Joel
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jhaddock.bsky.social
Joel
@jhaddock.bsky.social
Writer, Game Designer, Co-Founder of Porch Weather Games. Appreciator of pixels of all sizes. He/Him

Wishlist Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/Camp_Keepalive_Endless_Summer/
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I am extremely happy to announce Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer, is now available!

If you've been waiting for some 80's horror strategy to truly make your summer complete (and who isn't, really?), this is your lucky day!

#indiedev #indiegame #turnbased

store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/...
Save 15% on Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer on Steam
Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer is a turn-based strategy game set in a camp straight out of an 80's horror movie. Save the helpless and dull-witted campers from an onslaught of monsters with a team of ...
store.steampowered.com
Reposted by Joel
Much of the hand wringing, imo, is over a critic explicitly saying they are judging the moral fabric of a piece of art because of the tools used to create it and it’s making some folks feel uncomfortable and shamed. The people who feel that way should sit with that feeling.
November 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on you.

Fool me three times, yup, still looking in your direction.

Fool me four to eight time, I'm positive the problem is on your end. This is not a "me" issue.

Fool me nine or more times, ha ha, seriously, still putting this on you.
Whoa -- Sen. Durbin went to up Leader Thune during the vote last night to tell him that on the shutdown vote and ACA promise that "8 of us are sticking our neck out that you're going to keep your word. I hope you will. He said 'I assure you I will,'" Durbin says just now
November 10, 2025 at 6:55 PM
A lot of your dumber leaders will say it’s stupid to surrender when you’ve got the advantage, but the real strategic geniuses know to always give up when it looks like you might win.
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Joel
Van Hollen Senate Minority Leader vote when
November 10, 2025 at 3:37 AM
My fundamental stance is that so long as their are children going hungry within it by willful design, any nation's claims to greatness are negated.
November 7, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Working on honing in on designs for some of the early units, and feel like I'm getting close. Here we've got your brave Hunter and Peasant Militia, and the rude Council Thug. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart
November 6, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reposted by Joel
The death of multi-camera TV: a thread. I know most of you will know the technical parts of this (and may have read it in the other place) but bear with me. 1/ 🧵
October 12, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Did I sit down planning to build out a few more battle scenarios? Yes.

Did I instead spend most of the day reworking pathfinding to squash some bugs and weird edge cases? Definitely.

On the plus side, new version gives me some future-proofing (and doesn't break the game). #indiedev #gamedev
November 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Alas, it seems the coldest cut of all is the pain man might inflict on his fellow man.
Border Patrol agent Lairmore testifies that he was not injured by the sandwich, but he felt the impact through his ballistic vest.

The sandwich came apart and "kind of exploded" on his chest upon impact, he says.

"I could smell the onions and mustard."
November 4, 2025 at 5:21 PM
New devlog up: organizing my narrative with the tools at hand! #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #devlog

porchweathergames.com/blog/2025-11...
Devblog - Telling a Tale, One Sequence at a Time
Working a story-shaped peg into a game-shaped hole
porchweathergames.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Joel
Sidebar: I had an interesting experience just now in Discord that explains a lot about how digital media literacy works today

I posted this picture which seemed too goofy to be real. Immediately, someone accused it of "almost certainly" being a photoshop
November 3, 2025 at 7:42 AM
I just learned that something I've always thought about Rollercoaster Tycoon - something that *the manual itself* says - is a total myth. I've been playing wrong for 25-odd years!
November 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Daylight Savings means you get an extra hour today you could be using to play Camp Keepalive!

Just one more day left during the Halloween Sale, so grab it now and tell Thanksgiving to hold on just a dang minute - you're still doing spooky! #indiegame #indiedev store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/...
Save 34% on Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer on Steam
Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer is a turn-based strategy game set in a camp straight out of an 80's horror movie. Save the helpless and dull-witted campers from an onslaught of monsters with a team of ...
store.steampowered.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Joel
heard on a game podcast just now, that a 15 hour, single player game is maybe not long enough.

We have to get past this idea as developers and audiences.

A game will be, and should be, just as long as it needs to be for *what it is*.
November 1, 2025 at 10:32 PM
You know, we all made fun of the "internet is a series of tubes guy," but I just had to have a technician out because the line coming into my house was bent and it was blocking the internet.
November 1, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Joel
I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.
October 31, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Joel
Just dropped a hotfix for Camp Keepalive to address an issue with the counselor action bar not appearing in certain circumstances when using mouse/keyboard controls! Fix is live on both Itch and Steam.
October 31, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Post a game you remember playing that nobody else remembers.
October 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Joel
We are excited to host this week's official #TurnBasedThursday thread!

#gamedevs & #indiedevs— drop your turn-based beauties below and don't forget to use the hashtag!

#turnbased game fans —❤️,💬 and 🔁these amazing projects.🙏

Let’s make the algorithm take its turn too. 😎

#indiegamedev
October 30, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Oh, and what's that? You wish you could listen to the Camp Keepalive soundtrack even when you aren't playing the game to really keep you in the spooky season mood? #indiegame #gamemusic

GREAT NEWS: joelhaddock.bandcamp.com/album/camp-k...
Camp Keepalive, by Joel Haddock
13 track album
joelhaddock.bandcamp.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Just 2 more days until Halloween, and you could be filling them *right now* with using that big tasty brain of yours to save the campers from all manner of things that lurk in the dark forests!
#indiegame #indiedev #thinkygame #turnbased

store.steampowered.com/app/3637630/...
Save 34% on Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer on Steam
Camp Keepalive: Endless Summer is a turn-based strategy game set in a camp straight out of an 80's horror movie. Save the helpless and dull-witted campers from an onslaught of monsters with a team of ...
store.steampowered.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Joel
The retro Heroes of Might & Magic 2 mod for #Civilization 2 has finally been released at #CivFanatics & #ModDB ! Almost every part of #Civ2 has been changed to feel more #HoMM2 like making this possibly the largest total conversion mod ever made for Civ2 Gold! #Civilization2
youtu.be/g1V7_hjmjD0?...
Civilization 2 - Heroes of Might & Magic 2 Mod (& HoMM1 Addon) Tour HD
YouTube video by Blakes Sanctum
youtu.be
October 26, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Joel
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Reposted by Joel
43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.
October 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Having an owl show up in your backyard:

Day 0: Whoa! it's an owl!!! Incredible!!

Day 7: I am so happy this owl has found a home here

Day 21: oh, the owl's back.

Day 48 (2am): Does this owl never shut the fuck up?

(seriously though, still❤️my resident owl)
October 28, 2025 at 1:00 PM