PmkExpert

With Failed Falling's new player animations completed, I've added them in-game.
After inevitably changing the jump frames yet again, I'm now very happy with them!

I've also added a simple lightning system to make the world darker when behind cover.

#ScreenshotSaturday #Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

On top of updating the old player's animations, Failed Falling's next update also introduces the new game mechanic parachute limiting, meaning new frames.

Differently from the animation I showed yesterday, while limiting, the parachute is compressed.

#ScreenshotSunday #Pixelart #IndieGame #GameDev

Getting close to finish the new player's animations for Failed Falling.

Finished drawing the three phases the parachute can be for horizontal movement; making them look distinguishable is important for visual clarity and I think I did a fine job.

#ScreenshotSaturday #Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

A mock-up of the player's character using the parachute.

The parachute, the final step of Failed Falling's new player sprite, is taking long to do, which makes sense as it's the main feature of the game.

While the character's frames have been completed, the parachute itself still needs many of its own. Here's the first one!

#Pixelart #IndieGame #GameDev

I still have to go through a couple games in the series, but, after that, I don't think I'll ever play it again unless the current trajectory greatly changes

Metroid Prime 4 already made me sad, but that game is a masterpiece compared to this
I hope only the worse for RGG and SEGA for this betrayal

Today, one of my favorite videogame series has died... at least to me.

Yakuza 3 was my favorite game in the series: it has its flaws, but a lot of heart.

Kiwami 3 replaced all the love with hatred: proudly boasting a sex pest, botching the story and its content, making the original unavailable.

Completed the new look-up and look-down animations for Failed Falling. Even if they are not very important gameplay wise, I'm glad I've redone them.

With these done, only one remains, but it's also the one that needed to be redone the most: the parachute animation.

#Pixelart #IndieGame #GameDev

My endeavor of updating the player's sprite for Failed Falling continues with the look up and down animations.

Up is done, as it is pretty simple, but down is more complex: did a unpolished version of the last frame yesterday, but I'm definitely happier with today's.

#Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

Also, tweaking the jump again made me change the arms in all the previous animations, so here's the updated walk cycle.

Now I only need to redo three more animations, but one of them is for the parachute, which it's actually what needs to be redone the most, as currently it isn't expressive enough.

After working on the new landing animation for Failed Falling, I couldn't stop myself from tweaking again the jump frames.

While I still need to see how it works in-game (a problem for another time), I think I'm now fully satisfied with how it looks.

#ScreenshotSunday #Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

After yesterday, I went back to Failed Falling's new jump animation to improve it.

Followed some helpful advice for the arms, reworked a bit the legs and now I like more how it looks!

Still need to redo many frames, but it gets easier from here...

#ScreenshotSaturday #Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

After the walk cycle, I've worked on the new jump animation for Failed Falling.

Like when I drew the old one, it is the animation I have the most trouble with.
Probably it's because the arms don't move much, but holding the backpack is part of the characterization.

#Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

Started updating the player's sprite for Failed Falling, starting with the walk cycle.

When I first made it, the view was from the side, as it was easier to draw, but It didn't look good and made the sprite a bit too small.

Not 100% sure on it, but I'm happy for now.

#Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

Slightly updated the tutorial for the new ability in Failed Falling.

The tooltip appears while the player is quickly moving upwards, so I made it follow the player to make it easier to read; also, as it's specific to the parachute, I made sure it's only visible while using it.

#Indiegame #GameDev

Made the difficult decision to... make Failed Falling less difficult.

Now, the player can move quicker while floating and I've added the ability to "limit" the parachute to rise slower.

It still needs one more thing, though: a new player's sprite...

#ScreenshotSunday #Pixelart #Indiegame #GameDev

The new logo on high definition for all the Steam assets.

The low resolution version of the logo, which will be used in game.

The new logo on the current background for all the steam assets, which might change too in the future, but that can wait.

The old logo, which used the same font used in game for the menus.

That's it, I can't continue this anymore! I have to stop... working on the new logo for Failed Falling.

