Thomas @koboldskeep Keene
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kobolds-keep.net
Thomas @koboldskeep Keene
@kobolds-keep.net
1.3K followers 1.1K following 2.4K posts
indie #gamedev | #ttrpg writer

Junk-o-Tron is out on Steam now! It's a score attack puzzle game with robots!
🟥🟩🟦🤖 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2514390/

Videogames - https://koboldskeep.itch.io/
RPG Stuff - https://koboldsquest.itch.io/
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kobolds-keep.net
Okay maybe I will do a video explaining how all this stencil stuff works. #gamedev #godotengine #vfx
November 18, 2025 at 4:56 AM
kobolds-keep.net
The whole point of this is that the stencil buffers look bad when they overlap and overwrite each other. Normally it looks like this:
A videogame prototype of two torches in a room casting hard-edged light pools on the floors and walls. One of the torches has its light pool cut off near the second torch which is in front of it.
November 17, 2025 at 4:32 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Wind Waker style stencil buffer torches are done! I'm gonna share this on GitHub soon. This should also do shadows and layered/nested spheres as well. Not sure whether it's worth making a full video explaining it yet... #gamedev #godotengine #vfx
November 17, 2025 at 4:25 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Today I learned about game-icons.net, a great #gamedev and #ttrpg resource with thousands of icons for UI and item art.
November 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Getting more serious about this parkour-platformer project again. #gamedev #godot
November 9, 2025 at 3:38 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Playing around with some #godotengine stencil buffers for spooky stuff like lanterns and ghosts. I'll be teaching people how to do this at a #gamedev club presentation later this month.
October 13, 2025 at 2:03 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Thanks for hosting!

