Dan Magnusson

thanks! Wheel World looks dope I’ll have to check it out! 😊

Probably my most productive week in a long time! 🎉 NPC dialogue🗣️, overworld animations🌎, level information bubbles💭, it has it all!

#screenshotsaturday #indiedev #pixelart

I think I agree, I just worry about scope creep sometimes, haha 🤣.

This might have been a mistake, but I've made an overworld map. 😵🌎🐈‍⬛

#indiedev #pixelart

The Ancient Castle is probably one of the coolest biomes I've worked on. It has so much detail in its tileset that it will have multiple sub-biomes within it. Here's the first of those: The Ramparts.

#gamedev #indiegame #screenshotsaturday

Just a coupl’a buds watching the sun set!❤️🐈‍⬛🌅🐈‍⬛❤️

#indiedev #pixelart

I added this new ✨shader effect✨ at the end of a level to show which Voids you were able to rescue! ❤️‍🔥🐈‍⬛❤️‍🔥🐈‍⬛❤️‍🔥

#indiegame #indiedev #gamedev

If a Void gets counted in the dark, is it it still adorable? How about eldritch?

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

The tilesets I use have these animated doodads (trees and grass and stuff). To fake blowing in the wind, I made a little script to attach to each object that applies a random speed, duration, and pauses. It works surprisingly well.

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #screenshotsaturday

In my game, every level always had the same amount of Voids. There are a few ways to solve this - I chose to add a flag I can set on each Void that, if set, gives them only a 50% chance to spawn. I called this flag "Schrodinger", which I thought was funny.

#indiedev #gamedev

When I say "borrowed", what I mean is I MAY have snatched it, hunched over my computer with it like I was Gollum and it was the One Ring, and recreated it in @aseprite.org, hissing "skeuomorphism" whenever my wife tried to take it back.

My counter used to be just a number with arrows. Mid-gamejam I saw my wife crocheting with a tally counter, “borrowed” it as reference, and rebuilt it in pixels.

I've since given that fever-dream tally counter a glow up. Which do you prefer?

#pixelart #indiedev

YouTube video by pastadiablo How I Build Levels - F-03, Temple Entrance

If you're curious how I build levels, here's a 10x speed vid of me building a new 🌳Forest🌳 level and testing it!

Anyone see the one I missed that kept me from getting 3 stars on my first playtest? 🫢🫢🫢

#leveldesign #pixelart

youtu.be/Ss5oOlAXmBE

I got complaints from the 🐈‍⬛Voids🐈‍⬛ that the houses in the 🛖Village🛖 were starting to feel a little cramped, so I built an abandoned 🌳Forest Temple🌳 for them to roam around in.

🤔What sort of biome should I build for them next?🤔

I love how this game just oozes style. Gives me strong Slay the Princess vibes. Something about using hatching for shading really gets me I guess, haha.

Earlier this week I shared the core mechanic of my game. It’s a hidden object cat counting memory game. Count black cats on a timer and don’t forget which you’ve counted already!

Keep an eye out for more adorable eldritch Voids in the future! 🐈‍⬛

#screenshotsaturday

So true! Who needs reality anyway? Let’s just hope nothing else comes through… 😱

My game didn't really have a "lose" state if you greatly miscounted the Voids - you just didn't earn stars. But the fate of reality is at stake here! So I added something extra that happens when you earn zero stars...

#indiedev #pixelart

Can you count how many Voids are hidden in each level before time runs out? In my game, if you have the right number at the end, you win!

#indiedev #gamedev

I've had questions about what you do in my game about helping adorable eldritch Voids get back home.

Here's a hint: the core mechanic is based on my favorite Mario Party 2 minigame. Can you guess which one?

#indiedev #gamedev

Looks like it’s time to do a quick update. Hopefully nothing breaks!

When Voids fall into our world from Somewhere Else, they can suddenly appear anywhere. I wanted to do more than have them simply fade in though, so I created these animations for when they spawn.

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart #blackcats

Oh man, Q1 ‘26 can’t come fast enough! Think you’ll need any beta testing? Haha.

You ever have that thing where its night and you're staring at a patch of darkness on the floor trying to figure out what it is and suddenly there are reflective eyes staring back at you?

Having a void in the home is so wonderful but also terrifying.

They adore scritches.

I have a secret. I've been lying to you. The cats in my game aren't actually cats. They're Voids, creatures from another plane known as Somewhere Else. To represent that, I applied a particle effect to each Void. I think it gives them eldritch vibes!

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

Now that my cats were animated, I needed a place for them to run in!

I searched itch.io for tilesets and found the gorgeous SideScroll Worlds series by Szadi Art.

After tweaking the saturation, I assembled the house you see here.

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

In addition to movement, I wanted to have other, static animations as well. I'll eventually need way more, but this will work to start.

I think my favorite is the snoozin' cat draping its tail. Which is your favorite?

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

So true! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out here too, as it feels very "mischievous cat" to me, which is what I needed for my game .

For whatever reason, I found animating a running cat to be much easier than a walking one.

There was difficulty with all the limbs being exactly the same color, but I had...reasons for that.

#indiedev #gamedev #pixelart