Bugtopia

Devlog

• The First or the Last of Us — Mushrooms and Ants
  September 05, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  #the last of us, #cordyceps, #fungus

  Before there were fields, there were ants. The first crop on Earth was not wheat, and the first farmer was not us. Somewhere in the Amazon basin, fifty or sixty-five million years ago, a creature with... Continue reading

  
• The garden learned to sing and dance baiao
  September 04, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  3

  #sound, #music

  There are no audio files in Bugtopia. The garden makes its own music. I wanted the soundtrack to feel warm and familiar, like sitting on a porch in the afternoon while someone you love plays a song yo... Continue reading
• Name them, save them, and play on a phone
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  A tame used to be a species token. Two ants were the same ant everywhere the game mentioned them, and the hardest fight in the yard paid out a meal. Every animal is named when it joins your stable now... Continue reading
• Everything gets drawn
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  3

  Until now the whole game was flat coloured polygons. Art direction is settled: chunky pixel art. Storybook fit the whimsical tone better and we gave it up knowingly. Pixel art is far cheaper per isome... Continue reading
• A pack you can read, and a journal that points
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  Two screens, both about not being lost. The pack was a list of text rows, closer to a receipt than an inventory. It's a grid of slots now, with icons, stack counts and a selection outline, so it reads... Continue reading
• The human never gets a weapon
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  There was a craftable spear. It's gone, and nothing replaces it. Fighting is something the animal under you does. That makes "you are small and vulnerable" structural rather than a suggestion: get to... Continue reading
• The fire is the only safe place
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  Night needed an answer, and camp is it. The campfire is a real flickering light, and the pool it throws is exactly the area the wolf spider refuses to enter. The safe place is the one you can see. The... Continue reading
• Tame it, ride it, or run from it
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  2

  The animals landed, and with them the thing this game is actually about. The ant is the first mount. Feed a docile one and it follows you. Harness it and you can ride it, and it hauls seed caches you'... Continue reading
• A lilliputian, a clock, bugs, and something to stand on
  September 03, 2026 by Sam Palumbo

  3

  A lilliputian is a person six inches tall. Swift invented them in Gulliver's Travels, a whole kingdom of them, going about ordinary business at a scale where a garden is a wilderness and a housecat is... Continue reading