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zeta0134.bsky.social
Zeta
@zeta0134.bsky.social
290 followers 29 following 140 posts
Programmer, musician, 6502-tickler
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zeta0134.bsky.social
I'm set up at #MAGFest 2026! Come find me at Indie Retro. Mega shoutouts to @megacatstudios.bsky.social, setup was a breeze. There's tons of other awesome games here too. Excited, nervous... emotions, yes!
January 8, 2026 at 3:24 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
I am in awe. @provolonecinco.com absolutely knocked this out of the park. Tactus officially has key #art! I'm scrambling to get the Steam page through review, and trying to get this printed in time for #Magfest. Did you know Tactus will be at MAGFest 2026? Come find me at Indie Retro. :D

#indiedev
The player, rendered in uncomfortably gorgeous cel-shaded style, is crouched in an anticipation at the center of a bright disco floor, holding their weapon behind them. They are surrounded by a green zombie with arms outstretched, a blue spider with a gigantic eyeball, a yellow cloaked mage with an S-shaped pendant, a perfectly normal chest, a red slime, and a brown mole preparing to throw some sort of wrench. A blue mushroom glares down from atop a grassy pillar, and a red bird flies in from a distance. The moon illuminates the scene from above-- wait a sec, that's no moon! It's an enormous disco ball.
January 4, 2026 at 12:22 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Did I add #holiday themed easter eggs to my shopkeepers? ... maaaaybe! #gamedev
HO - HO - HO Now I have a machine gun!
December 25, 2025 at 1:00 AM
zeta0134.bsky.social
The slime is one of the oldest enemies in this game. Three years ago, targeting 64 kB compo constraints, one "look to camera" pose was acceptable. Today I decided to overhaul the artwork and give all slimes "lookahead" powers. Hopefully they're now much easier to predict. #pixelart #gamedev #nes
December 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Decided to take an old bassline sketch and noodle over it yesterday... and it very rapidly evolved into a whole thing. This is already working in-engine! Here's the "cave" variant, with extra echo and wider duty cycles. ... at some point I have to name these, don't I? #chiptune #nes
December 14, 2025 at 7:44 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Now that the event is done, I can show off this quick #15seconds trailer for my indie game, Tactus! You can play the demo over at zeta0134.itch.io/tactus. It was fun trying to capture the essence of the game in such a short runtime. If you're also a #gamedev, why not give it a try?
December 14, 2025 at 3:38 AM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Good grief, there are so many surprisingly high quality indie showings in here. I was not prepared for this much polish. What a fun idea! (My own game may or may not be in here. :D) #15seconds #gamedev #indie
December 14, 2025 at 12:26 AM
zeta0134.bsky.social
How did I manage to get the slot reels* on my one-armed bandit enemy to work properly? Like so many other things on this #nes project, sheer brute force! #pixelart

(* they're not random at all. pure skill.)
December 8, 2025 at 6:59 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
New graphics are drawn and working in-game. I present the *Combat Anchor.* Gosh it's HEAVY! Drag it behind you to catch foes giving chase, then charge it up and SLAM it down in front of you for massive damage. Tricky to use, but quite powerful in the right hands. #gamedev #nes #pixelart
November 27, 2025 at 12:59 AM
zeta0134.bsky.social
How to summarize this fix... ermh. For "racing the beam" reasons, dialog splits weren't quite finished before the top-of-screen split got drawn. To fix it? Add an extra invisible split that does nothing, but which gives dialog time to finish processing. Bug squashed, yes! #nes #gamedev
November 25, 2025 at 7:08 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
I'm pleased to report that Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo controllers (on PC), along with NES, SNES, and PowerPad controllers (on NES) are all ... mostly supported! (xbox+SDL2 on MacOS specifically is misbehaving.) This was so VERY tedious. But it's nearly done! #gamedev #screenshotsaturday #nes
It's a screenshot of the input configuration screen in Tactus. The player has selected the "Double D-Pad" preset for Gamepad-type controllers. The symbols clarify that this layout sets up the 4 face buttons as a second D-Pad for the right hand, mirroring a common control scheme for other rhythm games. Special moves have been moved to the shoulder buttons to compensate. This player has a Playstation controller connected to their PC, so the matching glyphs are shown for each button.
November 23, 2025 at 12:04 AM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Currently wrangling the finer points of controller standards. Check it out though: I can detect the controller type and display the appropriate glyphs! It feels... so odd for my #nes game to display #playstation buttons in the interface, but it matches the controller, so... it does. #gamedev
It's a gameplay screenshot from Tactus. On the righthand side, the icons for activating a Fire Spell and Bombs are labeled "O" (circle) and "X" (cross) respectively.
November 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
I'm so excited to finally be able to demo Tactus in person at #SuperMAGFest2026! This will be the game's first public showing, so come on by and Slay to the Beat!

