Swarmforge

Another new biome: the Tower. I like the blue lines in the background but I'll be honest, I don't actually know what they are. Other towers? An elevator shaft? Extremely slow laser beams?

Art by @fervirgames.bsky.social.

#roguelike #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #autobattle

Implemented a new biome this week: The Station™™™. The transparent panes of glass, and the scrolling background, were both last-minute additions; do they work for you?

Art assets courtesy of @fervirgames.bsky.social.

#roguelike #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #autobattle

This week, I made a combat log! See it in the lower-right of the screen. It was surprisingly tricky to get the right scrolling behavior out of #Unity.

#roguelike #autobattle #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

HMM what's that empty space in the middle there?

(also, great work; let's call this today's #screenshotsaturday post)

#autobattle #roguelike #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev

This week, playing around with limiting the number of distinct Upgrades you can buy in a run. As Matt declared, "limitations are the something something of creativity."

#roguelike #autobattle #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

OK no more graphs/spreadsheets, time for more #pixelart. I need a simple icon that can appear inline text, to represent Barrier, a status effect that reduces damage taken. It should probably look a like a shield, right? Two candidates:

#roguelike #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #autobattle

More #gamedesign this week! I think I want a LOT of these because scrolling through long lists looking for synergy is joy.

#roguelike #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #autobattle

Y'all like pairwise matching #graphs? Here's a pairwise matching graph.

I'm standardizing status effects so they can easily interact in interesting ways, and trying to match each Discipline to a few status effects to strengthen theming.

#roguelike #autobattle #gamedev #gamedesign

haha maybe mentioning "no one won last time" was a bad idea for to maximize engagement, oh well!

Mysterious icon

Happy #ScreenshotSaturday! You guys liked the last round of "Guess what this icon means", even though no one won, so let's do it again. The hypothetical winner gets a very cool sticker (next time you go to an event I print stickers for that is).

#roguelike #autobattle #pixelart #gamedev

No winners so far; this is a very hard game. (I'll probably give you a sticker anyways though)

If you like poring through a bunch of different abilities to find explosive synergies, you probably like ✨filters✨. Me too!

#roguelike #autobattle #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

oops here's the less distorted version

Happy #ScreenshotSaturday! Let's play a round of "Guess what this icon means"! The winner gets a very cool sticker (next time you go to an event I print stickers for).

#roguelike #autobattle #pixelart #gamedev

Greetings, #PitchYaRogue. Would you like to defend your planet from megacorp bots?

⚙️Combine 20+ (or 80+?) varied upgrades to make a busted build
⚔️Fight through 25 #roguelike levels
🤖Be a #robot or a 🦊 #foxperson or a 🪨 #lithoid

Wishlist SOLARFLARE now! store.steampowered.com/app/3941030/...

I'm playing around with an #autobattle version of SOLARFLARE, and I guess this is why Backpack Battles has Fatigue.

#roguelike #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Two people at a table, playing SOLARFLARE. A sign between them says "CO-OP | TURN-BASED | ROGUELIKE".

Showing SOLARFLARE off at #CIGS2025 was validating and all, but the collective effort of 100 playtesters have generated, let's see, about 10000 Trello cards.

Thanks anyways! See you guys at #CIGS2026, and maybe also #CIGS2027 and #CIGS2028, probably.

Bubblegum generously volunteered to be featured on a sticker. Drop by our booth at #CIGS2025 tomorrow, play one run, and take them home with you!

Oh, but Bubblegum says not buy more than 2 ranks of Sniper, that's a rookie mistake.

#axolotl #roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev

One more week until #CIGS2025! Look, we have a beautiful sign now.

#roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Sure, happy to be added!

Escape from Slumberland on Steam Escape from Slumberland is an online co-op horror game with up to 4 players. Explore deadly dream worlds, collect valuable moonbeams and escape before the nightmares claim you. Meanwhile the monster i...

Mm, yep, voice over by teammates is a solid idea; the trailer for store.steampowered.com/app/3011520/... is a great example of this.

I think it'll also help to put player names above the characters' heads.

It was a long, long checklist, but we're on Steam now!

store.steampowered.com/app/3941030/...

If, like me, you enjoy most #coop #turnbased #roguelikes, I suspect you'll enjoy this too. Wishlist today, and find out!

#pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Flyer for Chicago Indie Game Showcase, listing all the games and sponsors.

Bubblegum the axolotl is only murderous when they need to be, which is frequently.

If you're wondering why I'm editing a trailer, it's because SOLARFLARE will have a booth at Chicago Indie Game Showcase (CIGS), hosted by @indiecitygames.org, on 9/6!

Stop by, fight robots with a friend, and tell me which character is your favorite (it's Bubblegum) and why (they're an #axolotl).

It's tricky to convey "this game is #co-op" visually, especially when it's #turnbased. I have a white outline that moves to the current player, but think we also need to display the player name above their character's head.

Any other suggestions?

#roguelike #pixelart #gamedev #screenshotsaturday

Pixel art fox with wrench and goggles, standing on a shore

This is Fox (no relation). He made equipment for the big armory corp, until SOLARFLARE raided it and he left with them. He likes talking about philosophy, even though his team stopped listening about an hour ago.

#foxes #roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

This is <UNPRONOUNCEABLE>. She was a subject of the big bioengineering corp, until SOLARFLARE shut the lab down. She is very shy, but knows a lot of jokes.

#golem #roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

A robot with yellow gloves and a long red scarf, standing on a hex grid.

This is Ed. It was created by the big #robot corp, but they left a security vulnerability in its code that it exploited (oops!), so it left. It sometimes stares at people for a long time, with its massive unblinking iris.

#roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

A character sheet with a bunch of different abilities and stats.

It's time for SOLARFLARE's July update! I hope you enjoy characters, lore, and detailed statblocks.

Details here: swarmforge.itch.io/solarflare-p...

#roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

A fox wearing overalls and goggles, looking excited

A fox wearing overalls and goggles, looking anxious(?)

A fox wearing overalls and goggles, looking dizzy(?)

Goggles make it tough to convey expression! We were aiming for 😱 on the Tech-Fox but this (pic #1) looks a bit like 😀. Do sweat-drops (#2) or dizzy-eyes (#3) help?

#conceptart by www.instagram.com/maeribee/

#roguelike #turnbased #coop #gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Working on UI clarity this week! I needed a white outline to indicate whose turn it is, which surprisingly required #shaders, so... I kinda learned HLSL.

There's an unannounced art asset that snuck in, oh well, don't tell anyone.

#roguelike #turnbased #coop #pixelart #indiedev #screenshotsaturday