Emin - building MARI

@thepixelform "Hard to find the differences" is the honest answer and probably the real research problem in that whole space. Winning is measurable, being recognizable isn't. Good luck with it. I'll be watching this one.

@eminerimdev It have genome off all those battles, it hard sometimes to find differences because there is so many situations you can create, I need to play more by myself but I can tell that fight of champion Ai Vs Ai can be surprising l. That example from that post is one of champions used.

Greek vs Greek example: Two heroes, both bred by evolution — population, mutation, selection. Zero scripted AI. #indiedev Each hero IS a genome: action weights, context multipliers, formation shape, hero position on the field. - Names are permanent identities: every individual carries its lifetime record (battles, kills, deaths, routs).

@thepixelform A champion with 1000 fights behind it is the most interesting object in that system. Does it start feeling different to play with, or does that history only live in the stats? I'd want to be able to say "this one always breaks left" and be right about it.

@eminerimdev Hero is literally one unit carrying it in memory. Some are offspring of rejected before so they can have small numbers but carrying genomes. Formation shape and unit types too. Same names I will use in game. Right now some champions went like 1000 fights.

Nobody skips background NPC behavior because it's hard. They skip it because it's expensive. Hand-writing a distinct reaction for 500 villagers is 500 decisions no player will ever thank you for. So you write one idle, ship it, and move on. That's the part I'm trying to change.

@OlexGameDev Five days on a GPU crash is the kind of thing that quietly kills solo projects not because it's unsolvable, but because you run out of will before you run out of ideas. That's the part people underrate about the AI shift.

@eminerimdev Yep, there is a lot less to no fear to debug complex issues either. 2 years ago I once spent full 5 straight days debugging a GPU crash when I was first building my renderer. With today's AI that would have been solved in 15 minutes.

I am so lucky to have started to work on my solo game as AI was getting good 3 years ago. An experienced solo engineer + AI is the best value combo of today, especially without an engine. There is literally no feature I am afraid to take on with AI's help and code reviews.

The village is bought. The NPCs are bought. Even the animations are bought. Everything in this scene is a solved problem except the one thing I actually care about: what each of these people decides to do when the world changes around them. #gamedev #indiedev #madewithunity

@so16gamedev GCD is the unglamorous fix that quietly makes everything else readable. Without it the opening burst just becomes noise and the player learns nothing from it.

特殊攻撃のクールダウンシステムにグローバルクールダウン（GCD）を導入しました。 これにより戦闘開始時の同時発動を防ぎ、戦略性を高めています。 ちなみに私はWorld of Warcraftが大好きです #indiegame

@BiniedaMateusz Day 13 and happiness sitting at 45 while the village keeps growing that tension is the fun part of these, right? The bigger it gets the harder each villager is to keep content.

Sunday: work mode 😃 #pixelart #gamedev #indiegame

@han_topia The chevrons being both the tell and the marker is clean one object to read. The make-or-break is keeping the marker-to-impact window consistent across enemies. Once one enemy's window feels off, players stop trusting the tell and panic-dodge everything.

Enemy siege artillery projectile WIP. Still tuning the timing, impact, and readability. #indiedev #gamedev #pixelart

I started building the thing I kept complaining about. It's called MARI. You author NPC behavior at dev-time, it compiles to plain deterministic code the studio owns. No runtime AI, no per-NPC token bill, no server call mid-game. The AI helps you write it, then it's just code you ship.

Every game has 5-10 hand-crafted hero NPCs. Then the hundreds of background villagers, guards, merchants and they're robotic. Same idle, same non-reaction. Animation got cheap. Behavior is the real bottleneck now. That gap is the thing I keep coming back to.

@CinderWeaver What jumps out isn't the spin, it's "triggers from further away" the boss is picking moves off your spacing, not just cycling a combo list. Does she read the gap live, or is each move gated to a range band?

I am working hard to give this boss a very fluid dance like moveset with many different moves. Here she goes from the regular starting combo to a spinning one that covers more distance and triggers from further away. #gamedev #indiegame #solodev #UnrealEngine

@runishopess 500 with no trailer or Steam page yet, just dev updates and a solo dream that says more about the work than any launch would. The people showing up early are the ones who actually care. Well earned.

Hey everyone ⚔️ We just passed 500 followers, and over 100 people have already signed up for future playtests. Honestly, that’s something I never imagined this early. There isn’t even a trailer or a Steam page yet just development updates, progress videos, and a dream of building an MMORPG as a solo developer. Thank you for every follow, every comment, every piece of feedback, and for believing in this project. Step by step, we’re building not only a game, but a community. The journey has only just begun. 🌿 #MMORPG #indiedev #gamedev

@JeanSnowDev Stances with real trade-offs are the best kind of choice pick Espectro over Valentía and you're committing to a different fight. Do enemies read your stance and adjust, or is the trade-off purely player-side?

Battle stance system: complete. As you progress through the game, you will be able to unlock more stances and associated playstyles.⚔️

@GamythStudio That breath cone reads as a clean telegraph real window to move on the wind-up. Does it aim where you are when it starts, or where it thinks you'll be? That's the difference between dodging once and learning the fight.

An undead dragon won't politely wait for you to finish your perfect move. Come prepared. Bring friends if you can. And if neither is an option... try not to become part of the scenery. #indiegame #indiedev #rpggame #rpg #gaming

@so16gamedev "Move based on threat level and positioning" is exactly the layer I find hardest to make readable the player has to feel the unit reassess, not just reposition. Sounds like you're already there. Following the tuning closely.

@eminerimdev Still tuning it, but units do search for cover positions and move based on threat level and positioning. Various behaviors are in place. Glad you're interested!

扉を開けて手榴弾を投げ入れるアクション(Grenade entry)を実装しました！ 突入前に部屋を制圧できるようになり、戦闘の選択肢が大幅に増え、タクティカル感も大幅にアップしました！ #indiegame

@LunarCTbuilder Tastes + opinions filtering one event into different reactions is the hard part most skip that's crowd vs town. Living that problem myself right now: the calendar's easy, the "why does THIS npc care" is the real work. How'd you build the taste side?

Basically you have events like Football match, or a news about space exploration or even the latest holo movie. They are on a calendar with some randomness. Based on npc tastes and opinions they might react differently to various event. The dialogue is procedural so it's one the uses

Civil servant mode activated. Today, I put on my yellow jacket and went out to talk with the residents. And then, back to taking another look at character customization in the game. ⚡ Wishlish on steam ⚡ #IndieGame #CityBuilder #GameDev #Unity3D

@R2RGames Ha, that's the eternal split building the system is the dopamine, refactoring is paying the tax afterward. Nobody posts the refactoring days but that's where half the real work lives. Good luck with the performance pass.

@eminerimdev Thanks! Now that the framing is looking good, I need to go over the code and review performance. It's fun building the systems, not as fun doing refactoring!

Finished wood framing for towers w/ conical roof. The build mechanics are really taking shape! 💪 #unity3d #indiedev

@PashaIGooD The perfection trap is the quietest killer for solo devs I'm fighting the exact same instinct right now, holding things back until they're "ready" when sharing the messy middle is what builds momentum. Good on you for catching it. Slice already looks alive.

Again, I fell into the perfection trap and stopped sharing what I am doing until I am fully happy with it. I should break this habit immediately!! Here is a short playable slice of #ClaudeCraft. Subscribe to play it first when I publish it! #godot #warcraft #ai #indiegame #gamedev