Off The Books - making Churro: Defender of Darnwood
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offthebooks.bsky.social
Off The Books - making Churro: Defender of Darnwood
@offthebooks.bsky.social
38 followers 60 following 83 posts
Making games in off hours. Inspired by the indie community, and Nintendo, the NES and SNES in particular.

https://offthebooks.games

Check out the prototype for Churro: Defender of Darnwood

https://offthebooksgames.itch.io/churro
Posts Replies Media Videos
offthebooks.bsky.social
Walk animation for a ‘blizzeti’. I want them taller than Churro, but a similar scale. 8 x 12 pixels seems right, but it’s a lot to cram into the space with 3 colors.

Trying to capture a scowl, fuzziness, distinct limbs, and heavy gait—just shy of stomping.

#PixelArt #IndieDev #GameDev
November 25, 2025 at 9:08 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Bloblavâ - this pest you will need to dash through to make them chill out before you can dispatch of them. Made with:
offthebooks.games/crispnes
#PixelArt #IndieDev
November 22, 2025 at 9:14 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
The Rebel #Alliance symbol for my #pixel_dailies. @pixeldailies.bsky.social
16x16 pixel art in red and black of the Rebel Alliance symbol.
November 20, 2025 at 7:38 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Here are some tiny #PixelArt terrain #Tiles for you. #pixel_dailies @pixeldailies.bsky.social

Made with: offthebooks.games/crispnes
3x3 grid of pixel art terrain tiles showing grass, mixed ground, and rocky earth textures.
November 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Also a new “surprised” #animation for Churro! #PixelArt
November 15, 2025 at 12:46 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Getting into sprite work now that Crispnes is a bit more capable. Refined this walk cycle for Hawgrum. #PixelArt #GameDev
November 15, 2025 at 12:46 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Alright, this is fun. It can actually animate now. The two big things left are palette editing, and useful exports. Ignore the timer counting down to remind me to pick up dog food.

#Crispnes #PixelArt #GameDev

offthebooks.games/crispnes/
November 13, 2025 at 1:32 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
My recent #pixel_dailies with a few tweaks. @pixeldailies.bsky.social

These each use 3 colors from the NES palette, plus the transparent background color. And they’re 16x16 pixels. The most common size for NES background tiles and many sprites.

#PixelArt
Four pixel dailies, clockwise from top-left. #Mascot, a sneering bulldog face in peach/orange. #Triangle, a golden disc split in three, with a triangle in the negative space. #Boots, a pair of brown, lace-up boots. #ComboMeal, a soda, double cheeseburger, and McDonald’s fries.
November 10, 2025 at 6:54 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
#pixel_dailies #triangle #PixelArt @pixeldailies.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 4:56 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Boots for today’s #pixel_dailies #PixelArt @pixeldailies.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 1:09 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
New features in #Crispnes!

Create new sprites. Sizes up to 256x256, rename, and delete.

Save png, choose the scale up to 3840x3840.

Progress saves to IndexedDB. There are likely bugs, so save pngs or screenshot progress you’re happy with.

offthebooks.games/crispnes/

#PixelArt #WebDev #GameDev
November 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
#ComboMeal #pixel_dailies @pixeldailies.bsky.social
November 9, 2025 at 5:06 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Today’s #Mascot for #pixel_dailies. 16x16px 2-bpp, offthebooks.games/crispnes/ @pixeldailies.bsky.social #pixelart
Pixel art image of a bulldog school mascot in dark red, peachy-orange, and white. 16-by-16 pixels showing the snarling bulldog’s head and collar, three-quarter angle, with the bulldog facing towards the left side of the image.
November 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Pirate-Churro and her ghoulish gang are hauntingly happy to wish everyone a wonderful Halloween!
#PixelArt #Halloween #Gamedev
Churro from the in-development, Churro: Defender of Darnwood on a black background. She’s disguised as a pirate, and surrounded by a skull, ghost, witch, bat, and jack-o’-lantern. All characters are 8-by-8 pixel, 3-color sprites using various colors from the NES.
October 31, 2025 at 5:46 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
We should calm down about the Donkey Kong timeline. Each of these levels keeps going deeper underground, and they’ve all got sky. It’s make-believe folks.
#DonkeyKongBananza
The Matrix spoon meme, but instead the child says “there is no DK timeline.”
June 18, 2025 at 11:54 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
@marveloususa.bsky.social The FAQ marvelousgames.com/news/rune-fa... says:

“The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition … simply insert the card into either a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 console”

Can you clarify and confirm, because Nintendo says this of their games that have Switch 2 Edition versions:
Screen capture of Nintendo.com dialog describing the console compatibility of games which have Switch 2 Edition versions. Captured from the page for Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World.
May 16, 2025 at 9:29 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Chart of the 1st footage and NA release date of #Zelda games, the wait between last game and 1st footage, and from 1st footage to launch.

The trend of the data suggests we’ll see new Zelda footage May 7th, 2028, and a launch on July 2, 2030.

Hopefully #Nintendo is shooting for sooner.
April 15, 2025 at 5:17 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Other #Nintendo #Switch DLC bundle prices.

ACNH: $84.98
Pokémon Scarlet: $94.99
Splatoon 3: $84.98
BotW: $79.98
Fire Emblem Engage: $89.98
Age of Calamity: $79.98
Pokémon Sword: $89.98

Smash Bros. bundle would be $114.97 with both Fighter Passes. Games have been more than $59.99 for a long time.
April 9, 2025 at 2:30 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Just saw someone point out that #MarioKart 8 Deluxe is ten years old, and if you buy it today with the DLC it’s $84.98 for the bundle.
Screen capture from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe page on Nintendo.com, showing $84.98 USD pricing for game with DLC bundle.
April 9, 2025 at 1:25 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
#ScreenshotSaturday
April 5, 2025 at 8:52 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Another late #ScreenshotSaturday entry. I have a few tilesets, but I’m lagging behind with making new pests.

This is a BLĀZORB. Not exactly novel, but taking an opportunity to build out some patterns to help iterate faster.

#GameDev #RetroGaming #IndieDev
March 9, 2025 at 9:43 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Just checked out from the library. Looking forward to listening.
#Regginator #Nintendo #AudioBook
February 28, 2025 at 3:04 AM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Here is an early test of a tileset I’m working on for Churro’s world map.

#ScreenshotSaturday #IndieDev #GameDev #PixelArt
Pixel art of grassy, icy, and lava areas, connected in an island.
February 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
The kids wanted to color with some brush markers they found among the crayons this weekend. So, after going a round drawing Mickey Mouse with them, I was inspired to see how the markers would bring Churro to life.
January 20, 2025 at 3:23 PM
offthebooks.bsky.social
Now that I have a reason to point people to offthebooksgames.itch.io, my character-based font there, “Fly Casual,” needed a nicer demo image.

#PixelArt #Font
Mockup of a Game Boy screen of dialog from a fictional Return of the Jedi game. It references the scene in Return of the Jedi where Han Solo uses the phrase “fly casual.”
December 23, 2024 at 10:19 PM