Honestly one of my biggest regrets with PD is that the game doesn't look interesting (despite Lum's excellent character art that made it 300% more interesting,) and adding a dungeon map would have made it so much better in that regard.
If I ever make a sequel to Parallel Dungeons I will make an interesting dungeon space to explore between fights. I didn't do that for PD because I wanted to keep the scope small.
Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I had a grape. Maybe I should eat more grapes!
Also, I'll be taking a three month break from game development for reasons I outlined in the blog post.
New blog post, in which I talk about the upcoming new character for Parallel Dungeons. Also, how I made a "you can't lose" ability balanced.
nuvobloggo.medium.com/monthly-blog...
Day 28: Tactical Nexus by Team Tactical Nexus store.steampowered.com/app/1141290/...
Like Opus Magnum, this is a fun factory game. It's easy to play yet challenging to optimize.
Day 27: Kaizen: A Factory Story by @coincidence.games steamcommunity.com/profiles/765...
Principal Skinner wondering "Am I out of touch?"
Me every time the discourse brings up this topic:
This feels like it was made for me specifically. You play as a swap-able team of characters that banter with each other as you fight (I promise it's endearing and not annoying.) It also strikes a perfect balance between being simple and having a lot of depth.
Day 26: Cobalt Core by @rocketratgames.bsky.social (I plagiarized a little from my past self here since I wrote about this when it was nominated for a Thinky Games award.) store.steampowered.com/app/2179850/...
To be quite honest I still do not understand how and why the idea of "cozy"/"wholesome" games keeps rubbing people the wrong way, especially since there are numerous other non-videogame things which, practically speaking, function exactly like cozy games and don't get the same flack.
The remakes are good, they're the way I experienced the series. But they've run out of stuff to remake unless they rerelease the Layton crossover game. So I don't know what they'll do next.
The Ace Attorney series is in such a weird spot right now. Capcom is still supporting and promoting it, the audience for it is definitely still there, but we haven't gotten a new (non remake) game in years.
I need someone (not necessarily you, just anyone) to do thorough research on "Why does the Slipping Jimmy TV show exist?" and make a video essay on it. I need to know.
One of the most creative Sokoban games ever made. Writing this review almost feels pointless because you can probably just look at the screenshots and see why it's worth playing. But if you're wondering if the game is deep and worth playing after the novelty wears off, the answer is a resounding "yes."
Day 25: Baba is You by @hempuli.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/736260/B...
This is a deceptively simple looking tile making game that's actually a very deep and challenging puzzle experience. The UI is a bit clunky, but other than that it's an amazing game. It vastly exceeded my expectations.
Day 24: Tiling Forest - Tiling Town Demo by Muratsubo Games store.steampowered.com/app/4213590/...
The lag was mainly a noticeable issue in my web builds, which were slower than native.
I create roughly 5-6 cards at once on some frames, where each card has 8 nodes (it used to be more before I optimized it down using custom drawing commands.)
I also optimize things further by using object pools for the scenes so they're moved instead of truly created.
Actually, scratch that: my biggest issue is that control nodes are surprisingly slow sometimes, to the point where I had to do a lot of optimizations to make the game not lag when new items are created.
I think the biggest issue for me was that sometimes a control's size wouldn't be calculated right on the first frame it was created, which was a problem for properly placing tooltips. My solution was to fade them in instead of immediately showing them (which made for better UX anyway.)
For items (cards) in my game, I have them set up as a parent node that gets auto-placed by the containers; Each has a child node which is the "real" item. I can then animate the child's position without changing the parent.
I feel this, and my advice for marketing is as follows: become the kind of person that is an uptick in the quality of life for as many people as possible. Then people might want to play your game.
While this isn't the most polished deckbuilding game, or the most balanced, it's still fun to play. It certainly deserves credit for inspiring the genre of roguelike deckbuilding.
Day 23: Dream Quest by Peter Whalen store.steampowered.com/app/557410/D...
Still working on 🐐💬🧩
This game is what Michael Brough does best: A minimalist game with lots of depth and cool ideas. There's a lot of different abilities to pick up, and figuring out good combinations between them is satisfying.
Day 22: 868-HACK by @smestorp.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/274700/8...
In this unique roguelike with goofy enemies and abilities, you have to try to stay alive across multiple universes!
A minimalist "programming" Zachlike that's easy to play but contains lots of depth. The story is also charming, striking a perfect balance between being relatable and being absurd.
Day 21: Manufactoria 2022 by @cavalcadeofcats.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/1276070/...
A charming take on the match 3 genre. I could explain it to you, but I feel like that would go against the spirit of the game. So just try the demo and prepare for the unexpected.
Day 20: Titanium Court (demo) by @apthomson.bsky.social store.steampowered.com/app/4210280/...
Seems like we'll need to get really good at recycling electronic components.
This quirky roguelike can be frustrating sometimes, but it's nonetheless charming. While the peg popping gameplay is more luck based than skill based, you do need to be smart about the kinds of items you get in order to create good synergies. And when you do get a good combo going, it's fun.
Day 19: Nubby's Number Factory by MogDogBlog Productions store.steampowered.com/app/3191030/...
I think Unity's #0 problem has always been engine bloat (compare the install size of Unity and Godot, see how long it takes to compile a Unity project) and I can only see that getting worse if they add more AI stuff to the engine.
