Sacramento Developer Collective x GDC: A Major Step Forward for Our Community
SDC is proud to announce an official partnership with the Game Developers Conference — and it’s going to directly benefit Sacramento developers.
For years, the Sacramento Developer Collective (SDC) has worked to create opportunities for indie developers, students, and small teams to learn, connect, and grow. This partnership with GDC is a huge milestone — not just for SDC, but for the entire Sacramento game development community.
GDC is the premier professional gathering for game creators, and this collaboration gives our community a stronger presence on the show floor, more visibility with industry leaders, and more meaningful pathways for local developers to share their work with the world.
Why This Partnership Matters
Visibility for Sacramento developers: More eyes on the incredible projects being built here in our region.
Real opportunities for teams: Showcasing, networking, and connecting with publishers, funders, and collaborators.
Community uplift: SDC exists to help developers succeed — this partnership amplifies that mission at the biggest industry stage.
SDC Will Have a Booth at GDC
As part of this partnership, SDC will have an official booth at GDC where we’ll be showcasing games currently being made in the Sacramento community. Our goal is simple: help developers get discovered, help projects gain traction, and help talented teams connect with the people who can support them.
10 Sponsored Developer Will Be Coming To GDC
We’re excited to share that SDC will be sponsoring 10 developers to attend GDC and show off their games. These sponsored passes are a direct investment into our community — helping teams who might not otherwise be able to attend take a major step forward.
We also want to recognize how incredibly generous GDC has been in making this partnership possible. Their support isn’t just symbolic — it materially helps developers get access to the world’s most important industry gathering. We’re grateful, and we’re committed to making the most of this opportunity for Sacramento creators.
SDC Community Discount Code (GDC)
In addition to the sponsored passes, we’re also providing an SDC community discount code for anyone planning to attend GDC. If you’re considering going, this is a great way to reduce the cost and join us on-site.
CODE: SDC10
Where to use it: Apply the code during GDC registration checkout here: https://gdc.informafestivals.com/2026/registrations/Attendee?_mc=barter_gdcsf_gdcsf_le_x_partner_2026?
What’s Next
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more updates — including future blog posts highlighting members of our community who receive sponsored passes, as well as the games we’ll be showcasing at the SDC booth.
This partnership is about uplifting developers — especially indie teams and emerging creators — by giving them real opportunities to be seen, supported, and celebrated. We can’t wait to share what’s next.
Every year, the Game Developers Conference (GDC)is the place where the game industry gets unusually accessible. It’s a week where the people who build games, fund games, publish games, market games, and support development all show up ready to talk shop. For indie developers, that’s rare. For the Sacramento Developer Collective community, it’s even better because it’s close enough to feel doable, and big enough to genuinely change what your year looks like afterward.
GDC 2026 runs March 9–13 at Moscone Center in San Francisco, and it’s leaning hard into a “Festival of Gaming” approach that blends conference sessions with meetups, show floor discoveries, and nightly events that make it easier to actually meet people instead of just sitting in talks all day.
You Get Real Answers From People Who Have Shipped
Indie teams are always solving problems under pressure. Technical challenges, scope issues, marketing confusion, funding uncertainty, community building, hiring, production planning, you name it. GDC is useful because it puts practical knowledge in one place, across the whole lifecycle of making a game. The 2026 program is structured around 14 tracks, including independent development, design, narrative and performance, discovery and marketing, business strategy, production, and tools and tech topics.
It also includes “Summit Communities” that are meant to give you a home base during the week. If you’ve ever felt like your discipline gets lost in the shuffle at big conferences, these communities are designed to solve that. Independent Games is one, but there are also communities around things like UX, narrative, tools, game AI, level design, and more.
Networking Is Built In, Not Left to Luck
People joke about networking, but at GDC it’s not just “talk to strangers and hope it works out.” The event is intentionally structured around connection, with curated matchmaking, lounges, and meeting formats that make it easier to talk with purpose.
For SDC folks, this is where going together becomes a superpower. You can split up and cover more ground, compare notes at the end of the day, and introduce each other to people instead of doing everything solo. Even a small group makes the whole experience less intimidating and more productive.
The Festival Hall Is a Cheat Code for Getting Oriented
If you’re an indie dev, the show floor is not just for playing demos. It’s where you can see the ecosystem up close. Tools, services, platforms, partners, and communities are all represented, which makes it a great place to get clarity on what’s worth your time and money this year.
GDC is also calling out a dedicated Indie and Education neighborhood in the Festival Hall, with its own stage for microtalks, fireside chats, and community meetups. For newer studios, that kind of focused space matters. It makes it easier to find your people and easier to learn in smaller, more approachable formats.
The Independent Games Festival is part of what makes GDC feel indie-friendly. In 2026, the IGF Pavilion runs from March 11–13, and the IGF Awards happen on March 11. Even if you are not submitting a game this year, IGF brings a real spotlight to independent work and attracts attendees who are specifically there to discover new games and new teams.
It’s More Affordable Than Ever
GDC has always had a “big conference price tag” reputation, but the 2026 structure offers more entry points than people realize.
There’s a Festival Pass with an early rate price, and there are also application based passes that are clearly aimed at small teams and students. The Early Stage Indie and Start up Pass is designed for studios and self employed professionals that have been operating less than five years, and the Academic Pass is available for verified students and faculty. There’s also a Digital Pass for people who cannot make the trip but still want the content and some networking access through the event app.
On top of that, SDC members can take 10% off using our discount code SDC10, which helps take some of the sting out of pass pricing.
For SDC specifically, the group discount is also worth paying attention to. If you can get 10 people going, there’s a discount on current Festival or Game Changer pricing, which is the kind of thing a community can actually pull off.
Why This Matters for SDC, Specifically
A lot of communities talk about “building connections,” but SDC is already doing the hardest part. People are making things, sharing work, showing up, and helping each other improve. GDC is a multiplier on that energy because it plugs a local scene into the wider industry for a week.
It also fits the practical reality of Sacramento. You are not flying across the country; you are making a short trip to San Francisco, and you can come back with fresh relationships, clearer plans, and new ideas you can share with the rest of the community.
If you want this to have maximum impact, the move is simple. Go in with a plan, and come back with a debrief. Pick a few focus areas, decide what “success” looks like for your week, and then share what you learned with other SDC members afterward. That’s how a conference trip turns into a community upgrade.
A la Card rolls up to Steam on December 11, 2025, bringing a food truck twist to the roguelike deckbuilder formula. It is a single-player card game from indie studio Shook Loose where you run a chaotic kitchen-on-wheels and stitch together absurd card synergies to survive waves of hungry customers and quirky bosses.
What is A la Card?
At its core, A la Card is a roguelike deckbuilder about running a food truck and bending the rules of your cards until they barely resemble what you started with. Every card is a dish, upgrade, or effect tied to your makeshift menu. Each run is a fresh route, with customers lining up at your serving window while you scramble to build a deck that can keep up with their appetites.
You will juggle ingredients, calories, and triggers while trying to keep the line moving. The tone is playful and a little chaotic, with a cute, hand-drawn presentation and a lighthearted take on cooking and card battles.
How a run plays out
A typical run sees you alternating between two main phases: cooking up your deck, and putting it to the test on the road.
In the prep phase, you load up your deck with ingredients and recipes, tweaking stats and effects to build the kind of menu that fits your playstyle. Once you hit the road, you start serving customers from the truck window, playing your cards in sequence to squeeze as much value out of your combos as possible before the shift ends.
The roguelike structure means you are chasing strong runs rather than permanent progression in the traditional RPG sense. You will lose, tweak your approach, and jump back in with new ideas for how your menu should work.
The hook: mutating your cards
The big hook in A la Card is how aggressively you can rewrite your cards.
Instead of simply adding stronger dishes to your deck, the game lets you stick one card’s effect onto another, change what triggers that effect, and swap around stats and “flavours” to build something that feels entirely custom. Over time, your deck stops looking like a standard starter list and becomes a strange, min-maxed monster of your own making.
Random events along your route give even more control. They let you adjust colors, calories, triggers, and other details mid run, turning every shift into a little design lab where you tinker with a few key cards until they become the backbone of your strategy.
Bosses as puzzles, not just stat checks
Serving regular customers is only part of the job. Each location has its own boss, and these bosses behave more like card puzzles than traditional health sponges.
They can hand you a specific card and refuse to leave until you serve it, or clog up your window with half-eaten scraps that force you to rethink your usual sequencing. The idea is that “big numbers” alone are not enough. You have to build a flexible deck that can adapt when a boss suddenly changes the rules on you.
Decks, trinkets, and long-term replay
A la Card is designed to be something you come back to for a lot of short runs. There are multiple starting decks, each tied to a unique trinket that shapes how that deck plays. As you win runs, you unlock more starting options, more trinkets, and more cards that fold into the overall pool for future attempts.
Ahead of release, the team has talked about shipping over 200 cards, more than 50 trinkets, and eight starter decks at launch, along with plans for regular post launch content drops. That gives the game a lot of room for experimentation and “I have never seen this combo before” moments.
With that many moving pieces, no two runs should look or feel the same, which is exactly what you want from a modern roguelike deckbuilder.
