(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) i just dug through a bunch of old documents to find out when i started hrt, because i thought my 1 year anniversary was coming up soon. apparently i started all the way back in may 2023! one of the reasons i didn’t think i had been on hrt for that long was that thanks to various issues with the uk healthcare system, i spent a long time stuck on a low dose of estrogen (certainly not enough for monotherapy) and no t blockers.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) today is the one year anniversary of my game ducky’s delivery service! i can’t believe i released it a whole year ago… ducky’s delivery service is my tribute to 2D physics action games like balloon fight and kuru kuru kururin, along with the delivery gameplay that you see in games like crazy taxi, paperboy and break the targets (smash bros). it’s an odd set of games to combine but it’s exactly what i wanted to play, and if i didn’t make the game i’d still be sitting around today wishing that it existed.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) after spending months playing gun.smoke, i decided to try one of the director’s earlier games, sonson. it’s a horizontal autoscrolling shooter where you have free horizontal movement, but the only way you can move vertically is by hopping up and down between six lanes. i love real-time action games about hopping around on a grid, such as the mega man battle network series and my own game chessplosion.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) gun.smoke’s extremely silly turbo mode leaderboard got me in the mood to go for a 1cc on very hard mode, and i finally did it! i love this game and i haven’t played anything else that’s quite like it. i hope more people will continue to experiment with bringing the kind of dynamic and unpredictable enemy AI you see in beat em ups into other genres.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase. People didn’t have a name for this phenomenon at the time but I’ve recently seen “Metroidbrainia” thrown around, which is such a hilariously horrible name that I hope it sticks) is there a term for the twist that some indie games do where at first they’re about their core game mechanics, but then they reveal that actually they’re about solving world-spanning puzzles and uncovering a mystery?

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) capcom arcade 2nd stadium, a collection of emulated capcom arcade games, has online leaderboards for every game. in addition to the standard high score leaderboards, there are extra leaderboards for playing the game on very hard mode, trying to clear it as fast as possible and so on. i was looking at the leaderboards for the fantastic shmup gun.smoke and i noticed there’s one that forces you to play the game in fast forward.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase) what’s the throughline of my creative work? my current indie games look and sound completely different to the games i worked on as part of a team, and the indie games that i’ll be making five years from now will almost certainly look and sound completely different to the games that i’m making now. i like working on my visual art and music skills and i’m proud of what i’m making along the way, but i don’t feel like i’m anywhere near my destination yet.

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase.) Someone asked: “Trans people: I want to hear how you chose your name” i just thought of a bunch of names i liked, threw out all the ones that i didn’t think sounded good for a very tall woman (i’m 6'5" / 195cm), and ended up with anna, cassandra, nina and a few others. part of me knew it would be convenient if i kept a name that began with C because i’d already released a game as C.

a late 90s style midi acoustic guitar song about baking a cake for someone you love. i tried to make something for COMPOST #4 late last night but i was way too tired to get anything done. i figured i’d just enter the next compost instead, but i saw that some other people were doing late entries today and i thought i’d give it another go. i’m glad i did!

(This was originally posted on cohost, hence the lowercase. This was also the first time i posted a picture of myself online since coming out as trans!) i’m trans and visible! please forgive my bathrobe-over-a-sweater look, it’s cold in here I post dev diary updates to my newsletter every other Thursday, including lots of info that I don't post in this blog. If want to see what I post there, subscribe or take a look at the archive!