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Skyboy Games

@skyboygames.com

Making New Games for Old Game Systems: https://skyboygames.com/static/Skyboy_Landing.html Owned and operated by Robbie (she/they), Assoc. Prof. of Game Design at GMU: @nobunagaota.bsky.social #gamedev #nesdev

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21.10.2024
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Latest posts by Skyboy Games @skyboygames.com

Thank you!
Learning SDL3 and not owing part of my tech stack to some company's proprietary software we're definitely motivating factors.

11.03.2026 02:18 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I've been pretty quiet about this, but I recently restarted my emulator container project that will allow me to release my NES games on Steam, consoles, etc.

Decided to build on SDL3 since modern game engines have too much overhead for me.

#gamedev #retrogame #nes #indieretro

11.03.2026 01:46 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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One of the earlier creatures you will encounter in Even Goblins Fall In Love is the Haniwa, an animated clay statue.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg

09.03.2026 22:28 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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For anyone who owns a physical NES copy of Fire And Rescue or Gunhawk (available on Etsy *wink, wink*: www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... ), you can scan the game cartridge with an NFC reader to get a free copy of the corresponding ROM from itch.io.

08.03.2026 13:44 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Here's a first look at the Jabberwock, the final boss of Even Goblins Fall In Love.

It took a lot of work and a bit of trickery to get this image into the game, but it was totally worth it.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg #screenshotsaturday

07.03.2026 22:53 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Evil people in the real world aren't subtle. In fact, they often think looking evil is cool.

Think about how they often name their companies with the same names used by game designers, authors, and filmmakers for their evil orgs/items/characters. For ex.: Bain Capital, Cerberus, Blackrock, Palantir

07.03.2026 19:30 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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a little girl is making a funny face while sitting at a table with potted plants . Alt: a little girl is making a funny face while sitting at a table with potted plants . She says: "Porque no Los dos?"
07.03.2026 19:25 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

As the saying goes:
"Subtext is for cowards"

07.03.2026 16:39 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

They also have the Slay! perk that allows them to substitute Charisma for Strength in attack rolls.

06.03.2026 21:17 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I love the note, too:
"Mini Moai shoot mini rings"

06.03.2026 13:34 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I can't help but imagine "The War Queer" as some sort of new DnD subclass.

06.03.2026 13:31 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I love that feeling! Zeropage memory is sooo good.

05.03.2026 18:02 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Ghost of Yotei star: 'workers need more protections' in game development 'If you're watching this, if you're like me, please demand that the workers are treated fairly.'

Ghost of Yotei star: 'workers need more protections' in game development

04.03.2026 17:01 πŸ‘ 1878 πŸ” 428 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 45
Console output from compilation that says:

1>GoblinLove.nes
1>filesize = 65552
1>bank size = ?
1>1 = 8192, 2= 16384, 4 = 32768:number_banks = 2
1>bank 1 = 2.92% empty. Or, highest run of 958 bytes of zero.
1>bank 2 = 0.0% empty. Or, highest run of 0 bytes of zero.
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Build completed at 11:05 AM and took 02.392 seconds ==========

Console output from compilation that says: 1>GoblinLove.nes 1>filesize = 65552 1>bank size = ? 1>1 = 8192, 2= 16384, 4 = 32768:number_banks = 2 1>bank 1 = 2.92% empty. Or, highest run of 958 bytes of zero. 1>bank 2 = 0.0% empty. Or, highest run of 0 bytes of zero. ========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ========== ========== Build completed at 11:05 AM and took 02.392 seconds ==========

My game production super power is having a compiler that literally stops working if I try to add too many features to my game.

Build output for Even Goblins Fall In Love that tells me I have ~958 bytes of space left in PRG ROM.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro

04.03.2026 02:46 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I can drinkz video game?

03.03.2026 12:50 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Hey
I don't wanna go to work today
Wanna stay home and play all my video games

02.03.2026 23:28 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Nice!
I've been building a custom shell app around a NES emulator for PC releases. We can chat about the tech in FXBG.

01.03.2026 21:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you so much!
What can I say? I wear my nostalgia on my sleeves!

01.03.2026 17:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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March is here!
This month on the NES Homebrew Calendar, (re)discover Banana Bash, the excellent puzzle game from @work3studio.bsky.social! 🍌😍

#NES #homebrew #nesdev #NESmaker #indiegames #gamedevΒ #γƒ•γ‚‘γƒŸγ‚³γƒ³Β #εŒδΊΊγ‚²γƒΌγƒ Β @scrobins.bsky.social @deadeye.bsky.social

01.03.2026 15:14 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 16 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Our NES shooting action games Gunhawk, which you can play with either gamepad or Zapper, is available digitally on skyboygames.itch.io/gunhawk and physically at www.etsy.com/shop/SkyboyG... and stoneagegamer.com/gunhawk-nes.....

01.03.2026 14:44 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thank you! Especially the Dragon Warrior part. I'm speccing this game to the same circuit board (CNROM) as the first Dragon Quest.

01.03.2026 05:04 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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a group of soldiers are standing in a row wearing helmets and armor . Alt: a group of soldiers are standing in a row wearing helmets and armor .
01.03.2026 05:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Welcome to Adalwood, a forest town in Even Goblins Fall In Love.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg #screenshotsaturday

28.02.2026 22:53 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

I have an initial implementation of decoding an additional compression layer for my world map data in Even Goblins Fall In Love. It saves me ~600 bytes of code size, but it decodes way slower than the less compressed version.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #jrpg

23.02.2026 23:28 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I dread the part where you have to go into a dark cave, fight Darth Vader, and then, after defeating him, find out he was you.

Game development is weird.

22.02.2026 16:53 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Who would've thought that doing marketing for your games would involve going through so many CAPTCHAs?

For the curious, my marketing task at thee time was updating my spreadsheet of YouTubers and their email addresses.

22.02.2026 14:44 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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They scream β€œonly two genders exist!!”
But every soul shines in its own irreplaceable color 🌈✨
No matter how loud the hate gets, Chiitan will keep waving this flag until everyone can sparkle as themselvesπŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈπŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ

22.02.2026 03:02 πŸ‘ 6324 πŸ” 1711 πŸ’¬ 72 πŸ“Œ 33
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Dumpstar is an enemy based of a bugged-out enemy that showed up during testing at an expo.

The kit-bashed graphics from the bug looked so cool it's now a real creature in the game.

#indienes #gamedev #homebrew #retrogame #nes #nesdev #indieretro #screenshotsaturday

21.02.2026 22:53 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Don't they realize that mental health is the greatest game of all?

21.02.2026 16:21 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

That feeling has been my life almost all the time with Even Goblins Fall In Love.

Especially because I wanted to use the same mapper as DQ1 (CNROM - 4 banks of CHR, same PRG space as NROM)

BPE compression and storing data in CHR have been lifesavers.

19.02.2026 11:48 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0