Screenshot Saturday Sundays! It’s time for our weekly foray into the swamps of Twitter’s screenshotsaturday hashtag, fishing out the juiciest gifs, videos and in-development jpegs we can find for the afternoon’s pleasure. This week: moon’s haunted, but we’ve also got concrete gardening, low-fi adaptations, and crunchy cosmic billiards.
Too worried to pick up a few houseplants for fear of killing them? Here, let my first item offer you a welcome alternative.
We’ve come such a long way, but there’s still a lot to do. We’ll be working on gameplay exclusively for a couple of weeks before the tech demo release. But I’m so happy to work on something that’s turning out to actually make you feel like you’re in nature.🌱#screenshotsaturday pic.twitter.com/o6UwuhOThR
— ✨Elina 🧙♀️ conjuring virtual plants🌟 (@logicsoup) July 18, 2020
There’s something enduringly appealing about turning brutal, concrete spaces into flourishing greenery, isn’t there? Developed by Estonian duo Elina and Johann, this untitled plant “growing & ecological reconstruction” will have you attempting to bring life to stark, abandoned spaces. The way branches and roots wrap believable around structures – as demonstrated by this earlier post – is particularly captivating. I’ll definitely have to keep an eye out for the tech demo dropping later this August.
Okay, that’s enough resolution for one week. Let’s crank those pixel sizes right up, starting with a low-res ball-thwacker that honestly just looks fun as hell.
Thought screenshot Saturday was screenshot Sunday today manm, Anyways mostly finished world 1 and im now working on world 2, SPACE#screenshotsaturday pic.twitter.com/a7QjEinYA0
— Chirpy (@ChirpyDerpz) July 19, 2020
I know golfing games are nothing new – hell, I covered one riffing on Dale Winton’s Supermarket Sweep just last month. But if I can play to type for a moment, I adore how good Chirpy’s golf ’em up looks to play. There’s a real Terry Cavanagh or JW Nijman energy to not just the pulsing, shaking setup, but the way the game smartly lets you just hop over the level boundary. I actually thought this was a PICO-8 game to begin with – a scene I probably unfairly overlook in this column – but it’s instead a well-executed recreation of that style using GameMaker 2.
On an unrelated note… do you ever think about the Moon? How it’s just up there, staring, gently pulling the tides to its whims? Reckon it’s time for a fresh bout of spooky moon bullshit.
“An astronaut searches for geological features beneath the surface of The Moon… They find one.” A few screenshots and some key art for “Solipsis”, my entry for the Dread X Collection 2. Coming later this summer! 🌜@dread_x_p #screenshotsaturday pic.twitter.com/CaMTsAC7t5
— Daniel Mullins (@DMullinsGames) July 18, 2020
I love a good bit of spooky moon bullshit, mind. Destiny knew it, that Local 58 Youtube channel knew it, and now developer Daniel Mullins is delivering his own take courtesy of the Dread X Collection. Launching later this Summer, I can’t quite readily make out what Solipsis is – but between pitch-black exploration and unsettling, intense close-up photography, it certainly knows that something is deeply amiss with our celestial neighbour.
Finally, we dip again into the well of Haunted PS1 creators. This time, however, developer Leakyfingers is trading skittering spidertellies for something altogether more pleasant.
To improve my (non-existant) modelling and texturing skills I’ve started converting Beksinski paintings into low-poly 3D scenes – will probably combine into a small interactive gallery and release once finished#screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiedev #lowpoly #madewithunity pic.twitter.com/rM1025vPxq
— ＬＥＡＫＹＦＩＮＧＥＲＳ (@leakyfingers) July 18, 2020
Going from their past work, I wouldn’t say the dev is that bad at bashing together creepy assets. But if these dioramas are how he chooses to improve, that’s more than fine by me. Beginning with one of his many untitled works, Leaky’s reimagining of the works of Polish surrealist and horror fave Zdzisław Beksiński really do fit perfectly into the throwback 3D style. Colour me excited to check out the completed interactive gallery, if and when it should eventually to completion.