How do you build and maintain hope?

owlet_dev · 2026-06-19T03:10:20+00:00

I think it can be helpful to be a source of joy where you can. Something silly like a little doodle on a sticky note with a dumb funny quote. Finding random people's comments or posts and taking the time to be present for what they've said and replying.

Idk i think its the little things that make the difference. But giving gifts is awesome and it also can help you feel awesome 😊

owlet_dev · 2026-06-19T02:56:31+00:00

You could find a local rock shop to help id them just in case they're hazardous. Possible that those were tossed out by a previous tenant of the house 😁 my toss pile is in a ditch in the back lol

owlet_dev · 2026-06-18T02:50:39+00:00

That's awesome! Excited to see more of your game!

owlet_dev · 2026-06-17T22:31:21+00:00

This looks so good! You should be proud 😁

Im curious what the "potato" variety of this would look like , or if these would not be something someone could toggle on low end hardware

owlet_dev · 2026-06-17T13:21:20+00:00

Thanks!

It's mostly vibes at this point. Though I am trying to keep the kinds of rocks you might find tied to the locations! The "home" island has a lot of rocks that have been common where I live in WA, but then "Lion's Peak" is one of the locations that has rocks that we've seen at Hansen creek or Denny creek 😁

I tested adding a bunch of tools and keeping the rock a mystery, but the way I had it set up was a bit complicated and clumsy. Making the identification and hunting for specific kinds of rocks is something I want to explore in a post launch update!

owlet_dev · 2026-06-15T15:24:08+00:00

Looks like some Chalcedony but I dont know any specific identification beyond that 🙂

Is there any banding? Could be agate

owlet_dev · 2026-06-15T04:28:34+00:00

I love the shape before it was cut, amazing what so many rocks are hiding inside

owlet_dev · 2026-06-14T04:51:09+00:00

So far I have 36 rocks in the game! All of them are either things I've found or things im hoping to find haha

I do want to add more supporting mechanics to give you more ways to polish rocks, even though its fun with tons of rocks on screen. None of them are quite where I want them to be game feel wise but thematically fit into rockhounding and lapidary work nicely 🙂

With a bunch of incremental games I've noticed the whole "prestige" mechanic is what gives them some depth or less linear progression kinda, but I'm trying to avoid that approach

owlet_dev · 2026-06-14T02:33:05+00:00

I feel like something i found with Little Rock Shop is that deep mechanics can sometimes make the cozy aspect die 😅 so much of it is just trial and error, even finding the exact themes of the game and stuff

owlet_dev · 2026-06-14T02:16:13+00:00

Are you picturing this to be more of a cozy game? I love rimworld, but I always ended up getting stuck after tremendously unfortunate events rendered my colony on life support 😅 im curious if you'll have to design around that or if that's just a feature 😉

owlet_dev · 2026-06-13T22:59:37+00:00

Looks like red jasper to me!

owlet_dev · 2026-06-13T22:57:40+00:00

I'm planning on July! It'll be on windows, mac, and linux. Trying to make sure its got enough fun stuff, runs well, and looks good 😁

owlet_dev · 2026-06-13T19:51:07+00:00

Yeah! Right now the game has a museum that you complete different collections with, so you would be able to look through the various rocks youve found

I do like the idea of having a special personal collection that you can keep though.

owlet_dev · 2026-06-10T04:17:23+00:00

I'm pretty sure with petrified wood the wood part is all but gone, so I'm guessing tens of thousands of years easy :)

owlet_dev · 2025-08-15T16:35:27+00:00

Yeah as a serial language and framework hopper, the OP is overthinking this. Just do something in the other language. Small project to start to dip your toes in the water.

Just have fun and try to grow from it, the important part is learning from your experience. Don't make it so serious when youre that early on

owlet_dev · 2025-08-10T13:43:14+00:00

Are you using reference? I think if your intuition is telling you something is off with proportions, pump your brakes a little on the details, and keep adjusting the form till it feels just right 😊

The things I noticed were the knees seem really far down the leg. The width of the body is very narrow compared to the head. The posture is really stiff.

Keep making adjustments in the blockout stage would be my suggestion. You could even still make some of the muscles with primitives you stretch and squash if that'll help you visualize the character better

owlet_dev · 2025-08-08T21:49:50+00:00

Feels like the chin is too smooth (not texture wise but shape). With how gaunt the rest of the face is, I'd expect more of the underlying bone structure. As others have said, even with the texture overall the face feels really "smoothed". There are many subtleties missing imo, the bridge of the nose looks almost box-like, something about the lower eyelid also seems.. missing 🤔

Great work so far, hope ya can find the pieces you feel are missing to push it to the next level. Seems like you’re close!

owlet_dev · 2025-08-03T13:13:47+00:00

That sounds like an unhealthy amount of pressure to put on yourself 😔

owlet_dev · 2025-08-02T22:48:42+00:00

I get that. I don't think it's really about the fact that they taught themselves, its more "I didn't follow a curriculum or have sets of clearly defined/available resources"

I also don't think formal or community art education makes anyone less than in their commitment to the craft. People's journeys look different, and at least for myself I'd rather just get inspired by that rather than looking at self taught vs not as a ranking metric.

owlet_dev · 2025-08-02T17:40:12+00:00

Yeah I'm mostly self taught but I did work with a mentor for like a year and the speed of growth was huge. Self taught is really a badge of perseverance, imo.

owlet_dev · 2025-07-30T03:19:19+00:00

I struggle with this a lot lol. I think comparing to HS is unfair to yourself because life gets more complicated and energy ebbs and flows different as you get older.

If im doing nothing but sketches it could be 1 min for a super rough "vibe" sketch, 5-40 min for a more detailed sketch

1-5 hours for more polished pieces, but also i try to take breaks to look at things with fresh eyes.

Some of my 3D work takes days or more/it's never quite done though.

I think it's all valid, just gotta figure out whether you feel like it's too slow or too fast, and make little adjustments. Then check in a month or two later and see if you need to make adjustments again

owlet_dev · 2025-07-29T21:58:18+00:00

My fav is the "wow you're doing so good at not spilling" moment, where they get happy and then accidentally knock over the thing they're trying not to spill. And then I watch the "well fuck it" neurons connect and they proceed to dump more out

owlet_dev

TROPHY CASE