Who A la Card is for
If you enjoy games like Slay the Spire, Balatro, or other roguelike card battlers but want a lighter, more playful theme, A la Card looks like an easy recommendation. It leans into problem-solving and clever sequencing, rewards creativity, and adds a fresh layer of cooking and food-truck mechanics on top of familiar mechanics.
The presentation is cute and cartoony, composer Josh Whelchel handles the soundtrack, and the systems are built to support both casual “one more run before bed” sessions and more obsessive theorycrafting.
Release details
A la Card is developed and published by Shook Loose and launches on Steam for PC on December 11, 2025. It supports single player, Steam achievements, Steam Cloud, and other standard platform features.
If you like the idea of turning a simple burger into a ridiculous, rules-bending engine that carries an entire shift, this food truck is worth lining up for.
You hit publish, watched the first downloads roll in, and maybe celebrated a little. Then the numbers slowed down. That is the moment most teams realize something important. Launch day is not the finish line. It is the start of a new kind of work.
Post-launch marketing is about keeping your game discoverable, giving people reasons to care, and turning early players into a real community. You do not need a giant budget, but you do need a clear plan.
Below is a practical guide on how to market your game after it is already out in the wild.
Start with your storefront
Before you think about ads or influencers, make sure the places that actually sell your game are doing their job. That usually means your Steam page, console store listing, or mobile store page. Most players decide in a few seconds whether they are interested or not, so the basics need to be strong.
Look at your capsule art first. Ask yourself if a stranger could tell the genre just by glancing at it. The art should read clearly, even when it is tiny in a grid of other games. If it feels cluttered or generic, it might be worth commissioning a new main image or at least a tighter crop that shows your core fantasy more clearly.
Then review your trailer. A lot of launch trailers spend too much time on logos, story setups, or slow pans. For the store page, you usually want something that shows actual gameplay within the first few seconds. Think of it as proof that your screenshots are real. Trim anything that does not quickly show what it feels like to play.
Screenshots are next. Make sure they show real, exciting moments from the game rather than menus and empty rooms. Include shots that show your core loop, combat or tension if you have it, and some sense of variety so players understand the experience is not one note.
Finally, clean up your store text and tags. Use clear language that explains what the player does, how long the game is, and what makes it special. Avoid vague marketing phrases. Imagine the search terms your ideal player might use and make sure those ideas appear naturally in your description and tags.
A stronger storefront means every person you send to that page is more likely to buy, which makes all of your other marketing work more effective.
Treat the game as a living thing
A lot of players hesitate to buy a new game because they worry it will be abandoned. Even a small update plan can change that perception. You do not need a giant public roadmap, but you should have a simple answer to one question. Why should someone come back next week or next month?
Focus on a few lightweight commitments you can keep. That might mean regular bug fixing and performance patches, a steady trickle of quality of life improvements, and occasional content drops that feel meaningful, even if they are modest in size. You can also experiment with small events, like time-limited modes or community challenges, that give people a reason to log back in now instead of “someday.”
The key is consistency. Players would rather see one small update every few weeks than promises of huge expansions that never arrive. Under promise and over-deliver whenever you can.
Build a real community, not just an audience
Once the game is out, your community becomes the heart of your marketing. People are far more likely to try a game if they see other players talking about it, sharing clips, or recommending it directly.
Pick one or two primary homes for your community and commit to actually showing up there. For many indie teams, that means a Discord server and the Steam discussion boards. It can also include a Reddit community or a channel in a larger server if that is where your genre already lives.
In those spaces, be present and human. Reply to questions, thank people for feedback, and be honest about what you can and cannot do. Share work-in-progress images, early patch notes, or design thoughts so players can see that the game is evolving.
Make it easy for players to be visible too. Highlight fan art, cool builds, speedruns, or funny clips. A simple “community spotlight” post each week can go a long way. When players feel seen, they are more likely to stick around and bring their friends.
Work with creators as partners
Content creators, streamers, podcasters, and YouTubers are often more important than traditional press, especially for certain genres. The challenge is that they get buried in generic “please cover my game” emails. Your goal is to be the opposite of that.
Create a simple press or creator kit that lives online. It should include a short pitch in plain, direct language, a few strong screenshots and logos, and a link to your best trailer or some raw gameplay clips. Having everything in one clean place makes it much easier for a busy creator to say yes.
When you reach out, start with mid-sized creators who already enjoy games like yours. Watch some of their content first so you understand their style. Then send a short, personal message explaining why your game fits their channel and offer them a key, early access to an update, or something that genuinely helps them make an interesting video.
If a creator actually likes your game, stay in touch. Share upcoming features, ask what their audience reacted to, and consider inviting them to try betas or special builds. Long-term relationships with a few creators are more valuable than one big spike you never repeat.
Go where discovery really happens
Players do not just learn about games from big websites anymore. A lot of discovery happens in short-form video feeds, Discord communities, and through friends. That is good news, because you do not need permission from a gatekeeper to reach people there.
One of the easiest things you can do is start posting short clips regularly. Capture interesting moments: a satisfying combo, a clever puzzle solution, a wild bug, or a funny failure. Edit the clip so the interesting part happens immediately, add very light context if it needs it, and post it to places like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. Imperfect but frequency is better than polished but rare.
If you are comfortable on camera, consider simple devlog videos. After launch, talk through what changed in the latest patch, why you made certain choices, and what you are considering next. Players like to see the human being behind the game they bought.
Do not forget about events. Even post-launch, digital festivals and physical shows can give your game a second wind. A new demo for an update, a fresh trailer in an online showcase, or showing at a local convention can introduce you to players who missed your original launch entirely.
Use discounts and bundles with intent
Price changes are not just a financial decision. They are a marketing tool.
You generally want to avoid deep discounts too quickly, or you will train your potential audience to wait. Instead, tie discounts to something that feels like news. For example, run a sale when you ship a substantial update, celebrate an anniversary, or participate in a platform-wide event. That gives you a clear story to tell.
Bundles are another way to reach new players. If you know other developers who make games with a similar audience, consider teaming up for a themed bundle. Players who buy for one title might discover the others in the pack. This can be especially powerful on PC storefronts that support flexible bundling.
On mobile, “discounts” often take the form of in-app promotions rather than price cuts on the app itself. The idea is similar. Create short windows where the perceived value is higher, communicate those windows clearly, and avoid making discounts so constant that your full price stops feeling real.
Let data guide your next move
It is easy to get emotionally attached to particular marketing ideas. Maybe you love a trailer cut that underperforms, or you are sure a certain feature will bring people back but the numbers disagree. Data helps you move past that and focus on what actually works.
Set a simple habit of checking your key metrics once a week. Look at store page traffic and how many visitors convert into buyers. Watch how wishlists are changing and how many of them turn into purchases during launches or sales. Track daily active players, returning players, and basic retention for games that rely on ongoing engagement.
When you post a new trailer, run a community event, or push a big update, watch what happens in the numbers. If a particular type of post, video, or patch consistently leads to small bumps in traffic and sales, lean into that pattern. If something falls flat, treat it as an experiment and try a different angle next time.
A simple 30-day post-launch plan
If all of this feels overwhelming, break it into a month of focused effort with a few clear priorities each week.
In the first week, polish your storefront. Update capsule art if it needs it, replace or trim your store trailer to focus on gameplay, and rewrite your description so it is clear and direct. At the same time, set up or tidy your main community hub, whether that is Discord, Steam discussions, or somewhere else.
In the second week, communicate clearly about the future. Post a short message that explains what is coming next for the game, even if it is a small list. Ship at least one patch that improves stability or quality of life, and share what changed. Start posting a few short gameplay clips on your main social platform to remind people the game exists and show it in motion.
In the third week, focus on relationships. Reach out to a list of mid-sized creators who play similar games, using your creator kit and personal messages. Host a small community event or Q and A, maybe a developer play session or a live stream where you talk through a patch. Collect feedback from players and decide on a small set of changes you can realistically make in the near future.
In the fourth week, act on what you learned. Ship another update that incorporates some of the feedback you gathered. Announce a limited-time discount or in-game event that ties into that update, so there is a clear reason for new and returning players to jump in. Share the highlights of the patch, the best community clips, and any creator coverage you received across your channels.
At the end of those 30 days, step back and look at the whole picture. Check your data, listen to your community, and be honest about what you enjoyed and what felt like a grind. Keep the habits that moved the needle and felt sustainable, drop the ones that did not, and plan your next month around that.
You do not need to be everywhere or master every tactic. Post-launch marketing is about steady, human effort that keeps your game visible, keeps your players engaged, and keeps you learning as you go.
Unity can feel huge when you first open it. Windows everywhere, new terms, and about ten different ways to do anything. The good news is you do not need to learn everything at once. If you can install Unity, move a little cube around, and hit Play without fear, you are already on the right path.
This guide is written for first-time devs, students, and hobbyists who want to make their first small game with Unity.
Why Unity is a solid first engine
Unity is popular for a few simple reasons:
It runs on most decent laptops and desktops.
You can build both 2D and 3D games.
Most tutorials you find online assume zero experience.
You will write code in C#, but you do not need to be a “real programmer” before you start. Unity is a great place to learn programming by doing.
