iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 30/09/2026

It's kind of fun comparing Even Goblins Fall In Love's current combat UI with an old version. The core has largely stayed the same over development, but the little refinements definitely polished the combat experience. #gamedev #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

A battle from Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG).
This screenshot is from a newer version of the game. Major differences with the older screenshot include icons instead of words for character stats (leading to a cleaner UI) and small decorations on dialog windows.

A battle from an older version of Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG).

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 28/09/2026

With Even Goblins Fall In Love nearing completion, we're at the phase of game development where we work on the manual for the game, as well as the game itself. #gamedev #indieretro #nes #nesdev

Page from Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) instruction manual.

The page shows an image of an intricate dagger and says:
"Doses

Lin’s main weapon, the Trickster Knife, allows them to apply a dose of status effects on foes. Lin can use several types of doses and gains access to more as they level up.
Venom – Foe will take poison damage every turn
Acid – Foe attack power halved
Rust – Foe defense halved
Shock – Foe may be unable to act
Unluck – Foe critical hit chance halved
Clumsy – Foe evasion halved
Blast – All doses will detonate for damage "

Page from Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) instruction manual.

The page shows an image of an herb, a wing, and a potion and says:
"Items

Various helpful items can aid Lin in their quest. Lin can carry up to 3 of each item.
Herb – A healing herb that restores Lin to full health

Wing – A magical wing that will fly Lin back home to safety

Double – A powerful potion that will make Lin’s next attack inflict a double dose"

Page from Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) instruction manual.

The page shows an image of a key, a hammer, and a torch and says:
"
Key – A special key that can unlock magical doors

Hammer – A hammer that busts through piles of rock

Torch – A torch can light up dark dungeons"

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 26/09/2026

Want to have an easier time hitting targets in Gunhawk with a NES Zapper? Aim down the barrel and line up your sites on the target. Does shooting at the screen count as #screenshotsaturday ? #nes #indieretro #homebrew #nesdev

Point of view aiming down the barrel of an NES Zapper which is aimed at a CRT TV playing Gunhawk, an indie NES shooting game.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 23/09/2026

I still find it interesting to think about how features we take for granted can be so significant in #nesdev. Case in point: lower-case letters. Look at how much tile space needs to be spent just to make sure NPCs aren't screaming at you all the time.

Screenshot of Even Goblins Fall In Love, an indie NES JRPG. The player is speaking to an NPC saying: "Someone said the Princess does not wish to marry. How silly! She's a princess!"

On top of the emulator window is a debug display of background tiles used in the game showing how much data space is taken by lowercase letter tiles in addition to uppercase letters.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 21/09/2026

Even Goblins Fall In Love, our NES JRPG, uses a CNROM board. This means that it has 32 KB of graphical tiles spread across four 8 KB switchable banks. In addition to being space for more graphics, we use bank switching to animate some of the tiles on the world map. #gamedev #retrogame #nes #nesdev

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 19/09/2026

It's happening! Even Goblins Fall In Love has been accepted to MIVS (MAGFest Indie Videogame Showcase) for MAGFest in January! It's been a couple years since I've had the opportunity to show my work at MIVS. I am SOOOOOOO pumped for this opportunity!

Doodle of Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love playing a recorder next to an acceptance message.
The message says "Welcome to the Indie Showcase!" and shows that the game accepted for MIVS (the MAGFest Indie Videogame Showcase) is Even Goblins Fall In Love.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 16/09/2026

This is an early prototype of Gunhawk. Early on, the game would let the player move by shooting on-screen arrows to avoid enemy attacks. Later on, I switched the game to have more nuanced D-pad movement. Also, you'll notice that enemies drop bonuses which got cut from the final version of the game.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 14/09/2026

When designing creatures for Even Goblins Fall In Love, our indie NES JRPG, I wanted to aim for a mix of cute and creepy designs much like the original Dragon Quest. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Battle scene in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) versus an enemy called a Lilhani.

Battle scene in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) versus an enemy called a Eyeful.

Battle scene in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) versus an enemy called a Stomp Eye.

