iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Steven🛰️

Hyphinett @hyphinett.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Splatmap interpolation got a bit too circular on this proc gen terrain experiment whoops ':3 #Godot #ProceduralGeneration #Gamedev

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A lot of SCP-esque games coming out, some with big gacha-money behind them. Most seem to be going for action though, which I feel unfortunately makes the topic less spooky/cool. That being said, making a liveservice-scale Big game as a horror might be tough, not sure if I've seen that attempted (?)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I keep sneaking code and project cleanup in between main tasks... good for the project overall, but it does slow my update turnaround time (as need to check for introduced issues.) A few big ones: freed up ~5 layers, removed (unused) inheritance from agent classes, and deleted a ton of ancient stuff

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Making good progress on stability and agent improvements. Need to re-check it a bit though, so update will be nearer the end of the month

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Reposted by Steven🛰️

Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

One thing I never did was a post-mortem of Sir. Perhaps this is as good a time and place as any to talk about some of that. It started in 2010 when Channel 4 had some money to spend on making educational games. For some reason they asked me. ->thread

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Activated new demo; should be visible on the steam page. It contains a small mode with a stash, random quests, and a subset of content. It's admittedly a bit rushed, so maybe let me know here or in the forum if you experience any major issues (not launching, crashing, saving/settings issues, etc.)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Unfortunately have to delay the demo a few weeks. Will be out of town and unable to fix bugs and don't want to leave it unattended. (Last time there were some really rough ones, totally unforeseen.) Good news is that the demo is pretty much ready to go, so I'll drop it ~early April 👍

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

working on a small demo to release this week. just trying to decide what to put in it, and work out the most obnoxious bugs and art issues. (not part of the nextfest, planning on keeping this up indefinitely and updating pretty regularly)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

still trying to get this thing seaworthy. spending lots of time on UX, settings, and making mechanics more intuitive. I know some like opaque games, but I'd prefer for new players to be able to pick up and play. so, lots of informative tooltips, etc. (should also reduce importance of tutorials)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

in other news, yesterday I managed to add Unstuck options and generalized hover tooltips (so I can add more detailed info throughout the menus.) a lot of the remaining dev work is this sort of thing: stability and ux - trying to make a smooth new player experience

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

(the mag-size ramble was partly inspired by me experimenting with adding the Sai- I mean 'Taiga' mag-fed shotgun, and being a little terrified at how strong it feels. I cut the mag from 30->20 and nerfed the fire rate already, so not too broken necessarily though

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

(I really should set up some kind of comfortable long-form blog so I can write this rambles in more coherent fashion. I do have a wordpress 'blog' on my site but I dislike the interface so maybe could replace it. maybe after ea release when I have more time..

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

real-esque guns in unrealistic scenarios is quite tricky to balance. ie; irl, a large mag is for long fights, suppression etc, but every round is deadly. so, a 30-rd mag is not really 6x more lethal than a 5-rd. but, if you have a ~1k hp mob, w/ each shot ~50dmg, the 30-rd will melt them MUCH faster

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

friendlies also now turn on you if you damage them. (had to add this as I realized that otherwise they can be seen as walking lootboxes.) for the campaign I'll try to add some other penalties to discourage friendly fire as well

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

sorted out the thorniest issues with the faction inter-fighting changes. now possible for 'Contested' levels (infected vs mercs), and a few friendlies regularly spawn. So, now they will fight, even if on the other side of the map, and reinforcements trickle in if their numbers get too low

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

interesting how there is often tension between systems. For example, survival craves huge landscapes, gun combat craves mid range, melee combat and imsim interactions crave short range. maybe possible to weave them with careful spaced-poi design etc, but still some tension which is a neat conundrum

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

made some improvements to the bag system; can now place grids side by side, which allows more varied layouts. still experimenting with large slots, which represent placing a single item through an exterior strap/mesh. I like the idea but it's a bit hard to communicate (have a carabiner icon for now)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

managed to reuse the gun model system to allow dropped weapons to use their proper model (was previously just a box.) now agents will drop their gun as an object - a bit more immersive than being in their inventory, and also sidesteps the issue of hiding the gun model when looted

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

built out the logic to spawn into handcrafted levels, but in doing so I realized they need to go on the backburner. building decent and large maps would likely take far too long, so if I add them it will be further down the road.

