It's good to get bad feedback early 👎⌛✅ We're trying to do something we haven't seen in other deckbuilders, but it still has to play well so thank you for the feedback! 🙏 Those in the alpha playtest can expect a new version soon with changes we think you'll be excited about! #indiedev #gamedev

Milestone: We just handed out keys for our friends & family alpha playtest on Steam! Improve the Groove has reached a new level of realness 🎮🎸 We want to sincerely thank the Bluesky #indiedev community and the NOVA Game Developers for their unconditional help! ❤️ #gamedev

Getting to look at a stage from the FOH booth is a great perk before a show if you also happen to be developing a game about live music from the POV of a board op 😅 #gamedev #indiedev

Trying to get an alpha playtest up on Steam but their documentation is more fragmented than we expected, specifically around what's needed for the playtest's separate app ID vs what's needed for the main app 🤔 Anyone have a helpful resource you can link to? 🙏 #indiedev #gamedev

How do others design information-dense areas in their #gamedev? For us, it's the cards in a #deckbuilder. We want to declutter them as much as possible without creating too much original iconography or just copying other games. Flyouts are mandatory, but when are they over-cluttered? 🤔 #indiedev

We pushed v0.13.1-a of Improve the Groove to our dev playtesters and one loaded it on his Steam Deck in desktop mode and played it without issue! We shouldn't be surprised since we're Linux-native but we thought it would need more work #indiedev #gamedev #steamdeck #godot #godotengine #linuxgaming

Kronk: Emperor's New Groove - It's All Coming Together

Alt: Kronk: Emperor's New Groove - It's All Coming Together

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Learning #shaders was mind-bending but worth it! 🤯 My studies (sources below) let me make this 2D border from scratch in #Godot that adjusts to its container size and keep uniform width on each side. It can be solid or faded toward the center, a color or a texture, or animated! #indiedev #gamedev

Not much to add about our #indiedev this week as our #UI gets a massive overhaul. The previous UI was just for us devs to verify the math but the new UI will make it much clearer to players what's happening 🧭 So next time you see us at a #gamedev meetup we'll have a very different look to share!

We learned #shaders well enough to̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶d̶a̶n̶g̶e̶r̶o̶u̶s ^to craft some from-scratch animation and lighting effects Now we can complete the new #UI where players will build sound modules instead placing instrument cards "Improve the Groove" from the perspective of the audio tech! 🎧🎚️📈🔊 #gamedev #indiedev

Yet another great #IGDA meetup yesterday to get feedback on our #gamedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸 It's affirming to see another #indiedev take interest in your work and ask real questions about it And it's inspiring to see what other people have been working on and do the same for them ❤️

a man in a red and green shirt is sitting at a table in a diner .

Alt: Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell is inspired

media.tenor.com

We did a lot of #gamedev before tackling any graphics beyond placeholders because we started with a physical card game But it's time to program #shaders which is its own special hell that we wade deeply into because we want the practice and knowledge of doing it Real #indiedev starts now

This week in #gamedev we're looking at #localization options in #Godot to set up translation tables before we add too much text I want to launch in Spanish and English at a minimum, and we'll get help before we rely on my Spanish (or any other languages I've dabbled in). Nadie quiere eso #indiedev

A #deckbuilder without cards? Instead of "cards" we're experimenting with a shuffling array of effects pedals in a guitarist's pedal board or modules in a sound board from the tech perspective. The latter organically gives us a view of the band and audience together 🤔 #indiedev #UI

Our #Linux native #indiedev studio is trying out #PopOS 24.04 LTS. #Ubuntu 25.10 serves our purpose for #Godot and creative apps like #Krita, but we like Pop!_OS for gaming and want to try it for #gamedev as well Sadly #COSMIC doesn't support our drawing tablet so that machine is using #KDEPlasma

This concept game menu was a big first step in setting up our #gameart direction. It needed work to have more texture and a clearer #UI, but we liked the idea for its grittiness, like a band flyer that was hand-drawn with marker and pen and maybe taped up on a community board #indiedev #gamedev

Another great IGDA NOVA meetup yesterday to get feedback on our #gamedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸 We also saw @potacostudio.bsky.social's next game and got to playtest it in 4-player mode! Every #indiedev should look into their local #IGDA chapter. It's a huge morale boost every time we go 🎉

The music genres in our #indiedev game, Improve the Groove 🎸 Punk Jazz Blues Reggae Funk Disco Latin Soul R&B EDM Rock Country Hip Hop Pop It's a shame to reduce so many of these into one style but we also have to limit scope creep in our #gamedev since each one changes the original BGM track!

