Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐

@doodle.arcticpolygon.com

Godot indie dev, comic artist. I don't use AI. If you're looking to hire a passionate gamedev, hit me up.

1.2K followers353 following1.5K posts

Pinned

My new game, Starmadillo, finally has a Steam page! It's a retro-styled, third-person metroidvania about an armadillo that has crashed onto an alien planet and must find a way to escape. Check out the trailer, wishlist, etc #godot #gamedev #indiedev store.steampowered.com/app/5268030/...

store.steampowered.comStarmadillo on SteamAs an armadillo space archaeologist, you've crashed onto a mysterious planet. Luckily you're equipped with a Mobile Defense Unit (MDU) that can defend you from danger, but its capabilities were severe...

I'm not proud of it...but I got tired of having to update my game's little lore dumps by finding all the nodes across various maps and editing text in a single-line input box. There's only gonna be a couple dozen of these things, so that's why I'm just sticking 'em all in a dictionary. #godot

Been working on the next boss (the fourth so far). First phase, it moves around in a path and you destroy all the turrets (I cheat in video). For phase two, the head is free to chase after you. Each boss has been both fun and challenging to make, as they're all unique. #godot #gamedev #indiedev

Sometimes I feel my game is "meh". But...I usually stop myself there. It doesn't have to be some ground-breaking 20 hour experience. And I'm probably gonna sell it for five bucks. And it's also my most ambitious project to date. And it's just me who made it. And it won't have been made with AI.

Glad dedicated profile links are finally a feature here. It's been on Mastodon forever and I always felt it was super nice.

Bluesky@bsky.app

v1.136 is live! Introducing: Profile links We want independent writers, artists, developers, and creators to be able to build and fund sustainable projects on Bluesky. Help your followers know how to support you by adding buttons for Patreon, Ko-fi, your newsletter or website, and more.

I already had a "magnet ball" ability planned for climbing certain walls...but then I realized I could use it to attract objects too. Might seem kind of trivial, but from a game design perspective this opens up a lot of possibilities. #gamedev #indiedev #godot

Selling AI directly to insecure losers. Can't say it doesn't make sense from a marketing perspective!

KetAnthropic JoshAI@ketanjoshi.co

The first genuinely honest ad for generative AI I've ever seen, from Microsoft / CoPilot A mediocre white guy sees his non-white colleague getting praised for good work, he asks AI to *literally copy it*, and then he gets all the praise instead: www.ispot.tv/ad/SoDi/micr...

I already had a "magnet ball" ability planned for climbing certain walls...but then I realized I could use it to attract objects too. Might seem kind of trivial, but from a game design perspective this opens up a lot of possibilities. #gamedev #indiedev #godot

For one, it gives me a way to force roll-mode platforming (which I've mentioned before as being hard to force the player to do when you can freely switch anytime). But it also lets me design more interesting puzzles that involve transporting stuff and putting them somewhere else arbitrarily.

Kinda wanna dive into making multiplayer games with #godot. I set it up once before, but didn't really take the time to fully understand. I should try to mess around with that briefly at some point so I can seriously consider making my next game (after Starmadillo) multiplayer.

I keep wanting to spend a solid chunk of time hammering out more content for my game, but it's been so piecemeal for a few weeks now. Still progress, but it's a little frustrating. It's because I don't have the story 100% figured out. All the mechanics are there...just not the raison d'etre.

It's so close though is the thing. Much different than previous projects where I barely had an inkling of what I wanted it to say or be about. What's tripping me up is having too many ideas but none of them resonating -- or some of them that do but are way beyond my ability to pull off.

I have confidence I'll get there though. At the end of the day, the game is fun to play and explore the world, and that's more important. But I do worry about having a "meh" story or one that doesn't have any impact. Kinda miss the kart racer project lol. It was fun just making random tracks.

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ reposted

WIP I'm chipping away at of an animatic of Wile tooning along to the bridge of Weird Al's "Hardware Store"! Maybe I'm late, but in hindsight, the contents of a hardware store really do seem to go hand-in-hand with a toon's bag of tricks xD #Weirdal #wileecoyote #hardwarestore

There's a reason though! I needed a new collectible (health upgrades were starting to feel cheap based on how many are scattered around). Their purpose is to upgrade abilities -- but only in ways that don't affect the ability to go to new areas. Stuff like faster charging, more laser shots, etc.

