sebotron | working on an NES JRPG!

The Book of Rynn Kickstarter campaign is finally in pre-launch!! Head over there and click "Notify me on launch"! In the meantime, get the free demo from itch (link in KS description) and tell your friends, your family, your pets, everyone! 🎉 www.kickstarter.com/projects/seb...

For MONSTER MONDAY, the Dorlan Wildlife Bureau would like to introduce the King's loyal subjects to FUNGUY. You may think it looks delicious, but unfortunately, the feeling is mutual. #jrpg #nes #thebookofrynn #indiegames #retrogames

@nicoplaysindies.bsky.social will be livestreaming The Book of Rynn demo in at 12:30PM EST at www.youtube.com/live/FQJnXxF... I'll be in the chat watching!

Retro Raider is taking a look at The Book of Rynn! youtu.be/ftWLzEts4OA #jrpg #nes #retrogames #indiegames

The Dorlan Wildlife Bureau presents MONSTER MONDAY and would like to bring your attention today on MARAUDER. This spooky abomination has been seen roaming the woods around Kolmar. The Bureau strongly advises against asking it for directions. #thebookofrynn #jrpg #nes #indiegames #retrogames

I found where Leon Kennedy does his shopping

Hear ye! By decree of King Aldwyn, Dorlan shall henceforth issue official proclamations from the Court and its esteemed ministries. All of the Kingdom's subjects are urged to take heed. The Crown shall accept no complaints from the uninformed! #thebookofrynn #jrpg #nes

I posted Rynn on /r/dragonquest today and I just got this comment and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. 🥲

Should've done that yesterday but just posted a little trailer for our Kickstarter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJBS... #nes #jrpg #kickstarter #retrogames #indiegames #thebookofrynn

I recently scored a ps1 and ps2 both in perfect working condition and I couldn't be more excited! Also found out my ff7 disks from 1997 still work! Isn't that cool? 😎

I'll be spending the weekend working on Rynn's Kickstarter trailer. Time to try and get decent at video editing I guess 😎 #jrpg #nes #indiegames #gamedev #retrogames

Turns out figuring out how to launch a crowdfunding campaign is almost as much work as making the gosh darn game but I've nearly ironed out all the details so we're gonna kick into next gear for The Book of Rynn very soon! Also, today is my birthday. 😉🎂

Wonder what companies like Nintendo, Sony and Sega are thinking, if anything, about the growing homebrew scene and the fact that more and more people are making games for old consoles.. 🤔

The one and only @johnriggs.bsky.social and I are starting an NES "blackbox-style" game empire at @pushstartgames.bsky.social - we're preparing the launch of our first title: Ninja Garden! Check it out!

I have a bad case of "new-project-itis" and I want to share more about my ps1 and SNES experiments, but I want to make one thing very clear: The Book of Rynn is a bucket list project for me and no matter what else I toy with, it will be my main focus until the game is complete and in your hands.

I've been having a lot of downtime lately waiting on a few things for Rynn so I've been playing with other toys, such as OpenSNES + Super FX for some Star Fox-like mecha game. Yes/no? (if you say no I'll take it as a yes and keep going!)

Apologies for the radio silence. The demo is ready and I'm working on securing physical production while avoiding Canada-US tariffs before launching into crowdfunding. What a headache 😭 #nesdev #retrogames #nes #PhysicalForever

The Book of Rynn's internal testing for the demo is going well! We're going to be adding more people to the playtest soon with a bunch of fixes and updates! Comment below if you would like to join! #jrpg #nes #gamedev #indiegames #retrogames #thebookofrynn

The Book of Rynn demo is out for internal testing. Expect the grand announcement soon! #nes #jrpg #retrogames #indiegames #thebookofrynn

Our final boss is in! Ofc I'm not gonna show you, but I can't wait for you guys to fight it! Not much longer before we launch the demo! #nes #jrpg #indiegames #retrogrames #gamedev #thebookofrynn

Moved the Astrals tablet collection to the INFO screen. You may also notice new window borders styled like pages of a book, plus a new custom font. We felt it was time for Rynn's UI to develop an identity of its own while preserving the classic NES RPG feel. We hope you like it!

Playing through the whole game again! Notice anything different? 🤔 #nes #jrpg #retrogames #indiegames #gamedev #thebookofrynn

To celebrate the upcoming unveiling of The Book of Rynn public demo, we're releasing the game's OST on Bandcamp! We'll be revealing new tracks progressively in the lead-up to our crowdfunding campaign, but you can listen to the main theme today: thebookofrynn.bandcamp.com/album/the-bo...