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Reposted by Steven🛰️

Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

The theme for #PROCJAM 2025 is: ❄️ ☃️ COLD PLACES ☃️ ❄️ Brr! We selected this theme using a new method: I asked community members to send in theme suggestions, then we turned them into word vectors, found the average, and looked at the words nearest to that! A little bit of unpredictability. 🔮

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

one of the bigger challenges is making the melee enemies smoother while still fulfilling their role. for ex, I have a 'lateral reposition' action they can choose instead of lunging to make them less oppressive, but rn it's very jank. although, it didn't stop this guy from getting a quadra-kill lol

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

worked in generalized targeting, allowing factions to sense and fight each other. should be many benefits: fleeing wildlife hinting at enemy positions, letting the player 'third party' skirmishes, and also the inclusion of friendly survivors like this poor guy (differentiated by their teal lights)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

had a few family challenges recently, so may have to push release to ~Q1 2026, but still mulling it over 🤔

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

grinding away on future-proofing. although doing an EA release, I want to avoid breaking saves/continuity as much as possible. so, I'm trying to get at least tracer versions of everything in beforehand: handcrafted level support, trading interface, agents targeting other factions, etc

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Reposted by Steven🛰️

Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

PROCJAM - the Procedural Generation Jam - is back for another year! Join us on itch.io this November for another week of making something that makes something - a bskybot, a videogame, a digital artwork, a dice table or something else! 🗓️ Nov 21st - Dec 1st 🔮 itch.io/jam/procjam

itch.io

PROCJAM - The Procedural Generation Jam

A game jam from 2025-11-21 to 2025-12-01 hosted by PROCJAM. Let's Make Something! PROCJAM - the Procedural Generation Jam - is a creative coding jam about making things that make things. This normally...

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

besides spaghetti, amazing how much junk you can accumulate in a long project: dozens of obsolete items, systems, scenes, canvasses. maybe the positive is that it's evidence of ample iteration, but really is a chore to sift through and clean up

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

duckov is pretty damn good. Feels like a lightweight, casual take compared to ZS. difficulty feels coffee-break level, and the silly vibe and simplicity plus the extensive progression seems to land in the addictive long-playable spot for a lot of people, like dave the diver, maybe arpgs, mmos, etc.

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

amazing how much more work immersive ux can be than arcadey. for example, right now flashbanged enemies have a ✨particle above their head. I'd like to replace it with an animation, but that requires: anim, anim state, logic to handle transitions, logic to turn off aim/look targeting, and .., and ...

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

added the trilux sight for the fal. feels pretty neat, though I'd like to make it take up less of the screen

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

(also trying to get the cameras working better, including viewing photos in-game. if I can get it working, could use it for quests as well as flavour. long lenses can also be used to scout ofc. years ago I made a system where you could snap procgen chars and it would tag them, so should be doable

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

Added black-billed magpies as an alternate perching bird (only had crows). Not in the Arctic archipelago currently, but in this scenario (~2070) there is a bunch of natural and manmade forestation. Not a huge deal, but trying to add little anchors to the setting (also just fun/quick to add)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

not much to show as been mostly slogging through invisible stuff recently: saving, settings, progression. did do a pass on the base NPCs though. pretty pleased with the approach, but still a few to do, as well as bespoke anims etc

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

it's hard for me to get too excited about the new sub-genre of indies which is basically: gambling, with extra steps. at the same time I can't criticize them as randomness is the special sauce in many of my favourites; gambling-likes are arguably just distilling that down to its purest form.