Step 1: Install Unity the right way
Unity is managed through a small app called Unity Hub. The Hub handles versions, projects, and add-ons.
Inside the Hub, add a Unity Editor version. Look for a recent “LTS” version. LTS means “long-term support” and is usually the safest choice for beginners.
When you add the editor, select at least one build target, like Windows or Mac. You can add more later if you want to ship to consoles or mobile.
Once the editor is installed, you are ready to make a project.
Step 2: Create your first project
In Unity Hub:
Click “New project.”
Pick a template. For your very first game, a 2D or simple 3D template is enough.
Name your project and choose a folder where it will live. Avoid syncing it directly with cloud services at first, since that can cause build issues.
When Unity opens, it will generate a starter Scene for you.
Step 3: Learn the core pieces of the editor
Unity looks busy, but most of your day will revolve around a few key areas.
Scene view This is where you place and move things in your game world. Think of it as your level editor.
Game view This is what the player actually sees when the game runs.
Hierarchy A list of every object in your current Scene. If the Scene is your stage, the Hierarchy is the cast list.
Inspector This shows the details for whatever you have selected. Position, rotation, scripts, sprites, audio, and more all live here.
Project window This is your file browser inside Unity. All your assets, scripts, and Scenes appear here.
The most important concept in Unity is this:
Everything in your game world is a GameObject, and it is built out of Components.
A GameObject is just a container. Components give it behavior and data. For example:
A Transform component tells Unity where the object is.
A Sprite Renderer component tells Unity what it looks like.
A Script component tells Unity how it behaves.
Once that clicks, the editor starts to feel less mysterious.
Step 4: Make something move with your first script
Let us give you a tiny win: move a cube around with the keyboard.
In the Hierarchy, right-click and create a Cube (in a 3D project) or a simple Sprite (in 2D).
Select the object and rename it to “Player.”
In the Project window, create a new C# Script called PlayerController.
Drag the PlayerController script from the Project window onto the Player object in the Hierarchy. This attaches it as a Component.
Double-click the script to open it in your code editor.
Replace the contents with this:
using UnityEngine;
public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour { public float moveSpeed = 5f;
moveSpeed controls how fast the object moves. You can tweak this in the Inspector while the game is not running.
Input.GetAxis("Horizontal") listens for A/D keys or left/right arrows.
Input.GetAxis("Vertical") listens for W/S or up/down arrows.
transform.Translate actually moves the object in world space.
Hit Play at the top of the editor, and you should be able to move your Player around.
If it does not work, that is normal. Check:
Is the script attached to the Player object in the Hierarchy?
Did you name the class and file PlayerController exactly the same.
Are there any red error messages in the Console window at the bottom?
Debugging is part of the learning process. You’re now doing real game development.
Step 5: Experiment without fear
A healthy Unity habit is to experiment in small steps and keep your wins.
A few ideas:
Duplicate your Scene before trying something wild. Right-click the Scene in the Project window and hit Duplicate. Now you have a safe copy.
Play with values in the Inspector. Change moveSpeed, the scale of the object and camera position to see how each one affects the game.
Use Play mode as a sandbox. When you hit Play, you can adjust values and see instant results. Just remember, changes made while playing do not save after you stop, so keep notes on values you like.
The more you poke around, the less intimidating the editor feels.
Step 6: Make a tiny game, not a giant one
Almost everyone starts with “I want to build an open world RPG” and then gets crushed by the scope. For your first Unity project, keep it small on purpose.
Good first game ideas:
A simple endless runner where you avoid obstacles.
A top down game where you move a character and collect coins.
A basic platformer with one or two levels.
Focus on finishing something that feels complete, even if it is short.
You will learn far more from one tiny finished game than from ten half complete “dream projects.”
Step 7: What to learn next
Once you have moved a cube and made a tiny prototype, here are good next topics to explore:
Prefabs, so you can reuse objects without rebuilding them every time.
Collisions and physics, to detect hits and movement.
UI basics, such as score counters and health bars.
Scenes and simple menus, so you can restart or go back to a title screen.
And if you are in a community like SDC, bring your early builds to meetups or jams. You will get feedback, encouragement, and probably a few bug reports you never would have found alone.
Ever wondered what goes into making a rhythm game that breaks the mold? We sat down with the developer of Beat Heart Beat, the upcoming absurd rhythm-platformer that challenges you to slash your way towards your withered Heart. This game immediately stands out with its bold, collage-like visuals and a distinct alt-rock soundtrack, steering clear of the genre’s usual electronic dominance. In this interview, the developer dives into the surprising inspirations behind the game—from the frenetic action of Katana Zero and the flow of Rayman Legends to the unique aesthetics of shows like Madoka Magica —and reveals how they tackled the challenges of merging rhythm with physics-based action. They also share the development journey, the crucial impact of playtesting, and the exciting roadmap leading up to the Early Access release in early 2026.
Describe Beat Heart Beat in one sentence for someone who’s never heard of it.
Beat, Heart, Beat is an absurd rhythm-platformer about tearing a path towards your withered Heart.
One of the first things I noticed about Beat Heart Beat is its striking visuals—the mix of 3D and 2D elements, the expressive character designs, and the collage-like aesthetics are all incredibly bold. It vaguely reminds me of the work of Yugo Limbo. What were some of your inspirations for the art direction?
I’m incredibly humbled by the Yugo Limbo comparison; I’m certain they’ve subconsciously affected my direction—especially their character design! I’ve always been drawn to mixed media for its capability to highlight uncanniness and dissonance as something beautiful and appealing in its own right. The work of Sodikken, Joel Guerra, and Felix Colgrave comes to mind as the biggest inspirations, as well as Madoka Magica‘s witch scenes, Coraline, and the HBO show Crashbox.
On a related note, what does the workflow or production pipeline look like for art creation in Beat Heart Beat?
As for the pipeline, I’ll be fully transparent and say that I am NOT an artist in any formal capacity, so production usually consists of a cycle of concept, iterate, rough asset, iterate, until we have something that we all like. My art direction could be described as “vibes-based,” or in other words, “a disaster”, so I’m very thankful my artists Benji, Annalivia, Annie, and both Andrew(s) can transform the junk in my brain into what you see on the screen.
Musical Inspirations & Production
Another standout element of Beat Heart Beat is its soundtrack. The rhythm game genre is often dominated by electronic music, but The Wacy took a distinct alt-rock approach. What inspired this musical direction? And building on that, how is the music in Beat Heart Beat produced? Is it commissioned, licensed, or created in-house?
It’s a little embarrassing but fun background, but during quarantine and being pretty miserable for several reasons, I found myself listening to a lot of super sappy alt-rock, grunge, and Midwest emo. Those genres continued to stick with me long after, and arguably led to the creation of Beat, Heart, Beat. In general, I also felt as though there were so many underrepresented genres in rhythm games, and I wanted to showcase something new. As for references, Glass Beach, Bedroom, Surf Curse, and Car Seat Headrest come to mind.
As far as sound production, our lead composer Sophie quite literally does it all—SFX, in-house composition, and pulling from her own personal albums. A lot of our guest artists were gracious enough to permit us to use their tracks, and a few friends have composed specifically for us.
Haha, that’s awesome! I am a huge Surf Curse fan, saw them in Reno a few years back, was a great concert! I got to say, I’m really looking forward to the soundtrack. When I first heard the main trailer, I was immediately hooked, and the song in it, “Did it Hurt When You Fell From Heaven?” was in my playlist for a while after!
When settling on the game’s visual and audio aesthetic, were there any alternate styles or directions you experimented with but ultimately moved away from?
Finding a balance between a maximalist, multimedia visual style and a legible gameplay scene is very tough and has required lots of iteration. We’ve leaned very hard into collage at times, and very hard into line art in earlier drafts. You could even say we’re still trying to strike a balance! Luckily, the style and tone of BHB were nailed down quite early, so it was less about what it would look like and more about how far we could push each aesthetic.
As I mentioned before, the audio aesthetic predates the game itself in many ways, so the direction was pretty clear to us from the start. I’d say the biggest change is actually that, over time, I opened myself up to other genres being in the game. I originally wanted an entirely grunge soundtrack, but we have some bonus tracks like Sivee’s “Loser Girl” and Allen Cai’s “See the Sun” that explore different genres like electronic and pop!
Core Mechanics & Design
The demo lets players chain attacks together, soaring through enemies and building momentum to the beat. How did you land on that as the game’s core mechanic?
It’s actually a pretty wild story. The first doc written for BHB dates back to February 2021, two years before it actually began development! At the time, the game was a pure platformer where, every beat of the song, a Heart would drop obstacles onto you, and you’d try to chase it. I shelved the idea as I finished up college, but I distinctly remember flying home for the holidays one time, listening to a pre-downloaded Spotify playlist, and reimagining a little guy platforming through a level and just slashing through enemies with crazy air combos to the music. I could see it vividly enough to the point where I wrote a preliminary doc on my notes app that I would then propose to my co-lead after graduation. The mechanics themselves were deeply inspired by Rayman Legends’ music levels, the combat of Muse Dash and UNBEATABLE, and the call-and-response mechanics in Rhythm Heaven.
