Now you can throw flares to distract enemies. I also gave up on the minimal controls and implemented aiming by the right stick instead, added some sounds and fixed the ugly stuttering in limb animations. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine #twinstickshooter

Nothing beats proper twin-stick aiming, so I guess I'll have to go down that road again. Not being able to dig, jump or toggle the light while aiming feels almost like a feature. #gamedev #twinstickshooter

I have a control scheme problem that I need to solve: Currently left stick/arrow keys move and aim + four buttons for actions. For digging direction, this works well, but not for throwable items. Currently it is very hard to throw things downwards without walking off cliffs. #gamedev

Just some pretty moss on concrete.. for reference. #gamedev #photo

My digger game prototype has the most critical mechanics implemented. Now I need to figure out how make this actually fun to play.. if that's even possible. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

I suddenly remembered an old DOS puzzle game I made in 1995 and I had to dig it up. It's not bad. Gotta love the system requirements: Fast 286 and about 60KB of memory and disk space. #gamedev #dosgame #retrogame

I got the plant placement sorted out.. by cheating: Instead of finding a suitable location I just make a hole in the terrain if there isn't one. The alignment uses two extra ray casts to avoid edges and too small surfaces. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

I've been trying to position plants (those green things) on terrain surfaces. It's more complicated than I thought because during level generation, I don't yet have the actual collision geometry available, so I can't use ray/shape queries. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

Totally black terrain would convey the underground darkness better. Added benefit is that I don't need to use shadows to prevent lights from "bleeding" into terrain. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #godotengine

Phobos Down is now 40% off on Steam and Itch (only 3.59 EUR/USD)! www.fractilegames.com/phobos-down/ A minimalist bullet hell-ish twin stick shooter that doesn't require twitch reflexes. Ideal for Steam Deck. #twinstickshooter #bullethell #indiegame #steamdeck #steamsale

I really need to stop tweaking the animations and focus on figuring out if there is a game worth making here. I have a rough idea but I'm not at all sure it will be any fun. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

The very first attempt at giving the player character knees. Not all that bad. #screenshotsaturday (it's still Saturday somewhere) #gamedev #godotengine

Jumping against walls improved, the creature now reacts to light. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

Sliding down too steep slopes looks okay but trying to walk up results in ugly bouncing. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

This feels familiar from so many games #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #irl

Simply offsetting the ground ray cast (red arrow) in the direction of movement already improves the behavior on slopes a lot. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

The guy has grown arms! The walking animation also works much better on slopes. The crouch walking uphill is not a fault in the leg animation, it's because the character body gets too close to the ground. I have to fix that somehow.. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #procedural #animation #godotengine

I opened this Godot project again and changed from the built-in character controller to custom physics-based control, like I always do. Still stuck trying to get the walking animation work well enough in all edge cases. There are so many of them. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #godotengine

I made a quick update to Phobos Down mobile version and added screen rotation option. It's a free game on Google Play: play.google.com/store/apps/d... #screenshotsaturday #indiegame #mobile #android

My task manager Godot plug-in now works as a stand-alone app too. This was a fun little side project but I don't think I'm developing this further. I could dump the source code somewhere if there is interest in it? #screenshotsaturday #godotengine #gamedev #opensource

I'm on a side quest: I started making a minimal task management plugin for Godot. It reads/writes my todo.txt file that I have been manually using for years. Instead of cut+paste, I can now drag and drop task items. #screenshotsaturday #godotengine #gamedev

A simple way to generate score in Phobos Down using a lure device and upgraded rocket launcher. Sorry about the low resolution, recorded on #steamdeck display. #screenshotsaturday #arcade #highscore #shmup

I'm working on a small update to Phobos Down. Some players have been missing the button to hide the touchscreen controller guides, so I changed the icon and made it blink when the guide is visible. Other small fixes coming too. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #godotengine

Although the legs already worked quite well, I started testing a simpler alternative solution based on calculated optimal stride length. I'm hoping to build a generic leg node that I can slap on anything. Should be a fun challenge 😅 #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #godotengine

I think the legs work well enough for now, so I started testing what I can do with Godot's built-in 2D lighting. Shadows seem to be working fine. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #godotengine

I made a tiny bit of progress with the procedural legs. They now find the footholds further forward than they can reach, so that the leg is at optimal position by the time it actually touches ground. Looks much more natural. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev

Phobos Down is 30% off on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2754880/... Also on Itch.io: fractilegames.itch.io/phobos-down #SteamSale #TwinStickShooter #IndieGame #Shmup

These procedural legs are going to need a lot of work but this isn't bad for a first attempt #screenshotsaturday #godotengine #gamedev

A bit better now. Instead of exploding, it now changes direction on ledges and when it eventually does break, it can repair itself. #screenshotsaturday #godotengine #gamedev #indiedev

My physics-based character controller works okayish, except for those sharp outside corners. Not good enough. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #godotengine