A painter wouldn't describe a painting, they'd paint it. I wouldn't want to prompt a game into existence for the same reason. The word that comes to mind is "control". Everything wants to take it away in exchange for convenience, but I'll never need or want that. I like painting.

Continuing to model away on my 3D metroidvania. This area is focused on platforming, as I feel like I've been skipping out on that a bit. I should really make some reusable elements to make platforms less of a slog to set up (they're physics joints hooked up to a timer) #godot #gamedev #indiedev

Doodle | Making Starmadillo⭐ reposted

Continuing to model away on my 3D metroidvania. This area is focused on platforming, as I feel like I've been skipping out on that a bit. I should really make some reusable elements to make platforms less of a slog to set up (they're physics joints hooked up to a timer) #godot #gamedev #indiedev

I learned my lesson with Planet Coaster 2 though. Nothing against the games (I played a lot of the original Coaster and Zoo), but I couldn't click with it anymore. Kinda bittersweet tbh. I do wish I could get into those hyper-creative games again sometimes.

My guilty pleasure is snarkily replying to emails from grifters about my games (usually from some AI company). The novelty will surely wear off...but I rarely get them, so it's a nice little outlet for my anger every once and a while just to know one of them might have to read it.

There's a really potent blend of nostalgia mixed with cringe when you look at your old art. But there's still a golden one amidst the *really* old pieces every now and then, where it all managed to work out better than usual. Here's a few of those I picked out after scrolling through my old art.

I feel like I've seen so many metaphors around AI the last year, but something really tickles me about comparing it to a laxative. Cause that's what it is, what it makes, and is why the only person proud of the "product" is who made it.

transmutrix@transmutrix.bsky.social

To belabor this gross metaphor: For most users of ai, it seems to act as a laxative, helping them extrude ideas that aren't fully formed yet, and not where you'd want them to be on the Boston scale >.<

Me, pitching my "dream game" idea: So you're a guy on a space ship. Well actually, it's really more of a long room and you shoot at stuff. Kinda like Call of Duty but sci-fi. Blue color palette so it's futuristic and unique. It's called Space Corridor so you know exactly what it's about.

Dan Marshall@danthat.bsky.social

The video advertising Unity's ew AI-driven autocomplete game maker has 'Mari' who has a game idea they "always wanted to make" and that idea is "Space Corridor" and it looks like this, and that's the strongest argument I can think of for keeping game dev out of the pro-AI crowd's hands.

I feel this so hard. Art is just a (beautifully) overcomplicated way of expressing yourself, and about connecting with other people. It's social. Our whole *meaning* as humans is TO BE social. AI is inherently anti-social.

Elsa@erli.bsky.social

I can't stop thinking how wrong the tech bros have understood creativity and creators. Or even just having hobbies. #erliart

I feel this so hard. Art is just a (beautifully) overcomplicated way of expressing yourself, and about connecting with other people. It's social. Our whole *meaning* as humans is TO BE social. AI is inherently anti-social.

Elsa@erli.bsky.social

I can't stop thinking how wrong the tech bros have understood creativity and creators. Or even just having hobbies. #erliart

I feel this so hard. Art is just a (beautifully) overcomplicated way of expressing yourself, and about connecting with other people. It's social. Our whole *meaning* as humans is TO BE social. AI is inherently anti-social.

Elsa@erli.bsky.social

I can't stop thinking how wrong the tech bros have understood creativity and creators. Or even just having hobbies. #erliart

One of the best pieces of #gamedev advice I've come across is simply to open up the engine every day and do something. Even if it's writing a single line of code. Anyway, today was one of those days. I finished up modeling a teeny-tiny map just for this mountain peak.

This is why having utility doesn't exclude something from being art. A car engine is art to people who love cars. A mechanical watch is art to people who love watches. A codebase is art to people who love code.

Aura/Moom@moomanibe.bsky.social

I frequently see "AI" boosters implying that LLMs are simply an innate and superior part of coding now, inescapable, and that literally all programmers agree with them. And, well. That, too, is a form of propaganda