iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 17h

Program cute and clumsy bots. Solve tricky puzzles and help some sheep: This is 8-bitBot, my programming puzzle game I've been working on since July 2025 and plan to release in March 2027. Play the demo & wishlist on Steam […] [Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place]

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

Preparing a series of short videos for Halloween. A small story told in the world I am building in my game: It starts out with B0B saying that he doesn't know what it means to be scared... But he will soon find out 👻 #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

An isometric nighttime garden scene with autumn trees, pumpkins, candles, a lamppost, stone paths, a fence, and blue water around the edge. A dialogue box at the bottom below a bot reads,

> But I don't understand what they mean when they say "something is scary"...

A ghost sheep is approaching the bot.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

The fact that I haven't had the idea yet to add a coffee cup into my game so far, shows how little amounts of coffee I drink (approximately less than 0.1l within over 40 years). #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

A simple 3D-modelled mug with a handle, filled with brown liquid, screenshotted in Blender

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

I was wondering what to do for Halloween in my game and maybe I will build a little laboratory where an aparatus is showing what the sheep is "thinking"... #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

This turns out to be more valuable than I thought it would be: I can hide now hints within the level! I am not sure if this will help players, but I believe this is a meaningful extension to what I already have. Really happy I added this! #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

An isometric factory room shows conveyor machines, crates, a desk with a computer, wall monitors, and a small blue wheeled robot on a tiled floor. A white board reads "Circles are efficient!" and a clock hangs nearby.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Once having configurable texts, I just want to add some more.... Only problem is localization now. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

Two rolling whiteboards stand on a tiled floor beside a gray structure. The left board says "Remember feature creep can be fun", and the right board says "Having fun is why I do this" - and on the second line "I think..."

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

If you happen to develop puzzle or programming games, you might be interested in joining this new discord server: discord.gg/YJZNnuWYWw Marketing games is difficult, but for games of this genre, it tends to be extra tough. So we made this one to share tips and support each other there 😄 […]

mastodon.gamedev.place

Original post on mastodon.gamedev.place

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Well. I guess that is what the .blend1 files are good for. I think I haven't lost anything, but a bit shocking at first 😵‍💫 #blender #gamedev

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Now I can place monitors that display the resource a factory unit is producing or consuming. I hope this will help to clarify how factory setups work and what the bots have to do. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

Isometric puzzle-game scene of a 6x5 sized factory. On the right side, a stack of wood boards emerge from a factory unit, on the left side is a consuming unit. Next to the producing and consuming unit is a monitor showing what is produced/consumed here.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

I am trying to address the problem that factory elements don't really communicate well what is being produced. My current attempt is to have monitors that can be configured to show just any text. Since text can display sprite graphics, this kinda would work... #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

Screenshot of the user interface of 8-bitBot showing the level editor with a test level that is an isometric 8x8 map.
Some objects are scattered and a few monitors are placed. One monitor is selected and a "prop config" window with one text input field is shown where the input field shows "TEXT". The monitor also shows "TEXT" - it allows configuring the displayed text in the level.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

I will upload this on my channel next Friday. I'm trying to improve the early retention. My recent videos performed OKish, but always stop at around 1000 views, which I guess is a mark at which YouTube gives up testing them. If you have (simple) ideas how to improve this, I am all ears! #gamedev

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

I just pushed a new demo version of 8-bitBot to steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4820640/… It features quite a couple of new levels and quality of life improvements as well as performance improvements :) #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Writing flavor texts can be fun - and sometimes it can provide new ideas even 👻 #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

An overview map showing an isometric world with an island that is connected to the mainland with a bridge. A node is selected and on the right is a level preview of the selected node. It is another isometric design showing some old walls made of stone with ivy growing in places. The level title is "The old ruins..." and the description at the bottom says: "They say, these ruins are haunted 👻"

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

One feature I saw multiple requests for are related to ease editing programs in my game 8-bitBot. Some of these features exist already but are not communicated; the burger menu button is new and should be more noticeable. I have to think how to communicate the existing features... #gamedev

Programming game interface in the game 8-bitBot: A burger menu has an open context menu that offers loading and saving and clearing programs as well as copying it.

The program board interface of 8-bitBot showing the context menu for a specific program (here 'a') that offers options to copy/paste/clear/select the tokens in this program lane

A context menu on a number of selected slots in the programming board UI, allowing to copy/cut/delete/paste the selection

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Another level today - and if I am lucky, this is the last one to edit for chapter 1 of my game! I really like these last changes and additions and hope that players will like it, too. What is missing now to call chapter 1 complete: tutorials, texts and translations and some fixes in the UI. #gamedev

Isometric puzzle-style terrain of stepped grassy platforms with trees, rocks, ramps, a brick wall, and two white sheep. A blue tile at the upper right is marked "P", indicating the target position for the bot and a blue bot at the bottom is labeled "1".

