Pheefus [Wishlist Capesong!]

Updated Trailer! Capesong: a #turnbased combat strategy game where you generate OC superheroes and plot their growth, featuring tactical timeline battles and deep customization. Wishlist: s.team/a/4667120/ #TrailerTuesday #indiedev #gamedev #OC #superhero #gameaudio #pixelart #roguelike #strategy

The blessing and curse of #solodev is you can always turn your attention away from what you're doing in order to work on something else. So you're always making micro-progress on like 15 different things. But you've also got dozens of hanging threads just constantly nagging at you.

Who has two thumbs and loves making aggressively mediocre pixel art? 👍 👍 #pixelart #aseprite #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

Rookie mistake. I started drawing my animations without tracking exactly which frames mark the wind-up/strike/resolution. Now I'm sitting here making a spreadsheet to count frames and programmatically line them up. Maybe I should just redo them? Ugh. #aseprite #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #solodev

Self-promo's important but always feels kinda icky. #WishlistWednesday check these instead: @dropout-dev.bsky.social (Dropout), @dadikingdom.bsky.social (Dadi Kingdom), @jeremyjackson.bsky.social (Star Spark), @akingames.bsky.social (Grog & Grudges), @aevinabstract.bsky.social (Spectral Web: Yuurei)

🧡 pumpkin season 🧡

Trying to make the tutorial informative without just blasting the player with inscrutable walls of text. This is impossible. Plz send help. #Capesong #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #superhero #OC

This week has been #pixelart - making the system to swap eyes/eyebrows/mouths to convey emotion. I want players to make unique characters they truly connect with. The most vital part of a #superhero story is the person behind the mask. That is the core vision for #Capesong. #aseprite #indiedev #oc

#Capesong: a superheroic combat tactics game (in early development). Plan moves on a shared timeline, then build/combine powers to grow stronger. I hope OC creators, comic fans and strategy gamers find it worthy of interest. #marvel #dc #comics #OC #indiedev #WishlistWednesday s.team/a/4667120/

Been working on Capesong's fusion system. Adding one power to another lets you grow stronger while keeping costs in check. Here, fusing Gale Step to Bramble Wall gives your best defense the added ability to shove their next attack +1 space #ScreenshotSaturday #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #pixelart

Been building for almost a year. Making this game cuz I have a very specific vision/lifelong obsession. Yesterday I was testing & genuinely got pulled in by the buildcrafting and decision-making. Felt for the 1st time this could truly become an excellent game. I'm super motivated! #gamedev #indiedev

One of the biggest problems that keeps coming up is information overload. I'm working on streamlining and organizing turn recaps, and on building a 'mentor' voice (the All Might or Prof X who watch and give pertinent recommendations) #Capesong #ScreenshotSaturday #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #OC

This afternoon I finally finished through gold stake on the last deck in #Balatro and honestly idk what I’m supposed to do when I open up my phone anymore.

Mysterious superpower-granting shards are appearing around the world! At the start of a run, a new wielder is located. I'm not a real pixel artist, but check the map & the sweet (generic?) "Global Defenders" superteam logo I made. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #superhero #aseprite #WishlistWednesday

The fusion system is working! (though a lot of edge cases still to iron out) Powers can be broken into effects/targets/durations/conditions/misc. Players can fuse power chips to combine bits of each, which effectively grows the possible powers from the 100s into the 10000s! #gamedev #indiedev

Slowly making progress on the battle screen UI. Why didn't you guys tell me that fitting things into boxes without f'ing up the other boxes was the hardest part of #gamedev? #Capesong #indiedev #superherogame #superhero #OC #indiegame

Hard to pick just nine, but each of these had totally consumed my life at different points in time (three sports manga on the list was definitely a surprise!)

Don't have any new visuals worth showing for #ScreenshotSaturday because most recent work has been backend stuff. But the system is coming together for fusing chips together to make combo powers with elements of both parents. If I can figure it out, it's going to make truly unique heroes possible.

Working on the codex. NGL I'm proud of my dev/art progress so far to see these all on one screen. Still 200+ more on the planning spreadsheet yet to be created. #Capesong #superherogame #superhero #OC #roguelike #roguelite #rpg #turnbased #tactics #indiedev #gamedev #solodev #pixelart #aseprite

Spent some time this week working on the animations for when heroes apply elemental effects to the field instead of directly attacking opponents. #ScreenshotSaturday #Capesong #pixelart #aseprite #turnbased #roguelike #superhero #superherogame #comicart #indiecomics #OC #indiedev #gamedev #solodev

Current task: drawing pixel explosion #26 (Ice-Ground Contact - Medium Intensity). I guess I could buy an asset pack, but I don't want to miss out on the joy of drawing pixel explosions #27-80. #gamedev #indiedev #aseprite #pixelart #superhero #superherogame #OC

Sometimes the RNG generates a meh powerset but you wanna try anyway because the guy's name is Myron Pupper. #WishlistWednesday #Capesong #Indiedev #Gamedev #superhero #superherogame #OC #turnbased #roguelike #pixelart

#gamedev is so adhd coded. Spend 20min doing math, a half hour drawing a sprite, ten minutes aligning the pause menu, back to math again, wait I haven’t posted anything on social lately, wait what was I doing again? What day is it?

Testing different opacity percentages for the invisibility power. #ScreenshotSaturday #Capesong #indiedev #pixelart #aseprite #gamedev #solodev #OC #superhero #superherogame

Planning what's offered in the starting loadout. Five powers: 2 from the primary element, 3 off-kit. Slightly favoring affinity without forcing you into an archetype. Want to encourage diverse buildcrafting based on your battle results/rewards. #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #OC #turnbased #roguelike

A few new animations. Teleporting is such cheese :( #Capesong #indiedev #gamedev #OC #superhero #roguelike #turnbased #solodev #pixelart

Experimenting with different systems for increasing a hero's affinity. Until now, it was like a gate; purchasing a higher affinity allowed you to get better powers. But I'm changing so the more often you use a power, the higher your affinity gets. So unlocking thru use rather than thru purchasing.

