Nat Delnova

Hey there! I go by Nat on the internet. I spent the last decade building games with zero playtesting or release schedules. Now I'm making and releasing one tiny tiny TINY game every day and helping others do the same. Check it out: maketinygames.com

game #20 was meant to be dungeon dice with an inventory. then i gave it a heist, a new character, a whole story and a bag of items, and blew my time budget by a mile. making tiny games doesn't come easy, but every miss is a rep. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

why do all edutainment games suck? game #19 teaches you morse, built on the bones of my pi game. i want games where taking down the megacorp also happens to teach you encryption basics. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

I love RTS games, but I live too far from my friends to play them without raging at the ping. So game #18 pokes at commanding an army with cards, waves and stages instead of twitchy real time. link in bio

I spent most of game #17 getting the tutorial right. My wife isn't a gamer, and watching her try to rotate a piece showed me I had to just say it in text. Once the text had a voice, the whole game's personality showed up. link in bio

I made game #16 RV'ing around Iceland for a talent show with my friends. I had 4 days to go from 20 to 100 digits.. the method I leaned into the most was every time I got it wrong, I had to repeat the 8 digits around it. link in bio

for game #15 i used a design cheat: rock, paper, scissors is something everyone already knows, so i could go straight to a deeper mechanic. there are 3 of each card, so the more you see, the better you can read the opponent's hand. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

game #14 is my favourite so far. i wanted an rpg in a day, so i asked what the core of a dungeon crawler is: can you risk one more room, or should you head home? this TINY game is only that decision. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

game #13 came from a friend while we were cooking a bit drunk: imagine if the shaker's lid came off and salt dominated our rice bowls. shaking was really hard to make fun. my wife playtested it, and i think it's passably enjoyable for 30 seconds. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

for game #12, i added a customer serving motif so you can work out what's best without being told. the customer loves it, but the boss doesn't. i'm also exploring the cartoon side of soundly, and the sfx trend quite whimsical. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

for game #11, medical stuff knocked me off the horse for a bit, and this was my first turn getting back on. it's about filling a cup, not too little, not too full, just the perfect amount please. kind of fitting. link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

for game #10, my wife and i recorded ourselves doing the handshake moves, then i traced over the hands frame by frame to animate them. it took way too long to draw the hands 🙈 link in bio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

for game #9, i was inspired by "smart" kettles, which make you work so hard to get the most simple task done. as always, the sound effects make it 🫖 link in bio #withoutmygadgets1 #gamedev #indiedev

for game #8 i tried one of those switch-flipping phone games. it's funny how quickly it balloons into chaos, even though the last level takes four moves.. it reminds me of learning a rubik's cube. huh, i wonder if you could teach that through a game like this. 🤔 link in bio

Super Exciting Announcement: #Steam page for my multiplayer falling sand game is now LIVE at store.steampowered.com/app/3816900/... Announce Trailer: www.slowrush.dev/signs-trailer 2 years of hard work, but now the real work begins :) #fallingsand #indiegame #indiegamedev #indiedev #gamedev

Animating books takes a lot of work! #indiegame #gamedev #pixelart #cozygame

Can anyone recommend some upcoming indie games that look & feel like Cult of the Lamb or Spiritfarer? I've got a starterpack I want to add them to go.bsky.app/BQLNBaG If you're making that game, please reach out! #indiegame #gamedev #indiegamedev #cozygame

The conundrum with particle fx in pixel art is you either get interesting variations or pixel perfect. You can choose from mismatched pixel sizes, zero variation, or rotated pixels. Here are the three approaches, each with something new to tolerate. Choose your fighter? #indiegame #gamedev #art

Experimenting with the growth and contraction of mycelium. This spongey fungus provides fertile ground for "buildings" called Blooms. We're trying to find a balance of visual clarity without overcomplicating the border algorithm. Has anyone done anything like this before? #indiegame #gamedev

I have a theory 🤔 #indiegame #gamedev

Didn't get our metamorphosis feature done today for a #ScreenshotSaturday. But I did: - learn a little more of how not to do it - chat with some cool devs on bsky - install a youtube blocker - sink a few hours into my pixel skills - maybe reach a fellow dev going through it too We got this 👊

Guide the enigmatic Seely to expand and cultivate your mycelium network in our latest cozy update to Phantom of the Grove. More details here: store.steampowered.com/app/3510510 #indiegame #gamedev #pixelart #cozygame #colonysim

When you hit a lull in your productivity, what brings you back into focus? I took a few weeks away from the constant social posting and it's weird how daunting it to feels to hit post again. #indiegame #gamedev

Here's a lil sneak peak for our upcoming MASSIVE update for Phantom of the Grove... Check it out here: store.steampowered.com/app/3510510 #indiegamedev #gamedev #indiegame #pixelart #cozygame

Kicking off this account with the first devlog for Slumbering Woods. It’s a cosy, mushroom growing 🍄, 2D exploration game full of hand-drawn art and chill vibes. Check it out and let us know your thoughts! youtu.be/IaCKWuCeiNI #IndieGame #GameDev #Godot #mushrooms #SlumberingWoods