I noticed that Rayman Legends’ influence when I played the demo. There is a sense of speed, responsiveness, and enemy placements that’s very reminiscent of it. How do you design enemy encounters, level layouts, and movement systems to keep that sense of rhythm and flow alive rather than breaking it?
Through blood, sweat, and playtesting. I mean, in all honesty, it’s largely thanks to my co-lead, Andrew, for developing a preliminary version of the in-game level editor within the first month of development. Which is nuts to do, by the way. Most of my ideas wouldn’t have come to life without his help, so I’m especially lucky for his contributions.
After that, I remember taking whatever songs I was listening to at the time, dropping them into the game, and charting tons of “fan levels,” I guess you could call them. I was a bit indulgent in how many I made, but it let me test the high-end potential of difficulty, discover my own charting principles, and let me tweak a lot of physics values to make it feel right. For charting specifically, I’ve found that pattern repetition and variations are your best friend, and a lot of the time it’s more important to find the “feeling” of the chart than making it as objectively accurate as possible. I will also note: a lot of my early charts were HOT garbage. I don’t have a charting background, so most of it was lots of practice and playtesting from family members and friends of different skill levels. Thanks, Mom!
Were there any surprising influences—musical, cinematic, or mechanical—that shaped how you approached those systems?
I think the most surprising influence that comes to mind is probably Katana Zero. I really wanted to capture that visceral feeling of seeing a group of enemies, forming a plan, and just executing something crazy. My favorite rhythm games are ones that incorporate context and character into their mechanics, where it feels like you’re actually interacting with the game world and not just clearing notes on the screen, like in Hi-Fi Rush or Patapon. While those games hybridize 3D action-platformers and RTS, respectively, I suppose the subconscious pitch of BHB was a personal take on seamlessly combining Devolver Digital-style action with rhythm.
When developing the rhythm-combat mechanics, were there any prototypes or ideas you loved conceptually but found just didn’t work in practice?
I originally really wanted the up and down slashes to be momentum-based, where instead of traveling to the note, you follow through it. This would’ve added more interesting physics gameplay, but it was unbelievably annoying for sightreading since there was so much variation in where Peccori would travel when slashing. While it wasn’t the right fit, the pogo and launcher enemies are a few spiritual successors to the idea that try to add a bit of physics-based movement. Oh, there’s also the Dasher enemy. We recently showcased the Tinktonk enemy, which is an improvement on the idea, but there is an evil, unused enemy lurking in our project files. Maybe one day I’ll throw a rogue one into a chart, who’s going to stop me?
Development, Tech, and Roadmap
For players looking ahead to the full release, what new mechanics, boss fights, or musical moments are you most excited for them to experience?
I’m very, very excited to see people react to the Story Mode. We’re planning on introducing new mechanics, enemies, characters, and a ton of weird nonsense that we think players will love. I think I’m most excited to see how people react to the party members that help Peccori along the way and how they might affect gameplay. Perhaps you’ll be able to meet them pretty soon!
How long has Beat Heart Beat been in development, and how has your vision evolved from the early prototypes to what players see today?
We started development in late 2023 and just released our second demo as of September 2025! I think the biggest change between the early game and now is the physics. Peccori used to have this REALLY awkward jump that stalled it in the air by default at a fixed height, and it wasn’t doing the platforming part of our rhythm-platformer any favors. Another major addition is slopes, where our levels used to be tile-based and completely flat. We really want to obfuscate that what you’re playing through is a “chart” and add more natural height and movement, and we have plans to push that even further in the future.
Has player feedback from demos or playtests led to any major design changes or surprising insights?
Yes! Player feedback is just about the most helpful thing out there. I think one underlooked thing that meant a lot was hearing about ways we could improve accessibility, especially since our game is visually, sonically, and technically pretty intensive at times. We just did a massive bugfix patch using the Discord bugs list as a basis, too—if you voluntarily report bugs as a player, you are my hero.
Some of my favorite player insights come from in-person tests, too. It always feels oddly affirming when people really clock my inspirations, like the Heart and Peccori’s rapport resembling the King of All Cosmos and The Prince from Katamari Damacy, or asking us if we’ve heard Glass Beach or seen Madoka Magica or something. When someone compares your work to something that you, as a creator, deeply respect, it feels especially rewarding.
From a technical standpoint, what does your development pipeline look like? What tools, engines, or plugins do you rely on most to bring your ideas to life?
We develop in Unity with GitHub for source control and FMOD, an audio middleware that allows us to sync music and do some fun dynamic music/SFX stuff. Andrew works on the backend, like the level editor, cutscene system, etc., and I do technical frontend design, like enemy implementation, creating environments and levels, and other random bits of scripting. I am the de facto producer on this project (and de facto many other things), which has been a great learning experience, but our pipeline is pretty informal and changes based on our needs for an upcoming milestone. I use Figjam, Evernote, and Milanote for my documentation and production, which I really enjoy, but I think my teammates are going to kill me if they have to create another account.
What’s the roadmap moving forward—upcoming features, release goals, or new levels and tracks you’re excited about?
I am super excited to announce that Beat, Heart, Beat will be entering Early Access in early 2026, featuring a user-level editor and the next chapter of the Story Mode. Expect new songs, backgrounds, enemies, characters, and more!!
Our penultimate question comes from the Born in Reverie developer, Axial Escape. They asked: What is your favorite part of developing your project, and what aspect do you most dread having to work on?
I think I’ll start with what I dread to not end on a bummer. I think marketing and project management can be really stressful at times, and it’s one of those things you don’t really even think about when you’re going into indie development. If I had to pick something from specifically the development process, I think I personally struggle knowing when to refactor old code or redo a level environment or something—basically anything that pokes at my perfectionism and OCD.
My favorite part of development has to be the process of crafting mechanics that recontextualize gameplay, like new enemy types or hazards. I think that’s my favorite part of design in general: once the framework is there, you can twist and push different parts of the design in ways you hadn’t originally anticipated. Outside of design, I’ve had a surprising amount of fun with creative writing for the Story Mode and designing modular systems on the programming end. There’s something satisfying about finally seeing the moving parts of a script click nicely, which is something that I could attribute to writing or programming!
What would you like to ask the next SDC Game Spotlight recipient?
Has a real-life experience or piece of non-game media influenced or inspired your work in some significant way? If so, how do you think your design philosophy, aesthetics, etc., have changed as a result?
Finally, how can players follow your progress, support the game, or get involved in the Beat Heart Beat community?
Beat, Heart, Beat has a demo on Steam that you can play and wishlist RIGHT NOW!! Sharing the game in general is so, so helpful and very much appreciated. If you want to chat about the game or give feedback, you can check out our Discord as well!
From physics tweaks to story design, this conversation provided a fantastic look at the passion and iteration driving Beat Heart Beat‘s development. We learned about the happy accident that led to its core air-combo mechanic, the importance of finding the “feeling” over objective accuracy when charting levels, and the ongoing evolution of the game’s visuals. As the team finalizes the Story Mode and prepares to launch into Early Access in early 2026, players can look forward to new content, party members, and a user-level editor. If you’re excited to see this unique blend of action and rhythm come to life, be sure to check out the demo on Steam and connect with the community via their Discord to share your feedback.
Thanksgiving is the perfect excuse to slow down, grab a blanket, and play something low-stress while the leftovers cool. Cozy games are ideal here. They are gentle, colorful, and built around simple goals like tending crops, decorating a home, or caring for characters instead of chasing high scores or sweating through ranked matches.
The best cozy games for Thanksgiving work in short bursts between family moments, but can also quietly turn into “whoops, we just played for three hours.” They are also easy to share, whether that means couch co op, passing the controller, or just watching someone else build the cutest farm on the planet.
Here are five cozy games that fit the Thanksgiving mood and are great picks for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
1. Stardew Valley
If you only pick one cozy game for Thanksgiving, it should probably be Stardew Valley. You inherit a rundown farm in a small town and rebuild it at your own pace. You plant crops, raise animals, go fishing, mine in the nearby caves, and slowly get to know the villagers.
The magic of Stardew Valley is how flexible it feels. Want to zone out on the couch after dinner while you water crops and pet chickens? It works. Want everyone to play together? Local co op and split screen let multiple players share the same farm and divide chores, which is perfect for siblings, partners, or cousins who all want in.
It also hits that Thanksgiving vibe in a subtle way. You cook with ingredients you grow, share gifts with your neighbors, and watch the town change with the seasons. It feels like spending time in a tiny holiday town where nothing too bad ever happens and everyone remembers your birthday.
Best for: Families or friend groups who want a low pressure co op game that can fill the whole weekend.
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is comfort food in game form. You move to a quiet island, set up a tent, and slowly turn that island into a small, personalized paradise. There is no real “win” state. You decorate, collect furniture, catch bugs and fish, and chat with your animal neighbors.
New Horizons is especially cozy on Thanksgiving because of how gently it moves. The game runs in real time, so your island has its own soft little version of autumn. It is easy to hand the controller to someone who does not play games much and let them pick fruit, talk to villagers, or rearrange furniture.
If you have multiple people with their own islands, visiting each other is a great couch activity. One person plays, everyone else shouts opinions on where to put the next pumpkin patch. It is a chill way to hang out when everyone is full and half asleep.
