Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie

@greyalien.bsky.social

Indie developer since 2005, owner of Grey Alien Games. Developer of Forbidden Solitaire, Ancient Enemy, Shadowhand, Regency Solitaire + more. Retro games fan. Please buy our games. Thx. https://www.greyaliengames.com/

14.1K followers2.5K following13.7K posts

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

Forbidden Solitaire's new DLC is OUT NOW!! Very proud of what the team was able to accomplish with this! This also might be the most oddly romantic story I've written for a Night Signal project? Albeit with a touch of toothy body horror to go with it, of course. 🦷GO FORTH: tinyurl.com/k9uvnahk

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

One of my absolute favorite games of 2026, Forbidden Solitaire, just released a meaty new DLC today! The main game effortlessly struck a balance between "this FEELS like a CD-ROM game from the mid-90's" and "this is really fun to pick up and play without the mid-90's jank". I grabbed it immediately!

store.steampowered.comForbidden Solitaire: The Discarded on SteamIt's 2020. Robyn Cierra excavates hidden files within the remnants of a cursed 1995 CD-ROM. A bizarre graveyard of scrapped content lies entombed, deep within the code. You thought your sister was bey...

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

I checked my email and Steam informed me that the Forbidden Solitaire DLC had just launched. That was the fastest $8 has ever exited my bank account. WE'RE GOING BACK INTO THE HAUNTED WINDOWS 95, SIS!

I have multiple acquaintances who are incredulous that we're not using AI to code our game/DLC. Tbh, most of our time is thinking, tweaking and polishing anyway, not code. And when there is more code to be done, I get my son help with it, who gets paid, as a human. I'm fine with that.

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I have multiple acquaintances who are incredulous that we're not using AI to code our game/DLC. Tbh, most of our time is thinking, tweaking and polishing anyway, not code. And when there is more code to be done, I get my son help with it, who gets paid, as a human. I'm fine with that.

We aren't writing tons of new code, more like modifying existing code. OK maybe AI could slightly speed that up, or help find bugs. But I regard doing those things as educational for my son. Besides, having a project take time means it percolates and we think of how to improve it.

Had a busy week as my son and I did loads of tweaks and checked out log files from testers so we could balance the DLC. I think it's pretty good and I hope you like it. Whenever I play our game at length I'm reminded how fun it is to construct huge combos with jokers to smash the enemies.

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

That new 'Immolate' feature is a game-changer by the way. While testing the DLC I found myself feverishly plotting a path through cards to get one more joker to sacrifice my way into using my triple-damage Mana Storm gem to absolutely OBLITERATE a boss's health bar. Anyway DLC comes out Monday!! ⬇️

store.steampowered.comForbidden Solitaire: The Discarded on SteamIt's 2020. Robyn Cierra excavates hidden files within the remnants of a cursed 1995 CD-ROM. A bizarre graveyard of scrapped content lies entombed, deep within the code. You thought your sister was bey...
Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie@greyalien.bsky.social

Bet you'd love to be playing this right now. Forbidden Solitaire: The Discarded DLC Out soon: store.steampowered.com/app/5238350/...

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

Vampirium: 1997 isn’t in next fest, but while you’re in a wishlisting mood, I’d really appreciate you adding us too. Makes a big difference and helps us position ourselves better down the road :) Also I added pyromancy today. So that’s fun. store.steampowered.com/app/4035190/...

store.steampowered.comVampirium: 1997 on Steam1997. Dracula is King of England. At his command, master your dark gifts to assassinate his enemies and secure his vampiric empire. Infiltrate locked-down locations, adapt and survive in living enviro...

Jake Birkett - Veteran Indie reposted

me actually finishing games crazy but just finished Forbidden Solitaire and really enjoyed it! Got it in a bundle with another game i wanted to try and started it yesterday and got hooked and turns out dlc is coming out for it next week so really good and funny timing xD looking forward to the dlc!

Alt text: A screenshot of the DLC. The top of the screen says "Explore the exhibit" and there's a giant glass heart in the middle of a room. The bottom corner tooltip says "Immolate. Sacrifice targeted joker and gain 10 mana". This is a new feature in the DLC.