New theme in Rider. "Darkula Pitch Black". I like dark themes but dislike muted/faded backgrounds. Prefer high contrast? Too lazy to make a theme. Never really happy.

Any favorite themes? Post yours here. #programming #gamedev #IndieGameDev

while Apogee games have no Report Thy Feat screen, i am proud to announce that after 30+ years of trying, i just beat Crystal Caves shareware @georgebsocial 😆

#dosGaming #shareware

@vga256 Oh wow...that's great. Such a great time making games back then. All a blur now.

Woke up late (3:30pm), ran errands, had dinner, did some yardwork...time to Cast n Chill ( #Steam game ) a bit, and later tonight do some #gamedev until the wee hours.

@grumpygamer I'm not opposed to AI but it's a tool for targeted use. I think it works for web apps due to the extreme amounts of info on building sites, etc. But not for games. I've used it to help with a select function I needed in Unity but you still have to clean up a 30 line function. But it helps me with weak spots like DOT product math, etc. Vibe coding a full game? GTFO ;)

Played 4 hours of Cast n Chill. You fish for cash, unlock new lures, rods, boats or locations. You upgrade things. You match lures and rod size to specific fish. The fishing mechanics are great.

A nice vibe and it's gorgeous to look at and spend time in.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3483740/?snr=1_5_9__205

@vga256 I evaluated AGS a while and it was fine but too limited for modern stuff. Ports, shaders, lots of small things. PowerQuest is great but need a solid working knowledge of Unity and C#. Not as easy/high level as AGS. Visionaire is supposed to be good too. And there's Adventure Creator for Unity too.

Heading to bed to watch TV. Been putting some work/hours in on my adventure game stuff. Hoping to move beyond programming first class controller support and UI stuff soon and think about the short story style games to create. #gamedev

The standard ritual before playing any big FPS game release in the 90s. If you know, you know. #pcgaming

As s small #indiedev #gamedev should you spend 5k-25k on a PR firm to promote your game?

Abso-fucking-lutely not.

@midnightspire @tallstorygames Don't get me wrong. I lover Itch. I've put up 10-12 jam games there over the years. I've sold stuff there. I've customized pages. Itch is by far the best platform to upload to and tweak as a dev? But sales are non-existent. If it's a hobby game, fine. If to live on, just doesn't work. Steam only for the most part.

@gibibit @agentultra I believe you are wrong and have many dev friends who've run into the issue. Depends how big you are and if you go unnoticed or not. I doubt Steam is gonna shake down some indie selling 50 games a month right?

@tallstorygames I mean money is money but I'm of the mind that supporting Itch, GoG, EGS etc are just a waste of precious dev hours managing stores for next to no gain. Work on a new game instead? I get push back on this from people but I dunno.

@agentultra Yes, but Walmart and other retailers certainly did that to us in the 90s when we were selling games direct. It's all not great but these platforms want to enforce parity. It's sort of gray but if you get called out you have little recourse but to change price.

Some ppl say that you are free to compete with Steam if you want. You then ask developers about sales across platforms and everything is "1% of Steam/gas money", etc. Just because you technically can compete doesn't mean you can really compete. I love Steam, btw. #gamedev

On showing up... #gamedev

@abetterjulie Yeah you can get any number of gift cards to different places for 0% whereas if you get cash they take 12% or something.

Took a big jar of coins to supermarket for a CoinStar machine. Sadly they seem to no longer do Amazon Gift Cards, so I got $308 in Steam wallet credit. And yes, you jackals, it's already redeemed ;) #steam #pcgaming

@lwflouisa It's hard to make things no matter your skill level or experience. Just keep making things, keep them small, finish and just keep going.

@aras Dang that's awesome (scanned the page). Shoulda dropped us a letter or something! I actually sort of want a Doom/Duke-like engine for Unity. I know you can use ProBuilder etc but it just seems like way mor work than Build, etc.