Battle scene in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) versus an enemy called a Stabby.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 12/09/2026

One of the more technical nods to Dragon Quest that our NES JRPG, Even Goblins Fall In Love, makes is storing game data in CHR (graphic) data. See all that noise in the tiles? That's monster and dungeon data! #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Even Goblins Fall In Love, an indie NES JRPG, running in an emulator. Next to it, you can see graphical tiles used in the game. Some of the titles look like white noise static. They are actually compressed game data making room for more code logic in the game itself.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 09/09/2026

Even if you don't have a NES Zapper, you can still play Gunhawk with a NES Controller. A lot of players have commented on how well the game holds up when using a gamepad instead of a Zapper. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 07/09/2026

Where the larger industry is turning away from physical towards a digital-only (DRM) future, weird little indies like us are embracing physical (www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG...) and releasing games digitally sans DRM (skyboygames.itch.io).

In-game screenshot of Gunhawk, an indie NES Zapper game. The player controls a blue mech while a swarm of purple enemies approach from the horizon.

A physical boxed copy of Gunhawk for the NES. The game includes a box, manual, and game cart.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 05/09/2026

I love these pictures that the organizers of the Enoch Pratt Free Library Indie Video Game Fest took of me. I hope this lovely couple weren't overwhelmed by my explanation. Little did they know that asking me anything about NES dev would instantly launch me into professor mode.

Photo of Robbie D (Skyboy Games) explaining game development minutia to a couple of people.
She is wearing a red Captain N jacket and has green hair. She is gesturing with her hands.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 02/09/2026

In our NES Zapper game, Gunhawk, players used to only be able to fire when their weapon was fully charged. In the release version, players have the option to fire with or without a full charge. Naturally, the full-charge shot does damage. #indienes #gamedev #retrogame ##nesdev #indieretro

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 29/08/2026

The Steam version of Fire And Rescue will have multiple border types (including full-screen mode and a gameplay stats window) you can use when playing the game. #indiedev #indienes #gamedev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 26/08/2026

One last reminder that the price of our NES physical boxed games will be going up from $50 to $60 due to increased shipping and material costs starting September. Order during August to lock in a copy at the current lower price: www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG...

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 24/08/2026

After some delays and derailments, the Steam version of Fire And Rescue is back in development and should become available some time soon (-ish) store.steampowered.com/app/2784030/... #indiedev #indienes #gamedev #indieretro

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 22/08/2026

I fixed a sequence break in Even Goblins Fall In Love by moving one of the shopkeepers from this town to a different town. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Player exploring a town full of goblins in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 19/08/2026

The main combat mechanic of Even Goblins Fall In Love, our indie NES JRPG, is applying doses of status effects on enemies. The final dose type, BLAST, explodes all applied doses for direct damage. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Battle in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) with a Haniwa.
The battle screen is prompting for a dose to apply to the Trickster Knife, the player's main weapon.
The dose options are: Venom, Acid, Rust, Shock, Unluck, Clumsy, and Blast.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 17/08/2026

It may not look like it, but this treasure chest caused a bad bug at the end of the game. It's fixed now. I won't show the bug here right now though because *spoilers*. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Player in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG) is facing a treasure chest in a dungeon.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 15/08/2026

With the limited space of a 64 KB ROM, find ways to reuse assets and mix palettes is a vital skills for adding visual variety to the dungeons of Even Goblins Fall In Love, our indie NES JRPG. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

A dungeon with white walls and a brown floor in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A dungeon with stone walls and an earthen floor in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A dungeon with green tinted walls and a brown floor in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A dungeon combination of blue stone walls and natural cave walls in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 13/08/2026

This creature implements a lot of sequence break protection for Even Goblins Fall In Love, our indie NES JRPG. It varies it's behavior based on the player having certain key pieces of equipment. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Creature in a pixel art JRPG (Even Goblins Fall In Love, for the NES) tells the player:
"Go away, little creature! You are no threat to my master."

Creature in a pixel art JRPG (Even Goblins Fall In Love, for the NES) tells the player:
"Give me that sword!"

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 12/08/2026

Due to increased shipping and component costs, we will be raising the price of our physical NES games on Etsy. The price will increase from $50 to $60 starting from Sep. 1st. Order before then to get the games at the current, lower price. www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG...