(Get ready to feel seen, viola players!) Here's some card art from our #indiedev project, Improve the Groove 🎸 Rarely visible, card backs still need something simple and music-themed on them. Next up is face art, which is under revision while we incorporate music genres into them #gameart #gamedev

I'm not sure how to say this 🤷 but I don't think it's a story that Studio Dhjamb is #queerowned and service-disabled #veteranowned 🏳️‍🌈🪖 Am I wrong? Just existing as an #indiedev seems like enough I feel like we have way more in common than we have that divides us

Improve the Groove #indiedev log 2: • Base decks, starting cards, upgrade paths, and scoring overhauled #gamedev • Main menu restructured, deck viewer in more places, and flyout details added #UI • Drummer, Sachin Ramabhadran, officially on board! #vgm Next update: Tutorial/intro and lots of art!

#MAGFest2026 has passed so it's time to recover and get some thank you notes out to the amazing #artists, #indiedevs, #educators, #writers, #musicians and other panelists who were so very helpful and gracious with their wisdom and time for us We also found Wally/Waldo along the way - did you?

We saw @potacostudio.bsky.social again, this time at #MAGFest with their awesome game, #Bluma, and they were the nicest group of devs to chat with! Their game is an inspiration Go find them in #MIVS (first on left) and play it. Also buy it! store.steampowered.com/app/3032520/... #indiedev

Save 20% on BLUMA on Steam

Join Bluma in this cozy puzzle-platforming adventure where you make the platforms. It’s up to Bluma, a magical chinchilla, to unite the elemental realms by solving physics-based puzzles and farming ve...

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I'm glad my #indiedev partner is a #mathnerd because #deckbuilder math gets cR@zY 😵‍💫 Like, from any (t)otal deck of cards made up of an even split of 3 card types, how often will pulling 3 cards get you 1 of each type? With some help we found it to be: 1 x 2t(i) / 3[t(i) - 1] x t(i) / 3[t(i) -2] 🤯

PC Gamer Article www.pcgamer.com/software/lin... We agree!

I'm brave enough to say it: Linux is good now, and if you want to feel like you actually own your PC, make 2026 the year of Linux on (your) desktop

Now if you don't mind I'm going to delete the root folder and see what happens.

pcgamer.com

This was the first placeholder UI for our game menu The idea was that the right side would look like sheet music 🎼 and show your band name, current stage, game speed, difficulty, etc. while the sounds of a band of your current skill level could be heard warming up 🎶 #WIP #UI #indiedev #gamedev

We've been slow to post #gamedev screenshots but please be patient 🙏 since our art is hand-drawn. We're an #indiedev and don't use gen AI for any assets or code, not even for placeholders so nothing's accidentally left in. We also use every draft as an opportunity to practice or learn ❤️

The #gamedesign of our #indiegame, Improve the Groove, is taking shape! Audiences come with a vibe and expectations. Play a card to establish your groove and skill, one to affect the crowd's vibe and chill, and one for a bonus. Match their vibe and exceed their expectations to get applause and fans!

What #MAGFest meetups should we look for? We're an #indiedev duo near DC working on a music game (not showcasing in 2026, but submitting for 2027). We follow IGDA DC but we're also comfy with small events Other indie devs? Anything #MIVS -related? Garage bands playing #vgm? (relates to our game)

It looks like dual-posting in #Spanish for our Western Hemisphere friends hasn't been as successful as we'd hoped. We're going to suspend #multilingual posts on #bluesky for the time-being, but will absolutely restart in the future depending on how our following grows. In the meantime, los sentimos.

We had a great #indiedev Dhjamb session with our #gamedesign friends over the weekend! What generates applause? How does that get you more fans? What does it mean to have more fans? These answers are leading us to what the extended game loop will look like in Improve the Groove #ImproveTheGroove