The Funtastic

@thefuntastic.bsky.social

Maker of games and things, namely Cadence www.thefuntastic.com

This is wonderful. A chill puzzler that at times feels like wiring up old synths, but in a manner that’s entirely approachable. Perfect fodder for fans of puzzles and/or people who like making chill audio loops. There’s also a built-in construction kit so you can fashion your own levels and melodies

The Funtastic@thefuntastic.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Cadence is available on: - Steam: l.madewithmonsterlove.com/wishlist - iOS: l.madewithmonsterlove.com/ios_preorder Make sure this gem doesn't pass people by. Please share or leave a review if you can - it really does help with visibility!

This is like those EDM songs with Alan Watts talks layered in I reached the end with just a few bonus levels left, mostly through trial and error and intuition. It's not a long game in that sense, and I don't have the mind for the sandbox, but it's serene, uplifting, and beautiful Do check it out

The Funtastic@thefuntastic.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Cadence is out now! Make music by solving circuits. It took 13 years to figure how to do this well! Beyond the puzzles: 🐈‍⬛ Pet Ren, the cat! 📜 Enjoy Ren's life philosophy (all text is skippable) 🎹 Use the sandbox to make music 🧮 Or explore turing complete contraptions

Cadence is out now! Make music by solving circuits. It took 13 years to figure how to do this well! Beyond the puzzles: 🐈‍⬛ Pet Ren, the cat! 📜 Enjoy Ren's life philosophy (all text is skippable) 🎹 Use the sandbox to make music 🧮 Or explore turing complete contraptions

Me: Spends 13 years making game. Also me: Wakes up on release day to find the big RELEASE YOUR GAME button on Steam is no longer there... AFAICT, I'm "missing" an image that I've had for six years?!? Waiting for a response to my support ticket and feeling very defeated right now...

Using Unity after several years absence: I've been pleasantly surprised to find state of most things is better than I remember it. Unity's IAP Purchasing is not one of those. Message from my future self: Just use RevenueCat...

We're excited to announce that applications are open for the Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant 2025 🎉 The grant will award $15,000 to five thinky puzzle game developers from all over the world, and a year's mentorship with genre veterans. Deadline: September 28th More info 👇 grants.draknek.org

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This is the most conceptually challenging tile in Cadence. Have been musing for years if I should even build it, and how on earth to telegraph it to users. Fitting the last piece of content is my best work to date - really happy with the polish here.

Paid Dreamhost $1000 over the last five years for a broken wordpress website because I was too lazy to port my email away from them. They rubbed salt in the wounds by making me pay an extra $20 cancellation for a "free" domain registration from over 10 years ago 🙄

This has been a brutal leadership lesson: Explaining an idea to a room full of 15 people, and getting 15 different interpretations back. Especially when nuanced. And that was just 15, not 400! I have a lot more sympathy for the derivative nature of AAA now...

Max Nichols@maxnichols.bsky.social · last yr.

Another HUGE factor is creative alignment and consensus on a large team. One of the hardest problems in big teams is getting everyone working towards a shared vision, consistently. Doing this is the job of the creative director. And it's, just, logistically very hard!

I need to get over the idea I'm only capable of "programmer art". But also pulling off something you have no rights to is pure magic... perhaps I should start believing I can't program to recapture that beginners joy? Anyway, can't close Blender, because how cute is this guy I made?!? 🥹

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An e.g. of how mad gamedev in 2025 is: Great, look at this niche games festival full of my prospective audience... ...with 477 niche games. That's more than the entire number of games that launched on Steam in the 2013, the year I started working on Cadence. 🪦