Good hello!

As many of you already know, my game Kor has 3 player sprite options - the bottom row in this post's image - offering different skin tones, basically. But they all have the same look otherwise. The game is also designed so that no one ever genders the player - all pronouns used are gender neutral (Chumpling, Duckaroo, etc.), because I wanted anyone to be able to connect with the player character.

HOWEVER!

Even though I never assign a gender to the player anywhere in the game, most people assume that it's male because of the short hair. And as such, I've gotten several requests from women to add in a more feminine sprite, and for a long time I resisted because I worried that it would make the gender of the player character too black and white, even if I don't change anything about NPCs never assigning gender to the character (you can pick either look, and still consider your character whatever you want).

So... I designed an alternative sprite. And though I'm not looking forward to all the work of updating promo stuff to include the other sprite, I've gotten very positive feedback from women I've shared it with. And, at the end of the day, I am of the opinion that more customization options are good.

But before I go through all the effort of adding the update, I wanted to come and ask the gender diverse userbase of Hexbear what you all think about this!

Mostly just featuring a few preview gifs. I don't know when will be the next time I actually have something worthwhile to show, but this is it so far.

Wanted to give them a plain, unassuming appearance, with only a leather vest for armor - the protagonist is a peasant and can't afford anything on the level of full plate, but they've prepared themselves for the dangers they're facing the best they can.

For having only spent a few hours on the background image, I think it turned out very well. It used to take me days to make those, and they weren't quite as good.

My goal was to have the demo released by the end of the year, and I am definitely on schedule for that.

Hi everyone I'm just posting our game jam here for others to check out. We used Godot and a great pixel art AI plugin for Aseprite that I found called PixelLab. I found old Russian folk midis and used an app called GXSCC to convert them to chiptune sounding songs. As a bit of an easter egg you can also select the USSR anthem in options.

We're looking to expand the game so any suggestions are welcome. Godot 4 was a bit of a pain to work with but hopefully will be more developed going forward.

I can recommend the Seattle Indies Slow game jam next year, you don't have to be in Seattle to join.

Edit: Someone has been impersonating us in the comments on itch, I am one developer here and the other dev AndroidOverlord is the other on itch.io - anyone else responding is not associated with Rabbitariat.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1026770

Four years ago (...jesus) Yahtzee decided to challenge himself to make 12 games in as many months. The videos don't run too long, are nicely edited/paced, and you get to see how he thinks about game design both in principle and in practice.

I'd highly recommend the series to anyone who's thinking about game design, whether that's as a hobbyist or a spectator. I've linked someone else's playlist because the official one is junk.

There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen

Hey, nerds. Still hard at work on my Zelda clone. Based on feedback from many different people, I've settled on a tentative title of Guardian Cry. I hope to have a playable demo with the Phoenix Temple out by the end of the year, which will require me to do a lot in a short timeframe, but so far I'm on track to pull it off.

The big silver emblem you see in the screenshot is how the player will track their progress through the game. On its surface are reliefs of the four Guardians - the Minotaur, the Gryphon, the Phoenix, and the Unicorn. Each time you defeat one of the Guardians and gain its ability, that Guardian's eye glows ruby on the emblem. In the pic none of the eyes are glowing, even though the player would have beaten the Minotaur and the Gryphon by the time they're in the Phoenix Temple - I wanted to show the emblem without any modifications.

I was impressed

There is something satisfying about a number going up. I'm not immune to it.

I love the bit where he starts talking about what he'd do as a modern indie.

And I will continue to do so until the gamedev comm is alive.

Is there a better way to share a video than linking my mastodon?

Smooth voxels!

I'm hoping to build up to something like Minecraft modpack experience, but right now you can just run around and add/remove cubes from the terrain.

This sprite is still a WIP - you'll notice I just mirrored the wing, even though the light source is off-center. Did it to give me a rough idea of how she'd look with wings spread out and I'm pretty happy with it.

this ain't my game obviously, but i have fond memories of playing the original ios release over a decade ago.

I ordered the physical book and it’s just a keen source of knowledge.

"No, I have never made a bird in pixel art before, why do you ask?" - Also me

Come in and say hello!

Before the Corruption, the Phoenix was the embodiment of wisdom and justice in the land. But just like the four other Guardians, she has been driven to a mindless rage, and she now isolates herself in her Sun Temple, raining terrible fire on any who dare approach her. The hero will have to weave between her fireball patterns to get close enough to strike her with his sword, but every few hits, she flies across the room and tries to keep him at bay with another barrage of flames.

Once the hero defeats the Phoenix and purges the corruption from her, she gratefully bestows upon him her divine flame. This grants the hero a powerful projectile attack that can be used to safely clear out enemies from a distance as well as burn away thick bushes that block off parts of the world.