Best for: Mixed age groups and anyone who wants something gentle and zero stress.
3. Disney Dreamlight Valley
If your household includes Disney fans, Disney Dreamlight Valley is a very easy win. It is a life sim and adventure game where you live in a shared valley with classic Disney and Pixar characters. You cook with Remy, fish with Goofy, go on quests with Moana, decorate your house, and help restore the valley after a mysterious event called the Forgetting.
Compared to Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley puts more emphasis on character quests and storylines. There is always another mission to help a familiar character, another area to unlock, or a new seasonal event to check out. That makes it a nice “let’s keep this running in the background all weekend” type of game, because you can always hop in for one more quest before dessert.
It is also very watchable. Younger kids can run around and talk to favorite characters while adults help with tougher tasks or steer the story. The result feels like an interactive Disney special running quietly in your living room.
Best for: Disney and Pixar families who want cozy vibes plus story and familiar faces.
4. Fae Farm
Fae Farm is what you get if you blend cozy farming with fairy tale fantasy. You move to the enchanted island of Azoria and build up a homestead, but you also use magic, craft potions, and explore dungeons filled with whimsical creatures. The game is built as a farm sim RPG for one to four players, which means co op is a core feature rather than a tacked on extra.
This is a great Thanksgiving choice if you like the idea of Stardew Valley but want more spells and exploration. Everyone can take a role. One person farms and decorates, another dives into dungeons, another focuses on crafting, and so on. It feels like running a magical little commune together.
It also looks exactly like a cozy game should look. Soft colors, friendly characters, and lots of customizations for outfits and home design make it easy to get attached to your world.
Best for: Groups who want that farm sim feeling with a little more magic and exploration.
5. Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition
Spiritfarer is the most emotional game on this list, but it is also one of the coziest. You play Stella, a ferrymaster to the deceased, sailing a hand-drawn boat across peaceful seas. You build cabins, cook meals, garden, and craft while you care for spirit passengers and help them come to terms with their lives before they pass on.
On the surface, Spiritfarer is a management game about building and upgrading your boat. Underneath, it is a story about grief, memory, and the small acts of care we offer the people around us. It is surprisingly comforting, especially around a holiday that already revolves around food, stories, and family.
Local co op lets a second player join as Daffodil the cat and help with chores. That makes it a nice choice for a quiet late night session when most of the house has gone to bed and you are down to just one or two people still awake.
Best for: Solo players or pairs who want something cozy with a bit more emotional weight.
Choosing The Right Cozy Game For Thanksgiving
Each of these cozy games brings a slightly different flavor to the table, so it helps to match them to your group.
If you want one game to leave running all weekend, Stardew Valley or Fae Farm are both perfect long-haul options.
If you are playing with kids or non-gamers, Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Disney Dreamlight Valley are friendly and approachable.
If you are mostly playing solo and want a meaningful story, Spiritfarer: Farewell Edition delivers a cozy experience with real emotional depth.
However you spend the weekend, cozy games are a great way to keep the room relaxed, connected, and just a little bit magical while everyone works through that second plate of leftovers.
The Capital Creative Showcase is coming back on Saturday, May 9, 2026, and that return matters because CCS has a real track record of putting Sacramento area indie creators in front of people who will actually play their games. Over the past several years, the event has worked like a big community amplifier: not a corporate expo, but a place where small teams can show what they are building, get feedback on the spot, and connect with players, fellow devs, and potential collaborators.
From the start, CCS has been built around hands-on discovery. The whole format is “play first, talk to the dev second,” which is exactly what indie games need. Instead of being buried online, projects get a physical space where attendees can sit down, try a build, and give real reactions. That feedback loop has been one of the show’s biggest values for returning teams. People show up with early versions, watch what lands, then take those notes back into production.
CCS also doesn’t just showcase polished releases. It highlights works in progress, especially games coming out of the Sacramento Developer Collective’s Progressive Game Jam. Each season of the jam funnels into CCS, so the showcase becomes a kind of graduation day for new projects. Teams that formed months earlier get their first public audience at CCS, which is often the moment their game shifts from “cool idea” to “something we can finish.”
When COVID hit, CCS didn’t lose that mission. It transitioned online for a year, evolving into a streamed showcase featuring game spotlights and developer segments. That pivot kept local games visible during a time when most small events went quiet. It also left an archive of featured projects that helped newer audiences find Sacramento teams long after the livestream ended.
As the event returned to in-person shows, CCS expanded who gets the spotlight. Recent showcases have added a sharper focus on students and first-time creators, with dedicated areas like the Student Showcase and Creators’ Corner. That matters because it lets people in the early stages share the floor with more established indie studios. It’s a built-in bridge from classroom projects and hobby teams into the wider local scene, and it helps the audience see how deep the region’s talent pool really is.
CCS has also steadily widened the creative lens beyond just video games. Tabletop projects, art, film, and other interactive work have been part of the mix, which keeps the show feeling like a true “creative showcase” instead of a single lane convention. For indie game developers, that broader crowd is a win because it brings in curious attendees who might not normally hunt down a game expo, but will happily stumble into a booth, pick up a controller, and discover something new.
So with CCS returning in May 2026 at The Grounds in Roseville, you’re not just getting another fun day on the calendar. You’re getting the next chapter in an event that has consistently shared indie work the way it should be shared: on the floor, in people’s hands, with the creators right there to talk, learn, and grow with their community.
Born In Reverie started as a classic JRPG love letter and turned into something a little more personal. In this SDC Spotlight interview, the game’s creator talks about building a turn-based, narrative-driven adventure with deep lore, evolving character arcs, and a critical hit system that doesn’t just add damage, it changes the whole rhythm of battle. The result is a demo that feels familiar in the best ways, but clearly has its own identity.
You’ll also hear the story behind why this project exists at all. What began as a post-college tech career quickly turned into a bigger “what am I doing with my life” moment, and that push led straight into game development. The developer walks through how those feelings shaped Born In Reverie’s themes, tone, and characters, and why making something emotionally memorable became the real goal.
Along the way, we get into the practical side too, from the surprisingly wide toolset behind the project to the day-to-day workflow of solo indie development. They break down key inspirations like Attack on Titan, Nier Automata, and The Legend of Heroes, explain the pixel-sprites-meet-semi-realistic-world look, and share what they’re most excited for players to discover in the full release. If you’re into story-heavy RPGs, or you like hearing how a game goes from late-night idea to real, playable world, this one’s worth your time.
How would you describe Born In Reverie in a single sentence for players who haven’t yet tried the demo?
Born In Reverie is a turn-based, narrative-driven JRPG with a new twist on critical hits in RPG combat, dozens of evolving character storylines, and deep lore.
What was the spark that led you to create Born In Reverie?
I think I did a bit of a speedrun on mid-life crises. I graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in winter 2019. I initially was going to get a master’s degree in applied mathematics, and I got accepted into a university in California for it, but then the pandemic hit. I decided I’d rather stay local and do a 6-month data analytics bootcamp program rather than take on more debt and leave behind my friends. So I did the bootcamp, where I learned how much I really enjoyed coding and how I was actually pretty decent at it. After the bootcamp and many months of job hunting, in early 2021 I landed a job at a tech startup in my hometown. The people at the company are really great and they’re one of the main reasons I stick around to this day, but it took me less than a year to have the “is this all life’s gonna be from now on?” realization.
You spend over a decade in K-12 education getting told how important having an education and getting a college degree is for your long-term happiness and success. As a child naturally does, I obediently listened to my parents, teachers (and really Western society as a whole) instilling this idea in me, and I got good grades, stayed out of trouble, played some sports, and just did what I was told would make me successful in the world. I felt pretty good about myself getting lots of praise from the adults around me for my academic performance and how smart I was. On the whole, I had good friends, good grades, high self-esteem, and felt like I had it all “figured out,” so to speak. I was gonna get a degree in math, land a technical job making lots of money, and be happy and proud for the rest of my life. The American dream! Sadly, in my opinion, that dream is just that these days, a dream. And like all dreams, you wake up from it eventually and you slowly realize that your decades of education weren’t designed to make you happy, but were simply designed to make you an effective contributor to the economy. Teachings on emotions, purpose, love, or relating to myself in a meaningful way were very scant growing up. It was deeply instilled in me that success and happiness were objects to be won in the “game of life” rather than my birthright. Sadly, I know I’m far from alone in those ideas. In the end, it’s pretty innocent, I think. You get taught how to be a good worker in the economy so you can survive, but certainly not to thrive. So after an exciting few months at my new tech job, feeling so cool and proud for utilizing my math and coding skills to make slick data visualizations and charts and do “badass” data transformations, it quickly dawned on me how routine and pointless this all was.
As a child, being an adult sounded like the promised land. Freedom to spend my money how I wanted to, play video games all day, eat whatever food I wanted to, live by my own rules with nobody telling me what I should do, and so on. And then when I finally “got there,” I realized most of my adult life was actually going to be me mildly underslept, sipping coffee, sitting at a desk alone at home, making pie charts, and making sure I carved out enough time after work to go grocery shopping and lift weights. Oh, and find some time to play games, of course. Hooray, this is what I was made to do. I started getting pretty anxious and lonely as the months went on. For the first time in my life, there was really no purpose anymore. I had done everything my upbringing told me to do and finally landed a well-paying, cushy work-from-home job. So this is it, just working and scrounging for whatever free time I could to distract myself from the emptiness and pain I felt inside.
