OldSchoolPixels
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oldschoolpixels.com
OldSchoolPixels
@oldschoolpixels.com
450 followers 430 following 200 posts
(He/Him) Senior freelance #GameDev, lead programmer on Dustgrave: A Sandbox RPG (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2393370) and working on some personal projects.
Portfolio and contacts: https://www.oldschoolpixels.com
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oldschoolpixels.com
TNG rewatch is going well.
September 23, 2025 at 7:25 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
Wanted to express my feelings towards socials, lately, with a 6 panels comic but I can't draw to save my life. So I thought "what the hell" and used my Actual Incompetence and drew it anyway with stick figures, using pencil, pen, paper and some pastels from my kid's stash. It's awful and I love it.
A badly drawn six panels comic (three rows by two columns) made with stick figures with black felt tip pen outlines and light pastel colors. Panels description: 1) A stick figure with a simple round head is standing on a grey sidewalk in front of a brownish wall, hands on hips, apparently bored. 2) The same stick figure, a little moved on the left, pulls out a phone, gaze lowered, and says: "Let's have a quick look at my timeline". 3) The figure is now seen from the back, on a lime background, a small sweat droplet is visible on the side of the head. We can see both arms, the phone in the right one, extended away from the viewer. Another stick figure comes out of the phone from the waist up, with a frown on the face and a red box in the hands, saying: "Man, I'm so mad at this". 4) Same configuration as panel 3. The red box is now on the left arm of the main stick figure. Another stick figure is coming out of the phone from the waist up, this one with a disappointed expression, a green box and saying: "Oh boy, this sucks". 5) Again as panel 3. On the left arm there are the red and green boxes, one on top of the other. A third stick figure comes out of the phone, with a blue box, a sad look on the face and saying: "Aw, this is heartbreaking". 6) Same scene as panel 2, but the main stick figure is now slightly bent forward and has a weary face. The phone has fallen on the sidewalk, on their left arm there are the red and green boxes and on the right arm there is the blue box. The red, green and blue boxes are labeled, respectively, "angry", "hopeless" and "sad".
September 20, 2025 at 8:58 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
I wanted to add some simple collectible to #GetKeyOpenDoor but I didn't want the classic coin, so I opted for a small flame in style with the game. Damn, drawing animated flames is hard... This one isn't great but will do for now.

#GameDev #PixelArt
September 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Spent the eve of my 47th birthday hiking on a river trail and discovering that my kid is a freaking ibex. Very reinvigorating.
Photo of a white man with a red hat and a blue backpack (me) seen from behind, standing on a rock just above a river bed.
August 24, 2025 at 6:59 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Here is an example of what I can do with the signal handlers from my previous post and a pressure plate that can also be activated by moving slimes.

#GetKeyOpenDoor #GameDev #PixelArt #LevelDesign #MadeWithDefold
July 31, 2025 at 7:20 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
During a brief holiday, I implemented entity signals with propagation, delay and signal queues to keep the player input sequence when there is a delay.

Here is a test with a lever as a signal producer and some blinking platforms as signal targets/propagators.

#GameDev #PixelArt #GetKeyOpenDoor
July 28, 2025 at 4:36 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Visiting the cemetery where my parents in law are resting, in a small village in coastal southern Italy. If #GameDev has taught me anything, I'm fairly sure that one of those old chapels hides the entrance to a secret dungeon.
Photo of a small town cemetery. In the foreground there's a graveyard, with ground tombs, tombstones of various shapes and flowers. Amongst those there are some tall trees. In the background, two sides of the graveyard are lined with small chapels.
July 26, 2025 at 10:14 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
Things yet to implement in #GetKeyOpenDoor before I can make some actually interesting levels.

