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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill

@smallisbeautiful.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.3K following 510 posts

Wishlist Mega Drill on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3967560/… We're a small start up #indiedev studio. Most of our games are free and can be played on itch. small.itch.io

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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It was surprisingly difficult to get everything to draw in the right order with the masking effect on one of the sprites. Sometimes it was all black behind the sprite, sometimes the mask would carve a hole in the page. #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Everything's fine, don't look too closely. #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Animating this adorable fluff ball! He's part of the hint system in our hidden object game "A Breath of Fresh Air".
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Rebranding "Greenpatch Garden" to "A Breath of Fresh Air". We have two potential direction for the new capsule. What do you think? Also, what do you think is the genre of the game? #indiedev #gamedev
Version AVersion B
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Major development for Druid, my WYSIWYG GUI editor : I've got my first working values applied to an object! Here's me setting "color normal" and "color over" values of some boxes so that they react to mouse being over them.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Just a little bouncy cat. #indiedev #gamedev #clipstudiopaint
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
We've been struggling with the splash screen for a while, we wanted to update it and make it more dynamic. After a lot of sketching and talking we figured out we could simply make it like a game level. #gamedev #indiedev #gamemaker
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Evolution of the UI for *A Breath of Fresh Air. Small things make a big difference. #indiedev #gamedev *previously Greenpatch Garden.
Old vs new comparison of two version of the same UI for the game A Breath of Fresh Air.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Progress on WYSIWYG ui editor for Game Maker : That stuff is really hard! List is automatically built based on selected object's public values. Select a target then enter a new value and then the tool will crash because that's where I'm at now. #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Started working on a true WYSIWYG user interface editor. So far I can... uh... create a new box and resize it! (Not shown : I can also resize the surface area of each ui object individually.) 🔥🔥This gonna be da bomb trust me! 🔥🔥 #indiedev #gamedev #gamemaker #madewithgamemaker
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
When you pet your cat before he ignores you and the concept of boundaries #indiedev #casualgames
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
What's happening? Please stop! I'm going camping for a few days and I will miss the big round number if y'all keep going like that!
Screenshot of my followers count on bluesky showing 998 followers.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Dragonsweeper. I think that's my best time on a full clear :
Dragonsweeper's end screen. Score is 365 / 365.
Time is 5 minutes 50 seconds.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Just received this comment on Deep Forest. 😭
Screenshot of a comment on my game Deep Forest. It reads:
"I lost my childhood dog recently, and the simple way that this game shows grief and moving on made me ugly cry but in a good way! Idk what it was abt it, but i have alot of memories of playing these sorta pixel games while he slept next to me, and i think i would have enjoyed playing this with him"
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I've put Mega Drill on hold for weeks. 1) I was working on another project and 2) I didn't know what to do with it anymore. It has way too many moving parts and a confusing UI. I've worked at simplifying the mechanics and UI and I think I'm on to something. #indiedev Left is new. Right is old.
Mega Drill's new map UI.Mega Drill's old map UI.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Cat design clearly needed more work. Look at this guy now! 🙀 #indiedev #clipstudiopaint
A cartoon illustration of a black and white rex cat sitting, looking up and two study of the head in a different angle.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
This going to be my haul for this steam summer sale : #imtotallyplayingthisforresearch #indiedev
Screenshot of my Steam basket with the games Consume Me, Storyteller, Omori and Loop Hero.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Yeah, wash that face you dirty little cat! #indiedev #gamedev #clipstudiopaint
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
There's a cat in the garden! And sometimes he gets a bit crazy. #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Progress on my little old-school jRPG style fighting system. I'm using this project to do a lot of R&D on some animation and sequencer components for Game Maker. Yes, I'm using a FFV sprite sheet as a placeholder #indiedev #gamedev #gamemaker
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The gardener's cat, taking a walk. #gamedev #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Cat! He'll be a little garderner helper in Greenpatch Garden. #indiedev #gamedev
Four illustrations of a black and white rex cat. Lying down, standing up, sitting looking at us, sitting looking at the side.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Cat! He'll be a little garderner helper in Greenpatch Garden. #indiedev #gamedev
Cartoon illustration of a black and white rex cat.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Adding some fun user interactions with the plants in Greenpatch Garden. We went through a first phase of playtests lately and are adding several small improvements like that. #gamedev #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Progress has been made on my jRPG combat system. Next : make the enemies attack and die. End combat.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Last thing : what is fun with the "update" call is that I can easily create a "fast forward" feature by just calling it more than once per step. Example : game_speed = 4; repeat(game_speed){ mv.update(); } Tada! Four times as fast! Next time I'll talk about my new state machine "component". 7/7
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Quick and easy to implement! This is the result of the few lines of code above: 6/7
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
And now for the good part! Add the component to any object with one line of code: mv = new comp_mover(id,{ }); Then add an update call to the step event: mv.update(); And that's it! You got movements and collisions on your object. Just have to add a tile layer to draw collisions in the room. 5/7
Create event:
mv = new comp_mover(id,{ });

Clean up event:
delete mv;

Step event:
mv.update();

if(keyboard_check(vk_left))			mv.set_hsp(-2)
else if(keyboard_check(vk_right))	mv.set_hsp(2)
else								mv.set_hsp(0);
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The idea with the re-write is to recreate these features as pieces of code that are easy to add to any Object. Something like "components" in Unity (I think?). The first part I did was a "mover" object that handles movements and collisions. Here's a part of it : 3/7
Part of the "comp_mover" constructor code:

function comp_mover(_owner, _config = {}) constructor {
	
	// PUBLIC STATS AND METHODS
	owner = _owner;
	var _self = self;
	x = owner.x;
	y = owner.y;
	hsp = 0;
	vsp = 0;
	blocked_up = false;
	blocked_down = false;
	blocked_left = false;
	blocked_right = false;
	
