Indiedev - Blog Posts

Been drawing some concepts for cutscenes. There are a lot of cutscenes to animate for the third level of the game.

These is going to take forever (ᗒᗣᗕ)

Puzzle time!! Remember, always pay attention to the gravity fields.

After (assuming) the player is familiar with the basic mechanics of the game, the levels will start to get more complex and challenging.

After a lot of tweaks and redraws, I finally reached a satisfying (and cute) running animation for the little bird.

An accurate depiction of testing a new code for the first time.

Been making some adjustments in the coding and also decided to give the background a little more attention. Despite it being space, I tried to make it look less empty by adding and making some of the elements bigger.

Despite all headache, the chaotic unpredictability of this gravitational fields can create some interesting behaviors

The Final Record!

Coin after coin, level after level, Alex manages to accumulate a huge loot!

Alex has set a new record!

Alex has entered the Hall of Fame!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server.

Mortal Combat!

The gangsters' heavily armed vehicles relentlessly pursue Alex, shooting and throwing grenades in an attempt to damage and destroy him.

Combat is inevitable!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server.

The Combat Area!

Alex enters a large abandoned neighborhood.

In addition to gangster vehicles, Alex also faces a variety of environmental hazards, such as shooting turrets and explosive zones.

He must navigate the chaos carefully, collecting as many coins as possible and keeping his car in working order.

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server.

Danger Ahead!

Alex tries to get rid of the gangsters slipping into a network of narrow steps.

A platform drops explosive barrels.

Alex uses the boost area to dodge other explosions.

Identify a refill of fuel not far away. Grabs it.

The mission continues!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server.

The hunt for money begins!

Alex starts his car, in the half-deserted city.

The gangsters have hidden their loot of coins all over the city.

The mission: get at least $100 worth of coins to complete the level. The coins are scattered around the streets.

The gangsters, in their cars, are on high alert and are firing warning shots.

The car's fuel gauge is already half empty! But finally Alex manages to get more than the required amount and can leave the city!

First level passed!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

Climb the leaderboard!

Conquer each level, rack up points, and shatter high scores. Become the ultimate champion!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

New demo available!

Check out the updated demo with all the latest improvements. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Improved and more intuitive display

GUI navigable via keyboard, mouse, or gamepad

Redefined default controls (customizable as always)

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO! and experience the enhancements for yourself. Can't wait to hear your feedback!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

Updated GUI management!

Manage the interface with ease. Navigate the GUI with mouse, keyboard, or stay hands-on with your gamepad!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

Revamped HUD!

See your score, vehicle count, and arsenal at a glance!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

Aim more precisely!

All weapons are now more precise and laser sights make hitting tough fights easier!

Download the Fighty Driver DEMO!

If you want to comment on the development, propose new ideas, improvements, criticisms ... join our Discord server

Improved intelligence of enemies vehicles!

AI Update! Enemy vehicles now reload when ammo is low, instead of chasing you and risking running out. Smarter, deadlier - stay alert!

Try the Fighty Driver DEMO!

Throwing grenades improved!

Boom! We've perfected the grenade throw - now you can hit enemies from even farther away with adjustable trajectories. Test it out and see the difference for yourself!

Try the Fighty Driver DEMO!

Hey everyone! Inspired by GTA 5, we’ve revamped third-person aiming—now your weapon (with laser) follows exactly where the camera is pointing. Smoother, sharper, and more intuitive shooting!

Try the Fighty Driver DEMO!

Listening to the Sonic Hysteria soundtrack by NicoCW while I work on Stardust Survivors! Some of the best music from the Sonic fandom. I'm a particular fan of the various Launch Base Zone tracks, especially the underwater variant that builds on the PC marching-band version. The Hill Top / Mystic Cave mashup is also *chef's kiss*.

Here's a weird optical illusion I found while modelling: the two black lines in the center are completely straight, yet there's this bulge in the middle. :'V

Used to see a lot of 3D art back on Twitter, glad to see others like @molegato keeping it going on other platforms. If you haven't played their game Frogun yet, go grab it on steam! Great, classy platformer. I love those low-res pixel textures; they tend to come out quite crummy when I try making them, so I appreciate the talent.

I saw one of their tags as "WireframeWednesday", so let's give it a bash. MR's spawning in to blast some crazy alien noggins!