#GameDev #LevelDesign
Photo of a paper notebook with various sketches and notes: on the upper left there are two couples of square platforms with a circle in the middle. The first circle is empty, the second is full, the third (on the second row) is full while the fourth is half full. The note on the first couple says "Switch Platform ", while the note on the second couple says "Timer Switch Platform". A note on both couples says "Both are automatically activated on passage by the player or the enemies". A callout on both couples says "How to differentiate in 8x8?". Below there is another couple of platforms both with a lever on them, the first switched to the right, the second to the left. A note says "Lever switch: must be explicitly activated by the player pressing down arrow". Below, a bigger centered note says: "Can all be connected to:". In the lower part of the page, there is a drawing of two square platforms one above the other with a closed metal gate between the two, two other platforms a little to the right have an open metal gate instead. A note below says: "Gates (will kill player if closes on them)". Two other square platforms are to the right, one normal, the other with dashed contours, a note below says: "Disappearing platforms". Finally, a square platform between two edges with movement arrows to its left and right, the note says: "Moving platforms".
July 13, 2025 at 2:01 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
#LevelDesign has always been the part of #GameDev that makes me nervous the most. It gives me a lot of blank canvas anxiety, so I'm trying to use #GetKeyOpenDoor as a way to practice this skill.
Photo of a paper notebook with a black pen sketch of a platformer level. The sides are numbered, horizontally and vertically, to mark the tiles coordinates. On the upper side a couple sketches indicate the height and length of the character's jump. The level is named "The Pit".
July 7, 2025 at 6:27 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Italian news site "Il Post" just posted a headline about this. It reads something like: "Haaretz investigation about palestinian people massacre during food distribution in Gaza" - "Israeli soldiers anonimously told about receiving precise orders to deliberately shoot civilians".
June 27, 2025 at 1:46 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Another slime for #GetKeyOpenDoor. This one is on a roll! Making these pixels has become a sort of retreat from... *gestures at the world in general*
Now I need to bring them to life in a test level.

#GameDev #PixelArt
June 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
I'm enjoying drawing these little slimy #PixelArt foes for #GetKeyOpenDoor. I'm no artist, but at this resolution I feel like I can experiment within my limits. Gave the previous slime a red eye, to make it a little more menacing, and made it jump.

#GameDev
June 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
A running slime enemy.
Someone might find it cute, but better not try to pet it.

#GetKeyOpenDoor #PixelArt #GameDev
June 8, 2025 at 1:53 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Since my kid started playing with SMB from various eras, he's become obsessed with creating levels with anything he comes across.
Photo of a small diorama created with some Lego pieces and some plastic figures: Mario, Yoshi, a Goomba and a yellow Cheep Cheep.
June 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Update on #GetKeyOpenDoor progress. In short bursts, in the last few weeks, I have:
- Widened the resolution a bit
- Got a title screen and menu
- Added a transition showing elapsed time and number of deaths
- Started a few tutorial levels

#GameDev #PixelArt #MadeWithDefold #ScreenshotSaturday
May 31, 2025 at 10:14 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
Working on this little #GetKeyOpenDoor thing has inspired me so much that I even started making music again, after more than twenty years without touching a keyboard.

#GameDev
Photo of my working setup: a small desk with keyboard, mouse two monitors and a couple speakers. Under the desk there is a medium tower pc. On the left side of the desk there's a midi keyboard on its stand. The two monitors show OpenMPT and a browser with the program docs open.
May 2, 2025 at 7:34 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Implemented ladders (they are HARD to get right), first hurting entity, death and respawn.

#GameDev #Defold #PixelArt #GetKeyOpenDoor
April 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Sometimes I think I have too much fun writing #GameDev git commit messages.
Screenshot of a git commit message, which reads: "You can now assault sleeping folks, you damn sicko!"
April 11, 2025 at 10:17 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
Hey everyone, remember the imp game thing? Because I've come up with a very clever title 😬

#GameDev #Defold #PixelArt
March 28, 2025 at 5:38 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Folks, that imp thing has got a bit out of hand...

#GameDev #Defold #PixelArt
March 21, 2025 at 5:40 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Mh... Made a running fire imp in 8x8 pixels. Do you like them? I like them. #PixelArt #GameDev
March 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
I made an experiment: I powered through my deep aversion for Lua and tried to rebuild everything I made for my kid's small game in #Defold. It took me a week, working in my spare time, as usual, and I also managed to make a mostly decent start screen.

(small 🧵)
March 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
no, aspé, scus... basisco
March 10, 2025 at 8:12 AM
oldschoolpixels.com
You guessed right: frame sequences. Now the sprite animations are assets bundled in the content file like the rest. No more hardcoded rectangles in my code! Yay!

#GameDev #C99 #SDL #OSPFramework
February 25, 2025 at 5:21 PM
oldschoolpixels.com
Can you guess what this text file defines?

#GameDev #C99 #SDL
Screenshot of a text file with the following contents: grid 32 32 width 1 height 1 row 0 1.0 0 1 0 2 2 3 3 row 1 1.0 0 1 2 3 4 5 3 2 1 row 2 0.4 0 1 2 3 row 3 0.4 0 1 2 3 row 4 0.4 0 1 2 3 row 5 0.4 0 1 2 3
February 23, 2025 at 11:44 AM