Showed and demoed Owlet's Embrace in Hamburg. Had a lot of fun watching other people play the game and chat about their experience, a really eye-opening perspective shift.

Got hit by an idea for a graph-based level logic flow software. You could assign keys to nodes and (complex) conditions to edges.

You would be able to logically and visually step through the world, and the program would derive all kinds of metrics for for any given state.

This gotta exist already?

Excited to release a demo of Owlet's Embrace!

If you own a Playdate, download it over here:
strupf.itch.io/owlets-embrace

I'm also moving the full release into 2026. This is allows me to realize my full vision of the game - nonlinear world, replayability, multiple bosses, fleshed out narrative!

Swapping between (B) to grapple and (B) to attack. The companion's position indicates which mode is active.

What initially started as a workaround for the Playdate's constraints became a natural, intentional and smoothly integrated part of the gameplay.

Mockup for the snow area including subtle parallax foreground elements.

The "bad part" about getting better at making assets is that eventually you redo them not only once but sometimes twice just because you improve so much and the old assets don't hold up against the new ones anymore...

My favourite picture I took this year in spring so far.

WIP main menu. Design goals:
- playful and fun
- intuitive
- seamless transition into gameplay

In the future the owlet will be asleep in the save room. The companion will fly through the "4th wall" from menu into the gameplay scene upon starting and gently wake up the owl to continue the game.

Owlet's Embrace is my take on handcrafting a unique metroidvania to a high standard, aiming to create one of the best 2D experiences on the #playdate.

- Multiple careful boss designs
- 16-bit era inspired OST
- high FPS through a 100% custom engine
- speedrun mode
- ...

🪶
play.date/games/owlets...

Put down pins to remind your future-self of important places in Owlet's Embrace! A quality map is important to me so I'm trying to get the most out of the #playdate here.

play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

More news to come in spring 🪶

#indiegame

Owlet getting support from a little companion!

The spear grants access to weapon attacks but you can't double jump or wall climb anymore. Swap back to the grappling hook for more mobility and your companion will carry the spear while also giving its best to attack nearby enemies.

#playdate

Visual polish! Spikes and obsidian now show a dynamic glare effect to make them more visible.

Obsidian is different from other terrain because you can neither climb it nor use the grapple hook on it. A clear visual indicator helps with readibility.

#playdate #gamedev

Voting for the #playdate community awards is live! Always looking forward to this event.

Please consider Owlet's Embrace as your most anticipated upcoming game.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe73L1ya7TquC5mgOWWYINkVX2eDeKwJRVbevll_2uTQA93wQ/viewform

Catalog 🪶
play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

A test level to try wall climbing and double jumps in quick succession. Both use stamina which can be increased throughout the game.

Notice how wall jumping still remains available to you even if stamina runs out.

I'm so happy that I got the opportunity to showcase my upcoming game during the #playdate Update yesterday.

Owlet's Embrace is going to be released on Catalog late 2025! 🪶

Wishlist it today already:
play.date/games/owlets-embrace/

My 1-bit rework of my game's cover art!

I don't like the look of converted images so I manually created a native 1-bit version over several days. I really wanted to have the cover on the #playdate.

#pixelart

Recreated the character illustration of my owlet in 1 bit! Sunday afternoon well spent.

#pixelart #playdate

Got weapon attacks into the game.

Holding a weapon overrides the grappling hook and air jumps, though. Fighting back or mobility - choose the tool for the situation at hand.

Quick button press for a stab, hold for stronger and bigger slashing.

#playdate #gamedev

First post here, let's roll!

Making a #playdate game, some of you may have seen it once or twice.