Cozy C64 vibes

So I said in my happy new year post that I was looking to do some more retro projects. At the time I was debating between a C64 game or a Gameboy Color game. I’m happy to say I decided to go with C64 for the simple reason that I love that I can make games for the C64 WITH the C64. It really just fully encapsulates the retro vibe for me. In fact, I’m trying to do this as authentically as possible (other than, you know, using a version of Turbo Macro Pro that was released in 2006, slightly past when the C64 was a viable machine). It’s just me, my C64c connected to my Checkmate Display, loading and saving all programs and code on my trusty 1541-II drive, with a warm cup of hot cocoa by my side. Yes, I’m going through a hot cocoa phase as a grown man, what of it? It’s cold here in Idaho and I’ve never been a fan of coffee.

Hey, it’s 2026!

First and foremost, it’s a new year. Can’t complain yet. Which given we’re 2 days in doesn’t say much, but let’s be honest… there’s certainly been years in the not-too-distant past where 2 days in I was already sick of it.

I’m not going to do a bunch of the typical New Year, New Me stuff, or resolutions or any of that. So instead, here’s just some brief updates…

It’s been mentioned briefly before, but I’m just about ready to reveal the full details for the big It’s a Blast! update. The initial release (and few small updates following that release) came from a hackathon. It was fun and crazy, but didn’t really allow the time to flesh everything out fully. This big revamp update will take this game from a fun competition entry, into its first “full” release. But if this isn’t the full announcement, then what’s the point of this post? Is it just the announcement of an announcement? Not quite. Here, we’ll talk about what’s coming. Next up will be posts covering the specifics for these improvements, with a release date announcement as soon as it’s locked down.

The number of times I’ve tried to start a YouTube channel, or blog, or site, or whatever is too many to count. The problem I always have is this crazy idea that I need to stick to a single topic when the reality is that pretty much all of us have varied interests and hobbies and things that we devote our time and energy to. So that’s what I’m going to do here. Whatever I’m working on and interested in, it goes on the site. And maybe on the youtube channel if I ever make a video outside of competition entry videos.

Yes it’s true, Meta is doing another competition. And after having some luck in the last one with It’s a Blast! I’m joining in.

The rules are that you have to take an existing mobile world and elevate it. Bring on the progression systems, and reasons to share, etc. Unfortunately, I only have two mobile worlds I’ve made, and It’s a Blast! doesn’t really fit with the progression system goals. And so, it’s time to make some updates to Rock Monster Rush, the very first competition entry I made (that sadly, despite getting some praise from fellow creators, got no love in the competition, or afterward for that matter).

I’m currently working with redacted on a NES project, which includes a small minigame collection. As such I’ve gone ahead and posted the base wrapper and a really stupid sample (I need to get an actual sample minigame written!) over on github.

It makes it super easy however to make a small NES game so if anyone’s interested, here it is:

https://github.com/heyitsbcs/nesminigame

More updates here to come as I flesh it out more. And I NEED to find a super simple tile/map editor I can share with people that will play nicely with this.

This was my submission to the Meta Horizon Worlds Mobile Genre Showdown. It’s a pretty direct / blatant homage to one of my favorite party games ever. Time will tell if it hits at all, but it definitely feels like a better fit for the platform that my last entry (Rock Monster Rush, I should add a post about that).

The DevPost entry is here: https://devpost.com/software/it-s-a-blast

The rather questionable YouTube video showing it is here: