sam
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soulware.us
sam
@soulware.us
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soulware.us
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soulware.us
my strange new platformer GRENADIER comes out SUNDAY. it will be available at Boston FIG to demo and buy. you get a usb in a cassette case with this art!

it releases side by side with @handcrushe.dev's game EXPLO. come check them out!

#gamedev #indie #gaming #bostongamedev #godot #bfig #platformer
December 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
soulware.us
this and some of the ensuing discussion reminded me of scene(s) from Empty Metal
October 29, 2025 at 6:13 AM
soulware.us
October 14, 2025 at 8:36 PM
soulware.us
October 14, 2025 at 8:34 PM
soulware.us
this reminds me a bit of the concept of the rhizome, which i've been thinking about a bunch in relation to games (though, the reading on it is a bit dense - but especially how it's initially established in relation to books, and how the book discussing rhizomes was structured anti-linearly)
a wikipedia screenshot with the following text: A rhizome is a concept in post-structuralism describing an assemblage that allows connections between any of its constituent elements, regardless of any predefined ordering, structure, or entry point. It is a central concept in the work of French Theorists Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, who use the term frequently in their development of schizoanalysis. Deleuze and Guattari use the terms "rhizome" and "rhizomatic" (from Ancient Greek ῥίζωμα, rhízōma, "mass of roots") to describe a network that "connects any point to any other point". The term is first introduced in Deleuze and Guattari's 1975 book Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature to suggest that Kafka's work is not bound by linear narrative structure, and can be entered into at any point to map out connections with other points. from "A Thousand Plateaus": ...well, undergoes a metamorphosis. Unlike a structure, which is defined by a set of points and positions, with binary relations between the points and biunivocal relationships between the positions, the rhizome is made only of lines: lines of segmentarity and stratification as its dimensions, and the line of flight or deterritorialization as the maximum dimension after which the multiplicity undergoes metamorphosis, changes in nature. These lines, or lineaments, should not be confused with lineages of the arborescent type, which are merely localizable linkages between points and positions. Unlike the tree, the rhizome is not the object of reproduction: neither external reproduction as image-tree nor internal reproduction as tree-structure. The rhizome is an antigenealogy. It is a short-term memory, or antimemory. The rhizome operates by variation, expansion, conquest, capture, offshoots. Unlike the graphic arts, drawing, or photography, unlike tracings, the rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed, a map that is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits and its own lines of flight. It is tracings that must be put on the map, not the opposite. In contrast to centered (even polycentric) systems with hierarchical modes of communication and preestablished paths, the rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automaton, defined solely by a circulation of states. What is at question in the rhizome is a relation to sexuality—but also to the animal, the vegetal, the world, politics, the book, things natural and artificial—that is totally different from the arborescent relation: all manner of "becomings." from "A Thousand Plateaus" plane of consistency on the basis of their intrinsic value. For example, a book composed of chapters has culmination and termination points. What takes place in a book composed instead of plateaus that communicate with one another across microfissures, as in a brain? We call a "plateau" any multiplicity connected to other multiplicities by superficial underground stems in such a way as to form or extend a rhizome. We are writing this book as a rhizome. It is composed of plateaus. We have given it a circular form, but only for laughs. Each morning we would wake up, and each of us would ask himself what plateau he was going to tackle, writing five lines here, ten there. We had hallucinatory experiences, we watched lines leave one plateau and proceed to another like columns of tiny ants. We made circles of convergence. Each plateau can be read starting anywhere and can be related to any other plateau. To attain the multiple, one must have a...
September 3, 2025 at 10:52 PM
soulware.us
i will be at kendall square open space today from 6-9pm showing off 3 games! PLOVERDRIVE, METEMPSYCHOSIS, and the unreleased “grenadier”. if you like weird small twitchy games, or games you can play with friends, or you hate video games, you should stop by.

#bostongamedev #godot #indiedev #gamedev
August 13, 2025 at 3:44 PM
soulware.us
I think my favorite distillation of some of these ideas is @sylviefluff.bsky.social 's "Sylvie Miniature", which is a different approach in being a platformer, but something I drew a lot of inspiration from in making BKH as small as it is

my game also has a tiny pixel bunny, completely by accident
July 19, 2025 at 9:32 PM
soulware.us
i made a puzzle game called "BROKEN KEYBOARD HERO" inspired by tunic, zelda 1, animal well, and fez
explore a strange island, uncover mysteries, and hopefully fix your keyboard?
play it here: soulware.itch.io/broken-keybo...

#gamedev #indiegame #godot #metroidbrania #solodev #2D #pixelart
March 10, 2025 at 8:19 PM
soulware.us
only the wheel is persistent
February 19, 2025 at 9:37 AM
soulware.us
DRAFT AND GRAFT's title screen the black market in DRAFT AND GRAFT! buy strange new body parts! fight against strangely assembled mutants! be careful when walking around the streets... people might want your limbs!
February 3, 2025 at 6:41 PM