https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopiaShrink to a teeny-tiny size, ride wild bugs, and rule the backyard kingdom! 🐜🪲🕷️https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1653808/the-first-or-the-last-of-us-mushrooms-and-antshttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1653808/the-first-or-the-last-of-us-mushrooms-and-antsSat, 05 Sep 2026 22:49:15 GMTdevlogBefore 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1652031/the-garden-learned-to-sing-and-dance-baiaohttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1652031/the-garden-learned-to-sing-and-dance-baiaoFri, 04 Sep 2026 12:21:36 GMTdevlogThere 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651272/name-them-save-them-and-play-on-a-phonehttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651272/name-them-save-them-and-play-on-a-phoneThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:18:16 GMTdevlogA 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651270/everything-gets-drawnhttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651270/everything-gets-drawnThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:17:41 GMTdevlogUntil 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651269/a-pack-you-can-read-and-a-journal-that-pointshttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651269/a-pack-you-can-read-and-a-journal-that-pointsThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:17:10 GMTdevlogTwo 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651268/the-human-never-gets-a-weaponhttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651268/the-human-never-gets-a-weaponThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:16:38 GMTdevlogThere 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651267/the-fire-is-the-only-safe-placehttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651267/the-fire-is-the-only-safe-placeThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:16:06 GMTdevlogNight 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...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651266/tame-it-ride-it-or-run-from-ithttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651266/tame-it-ride-it-or-run-from-itThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:15:30 GMTdevlogThe 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'...

]]>https://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651264/a-lilliputian-a-clock-bugs-and-something-to-stand-onhttps://sam-palumbo.itch.io/bugtopia/devlog/1651264/a-lilliputian-a-clock-bugs-and-something-to-stand-onThu, 03 Sep 2026 18:08:33 GMTdevlogA 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...

]]>