Rob Stenzinger

Role of Art in Hope, Resistance, Protest, Resilience This week Kate and Rob return to the show at a heavy moment in our Minneapolis and wider Minnesota community. We talk about in how in any times and especially in tough times how we build community…

Ep 90: Role of Art in Hope, Resistance, Protest, Resilience. Kate and I return to the show at a heavy moment in our Minneapolis and wider Minnesota community. We talk about in any times and especially tough times how we build community and find resilience through learning, community, and making art.

Show and tell about making the word puzzle game Lexilotl as followup to my word action game Word Turtle Island. See a whole puzzle round play out as I ask myself why I made a word action game before… Game prototyping show and tell - Lexilotl - a new word puzzle game

Show and tell about making the word puzzle game Lexilotl as followup to my word action game Word Turtle Island.

See a whole puzzle round play out as I ask myself why I made a word action game before making a word puzzle game.

#indiegames
#gamedeveloper
#journal
#wordgame

Thank you IGDA MN community! for the acknowledgment and celebration of all of us who published this year!

#gamedeveloper
#indiegames
#igdamn

Received this token as a way to celebrate publishing a game in 2025. Word Turtle Island reached 1.0 this August and is published to four places so far: Steam, Itch, Google Play, and Apple App Store.… Acknowledgement for publishing Word Turtle Island in 2025

Received this token as a way to celebrate publishing a game in 2025. Word Turtle Island reached 1.0 this August and is on: Steam, Itch, Google Play, and Apple App Store. Reminds me that it's important to show up and share and even repeat sharing in a variety of ways.

How many hats do solo game creators wear? And why is it 20 jillion? It's part of the endeavor that I love but also get a bit overbooked switching between them all - business, marketing, coding, art,… How many hats do solo game creators wear? And why is it 20 jillion?

How many hats do solo game creators wear? And why is it 20 jillion? It's part of the endeavor that I love but also get a bit overbooked switching between them all - business, marketing, coding, art, music, publishing, and support. I'm lucky that Godot published version 3.6.2 with new build templates

Start of a poster I've yet to finish, based on my take on the story of DragonBall Z. Quirky flawed characters who seek to improve and are a sort of found family which all that I enjoy immensely. Lots of messages one can take from DBZ, for me it's: "let's make one another as strong as possible".

Asking Psyduck what's up. This little guy I bought from a discount bin at a cool toy shop in Columbus OH called Big Fun. It had drained batteries and a broken speaker. Took a speaker from an old laptop and little repair later Psyduck is a delightful voice reacting fun creature.

What’s next for the WTI arcade cabinet? This past 10 months this prototype has been on the road and I’ve learned a lot watching people play. What should be in the next version?

#arcade
#indiegames
#gamedeveloper
#typing
#wordturtleisland

How do you value your creative experiments? Lately I've been posting both still and animated colorful rectangle landscapes evocative of 8bit video game background art. I don't have a specific plan for these, only to follow my want to play and explore yet I can also see I'm learning.
#creativity
#art

The filled rectangles often lead to 8bit sort of pixel-esque style landscapes.

Curious if you folks have fun drawing with rectangles or other non traditional ways to get your sketches on paper or digital page.

Some examples of drawing with rectangles: simple outlines and filled are two different yet fun paths to sketch and play visually.

My robot/mecha series is one of my favorites yet I have a bunch more. Often I do these as a relaxing thing at the end of the day.

#illustration
#journaling

I find them useful for illustrating my messages, posts, presentations, and even as placeholder art in a game or design document. Also when facilitating meetings or doing sketches and doodles to take notes. They can do a lot with only a few lines

#drawing
#creativity
#stickfigure
#sketch
#whiteboard

My favorite kind of stick figure placeholder art: H+BALL characters! Quick demo of how to create cartoony, fun, easy to draw characters primarily made of two shapes.

youtube.com/shorts/_JVS0...

Spell is the name of the cartoon cat who hosts the game, someday I need to tell the story of how Spell and friends got together.

robstenzinger.itch.io/spells-spell...

#indiegames
#educationalgames
#spelling

Spell's Spelling helps folks practice spelling words. Made this playful way to practice spelling words, the HTML version is playable anytime in your browser and a purchasable Mac and Windows version.

youtube.com/shorts/ZRNgd...

