The Secret Lives podcast is up to "become a great artist in just 10 seconds" in their year-long series on my work, and I noticed that in the show notes they linked this old blog post of mine. I have not listened to the episode yet, so I don't know the context in which the post is referenced, but looking back at it got me thinking so I wanted to write up how I see this now. (I'm curious to see how this will relate to what's said in the episode - whether it's a constructive response, if I've said things that agree or disagree with them, or if it's just a completely different track.)
A theme that was in my thinking around that time, which I don't think I ever wrote down publicly (maybe because it seemed too ambitious, or too woo), was something like "the soul of mobile games".
People had convinced me to try selling my games on telephones, and the fit was mixed. Certainly some design concepts I was exploring were appropriate for small-screen gaming, but culturally I was nowhere near. I am not an early tech adopter - I've never been able to afford to be, but also I will be quite happily still enjoying the tech that I do have. At the time I did not personally use a mobile telephone. Someone had lent me one for a while a few years earlier and I wasn't into it. I didn't like having people expecting that they could get in touch with me at any random time, when normally they would just have not been bothered. I do use one now, and I appreciate the convenience of being able to navigate in a foreign land without having to ask for help. If I was asking for help I would be forging stronger connections with the people around me. My attention span is reduced just by having it on me.
Selling my games on telephones put them in unpleasant company. Already then "mobile games" were synonymous with gambling, race-to-the-bottom pricing, advertising, operant conditioning, and exploitation of vulnerable people. Someone set me up once with a call with someone from Apple to try to get my games better promotion and it was all this kind of shit. It was clear that they were not taking their work seriously.
So to put that post in context: I was working on Imbroglio. As I said I don't think I've written this publicly, but the initial concept was to destroy all of this evil in mobile games. I wanted to play with all of the unpleasantness that was happening in the medium, and by bringing those things into the play (rather than wielding them against the players) break the power that they have over us. A vaccine against cognitive exploits. OK, that's a wild ambitious concept, and we should be wild and ambitious. I tried to find the structure for a game that would let me play with these ideas, and the exploration found me something. As you work on a game it starts to speak for itself, telling you the shape it wants to take. The shape that it eventually resolved itself into was a lovely little game that didn't bear any obvious mark of these initial concepts. I had set about the important task of exorcising evil and healing souls, and instead I got something that looked very much like the last couple of games I'd made. It felt like a failure. Of course I wasn't going to throw away the thing that I'd made because it was really a delightful game, but it wasn't what I'd hoped for.
From the perspective I have now, I'm not even sure now I did fail. Okay it didn't slay all those demons, but still it's a game that does something interesting with attention span - I talked about play as meditation in my imbroglio notes - maybe it did some good. And young Michael, you are being very hard on yourself describing that game as generic traditional "collect magic gem for high score". It did so much that was very novel. You reached into the void and pulled forth a seed, gave it the care it needed to grow, patiently took the time for it to find a coherent form, released it into the world, and inspired many others. And some of the other concepts I was exploring eventually came home to roost in 868-BACK. Nothing is lost.
In that post I contrasted my more conventionally "game design" games with the ones that felt more like pieces of art. Back then there was a lot of talk about the relationship of games and art. A lot of us found ourselves called to be artists, in the medium of games, but we lacked a clear model of how to do that. Many of the games that had inspired us were made as products, by large teams, and trying to follow those was unhelpful. A couple of overthought and underfelt sketches by famous game-industry men were being paraded as though they were something important. Someone who mostly wrote about movies claimed that games could never be art (feeling insecure in their own medium's tenuous recognition as 'proper' art?). But there we were, doing the thing that is art and what we were making was games. We were doing it, but got confused when we tried to talk about it. Probably best talk less do more.
Looking back, I could say that I was trying to fish in two ponds, and one turned out to be much shallower and one much deeper than I was expecting. Having made several abstract art games, I felt like I was onto something interesting - but I didn't keep finding more to make there that I hadn't already covered. Meanwhile the roguelikes kept revealing more and more.
Creative expression needs a frame to support it. Droqen can declare "death of gameplay" but he's still making platformers. Tale of Tales were doing the same ten years earlier. Try to take out all the "gameplay" to just have it somehow be pure art, and you've just dug down to whatever your default assumptions of gameplay are. Platformer jumping or first person 3d wandering isn't any less "game mechanics" than grid puzzling or tech trees, it's just that person's comfortable default. Which is fine! These gameplay models provide the structure for the art to happen in. It's just very not dead. And what I've found for my own work is that more structure gives more space for expression. Gameplay and "art" aren't in conflict: with more of both they can each support the other. If - as always - it's done with taste and sensitivity. Feels like a good direction for me. Other people have to find their own directions sorry.
I was worried about being typecast. I was right to worry! It straight away went and happened. I made a 3rd similar-ish game and suddenly "broughlike" is a genre? Everyone forgets I made anything else. Nobody even knows I made multiplayer games, when it's what I've done the most of. Certainly nobody knows I used to think abstract interactive art like Knot-Pharmacard Subcondition J might be my whole direction. It's ok I'll just make whatever I make.
Sunday, 5 July 2026
Friday, 26 June 2026
advice on how to write about indie games
Instead of "this game is niche"
try saying "i like this game because..."
Look, "niche" is not a property of a game. It's a recess in a wall to put decoration in. (Some games do have niches in them.) I guess you're using it in some metaphorical way to mean that the group of people playing the game is small enough to fit into a niche? This is not very interesting, and it is not even a fact about the game. You're telling us about the game because you like it! What do you like about it? That's way more interesting.
You're not as weird as you think you are. I'm sorry, but you're actually not. You're holding onto this idea of yourself being such an atypical person and your tastes being so niche as a way to feel a bit special. And by god you are special. You are so special. You are this beautiful unique incredible configuration of stardust and we love you. You're great. But you're not unusual. If you like a thing, there's going to be a ton of other people who would like it, for the same reasons you do. Maybe they haven't heard of it yet. Maybe you can tell them.
Instead of "this game is underrated"
Try saying "i think this game is great"
I get it: you think the rating is too low. The injustice of it!
But when you say this to someone, you're first of all telling them "THE RATING IS LOW". That's what they're gonna hear. Yeah sure you're also saying "and I disagree" but look: communication is hard. You can get ideas across more reliably if you stick to one at a time. Start with the main one. Here, that's what you think of the game. Someone else out there thinks something different? Man, you're not obliged to speak for them.
Instead of "too bad this game didn't sell"
try saying "check out this cool game"
We're not at the end of the story!
If someone's trying to get rich through investment fraud, maybe all they care about is all-or-nothing instant hits. But everywhere else, a slow burn still makes a difference. And good work doesn't stop being good just because time has passed.
All my games still sell. They kept selling through the years I was too ill to work. They spike when I release something new or when there's a nice article about me. It's not a lot, but it makes a difference for us. Heck, I hadn't released a game in ages and then suddenly a podcast series started up about my work and people are exploring games from up to 15 years ago. It happens.
Instead of "this has only X many wishlists / reviews / numbers"
try saying "here's something i really like about this game!"
These kinds of numbers are for sad people in suits who don't trust their own sense of what is good. You know what's good.
Personally, when I see this kind of comment about my games I tend to stress out a little. "Oh no, the numbers!" I think that's the most likely outcome if you post something like this: the person who made it feels bad and nobody else cares. Probably that wasn't your intention! (Don't worry, I don't stress for long - I know that juicy long tail is coming for me.)
Instead of "looks bad"
try saying "wow there’s something about it that catches my attention but i don’t feel like i know what’s going on yet, can someone explain what the deal is?"
Why has this person shown up in this thread to post this meaningless trash about something they claim not to even care about? What's going through their brain?
I'll tell you: it's because they are curious. They wouldn't have posted if they weren't actually interested. They're trying to articulate their interest but can't find the words. Surprising but true.
If you catch yourself doing this, feel free to use my wording above.
If you see someone else doing this, you can respond 100% as if they had asked this question and it’ll be a positive exchange.