I spent a good few hours fine tuning our first story's final boss to make the fight interesting and hard enough to keep you on your toes. Can't wait to share! #jrpg #nes #retrogames #indiegames #gamedev

Testing, testing and more testing. You cannot imagine how excited I am to share The Book of Rynn with you all! #jrpg #nes #retrogames #gamedev #indiegames #thebookofrynn

While testing, I decided to introduce collectibles: the Astral Tablets. Five goddesses, five tablets, hidden in inconspicuous spots around the world. Each will grant a different blessing to a party member of your choice. Happy hunting! #jrpg #nes #gamedev #retrogames #thebookofrynn

I just added a small but very essential feature I had completely overlooked: XP recaps when saving your game! 😎 #nes #jrpg #gamedev #indiegames #retrogames #thebookofrynn

Happy to announce that map work is complete for our demo/first story! In The Royal Seal, you will visit: 1 castle, 4 towns, 6 dungeons and 2 shrines on top of the overworld. Next: balance pass, internal testing and then public demo release! 😎 #nes #jrpg #indiegames #retrogames #gamedev

Been experimenting with tileset variants for dungeons and I'm pretty happy with the results! #jrpg #nes #gamedev #indiegames #reteogames #thebookofrynn

Do you really have a classic JRPG if you don't have doors and matching keys? #jrpg #nes #indiegames #retrogames #gamedev #thebookofrynn

I'm 3 maps away from completing our first story, and playable demo, in The Book of Rynn. Internal testing for balance and pace should start shortly! #nes #jrpg #gamedev #indiegames #retrogames

Turns out designing overworld maps is harder than I expected but here we are: the world map for our first story: The Royal Seal (subject to change, so don't save it just yet!) #nes #jrpg #thebookofrynn #indiegames #retrogames #gamedev

The Book of Rynn's first story production is coming along great but I've been bothered by map load times for months because of compression, collision handling, etc. Took a step back and cut this time by more than half and that makes me really happy! #jrpg #nesdev #retrogames #gamedev #indiegames

Working on Sanpoor, a small village high up in a mountain pass. The village has been dealing with terrifying ringing sounds coming from the well, causing earthquakes and rockfalls, blocking the pass. Wonder what's in there🤔 #jrpg #nes #indiegames #retrogrames #thebookofrynn

Fancy some 8-bit gardening? I know I do! 👨‍🌾🥕 #nes #retrogames #indiegames #nesdev #gamedev

I'm still here! I'm clearing out bill paying work so it's out of the way and I get the rest of the summer to work on Rynn with very little distraction. 😎

Finally got a glimpse of #dragonquest 12 for #dragonquestday However, I was really hoping for a Zenithian trilogy HD2D so I'm leaving a bit sad! Oh well, maybe next time 😎

Some weeks ago I needed a break and spent a weekend making a black box-style cooking game for the NES. Here is ChopChop, enjoy all 5-10 minutes of entertainment: sebotron.itch.io/chopchop #nes #retrogames #nesdev #indiegames #gamedev

Apologies for the radio silence: I've been catching up with bill-paying work for the past two weeks! I'll be back in the saddle shortly. Here's another 15 secs of random bits of our first story in the meantime! #jrpg #nes #indiegames #gamedev #retrogames #thebookofrynn

Do you love cave dungeons? I love cave dungeons! #jrpg #nes #indiegames #gamedev #retrogames #thebookofrynn

Past me: balancing a retro rpg is easy! Current me: 🤦‍♂️

Filling up data files by hand is fun but I have to say, having editors is fun too! Just hammered this quick monster editor for Rynn. #jrpg #nes #8bit #nesdev #gamedev #indiegames #retrogrames #thebookofrynn

It is said that an old man lives in an ancient library at the top of the Tower of Damaris. The tower is surrounded by poisonous swamps and its lower floors are guarded by monsters. What wisdom will Torin find at the top? 🤔 #jrpg #nes #retrogames #indiegames #gamedev #8bit #thebookofrynn

Sometimes I take breaks from gamedev and when I do, I often do more gamedev. Here's a quick and dirty experiment running on the SNES. A future Rynn game maybe? Ok back to real work. 🤭 #snes #nes #16bit #jrpg #gamedev #indiegames #retrogames

Map layering was a bit more of a headache than I expected and that's as fast as I can get it to work for now. Had to reduce my tileset to 32 tiles so I could use the top 3 bits of each tile to assign a "region" from 0 to 7 but hey it works! 🤓 #gamedev #retrogames #nes #jrpg #thebookofrynn

Our little map editor started as a fairly simple tile placement tool but can now support "regions" that can hide and reveal when crossing certain triggers. Pretty neat! #jrpg #nes #indiegames #retrogames #gamedev #thebookofrynn