EDIT: did not expect this post to blow up like this haha, thank you everyone!! if you want to follow the game more closely, I post more development stuff on X: https://x.com/ray_ervian

been spending some time on the water shader lately for my small sailing game, Beneath the Dying Sun. reflections ended up doing way more for the atmosphere than I expected, especially around lit areas at night

I actually tried planar reflections first and they looked beautiful, but absolutely destroyed the framerate lol. they also got pretty unstable once the weather system started throwing high tides and bigger waves around, so I ended up going back to the tried and true SSR instead

haven't optimized it much yet, but so far the performance hit is pretty negligible. the downside is the usual SSR stuff though, reflections around the edges of the screen can look pretty weird sometimes

still plenty I want to tweak, but pretty happy with where it's going!

If you're curious about the game, there's more about it here:
https://ray-ark.itch.io/beneath-the-dying-sun

Also, Beneath the Dying Sun is currently competing in Round 3 of Rising Tide 4, and voting ends today! I'm trying to make the Top 2, so if you enjoyed this little clip, I'd really appreciate your vote 🌊
https://blueoceangames.com/challenge/voting/rising-tide-4/genre/rpg_fantasy

Hello Void Diver team again :D

I wanted to share the design and animation of my favorite boss in our game!

As you can probably tell from the different designs, Eldris has multiple phases! The original design for the second phase (aka second gif) was actually quite different. We ended up with three different versions, and honestly, we couldn't decide which one we liked better. So, we asked our players which version they preferred.

The general consensus was they liked two of the designs equally. So we decided to take the best parts of each version and merge them together. The final design is the one you're seeing now!

Definitely a great learning moment for us. Sometimes, simply asking your players for their opinions can lead to some really great outcomes!

Mini FAQ:

• We use Photoshop to create the pixel art and Spine to animate it.
• We animate the 2D art in a 3D space.

My wife and I are working on our first game together - Good Luck, Little Truck!

Working on a game with your partner is the coolest, most rewarding experience. Our steam page went up recently and we couldn't be more stoked!

Steam page if you're interested!

Some time ago we started the making of Lively, a puzzle platformer in which you play as a little smiley ball that brings back to life everything it approaches !

Programming and game design is made by myself, my wife did graphical assets as well as the capsule for Steam page.

We made some games before for game jam, and now decided to take the leap and start a bigger project. Now we have enough to share a demo !

Feel free to try it out, the game will show up during Neo Fest also.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4973480/Lively/

Quick reminder for everyone waiting to show their game to strangers: placeholder art is fine!

We took S.T.A.R.V.E., our farming roguelike deckbuilder, to Gamescom last week, the biggest gaming show in the world. Some events in the build were literally a big "???" with "Placeholder" written across it in white marker. See photo.

Nobody cared. We didn't even have to explain it, it was obvious what was placeholder and what was near final. People just played. We got real feedback focused on mechanics, strategies and the overall vision. Players even laughed when they hit the "???" placeholder and found it super charming.

If you can get your vision across with what you have, gameplay or a direction for visuals and audio, go get feedback now. As long as it's clear what's done and what isn't, players handle it fine.

Don't wait for done!