itch.io

Hey everyone! Super excited to share VIBE IDE - a coding environment we’re building specifically for beginners, kids, teens, and anyone who finds traditional IDEs intimidating.

What is VIBE IDE?

Think of it as “Cursor-lite” - all the power of AI-assisted coding, but built from the ground up for people just starting their coding journey. It’s a desktop IDE (Electron-based) with:

• 🤖 Proactive AI Assistant - Meet Cursy! Unlike other AI assistants that only respond when asked, Cursy actively helps you, makes observations, suggests improvements, and celebrates your wins!
• 😊 Emojibar - Code with personality! Friendly chat interface that makes talking to your AI buddy feel natural and fun
• 🎨 Beginner-Friendly UI - Warm, welcoming light theme (plus dark mode), visual project setup, live preview
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family-Friendly - Built with kids and families in mind, family plans coming soon
• 🎯 Multi-Language - Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML/CSS support

The Journey So Far

We’ve been documenting the entire development process with five in-depth devlogs covering:

• Devlog #000 - Welcome and project overview
• Devlog #001 - The evolution from GameForge Alpha to VIBE IDE (technical deep-dive!)
• Devlog #002 - Proactive AI & Emojibar features
• Devlog #003 - PROJECT_JOURNAL & Agent Persona techniques (the “secret sauce”!)
• Devlog #004 - Extension system journey (from idea to API design)
• Devlog #005 - Extension API developer guide

What Makes It Special?

The “Vibe Coding” Philosophy:

• Transparency - We’re honest about AI assistance (everyone’s already using it!)
• Education First - Learn while you code, not just code
• Beginner-Focused - No intimidation, just friendly help
• Proactive AI - Your AI buddy speaks up and helps without being asked

Built on Solid Foundations: VIBE IDE evolved from GameForge IDE Alpha - we realized the core IDE infrastructure was perfect for a much broader audience, so we generalized it and added educational features.

Unique Development Techniques: We’re using PROJECT_JOURNAL and Agent Persona techniques that make development collaborative and fun. We’ve even open-sourced the PROJECT_JOURNAL template: github.com/CursorWP/ai-project-journal

Current Status

Early Development - We’re actively building with our community! Right now we have:

• ✅ Solid foundation (Electron + Monaco Editor)
• ✅ Proactive AI concept
• ✅ Emojibar chat interface
• ✅ Friendly UI themes
• ✅ Splash screens (8 rotating ones!)
• ✅ Multi-language support foundation
• ✅ Extension API designed

Coming Soon:

• Project type templates
• Enhanced AI proactive features
• Learning progress tracking
• Extension marketplace
• And much more!

Transparent Roadmap

We believe in transparency from day one:

• Early Access (Coming Soon): Free forever with BYO API Key
• Future Plans: Starter, Family, and Pro plans (all transparently laid out)

Early adopters get special perks - free forever, founder status, and input on features!

Join the Journey!

We’re building this with our community, not just for it. Follow along with our devlogs, share your ideas, and help shape the future of beginner-friendly coding!

Check it out: futurevisionlabs.itch.io/vibe-ide

Read our devlogs to see the full journey - from GameForge to VIBE IDE, from idea to extension API design!

Let’s vibe code together! 🚀✨

Questions? Feedback? Ideas? We’d love to hear from you!

Hey retro devs! We’ve published fresh itch pages for both of our GameForge workflows and would love your eyes, follows, and feedback. 🙌

🎮 GameForge - Amiga

https://futurevisionlabs.itch.io/gameforge-amiga

• What it is: A no-code Amiga IDE (OCS/ECS/AGA) built in Electron/React that exports native executables via AmiBlitz 3.
• Why it matters: Visual sprite editor, tilemap builder, genre templates, and mixed node/form logic let designers build complete games without Blitz coding.
• Roadmap snapshot:
  1. Sprite Editor MVP (Q1 2026)
  2. Tilemap editor + layers
  3. Visual game logic
  4. AmiBlitz integration & native export
  5. Polish + release

✨ GameForge - C64

https://futurevisionlabs.itch.io/gameforge-c64

• What it is: A C64 creation suite with HVSC browsing, favorites/playlists, Tiny’R’Sid playback, a live visualizer, and a visual scripting canvas targeting Oscar64 + VICE.
• Why it matters: Curate SID sessions, sketch gameplay logic (sprite multiplexor, etc.), and soon compile PRGs—all from one app.
• Currently live: SID browser/player, playlist/favorites UI, inline Tiny’R’Sid engine, and auto-rotating visualizer.
• Next up:
  1. Stabilize playlist transport (Stop/Next/Prev)
  2. Register React Flow custom nodes
  3. Finish Oscar64/VICE detection UX
  4. Parse /public/charsets for automated font metadata (600+ charset fonts!)

🙏 How You Can Help

• Follow both pages to catch devlogs, research drops, and builds as they land.
• Leave comments with feature requests, workflow ideas, or compiler/emulator priorities.
• Share feedback on current pain points: playlist edge cases, node editor ergonomics, and Amiga template ideas.

