“Build Succeeded” Is Not “It Runs”
Solo game development — verification notes TL;DR: Static checks, a build, an install, and a first screen are four different claims. An AI that says “build succeeded” has told you about one… Read entry →
Development notes
Category: Galaxy
A chronological record of shipping Call the Cat, rebuilding Galaxy in Unity, and learning what each decision costs.
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What a Flat Map Owes a Sphere
Solo game development — design notes TL;DR: “Round the edges of the map” is not the change. Up, collision, spawning, and the camera all read from the same flat assumption, and each… Read entry →
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I Saw One Gate. There Were Two.
Solo game development — verification notes TL;DR: I concluded that iOS would show an empty shop after reading one condition. A second condition prevented the purchase provider from existing at all. The… Read entry →
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I Uploaded One File. Only Apple Could Not Find It.
Call the Cat: Galaxy — devlog TL;DR: The file was fine. AdMob reads a different field on each store, and on Apple it reads the marketing URL — which pointed at a… Read entry →
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Galaxy19 – The Value Was in the Config File. It Was Not in the App.
Call the Cat: Galaxy — devlog #19 TL;DR: The app installed but would not launch. The ad app ID was sitting in the config file exactly as expected. It just never made… Read entry →
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Galaxy00 – I Cut Features and Set One to Three Minutes per Planet
Call the Cat — devlog TL;DR: Starting the sequel, I wrote down what to leave out before what to add. One run is 1–3 minutes; the goal is 100% conquest and planting… Read entry →
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Galaxy18 – I Asked the AI to Weaken a Boss and It Only Lowered HP
I told an AI to make a boss weaker. It lowered the health value and the fight was still hard — because the feel was built by three values, and it changed… Read entry →
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Galaxy17 – The Map’s Star Showed Up as a Box on Windows Only
The same build drew a star on macOS and an empty box on Windows. The localization check passed — because the character was hardcoded in the code, outside the tables the check… Read entry →
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Galaxy16 – When It’s a Tie, the AI Won’t Decide Who Wins
A player collects everything before time runs out and the game still says “Failed” — because nobody ever decided which wins when two events land in the exact same frame. Why that’s… Read entry →
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Galaxy15 – The App Was 218MB, So I Measured the Art First
Told to shrink a 218MB Android build, the first move wasn’t compression — it was finding out which chunks were actually big. Why source-folder size and install size aren’t the same number,… Read entry →