Dev Logs & Game Dev
13 posts in this topic.
This is the part of the site where we show our work. Dev logs from in-progress games, post-mortems on stuff we shipped, essays about the tools we use, and the occasional rant about something that broke at 2am. Indie game development looks glamorous from the outside and feels like a haunted spreadsheet from the inside, and we're not particularly interested in pretending otherwise.
Most of what's below documents two studios under one roof. Choost Games is where the bigger projects live — Granny's Gambit on the deckbuilder side, Granny's Rampage on the bullet heaven side, both built in browser-friendly stacks because we like the idea of someone playing a real game without a 40GB download. SB Choost is the experimental side label, where we ship faster, weirder, smaller things and don't apologize for any of it. The posts below cover the engineering (Phaser 3, React, Electron packaging), the AI-assisted workflow we've actually found useful versus the parts that are still oversold, and the unglamorous middle of indie dev — itch.io math, Steam page anxiety, why your tilemap broke after a Vite upgrade.
If you're here because you're building your own thing and want to see how someone else is doing it, that's the use case we write for. Take what's useful, ignore what isn't, and tell us when we're wrong.
Best Games With Emergent Storytelling: When Systems Write the Plot
The best games with emergent storytelling, and the design that makes it work. RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress, Noita, and why simulated agents beat scripts.
Why Your Colonists Ignore You, and Why That Is the Whole Point
Work priorities, needs, and moods explain almost every colonist who wandered off mid-task. Here is how indirect control actually works and how to debug a colony that will not cooperate.
Best PS1 Games of All Time
The best PS1 games of all time, picked by an indie studio that still steals from them. From RPGs to survival horror to the weird stuff nobody talks about.
Mobile Games You Can Play One-Handed in Five-Minute Bursts
The best one-handed portrait-mode mobile games for short sessions. Balatro, Slay the Spire, Reigns, Threes!, Tsuki's Odyssey, Alto's Odyssey, clean-exit games that respect your interruption pattern.
Best Roguelites Where Every Run Actually Plays Differently
The roguelites that resist meta collapse, with multiple distinct strategies viable at the highest difficulty.
Best Steam Deck Games 2026 — 15 Games That Play Best on the Deck
The 15 best Steam Deck games in 2026. Games verified for Deck, optimized for handheld play, and worth prioritizing on the portable over desktop.
How to Make a Game Without Coding — 6 No-Code Tools That Actually Work
How to make a game without coding in 2026. Real no-code game engines, what they can and can't do, and which tool fits your game idea.
How to Make a 2D Game — From Idea to Playable Build in 2026
How to make a 2D game from scratch. Engine selection, art pipeline, basic game loop, and getting to a playable prototype, from a developer who ships 2D games.
What Makes a Good Boss Fight: A Developer's Design Breakdown
What makes a good boss fight, the design principles behind gaming's greatest bosses, analyzed by a studio that builds them.
Best Short Games: Complete Experiences Under 10 Hours
The best short games, complete, satisfying experiences you can finish in one or two sittings, from 2-hour masterpieces to 10-hour gems.
The Best DS Games That Still Hold Up in 2026
The best Nintendo DS games worth playing today, the classics, the hidden gems, and the weird experiments that defined one of gaming's best handheld libraries.
Building a Bullet Heaven in Phaser: What We Learned
Lessons from building a bullet heaven game in Phaser 3 as a solo developer, sprite management, performance, and what nobody warns you about.
Making Games as a Solo Dev With AI Tools: What Actually Works
A solo developer's honest take on using AI tools for game development, what helps, what doesn't, and what the workflow actually looks like in practice.
