GAPPY BI-MONTHLY #5 - Steam Playtest & Community

Steam post imagecoverart by 'Gappy Pixel Collage 2026 Participants!'

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello everyone! It's been a while. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday merriment and fun and that the new year is treating you well! It's hard to believe 2026 is already here, that also means that 2016 was 10 years ago at this point.

2016 was a very key year in my life because it was the year I released my first game, the first few weeks into my freshmen year of high school. A long time before then I had ideas for games that I would sketch out and plan but never had the means to actually make them. And once I got my own laptop for my birthday the year prior I started messing around with Rpgmaker and then eventually construct 2 which is what I still use today! In fact, many of you may be shocked to hear that THIS GAME is being made with what is essentially a beginner's game development software but it's true! However, I believe this may end up being my LAST game made in the program as I'd like to try and pivot towards Godot.

This month's installment will be relatively short, but still exciting non-the-less! As My life has gotten a bit more settled, I've been able to get a lot more work done and I'm still very happy on the progress being made. I decided that I would focus a bit more on some back-end stuff so I don't have much to show sadly.

However, my main focus at the moment is tweaking up some older levels, planning out new levels, adding functionality (and flair) to the start menus and progress saving, and accessibility options! So all stuff that's either not fully finished or isn't too much fun to look at! My Bad!

Public Playtest Request Announcement!

So just to get right into it, You can now request access to an early, playtest version of Gappy's adventure! It's on the main storefront right now, all you do is click the button and you'll be put on the wait list!

It's been on the page since I believe late December but I was waiting for the Bi-monthly post to really post anything major about it, it's still gonna be a while till we let people check it out anyways as there is still quite a bit to do but the option IS THERE!

And maybe 'a while' isn't accurate, just not right away. I still have to decided what I want everyone to see, but in my minds eye I believe world 1 & 2 will be fully playable! Those worlds are finished but I would like to touch up any loose-ends and get some other behind-the-scenes stuff working before we let you guys rip into it, hence why a lot of the work I'm doing now is back-end nonsense!

We will also have a forum accessible in game so that players who do check out the playtest can send us what they think of the game thus far, what needs improved and all sorts of other complaints and complements you could think of! If I were you, I'd mark your Calendar for March 31st;-)

Gappy Friday(s)!

The Gappy Discord server has been pretty dead. This isn't a huge problem since there really isn't much to talk about since the game isn't out yet but it feels kinda weird to have a lot of people join from (I assume) seeing my posts that do fairly well and being met with a seemingly in-active server.

To somewhat curb the problem, I've decided to host an event called 'Gappy Friday!' which happens one Friday per month! For an hour or so I'll show off stuff I'm working on in game, answer any questions and try and just hang out. The next one is actually happening FEBRUARY 6TH and they only happen in the Gappy Discord! So come swing by, hang out and check it out!

Although things are bound to change if they interfere with my personal life, the goal is to try and host one the first Friday of every month, so keep that in mind too! In the server they will have the dates of when they are happening and I'll make sure to keep them updated as soon as I can!

I'll also be trying to plan other events in the server that people can participate in! I'm not super active on discord as is so if you have any ideas of what you'd like to see in the server, by all means let me know! Speaking of which...

Gappy Pixel Collage 2026!

This was planned very last minute, and I appreciate everyone who participated in it! I gave people a little over a week to make a 64x64 pixel sprite of Gappy, so that a big collage would make this bi-monthly cover art.

For how short and quick the collage was announced we got a good amount of submissions! And they all look lovely, I loved how it turned out! I thought it would fit nice with the theme of this update too being all about community participation and growth. And i'd like to do this again next year, give people some more time and kinda up the scale of what it can be. So next year for sure, we'll do something a lot better and cooler but you gotta start somewhere!

Big shout out to everyone who participated! I hope you will participate again next year! :-)

Closing Remarks

A pretty short update all things considered, but progress on the game is slow and steady and I shrimply don't have much to show at the moment

2026 is going to be a really exciting year for Gappy! I'm so happy that so many people are as excited for this game as I am. Although we hadn't even promoted the public playtest, almost 200 people have already signed up for it! Wishlists for the game keep growing everyday too, it's all just so wonderful to see!

So thank you for your continued patience on the game, it'll all be worth it I promise! I'll see you guys in march! Ciao!

-Levi Ramirez