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

worked in attachment compatibility (so not all suppressors can be used with any gun, etc.) Keeping it fairly loose, so each attachment can be used with at least a few guns. (can be frustrating in realistic games finding a new scope, only to learn it can only be used w/ one specific gun)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

interesting post-mortem on r/gamedev, with discussion that emotion is key for players. tricky for me as I enjoy works without that aspect, but it is a nice to have. (ie; the protag in 3body books is quite melodramatic, which pulls you along.) worldbuilding for arcti is fairly tragic, so maybe doable

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

letting weapons decide enemy firing behaviour, and split it into 3 ranges: they poke from long, burst at mid, and go almost full auto up close. had trouble with pistols spamming from afar; tried a hard distance cutoff, but it felt awkward watching them unable to shoot until nearby. a fair compromise

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

been starting to track more stats, and displaying them on run loss/win. besides adding a bit of flavour, I could potentially tie them into quests or steam achievements. it's a bit tricky deciding what to track/display though, as it's meant to be a more organic experience than an arcadey one 🤔

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

one thing I find interesting is how, in many games, it's easy for players to avoid combat if they really want to. ie, sprinting by mobs to get to fromsoft bosses, stealthing past 90% of enemies in an fps, ratting in battle royales, eco runs in tarkov, etc.

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

doing 1-2 runs a day is really a great catalyst for bugfixes. every time I die to a bug, I get a huge burst of motivation and often resolve it quite quickly. the emotion of unfairness is really such a strong and bitter one (hopefully I can reduce the number of players who experience it to a minimum)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

it's a bit confusing to me when I see people conspicuously consume and posture around games/gamedev like a 'scene', where coolness is to be hoarded. growing up, games were just something silly to kill time. I suppose the explosion in eyes around games makes status seeking possible and attractive (?)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

reworking the harvesting and cooking systems. a rewarding process, as it makes the survival elements feel more deliberate and thoughtful. (has also been pretty painful as cooking touches like 10 other systems, but I've almost got it sorted)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

making a habit of playing the 'daily challenge' everyday. it's highly random, so a good stress test for the design, especially the resource economy. mostly been dying to the cold... fitting maybe, but a sign I need to revamp firemaking, etc. (ideally, any start should be winnable with enough skill)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

realized that future-proofing saves is trickier than I thought. I was saving seeds for level layout (and saving enemy & item positions manually.) But, if I add props etc it'll change the lists they are randomly pulled from, altering the results. I may need manual all the way down to be consistent 🤔

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

the level gen for this project is usually not that painful. I think the main reason is that it's a 'one and done' system: you generate once and that's it. real time dynamic things like agents are harder because they are constantly online and so harder to understand and debug.

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

besides enemy ai, tuning the heat system has been one of the trickier things. unlike food/water, it's not just a case of carrying items around. there are heat packs, but they are more of a band-aid for having bad clothes. warming by fires is also tricky in terms of not making it too slow and boring

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

finally got player proning in. reduces sway and recoil, but makes your body temp drop faster. will be interesting to see how it plays out wrt combat balance

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

making a procgen game, it's interesting how simply adding more cosmetic options can have a big impact on gameplay. that is, typically adding more building styles to a game might just be a 'nice-to-have'. But, in a procgen game it could be the tipping point to make levels navigable and interesting

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Spent most of yesterday wrestling with my old rig, but managed to get functional reloads for bolt actions, revolvers, & break actions. It's bit of the classic dilemma: take time to rewrite the technical debt, or just power through with the old system? Certainly, a new rig would be less painful.. 🤔

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

I tend to want to think of most games as 'platforms' for players to do what they want with. Inspired by things such as Ravenfield and Anomaly here. As such, I'm trying to add as many tunable parameters as I can manage (though, it can make it pretty hard to balance and manage edge cases, saves, etc.)

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Steven🛰️ @starmotedev.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

pretty interesting how the mere presence of motion makes an image 100x more mesmerizing. I saw some photos of a guy holding something do N, and a short video of him holding it do like 100N. Does seem in general that from text->image->video, posts pick up several orders of magnitude of eyes each jump

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