Switch 2 Devkits 🎮, Deadmau5 x UE 🎵, Unity Voxel Planets 🪐
Industry & Growth 📈
Switch 2 Dev Kits Are Scarce—Even Some AAA Studios Can’t Get Them
Digital Foundry reports many studios—indie and AAA—are struggling to obtain Nintendo Switch 2 dev kits. Some say they’ve been told to ship on the original Switch and rely on Switch 2’s backward compatibility, which already supports most Switch titles. That keeps access but limits native optimization for the upgraded hardware. Allocation appears uneven too, with some indies receiving kits while certain big teams remain in limbo.
No-Code to 1,000 Users: The Sphinx Riddle’s AI Playbook
A solo creator shipped The Sphinx Riddle—built with AI tools and zero code—and scaled to 1,000 users without ad spend. Cursor handled back-end logic and an OpenAI hint system, where prompt tuning and a switch to GPT‑4.1‑mini made the hints useful for just $0.15. Precise, element-level prompts beat broad UX asks for front-end polish. TikTok image carousels drove growth, while Reddit/Discord feedback and ChatGPT-guided creative iteration kept improvements fast.
Godot: Math, Shaders & Nature 🧮🌿
Godot Dev Animates Tyto’s Creatures With Pure Code, No Keyframes
Indie dev Shaked Lotan (Tyto) animates characters in Godot using pure math—no keyframes or spritesheets. Sine functions with offsets and delays drive position, rotation, and scale for smooth, code-controlled motion and effortless state transitions. He shares full scripts for a crab’s legs, body, eyes, and claws, plus an owl demo. It’s a lightweight, flexible workflow ideal for solo devs.
From Blades to Planes: Practical Grass Impostors with Godot Shaders
This tutorial turns a pretty grass prototype into a production-ready LOD system in Godot. It swaps distant geometry for shader-driven impostors that reuse world-space noise, wind AO, and a baked top-down normal map to preserve lighting and motion. You’ll learn angle-aware color tweaks, noise-based ground peeking, and mipmap bias for believable distant “sparkle,” plus alpha-dithered crossfades driven by a simple script. Repo links and ready-to-use snippets included.
Engines: Worlds & Audio 🪐🎧
Voxel Planets in Unity: Bowerbyte’s Destructible Spherical Sandbox
3D Artist Bowerbyte is building a spherical voxel planet in Unity—procedural, fully destructible, and loaded with 20+ block types. Expanding on Jordan Peck’s tech demo, this version adds textured blocks and large-scale destruction. The dev dives into tough problems like minimizing block distortion and aligning gravity on a curved, blocky surface. Try free browser builds on Windows and explore the detailed technical breakdown with WIP screenshots.
deadmau5 x UE5: Real‑Time Audio Meets Graphics Rendering
Unreal Engine hosts deadmau5 and Epic’s audio leads for a deep dive into music-driven interactivity in UE5. They explore workflows for syncing audio with rendering and gameplay, and share lessons from launching Meowingtons Simulator, a ragdoll dancing experience by Oberha5li Studios. Expect practical tips on reactive systems, pipelines, and cross-discipline collaboration—ideal for anyone building rhythm mechanics or audio-visual experiences.
Workflows: Mobile & Rapid Dev 📱⚡
Blender on Tablets Today: Remote Streaming Hacks Before the Official Port
A month after Blender teased an iPad/tablet port, creators are already streaming the desktop app to tablets via Moonlight. Demos show Blender, ZBrush, and After Effects running on iPad and Android, though input and latency issues make it far from a native experience. The community is split—some call it impractical, others are happily tinkering—while everyone waits for the official release.
Building “Family Time” in 4 Days: A Loop-Themed Devlog
After seven years away from jams, Sebastian Lague builds a loop-themed game for GMTK 2025 in just four days. The devlog walks through each day’s progress—from concept to polish—before a full playthrough. He shares the source code, assets, and playable build, and spotlights other standout jam entries. A compact masterclass in scoped, time-boxed game development.