Instead of "this game is fundamentally flawed"
try saying "this game is worthy of deep study"
If you're writing on the internet about something new or indie, your post might constitute a substantial fraction of the available literature on the topic. It's not a drop in the ocean. There's a good chance that this will even be the first someone has heard about it. Maybe you think you're only writing to a very specific audience, but now it's one of the top search results. You're ahead of the curve.
Many years back, someone wrote a thoughtful essay about a high-level aspect of one of my games that they felt wasn’t working as intended. They weren't even wrong! Unfortunately, they used this kind of language. In the context they were writing to, they assumed that everyone already knew about the game, and already knew that it was interesting and deep, and that's why it was worth writing about. To an academic, “fundamentally flawed” means “there are some long-term challenges that might require changes to the fundamentals to improve on”. To a layperson it just sounds really very bad: it means "broken in a way that can’t be fixed, ever". And so it came about that years later - long after I’d addressed the issue in question - I kept seeing this post resurfacing. Someone would ask on a random forum thread “i heard of this game, is it worth checking out?” and get a reply “nah apparently it’s fundamentally flawed”. Dude. Pretty sure that cost me some sales. Would have been easy to word it in a way that avoided this negative.
Instead of "if only this game was made with a higher budget"
try saying "check out this game"
How the fuck do you think we'll get a higher budget bro.
You're posting about it because you're into it: say so.
One time a big name account posted about one of my games. They could have just said something nice, their followers would buy it on their recommendation, it could have made a real difference. But they chose to dunk on it, specifically to be critical of how little money was spent on it, in a way that encouraged their followers to do the same. I was relatively unknown at the time, so for a while way more people had heard this person's negative opinions about it than anything good. It can really stick - this was well over a decade ago and i literally saw one of their fans repeating the exact same thing this week. Guys.
Look I get it: if someone's doing cool work you want to see what they could accomplish with more resources. So get them there. Support them. Focus on the things you like about what they're already doing and you'll get to see more.
Instead of "mobile when" (or android when, switch when, etc.)
try buying the game
This is a special case of the previous point. Sure, making art is a soulful devotional practice etc., but anyone who's doing it in a sustained commercial way at any level also spends some time thinking about it as a business. When it comes to ports, it's all business. We have some numbers to estimate sales, we have some costs, we decide when it's worth it. If we lose money on ports we can't make the next thing. Get those numbers up.
Instead of "outsider artist"
try saying "member of the [place/website] scene"
An outsider artist has no ties to an established scene. If you heard about someone through games media, they're not an outsider. Talk about the connections they have: knowing which more established figures a creator is linked with will help people to understand where their work comes from.
Instead of "game designer's game designer"
try saying "up-and-coming designer" or "respected and influential designer"
See, this always feels like a backhanded compliment. Sure your games are "good", but in a particular way that nobody wants to pay for.
Nah. Think about it, what's more likely?
- There's a weird category of art which can only appeal to practitioners of that artform, and certain unfortunate individuals are cursed to only ever produce work of that type.
- People working in a medium are likely to hear about someone new doing good work before they break through to the general public.
Instead of "your favourite game designer's favourite game designer"
try saying "Terry Cavanagh recommends this"
You've tried harder to make this positive! We appreciate that! But look: this still fails to get across what you hoped to say. Who even has a favourite game designer? Passing on a recommendation works better if you say who it comes from. Hey you could even recommend it yourself, rather than a vague "lots of people smarter than you or me are into it I guess".
Instead of "whoaaa were they ON DRUGS"
try saying "whoaaa"
So tired of this. So offensive to look at someone's creative work and say "I bet you needed some chemical assistance to think of that". Man, some people are taking drugs, some people aren't, it's not a big deal, don't be such a cop. Some have substance abuse problems and making up a story that you can't do art sober probably doesn't help them.
You can make art.
Instead of "this big-budget game sucks"
try writing about an indie game instead
If you don’t like a thing, don’t waste energy talking about it.