As the months went on, it finally reached a tipping point one Sunday afternoon. I remember it being late January 2022, and I was at my apartment feeling horribly lonely, anxious, and empty. I think I had a pen and paper and I was trying to write down what things actually mattered to me in life, what I truly cared about. It didn’t take long for me to realize video games were at the core of my life and had been for a very, very long time. Some of my most treasured memories in life were playing The Witcher 3, The Legend of Zelda, Nier Automata, The Legend of Heroes, Dark Souls, Fire Emblem, and hundreds of other amazing experiences. That’s what I actually cared about. I broke down crying and realized that I wanted to give to the world what it already gave me a hundred times over: something truly memorable and emotionally impactful in video game form.
What is your workflow for Born In Reverie, and what tools are you using to help make it?
In no particular order: RPG Maker MV, Excel, Word, Visual Studio, Photoshop, GIMP, JustSketchMe, Gmail, Python, JavaScript, ChatGPT, Fiverr, and my brain. Those are the main tools that have been used to bring Born In Reverie from a concept to a real, tangible game.
To me, one of the beauties of being an indie dev with no publisher or major deadlines is having the ability to work on whatever you’d like to, so my workflow tends to bounce around a fair amount. I always keep the big picture and larger roadmap in mind, but on any given day I tend to wake up and work on whatever appeals to me the most that day. Oftentimes it’s NPC writing. Some days it’s design work in Photoshop. Some days it’s listening to music from other media for inspiration and references to provide the composers. Some days it’s making custom plugins and coding. Some days it’s playtesting. Some days it’s reading over all my documents to remember what the hell the larger story and history actually is in the first place. Some days it’s watching talks from GDC on how to market indie games. Some days it’s writing tweets. Some days it’s updating my website with new content or pages. Some days I justify playing and analyzing other games as “working on my game,” which I do think is a funny justification in my brain. At this point, you probably get the idea!
It’s worth noting that although I describe the process as haphazard, I’m aware that for anyone on the outside looking in, the whole process probably looks very clean and organized. I tend to be a very big-picture thinker and I plan for the future very well, so what I might describe as a scattered workflow could actually be pretty clean and linear to others. I do think it’s important to balance working on what needs to be done and what’s fun to do. In a shocking surprise to nobody, not all aspects of game development are super enjoyable. Some days I know I just need to grind a relatively mundane scene out in the script so that the plot can progress. Other days I know I need to spend time proofreading and ensuring character tones are consistent across scenes. Some days I begrudgingly retool aspects of code or in-game events to be more consistent and scalable for the long haul. For me, Born In Reverie is a mix of “I have to do this today” and “I get to do this today.” The “I get to” items get me out of bed in the morning, and the “I have to” items ensure that Born In Reverie will actually reach completion one day.
My very cleverly named “Game Work” folder contains all assets even remotely related to Born In Reverie’s development. Currently it sits at 69 (nice) GB, slightly over 100k files, and nearly 3.5k folders.
The game mixes lore, character dynamics, and dungeon exploration. Were there particular games, novels, films, or even life experiences that shaped its tone and world?
As you might expect, there are a lot of events and media that influenced the game. Just to touch on a few of the bigger ones, I’ll say Attack on Titan, Nier Automata, and The Legend of Heroes are big influences. I’d like to be careful when mentioning exactly how those titles influence Born In Reverie, so nothing too spoiler-y is revealed. I’ll stick to just naming what I liked about those titles.
I really appreciate how well planned AoT’s story was. You get the sense that the entire story had already been written from end to beginning before the first chapter of the manga was even released. It makes the experience so much more gratifying and awe inspiring to see how everything that happened in this story actually “makes sense” and had multiple reasons for occurring. Hardly anything feels retroactive.
The Legend of Heroes is a more niche JRPG franchise, and it has some of the best world building and lore I’ve experienced. More so than any other franchise I’ve played, those games really capture the feeling of being a visitor to a tangible world. The depth of the NPC characters plays a big part in that. You get the sense that the world exists with or without the protagonists present. I think this is pretty unique compared to most games, where there’s often such a stark contrast between the “main characters” and “everyone else.”
Nier Automata taught me how amazing game soundtracks could be and how emotionally impactful the narratives could be. That game hit me like a freight train.
Much of my own personality and personal struggles are interwoven into the characters themselves, naturally. I do think those aspects are best left to the player to experience as opposed to me spoiling things. But it’s an accurate statement to say that anyone who experiences the game in its entirety will learn a lot about my own philosophies, likes, dislikes, struggles, et cetera.
How did you land on that look and feel of the game, and were there styles you experimented with but abandoned?
From the beginning, I liked the idea of juxtaposing pixel art sprites against semi-realistic backgrounds and environments. I believe it helps encapsulate the tone of the game as equal parts lighthearted and fun, mixed with maturity and complexity. There were, of course, revisions to certain character designs and sprites, as well as iteration on saturation levels, vibrance, color depth, et cetera when it came to the backgrounds and environments. But fundamentally I knew what I wanted the game to look like at its core from the beginning, and there haven’t been any major shifts in design or look.
As far as the character designs themselves, I knew I wanted anime and manga inspired illustrations. The artists I work with to produce the character art have done an amazing job so far. Even as an enjoyer of anime and Japanese culture, there’s still the innocent part of me who thinks it’s a bit cringe and cheesy, but that’s part of the fun. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying things that others perceive as cringe.
The “feel” took a while, and still changes. The main challenge is creating a good combat feel. Although Born In Reverie is primarily a narrative-driven experience, I don’t think in this modern era we as developers can reasonably expect players to engage with our stories if we don’t give them sufficient dopamine hits. The game needs to be fun to play, plain and simple. There are so many aspects to consider when it comes to animation length, speed, sound effects, gamepad vibration levels, UI design, the quantity of enemies in each battle, how difficult they should be, et cetera. The word “balance” comes up a lot in games, and I think it’s especially true in the feel of combat. I want it to be challenging but not rage inducing, fast but still deliberate, weighty but not overdone, rewarding without being trite. I’m sure the feel will still evolve over time as I continue playtesting and iterating.
How did you approach balancing personal character arcs with larger stakes?
That’s a really good question and hard to answer. To be honest, I’ve never fully thought about how I balance these. I do fundamentally think they are intertwined, and my natural inclination is to keep larger stakes and character arcs pretty in sync. Both carry emotional weight for the story, and it’s important to have proper build up, but I also don’t want to string the players on for too long. In some respects, the personal character arcs are the larger stakes when I think about the overall story. So these elements are often indistinguishable in my mind.
The demo mentions an “Evolution of Critical Hits” in turn-based combat, where landing criticals triggers the Inspired state. How did you design this system to feel meaningful and engaging?
As far as I recall, the idea for this system struck me randomly one day. It’s sort of a marriage of ideas that I already find appealing in many turn-based games, where the music changes throughout the experience to make it more dynamic and exciting. Modern Fire Emblem games do that with their map themes, and I think it’s super cool and adds a lot of perceived build up and tension to turn-based battles. Bravely Default does something similar where each character has their own theme that can get triggered in battle. So the Inspired system originated from the desire to create more excitement in battles, just like those titles do. From there, I started thinking about how critical hits have largely stayed the same in RPGs for a while. There’s usually some low base chance of landing one, and oftentimes there are abilities and items that increase critical hit rates. I thought it’d be fun to make that a core mechanic, give the player a lot more incentive to increase their critical hit chances, and create an ebb and flow to battles bouncing back and forth between the Steady state and the Inspired state.
In order for it to be meaningful, there has to be clear incentive for the player to use the system. There needs to be perceived value. So when the party lands a critical hit and becomes Inspired, they are immune to most status effects, they deal more damage, act faster, regenerate HP slowly, and gain more EXP when they kill enemies. Gaining more EXP is an interesting incentive, I think. It allows the player to really target which party member they want landing final blows to gain the EXP for a kill. So there’s potential for some “self-inflicted” strategy in each battle, where you may choose to prioritize certain party members getting kills over others to speed up their level ups. And of course, the party is only Inspired for a few turns, so this is the player’s best chance to go on the offensive and deal a lot of damage.
For it to be engaging, I think I rely a lot on the “feel” side of things. I want it to trigger those dopamine hits in players when they land a juicy critical and get to wipe out tons of enemies afterwards. So I continually work on character cut-ins, animations, volume levels, soundtrack elements, gamepad vibrations, and tuning critical hit rates themselves to try and make it always seem enticing to land a critical hit.
What was the hardest part of balancing systems so the gameplay supports the story?
