James | CWS π¨π¦
@coastwide.systems
Game development studio building games for Linux (and other OS's too) using the bevy engine and Rust language.
#linux #rustlang #bevy #bevyengine
#gamedev #indiedev #solodev
https://coastwidesystems.com/
https://discord.gg/Rg8MBJAvu4
#linux #rustlang #bevy #bevyengine
#gamedev #indiedev #solodev
https://coastwidesystems.com/
https://discord.gg/Rg8MBJAvu4
Pinned
James | CWS π¨π¦
@coastwide.systems
Β· Feb 7
Heat Retreat on Steam
Your home town is forced to evacuate: assemble your party, choose a vehicle and grab supplies before hitting the road in search of refuge. Manage your resources and barter, scavenge, hunt or steal alo...
store.steampowered.com
The Heat Retreat Steam store page is finally live and ready for wishlisting! Tell your friends, tell your dog, tell your cat, tell everyone! π
store.steampowered.com/app/3375550/...
store.steampowered.com/app/3375550/...
Reposted by James | CWS π¨π¦
Government Shocks Nation With Good Decision
Irelandβs basic income for the arts scheme becomes permanent
When piloted, initiative that provided β¬325 a week to eligible artists recouped more than its net cost, study shows
www.theguardian.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Government Shocks Nation With Good Decision
It's also worth highlighting: these aren't a bunch of fancy laptops. One is an almost 10y old retired work laptop (no GPU), another is a newer (4y) work laptop also no dedicated GPU, and the third a hand me down gaming laptop of unknown age. No Windows, no need for brand new hardware
February 8, 2026 at 7:56 PM
It's also worth highlighting: these aren't a bunch of fancy laptops. One is an almost 10y old retired work laptop (no GPU), another is a newer (4y) work laptop also no dedicated GPU, and the third a hand me down gaming laptop of unknown age. No Windows, no need for brand new hardware
Add in the Apple store & all its restrictions, the hefty cut they take on sales... Steam takes a big cut too, but at least Steam has an interest in seeing games succeed financially, with Apple it's more like I should feel privileged to be allowed in at all & take the abuse
February 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Add in the Apple store & all its restrictions, the hefty cut they take on sales... Steam takes a big cut too, but at least Steam has an interest in seeing games succeed financially, with Apple it's more like I should feel privileged to be allowed in at all & take the abuse
The trouble is Apple's walled garden approach, and Xcode. It's a massive pain cross compiling to and testing on MacOS (any hardware). Top it off with a userbase on Steam that's smaller than Linux and it gets hard making the case to support MacOS at all
February 8, 2026 at 5:31 PM
The trouble is Apple's walled garden approach, and Xcode. It's a massive pain cross compiling to and testing on MacOS (any hardware). Top it off with a userbase on Steam that's smaller than Linux and it gets hard making the case to support MacOS at all
Quickly whipped up an alternate engine compartment (and fixed a few bad lines elsewhere), thinking the darker/less detail works a bit better but going to need to think on it a while. Should probably get it in engine to see for sure though, so back to coding for now
#pixelart #gamedev #indiedev
#pixelart #gamedev #indiedev
February 6, 2026 at 9:41 PM
oof, if "professionalism" is gatekeeping then society truly is circling the drain π€¦
February 6, 2026 at 7:23 PM
oof, if "professionalism" is gatekeeping then society truly is circling the drain π€¦
And for completeness, if anyone is wondering what "steam-linux-builder" is: it's Steam's Linux SDK, but with the rust compiler added so I can create proper builds for Steam targeting their Linux runtime
github.com/coast-wide-s...
github.com/coast-wide-s...
GitHub - coast-wide-systems/steam-linux-builder: Container for compiling native Linux applications in Rust (specifically bevy) using Steam's v3 (sniper) SDK.
Container for compiling native Linux applications in Rust (specifically bevy) using Steam's v3 (sniper) SDK. - coast-wide-systems/steam-linux-builder
github.com
February 6, 2026 at 7:18 PM
And for completeness, if anyone is wondering what "steam-linux-builder" is: it's Steam's Linux SDK, but with the rust compiler added so I can create proper builds for Steam targeting their Linux runtime
github.com/coast-wide-s...
github.com/coast-wide-s...
Oh, and here's more of my #NoAI reference images - when the view/angle I'm looking for doesn't exist, make a really shitty mockup in Gimp π
February 6, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Oh, and here's more of my #NoAI reference images - when the view/angle I'm looking for doesn't exist, make a really shitty mockup in Gimp π
It's also worth noting that this is designed for a Linux development environment, I honestly can't imagine trying to do software dev in Windows - seems like trying to carve Michelangelo's David using nail trimmers π
February 6, 2026 at 7:03 PM
It's also worth noting that this is designed for a Linux development environment, I honestly can't imagine trying to do software dev in Windows - seems like trying to carve Michelangelo's David using nail trimmers π
The hardest to support is actually MacOS, Xcode is a nightmare but it was something I just needed to figure out once - so 1 day lost figuring it out, but now it's documented and the approach will be reusable on future projects so well worth the time invested.
February 6, 2026 at 6:57 PM
The hardest to support is actually MacOS, Xcode is a nightmare but it was something I just needed to figure out once - so 1 day lost figuring it out, but now it's documented and the approach will be reusable on future projects so well worth the time invested.
