iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Announcing Brickotori! It’s been a while since I last shared something about the game. But right now, we have huge news! Our Announcement Trailer is live! Here’s the video 💛 youtu.be/h0W2gUdTepc #videogames #gamedev #indiedev #forgottagslol #announcement #trailer #new #cozy #cozygames #brickotori

youtu.be

Brickotori announcement trailer

YouTube video by Anawim Studios

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

A little update to the store page pictures ✨ I think it looks better now, right? 🥰 #indiedev #gamedev #steam #update #pictures #screenshot #solodev #storepage #stillWipLol

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

That's great! I will be attentive your posts as I'm also interested on how that works hahaha. Good luck!

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Reposted by Rodrigo Soria

Redria64 🃏 | CGRH 🏠 @redria64.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

@kenney.nl has made an incredible game to just chill and vibe with! this is MakeRoom, a sandbox room builder thanks again to @wholesomegames.com for trusting me to showcase this game to my community. there will definitely be a part 2! [ #twitch #streamer #wholesomegames #steam #indiegaming ]

A kid-core room with crafting supplies on a desk, a custom lilypad chair, and a large frog terrarium tank

A small cozy bedroom and gaming lounge with bi pride lava lamps, some plants, and a cat tree

A lofted bedroom and gaming area Overtop a living room with a fireplace,and a cat tree and sofa

A refined, simple olive colored kitchen with counters along the wall, an island, a dining area, and a lofted seedling growing area. A dog is in the kitchen begging for snacks

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Somehow my screen broke when we arrived at home after the Otakuthon... You fight well my friend 😇 But hey! Now I have a cool free CRT effect 🤣 #events #indiedev #journey #crt #otakuthon #montreal #accident #screenbroke #gamedev #solodev #screenshotmonday #lol

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Had a lovely time at Otakuthon MTL this weekend! 🌿✨ Lots of folks played Brickotori, shared feedback, and even learn the controls without help! 💛 We also met amazing people and fellow indie devs! #brickotori #indiedev #gamedev #otakuthon #mtl #montreal #games #indie #playtest

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

I just added a gallery to the game! What do you think about it? Do you like the animations? Btw, all your creations will appear here! I just put the loading state #indiedev #brickotori #gamedev #indiegames #steamgame #ui #feedback #gameui #solodev #cozy #wip - Art by @saralavanchy.bsky.social ❤️

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

ahhh yes, the sweet opportunity to pay a small one-time fee to tell the world I'm 18+! 😀

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

I had a game like this on my TODO list hahaha. Congrats man! I wish you the best on the release! It looks awesome 🥰

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Wow, thank you very much! Super encouraging words! 😁

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Sooo, what do you think about the challenges and this approach? Would you do it differently? Why? Honestly I'm open to more ideas! If there is a better way to do things, why not? #indieDev #gameDev #devlog #gamedevlog #brickotori #log

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Players can enable/disable this feature individually using a button for convenience. This will effectively "hide" the effect from such player only, so he will not see through the bricks, nor other players will see him. A bit hard to explain with words lol.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

This was a nice experiment! And even tho I am not a big fan of see-through effects, I do see the benefits. There are multiple ways of making it, but this is the way I found that "solves" all those questions. Specially the multiplayer related ones.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

And that's basically it! But no! Wait! It doesn't end here! Since my bricks are already using a shader, I needed to combine all of this with that shader. And because it was not a shaderGraph, everything needed to be done using shader code, particularly hlsl. Which I didn't know before lol.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Both areas are calculated based on the size of the shape in screen space, not world space! And in relation to the camera's view angle. All pixels within the minimum and maximum area gets their alpha blended between 1 and 0. Leaving 1 for those outside the max area, and 0 for those below the min.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Lastly, (or well, in-between), we need to consider the maximum area we will have for our see-through effect, which means at which distance we will start to hide bricks. As well we need to have a minimum area, which means at which distance the pixels will have 0 alpha.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Then those translated coordinates are used together with the pixel's position being rendered and its distance from the player to determine how much should we "hide" its color (in other words, change it's alpha value).

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

And then, I update a bunch of variables on the bricks' shaders. Such as the closest player's position, and its size. On the shader I did a bit of math magic to translate those world coordinates (position and size) to the screen coordinates (Now that I am thinking about it I might move that to C# 🤔)

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

So, for handling all this I'm using a combination of shader code and regular C#. Through C# and a simple collisions I get the bricks between the player and the camera. Group them by closest player, Filter them by height (so, ignoring those below the player)

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Alas, Besides all that, we still have another problem. Problem 8: - What about performance? Maybe we have a great idea, but if it is too complex or heavy we wouldn't be able to implement it... And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting more considerations... but let's go to my experimental approach

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 7: - Multiplayer. Well, having split-screen local-coop brings a whole set of problems. Should all players see each other with the see-through effect? If yes, what if the effect on player 1 annoys player 2? What happen if two players are close to each other? Should they be able to hide?

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 6: - Animations, maybe?. When changing the selected brick, an animation is played on them that affects their scale. This is not really a problem, but a matter of taste? If we abruptly change the size of the see-through window, then it looks abrupt. Which doesn't feel "right".

