Nova

Nova

@novasquirrel.com

Game dev and pixel artist, hoping to meet other furries that do story focused RP. 31, she/her See https://chitter.xyz/@NovaSquirrel or https://novasquirrel.com/contact.html for other sites Check out https://tilemap.town/ - my 2D pixel art virtual world

554 followers281 following1.3K posts

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Since I'm using backgrounds from Wikimedia Commons in Sliding Blaster 2, that means development works in a funny way where I'm using some nice looking backgrounds I saw as inspiration for other game elements, and trying to elaborate on the mood and vibes I get from them.

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Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I have some good ideas for what kind of themes I want to have in the game, and how I want to approach them, but I am thinking that I'd probably be better off shuffling things around instead of having it where the game thoroughly explores one theme and then moves on to another.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I could have something where it starts with a handful of "simple" level themes with enemies that aren't too difficult to deal with and level gimmicks that aren't too complex, and start ramping up the complexity and mixing themes together as the game goes on.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

It's fun taking 3D photos of stuff (because I bring my 3DS most places just in case, so I do have it on hand) but I might want to consider using hacks to mute the shutter sound if I want to continue taking photos at museums and such. It is disruptively loud in an art museum with only a few people.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Since I'm using backgrounds from Wikimedia Commons in Sliding Blaster 2, that means development works in a funny way where I'm using some nice looking backgrounds I saw as inspiration for other game elements, and trying to elaborate on the mood and vibes I get from them.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Thinking that if I break the game into rough ideas on themes I want to focus on, then I can try and make a progression of mechanics and such using the themes, and then make an overall game progression from that, and have some structure to build the rest of the game around.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Realizing that "project 2 to work on when I'm stuck on project 1" doesn't necessarily work for me, because getting un-stuck tends to be a matter of actively doing research and experimenting until I figure it out, instead of waiting for the perfect inspiration to strike.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Sometimes it is genuinely a situation where I just need to put the project away for awhile, like how my maze Game Boy Color game had the cool maze generator but no satisfying mechanics to go with it and turn it into an actual game, and that inspiration came a few year later.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

The site admin behind the NESDev wiki (running MediaWiki) and forums (running phpBB) has been missing and unreachable for over half a year, so I hope that the PHP exploits don't mean that those resources are just gone until that can somehow get a resolution

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

When I was a kid I primarily associated Witch Doctor with DDR 6thMix, and knew there was a Dr.Mario ad that used it, but now the main game people associate it now is most likely Super Mario World because of SiIvaGunner.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

(CW: flashing) Dian Shi Ma Li re-implementation in Fortran is at the point where you can now push start to rich. Now it's just missing an intro animation, sound effects, and the double-or-nothing bets with the cards (which will require me to rip them) code.novasquirrel.com/Maffi/DianSh... #gamedev

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Found out today I had sea lions and seals mixed up with each other, and it doesn't help that my zoo has a display that gets it backwards too. "I have an ear hole instead of an ear flap", turn the display, see a sea lion at an angle where the ear flap is easy to see.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Realizing that the most appealing part of FluxFur is that it both encourages people to create furry communities that are actually open and discoverable and tries to connect people who would want to start them. I never figured out how to meet the right people at the right time to find small chats.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I have felt like participating in large social media sites is pretty much mandatory to meet people now, because it seems like a lot of people only use those and invite-only spaces (so you have to find them here first) and I'm glad for more options, especially ones that don't involve sketchy apps.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Years ago I started renting a tiny plot on Second Life and put a cute island there, then someone bought the surrounding land and put walls around my island, so I put an ugly 3D Santa, and that's been something the neighbors have had to deal with until now when someone got staff to move my plot.

Nova reposted

Firefox for Web Developers
@webdevs.firefox.com

Firefox 158 landed today! For web devs: 🎉 JPEG XL support, including full progressive rendering. 🎉 'navigate' on notifications, so they can go to a URL without firing events. 🎉 WebGPU's float32-blendable 🎉 WebGL's EXT_polygon_offset_clamp And more! developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/M...

developer.mozilla.orgFirefox 158 release notes for developers (Stable) - Mozilla | MDNThis article provides information about the changes in Firefox 158 that affect developers. Firefox 158 was released on October 13, 2026.
Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Non-animated advertisements for games are an interesting design space when you care about not being deceptive, since that means wanting to communicate the feel of the game and what it's about without exaggerating stuff in a way that suggests something that's not actually in the game.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Wanted to actually show the concept of modifying a map in Tilemap Town by drawing individual tiles onto the map (since that is the main mechanic of the whole platform) and ended up going for something careful that makes use of the actual in-game UI instead of getting "YouTube thumbnail" with it.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

And now this ad is active on FurAffinity, plus two other ads at different sizes; hoping that an ad that actually depicts map modification should give a clearer idea of what Tilemap Town actually is, compared to the old ads that put more emphasis on roleplaying. While important, building is the focus

