iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

That's representation, baby!

hatoving @hatoving.itch.io · 23/04/2025

Reposted by Hors

I made a horse video game. Because of course I did. DEETS is out now on itch.io, Game Jolt and Newgrounds!! hatoving.itch.io/deets gamejolt.com/games/deets/... www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/... #gamedev

2187

Hors published a post on Ko-fi

April #gamedev blog is up on Ko-fi. A very big thank you to my community that brings me interesting problems, mutually beneficial contract work, and the odd donation. Your support means more than you know, and I'm super grateful to get to do #indiedev as a full time job. ko-fi.com/post/Taxing-...

ko-fi.com

Taxing Season

073

BUT HER AIM IS GETTING BETTER! (is this thing on?)

Hors @workhors.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

@f0lak.bsky.social commissioned some new #pixelart assets for #kinfolk this weekend. Kinfolk's really shaping up to be a really cozy lil #indiegame. I'm really happy with the vibe that has evolved from the simple style setting work we did last summer. #gamedev

0176

Try banding along the topology. 1 black, 1 white, 2 black, 1 white, then all black.

Hors @workhors.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The only thing reddit hates more than reposts is OC.

Hors @workhors.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

By far the best bug I've ever diagnosed in an #indiegame. Turns out if you sit on a container in #kinfolk, and then immediately jump, you can turn your character into a firehose of feces. The #gamedev now knows how to reproduce the issue, and has a fix in the pipe.

1152

Hors @workhors.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Yeah. Sounds like how I write code. I have these periods where I just brew, but get no lines down. Mostly just thinking about structure. Then I get a burst where I put down 7K lines in a day and a half.

000

Hors @workhors.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Lost it at "Nah fam, fuck that."

Hey #writers, How many words do you write a day, and how long can you sustain that pace? Any tips for increasing your output and sustaining momentum?

In general, programming is an art of self-evolution. The more code you write, the more times you are gonna come across the same pattern. You need to write that big ball of code to start seeing the patterns in the noise. Don't try to do it right the first time. You won't. Write code.

000

A couple of solid programming concepts to help you out: Separation of concern Naming conventions DRY principle Magic number problem

However, it is always demoralizing when you start to scale and things are starting to fall apart. The biggest thing is basically not blaming the tools, and learning to benchmark, ask questions, and understand bad patterns in your environment of choice.

100

The answer is that you don't really avoid it. The process of #gamedev is making a mess, and then cleaning it up. Refactoring as you grow and learn is part of the process. Get it working first. Then make it pretty if you have time. That's the most important thing.

130

Burning the midnight oil converting another #indiegame dev's procedural approach to combat skills to a data-driven approach. Hoooooo boy is it easier to make a mess than it is to clean it up. When it's all said and done, the game should have a simpler state, less code, and better performance.

061

AI cuts both ways. Individuals can use it to compete with established businesses whose decision makers are employing it without regard for its actual value. A lot of companies are gonna double down hard on LLMs, fire their humans, and be left in the dust by the companies that keep their humans + AI

000

I think we're in a space where a pretty big shakeup is going to happen; we've empowered a lot of non-technical people to be technical decision-makers, which is why the first wave of AI adoption is destroying much more than it is creating.

100

So really, instead of using AI to do something that is beyond my technical skill level, it allows me to simplify something much more beautiful, but ultimately pointless, as my audience for the script I'm writing isn't there to hear me jerk myself off and use the word 'forsooth' in the right context.

000

I've found what I think is a fantastic use of LLMs. I'm not very good, frankly, at writing accessibly. My prose is layered, my vocabulary is broad, and I have a penchant for weaving multiple loose loops around an idea before I cinch and tie it off. LLMs can take my complex ideas make them plainer.

100

Oh, absolutely. I suppose, my main concern is really that there are ethical and practical ramifications. If only the despots have the nuclear weapon, the future is quite bleak. Regardless of whether or not we should have, it was made, and we are going to have to live in that world now.

F0lak 🇨🇦 @f0lak.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Reposted by Hors

Does anyone know anyone that makes book bindings? I have a dumb idea that just might work, but I need a custom book for it. #booksky #librarian #author #writing #story

041

Reminds me an awful lot of Ultima 7/8 --in a good way.

