Clara Gale ✈️ NS 0.4.1 out now!
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claradoth.bsky.social
Clara Gale ✈️ NS 0.4.1 out now!
@claradoth.bsky.social
950 followers 130 following 260 posts
Game dev making the arcade flight game Nova Squadron in my spare time. Opinions are my own, nothing here is related to my day job.
She/her -- 🇬🇧|🇯🇵 OK

You can play the Nova Squadron alpha demo on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1826830/Nova_
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claradoth.bsky.social
I bet this isn't surviving social media compression in one piece, but #NovaSquadron 's buttons now 'fizz' when you hover over them! Lots of little floaty particles drifting around as an extra visual indicator of what you've got selected.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
November 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
And here she is again, but without the CRT filtering!
#gamedev #indiedev #pixelart #oc
(it feels really weird using that last hashtag but...yeah, I guess this is my first ever OC?! If only Baby Clara knew what she'd be doing in a few years...)
Pixel art of a woman with tanned skin, long ginger hair and green eyes, wearing a pilot's flight suit. She looks like a bit of a dumbass (because she is in-game).
November 2, 2025 at 10:08 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
I've had to keep most of my top-secret #NovaSquadron work under wraps for the last few months, but I can finally start declassifying some of it now that we have...pixel art?!

Introducing the first member of Nova Squadron, callsign Fenrir.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
A screenshot of one of the briefings from Nova Squadron, now featuring a pixelated, CRT-filtered portrait of a ginger lady in a flight suit in the bottom-left corner. She's saying "Oh, come on Öz, one silly little superweapon isn't going to stop us, especially with the Admiral backing us up! We'll handle it."
November 1, 2025 at 11:43 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
I genuinely do not know where the public perspective of #NovaSquadron as the gayest flightcade game of all time came from. 0.4.1 has, like, three characters, and they only talk about mission objectives. At this point I'm just going along with it
#gamedev #indiedev
A bunch of screenshots of people talking about Nova Squadron: "Its a plane game roguelike that's gay as <redacted>" "guys caution when joining, the game and its community might give you gender dysphoria, have fun tho!" "the lesbian piloted hyperfuturistic space a-10 game has a discord guys"
October 28, 2025 at 10:11 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
I can't believe I'm actually finally saying this but...
we have a Discord server now!

If you're interested, here's the invite: discord.gg/YVdeju6zEw
and if you have any friends who might be interested, please spread the word - let's get this community started!
#gamedev #indiedev
The Nova Squadron key art with a big ol' Discord logo over the top of it.
October 25, 2025 at 8:54 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
what could it mean
A rather pixelated screenshot of Nova Squadron's protagonist faction's logo. There's a weird rounded grey border around it, and text over it reading "25/10/25". Huh.
October 22, 2025 at 6:52 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
Taking a break from all the top-secret #NovaSquadron stuff I can't show you, to do something I can -
the background hexagons now glow around your cursor, and sweep across the screen from different directions!
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
October 18, 2025 at 7:34 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
So I made a promise to a couple of people in the Discord server for @yoyoyollie.bsky.social's #DeliveryMustComplete.

The promise was that this weekend, I'd put a hat on a plane (long story)

so here you go.
Plane in a hat.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #NovaSquadron
October 11, 2025 at 11:20 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
hey is it me or does the main menu look different now
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #NovaSquadron
October 4, 2025 at 11:10 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
A new button coming to #NovaSquadron 's main menu lets you boot up your in-universe PC (this'll make sense in a few months, trust me!)

Your desktop looks like this by default.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
September 27, 2025 at 11:45 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
what if jupiter was a pincushion
#gamedev #indiedev #novasquadron
A screenshot of how Jupiter currently looks behind the scenes in Nova Squadron, with developer tools enabled. A bunch of holographic 'pins' of a wide range of colours, none of which are visible in-game, are stuck into it. There's a reason for these, I swear.
September 22, 2025 at 9:11 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
here's a completely normal behind-the-scenes for you:
The in-game render (bottom-left) is showing the contents of the scene directly above it.
These two things are the same, just from different viewpoints.

Game dev.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #NovaSquadron
September 20, 2025 at 10:00 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
meanwhile, in the #NovaSquadron writing room with @crowwmonarch.bsky.social
A screenshot of a Discord message from Nova Squadron's writer: 'i descend from the sky as writer goddess i say nothing, i simply hand you a folded note before ascending back to the peak of writer mount olympus you unfold the paper to find only two words, words that shall ring across history as the great prophecy delivered from the goober on high "gay women"'
September 16, 2025 at 8:31 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
#NovaSquadron is (sort of) working again! Not much in the way of graphical improvements yet, but it is currently running at 20% higher FPS than 0.4.0.

