iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I spent several hours animating throbbing tentacles today and I am so happy with the result. #pixelart #animation #art

Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I drew a portrait for the creature - stone "mask" statue fragment and glowy mycelium. Finding pixel art references for almost-smooth stone was hard. But tbh, the simple, harsh lines in the stone contrast with the more complex, soft organic shapes pretty well, I think. #pixelart #gamedev #art

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When I first started using Godot, I was extending Node-derived classes everywhere, and everything was persistent even when it probably shouldn't have been. Nowadays it's mostly Resources, and a handful of Nodes whose sole purpose is to manage them, and it's made my life much more straightforward.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Last creature post for a bit, promise, but it is *incredible* what a difference just offsetting the timing of each leg a bit makes in readability. #pixelart #animation #gamedev

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The full walk cycle! I'm rather proud of how this turned out. Something about the strutting walk just screamed "birb head bob" to me. #pixelart #animation #gamedev

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Seems like I've got a bunch of new follows from the anti-genAI game devs list, so hey! Non-binary, ND, and disabled game dev here. I use Godot and Aseprite for most of my work. I've been trying animating Line2Ds in-engine, and I don't hate the early results. #indiedev #pixelart #animation

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

When I first started my project, I was thinking it'd be so cool to use all sorts of modern lighting features in a 2D pixel art game, and I am so thankful for the slew of "HD-2D" releases showing me how wrong I would have been.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This strange little creature translated to pixel art more easily than I expected, even though I am out of practice. Was refreshing to get my head out of coding and planning systems for a bit. #pixelart #gamedev

A pixel art image of a vaguely faun-shaped quadrupedal creature. Its head and back are made of two fragments of a statue head, with fiery gemstones set in the eyes. One of the statue head's ears has been broken into a horn-like protrusion on the head, and the other forms a makeshift tail.

The creature itself has no discernable facial features, and its body is a black silhouette.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Planning the architecture for a state machine that works with my ECS-like attribute system is more challenging than expected. Attributes hold functionality and data but no logic, so just making the FSM one doesn't make sense to me. I could have states grab their desired attributes when entered.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I think I promised rats at some point, but either way... All three of our boys are still doing well. Aster's still a shit-disturber, and Beans is full of love. Grampa Flea still greets me every morning with a happy boggle, even if he does tire himself out faster. #rats #petrats #ratsky

A photo of three male rats on a bed, happily licking up the remnants of yogurt cups. The younger ones, Aster (white, left) and Beans (striped, middle), and old man Flea (right, with his head buried in the cup).

A close-up photo of an elderly male hooded rat, named Flea, sleeping deeply and peacefully, with his head sticking out an entrance to his cardboard fort.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Every time I go back to play Satisfactory, I am completely blown away by the gorgeous environment design in literally every crack and crevice of this game.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

"Even the Sun God's mere likeness held the potential for life. When the statue shattered, that potential spilled out and made a shape from the surrounding fungi and moss." #sketch #conceptart #fantasy

A pencil sketch of a vaguely faun-shaped creature. Its body and head are composed of pieces from a broken statue, held together by stringy, dense mycelium mimicking an animal shape.

The smaller statue piece forms the creature's head, but the statue's ear is damaged, making it into a sharp horn, and its eye is facing the creature's left (toward the viewer).

The larger piece forms the creature's back. The original ear, intact, is reminiscent of a deer's tail, and the eye of that piece gazes back and upward.

Otherwise, the creature is slim, with a long, elegant neck and four thin legs which end in bird-like talons.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Fighting Panthalus on flying horseback is what the Elden Beast fight should have been like.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Actually I have a lot of mostly good things to say about Palworld, as it's eaten about 100 hours of my time and will be eating much more. An example of why I love this game: I was wandering around a volcano having lost my AC pal and my ride, and was forced to climb and grapple my way around. 1/

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I went from chasing down hamsters on foot with a club, to jump-dash-gliding in a power suit as I leap off my fire-breathing demon god and plummet towards an enraged demigod, peppering it with a flurry of energy beams on the way. Palworld has one of the most satisfying tech trees I've used.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Marrying turn-based combat with time limited runs has been an interesting gamedev problem to work on. I came up with "msec" - a resource that counts up every frame while the player is in direct control, until it reaches the time limit. In combat, it is paused, but Actions have an msec cost. 1/

