Yes, developed on a 100% standard Spectrum 48K with the rubber keyboard :) We had a Timex 3" double disc drive, unlike our previous (not commercial) game which we developed using regular cassette tapes.
We used HiSoft's GENS assembler. My brother reverse-engineered the microdrive code in GENS and replaced it with functions to access the Timex drive. That was a huge timesaver for us and other Spanish developers at the time. The source code and the GENS program had to fit in the 48K.
For our next Spectrum game, we used a hardware system to connect an Atari ST and develop on it. It was certainly faster and more comfortable, but the system was buggy as hell and crashed/corrupted the source almost daily.
We used HiSoft's GENS assembler. My brother reverse-engineered the microdrive code in GENS and replaced it with functions to access the Timex drive. That was a huge timesaver for us and other Spanish developers at the time. The source code and the GENS program had to fit in the 48K.
For our next Spectrum game, we used a hardware system to connect an Atari ST and develop on it. It was certainly faster and more comfortable, but the system was buggy as hell and crashed/corrupted the source almost daily.