iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

(And don't worry; instead of potentially triggering arachnophobia with real spiders, these are abominations with a human eye for a body and really slow leg animations.)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 1h

Didn't feel like starting to code the 4 new bosses yet so I finally got started on the level design for the first Nameless Institute level. The green path is mostly about two types of spiderwebs (climbable and bouncepad) #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 07/10/2026

Speaking of "big and intimidating", I might need to figure something out for when objects are in front of a map you're inside. An EXP crystal covering up the tile behind it isn't so bad when you're the same size, but when you're one 32th the size suddenly it's VERY distracting.

Sadly, it doesn't give 32x the regular EXP if you crush it at this size.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 07/10/2026

Fixed some issues in the enemy movement code, namely that they assumed all map chunks had the same size and thus couldn't properly move between ones with different size. Now they can, and it also has the bonus that they can look extra big and intimidating. #gamedev #indiedev #JRPG

Goblins and goblins and goblins, oh my!
Placeholder is also there for some reason.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 06/10/2026

The space world expansion is coming along pretty well, level design / loot / enemy placement is done for everything except the big story area! Also went back and sprinkled in three new optional areas to fill in the empty space with more stuff to do. #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

One of the areas is a copy of a platforming gauntlet in Cowloon I was really happy with, but I changed the enemy placement so it's not going to FEEL like a repeat.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 06/10/2026

strategically leaving out evidence, I see

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 05/10/2026

(it's completely SFW, the joke is that all the items he sells are made from various types of nuts)

The classic breakfast(?) idk I don't really eat breakfast

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 05/10/2026

the classic (I might have snuck in a subtle reference to this)

(The dog welcomes you to its store by playing its maracas.)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 04/10/2026

Set up a system for NPC graphics! It's the same modular system used by party members, but with convenience functions to quickly randomize appearances and dress them up. (Also unlike the party members reading from party data, all data is managed locally for NPCs) #gamedev #indiedev #JRPG #pixelart

From left to right: goat explorer, human cleric, shrumal cleric, deer fighter, lizard soapmancer

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026

also side note, whenever I need to do something stupid that will break if I look at it funny, I always add a "HACK" comment tag so I can easily find potential suspects next time something breaks

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026

For some reason THIS PARTICULAR MENU (and ONLY this menu!) has the cursor offset super far away and I couldn't figure out why so eventually I just added some hardcoded numbers to offset the *desired* cursor position in the other direction after measuring how far away it was on a screenshot #gamedev

A screenshot of a screenshot being edited in an image editor. We're getting meta.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026

Ran into an unintended consequence of how I set up item data; there's no single unified way to calculate sell prices and there's not even a guarantee an item object is valid to sell luckily there's always the "hide the dirty details behind a helper function" solution for cases like this #gamedev

Gear sell prices are calculated using rarity and stat total, consumables/materials/treasure/buildings have hardcoded prices, gold just uses its value as-is, and everything else can't be sold

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026

here's my 5 cents, 1) mix up body shapes so characters are 100% guaranteed to look visually distinct (that lowers the pressure on the outfit design) 2) cram as many meaningful details in as possible (don't worry they won't be on-the-nose to someone that don't know all your thoughts and lore)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026

also in case anyone's curious, my scripts are beeeg so I use folding regions a lot (e.g. this one is the "menuevents_pause" script, it has all the functionality from the pause menu, sorted by submenu) [If the "system menu" name's confusing, that's where the settings/options are gonna go later]

Screenshot of a big script with all the folding regions closed.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026

#GameMaker tip of the day: there's a bunch of secret hotkeys for folding regions, most notably Ctrl+M which folds EVERYTHING. Perfect if you only want the stuff you're currently working on open in a 5000-line script! #gamedev #indiedev

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026

coding menus is still absolutely soul-draining but at least it's very clear how much progress you made when you look back at WIP screenshots and watch it evolve from a total mess to something readable #gamedev #indiedev #JRPG

The menu leaks outside the screen, invalid references are drawn as text, colors are not read properly...

