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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow
@cabalcrow.bsky.social
51 followers 26 following 47 posts
indie game dev; theoretical physics PhD student Currently making a fighting game. Worked on trailers for @ultrakill-game.bsky.social DevLogs at: https://blog.crowsneststudio.org/
blog.crowsneststudio.org
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · Sep 7
Second dev log after *check notes* an year... 20 min read that covers hitboxes and hurtbox design in Fighting Games.

#gamedev #indie #game #fgc #fightinggame #indiegames #gamedesign

blog.crowsneststudio.org/posts/hitbox...
Designing Hitboxes and Hurtboxes for a Fighting Game
When you first get started with a fighting game, you will get tasked with creating hit/hurt-boxes and the question of where to even begin? Some things are obvious - you design them to loosely match th...
blog.crowsneststudio.org
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Reposted by CabalCrow
testamentenjoyment.net
TESTAMENT✙ENJOYMENT @testamentenjoyment.net · 1d
Spoilers for Absolum, but you actually might want to spoil yourself on this, because this is some of the worst meta-progression bait I've ever heard of

(Also a great review overall, one that's for once made from the perspective who gave beat 'em ups a deeper shot)
If you don’t believe that Absolum prioritizes the grind above all else, then I’ll have to pull out my trump card and talk about the last boss of the game. Don’t read the next paragraph if you don’t want that spoiled. Or do, honestly, because I recommend knowing this ahead of time so you don’t make the same mistake I did. Once you complete the game once, you find out that actually you need to beat the game again to fight the real final boss. Kind of obnoxious already, but sure. I immediately started another run, but died early due to the game introducing a new extra-hard challenge that I wanted to try out. No problem, I had unlocked one extra from the progression system. I decided to carry on and actually ended up all the way at the end to fight the final boss. Just before the fight, a merchant warned me that the boss had a fatal scream and recommended that I purchase an absurdly expensive extra life. I kind of figured that merchant was referring to some difficult to dodge attack and braced myself for it. No such luck - the final boss seemingly just instantly and unavoidably kills you at the start of the fight, so my run where I was otherwise super powerful and at full health ended right there. This more or less killed my interest in playing further. The goal of this decision seems clear enough: the developers didn’t want you beating Absolum too fast and this insta-kill gimmick was a good way to keep you in the hamster wheel. Wouldn’t you know it, my very next permanent upgrade gave me another extra life on top of the two I had, so my next run would have definitely been the run! If I were the kind of person who got addicted to the progression system, I could easily see myself getting sucked by this bait, hook line and sinker. Sadly for Absolum, I am not that kind of person. I don’t have an addictive personality. Most of the psychological tricks that modern video games employ don’t work on me – I don’t need things to be addicted to, I want things that enrich my life or give me some personal satisfaction.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 2d
BACK TO BACK! Was doing an exploration run of the 3rd ship and then - "amma just win" :)

youtu.be/5jb8UQohZ4I
#shmup #stg #ddp #doj
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 2d
Beat Daioujou with the A Laser ship as well - the hardest ship in my view. Better laser should help with bosses and big enemies, but the extra damage and speed is negligable compared to how much harder the stages become due to the lack of spread.

youtu.be/TsynL5IEe1Y?...
#shmup #stg #ddp #doj
Dodonpachi: Daioujou Black Label 1CC Type A LEINYAN
YouTube video by CabalCrow
youtu.be
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 4d
algorithms is that SBTF does not change the direction of the drunkard on every step, and instead roll an additional time if a direction of change should occur. This creates much more tunnelly maps instead. Here the code where I found the algo if you are interested: github.com/johnoponno/n...
cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 4d
@herberticus.bsky.social Been reading your rougelike tutorial and I've been absolutely loving it.
I have 1 suggestion for an addition on the generating maps section. I saw a cool modification of the drunkard's walk map algo in a game called Space Beast Terror Fright. The main difference in both...
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 6d
It does look pretty cool - it has charm.
cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 6d
Combo BAD
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 8d
Oh I'm currently just going through a lot of different algorithms for generation. Currently I'm planning a mixed approach, where different parts of the world use different algos, so the players can eventually learn by feel where they are in the world as they play through the game.
cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 9d
Added rouge style map generation for my #drpg. Worked on a lot of low level functions and structures that would help with various style of map generation.

#gamedev #indie #game
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 10d
Update of the lighting on my #drpg. I'm happy with it and I will move on other stuff. Got it optimised as well (fps is halfed because of the recording).

#gamedev #indie #game
3 9
Reposted by CabalCrow
godot-rust.bsky.social
godot-rust @godot-rust.bsky.social · 11d
godot-rust v0.4 released!

Export groups, match_class, easy callables, run_deferred, generic PackedArray and much more!

godot-rust.github.io/dev/septembe...
September 2025 dev update
godot-rust
godot-rust.github.io
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 11d
I'm honestly not against iframes in general. I think most games abuse iframes, but it is not a mechanic that is bad by default - it is just that usually it is an indicator that you have nothing else in your defense system.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 13d
And the no bomb no miss on the "final boss" (not the secret final one). Strategy included in the description:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfBz...

#shump #stg #ddp
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
Here the video to my 1CC run of Dodonpachi Daioujou:
youtu.be/3o5m2NvJxw8?...

#shmup #stg #ddp
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
Just 1CCed Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label.
My whole body is filled with needles from that run, I have way too much blood in my hands... the video is processing gonna upload it soon.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
Working on the lighting for me #drpg I like what I got so far.

#gamedev #indie #game
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
session for example, where you force the player into an intro section where they have to win vs the phase they lost to last time.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
It obviously hinders the practice portion, but even as a challenge part, it is not really that enjoyable to just have added downtime every time you fail, it is a "cheap" way to add challenge rather than prolonging the actual fight in a dynamic way. You could use that downtime as a forced practice...
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
I agree save state is a subpar solution in that way, but so are runbacks in the opposite way. The main challenge here is that you have to both think about how to build a consistency challenge and how to train the player seemlessly. However I don't think the downtime of runbacks really help here...
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 16d
There is a difficulty progression between different doom wads that bring everything smoothly, if you start with the og dooms on pistol start and move on through plutonia onwards things would seem less all over the place.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 17d
I still dislike runbacks for the same reason, I get the idea that checkpoint would change the difficulty in terms of consistency, however for me this is a seperate issue. Saves states in doom let you practice anything, and then if you actually want a working demo you have to do it all in one go.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 18d
I would say the grinding in DQ really gets bad later on, since it is really unavoidable and doesn't serve a purpose. Like I think the game is quite good pace wise for the right half of the map and the first big main dungeon. So like until around lv11 - then to go further left you gotta grind...
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 18d
32x32 eye study today

#pixelart
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 18d
This is why I was recently have been playing and enjoying the original Rouge and Dragon Quest. Very limited in scope and very tight design. I have a theory that good old games payed more attention to design due to the hardware limitations - you just couldn't slam in tons of content.
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cabalcrow.bsky.social
CabalCrow @cabalcrow.bsky.social · 22d
Been playing around with #gameoflife #cellularautomata in torodial space. Found some cool stuff - it also works pretty well for a screen saver