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My Deepest Fear

My deepest fear is not that these systems have no promise. 
My deepest fear is that these systems are rich beyond measure. 
It is the potential, not lack thereof, that most frightens me. 
 I ask myself, who am I to make something Beautiful and True, 
Actually, who am I not to? 
I am an experiencer of our Universe, and the creator of my own, 
 My playing small does not serve…

What's Next?

There is this thing that
 (thanks Prateek) 
has been said about deadlines, 
 
 “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” 
- Douglas Adams 
 I have grown to find that I like those sounds myself as well. But still, an update is in
order… 
 So the ant-game that I was previously working on has been shelved. It was…

Holistic Game Design

I sometimes forget that games consists of many different fields, and in the
best of cases, the final product is more than the sum of its parts. 
 I generally consider myself involved in the fields of a systems-design and programming.
So whenever I spot problems while making my games, I tend to use those as my hammers.
It is often only after a whole lot of hammering, and sufficient…

The Art and Craft of Puzzle Design

Over the course of making a game, you get to learn a lot. I was fortunate to be
allowed to share a lot of what I learned about the art and craft of puzzle design
at ThinkyCon. 
 
 
 
 
 KCPS is a cozy puzzle game about helping pirate ships do pirate things. It’s available on Steam now .

Custom Engine? Custom Everything

It’s been almost a year, and I’ve done a lot more game design and feel like I have a bit
more to share about the choice I make to write my own engine as opposed to using one that
has already been constructed for me. 
 
 
 
 
 KCPS is a cozy puzzle game about helping pirate ships do pirate things. It’s available on Steam now .

Evolution of an Idea

I had an idea. And I was convinced that it was the greatest idea ever idead. 
 In three words: Zachtronics … but ants ! 
 
 Here’s the premise. In a colony of ants, a single ant has a very basic set of
instructions that it follows. A finite set of “states” that it can be in
and a few methods of interacting with other ants in the colony. But when…

Two Months of Prototypes

In July 2023, I was honored and grateful to be selected as a part of the
 2023 Astra Fellowship Cohort .
The fellowship encourages developers who are intereseted in thinky games. 
 ThinkyGames.com defines thinky as 
 
 Thinky games are those that ask you to carefully reason your way through puzzles and challenges; games brimming with curiosity and discovery. If you find…

KCPS: A Retrospective Analysis

Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions released on the 1st of March 2023.
It’s been a few months now, and I thought it might be time to look back at the game, and analyse some of the decisions that I chose to make. 
 
&nbsp &nbsp NOTE: I am incredibly proud of how the game has come out. I feel like I pushed to the best of my abilities. For what it aims to be, the game does a great…

The UX of Puzzle Games

Every aspect of a game has an impact on the players experience. 
 I developed a puzzle game, and learnt a lot over the course of that journey.. It’s out on Steam now . 
 So here’s the subtle aspects of puzzle game design. 
 
 


From Idea to Steam

I just released
 Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions . 
 It is a cozy puzzle game about helping pirate ships do pirate things. It’s out on Steam now . 
 So here’s how I the game evolved from the initial idea. 
 
 


Developing an Artstyle

The first thing you see of a game is a visual.
A gif on reddit, a clip on tiktok.
Some snippet of some video essay.
A thumbnail on steam.
And if they’re on your steam page,
the trailer and screenshots better not disappoint…
that’s what decides if you’re getting a wishlist.
That’s just how it goes… 
 So when it came to my…

A Game in a Custom Engine

Using a custom engine to create a game is sometimes discouraged. People highlight
a whole host of reasons why it is a bad idea. So I thought I could talk a bit
about some reasons why it is a good idea. Or atleast, why it was a good idea
for me . 
 I used a custom engine to develop
 Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions . 
 It is a cozy puzzle game about helping pirate ships do…

Puzzle Games and Difficulty

I love Stephen Sausage Roll . 
 It was the first puzzle game that I played, and it will always be the gold standard for me.
It was brutally difficult at times.
Just manoeuvring around the levels can be difficult, and my playthrough spread out over more than a year.
I would face a difficult puzzle, break my head over it for a while, and be completely stuck.
Then I would take a…