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 5: - Since bricks can come in different shapes and sizes, we need to adjust the size of the see-through effect based on them. A "circle" is not enough, because there are long line bricks (1x8) that will mostly take the whole screen if zoomed too much.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 4: - We need to hide anything that obstructs the view of the selected brick. From ANY camera angle (because players can rotate the camera), and almost any zoom distance (because players can zoom-in and zoom-out). Also, we need to consider that PC players can aim whenever they want.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 3: - When going up and down, the hidden bricks need to be automatically updated, as well as when the player is moving. If you suddenly go too far or switch to "select mode", they also need to be updated.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Problem 2: - Not only they need to know what's below, but also what's at the same height. If you don't see anything and there is a brick where you want to place yours, you may think there is enough space to place your brick, but it is going to be red and you would not know why.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Sooo, problem 1: - The player needs to know if there are bricks below the one they are placing... so not every brick should be hidden. Bricks can come in different shapes and sizes. Some bricks may even be flat and not allow to place anything above them!

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

One thing a lot of players asked was to see through the bricks when building. And here we are! The statement may seem simple, but it isn't an easy task. Oh boy, so many questions and problems to solve... check them out and let me know your thoughts! #brickotori #gamedev #indiedev #gamenews

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Added this little feature yesterday, the dotted lines origin now follows the brick at all times. It adds a bit of fun to the movement 😁 #brickotori #gameDev #indieDev #gameNews #littleDetails #feature #showcase #bricks #doYouLikeToReadTags

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

I just implemented auto-snapping, and falling-bricks! Now we will automatically go up when placing a brick, and we can also place bricks in the air! They will quickly fall to a valid position :3 #brickotori #gamedev #indiedev #feature #feedback #indiegame #games #videogame #gamingnews

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

The Comiccon was great! A lot of people tried the game and we got lots of feedback to improve it💪 It was our first time going out to show a game to the public, so we were very nervous 😳😳 But everything went well! #brickotori #comiccon #montreal #indiedev #gamedev #gamenews #zoneindieLQ #mtl

Two women are playing Brickotori together in local co-op at the Comiccon game event. They're seated at a booth, each with a cute custom controller, quietly focused on building a cozy brick scene on screen. One wears headphones, and both are surrounded by a warm, inviting atmosphere. The monitor shows a cheerful fireplace scene with colorful bricks and a smiling character structure built with bricks.

A player with pink-dyed hair is peacefully playing Brickotori at Comiccon. The screen shows a cozy desk map with a colorful build in progress, complete with soft lighting and playful bricks. The setup includes pastel gamepads, a fluffy cloud wrist rest, and a sign for Anawim Studios. Everything feels calm, creative, and full of personality.

Three players enjoy Brickotori in local co-op at Comiccon. The screen is split into 3 sections, each showing a different part of the shared building zone. Surrounded by cheerful controllers and Bricko-themed decorations, the players quietly focus on their collaborative creation in a relaxed, friendly space.

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

Big news for our little game! Brickotori now has a Steam page! ✨ store.steampowered.com/app/3827570/... It’s our cozy brick-building sandbox, made with love (and bricks) by a team of two. If it looks like your kind of game, we’d be so grateful for a wishlist 💛 #indiegame #indiedev #games #steam

store.steampowered.com

Brickotori on Steam

A relaxing brick building toy game for up to 4 players. No rules, no real objectives. Just bricks

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

We’ll be at Montreal Comiccon this weekend (Fri–Sun), sharing an exclusive alpha version of Brickotori at the Indie Zone! 🌟 Come say hi, try the demo, and build something peaceful ✨ (That's why we got such a big banner! lol) #Brickotori #MontrealComiccon #IndieDev #gameDev #games #comiccon #demo

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

I'm so happy I finally published the website, I will probably be making individual posts about each feature in the upcoming weeks😁 Would love to hear your feedback! Please leave a comment and if you have any idea or would like to collaborate just let me know! ❤️

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

The day has come! 🔥 I Just published Free game dev tools for everyone! 🛠️ Yes! Right here: hrodrick.github.io/game-dev-too... No ads, no accounts, no annoying overlays! And open source! #indiedev #indiegamedev #tools #devtools #gamedev #gamedevtools #website #react #node #opensource #OSS #free

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Thank you! And you will 😄 So far this has been like a rollercoaster of emotions, but we are enjoying the process :D

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

I actually like it! would prefer that it removes one stone each time you click on them instead of all. Until there are none or you missed a few times. Although if mining happens very often it may be a bit annoying to do it over and over all the time 🤔

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

We got a banner! And yes that's me 😬 We are preparing for an upcoming event in our city, and just received a giant Bricko banner from Canva! Isn't he cute? 🥰 #indiedev #gamedev #brickotori #gamedevlife #canva #illustration #banners #games #indiegames #whyareyoureadingatagsagain #cute #kawaii #art

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Thank you very much! It does help a lot for us that are just starting

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Wow! This is great, just followed, so many great devs! Are you still accepting new members? 👉👈

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

I feel you, I keep forgetting too 😭

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Rodrigo Soria @rodrigosoria.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Today, Gri was preparing the store artworks preview for the game :D We are almost there! Follow to support Brickotori ❤️ #indieDev #gameDev #brickotori #indiegamedev #steamcapsule #wip #behindthescene #games #art #PCgaming #videogames #gaming #gamingnews

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