Nina_Birb

@ninabirb.bsky.social

82 Followers 141 Following

Trans woman harpy who makes comics and video games. https://ninabirb.itch.io/

*scrolling posts*
The whole gangs here
UR ALL GAY
I could hack this robot with my hacking ability Then move it into this puddle to zap the water And then throw a rcok at this trash can So this guard walks towards the noise and gets zapped by the zappy water
Penny: Oh my god, I've woken up as a girl!
Mewgenics is a cat breeding strategy roguelike made by the same dev for Binding of Isaac. The game switches between breeding cats to get better stats, and sending 4 or less out to battle through different ares. There's an endless amount of different strategies the player can do based off the stats, abilities, class, passives, disorders, mutations, and items of each cat. It's hard to explain everything that makes this game great in this small review, but know this game is extremely addicting and well worth the price.
Slay the Princess is a horror romance visual novel. Describing it anymore would spoil a lot, this game is best gone into blind. Something I will say, don't be afraid to choose an option that looks evil. Often the best moments of the game came from making a bad decision. This game put me through a ride of every emotion, and I highly recommend it.
"Hey, you mind if I light this scented candle?" "Sure, go ahead."
Customer pointing at lesbian girl eating: I'll have what she's having Waiter: Understood
Nina: Who are you? Stranger: I was you... or you were me, or we used to be each other, long before you knew yourself as Nina
I love everything about video games, it's an infinite medium that has so many ways of expression that all have intentionality behind each part of their design. I love seeing al the ways a games mechanics, art, and story work together. I love analyzing all the details ofa game and how they create a bigger whole. I love seeing the ways people interact with them.
I'm done with Nintendo, I'll never play another Nintendo game.
Windswept is a 2D platformer inspired by Donkey Kong Country. You play as Marbles and Checkers, a duck and turtle duo both with their own unique moveset. This game is not for casual players, you will die a lot, and there aren't a lot of checkpoints. The base game is retro 80's levels of difficulty, while optional content is Celeste B side levels of difficult, requiring the player to master the full moveset of both characters. I personally loved this level of difficulty, but if this isn't your thing the accessibility options are great, like spawing checkpoints or invincibility. I highly recommend this game as someone who likes difficult platformers.
The Loners Head: A strange energy keeps the mind alive (Image depicts a titan head laying in the center of a forest)
After 5 days, I finally fixed the bug with ladders.
Dev: "Oh, looks like this cube bounces slightly when we place it on the ladder. It's probably fine, none of our puzzles are really affected by it.
A YEAR OF SPRINGS is a 3 part visual novel about a group of three girls, with lots on different LGBTQ+ topics. Since this is a short story, I won't spoil it. However, I did want to make this review special, because this game became special to me from start to finish.
Nina's Steam Replay 2,416 Sessions 148 New Games 202 Games Played 1,100 Achievements
Sometimes when I'm making a puzzle game, I find an interaction that's useless as a solution. When I was making Transition, there was an interaction where a non-green player could have their reset point blocked by a green object. While this was interesting, it ultimately would delete the player, leaving the level unbeatable.
Angeline Era is a 3D action adventure game with a cool twist on the formula. Rather than just selecting a level, every level on the overworld is invisible, and you must search suspiscious tiles in order to find them. This makes finding levels its own treat, rewarding players for paying attention to map design. The levels themselves also hold up nicely, fun combat, tons of level variety, and packed full of secrets. Once again, the two talented devs of Analgesic Productions knock it out of the park.
Here at the game awards we care about developers when it's necessary, which is why out next guest will be another celebrity
OOOH, this game looks so cool, I'm definitely adding it to my wishlist!
1000XRESIST is a story heavy game taht is extremely well written. Without any spoilers, the game treads a fine tightrope of keeping the player in the dark of what's truly going on without it being overly opaque, giving breadcrumbs of understanding until by the end the player is completely filled in. The game also masterfully uses dialogue, constantly but subtly foreshadowing later plot points in non-obvious ways.
Left to Right: Nina is You (Baba is You), Celeste, In Stars and Time, Noita
"Your reign of terror is over Dark Lord!" "Foolish Hero! No man can bring harm to me!"
She's so damn pretty, god I wanna kiss her...
Almost complete with my game :3
This is an early screenshot and is subject to change
When making puzzles, I often repeat 3 main steps over and over. The first step introduce, where I introduce a concept to the player. This can be the base mechanics, a new mechanic, or an interaction of the mechanics. You can see this through many of my games, a small lowering of difficulty where an idea is introduced to the player, either by showing the player immediately, or giving fewer options so the player is more likely to figure out what the idea being taught is.
"My last puzzles games have been really complex, so I'll just make a simple puzzle game about ladders so I don't need to program too much."
There are a lot of ways to design puzzles. For the purposes of this comic, I'll be focusing on a gradual difficulty approach. First I like to introduce very simple levels that show the player what the win condition is and how they achieve it. For instance, many if my games have a flag activated by crates and targets, so I start with an easy level where the objective is to just place the crates on the target and then touch the flag. I've observed that tons of games do this, showing the player how to win before they get into the meat of the mechanics.
Nina: Oops! I almost started rambling there! Person 2: That's fine! You can ramble!
I have a few methods I've developed for coming up with puzzle game ideas. The first method is visualizing a vague image in my head. For instance, the concept of Hologram came from the idea of a blocked path being opened because of a camera projecting a hologram of a path on the walls. Or how Reflection came from the idea of a block only appearing in a mirror, and being able to push that block with your reflection. Letting my thoughts wander is what helped me make some of my favorite puzzle games.
There's too many cakes here.
I... I liked it....
People often compare my puzzle games to Baba Is You, and there is a reason. Baba Is You was the game that got me into puzzle games. I would spend hours making my own puzzles in the level editor for Baba Is You before I made my own puzzle games.
Hello, I'm Ninabirb, and as you might know, I love puzzle games. And you might also know I like to make puzzle games. And recently I've wanted to talk about the methods I use to make my puzzle games.
Frames - Portals on Steroids, is exactly what it says on the title. The game revolves around these objects called frames, which act as portals. The game explores a lot of the paradoxical side of portals. Unlike the Portal series, Frames can be moved, be different sizes, lead out of itself, some frames change gravity, frames can even enter each other. Some of the levels get pretty hard, but there's a hint system in the game, and you can even get a step by step solution to the puzzle if you're truly stuck. Recommend this to anyone who wants a more brain melting game about portals.
Metro Gravity is a game where there is no up or down. Your gravity is whichever way you're standing. There's also rhythm soulslike combat that leads to very memorable boss fights. The game is a little rough around the edges, some puzzles are a little finnicky, but despite all of its flaws, I adored this game, and the gravity mechanics were so fun. I would often spend an hour in a room just changing gravity.
Lenna's Inception is a fun Zeldalike that tries to be it's own thing, and in my opinion, succeeds. The world procedually generated on start does not take away from it, as the world layout always felt natural and never made an impossible seed. The game has a meta story that left me pleasantly surprised. Overall, I reccomend this game.
My artist is [Insert passive description]. She loves to make many of her ideas come to life
Filomie
I've been on estrogen for 2 years but my boobs are still small...
Narration: You're outside "She endured as much as she could tough"
Narration: Her spirits broken, she sits to grieve "Hey, can you hear me?"
Her story told again and again
She looked at the house she always walked past
She lied in the field, her thoughts aloft
Her adventure finally over
The Multi-Medium, 5PM EST, Thursday, Starring Nina