Things are aligned properly but the colors are too extreme and there's tons of unused space

The description box covers up half the menu, making it unusable

Perfection. All the information is in place and readable.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026

The shop "talk" system is in place, turned out to be a bit messier than I expected because cutscenes and menus weren't set up to play nice with each other. I also had to add support for dialogue boxes to be repositioned, so they can line up with the shop's flavor text box. #gamedev #indiedev #JRPG

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 30/09/2026

Figured I need to chew through my todo list of remaining systems if I'm ever gonna get the #JRPG project done so I started work on the shop menu (the easiest thing on the "Entire Systems That Are Missing" list) #gamedev #indiedev

Support your local businessgoat! (There's not actually any purchaseable items yet so you can't.)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 28/09/2026

Well... guess what the filename used for its chapter 2 iteration is?

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 26/09/2026

I always felt all the work that went into the space physics was kinda wasted when it's just a one-and-done level so my next goal is expanding it to be a 4-burger level (I'll also connect better to the Stargazer and donut lore that was invented AFTER I made this level) #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

The level was originally called Waste Of Space as a pun on trash, but it feeling like a waste was not intentional...

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 26/09/2026

I've also planned something like this out~ (combined with being a mirror match against an exact copy of the player avatar, so the balance will be fair)

You can tell I'm getting better at english because I could figure out the "querade" in "masquerade" can be torn out of the word and sounds kinda like a weird RPG name

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 24/09/2026

(if anyone's curious, this is the calculation) Left and up are "half rounded down", right and down are "max minus half, rounded up" (Rounding up is necessary because otherwise the exact halfway point is still included in the range so we need to move it one extra step from there)

Left and up are "half rounded down", right and down are "max minus half, rounded up"

Rounding up is necessary because otherwise the exact halfway point is still included in the range so we need to move it one extra step from there

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 24/09/2026

I realized it's not always clear when menus has more stuff in them (especially the portrait selector) so I added a new generic UI element that shows an animated arrow if there's offscreen items in that direction (automatically calculated based on menu size) #gamedev #indiedev #JRPG

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 24/09/2026

I was gonna make an "eyes up here" joke in reference to webcameras usually being above the screen but then I realized the eyes of the Kerfus actually are all the way down at floor level, lol makes sense from a design POV though (they won't overlook a trip hazard if they're at floor level)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 24/09/2026

Putting the face on the monitor makes sense from an usability point of view, it's a lot easier to display facial expressions on a screen than having like, animatronic eyebrows over the cameras we even do it intentionally with real life robots, like the Kerfus store mascot

The real life Kerfus, that was ported to Voices of the Void later. Image stolen from Wikipedia, original photo by user Nougcat

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 24/09/2026

I can't get over how "are videogames art?" is still even a question that people ask it gets even more absurd if you'd apply it to any of the traditional forms of art (so I did it satirically to prove the point)

Is music art? Well, you can't put it on a wall, so that's one point down-

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 23/09/2026

there's always the indie alternatives Dolls Nest and Punihi Loader 2 one thing I never could get over with AC6 is how BIG (25m tall!) the mechs are, DN and PL2 both have human-sized mechs in human-sized worlds and it makes them feel a lot more believable

Example Dolls' Nest screenshot, from the undercity zone

Example Punihi Loader 2 screenshot, grabbed from the store page because it's too intense for me to have taken any screenshots of my own

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 22/09/2026

I realized I had three bee accessories that are implemented but unobtainable so now I'm going to hide three secret beehives in whichever random levels has the best hiding spots #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

the glass shoe is a reference to Cinderella, but mostly to the expression "glass cannon"

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 20/09/2026

I'm really curious if there's some nefarious hidden meaning in picking mistletoe, it's mostly known for the Christmas kissing thing but as live plants they ARE parasitic so they kinda work as a symbol for dark secrets as well also fun bonus fact: their formal species name includes "santa"

Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order SANTA-lales.

(extra emphasis on the trailing "les" too, I guess)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 19/09/2026

this random youtube thumbnail re: the Elden Ring's DLC sums up one of its biggest problems pretty succinctly, I feel

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 18/09/2026

I'm real glad I did an extended test play session instead of just doing Frie's Greenhouse like normal because I found a thing so bad it needed a fix and rebuild several special control objects got so large they popped into the gameplay space and covered stuff up

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 18/09/2026

hot take: this isn't plausible. ...BUT, on the other hand an ARMORED CORE lego game could be a thing!! They basically already have armored core sets so there's some precedence

(the sniper rifle is custom but the rest of the AC is an official set from the Ninjago series)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 17/09/2026