Luckily this turned out to be pretty easy as the story got locked into place. I think for players who experience the full game, they’ll get a good understanding as to why the gameplay is the way it is from a lore perspective. I guess the hard part can sometimes be where and when to compromise. If I want to introduce X mechanic into the gameplay, I then have to ask if it conflicts with any existing part of the story. If it does, then I have to decide if I want to rewrite parts of the story or introduce new explanations for things. Or on the other side of the coin, I could decide to alter the gameplay mechanic slightly to better mold it into the existing narrative structure. So there can be a push and pull element there. I don’t think I’ve ever had to seriously rewrite parts of the story to fit with the gameplay, however. The story is designed to be an RPG, and the gameplay is designed to support that story at the end of the day.
For players who’ll experience the full game: what are some mechanics you’re particularly excited for them to discover?
From a gameplay perspective, I’m excited for players to mix and match the Guardian Classes for their various skills. I almost hope there ends up being some overpowered strategies that players discover. At least in moderation, I think having some busted combos is really fun, especially when you discover them using your own creativity and intelligence. Unless I enlist a full team of playtesters (which will definitely not be happening at this time), I doubt I’ll be able to test all the possible character builds.
From a story perspective, I’m excited for players to find some of the hidden gems and character narratives. I want players to have lots of “aha!” moments that reward them for paying attention, even if something appeared trivial at the time. I hope to make the narrative very deliberate and satisfying for any fellow gamers who spend a little too much time thinking about dialogue and characters.
When building enemy encounters (especially the “Beasts” you defend against), how did you approach creating variety and maintaining tension throughout?
Creating variety is hard for this project at times. The scope demands a lot of different enemy types and skills to keep things interesting. This is an area I’ve done my best to keep engaging, but also something I’ve compromised on. I love working with artists to produce new sprites based on my ideas, and if $50,000 dropped into my wallet today, I’d definitely spend a lot of it creating a bunch more enemy types and animations. But I’ve had to prioritize what areas need the most attention for the overall vision, so creating super fleshed out and complex enemy encounters doesn’t always take center stage.
None of this is to say that the enemy encounters are stale or boring in my mind. I think they’re quite fun and intriguing. If anything, I think most of the variety in battle comes from the player party’s side of things rather than the enemies. Mixing up Guardian Classes and acquiring new skills provides a good amount of creativity and experimentation that allows gameplay to naturally change over time.
As far as maintaining tension goes, I obviously try to balance the enemy encounters so that it is easier at times, and then very challenging at other times. Tension will naturally arise during stressful combat scenarios, regardless of any story stakes involved. I also think that tension is not always required for the tone of any gaming experience. It’s okay if it deliberately feels easygoing and safe at times. Those moments help contrast the moments where real tension and stakes arise. If everything is tense all the time, then nothing really is. Things only get scary and exciting when you’ve been afforded ample time to breathe in a real (or false) sense of security.
From your perspective, what’s a moment or mechanic that surprised you during development, something that worked out differently (for better or worse) than you expected?
Some days I’m just surprised and amazed the game even works at all. Somehow all the files and code make a whole video game that actually runs and is largely devoid of game breaking bugs. That’s the biggest surprise of all, in general.
Honestly, I can’t think of a concrete example where something really ended up a lot better or worse than expected. There have been small things over the years that caused some issues, but nothing major. Is that strange? I also can’t think of anything that really turned out to be way better than anticipated. Almost everything has been “within reason” or “about as expected,” which is maybe a really lucky thing in game development. I honestly don’t know. I certainly don’t attribute that to my own prowess or intelligence since those were sorely lacking early in development, especially. But regardless, things have largely worked out well for Born In Reverie.
How long has Born In Reverie been in development, and how has your vision for it evolved since you started?
Born In Reverie has been in development since late January 2022. I definitely know that some of the edges have softened since the early days of development. The project spawned equal parts from inspiration and love, and also a deep sense of resentment and dissatisfaction towards modern life. Early story and design ideas carried a lot of that hurt and dissatisfaction with them. Over time, I’ve mellowed certain characters and story ideas a bit as I’ve had the clarity of different perspectives over the years. The original vision and philosophy for the project remains largely intact, however. The core guiding principles remain the same.
I’ve definitely put more effort into the “game-y” aspects of Born In Reverie in recent times. Ensuring tutorials are well placed and simple, changing pacing to make sure nothing drags on for far too long, adding fun item descriptions, playing with different sound effects, and other small touches. I’ve had very passionate ideas for story and characters for a long time, but I didn’t always know what would be interesting or fun to actually keep the player coming back to play. My experience has largely been that even when you think an idea could be super fun and interesting, playtesting is king on that front. The only way to know if a game is fun is to play the whole damn thing and see if anything is actually good, to see if all the systems coalesce into a cohesive experience that is enjoyable. And like I mentioned in an earlier question, especially for narrative heavy experiences, I think a game really needs engaging gameplay to keep players’ monkey brains happy. No judgment, by the way. My brain also enjoys bright colors, flashy action, and pure hype just as much as anyone else. We’re wired to seek pleasure and enjoyment.
As an indie developer, what have been the key lessons from carrying this kind of project forward?
For better and for worse, it’s useful to be a bit obsessed with your project, in my opinion. A fair amount of people have asked me how I stay consistent with the project throughout the years. I work on it in some fashion nearly every day, save vacations and special holidays or occasions. It’s just a habit that has to be formed, and being pretty obsessed with the project for the first year or so definitely instilled some long-lasting habits.
There are plenty of days where I’m not super enthused to work on part of the game, but I just know something needs to get done. I try to balance that with finding fun parts to work on. I think it’s important to work on aspects that are satisfying in the moment, and if nothing feels fun at all, to maybe consider adding something new that does sound fun. It’s your project, after all. We all want our games to be received well by others, of course, but it’s not worth sacrificing your own enjoyment of the process just to do that. I’ve really enjoyed making this project from the beginning, so motivation has luckily never been an issue for me. There are so many aspects to game development that I find it hard to get bored. You can make assets, write story, rebalance gameplay, write code, work on marketing and advertising, or even just sit down for an hour and play your game with no real motive. Just play and see how it feels, see if you enjoy it.
I also think I’m continually learning how much to share and how much to keep to yourself. Like I mentioned earlier, we all hope people like our games and help validate our ideas, but it can be problematic seeking too much external validation and sharing tons of details about your project. There have been a few times where I’ve shared a lot of details about the project and felt relieved but also quite unmotivated afterwards. I’ve heard game developer legend Masahiro Sakurai talk about this concept as well. It always seems to be more motivating and satisfying to work on your game largely in a bubble for a long time before showing new pieces off. It helps keep you immune from too much social pressure and influence. I’m naturally pretty secretive about my project, so this has helped me carry the game forward each day.
What feedback from players or testers has you most excited (or rethinking something)?
Some positive feedback on the Inspired gameplay mechanics has been exciting for sure. It’s always good to hear that an idea is actually pretty fun and interesting from an outside perspective. I’m excited to continue iterating on that and balancing it further.
I’m always a little iffy on the prologue, at least in certain areas. I’ve heard scattered bits of feedback echo my own thoughts on this. It can be a lot of information and story to jump right into, even for players accustomed to that in games. There are pieces to the prologue that definitely feel a bit coarse and rough around the edges, at least in my own eyes. I’ve done a lot of work to retool and improve the prologue over the years, but there are parts that are still sore spots, I think. It’s TBD if I will actually continue retooling it anymore, though. Much of the story depends on events that occur then, and those ideas are pretty locked into place at this point.
What’s your roadmap for the full game moving forward, more classes, deeper lore, post-launch content? I have the big-picture roadmap in mind. I want this to be a whole complete experience when it’s released properly, so at this time I don’t envision adding DLC or anything brand new after the full release. Nothing’s entirely certain, however. I value games that are released as completed products, but I also am coming around to the benefits of early access titles, depending on the circumstances. I would hate to deliver a half-baked experience to players. I want them to know their time is valued and that they deserve good quality. So I’m thinking of ways to strike a balance on these fronts. Making a big epic RPG is very time consuming, I’ll say that much.
My roadmap involves just completing the game that I have outlined. There will be some more classes, different party members, more story elements resolved, different acts, character arcs completed, lore explained, et cetera. Maybe it’s a simple and redundant answer, but the roadmap is essentially just: “finish the game.”
I don’t have anything locked in, but I hope to have some news in 2026 or 2027 for people looking forward to Born In Reverie.
How can players support you, follow your journey, or get involved in shaping Born In Reverie as it grows?
All feedback is immensely appreciated and welcome, although nothing is guaranteed to make it into the game as a result of said feedback, of course. My website is the hub for links to my socials and Steam page. A demo is also available on Steam and Itch.io. I would love to hear people’s thoughts and experiences, and both platforms have dedicated comment and review sections. If you’re an artist and are interested in helping me with the project, I’d love to hear from you via email as well.
Our next question comes from Bugzsteaks, developers of our previous SDC Spotlight game, Bottom-up Beatdown! They asked: How does your level design process go?
My level design process is pretty strict and regimented, perhaps in part because of the RPG genre itself. After some iterating, I landed on a set of rules and guidelines for each dungeon’s design, size, quantity of enemies, chests, items, and estimated length.
I open up a canvas in Photoshop that is the size I decided on (3168 x 3168 px), and then I work on designing discrete “chunks” or “pieces” that I can connect together to create pathways and backdrops. Basically creating some template designs. After I have the templates in place for a new dungeon, I can get to work actually designing each map in the dungeon using the templates.