I’m 34 now! Depression is striking, but we can’t let that stop us from Making (for long)! Bounder Games has been active for a good 10 years, and we’ve still yet to release a fully-featured game (beyond a simple puzzler, Combo Carts). I have to admit, this is a constant blow to my self-confidence. In 2017, we were jetting all across Europe to show off Armoured Engines. But that steam seemed to run out of our indie dream. Honestly, it’s a struggle somedays to even sit at the computer.

Throughout social media I see developers working whole-hog on their games, so many amazing projects that I want to be excited for. Yet that excitement hurts, poisoned by my own inability to do the same. A toxicity of my own making, something I need to work hard to clear out of my system.

We thought switching to a new project would re-light the fire, and it did for a time. But even that stalled out half-way down the track. The development curve is steep, and I’m somewhat at a loss as to how to surmount it.

That’s not entirely true, I do know what the solution is: "elbow grease". Nothing gets done unless you do it. So I’m gonna keep working through my checklists, one step at a time. That’s the only way anything gets made. I’ll make Version 34 of myself better than the last iterations, if only by the merest of margins. That’s enough.

We use Trello for our dev work organisation. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done. Each card is a task, broken down via checklists into steps. It helps us keep track with what the other is doing. When only my face is on a task, I know I can just get stuck in. And if it turns out I can't do it on my own, I just put CodingDino's face on it, make a note, and move on. The cards are useful, but in a great mass they can be overwhelming. Sometimes it's easier to just look at the game and see what's missing. However, a place like this is necessary to write down things you know you should get done sometime, but just not now.

Will all the tasks get done? Heck no! That's realistically impossible; the goal is to HAVE a goal, written down and visible. Otherwise you're just shooting in the dark.

Most recent character for Stardust Survivors : M.R.! A space-enthusiast who can call down rolling, flaming meteors. From Space™! These meteors can be upgraded to split into shrapnel, cause impact explosions, or leave a burn!

This makes... five characters so far. Once we've got her working in Unity, there'll be only one more to complete our first set of characters. After that, I'll be focusing on level design.

Rediscovered this treasure. My bible circa 2009; discovered I still use most of the tricks I learned from this book today. Animating waves using masks, proper gradients, animation principles, etc. Its advice is still relevant even after Flash's demise.

I had a lot of game ideas I wanted to make in Flash, most of which never escaped their notepad concept. Had a few successes, a Tetris-blackjack combo called DiceJack, and Rawrysaurus, a kaiju game where you escaped from a tidal wave. My first forays into game dev.

Thanks Chris Georgenes.

I've been called into college to fill in for an animation class. Looks like they're using Illustrator to make art and After Effects to animate. It's pretty early on in the term, so I'll start from the basics to see what they know already. I use Inkscape for Armoured Engines (main art) and Stardust Survivors (icons).

I'm not that familiar with Illustrator; Inkscape is my vector art program of choice. I'm going to be helping out the students with their work, so I've got to familiarise myself with it. There's a few oddities; you have to use a different tool to add nodes instead of just double clicking. But it's functional so far, once I looked up a few shortcuts.

A little snowman should be easy for them to make, simple shapes for a simple character.

Let’s start with what I’m actually working on. Stardust Survivors is a “Survivors” game, a sub-genre made popular by 2022’s Vampire Survivors. If you don’t know what that is, it’s like a twin-stick shooter, except you only have the one stick. The goal of the game is to outlast an infinitely-spawning series of enemy waves by destroying them to level up, gaining new abilities and attacks, most of which auto-fire without your direct input.

At this point, we’d barely touched Armoured Engines in over a year, and we figured a new project would be just the thing to get us out of our rut. Stardust Survivors takes that original concept and puts it into a magical space setting reminiscent of Moon Dreamers and Sailor Moon. The Stardust Survivors are a group of magical girls and boys who protect the energy of planets from the insatiable and unending tide of Constellar creatures.

It’s still early days; we’re mostly working on adding playable characters and abilities. However, we intend to streamline the survivors gameplay with short, 5-minute runs that extend down a rogue-like track. You can try out an early demo that we prepared for a local games showcase on our itch.io page here: https://boundergames.itch.io/stardust-survivors. Can YOU beat the boss!??

Hello GameDevs! I'm Roy from Scotland, an indie dev working as one half of Bounder Games (alongside CodingDino)! You might have seen us at DevCom, Insomnia, and EGX Rezzed.

Currently working on three titles; "Stardust Survivors", a survivors game set in a bizarre space land, "Gobbos, Hunt!", a monster hunting card game, and "Armoured Engines", a wacky side-scrolling tower defense in the wild west!

I'll be posting some of my work here in the future, hope to see all the wonderful things people share here! <3