novelventures.bsky.social
@novelventures.bsky.social
Novel Ventures: Cozy bookstore simulator in development! 📚 Follow daily devlogs, behind-the-scenes updates, and system experiments while we build the shelves, stock, and shop mechanics. https://clockworkindusties.itch.io/novel-ventures
Hope everyone had a great day! I got a bunch done in the visual department today. From succulents, to coffee mugs, to the credit card reader and barcode scanner. Its starting to come together from an art direction perspective... Gonna be sad in a couple days to have to go back to systems work.
January 29, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Hope everyone had a great day! I got a bunch done in the visual department today. From succulents, to coffee mugs, to the credit card reader and barcode scanner. Its starting to come together from an art direction perspective... Gonna be sad in a couple days to have to go back to systems work.
Happy Hump day! Been a good week of assets making and developing my asset pipeline. Got another class of objects done, well a couple actually, but this falls into the knick knacks category, I got some succulent models! All developed within the GODOT engine! Man. I love GODOT.
January 28, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Happy Hump day! Been a good week of assets making and developing my asset pipeline. Got another class of objects done, well a couple actually, but this falls into the knick knacks category, I got some succulent models! All developed within the GODOT engine! Man. I love GODOT.
Reposted by novelventures.bsky.social
Another Cat in the Stacks book. This one dives into the history of the teen sleuths like Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys with a modern mystery.
Of course, Diesel the cat saves the day. #catchatbookclub
Of course, Diesel the cat saves the day. #catchatbookclub
January 25, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Another Cat in the Stacks book. This one dives into the history of the teen sleuths like Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys with a modern mystery.
Of course, Diesel the cat saves the day. #catchatbookclub
Of course, Diesel the cat saves the day. #catchatbookclub
Added board games! Not just books, there will be all the usual knick knacks you can pick up at book stores as well. Unfortunately I cant use real board games here the way I can with real books without brand deals, but that's no biggie.
January 27, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Added board games! Not just books, there will be all the usual knick knacks you can pick up at book stores as well. Unfortunately I cant use real board games here the way I can with real books without brand deals, but that's no biggie.
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Today still modelling! Adding to some of the unlock able areas. You wont be unlocking bland empty rectangles, you will be unlocking portions of a real building with levels and character. Here is a preview of what the first unlocked zone may contain.
Today still modelling! Adding to some of the unlock able areas. You wont be unlocking bland empty rectangles, you will be unlocking portions of a real building with levels and character. Here is a preview of what the first unlocked zone may contain.
January 27, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Today still modelling! Adding to some of the unlock able areas. You wont be unlocking bland empty rectangles, you will be unlocking portions of a real building with levels and character. Here is a preview of what the first unlocked zone may contain.
Today still modelling! Adding to some of the unlock able areas. You wont be unlocking bland empty rectangles, you will be unlocking portions of a real building with levels and character. Here is a preview of what the first unlocked zone may contain.
It was mainly a day of drafting new store fronts. Didn't touch a line of code today. First day since development started that I didn't touch code. Tomorrow I'll get back to NPC logic.
January 27, 2026 at 5:28 AM
It was mainly a day of drafting new store fronts. Didn't touch a line of code today. First day since development started that I didn't touch code. Tomorrow I'll get back to NPC logic.
Its so nice to be able to not think about code for a bit and just chill. Hope everyone else's Monday is going great.
January 26, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Its so nice to be able to not think about code for a bit and just chill. Hope everyone else's Monday is going great.
New Shop Entrance! Shop entrances will be purchasable in game (in in game currency not paid, this game will have no micro-transactions). Probably only have a few at Beta launch and aiming for a bunch by 1.0.
January 26, 2026 at 2:11 PM
New Shop Entrance! Shop entrances will be purchasable in game (in in game currency not paid, this game will have no micro-transactions). Probably only have a few at Beta launch and aiming for a bunch by 1.0.
Just taking it easy today and modelling some new shelves and am going to add 30 books to the roster. We'll see if I even touch raw code today.
January 25, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Just taking it easy today and modelling some new shelves and am going to add 30 books to the roster. We'll see if I even touch raw code today.
Mid day update! Got a ton of stuff done for the store environment today. Made some new shelving units, worked on front of store presets and overall got this thing looking like something... even if still rough. Most systems are already in, so just fun stuff now.
January 23, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Mid day update! Got a ton of stuff done for the store environment today. Made some new shelving units, worked on front of store presets and overall got this thing looking like something... even if still rough. Most systems are already in, so just fun stuff now.
Starting to look like a real game. Don't like low poly? Your loss. I will be adding shaders to this, but overall the low poly style is staying. This is systems first architecture.
January 23, 2026 at 12:21 PM
Starting to look like a real game. Don't like low poly? Your loss. I will be adding shaders to this, but overall the low poly style is staying. This is systems first architecture.
Just discovered the joys of GODOT's CSGCombine3D. This games architectural art style just got locked in. This game;s meshes will be made (largely) in GODOT, not in blender. I love Godot so much.
Happy Friday everyone!
Happy Friday everyone!
January 23, 2026 at 11:17 AM
Just discovered the joys of GODOT's CSGCombine3D. This games architectural art style just got locked in. This game;s meshes will be made (largely) in GODOT, not in blender. I love Godot so much.
Happy Friday everyone!
Happy Friday everyone!
Took me about 5 minutes to get the basic move furniture system set up in my game. You can even move the shelves with books in them without risk of losing your books.
