Welcome to my blog. I'm a creative, inquisitive person who likes talking with people. I live in Tokyo and co-run Studio Terranova, a video game and design cooperative.
I have a lot of topics/subjects that have been percolating in my head: in April and May, the Steam Sales for Interface X26 made me realize how much other people are thinking about fake OS/interface drama games and their underlying themes. Studio Terranova is continuing and we're learning a lot about what makes a cooperative and how to run it sociocratically . A cooperative was, at its core, an…
When mabbees and I were developing Terranova in 2020, we noticed there were already a few games like ours such as Secret Little Haven, Her Story, and Emily is Away. They were typically tagged as "interactive fiction" but featured more than just words - they had interfaces where players could press buttons, drag sliders and play games in addition to playing through text-based stories. Back then we…
At the end of March, I released a game called Family-Friendly Online Art Musuem (F.F.O.A.M.) and in a week, it has surpassed 1,000 playthroughs. Thank you to everyone who has played F.F.O.A.M. and especially to those who have rated and commented! I am honored. To those of you who haven’t—it’s a short little browser game. Go play it! Some of you may want to know... 1. Why did you make this game? I…
Our New Year's newsletter is out! Thank you for your patience, everyone. Here's an excerpt: mabbees and I started Studio Terranova with a dream—to make a workplace that would serve community more than capital. We're burnt out tech workers that found a lot of love and community in the indie game community. To that end, a worker-owned game co-operative just made sense. Last year, we had to remind…
2025年の最後の Picotachi 78 にて、5分のトーク程度のトークを行いました。Picotachi（月列）は、ゲームクリエイター・アーティスト・ミュージシャンが、創作途中の作品（Work‑In‑Progress）とプロセスについて気軽に共有する会です。 当初は PICO‑8 のプロジェクトに関するトークでしたが、今は色々なドット絵、さらにはレトロゲームやアート作品も交えて紹介します。今年からピコピコカフェが再開したこともあり、できるだけPicotachiなどにも参加していきたいと思います。 以下のスライドは、Picotachi 78のトーク内容をまとめたものです。 English version is here. 東京のインディーズゲームシーンで、「ゲーム開発者」兼「GGJ（Global Game…
Picotachi 78 was the final Picotachi of 2025. Picotachi is a monthly meetup of game creators, artists and musicians that share their process and work in progress in short, five-minute talks. Initially, the meetup was born from fans of the fantasy console PICO-8 and consisted of projects from there, but it attracts pixel artists, retro developers and artists. This year, Pico Pico Café reopened, and…
My glassblowing teacher introduced me to the Kurokawa Satoyama Art Project , a group that organizes an art walk in Kawasaki in November. They blend sculptural ceramics, glass, and metal into the natural scenery. I’d been sick most of November, so was pleased to catch it on the last day. Life in the suburbs of Tokyo is accented by seasons of exchange; someone has too much such-and-such in their…
This Halloween, I'm thrilled (pun intended) to announce the launch of our super special minigame, Spooky Stylin’ — available for free as part of Dollmaker Jam ! The sixth game in our Tomodachi 8-in-1 collection, this game will take you back to those late 90s, early 00s evenings spent meticulously crafting an avatar to use on LiveJournal, AIM, or MSN Messenger—but extra spooky! Mix and match your…
Kelly Turnbull made a dark joke on Twitter that they assumed they would die at 35, so didn't think too much about working long hours during crunch time as an animator. (I wish I had the direct quote, but Twitter has become unsearchable.) Instead of being shocked and sad, I found myself nodding. I never saw myself living long. Many of my family members had already passed under unnatural…
Content warning: contains talk of suicide. This is an ongoing series of letters I write to someone who is no longer here. She took her own life in 2014. I didn't speak to anyone about it for six years. In 2020, following another tragic suicide of a close family member, I realized I needed to externalize something or else I would be consumed with grief, so started writing these letters. It is…