I'll never be fully happy with it, but I need to get back to the rest of the game!

And come on, I made a custom font for it and it looks good!
It looks good, right?
#indiegame #gamedev #pixelart

The colored version of the new WIP logo, using simple gradients.

The solid colors version. The fonts was originally made not italics, but aseprite tricked me and deleted the original, leaving only the italics version.

Almost two months of agonizing on how to improve Failed Falling's logo and not doing any proper progress, but I might finally be at the end of the tunnel...

Making my own font definitely helped, but I'm still not sure about the design behind and the colors.
#gamedev #indiegame #solodev #pixelart

100% in 63h 12m 18s

SIlksong is one of the best example of why difficulty is an important artistic expression of the medium.
I get that its hard difficulty it's not for everyone, but if the game had options to make it easier, its message wouldn't be as strong.

I'm glad I found the time to play it this soon.
#indiegame

By exploring as much as possible, I got stronger and made boss run-backs not an issue; by wanting to experience as much as possible, I easily found the path to the true ending.

And the story is surprisingly effective in the portrayal of its themes, not only with words, but also through gameplay...

Finished Silksong and spent a few days reflecting on it.

I felt the same main flaw of Hollow Knight where exploration doesn't feel rewarding: too few main abilities for that big of a world.

But then I realized that the reward for exploring is actually making the game easier and less frustrating...

Well, I think that's enough.

In the end, I'm still hopeful, but this might be a "make it or break it" year. Making daily posts helped me feel better, so I think I will try to make more posts this year.

If you're still reading, Happy New Year!
I hope 2026 will bring better things after a sad 2025.

I had some signs that make me feel like my game looks good, but then they don't evolve in some actual growth, which makes me feel they are lying and my game actually sucks.

If that so, I wish someone told that to my face: it wouldn't stop me, but at least it would make me more aware of what I fear.

And the reason why I haven't done much gamedev in December is because I've started to feel that my game doesn't look good enough to content creators.

That's why I'm trying to make visuals like the logo better, but to me that's an endeavor with no clear goals, which makes me less keen to work on it.

If that won't work, then I don't know what the f*ck to do.

It feels like there's some hidden knowledge that I can't grasp.
I continuously see successful games that, while I wouldn't dare to think they are worse than mine, I feel they aren't that much better, so that makes me even more dumbfounded.

This year I will finally try to send youtubers and streamers e-mails about my current project Failed Falling. That seem the only actual way to effectively promote your games, so I hope that will finally actually do something.

I also plan on making videos of my own, but I have less hope for that...

Sadly the posts were also mostly about Va-11 Hall-A, with only a few being about my own gamedev. I wish I made more progress, but there's a reason for the lack of it.
On the whole, basically everything I tried this year to publicize more my games led to nothing, with only promising avenue remaining.

Now, as for the challenge, making daily post was nice: I missed few days, but that's good, as it made the challenge feel less heavy.

Making this many posts even granted me a couple new followers... too bad that then I lost almost as many, for a net gain of 1.

Still, that made me happy nonetheless.

The end.

Va-11 Hall-A might not be my favorite game ever, but it's definitely the one I feel the most emotionally attached.

To this day, my review for it is my most liked one and even the most rewarded ever on Steam, even if it was made years later after release.

I'm already looking forward to next year.

We can only hope for.

A direct message from the developers. This earnestness is what make me love the game this much.

Rekindled relationship.

After sadly not doing it for the first two years, I started making a backup of all save data, making me less scared to update the heart data.

Before that, some final thoughts about Va-11 Hall-A.

My little tradition has been going on for 7 years now and, while It's starting to get old, it still never fails me to make me emotional at the end.

This was also the first year I played without a guide while still unlocking almost everything.

2026

The year has ended, and so has my annual playthrough of Va-11 Hall-A and my self-imposed challenge of daily posts during it.

I have some thoughts about all of this: this was the first full year as a self-titled gamedev, so I feel the need to write all of them down in a thread...
#indiegame #gamedev