@alienmelon@mastodon.social
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alienmelon

@alienmelon@mastodon.social

i make experimental games and software ~Tetrageddon, Everything is going to be OK, Electric Zine Maker… http://tetrageddon.com ✨ http://unicornycopia.com 🌈 non-binary they/them 🏳️‍🌈 #gamedev #indiedev #software #opensource #writing #animation #art #tools #desktoppets #artgame #indiegame #netart #weirdweb

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alienmelon, to random
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i wrote about ALL the things on my mind lately, and how much it was a blessing to finally go to A MAZE!
"The story of my first A MAZE (and why I wish we had an event dedicated to solo-devs)"
👉 https://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/the-story-of-my-first-a-maze-and-why-i-wish-we-had-an-event-dedicated-to-solo-devs
🦩✨💖🥰🩷🦩

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

working on my games entirely on my own is a huge amount of work sure but i’m also just as proud that everything i did has gotten mainstream recognition or awards. it means you can get this far entirely on your own without any help building your game, and i hope that never changes. 1/3

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

dependency on others can become extremely exclusionary. popularity games, bullying, manipulation, gatekeeping, etc… are hard af to navigate.
as long as gamedev is welcoming and accessible to individuals i feel like we maintain a culture where anyone can shine. 2/3

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

you can make the game you want to make exactly how you dream it and that’s special!
it’s an art that you as the individual artist can keep exploring and a creative language that you can keep perfecting on your own terms.
there’s nothing like that type of creative independence. 3/3

alienmelon, to random
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i’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a solodev, the misconceptions, how difficult it gets…because i’m 💯 set on starting an event that celebrates & highlights that. if we had that it would help with negative conceptions & give space for others to find eachother!
1/3

alienmelon,
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we need more empowerment for modes of artistic independence… and for these conversations to evolve beyond pedantic nitpicking or invalidation toward people actually working so hard to do it… it’s a completely different way to make games.
2/3

alienmelon,
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it’s so hard to get solo work recognized because the workload is already massive… then you have to compete with work done by teams (big difference in privilege, resources, & advantage). it would be wonderful to have a space that just allows for solo development to be recognized.
3/3

alienmelon, to random
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if people got as pedantic about other creative fields as they do toward solo devs:
“but can u really say Stephen King is the author when he had a publisher, editors, and people even cooked the food he ate while he worked… u can’t really say he wrote all those books himself…”

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

yay 🎉 the Electric Zine Maker now has a Webby listing in their gallery + index!
https://winners.webbyawards.com/2024/websites-and-mobile-sites/general-desktop-mobile-sites/netart/275315/electric-zine-maker
EZM got an honorable mention for net art in the Webbys this year 🥰💖🎉✨

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

people disagreeing with u online is actually not a terrifying experience once u trust that they’re not here to screenshot & dunk…once the fear of animosity is gone it’s actually fun to hear other opinions 🫠
(imo gamifying online interaction into an attention economy ruined this)

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

re: “true solo devs don’t exist. nobody does all aspects of gamedev…”
yes they do. i do! imo i wish limited understanding of a space wouldn’t be generalized to erase other’s doing that thing.
there’s an aspect of looking down at solo dev that’s disempowering or gatekeeping too… 1/3

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

not everyone has the privilege or advantages to know people they can collaborate with, or even pay. some people aren’t privileged enough to have access to a community or resources.
some can do it entirely on their own and that’s a perfectly legitimate and possible way to do it! 2/3

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

let’s not convince people that gamedev is a complicated thing where u need a big education, lots of resources, or access to professionals in order to make a game. the heart of indie development is to have the audacity to just go do it (without other’s telling u it’s not possible) 3/3

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@RedGlow yes this. i got so upset the first time i learned of projects like this because i hold myself to that standard and take doing it all alone very seriously. it makes everyone look bad (invalidated) when we let people like that suck all the air out of the room. echoing that too: i really wish we could have more of these conversations so awareness about (like u said) both sides could happen.

taylormccue, to random

@alienmelon Hi, I am currently working on an adult game that uses trivia as it's primary mechanic.

In order to boost queer devs I want to have a category of "queer games trivia" because my hope is that it'll force players to look up queer indies so that they can "win".

By doing this I hope they will find a new dev that they like or at least make them more familiar with the scene.

I do not want to make anyone uncomfortable by featuring their works in an adult game.

I was wondering if you'd...

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@taylormccue hey i saw you talking about this on the other site. this sounds very cool. i’d be honored if my game was spotted in a queer adult trivia game. yes! if you need anything from me please lmk. thank you for asking and best of luck!

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@taylormccue there’s one i like… EIGTBOK started out as a series of doodles on post-its that were what the pages in the game eventually turned into: https://x.com/alienmelon/status/1303830509810716672?s=46&t=Wc0rfD9ENytr_QsyOPManA
i originally shared a couple post-it panels on twitter because i was making these silly existential doodles involving bunnies and people liked them so much that the game eventually happened.

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

lol i have a very floofy fuzzy jacket (it’s ridiculously floof like I’m wearing the cast of sesame street) and out of all the things to cause a random search at airport security it was the floof. the security lady spent a lot of time combing through it. carefully floofing each fluff.
good news: my floofy jacket is now airport safe 👍

alienmelon,
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@PRINCESSINTERNETCAFe YES you do indeed.

alienmelon, to random
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(^ᴗ^)ﾉ ₒ⋆•°* existential despair*

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

impostor syndrome sure is a thing.
you judge your work so harshly like it’s not perfect enough and all that, then people tell you they love it.
it’s easier to see in other people than yourself but everyone has it.
perfection is a myth. imperfect things are more meaningful.

alienmelon,
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“not good enough” is such an arbitrary, subjective, and superficial metric. especially when you view your own work or yourself through that lense.

alienmelon, to random
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BlueSuburbia won at A MAZE 😭🥹🥰💖🦩💕

my pink best friends

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@notjosh thank you!!!! 🥳🙏

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@Liquidream 🥳🎉💕🥹🥰🙏🦩!

rdk, to random
@rdk@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

@alienmelon Congrats on the award!

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@rdk thank you 🥹🙏

alienmelon, to random
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

lol i really wanted to get my tongue pierced during A MAZE but in retrospect it was probably a good idea that everyone i know talked me out of it 😆
next time tho: 👅🔪

alienmelon,
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

@Schlossgespenst yay thank you! 😊🙏🥹

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