Super happy to show off the new capsule artwork, created by the extremely talented Felipe Poveda! www.deviantart.com/felipepoveda #ScreenshotSaturday #Capesong #Indiedev #comic #superhero #gamedev #OC #comicart #superherogame #roguelike #turnbased

Much of the last month has been spent drawing sprite animations. Finally finished the important ones. Next up, projectiles and particle beams. Hope to have a preview video ready soon s.team/a/4667120/ #Capesong #indiedev #gamedev #indiegame #superhero #OC #superherogame #pixelart #wishlistwednesday

I have a complex system of rules and interactions, but even as the game’s designer, it’s often impossible to tell why things happen. So I’m trying to pare things back and simplify but I don’t want to dumb it down. The target player likes buildcrafting and stats. How do I make this perfect for them?

The game is turn-based strategic combat, but at each round's resolution, it'd be sweet to watch the superhero battle play out as the turn results are revealed. Made a test area to experiment with the sprites. Still a long way to go! #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #OC #Capesong #ScreenshotSaturday

If an attack that inflicts 15dmg goes against a defense that blocks 20dmg, but the attack has a modifier that allows it to fire twice on the same turn, then 10 dmg should leak through. The 20block defense shouldn't work twice. *spends five hours figuring out how to trace and fix* #indiedev #gamedev

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Rcvd my commissioned capsule image, but don't want to update my Steam page til I've got some gameplay footage ready. Thing is, I've been at this for months, the UX is still half-baked, sprites are mediocre, and the game has zero juice. Guess I know where my focus needs to go next. #gamedev #indiediv

The ‘competing DAWs’ are back to a simpler 2-track system. Shoehorning verticality into the combat grid made defense useless. Looked cool AF but it moved playability in the wrong direction. Can’t be afraid to try new things but have to be able to admit when they’re not it :( #indiedev #gamedev

I’ve been spending all week back at this drawing board. Every time I think I have a cool, unique combat system figured out, I discover a degenerate strategy that breaks everything. The ‘competing DAWs’ vision is still there. Just… unclear still. I’m going to figure this out 😤 #indiedev #gamedev

Had an actual dream vision of how to make the 'competitive math' work. Successive waves of double-blind chip placement on a DAW-like grid, building your equation while thwarting theirs. I think (hope!) this'll be a truly unique strategic combat system #screenshotsaturday #indiedev #gamedev #solodev

Promotion to the Global Defenders is meant to feel like a rare and well-earned reward for a particularly successful run. Making this the moment where you can give your guy an actual superhero codename feels like the right move. #capesong #indiedev #solodev #gamedev #superhero #superherogame #OC

Most recent work has been on the new (re)direction. Multi-move planning along a timeline (a la Star Renegades, Into the Breach, FFX, etc). If this works, it'll elevate the battle system from a simple rock-paper-scissors simulator into the strategic/tactical planning vision I've had from the start.

Making a conscious decision in my superhero game to NOT generate characters w/ codenames. Hope players can connect with their heroes on a human level 1st. Raúl Díaz the teacher from Peru. Not just ThunderFist (or whatever you end up codenaming him once you get far enough) #indiedev #solodev #gamedev

Slowly dawning on me that the game I’m making is just competitive math. *third eye opens* wait a minute… everyone’s game is just competitive math! #indiedev #solodev #gamedev

Been deving for months and my game still just looks like default menus. Balancing math & making tiny decisions that send me back to square one again & again. But I can tell it's going to be so satisfying to play once it's ready. Wish I could convey that in a screenshot or a video. #indiedev #solodev

Still early in development and haven't begun marketing my game for real. Just made Bluesky and X accts to post lil updates. But OMG twitter is horrible. As a new user, my feed is just a stream of lowbrow, racist, sexist, red-pilled AI chud content. It's depressing. Think I'm gonna delete it.

Postbattle upgrade screen WIP. Go deep on single-element mastery, branch out to find an unexpected synergy, tack on some super-speed for a momentum boost, or just heal up for the next battle? #ScreenshotSaturday #Indiedev #gamedev #solodev #superhero #superherogame #capesong

Been struggling forever with how to give heroes unique loadouts. Power draft? Too narrow. All powers gated by tier? Too broad. I think I finally found the answer: Modules. Unlockable groups of powers that execute a specific multi-turn strategy. #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #superherogame #capesong

I am constantly impressed and amazed by the stuff I see other devs posting here. I could spend all day hitting the like button. Is there a word for when you're hopelessly discouraged and unbelievably motivated at the same time? #indiedev #gamedev #solodev

Making progress on the character generator. I swear I'll get back to gameplay soon! #screenshotsaturday #capesong #superhero #superherogame #indiedev #gamedev #solodev

Finally made a system that translates different effects ("burn_2_3") into plainspoken language ("Apply level 2 burn for 3 turns") and shows the definitions as color-coded tooltips when clicked. Should have done this a long time ago. Game is so much more legible now. #superherogame #indiedev #gamedev

Struggling with presentation / information hierarchy on the battle screen. So many variables and statuses can modify the damage output of a given move. How to decide what to show and what to fold into sub-menus or tooltips? #screenshotsaturday #capesong #indiedev #gamedev #superhero #superherogame

Making a build-your-own-superhero strategy game. Obviously character generation is super important. I want to make something that OC creators will want to mess around with even if they never bother playing the actual game. #capesong #superhero #gamedev #indiedev #solodev #pixelart #superherogame