#cdogssdl — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cdogssdl, aggregated by home.social.
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Today I'm fixing a 2-decade lie - #CDogsSDL doesn’t look like C-Dogs… until now!
Like many #DOS games, C-Dogs was designed with non-square pixel aspect ratios in mind. When displayed using square pixels, the little dudes in the game look like tubby gnomes, but really they are chads with beer bellies! In fact, for many years all the screenshots of C-Dogs SDL (and C-Dogs too) were LIES!
I’ve added a DOS PAR config to the game, thus bringing balance to the universe.
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Added a small and low impact fix to #CDogsSDL: bark interrupts
Maybe you’re a #GameDev vet and know what that means, otherwise: “barks” are short voice clips characters say, like “huh?” when waking up or “aargh” when dying. If these don’t interrupt each other, they could play simultaneously, which sounds wrong (or they have two mouths?)
It’s a feature that you don’t notice unless it’s missing. To demonstrate it, I grenade a character to smithereens, naturally.
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Added another silly feature to #CDogsSDL: hats can sometimes be shot off with a satisfying “tink” sound!
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Added input overlays to #CDogsSDL!
Once upon a time, when C-Dogs was a DOS freeware game, you were expected to read a README to figure out what the controls are (and likely remap them before you play the game). These days it’s not good enough, and new players are often heard saying “what are the controls???”
So now, the menu and game controls are overlaid, and react dynamically! This should help especially in local multiplayer with multiple gamepads
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More particle effects for #CDogsSDL: sparkles for the freeze effect! This is a more radical change: the old effect was “petrify” and it turned the character grey. Now it turns the character light blue with sparkles.
Why? The freeze effect is more widely known and also accurately implies a temporary effect, compared to petrify which is more common in RPGs.
Also bonus feature by a new contributor: see the mission briefing via the in-game menu!
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More eye-candy and also an important gameplay bug fixed for #CDogsSDL. Added flame particles, so anyone taking damage from a flame-type weapon visibly looks like they’re on fire!
The bug fix is missing “squares” in randomly generated levels. This is a big deal because it’s such a key part of the experience - details in alt text!
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RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@congusbongus/115748839684742331
This easter egg is giving me jump scares while testing #CDogsSDL. I guess it's a special day today!
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Added a poison bubble effect to #CDogsSDL
Unusual for an action game, C-Dogs is full of status effects like poison, confusion and petrify. Adding some juice like this helps make it clearer that something unsettling is going on!
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It's #PortfolioDay! I'm a hobbyist #OpenSource #gamedev all-rounder, I make games like #CDogsSDL and #OpenCrystalCaves
I also make #chiptune #music, #PixelArt, sometimes at the same time
https://www.youtube.com/@congusbongusgames
If you like them I have a small but growing collection at bandcamp
https://congusbongusgames.bandcamp.com
I also #blog about gamedev, #GameDesign, game music, game maps and other related topics
My projects are usually slow burning so follow me for updates!
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Making good progress getting to the sound data out of Wwise containers for Wolfstone 2D. It's a real nesting doll situation with data blobs located by headers inside containers inside more containers, phew!
But also added some juice to #CDogsSDL, with spinning stars for confused actors. So in this game, certain weapons induce a confusion status effect, which reverses your direction controls. The addition of stars adds a nice touch I think!
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A tiny enhancement to #CDogsSDL - sprite variations. Notice how the plants in the screenshot are not quite identical? No? Oh well. I guess being unnoticeable is the point "( – ⌓ – )
But also, reached a milestone: we can extract the level data from Wolfstone! (It's a Wolf3D easter egg in Wolfenstein 2) Although the levels are identical to Wolf3D so there's not much to show yet, haha...
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Still working on backend features for #CDogsSDL but also added another UX enhancement: preview player templates!
C-Dogs always had an impressive player customisation system, where you can completely design your PC's appearance, and save these as templates for later. This enhancement previews what they look like before you load them back!
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Recently we released Super 2D Noah's Ark, a mod for #CDogsSDL, to little fanfare and much confusion (to be expected, it’s an obscure and quirky game). The development process was quite frustrating though, so I wrote a retrospective:
https://cxong.github.io/cdogs-sdl/other/2026/03/04/s2dna-retro.html
Mostly to vent but perhaps it’s a cautionary tale: when porting or modding a game, parts that are difficult to adapt can lead to cost blowouts
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More behind-the-scenes work in #CDogsSDL, but also another small UX feature: dust particle effect when the player slides
Sliding is a key feature of C-Dogs but is a bit hidden - you need to press the slide key while moving in a direction, and there was otherwise no feedback. Years ago I added a “sshhhh” sound effect which helped players and video footage. With the addition of particles, this also helps GIFs and screenshots. It’s subtle but does the job!
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After making a major release for #CDogsSDL it’s now time to lay the groundwork for the next one, so most progress has been behind the scenes, including some minor UX improvements: showing which campaign and mission to “continue”. Now when you come back to this game after a long hiatus, it’s no longer a mystery what you’re playing when you choose “continue”!