You convinced yourself you need to "be part of the conversation" but you're just adding noise. Nobody cares. Stop chasing clicks. If you'd instead written something positive about something you liked that the reader hadn’t heard of and might like too, in a small way you’d have made the world a better place.
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
868-BACK: quit
quick note: I used to document quite a bit of my game dev process here on this blog. I started doing videos instead in the pandemic (patreon, youtube) because I was finding that drained less energy from me than writing a post. I haven't done either very much recently because I felt so much of what I wanted to talk about would just make more sense once the game was out so you'd know what I was referring to. Now it's out! I'll hopefully be doing some of those posts. I'm not sure yet what the balance of videos to writing will be, but this one's writing!
868-HACK is structured as a series of servers you hack one after another, with increasing difficulty as you go. Quite a few people never even saw the difficulty increase because you had to win a couple of rounds in a row to get there. When I did an expansion for it a few years later (PLAN.B) I wanted to put the difficulty modifiers up front - both so that everyone would see them, and because those of us who'd been playing a bit started to find the game a bit too easy without them. But sometimes a stack of them could just be unfair though so I wanted a way to skip the really bad combinations, and came up with the .QUIT prog. This is just a basic ability you can pick up and use like any other, and what it does is instantly win the round. Actually amazing. This would be blatantly S-tier if not for the opportunity cost: you don't want to take the free win if you could use that siphon to get more points instead.
.QUIT is one of my favourite progs because it's something that computers do but games don't. Coming to the sequel I really wanted to push as far as I could in that direction; try everything I could think of that felt like a "computer" ability and would fit naturally here and not in a typical fantasy game. So .QUIT and .UNDO were at the top of my list for returning progs. (Puzzle games should generally allow undo, strategy games don't because it creates a very boring play pattern around any random or hidden element; putting a cost on it that isn't undone solved that well enough for 868-HACK, but unfortunately wasn't enough to make it work in BACK.) .QUIT fit quite nicely into BACK overall, but the new scrip system made it fairly easy to minimise the opportunity cost.
One of my early ideas for a bonus powerup in 868-BACK was called Local area network!, which I) protected a server from being hacked unless you'd hacked one of its neighbours the day before, and II) forced you to hack one of its neighbors the next day. I really liked having a "map-only" powerup, making a server more difficult to hack not because the levels and enemies were any harder but simply because it was inconvenient to get and out of. I really liked the spatial element this gave to the server map: these little sequences where you had to move step-by-step across it rather than just picking from it like a menu. There were many problems with this. Does nothing on the last day. You could get stuck and lose the game with no options if you weren't careful - and that tended to feel unfair rather than like you'd excitingly hacked yourself into a corner. Didn't interact well with the "reveal powerups by gathering data in adjacent servers" mechanic. So eventually it went away.
Thinking about limitations that could be applied to QUIT to make it slightly less dominant - what about an effect on the server map? I thought of folding in Isolated workstation!: if you quit a server you don't get to explore the ones next to it. Jake suggested folding in Local area network! instead: if you quit a server you have to go to one next to it tomorrow. This was really good! We kept Isolated as the map-only powerup (its device restriction was added much later at Leon's suggestion to prevent it doing less the more of the map is explored). When Linkcubes were added I let it go along those links as well. It seemed like the problem was solved.
Since the game's been released and a lot more people have been playing it, a few rare bugs showed up involving QUIT. This is going to happen - different people have different skills and approaches, so they'll try something in a different situation - or else just the dice get rolled a lot more times so an arrangement comes up that you never saw before. I'd added certain types of server that couldn't be accessed unless specific conditions were met - the megacorp x6s and the shops. In particular this restriction on the shops came very late in development (to stop new players from having a disappointing experience of going to a shop where they can't afford to buy anything). So a few people had been able to quit with only a shop in range but then weren't able to get into the shop! When I dug in to fix this I realised that QUIT was getting quite complicated. We'd already had a few players being confused about when they could or couldn't quit, and this was making it more confusing by adding situations where your ability to quit depended on the status of servers you haven't even explored yet. So rather than add all those complications I gutted it and made the whole thing much simpler: you can always quit, and tomorrow you can go wherever is nearest that you can get into. If you're surrounded by locked shops and corporate headquarters, instead of being sad and stuck you just get to go slightly further. It should play pretty similarly in most cases, but be clearer to understand, less prone to bugs, and maybe even occasionally exploitable in clever ways.
patch is up now!