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 10/08/2026

Yet another bunch of the creatures you will encounter in Even Goblins Fall In Love, an upcoming indie JRPG for the NES. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

A combat encounter with a Stabby in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Ignis in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Raksha in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 05/08/2026

Tired of the own-nothing, unaffordable RAM future? Buy new games for old tech. Do not surrender your future. skyboygames.itch.io/gunhawk #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Retro box art features a black background, green wireframe mecha, and the pixelated title "GUNHAWK" slashed by a red beam shot from a cyan mecha.

On a military-controlled planet, pilot Nue steals prototype mecha "Gunhawk" to escape the enemy base by blasting through 5 multi-stage sectors. Between levels, upgrade stats (Max HP, Fire Rate, Charge Spd/Dmg, Dash, Shield Dmg) via a green-monochrome menu. The story unfolds through cutscenes, with optional risk/reward comm-taps for extra upgrades.

Screenshots show pseudo-3D perspective shooter action over cityscapes and water with a retro HUD (Time, Hearts).

Playable on NES or NES-compatible systems using a Gamepad with or without NES Zapper.

© 2023 Skyboy Games LLC (Homebrew Entertainment System). All rights reserved.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 03/08/2026

Each gear slot has 4 options. The player gets the first gear option in each slot by default, so we can ignore those when generating passwords only have to save 3 bits of data per gear slot. Retro #gamedev can be such a rush. #indienes #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Password entry screen for Even Goblins Fall In Love (indie NES JRPG). This screen allows players to resume the game where they left off.

Status screen for Even Goblins Fall In Love (indie NES JRPG). This screen shows the stats and gear for the player character of the game.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 01/08/2026

More of the creatures you will encounter in Even Goblins Fall In Love, an upcoming indie JRPG for the NES. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

A combat encounter with a Sentreye in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Bastet in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Dumpstar in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 29/07/2026

This is a sampling of some of the creatures you will encounter in Even Goblins Fall In Love, an upcoming indie JRPG for the NES. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

A combat encounter with a Haniwa in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Ragerock in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

A combat encounter with a Lickie in Even Goblins Fall In Love (an indie NES JRPG)

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 27/07/2026

I got a long-reach stapler to enable creating my own saddle-stitch booklets. That's all well-and-good, but I'm looking at the feature text on the box and it's like: "12-inch reach!", "two-finger operation!" Hmmm... 😏

Bostitch long-reach stapler on a wood table.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 25/07/2026

The Double Dose Potion doubles the dose of applied status effects for the next attack Lin makes. Here, Lin applies SHOCK to an enemy who remains affected by SHOCK despite recovering from one of the applied doses. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 22/07/2026

I've reached the point where I am writing a draft version of the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. It makes sense when you think about it, but the manual for a game itself is an important part of the QA process. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Cover of a rough draft NES game manual.
The cover says:
"Even Goblins Fall In Love
Instruction Manual
v0.1

[Placeholder Front Cover]"

Pages of draft copy of Even Goblins Fall In Love manual.
One page describes how to use the Stardust Pendant in the game.
Another pages details character stats.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 20/07/2026

The Skyboy Games Etsy shop will be going on vacation mode from July 23 to August 10. Order games now if you'd like to get a physical NES copy of our games shipped without delay. www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG...

Front and back of box for Gunhawk, an indie NES Zapper game.

Front and back of Fire And Rescue, an indie NES game about firefighters.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 18/07/2026

Just experimented with running Even Goblins Fall In Love in our in-development app shell for Steam. If this works out, I might be able to launch Even Goblins simultaneously as a ROM on itch and on Steam. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 15/07/2026

Times like these* call for the guillotine! * I was referring to trimming draft manuals for my NES games. What were you thinking of? #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

A guillotine paper trimmer and a small draft manual for the NES game Even Goblins Fall In Love.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 13/07/2026

NEXXT (@FrankenGraphic) updated version of Shiru's NESST, NES Screen Tool) has been a go-to tool for creating data for Even Goblins Fall In Love. Highly recommended if you want to understand how NES graphics work: frankengraphics.itch.io/nexxt

Title screen of Even Goblins Fall In Love being shown in NEXXT (the next-gen update of NES Screen Tool).
Graphical tiles and palette colors used to create the title screen can be seen on the right.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 12/07/2026

Shout out to Compress Tools, a suite of compression algorithms particularly suitable for #nesdev. www.romhacking.net/utilities/882/ The Byte-Pair Encoding implementation was crucial for me to fit text and map data into the ROM for Even Goblins Fall In Love.

