Yet another great #IGDA meetup yesterday to get feedback on our #gamedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸
It's affirming to see another #indiedev take interest in your work and ask real questions about it
And it's inspiring to see what other people have been working on and do the same for them ❤️
We did a lot of #gamedev before tackling any graphics beyond placeholders because we started with a physical card game
But it's time to program #shaders which is its own special hell that we wade deeply into because we want the practice and knowledge of doing it
Real #indiedev starts now
This week in #gamedev we're looking at #localization options in #Godot to set up translation tables before we add too much text
I want to launch in Spanish and English at a minimum, and we'll get help before we rely on my Spanish (or any other languages I've dabbled in). Nadie quiere eso
#indiedev
A cropped photo of a guitar pedal board containing an array of guitar effects pedals lies on a stage in front of the guitarist's feet
A #deckbuilder without cards? Instead of "cards" we're experimenting with a shuffling array of effects pedals in a guitarist's pedal board or modules in a sound board from the tech perspective. The latter organically gives us a view of the band and audience together 🤔
#indiedev #UI
Our #Linux native #indiedev studio is trying out #PopOS 24.04 LTS. #Ubuntu 25.10 serves our purpose for #Godot and creative apps like #Krita, but we like Pop!_OS for gaming and want to try it for #gamedev as well
Sadly #COSMIC doesn't support our drawing tablet so that machine is using #KDEPlasma
A draft game menu with a title at the top and information boxes and buttons arranged at the bottom
This concept game menu was a big first step in setting up our #gameart direction. It needed work to have more texture and a clearer #UI, but we liked the idea for its grittiness, like a band flyer that was hand-drawn with marker and pen and maybe taped up on a community board
#indiedev #gamedev
Disculpen mi español, pero creo que aproximadamente el 85% del tráfico de internet consiste en bots, scrapers e IA. Estamos tan cerca de la teoría de la internet muerta que me pregunto qué hace nuestro sitio web por nosotros 🤷
Another great IGDA NOVA meetup yesterday to get feedback on our #gamedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸
We also saw @potacostudio.bsky.social's next game and got to playtest it in 4-player mode!
Every #indiedev should look into their local #IGDA chapter. It's a huge morale boost every time we go 🎉
The music genres in our #indiedev game, Improve the Groove 🎸
Punk
Jazz
Blues
Reggae
Funk
Disco
Latin
Soul
R&B
EDM
Rock
Country
Hip Hop
Pop
It's a shame to reduce so many of these into one style but we also have to limit scope creep in our #gamedev since each one changes the original BGM track!
A playing-card-shaped image that is red-colored and has a large debossed alto clef symbol in the middle
A playing-card-shaped image that is silver-colored and has a large debossed bass clef symbol in the middle
A playing-card-shaped image that is gold-colored and has a large debossed treble clef symbol in the middle
(Get ready to feel seen, viola players!) Here's some card art from our #indiedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸
Rarely visible, card backs still need something simple and music-themed on them. Next up is face art, which is under revision while we incorporate music genres into them
#gameart #gamedev
I'm not sure how to say this 🤷 but I don't think it's a story that Studio Dhjamb is #queerowned and service-disabled #veteranowned 🏳️🌈🪖
Am I wrong? Just existing as an #indiedev seems like enough
I feel like we have way more in common than we have that divides us
Improve the Groove #indiedev log 2:
• Base decks, starting cards, upgrade paths, and scoring overhauled #gamedev
• Main menu restructured, deck viewer in more places, and flyout details added #UI
• Drummer, Sachin Ramabhadran, officially on board! #vgm
Next update: Tutorial/intro and lots of art!
A balcony-level photo over the atrium area of the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center, where among approximately one hundred visible people, one is dressed as Wally/Waldo
#MAGFest2026 has passed so it's time to recover and get some thank you notes out to the amazing #artists, #indiedevs, #educators, #writers, #musicians and other panelists who were so very helpful and gracious with their wisdom and time for us
We also found Wally/Waldo along the way - did you?
