Ian Durra

Five games I've been playing recently that are good if you like slot-machine roguelike deckbuilders: Runeborn (early access), End-game of Devil, Slots & Daggers, Cat God Ranch, Luck Be a Landlord

no experience, but I've heard early access should be treated like a "launch" effectively in terms of Steam discoverability. Like game performance in early access affects game launch. I did just buy Runeborn in early access, and I think deck-builders do it frequently in order to balance the cards.

having both rows and columns is an abstraction that's nice for human brain I suppose, but not needed for what I'm trying to do.

first "re-use" of my game dev career. I learned when building Checkmate Advance that to build a board, you need classes for columns, OR rows but NOT both. Because you can get a "row" from a column index and vice versa. Like to get row #2 just go into each column and get that index.

having spent time as a consultant/contractor. I always got the impression that contractors were mainly a loophole for big companies to skirt labor laws around hiring/firing. Like big companies having tons of "satellite" companies who work only for them but are not FTE is sketchy.

I don't think Steam has shown it organically. BUT I did email the ~70 people who had wishlisted it when the demo released, and have been emailing youtubers. So I think it has to be from that.

hit 100 wishlists on Zero Warning! wooo. also cooking something big behind the scenes.

heyy congratulations! absolutely they do 😆 yea I'm planning as small as possible games to try and meet it.

I checked it out! good stuff man

Max Dirt Bike • Flash Game Bike, Racing

evilgames.eu/flashgames/m... I still have the muscle memory after like 15 years.

We gotta bring back the guillotine.

I've sent ~7 emails to youtubers + IGN. Extremely slow work that I'll continue for the next month till I get to about 200.
Interesting dynamic at play though, where you want to make a game that content creators will play, but also players will like.

Save 35% on Cat God Ranch on Steam Lead hundreds of "wise" little animals to pay tribute to the Cat God!! 7 animal families, 100+ animals, 10+ Cat Gods, 100+ items, and various animal combinations waiting for you to explore!

store.steampowered.com/app/2797340/... why is this game so good. I can't figure it out but I really like it

let's gooo! I have my first demo on Steam.

From the IndieGaming community on Reddit: My stock themed roguelike deckbuilder Insider Trading now has a release date Explore this post and more from the IndieGaming community

Oh sick! Apparently “crash” games like “aviator” are very popular on crypto betting sites (I learned this against my will) also a deckbuilder I thought was cool. www.reddit.com/r/IndieGamin...

demo build was approved! probably gonna release it tomorrow.

ahh rip 🙃

I’m down!

Oh ya the “brickbreaker base building” had me laughing. Also credit to the art style being so grim/dark which makes the juicy effects pop even more. It’s very impressive game.

I got recommended Cat God Ranch, a slot machine-roguelike deck builder. I don't care for the aesthetic, but the gameplay is deceptively deep. Like I actually find myself coming back to it in a similiar way to Balatro. There's something about the balance/mechanics that is actually goated. sleeperpick

Unfair Flips really is a perfect game. every joke landed for me. 10/10 (coin flips).

Ball X Pit is crazy good. really clever take on brickbreaker with an unbelievable amount of juice, the game almost plays itself. It's a little over stimulating for my tastes, but I see the appeal in a big way.

nice, that's the one I played and liked. SotFS redoes some enemy placements, and fixes lighting bugs that ruined a level in the original release. curious what you'll think.

which edition you thinking? it's the most polarizing of the trilogy, but def worth playing. Big sword go Bonk!

For slot-machine roguelike deckbuilder's -- do you prefer purchasing symbols at the end of a round (Slots & Daggers/Cloverpit/Balatro) or after every spin (Luck Be a Landlord, Cat God Ranch,)? #gamedesign #

playing Ball x Pit and Unfair Flips today. Runeborn and Endgame of Devil are on the backlog

Anyone have any good roguelike deckbuilder recommendations? right now I’m playing Cat God Ranch, and Death Howl — both excellent

YouTube video by queen meme DVD Screensaver Plays Pokemon: The Final Day

cleaning my website and laughing at this side project that got me into game development:
Q: Can a DVD Screensaver Play Pokemon??
A: Nope, gets stuck immediately #gamedev
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qw6...

my favorite social media has always been bluesky (formerly twitter), so I think if I keep emails to same style of writing (short blurbs buzzfeed style), I can actually get emails out once a month

Still working on style and voice, and how exactly I can "give" people something of value here. Also I know their is advice to not use html formatting -- but I think it's cool and it matches my website formatting lol!