Getting this out of the way: I have very mixed feelings about GenAI. Does it worry you at all, that by drawing a hard ethical line, you promote an attitude that incentivizes the people concerned with ethics to stay completely out of the conversation and only unethical people will take advantage?

Rrad @am-rrad.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Reposted by Hors

And finally, Dragon Ball Nova:Burst is finally available on gd.games! Fight Arlik, fight Raddis, or challenge your friends in 1v1 local multiplayer NOW! gd.games/rrad/dragon-... #indiedev #solodev #gdevelop #fightinggame #2d #dbz #dragonball #pixelart #gameboy #fight #newgrounds #itchio

043

Just got my first sub on kofi. Big shoutout to fellow #indiegame #gamedev Andre for the sub / donation. Andre's a great dude, and he's working on a childhood passion project to polish and de-brand a fangame he played as a teenager. They are doing great work. Anyway, here's what I'm spending it on:

0134

At some point though, when your market cap hits the point where you are producing large products and have a stable income stream, generative AI is no replacement for an in-house concept artist, and you lose out on the discussions and ideas that come from slower paced in-person collaboration.

120

F0lak 🇨🇦 @f0lak.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

I truly dislike the fact that generative AI is working as yet another means of wealth and satisfaction extraction from creatives, shunting that capital owners. However, we're in that world now, and it can be a tool to streamline production, particularly in the prototype phase for small devs.

030

Reposted by Hors

I’ll be hosting a public test for Kinfolk in a few hours! If you’d like to try the game out, come on in to the discord server (link in bio!) #gamedev #indiegame

0177

Someone in my #gamedev community once said: "Everyone goes to dev support thinking it's about code. What if it's emotional support devs need?" Spot the hell on.

080

This looks phenomenal. I don't do much modern work, but if you want to add some texture to the roads, I've got some of my work to show: No texture at your texel density is totally fine, just add some deets like road markers. Or you can shade toward the gutters. At this scale less noise is better.

000

@godpod.bsky.social Yo, this fleshfoot got your approval?

Good morning #indiegame! Finished up a second #gamedev article on the subscriber pattern and demonstrated the concept with a status bar UI. Clean code is happy code. #KofiPromoteChallenge Subs can check out the article: ko-fi.com/post/DM-101-... It's how I pulled off this effect:

085

I've been saying it for years: This mess got out of control in 2014 with gamergate. While gamergate had roots in 2010's unhinged tea party bullshit, without the basement dwelling turd-swilling politically ignorant gamer-chuds, the movement just doesn't have legs.

0111

Niche enough that I know more about it than anyone else on the planet, and saying that is just factual instead of arrogance. Maybe 5K people use it globally at most.

000

Wrote an article on weak references vs strong references and added the new version of my weak references library to my ko-fi store front. Still have three other libraries that need some polish to put up as well. It's gonna be a busy weekend. Absolutely wild that ko-fi doesn't do code blocks.

000

But I want to have my cake and eat it too. 3/10 literally unplayable.

I really appreciate it. I'm mostly commission fishing to keep me in the stable and out of the cold. I work in an extremely niche game engine, and am both a programmer and artist, so I don't really have to barter at this time.

000

This game was unhinged difficult to beat when I was just a pony.

000

It's surprisingly lovely. I deleted my facebook and twitter long before it got nazified. Expected BlueSky to be not as different of a mouthfeel as it is, but the customizable algorithm is a dream. The more you dig down into wholesome, lovely people, the more of that you get. 10/10

Hors published a post on Ko-fi

A new #byond #gamedev tutorial arrives! Following up my first article on UI, I expanded the system we built together to allow for scene management and slimming down and organizing the code you have to write through a global ticker loop. Check out the free article! ko-fi.com/post/UI-in-D...

ko-fi.com

UI in DM part 2 is out!

050

Writing #gamedev tutorial; Got a #magicians scene stuck in my head: Mayakovsky: "Adderall. To fortify you. Make you write like Tolstoy." Alice: [visible disgust] Mayakovsky: "What? Drugs are fun." Just hit 2K words. Probably 1K left.

040