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Made a very special release of #CDogsSDL, featuring Super 2D Noah’s Ark, a Wolf3D mod, but in top-down 2D!
This release was almost 2 years in the making - exactly why it took so long will be covered in a retrospective soon, but for now if you’re so inclined, you can play it by getting both C-Dogs SDL and Super 3D Noah’s Ark from steam. It’s surprisingly fun!
#LongPlay video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EduteSjTsZk
https://cxong.github.io/cdogs-sdl/release/2026/01/31/c-dogs-2.4.0.html
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Finally made a custom body for the kangaroo boss/character in Super 2D Noah's Ark - boy this took a lot of emotional energy (I'm no good at blender)!
Its footsteps sound like a spring
Also yes I know the animation is inaccurate but I'm 100% done with making these animals
#CDogsSDL #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #PixelArt #OpenSource
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Festive hats! Recently I took a break from regular progress to make an easter egg idea I had for a while - special hats that appear on special days (opt out via game options)
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #PixelArt #CDogsSDL #OpenSource
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Completed the bear boss in Super 2D Noah’s Ark, as well as the end “cast” level, where you meet all the animals that you brutally murdered I mean gently put to sleep. It is just a room with all the animals
And that means the game is almost complete! I still have to go back and make the kangaroo though :(
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Working on the final boss of Super 2D Noah's Ark: the bear! Scary as this sounds, because the game's bosses are reskinned from Wolf3D, this boss replaces mecha hitler, with... a bear that hides in a bush, which makes this unintentionally hilarious, because the bush moves with the bear, like some sort of ghillie suit
#CDogsSDL #ScreenshotSaturday #GameDev #OpenSource #PixelArt
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The bigger they come, the deeper they sleep?
Completed the elephant boss in Super 2D Noah's Ark, including death/sleep animation. Elephants breathe as slow as 4 times per minute when resting!
#CDogsSDL #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #OpenSource #PixelArt
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Finished drawing the head and head-parts of the elephant boss in Super 2D Noah's Ark
In order to shoehorn this unique character in the game's systems, the ears are a type of hat, and the tusks and trunk are collectively a type of facial hair, which I've given the cursed-sounding name "trusks"
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #OpenSource #CDogsSDL #PixelArt
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Hey #PortfolioDay! I'm a hobbyist #OpenSource #gamedev all-rounder, I make games like #CDogsSDL and #OpenCrystalCaves
https://congusbongus.itch.io/opencrystalcaves
I also make #chiptune #music, #PixelArt, sometimes at the same time
https://www.youtube.com/@congusbongusgames
When I find the time - which is not often - I #blog about gamedev, #GameDesign, game music, game maps and other related topics
So many projects, so little time! I hope you find something you like
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This instalment of Super 2D Noah's Ark dev update features body horror! It's the work in progress elephant boss character, only with the body done. It's just a chonky quadruped, but with the big ears and long nose it'll come together I'm sure...
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The next boss I need to implement for Super 2D Noah's Ark is the kangaroo, which requires a lot of work because it's unlike any existing character. To start with I made the head, which uses a seal head (which is a sheep head without ears) and rabbit ears (which is a type of hat). Truly a certified #gamedev moment
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Made another bugfix release for #CDogsSDL, fixing a crash when loading classic campaigns
https://cxong.github.io/cdogs-sdl/release/2025/08/23/c-dogs-2.3.2.html
But for this release I also managed to sort out a long-time CI issue where win64 releases don’t have the .dlls included. Gosh CI is such a pain; I’m so glad it’s resolved now
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Made an out-of-band bugfix release for #CDogsSDL
https://congusbongus.itch.io/cdogs-sdl
Other than that progress is slow but steady. I spent more time reverse engineering and documenting the music tracks in Super 3D Noah’s Ark. It is nice to come back to the regular game and play some C-Dogs, it’s a simple yet fun game!
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Implemented the episode 3 boss of Super 2D Noah's Ark, Melvin the Monkey!
Melvin may be small but is quite scary as he's fast and throws dangerous coconuts! The arena also features lots of antelopes and ostriches which add to the challenge.
#GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #CDogsSDL #OpenSource #PixelArt
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Slow but gradual progress on Super 2D Noah's Ark - made this monkey character, who's the boss of episode 3
#CDogsSDL #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday #RetroGames #OpenSource #PixelArt
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Implemented the ox in Super 2D Noah's Ark. I got lazy and used a recoloured antelope, with a nose ring!
I also fixed secret level logic. Frustratingly #wolf3d games don't have a standard way of specifying secret level tiles and warps. Different games use different tile types, level warps are hard coded in the exe. I wonder if this is yet another feature that someone like Tom Hall asked for but John Carmack resisted until the end?
#GameDev #OpenSource #CDogsSDL #RetroGames #ScreenshotSaturday