blog on Riibaisu

My Site Took 6 Years to Make

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:47:03 -0300

Okay, it is kind of a clickbait.

Since I graduated High School, in 2020, and got into programming, I always wanted to have my own website, a mix of a portfolio and blog where I could post what I was working on, what I was feeling and what I wanted to make. However, I was stubborn and had a bad mindset.

Built From Nothing

A lot of people, when they start programming, think they need to make everything themselves or else it would be cheating. I don’t know if that changed with AI. A site that I didn’t make everything wouldn’t feel mine, and so wouldn’t be valid. But then, when would that logic stop? Using TailwindCSS would be cheating? Bootstrap? It makes no sense at all.

Espiral Postmortem

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:55:41 -0300

This was my first twine game. I chose it because I really wanted to submit something for the jam, but I only had eight hours left and it was already midnight where I live. The theme was about having 3 minutes left until something happens, so I started thinking…

The Idea

If I had more time, I would have tried to go for something abstract and absurd, but I had to work within my constraints and went for something more personal. Everyone worries about money. The most obvious way to earn it is by getting a job, and getting a job usually means going through an interview. A lot of people get anxious before interviews, so I started wondering: what if the countdown wasn’t leading to something catastrophic, but to something completely ordinary? A story about overthinking, self-esteem and anxiety turning something so boring into a monster was the idea that made me start writing.

My First Experience with Twine

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:48:37 -0300

tldr: Good for its purpose, writing text-focused interactive stories. Would use it again in writing or planning games or for tight game jam deadlines.

What is Twine?

In its website, Twine is defined as “an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories”. I like to think about it as a branching dialog game creator.

My Experience

After finishing the [[Customer Cat Postmortem|last game jam]], I was eager to participate in another one, but I only had 8 hours to submit something. With my current skill set, I knew I couldn’t make a polished graphical game in that time, so I decided to write an interactive story instead. It’s a game after all, right?

Customer Cat Postmortem

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0700

Customer Cat was my first experience with Defold, and I used it to make a small Bitsy-inspired game. I only had a few days to work on it for a game jam, which is why the game ended up being so short, rushed, and ultimately not very interesting. Even so, I learned a lot from the experience, and that alone made the project worthwhile.

The Idea

A Bitsy game is essentially a collection of rooms, characters, objects, and dialogue, where the player explores the world by interacting with each of those elements. I wanted to make a game in that style about a cat who is incredibly entitled and constantly complains about the not-so-beautiful world around it, especially whenever it’s treated like an ordinary customer. Since the jam’s theme was “toxic”, I thought the concept fit perfectly.

My First Experience with Defold

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0700

tldr: I like Defold, and I will use it when I think it is suited for the project or idea I have.

What is Defold?

Defold defines itself as “a free, powerful, all-in-one game engine for development of 2D and 3D truly cross-platform games.”

My Experience

My main engine is Godot. It’s the engine I’ve been trying to make games with for the past few years, watching tutorials and experimenting since 2020. However, it is not a perfect game engine, there’s no such thing, and it is natural for me, a not so talented gamedev, to try and search for better tools.