Nova Storm @NovaSquirrel@chitter.xyz

Cleaning some of the clutter from my bedroom and it already feels quite a bit nicer to be in there. It's surprising how it actually makes a difference.

I have a cheap suncatcher of a cute fox design but I feel like I should wait until I get some good paint and an ok paintbrush before I try and paint it. The included stuff is probably not very good.

My friend Mousebyte recently got a reference sheet of her fursona and finalized her design, so I drew pixel art of her!

Oh hey it's some fire enemy stuff ported from the previous game. I haven't given the fox anything yet, maybe it'll just follow you and shoot fireballs, because I could use that sort of thing.

I also think I may be having subpixel issues with the camera?
#gamedev #snesdev

The weekend is here, which means I actually get to spend time with people in other timezones!

Turns out there is a nice cafeteria two blocks away from work, with a large menu and a lot of things I'd really like to try! I just went today and had a milkshake, and I really liked the place!

I hope I can get group outings to happen there.

That's the sort of thing I would absolutely love to roleplay but would absolutely run into trouble putting a group together due to meta stuff being unpopular (is it? Or did I just run into vocal people?) and just not knowing many people with characters designed for that sort of thing.

A friend (whose fursona is inspired by cartoon mice) got her reference sheet today and that's been setting off the part of me that LOVES crossovers and very meta stories.

I've been thinking about story concepts where characters from different mediums/genres are on a team together and use their respective tropes together.

Imagine a platformer character using their extreme agility, a cartoon character being indestructible and pulling props out of nowhere, an RPG character casting magic, etc.

I wish I were more into international food, since other people really seem to like going to get it but I usually end up finding out I dislike it and end up with a plate of food I can't make myself eat but still have to pay for. At this point I'm gonna just stop trying unless it's Mexican or Italian.

At work we used to be near this nice general cafeteria that had a lot of variety and I was always able to find something I liked every day, but we moved and don't have that anymore...

I like how even though I'm writing a real SNES game, my experience is completely different from what a 90s console game dev would have had. I don't have a real incentive to stick to smaller or slower ROM, and they definitely didn't have Git, Aseprite, newer algorithms, or really good emulators. I'm also sitting atop lots of game design improvements that have been had since then.

On the other hand I don't have access to Nintendo-provided resources or code, like their music engine.

It's Isabelle as a rubber toy! Drawn by https://twitter.com/Yurzamaniac again like most of my recent commissions

I was talking to a friend who was concerned about a character she was writing with a different identity than her own, and wanting to make sure she wasn't unintentionally writing them in a way that'd be hurtful.

I then realized I'd have absolutely no idea how to write someone who's not asexual, because I don't know what that kind of attraction feels like at all and people who aren't ace tend to confuse me. So I guess my stories will get to take place in a world where everyone is ace somehow haha

It makes me really happy when someone acknowledges Nova being a video game character on their own. Like it's central to who she is but doesn't come into play as often as I'd like, so it's great when it does!

Since I got a Game Boy flashcart for trying out my own Game Boy projects, I've also been visiting games I played long ago as well as ones I hadn't.

Kirby's Dreamland is neat; I only ever played Kirby Super Star's version of it before and it already distinctly feels like Kirby even without copying. It was a nice reminder that you can just design Game Boy platformers to be slower paced and deal with the screen resolution that way.

Though I think I will keep my own attempt fast and action-y.

So that I can get some ability copying into my game, I've been doodling some (early?) fire enemy designs, mostly continuing stuff from the previous game but also added a fox I'll need to make behaviors for. Probably good to reuse enemies for some continuity.

I drew a bunch of decorative tiles to put in my levels. Take a look! #gamedev #snesdev

Today we moved into a new office at work and I already miss my cubicle but being able to bike to work is great, and I'm going to get a lot of exercise doing this every day. I decorated the desk I have with plushes to make it cozier, and brought in a large fennec plush to sit at an empty desk. I'm going to pretend that Fenneko is working here now.

I also saw that someone else now has a Gadget Hackwrench avatar on Slack aside from just me!

I feel like not having anyone to share meals with kinda leads to unhealthy choices, since then I have to decide between eating all of something or dealing with how it reheats, and a lot of things reheat poorly.

I bet I could probably get away with cutting a frozen pizza in half though. I will have to try that!