Top all-time · #6579
Derek Yu
Personal blog · derekyu.com/makegamesgameswriting
Derek Yu's personal blog at derekyu.com covers games and writing. Since 2020, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 14 times, most often “Indie Game Development: Indie Archetypes (Derek Yu, 2020)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Derek Yu's (Spelunky creator) posts on developer archetypes for indie game makers and on pixel art tutorials covering techniques like anti-aliasing and selout.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Indie Game Development: Indie Archetypes (Derek Yu, 2020)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-02-24
- /makegames/pixelart.html2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-05-04
- Indie Game Dev: Death Loops2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-03-20
- Indie Game Dev: Assessing Risk2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-12-14
What Hacker News says?
Derek Yu, the creator of the Spelunky series among other things, has just published a blog post on his experience with developer archetypes: https://www.derekyu.com/makegames/archetypes.html Recommended short read, I'm sure you'll find yourself here and relate to your non-indie-game-developer self too!
Comment linking /makegames/archetypes.html
on “Making Games on Your Own as an Engineer”Submitted Pixel Art: Common Mistakes (2020) as a story · 308 points
HN discussionI recently wanted to learn the basics to help my son and came across this article that made the most sense to me. Pixel Art Tutorial: Basics https://www.derekyu.com/makegames/pixelart.html I have come across other articles that are similar in context but not as cleanly laid out. The article doesn't go into the usage of software though. I think the design work flow, within software, would be greatly helpful in the un…
Comment linking /makegames/pixelart.html
on “I built a pixel art editor after playing Octopath Traveler II”Submitted Indie Game Development: Indie Archetypes (Derek Yu, 2020) as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI’ll take the chance to link to Derek Yu’s (of Spelunky fame) pixel art tutorial, where he explains techniques such as anti-aliasing and sel-out: https://www.derekyu.com/makegames/pixelart.html
Comment linking /makegames/pixelart.html
on “The Peach meme: On CRTs, pixels and signal quality (again)”Submitted Indie Archetypes as a story · 2 points
HN discussionPatience. And a lot of hands on practice. You will only learn by doing, not by watching videos. Sure, first years pixel art won't be something to brag about, but don't throw anything out. Keep a record of your progress, it will be very rewarding to see how you progressed. Start with simple things, try to get shapes right at first, continue with basic coloring, advance with shading and shadows, do some perspective, a…
Comment linking /makegames/index.html
on “Trying for 1 month but can't learn pixel art still”Submitted Indie Game Dev: Death Loops as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Indie Game Dev: Assessing Risk (2022) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Indie Game Dev: Assessing Risk as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Indie Game Dev: Indie Archetypes as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Indie Game Dev: Assessing Risk as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Indie Game Dev: Death Loops (2020) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Death Loops as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
