Yal @yaru.itch.io · 18h(I probably also need to tweak how skin and hair colors are randomized, especially for non-humans, because those neon colors feel a bit excessive... blue glow-in-the-dark hair is reserved for the player's party, random background characters aren't allowed that much aura) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 18hSet 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 3174
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 04/10/2026Storytelling kinda is like difficulty settings in that you usually get it front-loaded before the game starts... and thus before you have any frame of reference. You'd think after almost 50 years of the medium, we would've figured out a solution for that... 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 04/10/2026Oh, I wasn't implying that, either. Sorry if it read like that. I meant more like, "people seem to generally start with the story they wanna tell, so the drive to tell interesting stories definitely is there already! (they're just bad at turning the story into something that works as a game)" 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 04/10/2026The game will only support one resolution so luckily that isn't a concern :) (I legit don't even remember when I last did a game that wasn't 640x360) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 04/10/2026Most of the time when a new aspiring indie tells you about their game, they start by explaining the story and setting and not the game/mechanics bit... (...I just wish more of them realized that an unskippable wall of text isn't the best way to get the player invested in a narrative) 120
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026also 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 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026one of the best lessons I learned in my data processing university classes is "don't listen to the math nerds, brute force is a valid strategy" 100
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026For 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 271
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026And yes, gold pickups need to exist as an item even though your held money is just a single integer variable; that's how money found in treasure chests is stored (the function for obtaining an item just deletes any gold items you feed it and increments your money counter with their value) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026Ran 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 171
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026Any interest in that indie biopunk take on the formula, Death Trash? Though it's more inspired by the first two games (having the same overworld map travel system and character building, etc) so if you've mostly been playing the 3D ones maybe it's not your cup of tea 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026it's been AGES since I've last heard about a game getting this unanimous praise from everyone, usually there's always a bunch of naysayers like the *only* thing people ever complain about is that it's easy to get disoriented because of the perspective shenanigans 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026a lot of "eurojank" platformers from the dark ages would start you in the middle of a maze that takes like 45 minutes to solve and that's like THE worst onboarding experience e.g. shoutouts to Home Improvement (SNES), Bubsy 1, ... 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026I've played a lot of bad games and I feel one of the things pretty much EVERY good game does is giving you some "free progress" at the start (e.g. just walk right to win the first screen) so the player figures out what progress even looks like before they have to actively look for it 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026i'm reminded of that one ancient anime that got famous specifically BECAUSE it had so poor production values it added to the charm you know you've succeeded when someone makes a feature length documentary about your project 10+ years later www.youtube.com/watch?v=tegm...youtube.comWhat Even IS Nyan Neko Sugar Girls?YouTube video by Crunchybagels 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026i still have no idea where the whole "patchouli is overweight" meme came from but anything that's an excuse to have more diverse characters in a game is a win in my book~ 100
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026(e.g. one of its notable flaws is not having red/green colored numbers as shorthand for a stat change being positive or negative, so you need to do maths on before/after equipment numbers on your own whenever you wanna check if a change is good or bad... in a game with constant inventory turnover) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026I also remember being really anxious about whether my RPG project's stat visualization was good enough, so I checked out Stranger of Sword City to see how a professional developer did their screens... and realized everything in that game was WORSE not sure if that cured my anxiety or made it worse 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026a lot of data-heavy games are notoriously bad at VISUALIZING the data in a good way for some reason like in AC6 I spent like 90% of my playtime "fatrolling" because nothing draws your attention to your weight exceeding your booster's capacity (and I just thought dodge timings were really strict) 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026As someone that worked in embedded device drivers for 7 years, I've always found it wild what sort of inefficient code people can get away with these days Like one approach that eliminated empty space in procgen by turning rooms into physics objects and pulling them towards the center of the map??? 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026here'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) 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 03/10/2026i try to post screenshots every day during my "check mail and social media and stuff" ritual, even if they're not GOOD and COOL it's good proving you're actually still working on the game like you don't wanna be Silksong where people stop believing the project is ever gonna release for 7 years 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026if we could convert them to be Rivals OF AETHER players, they could even be both at once! 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026also 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] 020
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 3155
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026Toriel secretly knowing something all along would be a very interesting twist, considering that one deer-hiding variable is named after her (after all, if the "Deltarune is Undertale backwards" theory is true, she'd be the final boss, right...?) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026ironically, I'm pretty sure every FROM weapon and enemy has already been ported (full conversion hacks like Convergence and Archthrones port stuff from other games for more variety) so the sloppers have no excuse for NOT compiling All Of Bloodborne (except of course, their laziness and ineptitude) 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026yeah, e.g. the Mario 64 physics are available as a library you can import into pretty much anything, before the slopcrossover trend started people applied it to a bunch of stuff including Half-Life 2 130
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026Indeed Back in the day we didn't even call them "DLCs", we called them "expansion packs" because you actually got a bunch of new stuff to DO when you bought them, instead of games just having a virtual clothes store for soulless collabs 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026I've also found that you wanna make things look good RIGHT AWAY (fancy animations etc), because once you've finished coding a GUI element you never wanna touch it again so it's almost impossible to go back and prettify it later 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026as someone put it: "I'm not worried about AI getting good enough to steal my job, I'm worried that my boss will THINK it is" 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026i mean, the drops existing is already proof the content is so bad they literally have to BRIBE people to watch it 120
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026case in point, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCnw...youtube.comBloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement Tokyo Game Show 2026 Trailer [ESRB]YouTube video by Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 02/10/2026it's probably legit gotten easier to avoid spoilers these days, when most of the fanbase has moved over to Deltarune theorycrafting (I'm genuinely impressed you managed to resist the hype for more than A DECADE...) 001
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026coding 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 1185
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026If it's any comfort, a human modder put the halo guns in dark souls 5 years ago (and is currently leading a team that's porting Morrowind to Elden Ring, 100% done by humans) www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRBT...youtube.comDark Souls Except It's Incredibly CursedYouTube video by InfernoPlus 031
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026two of them, in fact (here's a review double feature) www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Njm...youtube.comRENTAL & Haneko's Late Homework - Nitro RadYouTube video by Nitro Rad 000
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026the whole "limited time offer" thing they've been doing with the seasons is pretty shitty because it creates massive FOMO, it's a lot easier to pay through the nose if you know it's your only chance and you can't just wait for a sale or whatever 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026(i was too lazy to do the math so I just crossed my fingers and hoped it was in the right ballpark...) but yeah, the choice is either - 4 games, supporting indie devs (though arguably pretty big ones I guess) - some cosmetics in ONE game, supporting a megacorp that hates their consumers 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026I don't exclusively listen to video game OSTs because I'm a nerd, I do it because I only associate the record industry with DMCA takedowns and I don't want to support them (so thus, no mainstream human music for me) 020
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026Ah, the part about needing to be SLIGHTLY mean to keep them from getting lazy? Yeah, that's giving them too much sentience credit... though being passive-aggressive towards the bots probably makes her feel better at least? (Sorry about missing that, my eyes stop working when I read about AI) 120
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026(wouldn't you be able to buy like ALL the FNAF games with that kinda money and still have enough left over to buy Hollow Knight...?) 110
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026(There might be a kernel of truth to this because we've had an incident at my workplace where the Outlook AI assistant leaked emails to a third party... UNPROMPTED, even) 120
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026Oh yeah, it's the GBA one without a subtitle right? Being the first properly brought to the west, it being easier makes sense... I never thought about it that way before 010
Yal @yaru.itch.io · 01/10/2026they can't leave a bad review unless they buy the game, which means the SCAMMER is giving YOU money checkmate 120