Author | Lightnews

Sarena

@michellerakar.itch.io

170 followers 280 following 150 posts

Game Designer with a passion for character design and interactive storytelling. Writing a story called The Nays. Senior Curriculum Developer with a BFA in Animation. 🔗 https://michellerakar.carrd.co/

michellerakar.carrd.co

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Oct 21

I've been working on a story called The Nays with @nimbusstev.bsky.social for most of my life and finally started sharing it in the form of Twine stories the past few years. I'll post more about it in future posts!

Check out the first chapter ("Eventure") here: the-nays.weebly.com/the-gek-even...

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 14h

October seemed bigger this year (for me at least) with Pokemon Z-A and Digimon Story Time Stranger coming out 2 weeks apart, so it was a month earlier than usual. November will just be Kirby Air Riders, but I'm still excited about that!

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 3d

@nimbusstev.bsky.social and I have been thinking about remaking our #GGJ project from 2020, The Note Competition (and probably renaming/retheming it). So I updated the game to RPG Maker MZ and optimized some of the code. In my blog post, I detail what I've done in preparation:

#GameDev #IndieDev

The Note Competition Remake Devlog 1: RPG Maker MZ Updates & Optimization

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 11d

I wrote about my process on making the mini-Unity project from the other week, Outlaw Bar Bowling. Check out my blog post here: michellerakar.blogspot.com/2025/10/nay-...

#IndieDev #GameDev

Nay 50 Project: Outlaw Bar Bowling

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 15d

I've been playing a lot of Digimon Story Time Stranger these past few weeks and I think I'm close to beating it. I have multiple pages of notes like this on what stats my Digimon need to gain in the Digi Farm so they can digivolve. The digivolving is really my favorite part of these games!

Just one of the many pages of my notes with stats. Kind of messy but it helps keep me organized!

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 16d

Over the years, I've always enjoyed making lists and tracking data relating to my interests in spreadsheets. My brother and I have been tracking our Pokémon TCG Pocket cards in Google Sheets so we can see which cards to trade, and I'm making a lot of progress with the EX packs.

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 19d

Last night, I was thinking about clever ways to create the team menu for The Note Competition Remake. I came up with an idea to be like an equipment menu where you equip different characters for different slots in battle. So I made some sketches to brainstorm before implementing.

#IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 21d

Last year, I made a game called Clove’s Story in Ren'Py for the "Only One of Any Asset" (O2A2) Visual Novel Jam 2024. Here's a video where I play through the game:

Clove's Story: Gameplay Video (O2A2 VN Jam 2024)

YouTube video by Sarena

youtu.be

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · 26d

I've been brainstorming a lot for our remake of The Note Competition. We're leaning towards completely re-theming it and most likely renaming it. But for now, I've been optimizing the code and fixing some functionality to set us up for an easier time when we dive into it!

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Reposted by Sarena

The Nays @thenays.bsky.social · Sep 27

The Nays went back to The Gek's World for a few days, played more games, met more Nays, and sneaked out to go on missions as "The Night Kids". Now they stay up before bed to go on another mission, but with a bigger group.

📘 Read The Gek's Rival Eventure here: the-nays.weebly.com/the-geks-riv...

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Oct 2

Here's a video of Outlaw Bar Bowling, the mini game that @nimbusstev.bsky.social and I made in Unity over the weekend:

#IndieDev #GameDev

[Nay50] Outlaw Bar Bowling: Short Unity Game

YouTube video by Sarena

youtu.be

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 29

I decided to take some more time today to look at the code for our Outlaw Bar Bowling Unity game and make updates to turn it into a working game! I updated the bowling mechanics and integrated them into the drink mixing scene.

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 28

@nimbusstev.bsky.social and I spent another day in Unity on a mini game called Outlaw Bar Bowling! We spent more time on the visuals than the others, but didn't quite get the bowling mechanics working yet. He did the 3D art, and I did the 2D materials/art!

#IndieDev #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 28

Working on some more Unity projects tonight! I just finished the mechanics for this drink mixing game. It's mixed with a bowling game where you bowl for ingredients, and then can mix the drinks you get to create power-ups. The core mechanics of this scene are there. Next up, art!

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 20

Last week, my brother and I made a few mini games in Unity. I made a blog post where I walk through the process here: michellerakar.blogspot.com/2025/09/nay-...

#IndieDev #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday

Nay 50 Project: Dump Typing & Harrugh Ball

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 17

I had this idea that there could be a local multiplayer mode where you battle against a friend. So that led me to figure out how to control another event using keyboard inputs and code in RPG Maker! Movement and interactions are working so far. Next up: picking up item spawns!

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 17

Looking at our #GGJ projects, we were thinking about which one we could expand/remake into a full game. The Note Competition (2020) is looking most likely because it was very bite-sized and has potential. So I converted it to RPG Maker MZ and updated the title with new plugins.

#IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 14

Another small Unity game with @nimbusstev.bsky.social! We spent a bit more time on this one, and it was a bit bigger than the previous one. This time, I worked on all of the art assets while he did most of the programming. It's a mini dodgeball game in the desert.

#IndieDev #GameDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 14

I made a little Unity game with @nimbusstev.bsky.social tonight. I programmed the mechanics where you have to type names and phrases to move Chila forward and beat Boney in a race. He made all of the 3D art assets for the game. It was a fun project to make within a few hours!

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Reposted by Sarena

The Nays @thenays.bsky.social · Aug 28

The Nays rescued Mar from Mr Dude World, where she swapped places with Stinky Girl, and joined the group. Now they're back home and meeting up to see where they'll go next.

📘 Read The Night Kids Eventure here: the-nays.weebly.com/the-night-ki...

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 3

I spent a lot of time troubleshooting the Set Movement Route in #RPGMaker, but after some help on the forums, and some more research on my own, I found a combination of plugins that mostly works. It required holding some frames, adding more frames, and resetting the step order.

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 2

I finished all the drawings of Pidgebeetle! I exported them as spritesheets and started to import the animations into RPG Maker. I'm having some frame issues with how Set Movement Route works for displaying longer animations, but I'm making progress and troubleshooting.

#IndieDev #GameDev #RPGMaker

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Sep 1

I finished the idle animation with the final art for Pidgebeetle! I saved it out as a spritesheet and imported it into the engine with the speed I want him to move at. I also drew some head turns for him that I'll use for later parts of the scene.

#GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Aug 31

I finished the rough animation of poses for my game dev scene today. I learned Aseprite, and it helped with animating on multiple layers. The poses are mostly there, so next will be finishing those drawings before I add the actual timing in the engine.

#GameDev #IndieDev

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Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Aug 30

I added a really simple text box to figure out some of the positioning and size. It might get fleshed out more in the final version, but it works for now! I also added black bars that animate in from the top and bottom to indicate that it's the start of a cutscene.

Sarena @michellerakar.itch.io · Aug 30

I'm making a mini-game dev project where I'm creating a single scene; it'll all be working in an engine, but I'm focusing more on the visuals. I started with the sketch (on the left) in Photoshop and am slowly adding colors and lights in RPG Maker (the right screenshot).

#GameDev #IndieDev

Initial concept sketch I did in Photoshop to lay everything out.

Rough colors and shapes drawn in Photoshop and imported into RPG Maker. Lighting was added in the engine.

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