Bunguin Games ๐Ÿ”œ MIGS

Bunguin Games ๐Ÿ”œ MIGS

@bunguin.games

Indie studio based in Aotearoa, New Zealand Developer of @headlicegame.com and @coldsalvage.com https://store.steampowered.com/app/2851800/Headlice/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2368320/Cold_Salvage/

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We are nearing the vertical slice on this investigation-horror co op game - if you are interested in private playtesting to help us reach open public tests, jump in our Discord! discord.gg/qZPcA6cfBu

Cold Salvage is a co-op horror survival game set in abandoned wrecks in deep space. Grab your friends, load up on gear, and find out what killed the ship. But be careful, not everything on board is dead #indiedev #horror #coldsalvage

We are working on a small multiplayer test using #BRUTAL . The first thing we built was a procedural spine/look system. It's not critical tech, proves nothing - so why do it? Because games are built for humans. Little things like this give even blocky characters a way to emote. #devlog #gamedev

A little taste of the atmosphere we're going for with Cold Salvage. Sci-fi horror is often all about what you can't quite see.

There's something deeply unsettling about a spaceship that's still running when everyone on board is gone. The lights are on. The machinery is humming. And you have absolutely no idea what happened here. That's the sort of place we're trying to build. #indiedev #HorrorGames #screamfest #nzgames

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Bzzt // Play KTWYF during Steam Scream Fest! That's right, our demo didn't end with Next Fest - you can still jump in and see how it feels to tear the limbs off your friends and mutant family... #indiegames #indiedev #coopgame #gaming #multiplayergame

We're hoping one of our favourite games @playphasmo.bsky.social is in Steam Scream V - our whole team has been playing the Crimson Eye event (currently ongoing), and a spooky sale is the easiest way to convince new players to jump on board! www.gamebrief.net/blog/steam-s...

gamebrief.netSteam Scream Fest 2026: Dates, Times and Horror DealsSteam Scream Fest 2026 runs October 26 to November 2 at 10 AM PT. Start and end times by zone, and the horror games Steam's own rules keep at full price.

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We build levels using asset kits, but scenes with hundreds of objects can mean hundreds of draw calls. On the right: the authoring level. On the left: what ships. Our tools merge objects, reducing this to one draw call per material. That means better performance โค๏ธ #gamedev #tips #scifi #unity3d

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We are Kissing Things With Your Friends, a wholesome co-op game about friendship, love, and definitely NOT dismemberment. You happy now algorithm??? Our new demo is out NOW! #steamnextfest #coop #indiedev #lovernotafighter

Another of our favourite games from NZGDC this year - we've kept an eye on this one for a while. Who doesn't love an #kaiju #deckbuilder? The team also recently won a highly competitive funding grant from @nz-code.nz - so they musty be doing something right! Play the demo and check it out!

Dream Team Supreme demo update is live NOW!!! get the link in the bio and play it with a friend. #indiegame #roguelike #multiplayer #deckbuilder #coopgame

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In space, getting lost is easy. Finding your way back before something finds you is the tricky part. This week we've been playing around with colour in Cold Salvage. Yellow marks the way back to your pod, while red draws you further into the wreck. Hopefully you remember which way you came from. ๐Ÿš€

After the release of #brutal under an MIT-style licence, we took a weekend off space monsters to explore the framework. The verdict: We love it, because nothing is forced on you. The networking and CICD architecture of this prototype is exactly what we want to build, no workarounds or compromises.

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Consider the GameObject lifecycle in Unity. It's incredibly powerful and easy to use. But if you want to stray outside of it, it becomes very difficult. A lot of our friction points in Cold Salvage are borne of wanting to use networking and DI outside of GO's, and that is hard out of the box

BRUTAL doesn't have an opinion, because it gives you nothing at all. It's a framework that says, here's abstraction over the graphics API, go forth. More work, more maintenance - but no compromise. It's exciting. "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe"

After the release of #brutal under an MIT-style licence, we took a weekend off space monsters to explore the framework. The verdict: We love it, because nothing is forced on you. The networking and CICD architecture of this prototype is exactly what we want to build, no workarounds or compromises.

Obviously, it is a tool and the tool must fit the purpose. Unreal and Unity give you features backed by decades of expertise and engineering, and we will continue using Unity on our other projects for the time being. Where #brutal makes the difference for us is the lack of opiniation.

