ arcade platformer

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Untitled Dog Game by Weeppiko, BITTO, Machaach, Laggy, dekaeru

weeppiko.itch.io/untitled-dog... Untitled Dog Game is a super fun idea and good core mechanic. Not the most complicated project but it really nailed a specific feeling for me, and especially succeeded at giving me that GB vibe with that pixel art!

weeppiko.itch.io

Game made for GBJAM 14

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Lowball Hockshop by arctictype, bugbearstew

arctictype.itch.io/lowball-hock... Lowball Hockshop was a perfect take on the jam for me. I really appreciated how they played with the theme, the core loop was surprisingly fun, and the Game Boy feel also really worked for me. Give this one a try!

arctictype.itch.io

Make a fortune lowballing schmucks and turning their hard-earned trinkets into cash!

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There were a ton of amazing games in GB Jam this year, but I'd like to give some props to a few in particular that really brought something to the table that resonated with me. Going to add several to this thread now, and a few more before I finish my ratings for the night!

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rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#GBJam14 is coming to an end in just under 10 hours! If you participated and haven't checked out my entry yet, please give it a shot and let me know your thoughts. rarelikeaunicorn.itch.io/eyeroboros

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Playtests have begun with a small handful of folks! And I will *never* get tired of seeing a project of mine on a mobile device for the first time, it gives my inner child a warm fuzzy feeling <3

Games Done Quick @gamesdonequick.com · 03/10/2026

Reposted by rare

The first day of GDQueer is live NOW! Join us all weekend for a celebration of queer and LGBTQIA+ speedrunners and community members while peeping some incredible runs. Watch: gdq.gg/live Schedule: gdq.gg/gdqueer/schedule

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A 100-day bitsy jam?? An excuse to overscope a jam project???? Sign me the heck up

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This comes to mind at the end of a session of that btw, perfect timing 🫠 I also need to, y'know. Stop being self-conscious and actually interact with people more often on here in general...

For as much as I feel anxious about coding on stream, I keep forgetting I can just like... go live while I'm doing level design/decoration, and feel way less pressured. I end up doing it offstream and it would probably be more fun with folks hanging out.

(I'd also love to chat Godot some time in the near future! Once I work through a handful of Pico-8 projects for the last few months of the year, I'm definitely looking to test out larger dev environments and Godot is #1 on my list.)

Thanks! I'm still really proud of Astra in a lot of ways, although the rough edges have really shown themselves over time. I really want to do a postmortem/review of older projects to reflect on them sometime soon. I need to catch up on your projects over the last couple years!

rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Hey, it's good to see you on here!! And I'd have to go back to find it, but I 100% doubt that you were too harsh. I still like this idea and want to revisit it, but the more time that passes the less satisfied I am with the game as-is. We grow!

rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Super excited to watch it grow over time!

rare @rarelike.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Ahhh I love these pixels! Is this an active dev project, ongoing mockup work, somewhere on between?