Skyboy Games

@skyboygames

Making New Games for Old Game Systems: Owned and operated by Robbie (she/they), Assoc. Prof. of Game Design at GMU: @nobunagaota.bsky.social #gamedev #nesdev

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Bluesky

gamer

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Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 17d

The Double Dose Potion doubles the dose of applied status effects for the next attack Lin makes. Here, Lin applies SHOCK to an enemy who remains affected by SHOCK despite recovering from one of the applied doses. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 21d

I've reached the point where I am writing a draft version of the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. It makes sense when you think about it, but the manual for a game itself is an important part of the QA process. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Cover of a rough draft NES game manual.
The cover says:
"Even Goblins Fall In Love
Instruction Manual
v0.1

[Placeholder Front Cover]"

Pages of draft copy of Even Goblins Fall In Love manual.
One page describes how to use the Stardust Pendant in the game.
Another pages details character stats.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 22d

The Skyboy Games Etsy shop will be going on vacation mode from July 23 to August 10. Order games now if you'd like to get a physical NES copy of our games shipped without delay. www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG...

Front and back of box for Gunhawk, an indie NES Zapper game.

Front and back of Fire And Rescue, an indie NES game about firefighters.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 24d

Just experimented with running Even Goblins Fall In Love in our in-development app shell for Steam. If this works out, I might be able to launch Even Goblins simultaneously as a ROM on itch and on Steam. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 28d

Times like these* call for the guillotine! * I was referring to trimming draft manuals for my NES games. What were you thinking of? #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

A guillotine paper trimmer and a small draft manual for the NES game Even Goblins Fall In Love.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· 29d

NEXXT (@FrankenGraphic) updated version of Shiru's NESST, NES Screen Tool) has been a go-to tool for creating data for Even Goblins Fall In Love. Highly recommended if you want to understand how NES graphics work: frankengraphics.itch.io/nexxt

Title screen of Even Goblins Fall In Love being shown in NEXXT (the next-gen update of NES Screen Tool).
Graphical tiles and palette colors used to create the title screen can be seen on the right.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 12

Shout out to Compress Tools, a suite of compression algorithms particularly suitable for #nesdev. www.romhacking.net/utilities/882/ The Byte-Pair Encoding implementation was crucial for me to fit text and map data into the ROM for Even Goblins Fall In Love.

Command prompt window displaying results of compression algorithm tests with filenames, byte counts, and savings percentages for RLE, BitpackRLE, EscapeRLE, RLEINC1, RLEINC2, BytePair, RecursiveBytePair, TinyHuff, TinyHuffFixed, Huffman, ROM_LZ77, ROM_7bit_LZ77, RAM_LZ77, and StaticDictionary encoding.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 11

Our indie NES JRPG, Even Goblins Fall In Love, is getting a little guest cameo from Nekomancer of Nowhere! store.steampowered.com/app/3180290/... It seems this magic cat has some sort of gift for Lin. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 8

Notice the little "0.9" in the corner of the screen. Our indie NES JRPG, Even Goblins Fall In Love, getting that much closer to version 1.0 completion! #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 6

See that little white sticker? That's an NFC chip that contains a URL that will allow you to get a downloadable ROM version of the physical NES cartridges that we sell on Etsy. www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... #indienes #homebrew #retrogame #nes #indieretro

Stack of open NES cartridges. On the inside of the cartridge shell front, a round, white sticker is visible. This sticker contains an NFC chip. NROM circuit boards with chips soldered to them are also visible.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 5

If you can't afford to stay at an inn, you can always go back to your mother's house to rest and save your game. This is not, not a commentary on life and our modern economy. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jul 1

One final bundle of doodles by @ursamajorgamma.bsky.social of main character Lin that will be sprinkled about the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro

Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love in various poses:
- Catching a butterfly with a net
- With a soot covered face after a magical potion blew up
- Scratching a picture into the ground

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 29

Been hard at work lately assembling some new physical copies of Fire And Rescue. Available for purchase on our Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... #indienes #homebrew #retrogame #nes #indieretro

Two piles of boxed copies of Fire And Rescue (an indie NES game). The pile on the left shows the cover image of the game of two firefighters jumping out of a burning building. The pile on the right shows the back of the box with description text and several screenshots.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 27

Crossing a bridge towards the final castle while carrying the requisite Macguffin sword will spark a boss battle that will open up a path to the end of the game. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 24

I noticed that there is only one place in the Even Goblins Fall In Love that uses stairs as a dungeon exit (a special metatile). By re-working the cave a bit, I can now use that metatile data for something else. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Character in an 8-bit cave. Behind them is an open hallway that leads out of the cave.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 22

