Short development updates for Jackstrap.
These are short twice-weekly progress posts, not long devlogs.
2026.10.06
Building a deck for my Aggro Crab submission forced me to strip Jackstrap back to its clearest ideas. It also sparked a simpler way to show the game, alongside the online demo, main menu v1, and UI POC v0.5.0.
2026.09.18
A musician friend made Jackstrap’s main theme and four variations. I wanted to thank them with something personal, useful, and a little ridiculous: a Moochi- and Jackstrap-branded bug zapper.
2026.09.11
The UI is becoming functional, but seeing the whole game together exposed a real readability problem: Jack does not separate from the scene strongly enough yet.
2026.09.08
The core idea is finally easier to say: compose combat ahead of time, then make that composition work in real-time combat.
2026.09.04
The work shifted from individual mechanics to the bigger question: what is a full Jackstrap run, and how do I explain it clearly?
2026.08.28
The art is starting to become a system: a controlled palette, gem currency, UI-specific character treatments, and a more formal enemy roster.
2026.08.24
The enemy roster is moving from drawings into actual attacks and animation sets, while the VFX and trailer work start catching up.
2026.08.19
The v0.1 enemy roster is narrowing into three core designs plus variants, and the silhouettes finally feel meaningfully different.
2026.08.18
The enemy cast is starting to become a real roster, with different silhouettes, movement ideas, mouths, and attack personalities.
2026.08.07
Jackstrap now has an original music direction to test in-game, and an experiment with AI-generated 3D Jack models failed in a useful way.
2026.07.03
Jack is getting more directional attack coverage while the Nutcracker starts branching into distinct enemy types instead of simple variations.
2026.06.26
Movement actions are getting clearer identities while the Nutcracker idea starts shaping the combat flow, enemy behavior, and music direction.
2026.06.23
The storyboard is starting to turn into a practical checklist for what the game needs to feel good in motion.
2026.06.18
The video is becoming less of a random trailer idea and more of a clear pitch for what Jackstrap actually is.
2026.06.16
The fake poster was fun, but the useful discovery was that Jackstrap needs a better first-time explanation.
2026.06.06
This feels like the point where the enemy side of Jackstrap finally clicked.
2026.06.05
This update was about hit effects, animation timing, and making attacks feel clearer in-game.
2026.06.02
This update was about making hits feel stronger and cleaning up how the game assets are organized.
2026.05.29
This update was mostly about making the animation workflow easier to maintain.
2026.05.26
This was a smaller update focused on VFX, polish, and making Jack's attacks feel better.
2026.05.22
This update focused on Jack's movement animations and on getting a clearer overview of the animation work still left to do.
2026.05.15
This update focused on reworking east-facing animations, adding force / hitbox visuals, opening the Miro process, rebuilding the website, and starting localization work.
2026.05.10
This update changed the animation canvas size, improved north/south animations, added shadows, and started the public Miro / website direction.
2026.05.04
This update continued the UI pass, explored cards and tiles, and moved into north/south attack animation production.
2026.04.27
This update defined the first rough UI direction, introduced the family-jewels joke, and reworked some character animations.
2026.04.24
This update focused on outfit exporting and revealed how much heavier outfit animation work is compared with elemental variants.
2026.04.20
This update returned to animation work, adding the first elemental attack variants and improving the export workflow.
2026.03.25
This update defined the first full set of elemental directions and explored how Jack and the playable outfits could progress visually.
2026.03.15
This update focused on researching games in the arena-survivor space and starting the first pass on elemental attacks.
2026.03.05
This update focused on the first main-menu direction, using a gym scene and punching bags as interactive menu elements.
2026.02.25
This update focused on rough enemy concepts, including urchins, a snake, a cactus, and a porcupine-like enemy.
2026.02.24
This update explored Shaolin-inspired poses and the first technical ideas for bouncy boxing-ring ropes.
2026.02.23
This update had less game-code progress, but included a major attack-animation sequence and early questions about how combos should work.
2026.02.22
A major animation pass focused on all eight run directions and on learning how to draw convincing fighting motion for Jack.
2026.02.21
This update explored Jack’s straps as part of the combat identity, refined run animations, and locked in the first arena-size direction.
2026.02.20
This update focused on making Jack more concrete: model sheets, a first logo version, idle animation work, and early scale tests.
2026.02.19
Early visual tests for Jack focused on color, silhouette readability, eye design, and the first run-direction planning.