#ascendantjam

I had a lot of fun for my #AscendantJam game making isometric pixel art. Here's a key scene, where our hero comes across an unfortunate moment. #gamedev #pixelart hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

Old #NES games have such a specific feel to the start page. Here's mine for my #ascendantjam game. Haha not 100% sure the original hardware would have enough tile space to render this, but hopefully it hits the nostalgia vibes. #gamedev #indiegamedev hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

Spore Storm is an isometric metroidvania / LOZ style game. You run around unlocking doors and navigating through a maze, with cut scenes between the levels. Takes about 15 minutes to play, which seems just right for a jam game? #gamedev #gamedesign #ascendantjam hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

1 week into #AscendantJam and it's time to make my avatar. I wrote a JS tool to convert #MagicaVoxel into 2D isometric sprite sheets. I drew voxels 1st (3 parts to the hero... legs, torso, head) and flattened him into pixels. Result ain't perfect, but it saves LOTS o'time! hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

I was a day or two into #AscendantJam, and the next thing I did was my @itch.io page. I've never been a "developer art" believer. Making pretties = momentum! SO important for nights-and-weekends #gamedev. At this point I STILL didn't know much about the game itself. Haha. hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

I had a jump start on my #AscendantJam #gamedev. A prior project was an "isometric #nes game" ... so thank goodness I had an engine (sorta) working, and the #CSS magic for animating the carts. That 1st game was janky, but at least it was a start! hugbug.itch.io/diary-of-z hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

If you've ever cracked open an old #nes game, you know the beautiful, chunky design of those carts. Mmmm plastic and dust smell! This was the 2nd image I made for my #AscendantJam game. I had no idea what the story was. I just liked a "2 words x 5-letters" title. #gamedev hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

For me, the gold standard of #NES cutscenes is the old #NinjaGaiden. The #AscendantJam team provided some character art, and I picked a dude name Mitch Dougan as my protag. But all good stories have a romance, right? So I created Amy and sketched my 1st cutscene. #gamedev hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

For my #AscendantJam game entry, I started with a question: What would a AAA shooter franchise look like if it launched in 1983? Toys! Cartoons! Comic books! The first image I designed was the mission statement for the project. #photoshop #indiedev #gamedev hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

For my #AscendantJam project, I scratched my usual itch, which is nostalgia, simple games that attempt to tell an emotional story, and some kind of visual hook I can't stop thinking about. What if Ascendant were released in 1983? It'd be an #nes game, prolly! #retro #80s hugbug.itch.io/spore-storm

ASCENDANT JAM ($50,000 Prize Pool) A game jam from 2025-05-02 to 2025-08-15 hosted by ascendant.com. Welcome to the ASCENDANT JAM, with over $50,000 in prizes! UPDATE - Deadline extended to August 1st and ASCENDANT JAM WEEKEND announce...

My latest #gamedev project was a (for me) super long jam called the #AscendantJam. 2 months?! Nice prize pool, which is exciting (and weird) in and of itself, but the thing that really caught my attention was the well-developed cyberpunky world that came along as inspiration. itch.io/jam/ascendant