In this Linkship Competition devlog, I talk about how I continued working on the core battle mechanics and started on some animations: #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

Linkship Competition Devlog 5: Core Battle Mechanics Continued

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

A couple of weeks ago, I made a short memory game called Stage Left. Check out my devlog where I talk about the process I went through to make this short mini-game in 6 hours: #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

Stage Left Devlog

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

In this blog post, I show some of the various projects I've been working on over the past few months:

CUPdate 104: Web Projects, Eventures, & SN World Returns

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

Last night I had a dream that I made this game in #RPGMaker, so I decided to make it a reality! I spent a night making this short little memory game where characters show up in a random order each time you play. 🎮 Play the game here: michellerakar.itch.io/stage-left #GameDev #IndieDev

Stage Left: Gameplay Video

YouTube video by Sarena

youtu.be

I made a running animation for Ralphie in the Linkship Competition. I wanted to focus on running instead of walking because the pace is a bit faster. I also implemented 4 frames instead of the typical 3 in #RPGMaker games. And used a plugin to allow for a different idle animation #GameDev #IndieDev

I made some progress on our Linkship Competition game today! I've been working on some cooldown mechanics. Once you use an ability, their icon fills up until the cooldown is complete. Then, you can use it again and repeat! Health bars and resource bars are working too. #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

In this devlog for the project we're currently calling Linkship Competition, I cover some of the early development where we laid out some of the initial battle mechanics: #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

Linkship Competition Devlog 4: Battle Mechanics Begin

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

My friends and I started meeting bi-weekly for our CUPdates project over 5 years ago, so we did a special in-person meet-up for the 100th one this weekend! I took this time to reflect on my projects over the years, so you can check out some of what I presented here: #GameDev #IndieDev #Blog

CUPdate 100: Project Recap & Reflection

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

@nimbusstev.bsky.social and I made a lot of progress on our Linkship Competition game today! I made some basic battle mechanics like cooldown timers, button mashing, and holding buttons. Here's the Navigator's rechargeable weapon used to sabotage the enemy's linkship. #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

It's been that time of year where work takes over my personal life, so I haven't had a lot of time to work on personal projects. I'm hoping I can get back into things again soon, though! In the meantime, I've just been trying to stay creative while playing games that let me draw and customize.

For our Note Competition remake game, right now we're calling it WING Competition (WIP title). In this dev log, I made some logo concepts, started the Steam integration, did some initial sketches and thumbnails, and updated my debug plugin. Check out the details here: #GameDev #IndieDev

WING Competition Early Devlog 3: Logo Design & Steam Setup

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

The other night, I decided to make an old-style website using HTML and CSS, designed to look like it was made 20 years ago. I used p5.js, so I wouldn't have to figure out hosting for it. This was a fun little project I made in a night! 🔗 Check it out here: editor.p5js.org/Sarena/full/...

A few weeks ago, I made a personality quiz game for my characters in The Nays. Check out my process on how I developed it here! #GameDev #IndieDev #RPGMaker

CUPdate 97: Character Personality Quiz

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

Check out the final Macca Masquerade devlog, where I detail all of the additional features we added after the Global Game Jam and how we wrapped up this ambitious #GGJ project: #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ26

Macca Masquerade: Post-GGJ Devlog 2

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a 40+ question personality quiz! After you take the quiz, you'll find out which of my characters from The Nays that your personality matches. 🎮 Play it in the browser here and share your results in the comments below! #IndieDev #GameDev #RPGMaker

The Nays Personality Quiz by Michelle Rakar

Find out which character you are

michellerakar.itch.io

In this Macca Masquerade dev log, I talk about the initial updates I made on the project after the Global Game Jam to fix some bugs and add more features. #GGJ26 #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

Macca Masquerade: Post-GGJ Devlog 1

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

I'm heading back into development on our game, previously called The Note Competition! We still don't have a title (tentatively WING Competition), but we had a brainstorming session the other night. So I looked through our inspirations and drew a few sprite style tests for Urom. #IndieDev #GameDev

I updated some of the visuals in our little #RPGMaker personality quiz side project. Then I added a results screen with information about the character, a way to learn more about them, and the option to retake the quiz. #GameDev #IndieDev

So I got a bit carried away with this personality quiz project and ended up making my own #RPGMaker plugin for it! It stores values in internal variables and then calculates which character has the most points at the end. It stores names and descriptions in variables, too. #GameDev #IndieDev

Personality Quiz Plugin by Sarena

Create a personality quiz in RPG Maker MZ

sarena.itch.io

Last month was #GGJ26, so we made a game called Macca Masquerade. I documented my process throughout the weekend, so check out my first blog post, where I detail everything that happened during the jam weekend and where we were by the end of that first week of working on it. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

Macca Masquerade: Global Game Jam 2026 Devlog

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

My friends and I were talking about making our own personality quizzes for our characters, so I spontaneously made this quick little test in #RPGMaker. When you select a choice, it adds points to a specific character, and then at the end of the questions, picks who has the most. #GameDev #IndieDev

In this strategy RPG, play as Kali the assassin on her mission to infiltrate the Macca Masquerade and find the elusive cult leader: Maester Beckon. Challenge attendees to duels, unmask them, and collect masks. 🎮 Play the game here: thegek.itch.io/macca-masque... #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ #GGJ25

Macca Masquerade by The Gek Games

Unmask the Cult in this Strategy RPG

thegek.itch.io

I'm happy to share that we officially finished our #GGJ26 project, Macca Masquerade! We've been working nonstop, debugging and adding more features over the past month. I'll share the link to play it tomorrow, but for now, some screenshots for #ScreenshotSaturday. #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

I updated the challenger selection UI in our #GGJ26 project to match the battle UI and dialogue boxes a bit more now that we have a more centralized theming. Also not pictured here, but I made a lot of enemy behavior updates tonight too! #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

I finally wrote the rest of the dialogue for our #GGJ26 project tonight! I also did a lot of bug testing and overall tried to finalize the last major parts that are left. Still working through some bugs, but hoping to wrap this game up in the next week or so! #GameDev #IndieDev #GGJ

I updated some of the UI buttons in our #GGJ26 project. Because I added the keys/buttons you press to use them, it caused some overlap. So I rearranged them to be in the places you'd expect and ended up redesigning them a bit to fit into the new layout. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

I finally added the defeat animations for all of the characters to our #GGJ26 project tonight! Once you defeat an enemy, you unmask them and take their mask, which you can use in battle. I drew the faces previously, it was just a matter of saving assets out to use here. #GGJ #GameDev #IndieDev

We made a lot of big updates to our #GGJ26 project tonight! We gave ourselves a deadline to finish it up in the next week or so, so I'm looking forward to sharing the final version then. In the meantime, here's the finished character select screen with all the characters! #GGJ #IndieDev #GameDev

Here's the final blog post for Escape From Tag World, where I reflect on the project as a whole and share the final links to the game! #GameDev #IndieDev

Escape from Tag World Devlog 7: Final Game & Post-Mortems

A blog dedicated the to artwork and game development process of Michelle Rakar, a Game Designer with a BFA in Animation.

michellerakar.blogspot.com

I added some abilities that extend the player's movement range in our #GGJ26 project. This meant rewriting our movement code and adding to how the tiles are spawned. #GGJ #IndieDev #GameDev