Josh Galecki

*I mean, the Villagers have needs and stress like any other hero. They can break. They can break and make extremely poor decisions, like punching a high-level wizard in the face. Always funny to me when that happens, even if the angry villager is quickly incinerated.

I had planned to introduce non-hero Villagers to the game, but adding farms (and wood cutters and quarries) made this seem like the perfect time to add them in. They don't gain any wanderlust, so they almost never go on quests, but they'll happily* till the fields all day long.

Players like production lines, things like iron ore -> iron ingots -> iron armor. If the Guild is all tooth and no (logistics) tail, it's hard to set that up. So start hoeing that dirt, Magnus the Mighty.

This one is a bit of a design pivot. With the game's original vision, I didn't want to include resource gathering at all. "Fighting > Farming" was one of the design goals. Taking a closer look at the game, though, I think it was too far outside genre expectations for what a colony sim should be.

Beneath a Dead City by Joshua Galecki A procedural narrative colony sim

Beneath a Dead City update 0.3.0 has been released onto itch! This update introduces Villager NPCs, resource gathering, and a tinier and cozier map grid. Also, more arson than ever. Check it out at joshuagalecki.itch.io/beneath-a-de...

A recent Steam review on Neongarten made my day: "The shape rotator's Luck Be a Landlord... this is a great extrapolation."
There's a good chance I end up stealing that phrase. It's great to hear that the game delivers the experience I was trying to design.

The 1.2 update for Neongarten is out! This update includes new starting Scenarios with different sets of starting buildings and perks. Finally, you can build that dystopia around a stack of Actual Trees or Toxic Waste Dumps like you've always wanted.

Game dev's been busy. I've been working on a prototype. You know those terrible and soulless kids videos on Youtube? Imagine a malevolent AI is forcing you to make them all day, every day! New office horror game in the works.

@tinymassgames.bsky.social has completed another season and with it - another round of releases!
tinymassgames.itch.io

Here's a little thread of the games that released as part of our latest season - Season 10! 🧵

#GameDev #IndieDev

Latest culinary obsession: kielbasa and kimchi. The kimchi works like a spicy, better-tasting sauerkraut. Love it.

Something I've got in the hopper - a tiny 16 pixel x 9 pixel rhythm-based dungeon crawler. Part of Season 10 of Tiny Mass Games!

Thank you to everyone who came out to watch my first play session of the full release of Neongarten! @jgalecki.bsky.social, you put together one hell of a game!

Save 10% on Neongarten on Steam A minimalist cyberpunk city builder inspired by Islanders and Luck Be a Landlord.

The game is out at store.steampowered.com/app/3211750/...

Neongarten has been released! Come check out my cozy little cyberpunk city builder, where the food is 99% guaranteed to be free of dolphins and people.

Neongarten — Pixelated Playgrounds Have you ever wanted to play a turn-based city builder that’s inspired by Luck be a Landlord and Islanders ? That’s drenched in a stylish cyberpunk aesthetic and boasts intricate tactical depth? On...

Neongarten releases in three days! To celebrate, my podcast (Pixelated Playgrounds) did an episode covering the game. It was fun to chat with @bsushi.bsky.social and do a deep dive on my own work. Check it out! www.pixelatedplaygrounds.com/bookclub/neo...

Neongarten is releasing in ONE WEEK on April 22nd! Check out the best cyberpunk citybuilder ever made*! (*of games by me.)

Warped Door is doing great work looking at interesting games you otherwise wouldn't have heard of. Check them out!

YouTube video by Moonroof Studios Neongarten Gameplay Trailer V

New trailer for Neongarten! This shows off the new building models and the great new lighting / art direction. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx1E...

Next up, we have some of the Corporate buildings and a few of the more pleasant parks. The Corporate buildings were all designed based off of the Art Deco art style, like the Niagara Mohawk building in Syracuse. Meanwhile, the parks include my favorite dystopian building name: "An Actual Tree".

Neongarten has gone through a huge art upgrade, and now the dystopian future is 200% prettier. I'll be showing off the new art over the next few days.

Starting out, we have some lovely apartments next to your typical futuristic factories, making oil, food paste, and thousands of tiny spider robots.

Beneath a Dead City, a colony sim / story generator is now out on itch! I'm far from done with it, though - I've got lots of great ideas where to go with its dynamic storytelling. Cool ideas from DotAGE, Dungeon World, and Sunless Seas.

joshuagalecki.itch.io/beneath-a-de...

One of my top 10 this year. A gem.

Winter Sale Explorer

We created an interactive guide to the Steam Winter Sale: wintersaleexplorer.com

And with one more game to be added by the end of the year :)

A comparison of the art in Within a Dead City and Beneath a Dead City. The same 3 x 3 tiles are much larger in Beneath a Dead City.

Beneath a Dead City is a sorta-sequel to Within a Dead City. I've expanded the game so much that it's changed genres, haha. WaDC was a fast-paced Majesty tribute - more of an RTS, really - and BaDC is going full-blown colony sim.

The art is getting an upgrade, too.

Concept art showing eight boxes different buildings types and factions in Neongarten: Residential, commercial, industrial, and park; and neutral, corporate, illegal, volt cult, and government.

Neongarten is getting an artistic helping hand. Here's some concept art to give you an idea of what's coming down the line! My old buildings are in the top left corners of each box - at least they served as inspiration for the sweet new digs, haha.

Had a lot of fun with this one! Highly recommend.

Everything's always a priority, can't even die in peace here.

(The logic behind this is that other heroes can now do a Rescue job on the dying hero, if they don't take too long to rescue the poor dude. The Dying job keeps the hero from just going about their business while at death's door.)

Game dev is weird. I just coded up a new job for the heroes to do: Dying. Also, it's always a priority job!