868-HACK is structured as a series of servers you hack one after another, with increasing difficulty as you go. Quite a few people never even saw the difficulty increase because you had to win a couple of rounds in a row to get there. When I did an expansion for it a few years later (PLAN.B) I wanted to put the difficulty modifiers up front - both so that everyone would see them, and because those of us who'd been playing a bit started to find the game a bit too easy without them. But sometimes a stack of them could just be unfair though so I wanted a way to skip the really bad combinations, and came up with the .QUIT prog. This is just a basic ability you can pick up and use like any other, and what it does is instantly win the round. Actually amazing. This would be blatantly S-tier if not for the opportunity cost: you don't want to take the free win if you could use that siphon to get more points instead.
.QUIT is one of my favourite progs because it's something that computers do but games don't. Coming to the sequel I really wanted to push as far as I could in that direction; try everything I could think of that felt like a "computer" ability and would fit naturally here and not in a typical fantasy game. So .QUIT and .UNDO were at the top of my list for returning progs. (Puzzle games should generally allow undo, strategy games don't because it creates a very boring play pattern around any random or hidden element; putting a cost on it that isn't undone solved that well enough for 868-HACK, but unfortunately wasn't enough to make it work in BACK.) .QUIT fit quite nicely into BACK overall, but the new scrip system made it fairly easy to minimise the opportunity cost.
One of my early ideas for a bonus powerup in 868-BACK was called Local area network!, which I) protected a server from being hacked unless you'd hacked one of its neighbours the day before, and II) forced you to hack one of its neighbors the next day. I really liked having a "map-only" powerup, making a server more difficult to hack not because the levels and enemies were any harder but simply because it was inconvenient to get and out of. I really liked the spatial element this gave to the server map: these little sequences where you had to move step-by-step across it rather than just picking from it like a menu. There were many problems with this. Does nothing on the last day. You could get stuck and lose the game with no options if you weren't careful - and that tended to feel unfair rather than like you'd excitingly hacked yourself into a corner. Didn't interact well with the "reveal powerups by gathering data in adjacent servers" mechanic. So eventually it went away.
Thinking about limitations that could be applied to QUIT to make it slightly less dominant - what about an effect on the server map? I thought of folding in Isolated workstation!: if you quit a server you don't get to explore the ones next to it. Jake suggested folding in Local area network! instead: if you quit a server you have to go to one next to it tomorrow. This was really good! We kept Isolated as the map-only powerup (its device restriction was added much later at Leon's suggestion to prevent it doing less the more of the map is explored). When Linkcubes were added I let it go along those links as well. It seemed like the problem was solved.
Since the game's been released and a lot more people have been playing it, a few rare bugs showed up involving QUIT. This is going to happen - different people have different skills and approaches, so they'll try something in a different situation - or else just the dice get rolled a lot more times so an arrangement comes up that you never saw before. I'd added certain types of server that couldn't be accessed unless specific conditions were met - the megacorp x6s and the shops. In particular this restriction on the shops came very late in development (to stop new players from having a disappointing experience of going to a shop where they can't afford to buy anything). So a few people had been able to quit with only a shop in range but then weren't able to get into the shop! When I dug in to fix this I realised that QUIT was getting quite complicated. We'd already had a few players being confused about when they could or couldn't quit, and this was making it more confusing by adding situations where your ability to quit depended on the status of servers you haven't even explored yet. So rather than add all those complications I gutted it and made the whole thing much simpler: you can always quit, and tomorrow you can go wherever is nearest that you can get into. If you're surrounded by locked shops and corporate headquarters, instead of being sad and stuck you just get to go slightly further. It should play pretty similarly in most cases, but be clearer to understand, less prone to bugs, and maybe even occasionally exploitable in clever ways.
patch is up now!
