One Year of The Deer and a loopy prototype

PDF of Space Deer stuff, and a new game prototype for you try!

Apr 16, 2025

Hallå pals!

Jonas here with another issue of Indie Notebook to get some ideas out of my noggin, and to inspire you to do the same.

Now that the newsletter is biweekly it kinda makes sense that they become a little bit longer instead. That’s why I’ve got three (3) pieces of news today.

Space Deer 1 Year Anniversary!

Today it has been an entire year since I started publishing Space Deer. Which means there are now 104 comic strips for you to read at www.spacedeer.net!

For the occasion I’ve put together a PDF collecting all the comics neatly in high quality.

I also created a bundle which contains…

Space Deer: Suit Up - The 104 comics of the first year.
Space Deer: Then & Now - An in depth behind-the-scenes look at how I shaped the comic.
Empty Planet - A short graphic novel I made when I was 15, it’s sort of the prototype version of Space Deer.

Get the Space Dear bundle!

When I started this project I set myself the initial goal of publishing it for an entire year, to see how I like it and if there is any point in doing it. Now I’ve reached that point. And it feels very worthwhile.

The sketch where Space Deer’s design finally clicked.

With this milestone I’m going on a break from drawing Space Deer. My buffer of strips ran dry months ago, so I’ve been drawing a lot of the strips the day before they come online. Which isn’t exactly the conditions I wanna work under. I’ll take a few months off, refreshing myself and preparing a new buffer. But I’ll mainly be working on game projects and freelance stuff.

I’ll write more of a summary about this whole thing later when I’ve gathered my thoughts. In short I guess I would say - It was hard to start, but once I got going it felt like I couldn’t stop. I’m very happy I took this step.

Thank you if you’ve been reading it in any capacity so far. And if you haven’t checked it out yet, I hope you do. ❤️

The Loopy Folk prototype is ready!

Me and Daan have been working on a prototype and concept for a game called Loopy Folk. It’s a wholesome idle game where you help little forest spirits clean up nature by tossing stuff in a hole.

The prototype is lacking a lot of content and features, it’s a little buggy and all that kinda stuff. But it does have the core gameplay loop and it has a certain charm to it.

This is what a run of the game can look like

Builds: Windows | Mac

If you do give the game a shot, there are a few questions we would love for you to answer.

Do you usually enjoy playing idle games?
Do you usually enjoy playing wholesome games?
Would a more beautiful and fleshed out version of this game compel you?
If not, what would have to change for you to want to play it?
If you managed to finish a session: did you want to continue playing on the same map or start over on a new one?

You can send your feedback to indianajonas42@gmail.com or share it in the Loopy Folk channel over on my Discord.

Plock is playable in web browser

Two years ago I challenged myself to make a really small game and finish it. The result was this little falling-block-puzzler.

This weekend I looked over my itch page and realized I should have made a web build for this game. So I did.

Play Plock!

Now I think I might even go play it every now and then myself. It’s nice how making something playable in the browser makes it much easier to pick up. Makes me want to make more tiny browser-games.

Mini Notes

💬 Comic - The Walking Dead

I’ve been on a huge zombie spree lately. There’s something awkwardly comforting in watching humanity crumble under such unrealistic(?) circumstances. I think it’s sort of primal to get into zombie stuff, but I’ve just been going with it.
First I watched the end of the tv-show and was extremely disappointed in how it developed. I heard that the comic was much better. I ended up chugging through the entire series in like a month. It was a blast. So much better than the tv-show. And the ending of the comic was actually satisfying.

There was a while where I was reading the comic and feeling like it would end up sort of like the show, just no point, not going anywhere. I thought it would just meander and try to shock me to keep me hooked for as long as possible. But it was actually going somewhere all along. I’m happily surprised by it.

🕹️ Game - Guncho

I discovered this little browser game over on itch. It’s made by Tiny Touch Tales with art by Terri Vellman, the creator of Sludge Life. I played the browser version for hours and then caved in and bought the Steam version of the game as well.

It’s a short strategy gem. Cleverly designed and charming. It manages to do so many things I want to accomplish with my game design too (fun chain reactions and sick vibes).