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

It's weird to see this as progress, but this is my ECS, behaviour, AStar grid management, and Action/Turn systems all working together seamlessly. Blue is directed. Red just tries to find an open green spot. I think this will be my last gamedev post for a bit. Maybe a rat or three though.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Clearing some gamedev negativity by infodumping about my entity behavioural system, which I'm proud of. The core thinking is a) an Entity's behaviour is in its Actions; and b) an Action knows how it is used. So logic trees are like octopus tentacles. The Root evaluates each Action as a subtree.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

People are literally putting Godot and it's "we only allow LLM-assisted contributions under restrictions and subject to extra review" policy on the same tier as Unreal, Unity, or even GameMaker - all of which are heavily, and actively, adding genAI and vibe coding into the engine for end users.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

If anti-Godot sentiment grows, I don't know what I'm going to do. I have a brain injury. I get cognitively overloaded very easily. Learning a new language and engine just isn't realistic for me anymore. Especially if there's no visual editor. So it's Godot or give up, I guess? I don't even know.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Aster had a busy morning chasing his brothers and getting rides around the house. Bet he's having some really good dreams. #rats #petrats #ratsky

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Anyone else keep getting repeatedly added to spammy pro-AI/crypto/etc troll lists by certain accounts since they got on the anti-genAI gamedev list? The funniest part is how each time they make a new list, the list name/description gets more and more polite.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Spent two hours debugging my pathfinding heuristics... only to notice it wasn't taking the easiest path because of my code, but due to the hole I'd left in the floor, hidden by other geometry, just doing its job. I am smart gamedev.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Been a rough year, dealing with loss and injury. But I did finally scrounge up the energy for another gamedev log. Long story short: it's time for the direly needed combat refactoring. Now with A* and an ECS! snoozingrat.itch.io/the-megastru... #godot

snoozingrat.itch.io

Dev Log #3: Combat Refactor & Overall Progress

Megastructure progress continues despite * gestures vaguely *. Did a little dive into graph theory for procgen practice, and came out the other side with an implementation of Dijkstra's and some prett...

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

On the plus side, Mina the Hollower is a really great break from coding. I have some regrets about choosing the hammer going in, but I'm working on its nuances. It's very satisfying to use well. I would like it if the game gave me better feedback for some actions and attacks, but I'm having fun.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Coming up with easily identifiable symbols @ ~16x16 px for my 13 elements (air/fire/earth/water, + all 2- and 3-element combinations of those) is harder than I thought. I'm starting with assigning unique colours, and glyph later, but this game decision has made my UI job a *tad* more complex.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

To all my new followers, hey! I'm a queer, disabled, neurodivergent. Main project is a roguelike - delve into a derelict megastructure for salvage and intel that might save your doomed space station. I code and do art and am relearning music. Also I have rats, which you will see from time to time.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Don't let the innocent face fool you. This one has managed to earn himself three nicknames: Shit Disturber, Hurricane, and most recently, Security Specialist. Should've just named him Zagreus. #rats #petrats #ratsky

A photo of an adolescent white rat, with red eyes, named Aster. He's lounging in his favourite grey hammock, eating a piece of kibble while looking directly to camera.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I love rat circles so much. Also turns out I can avoid Samsung's shitty AI postprocessing entirely and take photos that actually look nice.

A close up photo of an adolescent white rat, curled up into a circle and sleeping deeply.

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Reposted by Lex

Yacht Club Games @yachtclubgames.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Hoping to make the game easier? Amp up the challenge? Looking to get WEIRD???? 🥸 We’ve got you covered. Mina the Hollower has tons of built-in modifiers that customize your experience from the lenient to the punishing. 💪 What kind of experience are YOU going to craft? 👾

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Barely two steps into level design and realized I had coded neither doors nor a method of opening them. So I did that, then practised a little basic modelling and animation. I'm really happy with how the screen engages and disengages as it locks into place. #godot #gamedev #rpg #animation

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

For what its worth, I know I can change the various warnings in the project settings, but if I do that I'd never remember to set them back. A silent mode would be great, though. Having red and yellow pop up constantly while I'm typing is actually very distracting for my ADHD brain.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I wish Godot had a "chill out, I'm literally in the middle of typing the line" setting. Like, yes Godot, I know that variable doesn't exist. I've only typed half of its name.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Enemies (and PCs) can now fall to their doom! Blue glowy canister things can explode (soon)! Hazards were the last thing I needed to round out the baseline combat system. Cleaned up the UI a bit, too. Now I can focus on making it playtestable. #godot #indiedev #rpg #roguelite

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Flea's really taken to an older brother role with Aster and Beans. He's two, so he doesn't have the same energy, but he's so gentle when they play. More than anything, Flea's missed rat-grooms. Aster wants to be top rat, but Flea keeps patiently shutting him down. I love these rats. #rats #petrats

Two hooded rats in their critter nation cage, drinking from a bowl of water. Beans (left), and his elder brother, Flea.