I'm pretty confident the next #Burgertale update will be ready sometime during this weekend! (That is, if the final sanity check doesn't uncover something serious that needs a lot of work to fix) Here's some screenshots of upcoming new levels! #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart

In honor of the OoT remake, here's the water temple

i spent way too long setting up the chat message generator for this room

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 17/09/2026

(oh yeah and Ember has a new dialogue portrait now instead of reusing the EEE sprites)

(whether the rumor is true or not, remains to be seen on monday)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 17/09/2026

oh yeah and I can't mention the creepypasta blood level without SHOWING it right (good luck finding it, it's even more hidden than the retro level)

this level is inspired by that time of the month

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 17/09/2026

test-playing everything is about halfway done (there was a LOT of stuff to fix in the mirror level in particular, it and the creepypasta blood level are in different zones so they're not in the Cowloon list) oh and one of these levels is HUGE so it might take a while to polish it #gamedev #indiedev

I try to get EVERYTHING 100% when I test play, to make sure all the challenges work as intended.

Emphasis on "try"

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 17/09/2026

lining these rooms up wasn't intentional but I like how the fish looks at you from offscreen to clue you in that there's a secret path you haven't found yet #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 14/09/2026

me: "i should rebalance the maths a bit to make the levelup curve more predictable" game:

(i have no idea how many levels this actually corresponds because the game crashed from playing too many sound effects at once)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 13/09/2026

and if anyone's curious, the messages are generated using basic substitution templates, with one of the formats just being canned phrases that are used wholesale (atting the streamer or adding emotes are randomly done to the message generated in this step, names are generated separately)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 13/09/2026

for some reason I decided I wanted to simulate a realistic twitch chat for the background of this one room #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 13/09/2026

I *am* a kleptomaniac hoarder in real life but I'm not sure if my 3 most played games reflects that

Dark Souls 2 is the best game in the series, change my mind

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 13/09/2026

but a lot of music theory has kinda been "solved", it just seems hard because of gatekeeping making it hard for an outsider to start learning it like, I'm still using this cheat sheet from 360 YEARS AGO to keep track of what feeling is associated with each key

Key and mode descriptions from Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Regles De Composition, ca 1682

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 13/09/2026

when I started this project I was like "200 accessories is plenty, I'll never need THAT many" and uh 3 years later I suddenly need to worry about running out of IDs morale of the story, you always need more IDs than you think #gamedev #indiedev #Burgertale

the empty lines is to group them in groups of 10, to make it easier to verify IDs are valid

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 12/09/2026

And this is what the version with HD assets for the collectibles as well looks like! The sprites are 3x as large as the size they're actually drawn as, so if the game is fullscreened on a regular 1080p monitor (which is 3x the size of the base resolution) everything is 1:1, perfectly crisp

(disregard the green sesame seeds on the burger, I messed up the palette indexing but that's been fixed now)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 12/09/2026

This is my weirdest Steam recommendation

Due to your recent playtime in other Nonlinear games, Steam recommends: The Bible.

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 12/09/2026

(this is what the original art looked like, as much as I like the goober energy it also kinda feels off-model to what the in-game sprites look like, especially for Tippy)

yes I bothered drawing health information on the Magic Juice packet even though the anti-aliasing absolutely destroys it

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 12/09/2026

This one has been on my todo list for a while, figuring out a way for the title screen to use your active chromosphere. Also I drew new title screen art! (I'm gonna replace all the antialiased graphics with high quality ones rendered on a GUI layer) #gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #Burgertale

Yes this is already a 50+ hour game if you wanna get everything

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 12/09/2026

Had to dig into my project asset folders looking for some old stuff, and it dawned on me what a MASSIVE glowup Frie had between my first concept sketch and the final portrait (it's not explainable by my skills improving either, because it's just ~2 years between these) #furry #art #oc #Burgertale

Original concept, pretty much the only recognizable features is the ring on her hat and her being a rabbit

Final portrait (from the RPG side project)

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Yal @yaru.itch.io · 10/09/2026

I saw someone make a cool riff on the Kingdom Hearts 2 box art so I got inspired (if I'd been serious instead of doodling this during a meeting I probably should've drawn everyone separately / combine in post, I realized I messed up the composition & couldn't fit all the important characters) #art

Clockwise: Muri, Frie, Tippy, Terse and Gupreda

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