I colored this lineart by @animatrix1490.bsky.social. We make TTRPGs and videogames.
A hallway of a crumbling temple with a glowing orb at its center. Several priests in robes with conical hats are moving about. The closest holds a book and we can see a glowing void that has grown over one of their eyes.
September 9, 2025 at 1:06 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Some days you just can't get rid of a bug... #gamedev
A list of build folders numbered sequentially. The top ones are named "oops" and "doubleOpps". The bottom ones are named "saveSizing", "fixedSaveSize", and "pleaseWork".
September 1, 2025 at 4:49 PM
kobolds-keep.net
I've always wanted to run a Chrono Trigger inspired #ttrpg. There's something fun about using different a lot of different time periods as backgrounds and adventure settings. Also, who doesn't like dinosaurs in their tabletop games?
The Conflux: Everything that falls between the cracks ends up here, stuck to the lumpy underside of space-time. Millions of fragments of your world's history are illuminated by dim light from the Timestream above. Forgotten things, lost things, magical mishaps, unfortunate science experiments, and you. A small village has congealed around the debris. Each inhabitant has some unique insight into the nature of time. Nothing ages here, and nothing changes. You could stay and find peace. But it doesn't have what you want. The Unmoored: One fateful day, your anchor to reality was severed. Some accident set you adrift from the Timestream. You are able to dive back into the Timestream at any place or time of your choosing, a thrilling power! But a few days pass, the world turns slippery around you, and you slide right back into the Conflux. What motivates you to make these journeys? Do you want to go home? Does some question haunt you? Do you need to set right what went wrong? Do you need to alter the very course of history? The Mailbeast: A squat blue creature with a massive mouth, and a Squakbird perched atop its horns. It speaks in short sentences and is easily irritated until fed. If you address a letter to a Contact and feed it to the Mailbeast, it will immediately burp up a letter or package in response, as though hours or days passed for the Contact. The Squakbird: A small red bird that constantly titters to itself in snippets of familiar-sounding conversations. It screeches loudly when interrupted. On close inspection, you see its eyes are tiny machine lenses with intricate parts. The bird can relay messages to any Contact in the Timestream you name, as long as they have a technological communication device. It doesn't matter if it's by telegraph, telephone, or telepresence. The Oracle: A robed figure with a single massive eye. She is happy to tell you how any person, place, or thing in history met its eventual end. Your journeys greatly interest her. Origins Choose one of the following Origins, then write down the burning question that keeps you exploring different time periods in the world's history. Pre-Historic +1 Might, Endurance, or Agility You lived in a land teeming with life. You were not the strongest or the smartest. You were not even near the top of the food chain. But your family taught you the rhythms of the land, and you learned to hunt and gather what you needed to survive. A few sharp tools, a warm fire, and some beast hides were all you needed. Golden Age +1 Endurance, Charisma, or Spirit The first emperor was able to turn dreams into reality. Thus, the age of magic and wonders began. Old age and death were banished and forgotten. Castles were erected above the highest clouds, pinned to the sky by wise mages and their diligent students. Each day some new dreamcrafted wonder was produced so all could admire and study its essence. Medieval +1 Might, Agility, or Spirit You lived in an era of constant feudal warfare. The surviving weapons of the Golden Age fell into the hands of royalty, who brought misery and death to their foes. Note whether you lived as a noble, courtier, knight, soldier, serf, or outlaw before you became Unmoored. Modern +1 Perception, Charisma, or Craft You lived during an era of rapid technological advancement, a parade of gunpowder, steam, electricity, radio, and rocketry. The wounds of past ages healed, and civilization flourished. It seemed like anything was possible. People reached for the stars. And then the stars made their will known... Post-Apocalyptic +1 Agility, Craft, or Luck Some children ask too many questions. They want to know who built the ruins above our home. They want to know who their great-grandparents were. They want to know why the archives talk of a sun and moon and stars, and why we never see them. Eventually those children leave to find answers. They never come back. Species Talk with the Game Master if you want to play a non-human. A lot of weird things end up in the Conflux. You might be an Unmoored individual from a radically different alternate timeline, a dreamcrafted being from the Golden Age, or a one-off genetic experiment from the future. Human Typical Species Traits: Resourceful (x2) Resilient and adaptable. Humans became the dominant species in the Modern era, to the point that other sentient Species were considered myths and legends. Construct Typical Species Traits: Inorganic, Natural Armor Called "golems" in the Golden Age, and "robots" in the late Modern and Post-Apocalyptic eras. Thousands were built, but truly sentient constructs remained a rare curiosity. Goblin Typical Species Traits: Small, Sprinter Created from modified rodents in the Golden Age and intended to serve as messengers. Their population swelled in the warming climate of the early Medieval era. For a time it was easy to amass large armies of goblins, and they were considered ideal soldiers. Mutant Typical Species Traits: Any Creatures twisted by magic or advanced technology. Found on the fringes of society in the Golden Age and Post-Apocalyptic wastelands. Reptilian Typical Species Traits: Natural Weapons, Natural Armor Highly intelligent lizard-people, one of humanity's prehistoric competitors. Their inability to cope with cold temperatures led to their extinction. Some survived until the late Medieval era in an underground lost world.
August 25, 2025 at 3:19 AM
kobolds-keep.net
This is how Junk-o-Tron #gamedev is going for me this morning.
A list of folders. Each starts with "Junk-o-Tron" followed by ascending numbers. The top ones are "debugSaveLogging" and "enableUser". The bottom ones are "initializingSavesProperly", "saveUnmountBugfix", "moreSaveFixes", "oops", and "doubleOops".
August 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM
kobolds-keep.net
I love blank #dungeonsanddragons character sheets. There's a world of possibilities as you make someone interesting to inhabit a setting and go on exciting adventures.
Anyways, here's the first draft of the Laser Sword science fantasy #ttrpg character sheet.
A character sheet for a sci-fi science fantasy tabletop role-playing game.
July 12, 2025 at 12:52 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Buying a tavern or becoming nobility should add more plot hooks and drama to the campaign, am I right? Here are my quick and dirty #TTRPG rules for letting the players run a business or town.
Features List: Let every player propose one or more Features, notable things about the town/business. Ask leading questions. Ask about bad things. You'll get a nice list quickly. Events Table: Looking at the Features, make a d20 table of weekly events that is 1/3 good, 1/3 neutral, and 1/3 bad. Put your extra ideas on a reserve list. Keep this table secret. PCs Modify Features: Every week players spend time improving or spending money on the town/business, either changing a Feature or adding a new one (or attempting to, depending on ability checks). Anything they change that could matter for an item on the d20 events table, modify that event on the table to reflect it. This could turn a bad event good, and that's fine. Weekly Event: Every week have one player roll a d20 for the event table. If a PC is supervising/managing, they get to roll twice on that table and they are the first PC to react to the event. Have the event happen, then remove it from the list and replace it with a new one from the reserve list. 1/250 Weekly Profits: My rule of thumb for return on investment is that, as long as it makes sense, the town/business makes all of its money back in 5 years. That means each week you earn 1/250th of the invested money as profits. Weekly events can modify or obliterate this. You may want to adjust it to monthly, especially if the party is traveling. You may want to change payout to seasonal or yearly depending on the kind of business.
July 5, 2025 at 7:45 PM
kobolds-keep.net
A sketch slowly congealing into a working scifi #ttrpg character sheet.
A partially completed character sheet for a TTRPG. The left side has entries like Character, Player, Appearance, Background, Origin, Species, Traits, Powers, and Perks. A column of Abilities are labeled Might, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Agility, Craft, Spirit, and Luck. The right side is much sketchier in pink with entries like Class, Rank, Class Gear, Knacks, Contacts, Gear, Items, "creduts", and Injuries.
July 5, 2025 at 1:27 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Boing!
This is a feature @animatrix1490.bsky.social wanted to try out. We disagree over how to place this game on the spectrum between fun and challenging and the best way to solve that is prototyping.
#gamedev #godot
June 17, 2025 at 3:42 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Rules sheet for Quest Now! An all-ages TTRPG I've been designing. I've had to really work to keep the vocabulary appropriate for young players. I really like the resource management of your dice also being your stamina.

