Game Developers·12wBirdMMO!
A developer built a multiplayer bird photography MMO in 2 days using AI-assisted development with Three.js and Socket.io. The game features 30 biomes, day/night cycles, an achievement system, and collection mechanics. The project demonstrates rapid prototyping capabilities with modern web technologies and AI coding assistance.
80 LEVEL·14wCreating a Monster Collector Game with Farming Elements
A solo developer shares his journey creating Bloomies, a desktop monster collector game with farming mechanics that runs on the Windows taskbar. The game combines Pokémon-style collecting with Harvest Moon farming, where players plant seeds that grow into monster eggs. Built with Godot engine using a custom resource system for flexibility, the game features automatic battles, world bosses, decoration systems, and automation skills. The developer emphasizes keeping scope manageable, using a Kanban board for tracking progress, and following three simple design rules to make every creature cute. Currently in closed playtesting with positive feedback.
Josh W Comeau·11wSprites on the Web • Josh W. Comeau
A deep dive into using sprite-based animation on the web, inspired by Twitter's 2015 'Like' button implementation. The technique uses a spritesheet (a single image containing all animation frames) combined with CSS `object-fit: cover`, `object-position`, and the lesser-known `steps()` timing function to flip between frames. The post covers the full implementation, explains the nuances of `jump-none` vs `jump-end` step positions in looping vs non-looping animations, and discusses when sprites are appropriate (pixel-art style characters, game assets) versus when procedural CSS/JS animation is preferable (particle effects that benefit from randomness). Includes a real-world example of an animated cat character with dynamic state changes.
80 LEVEL·13wCheck Out Witchbrook, Cozy Pixel-Style Game with Magical Vibes
Witchbrook is an upcoming cozy pixel-art life simulation game where players attend a magical witch college in the seaside city of Mossport. The game features character interactions, seasonal events, magical skill development through classes and assignments, and various activities like shopping, crafting, and dating. It supports co-op multiplayer for up to four players and is scheduled for release in 2026 by developers Chucklefish and Robotality.
80 LEVEL·13wThis Ghibli-Style Farming Simulation Is About to Enter Early Access
Starsand Island, a Ghibli-inspired farming and life simulation game from Chinese studio Seed Sparkle Lab, launches in Early Access on Steam February 11 at 9:00 AM PST. The game offers a peaceful seaside experience with farming, animal interactions, island exploration, and character-driven mysteries. Two editions will be available: Standard Edition at $27.93 and Deluxe Edition at $41.93, each including different cosmetic content sets.
Godot·10wBuckshot Roulette – Godot Engine
Mike Klubnika, developer of the 2024 indie hit Buckshot Roulette, shares his journey from learning 3D art in 2018 to making games full-time. He discusses his switch from Unity to Godot after Unity's runtime fee announcement, praising Godot's speed, AnimationPlayer, and GDScript. He also introduces his new project s.p.l.i.t, a hacking simulator with existential horror elements. Mike offers advice for aspiring developers: build many small games, embrace iteration, and be patient with progress.
80 LEVEL·12wGodot-Powered Free & Open-Source Tileset Editor
Instatileset is a new free and open-source tileset editor built with Godot, designed for 2D pixel art projects. The tool offers both online and downloadable versions, features an intuitive interface with input and output panels for drawing, and supports exporting tilesets for use in game engines. Users can save their work for later editing and access the project on itch.io or GitHub.
Gamefromscratch·11wThe Slop Apocalypse: How AI is Breaking Game Engines
AI-generated code contributions are overwhelming Godot's open-source maintainers with low-quality pull requests, draining their capacity and morale. Meanwhile, Unity's CEO is making bold AI announcements—promising to generate full casual games from natural language prompts—largely to prop up a stock that dropped from $43 to $18 after Google's Genie 3 demo spooked investors. The author argues Unity's announced AI features already exist in the engine, the announcements are stock-market theater, and that Genie 3 is an impressive interactive video system but not a real game engine. The broader point: AI is disrupting game engines from two opposite directions—flooding open-source projects with slop contributions while pushing public companies into AI hype cycles.