I love it when things come together as planned.
Happy Thursday everybody.
I love it when things come together as planned.
Happy Thursday everybody.
January 22, 2026 at 10:48 PM
Took me about 5 minutes to get the basic move furniture system set up in my game. You can even move the shelves with books in them without risk of losing your books.
I love it when things come together as planned.
Happy Thursday everybody.
I love it when things come together as planned.
Happy Thursday everybody.
Alright, Sign system is DONE and UI passable (at least for a while)! Got my signs doing just what I want them to do. Change color name, ect on the signs. This system is expandable for all kinds of sign types from billboard sized to price tag sized. Another productive morning.
January 22, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Alright, Sign system is DONE and UI passable (at least for a while)! Got my signs doing just what I want them to do. Change color name, ect on the signs. This system is expandable for all kinds of sign types from billboard sized to price tag sized. Another productive morning.
Box containers! everyone's favorite part of GODOT! The less glamorous, but also very satisfying work of UI development. I have been learning about boxes for a bit now, and I think I'm starting to get how they work.
January 22, 2026 at 7:05 PM
Box containers! everyone's favorite part of GODOT! The less glamorous, but also very satisfying work of UI development. I have been learning about boxes for a bit now, and I think I'm starting to get how they work.
Cats love books, its proven science.
January 22, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Cats love books, its proven science.
Mini devlog: Got my labels mostly ironed out for the books! Huge. Auto adds names to books from data automatically keeping it easy to add books in minutes.
Worked a bit on the NPC logic systems and tinkered with shaders as well to try and nail down an art direction. youtu.be/rMVR5HWcn5I
Worked a bit on the NPC logic systems and tinkered with shaders as well to try and nail down an art direction. youtu.be/rMVR5HWcn5I
Book names/Authors added to visuals in Novel Ventures Development
YouTube video by Clockwork Labs
youtu.be
January 22, 2026 at 12:53 AM
Mini devlog: Got my labels mostly ironed out for the books! Huge. Auto adds names to books from data automatically keeping it easy to add books in minutes.
Worked a bit on the NPC logic systems and tinkered with shaders as well to try and nail down an art direction. youtu.be/rMVR5HWcn5I
Worked a bit on the NPC logic systems and tinkered with shaders as well to try and nail down an art direction. youtu.be/rMVR5HWcn5I
Got some work done early this morning on the labels. Made a system that auto generates the labels onto the book models face and spines so you can easily find the book on your bookshelf just by looking. Nice progress for a couple hours in GODOT.
January 21, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Got some work done early this morning on the labels. Made a system that auto generates the labels onto the book models face and spines so you can easily find the book on your bookshelf just by looking. Nice progress for a couple hours in GODOT.
Aside from working on the sign systems today, I got my orders spawning in boxes after you place them. I also added a bunch of books today. Going to have to start devoting around 30 min a day to just add to the in game library... Don't mind the ugly UI, its temporary.
January 21, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Aside from working on the sign systems today, I got my orders spawning in boxes after you place them. I also added a bunch of books today. Going to have to start devoting around 30 min a day to just add to the in game library... Don't mind the ugly UI, its temporary.
Happy Tuesday everyone! Starting off the morning with coffee, GODOT and about to get to work on implementing my way overengineered sign system. Don't mind the visuals, they will get better
January 20, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Happy Tuesday everyone! Starting off the morning with coffee, GODOT and about to get to work on implementing my way overengineered sign system. Don't mind the visuals, they will get better
2 week of development time gameplay for Novel Ventures. We are shooting for a March beta on itch. youtu.be/DyHY7p2LuvI
2 weeks into development of Novel Ventures. Bookstore Management sim made in GODOT
YouTube video by Clockwork Labs
youtu.be
January 17, 2026 at 11:58 PM
2 week of development time gameplay for Novel Ventures. We are shooting for a March beta on itch. youtu.be/DyHY7p2LuvI
Day 15 of Development: Been an exciting last couple weeks of game dev. I went from nothing to creating my core architecture to having a functional economic loop from buying products to final purchase. You can check out the full dev log for week 2 here on itch clockworklabs.itch.io/novel-ventur...
Week in review, end of Development week 2
This week was a productive week. Announcing my new project! This project is a bookstore management simulator with deep mechanics other retail sims are lacking. I will be making weekly progress reports...
clockworklabs.itch.io
January 17, 2026 at 2:11 PM
Day 15 of Development: Been an exciting last couple weeks of game dev. I went from nothing to creating my core architecture to having a functional economic loop from buying products to final purchase. You can check out the full dev log for week 2 here on itch clockworklabs.itch.io/novel-ventur...
Welcome to Novel Ventures!
This cozy bookstore simulator is in development, and this page will be my daily devlog hub. Follow along for behind-the-scenes updates, system experiments, and all the little details that make managing a bookstore so satisfying.
This cozy bookstore simulator is in development, and this page will be my daily devlog hub. Follow along for behind-the-scenes updates, system experiments, and all the little details that make managing a bookstore so satisfying.
January 17, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Welcome to Novel Ventures!
This cozy bookstore simulator is in development, and this page will be my daily devlog hub. Follow along for behind-the-scenes updates, system experiments, and all the little details that make managing a bookstore so satisfying.
This cozy bookstore simulator is in development, and this page will be my daily devlog hub. Follow along for behind-the-scenes updates, system experiments, and all the little details that make managing a bookstore so satisfying.