smallbuggames
Indie Game Dev
30 posts
Latest Posts by smallbuggames
A Closer Look: Vertebrates Chordates
First order of business, turns out coelacanths are not vertebrates, which are what I’ve been basing my hexapodal polypodes (Sniffers, Bees) off of. So, to cover this group we’re switching from vertibrata to chordata (at least for this post, vertebrates still exist)!
The Chordata clade can be split into 3 main groups: neomammalia (new mammals) and brachipteryxus (wing-armed) - the vertebrates; as well as polypodus (many-footed) - their distant six-legged cousins.
Examples of chordates: Dolichocerca leo, the ocelot (neomammalia); Lepidoscelus igneamantis, the strider (brachipteryxus); and Neopolypodus flavitta, the bee (polypodus).
Neomammalia and brachipteryxus are both notable survivors of Primordial Death, the mass-extinction event that eliminated the majority of life in the realms prior to the players’ entry. Neomammalia in particular had many surviving members, and has since continued to diversify.
A chicken (Myriapinna polynativas) and a sheep (Lanatumorphus myriachroma), both survivors of Primordial Death.
Polypodus is considered a lazarus taxon - a group of organisms that was considered extinct, but reappeared later. Bees were discovered first - long after the players’ emergence - and defined the previously unknown polypodus taxon. It was believed they were the only extant polypod, until ancient sniffer eggs were discovered - and miraculously hatched.
A snifflet (juvenile Anchipolypodus aeternovis).
Return to full tree.
Check it out! I’m very proud of it!
New game is out! Go to itch.io to play Portallusca - a game me, @smallbuggames and MachineSelf made in 72 hours for Mini Jam 175!
A short puzzle game about black holes, which you use to travel through space. To do so, you must construct superstructures around black holes to siphon their energy and create a wormhole that will take you to the far reaches of space!
(I’m too lazy to take screenshots right now so enjoy some asset art instead)
please let me merge please please please please please please please please please please please please please please
I'm a big fan of wizards-as-programmers, but I think it's so much better when you lean into programming tropes.
A spell the wizard uses to light the group's campfire has an error somewhere in its depths, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The wizard spends a lot of his time trying to track down the exact conditions that cause the failure.
The wizard is attempting to create a new spell that marries two older spells together, but while they were both written within the context of Zephyrus the Starweaver's foundational work, they each used a slightly different version, and untangling the collisions make a short project take months of work.
The wizard has grown too comfortable reusing old spells, and in particular, his teleportation spell keeps finding its components rearranged and remixed, its parts copied into a dozen different places in the spellbook. This is overall not actually a problem per se, but the party's rogue grows a bit concerned when the wizard's "drying spell" seems to just be a special case of teleportation where you teleport five feet to the left and leave the wetness behind.
A wizard is constantly fiddling with his spells, making minor tweaks and changes, getting them easier to cast, with better effects, adding bells and whistles. The "shelter for the night" spell includes a tea kettle that brings itself to a boil at dawn, which the wizard is inordinately pleased with. He reports on efficiency improvements to the indifference of anyone listening.
A different wizard immediately forgets all details of his spells after he's written them. He could not begin to tell you how any of it works, at least not without sitting down for a few hours or days to figure out how he set things up. The point is that it works, and once it does, the wizard can safely stop thinking about it.
Wizards enjoy each other's company, but you must be circumspect about spellwork. Having another wizard look through your spellbook makes you aware of every minor flaw, and you might not be able to answer questions about why a spell was written in a certain way, if you remember at all.
Wizards all have their own preferences as far as which scripts they write in, the formatting of their spellbook, its dimensions and material quality, and of course which famous wizards they've taken the most foundational knowledge from. The enlightened view is that all approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, but this has never stopped anyone from getting into a protracted argument.
Sometimes a wizard will sit down with an ancient tome attempting to find answers to a complicated problem, and finally find someone from across time who was trying to do the same thing, only for the final note to be "nevermind, fixed it".
Artists: what program do you use?