The maths involved ๐Ÿคฏ

Antonio Lattanzio@alattanzio.bsky.social

Testing advanced structural destruction with realistic load transfer, progressive failure, and dynamic detachment of broken sections. Every failure changes how the remaining structure behaves Wishlist AD-METALLUM on Steam and follow the development! #Box3D #UnrealEngine5 #ADMETALLUM #GameDev

We absolutely recommend following @designdelve.bsky.social and also www.youtube.com/@SecondWindG... if you too love to learn about how games work - the choices developers make, the surprising tradeoffs and the very intentional outcomes. Plus, JM8 recently (ish) played OG Final Fantasy VIII #teamtifa

youtube.comSecond WindSecond Wind is the home of informative, interesting, and entertaining content from creators like Yahtzee Croshaw, Jack Packard, James Read, Nick Calandra, Darren Mooney, and more. We publish premium ...

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PlinkIdle is coming really soon and I just pushed a new build to the Playtest app! Sliding in new features, don't look ๐Ÿซฃ (Yes I feel guilty, I should be testing and not noodling). There are NEW THINGS though. Like a big menu and a little theme machine and a new collection and CUSTOM CURSORS.

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From an engine perspective, dark-room-and-flashlight horror is easy. What is a lot harder? well-lit liminal spaces that provide dread and tension. If you have not seen it, check out Alien: Romulus. Our dev team hold a special place for the cinematography of that film. #horror #alien #lighting

Yes, games are cool and all that. But the toolchains we make are a special kind of cool. No store page, no reviews, no launch day. Nobody is ever going to wishlist our internal dashboard that tracks our steam metrics and social media accounts. But we still loved building it!

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Our intrepid engineer corps have been working hard to get this obsolete, abandoned tug ready for you to claim from the black. Visit the Kiwi Games Zone @ NZGDC on 3rd October to get your hands on the new Cold Salvage demo! Counting down now to @nzgda.bsky.social 's massive annual conference โ˜ ๏ธโค๏ธ

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Next weekend, Headlice will be demoing at NZGDC in Auckland. Swing by the booth if you'd like to see the prototype running on a Nintendo Switch! We have big plans for this little crab

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Holy merch, Batman! Our enamel pins arrived today from Wholesale Wristbands and wow do they look cool. Come see us at the Indie Games Showcase in Auckland next week if you'd like to win one! #pins #enamelpins #indiegamesshowcase #gridakl #indiedev

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This is why you hire good graphic designers. We made a spooky sci-fi banner (before). Our designer asked: "But what is the game actually about?" Co-op. Repairs. Horrible monster (after). Making a game and communicating a game are different skillsets โค๏ธ #indiedev #indiemarketing #graphicdesign

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More crunchy dev footage. Here we are testing the manual door overrides - and a small slice of the new Medbay area โš•๏ธ๐Ÿ”จ #gamedev #space #engineer #horrorgame

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Bzzt // Open Playtest update available right now! Thanks to everyone who has jumped in so far, we've collected some great data and made some huge fixes and QOL changes! ๐Ÿ”— Catch up on the Patch Notes in our Steam update! store.steampowered.com/news/app/444... #gaming #indiedev #indiegame #coopgame

store.steampowered.comKilling Things With Your Friends Playtest - Playtest Update - Steam NewsEXOGEN LABS - SUBJECT ADVISORY The testing program has received repairs. Sudden trial collapse has been resolved, and new adjustments have been applied to testing infrastructure. -- Exogen Trial Opera...

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Our Card #Cricket Quest demo just received a big update! Introducing Elite Bowlers, who have all sorts of debuffs and powers to stop you scoring. And, we've made our Hall of Fame leaderboards live, so now you can see how your best scores stack up against other batters from around the world!

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Cold Salvage is a #multiplayer #co-op #horror #survival game set in the reaches of space. You're not a soldier - you're an engineer. Load up on gear, Explore, Repair, Survive. Public playtests coming in 2026

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One of the most important tools of the salvage engineer is the map table. You can override security lockouts and guide fellow engineers to the damage - so long as the wreck still has power. Strategize as a team! #indiedev #scifi #wip

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The two newest bunguins are finished! They're all hand made, and have name beads under the wing for their owner. I can't wait to add the newest name on the little one, due in a few weeks โค๏ธ #plushie #sewing

You may have heard of the Turing test, but have you heard of the pirate test for AI? There are bots that trawl Steam updates, scrape Discord links, and message server owners for lead generation (I presume). We like to waste their AI credits outing the bots by asking for pirate speech #aislop #spam

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Version 0.4.254 was just released to our alpha testers in the community discord. Updated UI, the first pass of the interactive map table, and the wreck now has a name plate! Why not drop in to the Discord and check the project out discord.gg/qZPcA6cfBu #alpha #playtests #scifi #horrorgame