Final Devlog: Iron-Mario. What a journey.

I genuinely didn’t expect this project to get this big.

Iron-Mario started as a small game inspired by the old games I used to enjoy. At some point, I got carried away with the idea of building an entire arcade instead of just one game.

And that’s how it ended up with 105 playable games.

There are quick reaction games, puzzles, old-school classics, some completely chaotic ones, and a few bigger arcade games. I also added tournaments with five hearts, a daily 10-game challenge, scores, XP, coins, achievements, and saved progress.

One of the biggest parts of this update was working on the game’s identity. I made a shared pixel-art library with environments, character sprites, UI elements, and effects. I also added six characters to Pixel Town: Milo, Jun, Bea, Nia, Ash, and Pip.

They’re mostly cosmetic characters right now, but I wanted the arcade to feel like an actual little world instead of just a menu with 105 buttons.

The technical side was probably the most complicated part. I had to deal with different input types, game states, restarting, saving, mobile layouts, and making sure one game wouldn’t break another. I built automated checks for the game systems and went through the individual games to find problems with their mechanics.

And I definitely found problems.

Some games still need more variety, some mechanics are simpler than I originally wanted, and there are things I would improve with more time. Getting a game to pass a test doesn’t automatically mean it’s fun to play. That’s something this project taught me.

I also used AI-assisted development tools during this project, alongside my own planning, testing, and design decisions. I don’t want to pretend otherwise.

Looking back, the project changed direction quite a few times. I experimented with different ideas, made some decisions that didn’t work out, and ended up rethinking what I actually wanted Iron-Mario to be.

I’m still not completely satisfied with everything. But seeing this turn from a little experiment into a playable arcade has been pretty rewarding.

The game is playable now, and I’m calling this the end of this development chapter. Not necessarily the end of Iron-Mario.

If you try it, I’d genuinely love to know which games you enjoyed and which ones felt boring or frustrating. That feedback is way more useful than someone just telling me the project looks good.

🎮 Play: https://hustlenix.github.io/Iron-Mario/

💻 Source: https://github.com/Hustlenix/Iron-Mario

Thanks to everyone who followed the devlogs, tried the game, or gave feedback along the way.

That’s it for this ship. ❤️