Any Adobe program
Clip Studio Paint
Procreate
ibisPaint
Gimp
Krita
Autodesk Sketchbook
FireAlpaca
Microsoft Paint (you absolute madlads)
Other
I’m a traditional artist
Not an artist button / I’m bald / vanilla extract / etc.
Reblog this if it’s okay to DM you and shoot the friendship shot.
"How do you find all these small/weird/indie games??"
Ask your friends for recommendations
Follow forums/blogs/youtubers whose job is to talk about videogames and play the games they talk about
If you play a game that you like, look up the developer and play whatever else they've made
MOST IMPORTANTLY: ACTIVELY browse storefronts like steam and itch.io YOURSELF and play/buy the games that seem interesting to you. Relying on bloggers and youtubers should only be the start of your exploration
Post about the games you play
Me and Meta did another game jam! This was the MechJamV, for which we made a game about repairing mechs after battles.
This was very experimental on my part because of the massive control panel. I've never drawn anything animated of that scale before and it was a real challenge. Meta drew the mechs of course.
This project somehow ended up unfinished, despite the fact that this jam was two weeks; game dev has a weird way of spilling out to fill all available time.
friend sent me this and ive been steaming over it all day fr
Completely reworked the in-game UI of my game Crazy Critters Attack! I chose a more industrial style for the UI with big metal buttons, caution tape and LCD screens. I also docked the level progress to the left side of the screen instead of leaving it as a weird tab below everything else. Lastly, I picked some new fonts! Before I was just using one of my computer's built-in system fonts, and now I'm using Rubik and IBM Plex Mono.
Want to play Underspace?
NOW YOU CAN!
We've got a demo out on Steam for Next Fest, and more so we've got a livestream coming today at 3PM CST/1PM PST. Come chat with the developers and watch an extended deep-dive into the many many many many many many many many many many many aspects of the game!
New update for Monster Parlor! Added a bunch of QoL improvements including particles, transition screens, and a new end sequence!
Rah I forgot to post this last week. These are some of my favorite monsters that I had the pleasure of designing for the 2023 Winter Melon Jam. The theme was “charm” and we ran with the idea of making a monster parlor, where your objective is to make these creatures more charming.
Our game “Monster Parlor” was made within 72 hours by me, @puddleorganism , cobyte, and smallbuggames!
(From left to right: Squid, Rug, Hera, and the Vinegar Twins) there are 9 monsters total!
On another note, I’m superrrrr interested in the idea of making speculative biology/species out of some of these guys tbh.
Below there is the link to our game if you’d like to check it out.
https://metaphysicalmonsters.itch.io/monster-parlor
Here’s that game I mentioned finishing yesterday!
From its Itch page:
Monster Parlor is a game in which you run a beauty parlor for monsters, where you have the privilege to make them into something a bit more charming! Strike up a conversation, convince them of your ways, and earn some charms of your own.
Made in a 72 hour game jam (2023 Winter Melon Jam) by me, @cobyte @smallbuggames and dogoryx!
Bonus fanart for my own game
scroll for more! ⬇️
I'm glad to find another Autistic person who has read Warrior Cats! There is a very small pool of those who are autistic and have read Warrior Cats and we are in a desert compared to those who aren't-
Really?? I think these books are actually catnip to autistic people, this fandom's chock-full of us
RB if you're also Autistic and read WC
luna
Clouds by Sally Gottschalk
The main campaign's now playable to completion, with me having spent a couple weeks going through and testing it all to make sure its broken ass scripting was no longer ass or broken.
Total playtime to complete the main quest (and this is with me rushing through it) was about 11 hours. Note this is just making sure the draft works, the final campaign will obviously need more effects, voice acting, full cutscenes, etc.
looks to the doodles
Viewfinder is a mind-blowing perspective-based puzzle adventure that does things you won’t believe are possible!
Read More & Play the Beta Demo, Free (Steam)
A glade in a forest. The man below the tree has passed.
We’ve redone engines to be shader based meshes. Given them much more animation and similar while also optimizing them a fair amount.
event horizon background concepts/style test
Made a mod for the Outer Wilds New Horizons mod jam, The Machine. It tied for second place!
Am I loosing because this level is poorly balanced, or am I just bad at this game?