We’re building these tools for the community—early input now shapes what ships later. Thanks for reading, and see you in the devlogs! 😄

Thank you so much X, that means the world to us. <3

Yes, we will for sure bundle them, and here’s some behind the scenes news fresh off the presses! We’ve taken a sideline from the GameForge - Amiga codebase and created GameForge - C64! It’s pretty amazing, it has 60k SID tunes built in, WITH a SID player that has playlists and favourites, as well as 600+ C64 charset fonts! The engine for this one is based on the Oscar64 C library!

And in other news, we are revisiting the tool that kicked off the Forge Family, GameForge - Phaser, which was initially a Cursor IDE style AI Assist phaser.js tool, and recreating it in the image of its node graph based siblings, so it will basically be visual scripting for phaser! :D

We’re totally open to branching the GameForge family onto other platforms as well, if you have any ideas feel free to drop us a line! :D <3

Yours truly,

The FutureVision Labs Team

Hey itch.io community! 👋

We’re excited to share what we’ve been building at FutureVision Labs - two powerful tools that transform 3D models into perfect 2D sprites for modern and retro game development!

🎨 The Sprite Alchemist

The Sprite Alchemist is our flagship tool that’s already live on itch.io! It’s designed for modern 2D game development, featuring:

• 3D Model Support (GLB, GLTF, FBX)
• Live Turntable Preview with animated models
• 16-Direction Capture with compass picker
• Camera Presets for RPG, Platformer, Shooter, and Isometric views
• Spritesheet Atlas Generation with transparent backgrounds
• Bulk Export for processing multiple models
• Full Metadata Export (JSON with direction mapping)

Perfect for indie devs who want pixel-perfect sprites from their 3D assets without the manual work!

🕹️ The Sprite Alchemist - Retro (Coming Soon!)

The Sprite Alchemist - Retro is our retro-focused sibling that’s currently in active development. This tool exports 3D models to native sprite formats for classic platforms:

• C64, NES, SNES, Game Boy
• ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari, Amstrad CPC
• Stacked Sprite Support (2x1, 2x2, 3x2 arrangements)
• Automatic Color Quantization to platform-specific palettes
• Platform-Specific Bitwise Encoding

🎯 Why C64 is the Hardest Export (And We’re Almost There!)

We’re currently deep in Phase 1 development, focusing on the C64 export MVP, and let us tell you - it’s been a journey! Here’s why C64 is arguably the most challenging retro platform to export for:

The Technical Challenges:

1. Dual Display Modes: C64 sprites have two completely different modes:

   • Multicolor: 12x21 hardware pixels that display as 24x21 (double-width pixels), 3 colors + transparency
   • Hi-Res: 24x21 hardware pixels, 1 color + transparency
   • Each requires completely different encoding logic!

2. Tight Color Constraints: Only 3 colors + transparency for multicolor (or 1 color + transparency for hi-res) means aggressive color quantization while preserving sprite detail. We’ve had to implement smart palette selection that analyzes ALL animation frames to lock colors across the entire sequence.

3. Bitwise Encoding Complexity: C64 sprites use a unique bit-packing format:

   • Multicolor: 4 pixels per byte (2 bits each)
   • Hi-Res: 8 pixels per byte (1 bit each)
   • Getting the bit order and encoding correct is critical for compatibility with C64 emulators and tools like SpritePad.

4. Sprite Centering & Wraparound: Ensuring sprites are properly centered in the 12x21 or 24x21 grid without wraparound issues requires careful bounding box calculation and cropping - something we’ve been iterating on to get just right!

5. Format Compatibility: We’re supporting both SpritePad .spd format (for easy editing) and raw C64 binary .bin format (for direct VICE emulator loading), each with different header structures and data layouts.

The Progress So Far:

✅ Platform selector UI
✅ Color quantization with contrast-based palette selection
✅ Bitwise encoding for both multicolor and hi-res modes
✅ Global color locking across animation frames
✅ SpritePad .spd and raw .bin export formats
✅ Sprite centering and cropping to prevent wraparound

We’re so close to having the C64 MVP locked down! Once we nail this, the other platforms (NES, SNES, Game Boy, etc.) will be much more straightforward since they follow more standard sprite formats.

🚀 What’s Next?

After we complete the C64 MVP, we’ll be adding:

• Stacked Sprite Support (2x1, 2x2 arrangements) - revolutionary for retro game dev!
• Core Platform Exports (NES, SNES, Game Boy)
• Extended Platforms (ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari, Amstrad CPC)

💬 We’d Love Your Feedback!

Both tools are built with the indie dev community in mind. If you’re working on 2D games (modern or retro), we’d love to hear your thoughts, feature requests, or see what you create with our tools!

• The Sprite Alchemist - Available now for $4.99 (Early Access)
• The Sprite Alchemist - Retro - Coming soon, follow for updates!

Thanks for reading, and happy sprite creating! 🎨✨

Created by the FutureVision Labs Team

Here’s mine, an enhanced version of my 1989 published SEUCK game, The Final Attack!

These are the new title screens :)

So what are you thinking of bringing to the Enhanced SEUCK Game Jam 2024?

Welcome to the Enhanced SEUCK Game Jam 2024!