Friday, 29 May 2026
868-BACK: the sponsors
After I crowdfunded 868-BACK, a couple of people got in touch to see if there was a way they could give a bit of extra financial support. We figured out that the right way to structure that was as a sponsorship. These are people whose work I admire and respect and I'm very happy to shine some light back at them.
Slice and Dice is a wonderful game that takes the combat system of a party-based RPG, infuses it with chaos by leaving the action choices up to a roll of the dice, and builds a whole magnificent structure around a series of these battles with escalating blessings and curses modifying the rules. It's author tann is rather reclusive, but seems like a very lovely person from the interactions we've had. The game has a lot in common with my games - tann has cited Cinco Paus as an inspiration - so I unreservedly recommend that anyone who likes my work check it out.
Puzzmo is a project with a lot of people involved and a lot going on, but a big part of it is the work of Zach Gage. I've known Zach for a long time, and he's had an influence on my work - in fact the core inspiration for Cinco Paus came from a conversation with him. He's a firm believer that the goals of creating interesting artistic games and reaching a broad audience don't need to be incompatible, and Puzzmo is a very serious attempt at bringing those together.
I'm very grateful for their contributions.
Slice and Dice is a wonderful game that takes the combat system of a party-based RPG, infuses it with chaos by leaving the action choices up to a roll of the dice, and builds a whole magnificent structure around a series of these battles with escalating blessings and curses modifying the rules. It's author tann is rather reclusive, but seems like a very lovely person from the interactions we've had. The game has a lot in common with my games - tann has cited Cinco Paus as an inspiration - so I unreservedly recommend that anyone who likes my work check it out.
Puzzmo is a project with a lot of people involved and a lot going on, but a big part of it is the work of Zach Gage. I've known Zach for a long time, and he's had an influence on my work - in fact the core inspiration for Cinco Paus came from a conversation with him. He's a firm believer that the goals of creating interesting artistic games and reaching a broad audience don't need to be incompatible, and Puzzmo is a very serious attempt at bringing those together.
I'm very grateful for their contributions.
Thursday, 28 May 2026
868-BACK: the crew
So first up, the game is out: get it on steam or itch.io.
I just wanted to talk a bit about who made the game! I'm going to go through in more-or-less chronological order of when people joined the project.
Obviously there's me. I started in mid-2024 and worked by myself for a few months before even showing it to anyone else, and I've done SO MUCH.
Jake and Leon were the first people I wanted to show it to. They had both playtested some of my games years ago, and Leon did some writing for 868-HACK (the "with that data you stole..." lines on the victory screen). For several months it was just us three playing - I'd expected to invite more testers in sooner, but they were already finding as much as I could keep up with. They've both contributed a ton of suggestions for all parts of the game - not just the rules and mechanics but writing and aesthetics - and the final design owes a ton to both of them.
Tara (YAKFOX) joined the project somewhere in late-2024. She then started a music production course so it was a while before she was available to actively produce music for the game, but she was part of it, and the discussions we had about the music helped define where the game was going. (And then the music turned out great!)
Then we did the crowdfunding! As well as contributing money, I offered a "name a server" reward and people contributed a variety of names - some cute, some funny, some on-theme, some really weird. This might seem like a little thing but as soon as those names were in there, the world felt more lived-in. Like magic! And a few of those names ended up inspiring strands of the design, folding back in to become very significant elements of the game.
Eventually I felt it really was time to expand the pool of testers a bit more, and Justin (manbearcar) posted an impressive Cinco Paus high score so I invited him in. Again I'd really expected to need more, but just one more person playing it was a valuable flood of information. (He's made a ton of cool games too and recently released Horsey Game.)
Then Finji came on board! Their whole QA and marketing teams contributed a lot. They've done a wonderful job of tuning into the game and making suggestions that will make it easier for people to get into it without breaking what it fundamentally is. They also recognised that I'd bitten off quite a lot with this game, and we set about figuring out what would be helpful to get it over the finish line, so it came about that a few other artists joined in towards the end.
AJ is one of my favourite artists, and his glitchy pixel scenes have been an inspiration for what I want to do in my own visual art. So when we talked about getting in someone else to do some graphics for the scenes that I was struggling with, he was at the top of my list. And he was up for it! He's done some fantastic art for the game - including a scene you will no doubt see quite often.
I asked Adam (from Finji) to also do one of the scenes - see if you can spot which is his. He also suggested adjustments to my font in a way that improved readability without losing the style I was going for, and he brought on Sven Ruthner and together they worked on the title logo, scaling up my font and adding glitchy detail.
Finally, we were missing sound effects. These usually show up quite late in my games, because I have to get into a quite different mindset from design and programming. But they hadn't shown up yet and we'd announced a release date, and I had my hands quite full with everything else, so Adam suggested Josie Brechner as someone to collaborate with on these. She came in and did a fantastic job, some of her sounds are so delightful in a way that you can tell she must have really had fun making them. (.row, wow!)
So that's the crew! It's my biggest game yet, and the one that's most a team effort. It's still very much "me" - I felt that my time working on the game by myself had established a strong voice for it, and when new people came on they were able to get into the flow of what was already happening and do great work that fit into it. And having other people supporting helped me to do my best. And now you all can play it!
I just wanted to talk a bit about who made the game! I'm going to go through in more-or-less chronological order of when people joined the project.
Obviously there's me. I started in mid-2024 and worked by myself for a few months before even showing it to anyone else, and I've done SO MUCH.
Jake and Leon were the first people I wanted to show it to. They had both playtested some of my games years ago, and Leon did some writing for 868-HACK (the "with that data you stole..." lines on the victory screen). For several months it was just us three playing - I'd expected to invite more testers in sooner, but they were already finding as much as I could keep up with. They've both contributed a ton of suggestions for all parts of the game - not just the rules and mechanics but writing and aesthetics - and the final design owes a ton to both of them.
Tara (YAKFOX) joined the project somewhere in late-2024. She then started a music production course so it was a while before she was available to actively produce music for the game, but she was part of it, and the discussions we had about the music helped define where the game was going. (And then the music turned out great!)
Then we did the crowdfunding! As well as contributing money, I offered a "name a server" reward and people contributed a variety of names - some cute, some funny, some on-theme, some really weird. This might seem like a little thing but as soon as those names were in there, the world felt more lived-in. Like magic! And a few of those names ended up inspiring strands of the design, folding back in to become very significant elements of the game.
Eventually I felt it really was time to expand the pool of testers a bit more, and Justin (manbearcar) posted an impressive Cinco Paus high score so I invited him in. Again I'd really expected to need more, but just one more person playing it was a valuable flood of information. (He's made a ton of cool games too and recently released Horsey Game.)
Then Finji came on board! Their whole QA and marketing teams contributed a lot. They've done a wonderful job of tuning into the game and making suggestions that will make it easier for people to get into it without breaking what it fundamentally is. They also recognised that I'd bitten off quite a lot with this game, and we set about figuring out what would be helpful to get it over the finish line, so it came about that a few other artists joined in towards the end.
AJ is one of my favourite artists, and his glitchy pixel scenes have been an inspiration for what I want to do in my own visual art. So when we talked about getting in someone else to do some graphics for the scenes that I was struggling with, he was at the top of my list. And he was up for it! He's done some fantastic art for the game - including a scene you will no doubt see quite often.
I asked Adam (from Finji) to also do one of the scenes - see if you can spot which is his. He also suggested adjustments to my font in a way that improved readability without losing the style I was going for, and he brought on Sven Ruthner and together they worked on the title logo, scaling up my font and adding glitchy detail.
Finally, we were missing sound effects. These usually show up quite late in my games, because I have to get into a quite different mindset from design and programming. But they hadn't shown up yet and we'd announced a release date, and I had my hands quite full with everything else, so Adam suggested Josie Brechner as someone to collaborate with on these. She came in and did a fantastic job, some of her sounds are so delightful in a way that you can tell she must have really had fun making them. (.row, wow!)