Two rats on a pile of towels on a bed. Flea (left) is trying to enjoy some quiet time, but Aster wants to play.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Three stages of generation so far! - base map - add clusters of edges to vary density - remove vertices with 2 or fewer edges Spending a lot of time playing with values. I am liking the planet-like layouts, though (even if they're not what I'm ultimately going for). #godot #gamedev #rpg

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Pathfinding tests are soothing to watch. I'm sure it'll get a bit slower once I do a pass to add more edges. Areas dense with edges will be earmarked for rooms, while vertices with too few edges will be pruned entirely. At least, that's the plan. #godot #gamedev #rpg

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Implemented Dijkstra's algorithm, for the first time ever. I'm working towards generating a golden path from the map's edge to the centre that will be respected by later passes of the world gen.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I accidentally made something pretty. So I created a graph class and upgraded my drunkard algorithm to work with it. Then I set four little crawlers running around the space. Edges are coloured by weight, which is graded on a bell curve based on distance from centre. #godot #gamedev #rpg #art

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Still tinkering with the drunkard walk algorithm, and I'm thinking, "I could do *so much* more with this if every point held in/out connection data to work with." I think this falls into graph theory territory, which is new to me. But that's pretty exciting in its own right. Time to learn.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Stress continues to slow me down, but I'm learning about procedural generation while I put together a playable combat demo. Here's some early Drunkard Walk algorithm tests. It won't overlap itself on the first pass, but resets and tries again if it can't move without doing so. #godot #gamedev #rpg

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

This meme hits different when you're coding rebindable controls. #gamedev #godot #rpg

An old meme depicting four different button layouts for four different console gamepads (Xbox, SNES (top), PS1 (bottom), and GameCube). In each one, the button labelled "X" is in a different position.

The text reads:

"This is why I always have to think 5 seconds before pressing the X button.

This is also why so many gamers have trust issues."

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Flea's almost back to his old self, and we had our first face-to-face introduction with the new ones (Aster and Beans) and Flea. Flea seemed happy to see new rat-faces. Right now Aster and Beans have their own space, and they use their carrier as their primary nesting spot. #rats #petrats #ratsky

Two adolescent male rats, one albino (Aster), one hooded (Beans). They are snuggled together in their carrier.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I've been such a ball of stress since Gus fell ill, haven't even been able to distract myself with work. Now we have two little ones in quarantine, and Flea is back into his usual routines, so I can finally spare a spoon for some gamedev. I made widgets for adjusting game settings. #gamedev

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Reposted by Lex

Rinda 🌱 Plodding Recovery @plodding-recovery.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

I’m developing Plodding Recovery, a narrative game about a protagonist facing mental health struggles and slowly moving forward step by step. I’ve finished writing one of the scenarios for the “Diary” command. #gamedev #indiegame

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Flea (and the rest of us) have been devastated by the loss of Gus, and it's painfully clear how much he misses his brother. He's being showered with encouragement and love, and it's helping. We have a lead on a pair of young siblings to keep him company. Hopefully by the weekend. #petrats

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

One of our boys, Gus, passed away last night. It was a sudden turn, and within a few days, he was gone. Wasn't even two years old. He was a love sponge, wanting nothing more than to give and receive affection. Gus is survived by Flea, his brother. We all miss him. #rats

A close up photo of an adult rat, Gus, eating some kibble in a drawer filled with scraps of fabric. I miss you, little one.

A photo of an adult male rat from above. Gus is lounging on a black hoodie, bruxing.

A photo of two male adult rats. Flea (left) and Gus (right), staring over the edge of a bed curiously.

Your brother misses you too, little one.

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Lex @snoozingrat.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Rereading these lyrics a few days later, and wow my dysphoria was showing, huh.

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