No dice drawings yet. Your Abilitis are d6, d8, d8, d10.
QUEST NOW! A letter from the King! "The kingdom is in danger! Now brave heroes are needed for a quest. Heroes like you!" Abilities Abilities are the things your Hero is good at. A bigger die means you are better at it. Put these dice on your four Abilities: Roll an Ability die when the Game Master asks you to. If you have HELP, roll another d6. Use the higher die. If the Roll is DIFFICULT, roll another d6. Use the lower die. Might helps you to push, smash, grab, throw, fight. Is it your d10? You get 3 items... * a sharp axe * a sturdy shield * a bag of climbing gear
June 13, 2025 at 2:28 AM
kobolds-keep.net
It works!
Junk-o-Tron running on the Nintendo Switch. A loading screen has several robots carrying the letters "LOADING" across the screen. #gamedev #indiegame
May 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Infinite terrain consisting of two hexagons joined at their edges. They cycle around so the player can never run off of the terrain when the map loops. It's gonna be a bit larger so players will be unlikely to notice. #gamedev #indiegame #godotengine #screenshotsaturday
May 17, 2025 at 11:24 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Proof of concept works! This was kinda crazy to put together so I hope it's worth it.
The setup is that there are two hexagons made of triangles. Whenever you leave one hexagon, you'll walk onto the next hexagon's corresponding triangle no matter what.
#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #godotengine
May 17, 2025 at 10:59 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Mysterious tessellation! Can you guess what this feature is for? #gamedev #GodotEngine
May 11, 2025 at 1:47 AM
kobolds-keep.net
Basic (slightly messy) setup for running up walls. No jump button involved! #gamedev #godot
April 20, 2025 at 3:41 AM
kobolds-keep.net
All the iterations of the Quest Now! character sheet. This has been a fun graphic design exercise! I learned that grayscale is THE WORST THING EVER!!! (But hatched lines print great.)

This is almost a playable #TTRPG on its own, but I'm going to release a series of one-page zines to supplement it.
Six different iterations of a TTRPG character sheet, starting with a scrawled sheet of lined yellow notepad paper. A TTRPG character sheet with the following entries: Name Looks MIGHT: push grab, throw, break, hit, smash SPEED: run jump swim, climb, sneak, shoot CHARM: befriend, lead, teach, sing, calm animals SPIRIT: resist curses, use magic items Rolls: 1-2: Fail! Oh no! 3-4: Almost Success... but with a small problem 5-6: Success! You did it! 7-8: Double Success! 2x as good or 2x as fast Lucky d12: add to any Roll, any time, once per Quest Wearing Belt Bag Dragging Coin Purse Friends Promises Quests
April 19, 2025 at 5:31 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Can anyone guess what engine I'm using for this? #gamedev #screenshotsaturday
March 22, 2025 at 9:01 PM
kobolds-keep.net
A new custom GM screen insert for my #ttrpg materials. (The top-left Ask The Stars oracle table is from @bastionland.bsky.social.)
Various D&D tables with entries like, d20 GenerIc event 1 Something almost destroys the business, causing permanent damage. -100% profits 2 Someone gets hurt. -80% profits 3 A rival, a moneylender, a monster, or some other NPC stirs up some trouble. -60% profits 4 Someone or something threatens to destroy the business in the near future. The staff are terrified. -50% profits 5 Something unlucky happens, possibly supernatural. -30% profits 6 Something inconvenient disrupts normal business this week. -20% profits 7 Something annoying happens. -10% profits 8 Something stupid happens. 9 Someone brings a magic item and then leaves with it. 10 A new NPC does something odd. 11 An old friend comes by for a visit. 12 Something supernatural but harmless happens. 13 An omen appears. 14 Something nice happens. +10% profits 15 Something weird happens, but it worked out in your favor. +25% profits 16 Everything works out well, business is quite favorable this week. +50% profits 17 An important NPC does something that helps your business. +60% profits 18 A really good thing happens, you were either very lucky or it was a supernatural occurrence. +80% profits 19 A massive windfall occurs. +100% profits 20 Someone wealthy gives you money because they like the business so much. +50% profits, +5% Investment Score d20 Complication 1 A Resistance cell is in urgent need of aid, only you can do it in time 2 A rain of debris and meteors causes havoc 3 A holostar is doing a live broadcast on-site, security is on high alert 4 That’s no moon… an Imperial destroyer looms overhead 5 A large alien predator is awakened by the smell of blood 6 It’s a trap! 1d6 mercenaries are lying in wait! 7 A canister of gray goo shatters, you’re not sure what it eats 8 A storm strikes the site, visibility is bad and infrastructure deteriorates 9 Your intended escape route has been cut off 10 Someone is actually royalty in disguise, and they’re not happy with you 11 One of the guards uses an astral lure to summ…
March 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
kobolds-keep.net
...traveling between possibilities...
#gamedev #vfx #ttrpg #scifi
March 15, 2025 at 9:18 PM
kobolds-keep.net
Laser Sword starmap display is looking about like I want it to. It seems the secret is to make the center of each dot very bright, and the halo very faint.
Also been getting a ton of mileage out of hot reloading code, wow! Bad optimization, but iteration is fast!
#gamedev #ttrpg #scifi #vfx #godot
March 2, 2025 at 3:10 AM