Download the latest indie games itch.io is a simple way to find, download and distribute indie games online. Whether you're a developer looking to upload your game or just someone looking for something new to play itch.io has you…

These sketches are about the interstitial scenes where Pick and Crunchy discuss learning guitar, share encouragement, and give bits of background story.

It's on a number of platforms: Apple, Steam, and Itch.io.

#indiegames
#gamedeveloper
#guitargame
#guitarfretter
#journaling
#sketches
#guitar

Do you play guitar and or like guitar themed action-puzzle games? A while back I made a game called Guitar Fretter which features 4 and 5 string bass and 6 and 7 string electric guitar where you… Sketches from the big update to Guitar Fretter

Do you play guitar and or like guitar themed action-puzzle games? A while back I made a game called Guitar Fretter which features 4 and 5 string bass and 6 and 7 string electric guitar where you match notes to survive waves of creatures trying to take your confidence.

youtube.com/shorts/_seLd...

Up next are a lot more refinements, artwork, sounds and fun gameplay twists to make it something more quirky and special.

Are you into word puzzle games? Check out this prototype word game I'm making. It's getting to the point where the basic things like input and layout and succeeding or failing at solving the puzzle… Are you into word puzzle games? Check out this prototype!

Are you into word puzzle games? Check out this prototype word game I'm making. It's getting to the point where the basic things like input and layout and succeeding or failing at solving the puzzle are all in place.

youtube.com/shorts/AaICV...

#gamedeveloper
#indiegames
#wordpuzzle
#wordgame

Then when you wish you can unlock battles, go there, and when you do you get to choose the difficulty you face. Sort of a risk reward trade off but at any level you do get some reward and can eventually solve the game even if you play on low difficulty.

Designed a second one to remind me how I'd like the library home base aka the book sanctuary to flow.

The book sanctuary is a place to help books and readers and get rewarded to level up your character and loot. In a way you farm bookshelves and grow from it.

What helps you focus when you're building a game feature that takes a while to create? Sometimes I'll make posters to be around that remind me of key ideas and details. These are examples I made for Word Turtle Island.

One poster I made for how I'd like the battle encounters to flow.

Made these two posters to guide level design in my game Word Turtle Island. What helps you focus when you're building a game feature that takes a while to create? Sometimes I'll make posters to be… Made posters to guide level design in my game Word Turtle Island

Made these two posters to guide level design in my game Word Turtle Island.

youtube.com/shorts/6194P...

#indiegames
#gamedeveloper
#gamedesign
#journal
#posters
#creativity

Here are three posters I designed, each featuring robot(s)/mecha creatures. One of my designs I keep refining and need to make some prints of someday.

#posters
#lineart
#mecha
#scifi
#robots
#illustration

Word puzzle game prototype progress! It's a bit backwards but also kind of fun to make the words hide instead of showing. Maybe that will be in the game on purpose as I evolve the prototype and land on my design goals for this game.

#gamedeveloper
#devjournal
#wordgame
#prototyping
#creativecoding

The land of conceptual can be so fun and creative a place to visit, I'm glad when I feel ready to make a prototype so I don't get stuck in all the secondary research, planning, ideas exploring expressed only as concept. A prototype makes it more real not just for people to try but for me as well.

Any and all of those can get help with my game concept on paper.

Any project I work on I do like to make some sort of prototype as soon as it feels right. Then I can to move out of the debate cycle of ideas and concepts into something more tangible.

#gamedeveloper
#productstrategy
#prototyping

How to choose what game to make next? Market driven? Your own instinct? What kind of game should I make? How should I or what can I use to help to choose what kind of game to make next? Market… How to choose what game to make next? Market driven? Your own instinct?

How to choose what game to make next? Market driven? Your own instinct? youtube.com/shorts/ZYbq7...

Market driven works for some folks, choosing something based on what's selling. Instinct and rolling with things works too. Or going with your own taste and inspirations at the moment.

#indiegames

If this helps anyone, I am grateful for it so others avoid missing out on Next Fest. Word Turtle Island is the game I'm talking about. It's out on 4 platforms now and I'm working on getting better at how to get the word out. linktr.ee/robstenzinger

#steam
#selfpublishing
#learning
#wordturtleisland

What seems like a better plan that I'll be sure to do next time: first start with the game's page and promote it. Then publish a demo. Which then lets you join Next Fest. Then later as it fits your update schedule, publish the full game. All along the way doing promotion in any manner that works4u.