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Adding a generic text display subroutine to my Dian Shi Ma Li reimplementation just so I can pass it the text "Push start to rich" instead of having the line prerendered in some image somewhere

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

SNES cart flasher arrived, and I was able to put my silly ALDI game on an actual Kaite Tsukutte Asoberu Dezaemon cart. Also proceeded to dump that game and all of the other SNES and Super Famicom games I have because why not. I guess if I ever wanna make carts to send to friends later I can do that.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Saw "The SNES Encyclopedia" at the library, alongside the NES and Dreamcast ones, and checked it out and looked through it yesterday. Did notice a few errors so I'm going to take the fun facts with a grain of salt, but I do now have a big list of games I want to dig through and check out.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Specifically the errors I noticed were claiming that Excitebike saves via the Famicom Disk System (actually via a cassette recorder plugged into the Family BASIC keyboard) and that GSU-2 added support for running at 21MHz (that was actually GSU-1; only the "MARIO" chip couldn't go at full speed)

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Managed to get the Petal Crash 2 style garbage position logic working in the Super Game Boy port after translating the Game Boy Color implementation of that logic, and garbage breaking works (including color clear and the animation) so now I need the garbage dropping animation and garbage sending.

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Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Here's how garbage currently works in the Super Game Boy version of Petal Crash. The markers for where garbage will fall are a quick placeholder. The board shake is actually done via animating the board graphics, since the trick I'm using for 12x12 tiles stops me from using mode 2. #gamedev #snesdev

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Added garbage sending, added a very simple display for showing how much garbage is queued, and dummied out some in-progress stuff to make the battle bar actually able to make the other player lose a stock. Added a way to reset and start a new match, and now we have basic, but functional Tug-of-War.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I had no idea that Fairchild Channel F had such bad audio, but it's understandable that it does

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Getting the impression that it's not super common knowledge that there's a whole world of DRM-free, subscription-free, microtransaction-free offline PC games ready to explore whenever, that you can buy once and keep forever. Does mean having to be willing to explore outside of popular franchises.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Managed to get the Petal Crash 2 style garbage position logic working in the Super Game Boy port after translating the Game Boy Color implementation of that logic, and garbage breaking works (including color clear and the animation) so now I need the garbage dropping animation and garbage sending.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

After garbage sending, add in the ability to detect getting overgrown and have some sort of lose state and you've now got a functional Trash Attack. Make the code for losing a stock via the battle bar actually remove the stock (animation or not) and a lose state and you have functional Tug-of-War.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Upgrading my server to Ubuntu 26.04 was uneventful, though next time I really should do a backup beforehand just to be safe. Probably barely means anything without a desktop environment installed, but I'll happily take a newer version of gcc.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

Today I learned that poison ivy is not poisonous (that's actually an allergic reaction that not everyone has) and it's not an ivy (actually a member of the cashew family apparently)

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I realized that Shinx Maffi would probably be Electric+Ground type because immunity from electricity makes sense for rubber, as does resistance from poison. Would be interesting to have a typing that's only used by one official Pokémon (Sandy Shocks).

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I've got a nonsexual chat on here for people who have (or appreciate) toy characters, like pooltoys and plushies and balloons and such: fluxfur.com/invite/nmpsf... I've never been able to find a chat for that that wasn't erotic so might as well put one somewhere where people will be able to find it

FluxFur@fluxfur.com

WE'RE TEMPORARILY OPEN FOR REGISTRATION!!! Register HERE: fluxfur.com/register?reg... We welcome you to our pro-furry, pro-kink, pro-LGBT Fluxer instance, FluxFur. Thanks for checking us out. Hop on in quickly, before registration closes!

fluxfur.comfluxfur.com

Nova reposted

SEGA SATURN, SHIRO!
@segasaturnshiro.bsky.social

Is there any harm in using AI to work on — or entirely create — projects for the Sega Saturn and elsewhere in the retro gaming scene? Yes, PandaMonium says in this opinion column, equating such work to digital asbestos: www.segasaturnshiro.com/2026/09/24/c... #sega #saturn #segasaturn #retrogaming

segasaturnshiro.comColumn: All A.I. Projects Are Digital AsbestosThe views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of all SHIRO! Media Group contributors. The cost of modern day video game consoles and personal computers have skyrocketed…
Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I noticed my Forgejo instance has been getting totally hammered by what are obviously scraper bots, and CPU usage had been spiking to 10% or worse a few times a minute, but I think I managed to reduce the load a lot by blocking the ability to access random commits from users that don't have a cookie

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

I figure that nearly all legit site visitors either want to download a release, look at the most recent version of some of the source files, or clone the repository if they want to actually work with the code. Very few of them are interested in old commits on projects I haven't worked on in years.

Nova
@novasquirrel.com

These are probably not particularly surprising. Chip's Challenge keeps influencing my game design so I put it right in the middle. I think a lot of my sense of humor came from WarioWare. my9games.net/en