In other words, regular missions are finally locked at 60FPS on Steam Deck!
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
September 13, 2025 at 10:34 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
The sun's rising for the first time over a completely new graphics system:
Unity 2020.3 -> Unity 6.2
HD Render Pipeline -> Universal Render Pipeline

This is still a VERY early work-in-progress, but at least it's not flat magenta any more!
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday #NovaSquadron
A screenshot of the new sky and "new" clouds (same algorithm, fully rearchitected for the new render pipeline), running in-engine.
September 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
I haven't posted much since 0.4.0 released, and I wanted to show you why:

I've ripped out and am now replacing #NovaSquadron 's entire rendering pipeline. All the graphics code.
So here's a #screenshotsaturday of how gorgeous the game currently looks:
#gamedev #indiedev
An in-game screenshot where the sky is solid black and everything inside it is flat magenta. Beautiful.
August 23, 2025 at 12:03 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
Commandeering my own #screenshotsaturday to show off some other games you'll probably like!

@gabrielsolon.bsky.social's Supermaneuver
@mackerelskydev.bsky.social's At Sky's Edge
@fleetwoodzak.bsky.social's Project Red Sun
@yoyoyollie.bsky.social's Cloudbreaker
#gamedev #indiedev
A screenshot of Supermaneuver, a game which has absolutely nailed the vibes of PSX era aerial combat games in...well, every way I can think of, really. A screenshot of At Sky’s Edge, a very promising work-in-progress title that’s slowly building out into a bigger, fancier world full of things to fire missiles at and, hopefully, not get blown up by. A screenshot of the latest indie flight game to have “Project” in the name: Project Red Sun. The demo’s not too far away from releasing on Steam, after which we might finally learn what the phrase “orbital debris field” means. A screenshot of Cloudbreaker, a Smokin’ Sexy Stylish over-the-top roguelite with an arsenal of absurd weaponry and also explosions. Lots of explosions.
August 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
After each update, I start working on the biggest features for the next one - there's a lot of setup to do, so there won't be any new gameplay vids for a few weeks.

Here's a peek at what I'm working on, from the 0.4.0 patch notes: (store.steampowered.com/news/app/182...)
#gamedev #indiedev
A screenshot of the end of Nova Squadron's most recent patch notes, reading: "So what's next? 0.4.0 finishes setting up most of the systems needed to make Nova Squadron a solid gameplay proof-of-concept - mission generation, aircraft choices and upgrades, ground combat, and so on. From here on, then, it's time to move away from the core gameplay loop and start making Nova Squadron more of a fully-fledged, detailed game in 0.5.0: - Better progression between missions - More sophisticated options and decision-making - Embedded lore and narrative - Characters you can talk to and build relationships with! For now though, we hope you enjoy flying the Valkyrie, experimenting with its weapons, and weaving between skyscrapers in Alpha Demo 0.4.0!"
July 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
You might have spotted in the #NovaSquadron 0.4.0 trailer that I managed to get some better cityship models crammed in there right before release! Here's a better look at them.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday

Speaking of 0.4.0, you can play it here: store.steampowered.com/app/1826830/...
July 26, 2025 at 9:00 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
#NovaSquadron Alpha Demo 0.4.0 just released NOW on Steam! Take the Valkyrie for a spin through two brand-new urban combat missions, both above and below a vast floating cityship in the skies of Jupiter.
#gamedev #indiedev

Blow stuff up here: store.steampowered.com/app/1826830/...
July 24, 2025 at 9:08 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
New box art for #NovaSquadron 0.4.0, coming soon to a store page near you!
#gamedev #indiedev
July 21, 2025 at 10:17 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
I wasn't happy with the way Hover Mode felt in #NovaSquadron 's city missions, so I made some quick changes that made it feel like a whole other game:
- Movement is now camera-relative
- R3 to lock on
- Right stick switches targets while locked on
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
July 19, 2025 at 10:14 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
I'm very proud to present @crowwmonarch.bsky.social's first writing work for #NovaSquadron, the Urban Defense briefing! This is one of the two new city missions coming to 0.4.0.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
July 12, 2025 at 6:38 AM
claradoth.bsky.social
the numbers, what do they mean
#gamedev #indiedev
A whole bunch of decimal numbers in Unity arrayed in various grids, with each one tinted based on how high/low it is compared to the others. Each grid's X-axis is the mission number, and each Y-axis is the difficulty level.
July 7, 2025 at 9:10 PM
claradoth.bsky.social
Introducing the final weapon coming to #NovaSquadron 's 0.4.0 update this month - the Splitter Cannon! A double-barrelled, wide-spread gun with just a bit of recoil.
#gamedev #indiedev #screenshotsaturday
July 5, 2025 at 10:42 AM