	// PRIVATE VARS
	__ = {};
	with(__){
		hsp_max			= _config[$ "hsp_max"	] ?? 8;
		vsp_max			= _config[$ "vsp_max"	] ?? 8;
		col_layer		= _config[$ "col_layer"	] ?? "Collisions";
		walls			= _config[$ "walls"		] ?? true;
		slopes			= _config[$ "slopes"	] ?? true;
		solid			= _config[$ "solid"		] ?? true;
		walk_on_spikes	= _config[$ "walk_on_spikes"	] ?? false;
		gravity			= _config[$ "gravity"	] ?? true;
		light			= _config[$ "light"		] ?? false;
	}
	
	static update = function(){
		if(__.walls){
			__.tile_collisions_walls();
			__.tile_collisions_spikes();
			if(__.slopes)	__.tile_collisions_slopes();
		}	
		
		//if(solid)	tile_collisions_actors();
		if(__.gravity){
			vsp += __.gravity_strength * __.speed_modif;
		}
		
		hsp = clamp(hsp, -__.hsp_max, __.hsp_max);
		vsp = clamp(vsp, -__.vsp_max, __.vsp_max);
		owner.x += hsp;
		owner.y += vsp;
		x = owner.x;
		y = owner.y;
	}
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Day 3 : Got a basic turn going : choose a weapon to attack, select a target, the turn starts with you attacking the target and enemies attacking you. Next : having the enemies die and ending combat.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Been casually working on this for the past two days so I guess my progress is not too bad.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
New animation! Relatively simple one, but I actually used reference images for it (thanks to my girlfriend!) so LOOK AT THOSE HANDS THEY ARE SO GOOD! #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
"The Princess and the Porcupine" dialog mockups. #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
New animation. #indiedev #gamedev #clipstudiopaint
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Experimenting a potential pixel art style for Mega Drill. The current graphics are very much "placeholders that are a bit too pretty for placeholders but not good enough for the final game". It's past time I think about how the game should look like. #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Working on the writing for Greenpatch Garden. Sometimes informative, sometimes funny, sometimes self-reflective. #gamedev #indiedev
A screenshot of a two pages spread from the in-game journal.
On the left is the drawing of a sumac tree with a note reading "Sumac fruits can be turned into lemonade or a fantastic, tangy spice."

On the right is a drawing of a bird with the note "Red-wing blackbird are aggressively territorial. Appropriately, the way they sing reminds me of cartoonish war sounds."

Also a drawing of water striders with the note "Sometimes I feel small and insignificant but working in the gardens is humbling. Even the smallest things, like these water striders have their role in the grand scheme of things.".
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Unexpectedly good thrift store haul today. Two classic rock vinyl in very good condition: Led Zeppelin - Presence Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request
Vinyl cover of "Led Zeppelin - Presence"Vinyl cover of "Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request"
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Trying my hand at a pixel art witch house and a tree. How am I doing? #indiedev #pixelart
Pixel art tree and a triangular log house mounted on chicken feet.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
I did like 10 minutes of playtest for Mega Drill and it confirmed that it's overly complex and needed some redesign. It also confirmed that the action phase is fun but that the meta game should serve it better. Here's the new WIP UI (new on the left, old on the right). #indiedev #gamedev 1/5
New, simplified design.Previous design which turned out to be too crowded and overly complex.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
WIP: end of turn feedback for building effects in Mega Drill. #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Turns out I'm dumb and I can simply pass an angle to the shader to smoothly adjust the lighting to the rotating sprite. Here's the result applied in game. The sprite is still rough but I'm quite happy with the effect.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Testing normal maps for the Mega Drill. This is tricky because it's animated (8 frames) and it rotates. So this builds up to a LOT of frames of normals. This is with 12 sprite sheets of 8 frames. So each sheet covers 30 degrees. Might need more? #gamedev #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
🌳Greenpatch Garden is coming together nicely!🌳 We want the game to be a short escape in nature for the players and, in this f*ed up world, to promote the importance of small daily actions. Everyone can make a difference in the world and that's what we want our game to say. ❤️ #gamedev #indiedev
Screenshot from upcoming game Greenpatch Garden showing a wide view of a luxuriant garden with willows and small ponds.
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Artists, quote with something silly!
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Here's some very touching comments I've received for my GBStudio game Deep Forest. This is why I make games. ♥ #gamedev #indiedev
Excerpt from comments I've received for Deep Forest on itch.io. It reads:

Poster:
"this game genuinely shaped a large part of my creative processes and look on life, lol. peak game :>"

Me:
"I'm curious: May I ask what you take away from Deep Forest in terms of creative process or look on life?"

Poster replying:
"i guess it was just how well it portrayed grief and mourning? like, it resonated a lot w/ me because i was struggling to put certain feelings into words and process them at the time. it helped me start 'healing' in a lot of ways

i think a better way to put it is just that you understand how emotions work and write them beautifully, honestly. e.g. i related to the characters like i never really had for others"
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I've built a struct based UI making system in Game Maker and it allows me to easily do funky things like that. 😁 #gamemaker #gamedev #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Making good progress on our game about nature observation. Still needs a lot of polish but the core mechanics are almost all there! #indiedev #gamedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Working with my girlfriend on a game about maintaining gardens and observing nature because this is what the world need right now. 🌳
Splash screen and map of our game "Greenpatch Garden".
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Juicing up splash menu for our garden themed game. #gamedev #indiedev
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Small is Beautiful making Mega Drill @smallisbeautiful.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Post a game you remember playing that nobody else remembers
Screenshot from the first level of Lester the Unlikely (1994) on SNES.
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