iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 2h

Zero Broken Relic this week. Work trip, then a whole weekend carrying boxes and furniture into the new house. Life is pain.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Did a full playthrough of Act 2 this week, playing it like a normal player and stopping every time something felt off. 1h30 and 70+ notes later, I have a long to-do list. Ofc I know every solution, so I've no idea how long it takes a real player. If you played the demo, how long did it take you?

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Summoning football experts! Does anyone know of any epic football kick video, seen from the front and with good quality? Kinda like the one of the intro of Fifa World Cup 98 but where the player is seen a little better and doesnt disappear from the frame. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp5y...

youtube.com

World Cup 98 (PS1) - Intro

YouTube video by Rheinmetall

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Say hello to the new art of Broken Relic! Couldn't be happier with it. 😍😍 Art by the excellent al_pal55!

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

just imagine a few pixels slowly floating in the screen 😂

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Started playing a little with the particle system in @visionaire-studio.bsky.social and I'm super happy with how much life a few flying pixels add to a static background. (Might not look that impressive on video, especially on a phone)

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Big milestone today, Broken Relic is finally "playable" from start to finish 🥲

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Broken Relic has 132 inventory items, I think I made too many 💀

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

termination letter, day one: “freed an ancient demigod from a sealed book. employment ended effective immediately. recovery of the three relic fragments remains your responsibility.” Brokenrelic.com/steam

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

How do point-and-click gamers feel about the stone disc puzzles in Fate of Atlantis? As a child I really enjoyed them but I’ve noticed some debate recently suggesting these types of puzzles aren’t suitable for point-and-click games.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

the only fantasy protagonist who gets sacked and then handed the quest by the same boss who just sacked him.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

intern in an arcane library breaks a forbidden seal on day one. frees an ancient demigod. gets fired on the spot. still ordered to fix it. comedy point and click.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I've come to learn that cobwebs in pixel art is one of the hardest thing one can paint 😅 My "trick" now is to set the opacity at like 2%, use a dither brush at 1 pixel size, and just go layer different layers with different opacities until it looks cool

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Broken Relic development is going well, moving forward one step at a time. Sorry if I don't have time to post but that means I'm being very productive! As a small tease, here are some Act2 backgrounds (and one from Act 3!) ♥️ #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #pointandclick

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The problem with AI in gamedev is that everyone demoing it has never shipped a game. One "cool" asset in a video ≠ thousands of assets wired into every case in a real build. Implementing everything takes ages and it's something people don't see until they actually do it.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

The only issue is that atm the disclosure of AI use in steam is voluntary (devs choose to do it) so it won't hide the liars that pretend that didn't use it, even when it's obvious.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Hey Jonathan! Progress is going nicely! Most of Act 2 is done and soon I will start with Act 3, which includes your cameo scenes!

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

This is how Broken Relic would look in a CRT

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Not everyone is happy when you go around solving puzzles.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

David Attenborough. So close to the 100... I hope he has a happy day tomorrow.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Woke up to a spike of 337 wishlists in one day! Took me a while to figure out why, turns out pcgames.de included Broken Relic in a roundup of point-and-click adventures for 2026. One paragraph in a German article drove more wishlists than Steam Next Fest. Press coverage is a different planet!

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Listen up. Please calm down and hear me out. We are now further away from the Monkey Island Special Edition than the Special Edition was from the original Monkey Island.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

The problem is not designing with friction in mind, there are amazing games that are hard to get into by design. The problem is when a dev wants a simple mechanic but no one gets it and then "they are wrong, I am right". Admit when you are wrong, it will make your games better.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I think it depends on your intention as a designer. You can make a hard game, or create complexity on purpose as part of the experience (typical Dark Souls example). The problem is if you DO NOT want to do that, players don't get it, and then you refuse to change it.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Something AAA taught me that a lot of indie devs resist: If a player doesn't understand something in your game, that's not the player's fault. It's yours. Many indie devs get upset that players are "playing wrong." In AAA that sentence doesn't exist. If they're playing it wrong, you built it wrong.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I've redrawn this scene in my game so many times I could paint it from memory. Which is ironic because the whole reason I keep redrawing it is that I can't get it right. I think its done now.

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

This goblin king doesn't sing "Dance magic dance"

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Sandpenguin - Broken Relic @sandpenguin.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

So how is everyone feeling about Nvidia's DLSS 5?

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