Shoutouts also to @frankengraphics.bsky.social and the rest of the Halcyon team! That game looks *rad* and you should check them out!
megacatstudios.bsky.social Mega Cat Studios @megacatstudios.bsky.social · Nov 12
The #SuperMAGFest2026 Indie Retro Homebrew Showcase FINALISTS are locked in, and the lineup is next-level amazing. Which game title are you excited about? 🎮

Check them out: bit.ly/MCSMFIR2026F...
November 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
As part of the effort for the PC port, I'm slowly working on alternate button labels. Good lord, there are so many buttons. Why do we have so many competing standards for what to call shoulder buttons? #gamedev #pixelart
It's a big giant grid of labels, meant to be attached to the side of a button graphic. Most keys on a standard qwerty keyboard are present, along with symbols representing the buttons for many popular controller types.
November 9, 2025 at 8:05 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Here's a fun polish-y detail. When a bomb explodes, I need to scroll the playfield 3 pixels "up" for screen shake. But there isn't any valid data "underneath" the playfield to draw. To avoid glitchy tiles, we use extra scroll splits to repeat the last scanline instead. Problem solved! #nes #gamedev
A screenshot of the event viewer, showcasing a static image of a combat arena. The player has thrown a bomb, and it is exploding in a 3x3 pattern on this frame. The playfield is offset up visually, and the bottom row of pixels is stretched out. The event viewer reveals the trick: a set of scroll splits are visible on each repeated scanline near the bottom of the gameplay area.
November 6, 2025 at 12:52 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Added a new accessibility feature after getting some feedback from playtesters: high contrast mode! This forces the floor color to always be $0F (black) even in rooms that would otherwise be fully lit. It's also great if you just prefer that classic NES aesthetic. #accessibility #pixelart #nes
October 23, 2025 at 1:18 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Today in especially cursed input methods, I am pleased to present working Power Pad support for my #nes game Tactus. Like other entries in the rhythm-based roguelike genre, it is **remarkably** difficult to play like this. Ermh... enjoy? #gamedev #screenshotsaturday
It's a photograph showing Tactus running on a real NES! A SNES controller is plugged into P1, and a PowerPad is plugged into P2. Either one can be used to fully control the game.
October 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Zeta
kaosrio.bsky.social
i can finally say that the steam page for my game Ricochet Raven is FINALLY UP!!!
#indiedev #indiegame #plswishlisthankyou

store.steampowered.com/app/4002020/...
Ricochet Raven on Steam
Ricochet Raven is a fast paced side scrolling roguelike where you can only attack by deflecting enemy projectiles back at them! upgrade your deflection abilities by acquiring upgrade feathers as you m...
store.steampowered.com
September 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Zeta
antoinegohin.bsky.social
🌈I've been working on the NES Rainbow mapper a lot lately, trying to squeeze a bit more features and fixing some issues. I also ported it for the Everdrive N8 Pro so everyone can now play with it on their computer with Mesen2 or with their NES! So if anyone is curious, links are below...
September 24, 2025 at 4:57 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Sometimes it's the little things that take all the time. Today that was adapting these title splash screens for widescreen, so they don't awkwardly cut off at the edge of a 4:3 boundary. SDL2 and set_color_mod got the custom palettes working... hopefully. I need to run tests! #gamedev #sdl
September 21, 2025 at 11:12 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Working on the HUD for the PC build, which has to be totally rearranged. Today I got particles working! That's tricker than it sounds since the NES's 256x240 canvas is still mostly running the show. Particles cheat, and are drawn by SDL2 directly to maintain the illusion. #gamedev #nes #rust
September 20, 2025 at 11:53 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
I am pleased to report that Tactus is running, for the first time, on my real NES hardware. How exciting! ( I might be dancing around my house like a complete fool. ) Here's a recording from my unmodified US NES. #gamedev #nes #homebrew
September 14, 2025 at 6:08 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
I spent this entire run bullying One-Armed Bandits for their lunch money. I'm thinking the economy might be just a **bit** unbalanced. :D #nes #gamedev #screenshotsunday
It's the End of Demo screen, after a victorious game of Tactus. This player reached floor 2-1, with a run time of 26 minutes, 9.03 seconds. They took 4,243 steps, earned 9,758 gold, and were carrying: an Air and Earth upgrade crystal for their Longsword, a Charge-a-Bulb, Ninja Footwraps and Topaz Earrings.
August 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
zeta0134.bsky.social
Tactus v0.8: "Perfectly Normal Chests" is now released to my Patreons. Warp zones, one-armed bandits, evil cultists and loads of items! Also, v0.7 is now public! Check out the full changelog, there's a ton of new features in here. #gamedev #nes #chiptune

zeta0134.itch.io/tactus/devlo...
August 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Zeta
homebrew-factory.com
📢NEW NES PRE-ORDER CAMPAIGN

Hold the Light is an action game where the player tries to prevent darkness from extinguishing the central fire.

A new NES game by TSBF Studio

Only 25 pre-orders required to launch production :)

➡️ www.homebrew-factory.com/nes/152-hold...
July 22, 2025 at 5:04 PM