I so often see devs complaining that Linux is too hard, but it really isn't. Avoid M$ specific crap like DirectX, install toolchains to cross compile and it's done. No VM's, no specially build servers. Everything can be built locally at once
February 6, 2026 at 6:54 PM
I so often see devs complaining that Linux is too hard, but it really isn't. Avoid M$ specific crap like DirectX, install toolchains to cross compile and it's done. No VM's, no specially build servers. Everything can be built locally at once
For any #gamedev out there - especially the ones that say Linux is too hard - here's how easy it can be to support Linux, MacOS and Win when you plan ahead: a section of Heat Retreat's Makefile (for #bevy and #rustlang here)
To make a release build, I run 1 command and it's done π
To make a release build, I run 1 command and it's done π
February 6, 2026 at 6:52 PM
Took a while but here we are on the station wagon "maintenance" texture for Heat Retreat! Not super happy with the engine, will probably iterate on that; looks "noisy" to me compared to the rest of the vehicle but there's lots of stuff going on there so tough to get right π€
#pixelart #indiegamedev
#pixelart #indiegamedev
February 6, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Took a while but here we are on the station wagon "maintenance" texture for Heat Retreat! Not super happy with the engine, will probably iterate on that; looks "noisy" to me compared to the rest of the vehicle but there's lots of stuff going on there so tough to get right π€
#pixelart #indiegamedev
#pixelart #indiegamedev
Oh I know but it's so easy to support Linux that I've reached a point where my attitude is "do I really want to waste time/money rolling the dice on if this will work" plus give tacit support to the Windows-only gaming culture
February 6, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Oh I know but it's so easy to support Linux that I've reached a point where my attitude is "do I really want to waste time/money rolling the dice on if this will work" plus give tacit support to the Windows-only gaming culture
I have a growing line of post it notes along the bottom of my monitor, which also serves as my bug tracker π
(solodev
For more complex things like creating equations I have random scraps of paper strewn about for the mad scientist effect π€£
But otherwise I use AnyType
For more complex things like creating equations I have random scraps of paper strewn about for the mad scientist effect π€£
But otherwise I use AnyType
February 6, 2026 at 4:41 PM
I have a growing line of post it notes along the bottom of my monitor, which also serves as my bug tracker π
(solodev
For more complex things like creating equations I have random scraps of paper strewn about for the mad scientist effect π€£
But otherwise I use AnyType
For more complex things like creating equations I have random scraps of paper strewn about for the mad scientist effect π€£
But otherwise I use AnyType
Yeah, immutable is great for certain cases but the best part of Linux is having options - game dev in particular hits a lot of friction on immutable OS's
Regular Fedora is great for both gaming & game dev too, but CachyOS is solid (I had poor performance on older AMD hardware though)
Regular Fedora is great for both gaming & game dev too, but CachyOS is solid (I had poor performance on older AMD hardware though)
February 6, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Yeah, immutable is great for certain cases but the best part of Linux is having options - game dev in particular hits a lot of friction on immutable OS's
Regular Fedora is great for both gaming & game dev too, but CachyOS is solid (I had poor performance on older AMD hardware though)
Regular Fedora is great for both gaming & game dev too, but CachyOS is solid (I had poor performance on older AMD hardware though)
Looks amazing, wishlisted! Disappointing it's Windows only though, I'll keep an eye on this but I don't buy games that don't run in Linux anymore
February 6, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Looks amazing, wishlisted! Disappointing it's Windows only though, I'll keep an eye on this but I don't buy games that don't run in Linux anymore
coming up on 3y since being laid off here, was a senior engineer with 10y experience; it's brutal out there, good luck π€
the ghosting, fake jobs, insane hoops to jump through... it really is exhausting
the ghosting, fake jobs, insane hoops to jump through... it really is exhausting
February 5, 2026 at 9:03 PM
coming up on 3y since being laid off here, was a senior engineer with 10y experience; it's brutal out there, good luck π€
the ghosting, fake jobs, insane hoops to jump through... it really is exhausting
the ghosting, fake jobs, insane hoops to jump through... it really is exhausting
Reposted by James | CWS π¨π¦
Reposted by James | CWS π¨π¦
Tim is 100% correct, and I'm grateful for him saying it.
Indie devs should avoid 'most indie publishers' says Manor Lords indie publisher Hooded Horse: 'The vast majority of indie publishers are predatory and opportunistic'
"People can hate me for this if they want."
www.pcgamer.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Tim is 100% correct, and I'm grateful for him saying it.
Not done yet, but I haven't been posting much lately (cold/flu season hit us hard this year & been focused on #gamedev #indiedev over socials stuff). This one I'm thinking is too big and will probably need to redo it, but also here's a look at my #NoAI bashed together "reference" image π
#pixelart
#pixelart
January 27, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Not done yet, but I haven't been posting much lately (cold/flu season hit us hard this year & been focused on #gamedev #indiedev over socials stuff). This one I'm thinking is too big and will probably need to redo it, but also here's a look at my #NoAI bashed together "reference" image π
#pixelart
#pixelart
Microslop indeed ππ€¦
Any #indiedev people still working off this slop OS, I work 100% in #Linux & am happy to help out anyone interested in moving off big tech products in general for #gamedev
My Discord server is linked in my bio or just @ me with questions π
Any #indiedev people still working off this slop OS, I work 100% in #Linux & am happy to help out anyone interested in moving off big tech products in general for #gamedev
My Discord server is linked in my bio or just @ me with questions π
Windows PCs βSuddenlyβ Fail After Microsoftβs New Update
Windows PCs βSuddenlyβ Fail After Microsoftβs New Update
Windows PCs may fail to start after update β Microsoft says this is the only workaround.
www.forbes.com
January 27, 2026 at 5:30 PM
But also, Win11 is worse for gaming across the board, performance is worse as compared to Win10 even. Only games using shitty off the shelf anti cheat solution (EAC) have major problems in Linux due to NT kernel integration (which is bad in all situations)
January 27, 2026 at 5:24 PM
But also, Win11 is worse for gaming across the board, performance is worse as compared to Win10 even. Only games using shitty off the shelf anti cheat solution (EAC) have major problems in Linux due to NT kernel integration (which is bad in all situations)