YouTube·12w3 years of game development in 8 minutes
A solo indie developer shares three years of progress on Isisle Goblin, a Terraria-meets-Stardew Valley game where players fight humans as a goblin, explore destructible worlds, and build towns. Recent updates include swimming mechanics with animations for all armor sets, a custom level editor to replace Unity's laggy tilemap system, a new underground floor with procedurally generated terrain and handcrafted points of interest, inverse kinematics for spider enemies, and new livestock. The developer seeks community feedback on cover art options, comparing approaches from similar games like Terraria's sprite art versus stylized character renders.
GamesIndustry.biz·14wIndie game film adaptation Iron Lung earns $21.5 million on opening weekend
The film adaptation of indie horror game Iron Lung earned $21.5 million on its opening weekend, landing at #2 in the US box office. Created by YouTuber Markiplier (38.2 million subscribers) with a $3 million budget, the film demonstrates the transmedia potential of smaller game properties. The original 2022 game by David Szymanski sold approximately 310,000 copies on Steam. Other indie horror game adaptations including Dredge and Poppy Playtime are currently in development.
Unity·12wHow two small teams built PEAK in a few weeks
Two indie game studios (Landfall and Araq) collaborated to build PEAK, a co-op climbing game, in just a few weeks during a month-long game jam in Korea. Seven developers worked together in an Airbnb, rapidly iterating through daily work sessions and evening playtests. The game unexpectedly became a viral success, growing daily as players invited friends. The teams focused on creating a social experience that facilitates hanging out with friends rather than complex systems or mechanics, a design philosophy they plan to carry into future multiplayer games.
Product Hunt·10wZiva.sh : AI agent built for the Godot game engine
Ziva.sh is an AI agent plugin for the Godot game engine that lives inside the editor. It generates scenes, nodes, and GDScript from natural language descriptions, finds and fixes bugs, and offers 50+ Godot-specific integrations including pixel art generation and TileMap tools. It supports multiple LLM backends (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and others), never uses your code for training, includes a free tier, and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
ThePrimeTime·12wMy Son has been Vibe coding
A parent shares their child's frustration with AI-assisted coding ("vibe coding") when using ChatGPT for game development. The experience highlights how small code changes can unexpectedly break entire systems, illustrating the complexity of game programming and the limitations of AI code generation tools.
Unity·12w10 weeks dev time, 10 million copies sold…
A game developer reflects on the unexpected viral success of their game, which sold 10 million copies after just 10 weeks of development time. The growth was driven by organic word-of-mouth as players invited friends and shared the experience, exceeding all initial expectations.
Code Monkey·11wNo one is going to STEAL your Game Idea, unless...
Indie developers often fear that sharing their game ideas will lead to theft, but this fear is largely unfounded. Every developer already has more ideas than they can build, and a bare idea without execution detail has little value. The only real-world scenario where copying occurs is when a game becomes massively successful — like Thronfall — and even then it's a clone of the finished product, not a stolen pitch. For most developers, obscurity is the far greater threat. The practical advice: talk about your game openly, build an audience early, and don't let secrecy sabotage discoverability.
80 LEVEL·12wMewgenics, Turn-Based RPG with Cats, Has Launched
Mewgenics, a turn-based roguelike tactics game where players breed cats and send them into strategic battles, launched on Steam. Created by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel (The Binding of Isaac), the game features over 1,000 unique abilities across multiple classes, 900+ items, and genetic manipulation mechanics. The game recouped its development budget within three hours of release.
80 LEVEL·12wMicrosoft DMCA Takes Down Steam Game, Then Is Reversed
Microsoft filed a DMCA takedown notice against Allumeria, a voxel sandbox game on Steam, claiming it infringed Minecraft-related content rights. The game was temporarily removed from Steam but was restored the next day without the developer needing to file a counter-notice. The developer suspects the takedown was handled automatically by an AI enforcement service rather than human review.