Ben "Flash" Amos

I'll be in their bioscience division working with Python and APIs. As I understand it, I'll be facilitating all kinds of awesome research and sharing of knowledge.

After nine months of job hunting, today I accepted an offer of work with the University of Chicago! I am stoked!

Don't fret about Digging in the Dark. Development will continue, even if only slowly. We're in too deep to back out now!

RIP Ozzy. Your legacy lives on.

Also, if you're unfamiliar with this "love letter to metal" adventure game, it is well worth trying or buying. Go get it!

Not sure if you work with Godot at all, but there are some excellent Godot folks at Godot Café on Discord.
discord.com/invite/zH7NUgz

It may also be worthwhile to look for game jams on Itch.io. That's a great way to meet other indie devs and play some fun games!

So easy, right? :) New goal: install Docker and get Godot to build in a Mac OS container! That's my current goal, anyway.

That's a mood, that is. A good beginning.

So true. In my experience, #Godot does pretty well determining focus neighbors programmatically ... as long as you're letting your containers do the work. Do anything special and the default neighbors go off the rails fast. Example: I made an item selection WHEEL. It spins. Godot can't even.

Might you be in some sort of indie dev starter pack?

It's only fair. I mean, he's trying to erase trans folk.

Yesterday's game release was hugely focused on the UX and styling. So glad that's overwith! Now my project roadmap says I get to move on and work on ... marketing and social media! 😅 😮‍💨

That's a neat idea!

Today's #godot tip: Instead of visible, use TabContainers to hide/show content while still occupying the same UI area.

1) Put content inside a TabContainer with:
- Tabs Visible: false
- Use Hidden Tabs for Min Size: true
2) Add empty Control as a sibling
3) Switch between tabs to hide/show content.

Lots of really good progress today on Digging in the Dark. We're in the playtesting phase for this version. If it plays alright, I'll release a new closed alpha for participants soon, probably late Sunday.

The old title screen for the game Digging in the Dark: six plain grey buttons set against a background of a rocky column. All the styling and fonts are Godot default.

The new title screen for Digging in the Dark: same rocky column background, but the game buttons are stylized and colored, arranged in groups according to function. New snazzy font, too!

The old gameplay screen for Digging in the Dark. Various user elements are displayed over a sidescrolling view of earth, forests, and distant hillsides. There are health and fuel bars, a cargo space bar, and a popup window showing the player's inventory of gems, ores, and usable items. A hotbar of item icons is visible along the bottom. Depth and Cash are displayed along the top as text.

The new gameplay screen for Digging in the Dark: the same side view backdrop of earth, trees, and hills is much less obstructed by the user interface. The health, fuel, and cargo space bars appear the same way. The Depth and Cash displays are still text, but are now separate from each other with the currently selected usable item displayed between them. The hotbar is gone. Instead of a popup window in the center of the screen to display the player's inventory, a new panel spans the bottom of the screen, displaying the same information. The left pane lists the subsystems of the digging machine and their status. The center left pane shows usable item icons and their quantity in a ring with the currently selected item at the top of the ring. The center right pane is currently empty. The right pane displays the type and quantity of ores in the cargo hold as icons with numbers. On the far right is an eject button, currently disabled.

Here's a sneak peek at the new UI styling and the new systems panel for Digging in the Dark. Steady progress toward the open alpha milestone. Can't wait! 😁

Learning to code in Python!

Output? Easy! 😁

Input? No problem! 😃

Variables? Sure! 😄 Oh, wait, the type "hints" aren't enforced? 🤨 Eh, whatever ...

Branching? Yes! 😆

Looping? No sweat! 😄

Functions? Yeah, okay! 🙂

Classes? That's it? Wow! 🤩

Import a file? ... 😐 ... 🤔 ... 🤨 ... but ... why? 😮‍💨

It's okay not to process the grief right away. Just do it sooner rather than never. #CreativityAsCoping

Just got out of a technical interview and I did fantastic, but I'm pretty sure it's the last interview, so if anyone needs me between now and whenever a certain email arrives, I'll be upstairs screaming into my pillow. Peace.

I know, I know. No posted game progress in a while. On the bright side, my house hasn't been this clean and organized in so many months! I'll have some screenshots for ya'll soon, don't worry.

Photo of a hand holding a protest sign that reads "Due process is for everyone."

While President Trump is throwing himself a multi-million dollar birthday party on the taxpayer’s dime, we're taking to the streets.

Our rights are not up for debate.

📸 Scout Tufankjian

Theme of the 82nd Godot Wild Jam: UNSEEN. Wildcards: - IMMERSIVE: Have your UI be part of the world - BOOM!!!1: There must be at least one explosion in the game - REPORT CARD: Grade something the player does

Do you know the #GodotWildJam?

It's a 9-day #Godot focused game jam which happens every month, with an amazing community that gathers in the @godotwildjam.bsky.social Discord.

The 82nd edition just started with the theme:
UNSEEN

And wildcards (optional limitations):
IMMERSIVE
BOOM!!!1
REPORT CARD

Going downtown for an interview. Wish me luck!

Quick update: Not much progress this week on Digging in the Dark due to life events, including an unexpected but very welcome cluster of job interviews! I will definitely be able to continue game development if hired, so please wish me the best of luck!

That's the one! Thanks for the tip.

Another closed alpha release has been completed for Digging in the Dark, with many solid improvements to the saved games system and a couple of important bugfixes. Next, we will add STYLE! I sure am tired of seeing the default Godot UX buttons, borders, labels, fonts, and such.

After a break, I'm back in the driver's seat working on the next Digging in the Dark release. A good start: fixed a soft crash on the title screen found by an early playtester. Next will be a change to the auto-save mechanics to hopefully prevent getting saved in an unwinnable situation.

NO KINGS Vancouver, Clark County Washington · No Kings We are still in the planning stage of this event so location, time, etc. may change. Please contact us if you want to help with planning this event. What do you want to do on June 14th? We need you...

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KINGS Vancouver, Clark County Washington” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

Linux Mint here. I primarily work with Godot, for what that's worth.

I love getting lost in those eyes.

Announcing the Games to Get Excited About Fest 2025!

100+ upcoming indie games. No CGI trailers. No Filler. Just awesome upcoming indie games to get excited about.

Game submissions are open! Post your games below or fill out the form!

#gamedev #indiegames #indiedev #gaming

Neat! I would like to submit my 2D adventure puzzle platformer, Digging in the Dark. I'll cook up a 30 second trailer for it!