Once the design work is done and the assets are placed in-game, I go to work placing enemies, chests and items, entrances and exits, et cetera. After that I will do some additional design work in-game with post-processing effects and animations. Then it’s time for playtesting to make sure everything works as intended, and move on to the next map in the dungeon. Rinse and repeat.
What question would you like to ask the next SDC Highlight developer?
What is your favorite part of developing your project, and what aspect do you most dread having to work on?
Born In Reverie feels like the kind of project that grows out of equal parts love for the genre and a real need to say something through it. Hearing how the game came together, from the personal spark to the nuts and bolts of building dungeons, combat systems, and character arcs, makes it clear this isn’t just a nostalgia play. It’s a world the developer is trying to make worth living in, and inviting players to help shape along the way.
If you want to see what they’re building for yourself, the demo is up now on Steam and Itch.io, with more to come as development keeps rolling forward. Whether you’re here for the story, the combat twist, or just to watch a solo indie RPG take shape in real time, Born In Reverie is one to keep on your radar.
Bottom-Up Beatdown: Hostile Takeover feels like it was ripped straight out of a hyperactive Saturday morning lineup and dropped into a modern character action game. It is a fast, combo-heavy beat ’em up set in a world overrun by monsters, built with the crunchy impact of arcade brawlers and the expressive flair of Nintendo DS era sprites. Behind it all is a solo developer who took post-college boredom, a love of No More Heroes and Castlevania, and a deep appreciation for tokusatsu weirdness and turned it into a full-on project.
In this SDC Spotlight, we talk with the creator of Bottom-Up Beatdown about where the game came from, how classic fighting games and action titles shaped its combat, and why making bosses feel like anime rivals is just as important as making them challenging. We also touch on the realities of building a game mostly alone, what early playtesters are asking for, and how the dev is trying to balance personal artistic goals with making something people will actually want to buy.
For readers who haven’t yet tried out the demo, how would you describe Bottom-Up Beatdown: Hostile Takeover in one sentence?
Beat ’em up meets character action in a modern world filled with monsters!
Where did the core inspiration for Hostile Takeover come from?
To be honest, I was half a year out of college and I was extremely bored. I figured I was only getting older, so making a dream project before I found a full-time job or the world ended would be nice. After playing No More Heroes, the idea stirred in my head for a couple of years, so that’s probably where the core inspiration comes from.
When I was playing the demo, I was reminded of early Nickelodeon shows and Game Boy Advance games from my youth. Were there particular games, comics, or films that influenced the tone, art style, or combat feel of this project?
Actually, before I started on the game I got really into Castlevania, so there’s a lot of influence there. Specifically, after playing Portrait of Ruin and seeing how amazing that looked, I wanted to design the game as if I were creating it for the Nintendo DS.
Art style and tone wise, the game is heavily inspired by Astro Fighter Sunred, a parody show about a washed-up sentai hero. That show was life-changing and really got me into traditional tokusatsu like Kamen Rider and the Godzilla series. While many of the monsters in the game are inspired by classic Hollywood movies, I wanted to take that and put a silly spin on it similar to what games like Darkstalkers did.
Gameplay-wise, it’s really hard to pick just one influence, as I blended a lot of ideas from different games into this one. Devil May Cry and God Hand stand out as big influences, but mechanics like the juggling system are more Tekken or King of Fighters.
How did you settle on that aesthetic, and were there any visual styles you experimented with but decided against?
The DS aesthetic was the perfect resolution for the game I wanted to make, as it offered just enough sprite detail to make really expressive sprites, but not so much that I’d be spending a year animating one character. The original Bottom-Up Beatdown had a much higher resolution, and while I’m definitely proud of the work I did back then, I think the art quality was a little scuffed, and animating took way too long. Also, I would’ve loved to go 3D, but my protagonist, Biff, kinda looks funky in 3D. I’ll try again one day.
How long has the game been in development, and how has your vision for it evolved?
The game’s been in development for a little under a year now, but the original idea came to me years ago while I was still in school. I ended up making the very first Bottom-Up Beatdown three years ago, and that game was just a boss rush with more traditional beat ’em up elements. I found that the way I designed bosses for that game really didn’t need that third dimension, so I cut it out for this game.
Is this a solo project or a small-team effort?
Solo project, but I’ve had a ton of support from friends. I’ve also hired some composers for the music. Maybe in the future I’ll have a team of voice actors as well.
What have been some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned during development?
The game is always twice as difficult as you think it is. I’m always playtesting bosses and I’m extremely familiar with their movesets (especially after animating all their moves), so it’s pretty easy for me to perfect bosses. Because of this, I’ll end up raising their health or increasing their speed, but then watch as players lose to Franky, or even just the bat goons, way too many times. Playtesting early and often is definitely the biggest lesson I’ve learned so far. Also, gamers will make it their mission to never read any tutorial prompts, even if you put pictures.
Blending classic 2D beat ’em up style with “character action” mechanics like wall-bouncing and juggling sounds tricky. What was the biggest design challenge in making that work?
I think the key to adding these character action mechanics in a beat ’em up is to put less focus on the combo game and more on what makes these options meaningful outside of combos. Abilities like wall bouncing reward players for cornering enemies with a longer stun, and juggling removes the potential for counterattack from enemies like the bat or sword goon. That way, while these features help with creating stylish combos, their purpose isn’t just combo filler but enemy management.
Combo-heavy gameplay can be tough to balance. How did you fine-tune the difficulty so both casual players and score chasers could have fun?
Doing sweet combos is nice, but I made sure that even button mashers have a lot of fun. The combo game is there for players who have mastered the system, but casual players can pull off moves like the reversal pretty easily. I’m hoping there’s a low barrier to entry and a high skill ceiling.
For players looking forward to the full game, what are two or three mechanics you’re most excited for them to discover?
Though it’s not in the demo yet, there’s going to be a sweet grappling system that’s an iconic part of any beat ’em up and will help with those crowds of enemies. Also, I hope players can enjoy the progression system, where you’ll be able to chill at your friend’s house between missions and train with Sue Flay to unlock new abilities.
Bosses like Franky Furter are pretty memorable. How do you design boss fights that reflect personality and theme?
I’ve played a lot of fighting games and watched a ton of anime, so making characters with strong personalities is really enjoyable for me. I like to think about their fighting style, special moves, and especially how they’d taunt you mid-battle. Mainly, I’m just thinking about how it would look if it was a shonen anime.
For you personally, is there a particular level, mechanic, or moment from development that stands out as your favorite?
I love the Sue Flay boss fight, because I love rival battles in action games with characters like Vergil or Henry Cooldown. Since it’s the first one, her moveset’s a little limited, but I can’t wait to work on her fights later in the game.
What’s the most broken combo or bug you discovered during playtesting that secretly made you laugh before fixing it?
If you press dash and jump on the same frame as Biff, you do a crazy fast super jump. It’s pretty fun, and to be honest, I haven’t even patched it out.
What kind of early player feedback from the demo or playtests has surprised you the most?
A lot of people have told me they want a versus mode, which isn’t that surprising, but the number of folks who have requested it was a lot higher than I anticipated. It’s on the way.
Looking ahead, what does the roadmap for Bottom-Up Beatdown look like? Are you planning more levels, characters, or post-launch updates?
The full game will have at least nine full levels, with bonus levels and co-op available for all of them. It will also include multiple game modes like Overtime Mode, Boss Rush, and Versus Mode. By the end, it would be great if all the bosses were playable in some form as well, even if with limited movesets. Finally, after launch I would love to continue working on the game, especially by adding a full campaign for Sue Flay in the future.
If you could have any other video game character join as a guest fighter in Bottom-Up Beatdown, who would it be and why?
I’ve thought about this a lot even before this interview because I love crossover characters in games. While I’d love to put one of my idols in like Travis Touchdown or Dante, I think they’d look a little out of place. If I had to seriously choose just one, I’d put in Nemesis from Resident Evil 3, because I love playing him in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and he’s just such a cool monster.
We’ve got one more question for you, coming from the devs of our previous SDC Spotlight, A La Card: How do you balance the art you want to make with the product you want to sell? And finally, what question would you like to ask the next SDC Highlight developer?
This question is tough because this is the first game I’m planning on selling for real money. I definitely have had to sacrifice some ideas in order to make completing this game viable, but I’m honestly just happy to finally put these thoughts in my head out in the open as something legible. However, I absolutely want to make the game a lot more difficult, so balancing that with being an accessible game for all ages is extremely tough.
For the next developer, I’d like to ask how their level design process goes.
As Bottom-Up Beatdown: Hostile Takeover heads toward a full release, it already feels like the kind of passion project that could turn into a cult favorite. There is a clear love for fighting games, anime rivals, and old handhelds baked into every choice, from the DS-style sprites to the “broken but fun” tech the dev secretly hopes players will find.
If you want to keep up with development, share feedback, or eventually lab your own wild combo routes, you can follow along on X, hop into the Discord, and watch for future devlogs. And in true SDC Spotlight fashion, we will pass the torch with the dev’s question for the next highlighted creator: how does their level design process work, and what does it reveal about the kind of game they want to make?