Check out our new game Castillon! 🚀 Resource collection is now twice as fast! 💬 Give Feedback and help Playtest in our Discord! 🔗 discord.com/invite/JVABG... 🎮 Wishlist us on Steam! 🔗 store.steampowered.com/app/2483570/... #IndieGame #Gaming #RTS #BaseBuilding

Finding Maya’s voice! Using ARKit face capture, I've synced her mouth movements for more natural expressions. Excited to share more soon! #IndieGame #GameDev #IndieDev #WalkingSimulator #StoryDriven #PuzzleGame #Handpainted #Painterly #3DArt #MadeWithUnity #Unity3D #IndieGameDev #Blender #FaceRig

Does #aiart belong in indie games? #gamedev #indiegame

The enigmatic Seely are a curious blend: fungi musk foragers, devoted nature conservationists, and fierce guerrilla warriors who trump their invaders. Which design is your favourite? #gamedesign #art #indiedev #pixelart #cozygame #spooky

Just your friendly reminder that we have an awesome starter pack of #ColonySim and #ResourceManagement games here! If you'd like to be invited, just ask! 😁 bsky.app/starter-pack... #indiegame #gamedev #starterpack

In January we participated in #piratejam 16 and were floored by the positive reception (even snagged most popular for a few days!) We're pushing towards a HUGE design update with colony and resource management elements. Check it out on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3510510/ #indiegame #gamedev

Finally posted the #gamejam trailer for Phantom of the Grove to YouTube. We'll be dropping a new one soon as part of an upcoming announcement... www.youtube.com/watch?v=roMP... #indiegame #gamedev #cozygame #spooky #naturefightsback

Have you seen our instagram yet? We post bite-sized gameplay reels and concept art to it and have quite the back-catalogue! www.instagram.com/survansix/ #gameart #cozygame #spooky #indiegame

Writing short descriptions on Steam is hard! I'm workshopping ours for Phantom of the Grove - feedback would be greatly appreciated! 🙏 #indiegame #gamedev #games #steam

Pro tip: ?? Ask ChatGPT to pretend you just dropped a launch trailer and it went VIRAL 📈, and ask it to write a bunch of YT comments. The results are kinda hilarious and kinda fire 😂🔥 If the Lorax stopped asking nicely 🤣 #puregoblinmode

Been diving into The Long Dark lately - idk if this is a shared experience but I can't just *enjoy* a game anymore. I've always gotta be studying it 🤔 But playing the Early Access demo vs what it is today was very cool. The core spirit is definitely there. #justgamedevthings #indiedev #gamedesign

Super exciting update coming very soon! 👀 #PhantomOfTheGrove #indiegame #teaser

🚨 Phantom of the Grove's Steam page just went live 🚨 🥳🥳🎉🎉 Check us out and maybe consider wishlisting? 👉👈 It would mean a lot 🥺 store.steampowered.com/app/3510510/... #indiegame #steamstore #gamedev #colonysim

It just makes perfect sense that a National Park has to have its own badges, even a place as weird as Lone Pine. #indiegames #nationalparks

Remastering our website lately. Short of this acid trip of an experience, I think we landed on something quite light and fun, what do you think? 👉 survansix.com #indiegame #gamedev #art #games #webdesign

This week, we're exploring how mycelium can *creep* through the forest and serve as the Grove's synaptic growth. Think Zerg creep meets brain function. #indiegame #gamedev #gamedesign #art #design

What's your favourite forest critter in media or real life? #gamedesign #indiegame #gamedev #indiedev #art #design

Huge congrats to everyone who submitted a game in #PirateJam 16. It's no easy feat building a game from scratch in two weeks! And props to @piratesoftware.live for hiring a team who put in the time to give feedback to every single game (that's no small feat) Play jam games! itch.io/jam/pirate16...

Happy #indieanimationday!!! Here's a little update on some of the animations I've been working on for Bang Bang Bang's mystery adventure, Lone Pine 🌲 youtu.be/v-Q7o4f-HvY?...

Restoring the light💡 (the easy way) #pixelart #indiegame #gamedev

OMG I've sent my game's page for review. It'll become live so soon! So thrilled and excited now 🤭 #indiedev #cozygame #madewithgodot #godot #gamedev #indiegame

Went to the north pole on my planet to build a big ice sculpture! What do you think? #gaming #gamedev #building

This week I start working on cybernetics, enhancements for players - looking at cross between cyberpunk, syndicate and Deus Ex. Building 1st corporate location at Nova Arcadia that specializes in the tech as well as a black market addition to Vanta-9 #starcitizen #startrek #scifi #gamedev #indiedev

A sneak peak of the design plans for our huge upcoming update to #PhantomOfTheGrove. Hit us up if you'd like to give it a play-test! #IndieGame #GameDev #GameJam #StrategyGame #ArcadeGames #Art