Command prompt window displaying results of compression algorithm tests with filenames, byte counts, and savings percentages for RLE, BitpackRLE, EscapeRLE, RLEINC1, RLEINC2, BytePair, RecursiveBytePair, TinyHuff, TinyHuffFixed, Huffman, ROM_LZ77, ROM_7bit_LZ77, RAM_LZ77, and StaticDictionary encoding.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 11/07/2026

Our indie NES JRPG, Even Goblins Fall In Love, is getting a little guest cameo from Nekomancer of Nowhere! store.steampowered.com/app/3180290/... It seems this magic cat has some sort of gift for Lin. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 08/07/2026

Notice the little "0.9" in the corner of the screen. Our indie NES JRPG, Even Goblins Fall In Love, getting that much closer to version 1.0 completion! #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 06/07/2026

See that little white sticker? That's an NFC chip that contains a URL that will allow you to get a downloadable ROM version of the physical NES cartridges that we sell on Etsy. www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... #indienes #homebrew #retrogame #nes #indieretro

Stack of open NES cartridges. On the inside of the cartridge shell front, a round, white sticker is visible. This sticker contains an NFC chip. NROM circuit boards with chips soldered to them are also visible.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 05/07/2026

If you can't afford to stay at an inn, you can always go back to your mother's house to rest and save your game. This is not, not a commentary on life and our modern economy. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 01/07/2026

One final bundle of doodles by @ursamajorgamma.bsky.social of main character Lin that will be sprinkled about the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro

Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love in various poses:
- Catching a butterfly with a net
- With a soot covered face after a magical potion blew up
- Scratching a picture into the ground

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 29/06/2026

Been hard at work lately assembling some new physical copies of Fire And Rescue. Available for purchase on our Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... #indienes #homebrew #retrogame #nes #indieretro

Two piles of boxed copies of Fire And Rescue (an indie NES game). The pile on the left shows the cover image of the game of two firefighters jumping out of a burning building. The pile on the right shows the back of the box with description text and several screenshots.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 27/06/2026

Crossing a bridge towards the final castle while carrying the requisite Macguffin sword will spark a boss battle that will open up a path to the end of the game. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 24/06/2026

I noticed that there is only one place in the Even Goblins Fall In Love that uses stairs as a dungeon exit (a special metatile). By re-working the cave a bit, I can now use that metatile data for something else. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Character in an 8-bit cave. Behind them is an open hallway that leads out of the cave.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 22/06/2026

I feel like my #screenshotsaturday posts are going to get a bit dull because I'm at the stage of development and game tuning where I basically live in Excel. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Excel sheet showing various enemies from Even Goblins In Love (an 8-bit retro JRPG.) A section of the sheet shows stats for a level 5 test player. Based on the player character's stats, average damage taken and given are calculated and used to calculate how many turns the player needs to defeat a given enemy as well as how many turns they can expect to survive against each enemy. Turn values that are safer for the player character are highlighted green while values that are hazardous to the player character are highlighted red.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 21/06/2026

My son gave me Even Goblin's Fall In Love fan-art for Father's Day! Also, shout-out to all the gents, ladies, and enbies who are fathers in whatever configuration. Be it, "father", "dad", or "daddy"!

Shoulder-up drawing of Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love.
"Father's Day" is spelled out in back in block letters.

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 20/06/2026

Exploring a dungeon and suddenly finding yourself face-to-face with a palette-swapped version of your mother. I'm sure nothing suspicious is going on here. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 17/06/2026

For the Steam version of Fire And Rescue, I'm adding a series of Time Attack and Score Attack challenges using specially modified versions of the game ROM. Your best scores/times will be posted to leaderboards on Steam. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 15/06/2026

Here are some more doodles by @ursamajorgamma.bsky.social of main character Lin that will be sprinkled about the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro

Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love in various poses:
- Playing a recorder really loud!
- Playing a recorder softly while walking
- Being eaten by a Mimic
- Hiding in a treasure chest
- Dizzy and exhausted on the ground

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 13/06/2026

Making some updates to the starting castle of Even Goblins Fall In Love to account for events at the end of the game. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

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Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com · 13/06/2026

This creature, the Dumpstar, was birthed from a bug that incorrectly combined enemy sprites. I liked the combo so much I turned it into an official creature. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

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