Screenshot of the level selection. A map with different map nodes showing bronze and silver colored stars, indicating different difficulties of the levels. The silver star path is shorter than the bronze star one.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Making another level and adding a few new meshes that fit the scene. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib #blender

Isometric game-level terrain of stone walls and brown pathways, with vines, shrubs, flowers, and several round bushes or trees around the edges. A blue robot is moving to another tile, near a stone arch at the top center of the scene

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Separating the difficulty lanes in my game makes it easier for me to design levels, since I know better whom the level is for. If only the two sheep could come together; I am sure the players will find ways to help them ☺️ #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

An isometric puzzle-game scene shows a small stone-walled, grassy maze with a dirt path, an archway, flowers, rocks, and trees, set on a pink grid background. Two white sheep stand on different ledges, and a blue bot at the lower left is marked with a white number 1. A parking shield at the end of the dirt path indicates the designated target of the bot.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

When sheep get what they want, they now say "thank you". Needed for a special thing I started building. Some people would call it feature creep, I call it "emergent game design". #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib #screenshotsaturday

A stylized isometric game scene shows a fluffy white sheep standing on a grassy ledge beside a blue device with a white one, with a pink heart icon floating above nearby bushes. Rocky terrain and a water shore edge frame the area.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Which sheep wins the race? They wait a random amount of time before moving one step ahead until they crash. While funny, I found a bug with bots and sheep crashing onto bridges that I had to test out ... and I just happen to have enough sheep to test all cases 😅 #gamedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

First step in introducing different difficulty lanes: Having 3 distinct difficulty markers. I need to create some branching now so higher difficulty routes are shorter (=have fewer nodes). #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

A colorful top-down game map shows a forested island with many green, orange, and red trees, dotted paths, and star markers along the route. A small bridge crosses water at the lower right, and a house sits near the upper left.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I started setting up a website for my game. Just another task that is required but has little to do with making a game... Oh well, here it is: 8-bitbot.com Not great or fancy, but it exists. One step after another. #gamedev #solodev

8-bitbot.com

8-bitBot

8-bitBot is a programming puzzle game teaching functions, loops and conditionals through cute and clumsy robots

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

A few weeks ago I added the tracking code and also a benchmark to my game. These numbers are from my phone and show the progress of optimizations. It is still far from perfect, but it is now at least running stable on a high-end phone. Have to test some older ones #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

A table of benchmark results that show a steady increase in FPS with 49FPS with version 0.9.1253, ending with 60fps at version 0.9.1329.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

I ignored performance a lot; but running the game on Android and browser reveals quite some bottlenecks. So I have to look into that. Not using an engine means this is up to me to take care of. Not that I am good at that, but at least I could improve a few things. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

A screenshot of the game 8-bitBot with a large text overlay that outputs statistics on batching and draw calls.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

Trying to get the game self test running... I want to see if I can test the release builds this way that the game is playing the first levels automatically to detect if anything strange has happened... I am not sure if this will pay off. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Builds are green and the binaries are running on the target platforms. All built on machines I physically own. Now I have to make the gitea server my primary repo and then I can begin deleting my github hosted repositories and cancel my subscription. #gamedev #raylib

Dark-themed workflow runs list showing “298 workflow runs” at top, with columns for Actor and Status and multiple recent runs marked with green check icons. Visible entries include “tech: moving linux build to WSL runner bc ARM linux version crashes,” “tech: Discord message containing now build version,” and “tech: fixing the crash upload,” plus a failed run at the bottom titled “tech: configuring steam uploader to run on wsl” with a red X.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Slowly, one by one, it is getting green; Once this all works I can switch to pushing to my own server (the machine sitting on a shelf here at home) primarily and see how it fares - before phasing out using github (and paying for it). #gamedev #gitea

Dark-themed CI/build history list showing multiple recent jobs on the main branch with status icons: green checks, red Xs, one yellow in-progress circle, and some empty circles. Visible entries include “tech: fixing windows build issue,” “tech: getting rid of central orchestrator to get around issues with gitea,” “tech: deactivating macos builds,” and “tech: more downgrades for more upgrades,” with timestamps and run durations on the right.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Ok, so the Android builds on my server running gitea succeeded, also the Linux builds. Now I reactivated an old notebook with windows 10 and added it as a runner and after much shouting and screaming, it compiles windows binaries and I can access it via RDP, too. #gamedev

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Accepting the license failed, so I guess ... just assume it accepted it anyway. I think that commit message is very inspirational for the bash command line. #gamedev

A Git GUI window shows a code diff with a command changing `sdkmanager --licenses >/dev/null` to `sdkmanager --licenses >/dev/null || true`, followed by package names like `"platform-tools"`, `"platforms;android-36"`, `"build-tools;36.0.0"`, and `"ndk;27.3.13750724"`. At the bottom, the Commit Message field contains `tech: Success is just attitude`

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Ran out of github actions for building my CI and burned through the extra 10$ budget I added. I need to set up the build pipeline on my own hardware. It is ridicules how much this little costs. I already have the server and gitea is also running. "Just" "a bit" of setup that's missing #gamedev

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

Testing out new instructions: Path finding and location finding. The location finder can look for bots/sheep that can be loaded or for locations where unloading bots is possible. So fairly complex instructions that are organized here to bring back all sheep. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

I notice I didn't announce this: The demo version of 8-bitBot is available on steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4820640/… It is available for Windows and Linux. If you decide to give a try, I am grateful for any feedback that you may have :) #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

In order to figure out more about ongoing performance issues on different devices, I added a benchmark that can be triggered and that will send some stats to my telemetry server. Maybe it turns out to be helpful, who knows! #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

Ok, this is going to be interesting; I have a rough idea HOW this should work, but the details are totally unclear to me. I want to make this look funny... #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib #blender

A 3D modeling viewport shows a cartoon sheep with white wool standing beside a blue vehicle with 4 large wheels and long gray turret-like arms aimed across the sheep. The scene is displayed on a dark grid floor with object outlines visible, suggesting an in-progress model.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Exploring puzzle ideas with sheep. Making a sheep run away from a bot is not difficult. But how will players use this to make them move into a pen? I don't like the predefined code for fixed movements. That is not programming... But maybe this is too difficult? #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Trying to improve the chapter transition: I think some people don't realize there are more levels (only one player made the followup levels AFAIK). So this is now happening when the chapter's last level is finished. I tried to find fitting sounds and make a few of my own. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026

Modifying the wait-instruction: it used to only check the forward path until it is free. New: wait until any neighbor is blocked or free. And it can specify a random timeout. Here, 3 bots wait 0 to 5 turns before moving. And the sheep reacts on the impacts. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

The sheep are coming to 8-bitBot. And they are going through the same testing procedures as the bots did. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

Making and using animations imported from Blender. First time doing that 🙈. So far, I only animated via code or own tools... #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib #blender

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026

These sheep are electrical! I will have to figure out how to animate them properly. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

I hope the style of this sheep now will fit into my game. Unlike everything else in 8-bitBot, I think I have to animate this one in blender. Wish me luck 😵‍💫 #blender #gamedev

A stylized 3D sheep with a fluffy white body, brown face, and four brown legs stands against a dark gray background.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

I need sheeps. For some purpose. In my game. If it works, it should be fun... #blender #gamedev

A low-poly white sheep with a brown face stands on a dark gray 3D grid workspace in Blender.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

A design I have began working on end of last year, still haven't found time to embed it. I tried different things, from round eyes to digital eyes on a screen. What I still like about this design: The facial expression is almost purely driven by mechanically rotating the sockets. #blender #gamedev

Five small blue wheeled robot vehicles are arranged on a dark gray background, each with a face-like front display and a number 3 on top. Their eyes have different expressions, presenting five variants of the same robot design.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

A player pointed out that these bots have no names. This never occurred to me to be even a question; What names would you give them? #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

An isometric factory-style puzzle layout shows conveyor belts, gray machine blocks, and small colored carts or robots: blue, green, and orange, ready to move through an assembly line.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Trying to get the demo version release of 8-bitBot done today, but I keep finding problems 😭 Steamdeck refused to launch it (fixed) Then I noticed it doesn't launch in fullscreen A bunch of problems with gamepad not working on some screens. Rewards not cloud synced. Most relatively minor. Sigh.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

Looking for stuff to delete I stumbled over a log file on my VPS that, as it turns out, is a failed login log. Nearly 200MB. Well. Now I disabled password logins and hope this will avoid cluttering my log data.

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

Working on something else, I introduced a general time-slow factor. And for the first time, I am seeing the whole animation in very slow animation - at 1/20th of realtime. I think it's actually looking neat :) #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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Eike @zet23t.mastodon.gamedev.place.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

I struggled with balancing the level rewards - and realized that this is due to not having a good overview. So here it comes: A dedicated reward overview; and hopefully soon: Also a balancing editor. #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #raylib

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