We saw @potacostudio.bsky.social again, this time at #MAGFest with their awesome game, #Bluma, and they were the nicest group of devs to chat with! Their game is an inspiration
Go find them in #MIVS (first on left) and play it. Also buy it! store.steampowered.com/app/3032520/...
#indiedev
So mass producing low-effort AI... um, garbage... is the only way to keep from being unemployed? I'm not understanding the position here
Thank you for the tool suggestion; we'll check this out!
Brute-forcing 10k (i)terations, we found the odds flatten asymptotically to around 22.2% (0.222 repeating) but didn't do the actual calculus to find the limit
So if anyone deeply enjoys a math problem and they'd like to find it... 🤓
I'm glad my #indiedev partner is a #mathnerd because #deckbuilder math gets cR@zY 😵💫
Like, from any (t)otal deck of cards made up of an even split of 3 card types, how often will pulling 3 cards get you 1 of each type?
With some help we found it to be: 1 x 2t(i) / 3[t(i) - 1] x t(i) / 3[t(i) -2]
🤯
This was the first placeholder UI for our game menu
The idea was that the right side would look like sheet music 🎼 and show your band name, current stage, game speed, difficulty, etc. while the sounds of a band of your current skill level could be heard warming up 🎶
#WIP #UI #indiedev #gamedev
We've been slow to post #gamedev screenshots but please be patient 🙏 since our art is hand-drawn. We're an #indiedev and don't use gen AI for any assets or code, not even for placeholders so nothing's accidentally left in. We also use every draft as an opportunity to practice or learn ❤️
The #gamedesign of our #indiegame, Improve the Groove, is taking shape! Audiences come with a vibe and expectations. Play a card to establish your groove and skill, one to affect the crowd's vibe and chill, and one for a bonus. Match their vibe and exceed their expectations to get applause and fans!
What #MAGFest meetups should we look for?
We're an #indiedev duo near DC working on a music game (not showcasing in 2026, but submitting for 2027). We follow IGDA DC but we're also comfy with small events
Other indie devs? Anything #MIVS -related? Garage bands playing #vgm? (relates to our game)
Doble publicación en #español para nuestros amigos del hemisferio occidental no fue tan exitoso como esperábamos. Vamos a dejar de publicar #multilingual en #bluesky por ahora, pero sin duda volveremos a hacerlo más adelante si nuestro número de seguidores crece. Mientras tanto, lo sentimos.
It looks like dual-posting in #Spanish for our Western Hemisphere friends hasn't been as successful as we'd hoped. We're going to suspend #multilingual posts on #bluesky for the time-being, but will absolutely restart in the future depending on how our following grows. In the meantime, los sentimos.
We had a great #indiedev Dhjamb session with our #gamedesign friends over the weekend! What generates applause? How does that get you more fans? What does it mean to have more fans? These answers are leading us to what the extended game loop will look like in Improve the Groove
#ImproveTheGroove
¡Improve the Groove #indiedev diario!
• Las tarjetas rediseñado #gameart
• Setlist y Concierto definado #gamedev
• Cambiador de perfil te permite bandas varias e intercambiarlas
• Editor de tarjetas permite probar el diseñador de juegos a ideas nuevas
• ¡Pronto utilizar #OBSStudio para compartir!
Improve the Groove #indiedev log!
• Redesigned cards #gameart
• Better defined what a setlist and concert are #gamedev
• Profile changer lets you have more than one band and swap between them
• Card editor allows our game designer to test new ideas in-game
• Loaded #OBSStudio to start sharing soon!
We just found out that we can't make #multilingual posts on #bluesky. Well, we can, but it appears most users set their content language to just their native language and that causes Bluesky to filter posts tagged with multiple languages, so almost nobody sees it 😕
Maybe separate posts work better?
Hoy me siento inspirado para componer música nueva para el videojuego. Estoy pensando una pista monótona pero con ritmo, y una pista hermana en un clava musical relativa. Enotonces puedo a crear un mashup de los dos para una pista tercera y crea simetría musicala entre ellas. (Disculpa mi español)
