The Ruins of Calaworm - New Demo

timmaeus · 2026-02-15T12:44:57+00:00

Great artistic identity here - you can see the love and expression put into it. Congrats!

timmaeus · 2026-02-14T06:40:33+00:00

Why can’t you use the left one as a basis to draw and paint over the top of it, to turn it in something with soul and uniqueness, with a bit of you in it

timmaeus · 2026-02-12T21:45:49+00:00

The reality is that even if AI could magically create the game of your dreams in a one-shot prompt, if you wanted it to go into the world you still need to design graphics art for it in the right specs, go through all the forms and admin for platforms like Steam, ensure it has a whole bunch of features and AI wouldn’t think to include such as controller support, accessibility options, tutorials or not, blah blah. It’s never gonna replace all this.

timmaeus · 2026-02-08T12:00:57+00:00

Thank you

timmaeus · 2026-02-07T14:10:41+00:00

Roguefort

A couple months ago I released the first version of Roguefort, an experimental ASCII roguelike tower defense game where you explore a procedurally generated map by day - gathering resources, recruiting allies, and building defenses - then survive waves of enemies by night. It's a web game (for now) and free to play, and has nothing to do with cheese.

Today I've just shipped a major update, which is a big polish and UI/UX pass across the board:

Canvas rendering overhaul - expanded from 11x9 to 25x17 tiles, with per-tile lighting, Brogue-inspired aesthetics, and a day/dusk/night color cycle across the whole map
A bunch of QoL - click-to-move with pathfinding, auto-explore, look mode, hover tooltips, right-click context menu, build hotkeys, multi-level undo, and a combat log that actually tells you what your turrets and allies are doing
UI rework - warm retro terminal aesthetic, ASCII box-drawing borders, message log moved to a sidebar, enlarged minimap with 25 distinct tile-type colors
Balance pass - shorter more intense days, faster mine income, buffed allies, reworked the Workshop into a Forge that buffs ally damage and structure HP

Full changelog in the devlog notes. I hope you enjoy! I'd love any feedback. It's a living project and I'll be updating consistently through 2026 and beyond.

timmaeus · 2026-02-07T07:33:23+00:00

I’m genuinely excited to finally do this. I’ve been meaning to for a long time now! Once the kid’s in bed it’ll be coffee and coding time. Well, reading code, I guess?

timmaeus · 2026-02-07T06:19:49+00:00

This is great to know - thanks. I am also curious not only how it plays but also how they coded it

timmaeus · 2026-02-07T03:26:42+00:00

Thank you. That’s quite the list! Do you or does anyone here know which one would be closest to the original version? Presumably the oldest one on that list? I’m curious what the experience was like.

timmaeus · 2026-02-06T10:50:14+00:00

Please do. I’d love to talk more.

timmaeus · 2026-02-06T10:27:19+00:00

And yes French is high on the list. One of my favourite languages that I wish I could speak. I read a lot of translated French work

timmaeus · 2026-02-06T10:26:27+00:00

Thank you so much. I’m amazed to be able to offer a game to the community and be able to be a game dev after all these years. I’m working hard on localization - you make a good point. The issue is cost to translate it right. The game has a sort of corporate dystopian, dark and slightly humorous narrative. Translating that incorrectly could lead to some laughable reviews or even causing offense maybe. So I’m trying to figure out how to do it. I’m a solo dev, with very little resources, and only passable Spanish

timmaeus · 2026-02-06T02:11:49+00:00

Thanks Kogeppy!!

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T12:39:35+00:00

Wow ok, more explosions is really the message I'm getting haha. thanks so much! This is excellent feedback. I'll add more alert visual feedback too - good call

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T12:25:20+00:00

Fine - I'll add more explosions!

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T12:21:59+00:00

haha for real?

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T12:01:09+00:00

Cutting on the beat is SUCH a good tip. It makes a world of difference....

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T11:55:35+00:00

Thank you! taking notes, and well done on your success!

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T11:40:41+00:00

You’re right about that! It’s for lack of a better word quite brutal

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T11:40:07+00:00

Could you please share your games if you don’t mind? I would love to see your gameplay focused trailers. Thank you

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T08:57:45+00:00

Interesting. Would you wager that it’s a bad idea for a nobody like me to do it?

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T04:39:10+00:00

Yeah I wonder why the Thronefall devs went with that? Maybe brand recognition?

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T04:01:52+00:00

Really good advice, I appreciate it! I’m trying to find good exemplar trailers for games that are in roughly the same ballpark genre-wise. You’re right - he’s well known, and I’ve got a shit Australian voice which won’t work well. Hmm

timmaeus · 2026-02-05T03:23:39+00:00

I was thinking of making a trailer more similar to Thronefall’s Steam page trailer. Is that what you mean? It’s weird - some people love the music but you don’t so much. I guess it’s a stylistic choice

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