I feel like my #screenshotsaturday posts are going to get a bit dull because I'm at the stage of development and game tuning where I basically live in Excel. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Excel sheet showing various enemies from Even Goblins In Love (an 8-bit retro JRPG.) A section of the sheet shows stats for a level 5 test player. Based on the player character's stats, average damage taken and given are calculated and used to calculate how many turns the player needs to defeat a given enemy as well as how many turns they can expect to survive against each enemy. Turn values that are safer for the player character are highlighted green while values that are hazardous to the player character are highlighted red.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 21

My son gave me Even Goblin's Fall In Love fan-art for Father's Day! Also, shout-out to all the gents, ladies, and enbies who are fathers in whatever configuration. Be it, "father", "dad", or "daddy"!

Shoulder-up drawing of Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love.
"Father's Day" is spelled out in back in block letters.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 20

Exploring a dungeon and suddenly finding yourself face-to-face with a palette-swapped version of your mother. I'm sure nothing suspicious is going on here. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 17

For the Steam version of Fire And Rescue, I'm adding a series of Time Attack and Score Attack challenges using specially modified versions of the game ROM. Your best scores/times will be posted to leaderboards on Steam. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 15

Here are some more doodles by @ursamajorgamma.bsky.social of main character Lin that will be sprinkled about the manual for Even Goblins Fall In Love. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #jrpg #indieretro

Lin from Even Goblins Fall In Love in various poses:
- Playing a recorder really loud!
- Playing a recorder softly while walking
- Being eaten by a Mimic
- Hiding in a treasure chest
- Dizzy and exhausted on the ground

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 13

Making some updates to the starting castle of Even Goblins Fall In Love to account for events at the end of the game. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 13

This creature, the Dumpstar, was birthed from a bug that incorrectly combined enemy sprites. I liked the combo so much I turned it into an official creature. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 11

The New 8-bit All-stars Bundle on itch ends tomorrow. Last chance to get 30 NES games for $30! Support independent game developers! itch.io/b/3695/new-8... #N8ABundle #NES #Homebrew #nesdev #indieretro

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 8

Check out this collection of bangers (including our own Fire And Rescue) in this trailer for the New 8-bit All-Stars Bundle on itch. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Aum... 30 new NES games for $30 on itch, for a limited-time only. itch.io/b/3695/new-8... #N8ABundle

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 6

Am I adding achievements to the Steam version of Fire And Rescue? You bet your firefighter's helmet I am! #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 6

I'm so proud to have Fire And Rescue be part of the New 8-Bit All-Stars Bundle on itch. Get 30 top-tier #nes games for one, low price! itch.io/b/3695/new-8... #N8ABundle

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 5

Get hyped, folks! The first physical NES copy of Even Goblins Fall In Love is here. It's a build of a beta version (v0.8) of the game that I'll be showing at Indie Game Fest 2026 (www.eventbrite.com/e/indie-vide...) at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD. #nesdev #gamedev #nes #indieretro

A CNROM PCB for an NES game with a series of chips soldered to it. One of the larger chips is labled PRG. The other is labled CHR. The PCB is labled Second Dimension.

A grey NES cartridge with hand-written labels saying "Even Goblins Fall In Love" and "v0.8 RC1 (Beta)"

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 3

Speaking of console limitations shaping creativity, I just renamed the Cape of Nobility (one of the quest macguffins in Even Goblins) to the Cape of Bravery for thematic clarity. As a bonus, I also save 4 bytes of ROM space! #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· Jun 1

I'll be showing a new build of Even Goblins Fall In Love at Indie Video Game Fest at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, June 6, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

A synthwave-inspired event poster featuring a vibrant purple and blue neon grid receding into a dark digital horizon with a bright central light flare.

The text on the poster reads:
Org: Enoch Pratt Free Library
Title: INDIE VIDEO GAME FEST
When: Saturday, June 6 | 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Where: Central Library | 400 Cathedral Street
This annual one-day event brings together gamers, developers, and industry professionals to play, discuss, and celebrate independent video games from the DMV area. Explore over 30 independent video games from the DMV area throughout the library.
At 2:00 p.m., game writer and narrative designer Emma Kidwell will be in conversation with award-winning video essayist Jacob Geller. They will discuss what a memoir is and how making deeply personal games is both a powerful artistic statement and a tool for narrative designers on how narrative and mechanics deliver a resonating story.
For more information, visit prattlibrary.org.

Skyboy Games@skyboygames· May 30

The cat-like Raksha is one of the late-game enemies you'll encounter in Even Goblins Fall In Love, an indie JRPG for the NES. #indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday