Dave Pottinger

WIP partial tech tree for new @lastkeep.com faction. Showing the fine code that displays the name of the techs if we don't have icons yet. Very useful during dev.

We've got new PLAYTEST/DEMO (not with this faction ofc) out: store.steampowered.com/app/2929040/...

#indiegames #strategygame #indiedev

Check out the latest trailer for the new sci-fo RTS title Fleetbreakers as the game will have a free demo available during Steam Next Fest. #indiedev #indiegame Check out the latest trailer for the new sci-fo RTS title Fleetbreakers as the game will have a free demo available during Steam Next Fest

Check out the latest trailer for the new sci-fo RTS title Fleetbreakers as the game will have a free demo available during Steam Next Fest. #indiedev #indiegame

We have a NEW TRAILER and PLAYTEST/DEMO for FLEETBREAKERS. @ign.com posted the trailer www.ign.com/videos/fleet....

Give it a look. Give us a wishlist😀

#strategygame #RTS #indiedev #indiegames @lastkeep.com

Had a REALLY good day cranking out content and bugfixes. Fixed 18 items. Several of the "how did we not see this giant issue?" variety.

Unfortunately we also played the game, which generated another 21 bugs and tasks.

-3 net today. Doh.
#indiedev #indiegames @lastkeep.com #roguelite #strategygame

Nice!

Welp. This was a LONG day of data wrangling to completely replace all our unit enhancements (rolled buffs on each squadron instance). This was after 4 days of building techs and relics😂

I'm am officially gassed on buffs for this week.
@lastkeep.com #indiedev #indiegame #strategy #roguelite

So many little numbers to fit in such a small space. Still trying to get it all in 😆. Rollover (not shown) does make it a lot more parseable obv. @lastkeep.com #indiedev #indiegame #roguelite #strategygame

Q: Why is that Scout ship not buffed by +20 like the text says?
...2 hours later...
A: Because I let us try a "new way" when I should have just said no. My fault 100%.

Now rebuilding all health data in @lastkeep.com ahead of key milestone. What can go wrong?

#indiedev #roguelite #strategygame

Slogging through giant text pass on our game @lastkeep.com. There is a LOT. More than I want, but still not as much as we need.
I am certainly no fulltime text-person😀Doing it in bursts but it's still a bear. How do you all approach these kinds of tasks?
#indiedev #roguelite #strategygame

Worse when it does it after stepping in the middle of a debug

I'm not the *most* hardcore Alien fan, but I dig the lore expansion. It's been refreshing to have some other aliens carry the load a bit from the xenomorph. Cyborg stuff has been great, as well.

Demoed @lastkeep.com at the SIX demo day. 10 hours on my feet hits different than 28 years ago when we did it for Age of Empires at Ensemble's first E3.
But we learned a lot about how our game today. How it appeals to folks and how it doesn't. Improvements to make!
#indiedev #strategygame #roguelite

We got a chance to hang out with the great folks from @seattleoba.org last night in Seattle. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. If you're in town this weekend, swing by our table at SIX on Sunday @seattleindies.bsky.social.

#six2025 #indiegames

About Seattle Indies Expo Seattle Indies Expo is a free, yearly, one-day exhibition of the Pacific Northwest’s up and coming indie video games. What better way to escape the crowds of PAX than with the coolest of indie games?

We've been pushing hard the last couple of weeks for some live demos of @lastkeep.com at six.seattleindies.org/about/ this weekend.
I won't lie, my in-person demo skills are probably a bit rusty 😅
#indiedev #strategygame #roguelite

Always cool to meet new folks on here!

Thanks for the shoutout🙏

Happy to help in a tiny way.

LMK if you need any playtesting!

From the RealTimeStrategy community on Reddit: I’m Dave Pottinger, game designer and programmer behind Age of Empires and Halo Wars. I’ve spent 30 years making strategy video games and I’m working on ... Explore this post and more from the RealTimeStrategy community

Hah. It's always nice to hear from folks who enjoy the old games. AOM is my fav game we made for sure. Nice job on the videos!!!

I did an AMA a few weeks ago with some old nostalgia bits mixed in there: www.reddit.com/r/RealTimeSt...

Been there. Got all worked up about needing some grand procedural placement algo on my side project last night. After an hour, I realized that I could just invert the order of the requirements. Removed all the needless complexity I was manufacturing.

Nothing quite like spending hours rigging up new UI (new code, data, refactoring old code to pump the new calls, etc.) and then having it compile first time. Awesome😀
NARRATOR: It was, in fact, not awesome. Many extra hours were required for it to actually work.
#indiedev #indiegames @lastkeep.com

Finally changed some XML parsing on @lastkeep.com today. Relics are comprised of techs, but refs were by name to tech instances in other XML file. Gross, but we put up with it forever. Now the techs can be inlined. So much nicer to have the data in one spot. Easier to edit. Less bugs. #indiegames

Woot. Worked. #indiegames 😆

Been chasing this bug on @lastkeep.com for several days. AI units intermittently attack. Can't repro locally. I think I found my uninitialized variable (doh). Testing fix now. Shouldn't have taken this long to find, but some optimization make it trickier to find. Nevertheless, fingers crossed.

From the RealTimeStrategy community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the RealTimeStrategy community

I'm doing a reddit AMA later today. Drop by for excellent questions and mediocre answers 😀 #indiedev #ageofempires #roguelite #strategygame @lastkeep.com www.reddit.com/r/RealTimeSt...

Been on a bit of a break posting various updates on @lastkeep.com Will probably get back to that soon. We've been cranking away on feedback from the demo.

Fired up the side project recently. Kinda effing around with a complete restart to fix/redo some large things. That's going to be a lot of work

Rough week at work last week. Weekend was a nice break. Got some todos done around the house. Superman was better than we expected. Dinner with son and his GF. Had the first good ice cream in Seattle (Husky Deli).

Check-In Explainer Day 19: We made the PDCs and Drones inherit the buffs their employer received. While awesome overall, this caused a bunch of invalid/unintended buffs for said PDCs and Drones. Now fixed. #roguelite #strategygame #indiedev #roguelike @lastkeep.com

#roguelite #strategygame #indiedev #roguelike @lastkeep.com Check-In Explainer Day 18: Adding better explanation text so folks know tradeoffs if they "accidentally" blast through preface dialogue. Story or not, it's critical for folks to know what their choices will do. And, um, ignore the typo😀

Check-In Explainer Day 17: Another long awaited UI fix: Showing the delta values when a squadron has cost buffs/debuffs. This immediately makes the econ relics pop as so much more valuable. Don't get credit for buffs you can't see! @lastkeep.com #roguelite #strategygame #indiedev #roguelike

@lastkeep.com Check-In Explainer Day 16: MOAR FPS. Some simple removal of needless calls for things that can't ever move and a redo of how some distances are calculated. Now minefields run much faster. Oh, yeah, now we have minefields turned on again😀 #roguelite #strategygame #indiedev #roguelike