So that's the crew! It's my biggest game yet, and the one that's most a team effort. It's still very much "me" - I felt that my time working on the game by myself had established a strong voice for it, and when new people came on they were able to get into the flow of what was already happening and do great work that fit into it. And having other people supporting helped me to do my best. And now you all can play it!
Tuesday, 25 November 2025
Year Of Me
I find it pretty hard to explain when asked what my work is. What should I say?
I'll go simple and direct: "I make videogames" - but it turns out people have a huge variety of preconceptions about what that might mean. Which company do I work for? No. Have you made anything I might have heard of? No. That's so awesome, you get paid to play games? No, neither of those. Why are you such a terrible person, responsible for the brain-rotting drivel that's destroying children's lives? No. Couldn't you do something more natural? Yes and no. So you work in tech, you're rich then? No and no.
Clearly that word gives the wrong idea, I'll try: "I'm an artist". This isn't bad! People get the right overall idea; we all like art as a general concept; you don't expect me to pay for things. Until they dig a little bit further and want to know what kind of art? What medium? UHhh [frantically trying to avoid the v word] interactive digital somethingvi art, let's stick with art. Eventually they find out that it was games all along and are a little disgusted at my deception.
Often I go with "I work in games". I don't quite know what people take from it, but it's somehow vague enough to usually avoid these confusing discussions and we can move onto something more interesting (like the other person).
But okay, someone's found out I work in games: what kind of games? All the kinds. Any kind. Every game. Okay I didn't make every single game that exists, but it was enough of them that this isn't easy to answer. "I've worked in a variety of genres". Ugh. I have though! I'll try to gauge how literate the person asking might be - but even then, my main genre they literally named after me. What am I supposed to say?
"Oh like mobile games?" Yes. Some of my games run on mobile devices, that's not the most interesting thing about them but sure, that'll do. "That must be pretty.. ching ching! (*rubbing fingers together*)". THIS AGAIN.
Wait so if it doesn't make money, why are you doing it? Do you even have a job? (No.)
Once when I was interrogated by border police (not for the first or last time) they really wanted to know what I did and who I worked for. I gave as clear and straightforward answers as I could, and they kept asking again and again, obviously not believing me. Until one of them finally did a google search and shamefacedly told the other "let him go, everything he's said is true".
The Secret Lives of Games (formerly Eggplant, formerly the Spelunky Showlike) have started a year-long series talking about my work. So far the first introductory episode is up, and I think it's the best explanation so far of WHAT DOES MICHAEL EVEN DO. It's on the long side (two hours) but if you've ever wondered, here's an answer. I'm just going to link this next time someone asks me. Take that, border control.
I really appreciate that they're doing this - aside from it being personally about me, which is nice for sure - but from the perspective of taking games seriously as an artform. In any other medium, it's not unusual to have a show looking back across an artist's work; a Yuri Norstein retrospective or whatever; but even in games hardly anyone takes games seriously. This is something distinctly countercultural: the claim that play is not merely something a multi-million dollar industry can be built around, but something culturally important and worth talking about.
I'll go simple and direct: "I make videogames" - but it turns out people have a huge variety of preconceptions about what that might mean. Which company do I work for? No. Have you made anything I might have heard of? No. That's so awesome, you get paid to play games? No, neither of those. Why are you such a terrible person, responsible for the brain-rotting drivel that's destroying children's lives? No. Couldn't you do something more natural? Yes and no. So you work in tech, you're rich then? No and no.
Clearly that word gives the wrong idea, I'll try: "I'm an artist". This isn't bad! People get the right overall idea; we all like art as a general concept; you don't expect me to pay for things. Until they dig a little bit further and want to know what kind of art? What medium? UHhh [frantically trying to avoid the v word] interactive digital something
Often I go with "I work in games". I don't quite know what people take from it, but it's somehow vague enough to usually avoid these confusing discussions and we can move onto something more interesting (like the other person).
But okay, someone's found out I work in games: what kind of games? All the kinds. Any kind. Every game. Okay I didn't make every single game that exists, but it was enough of them that this isn't easy to answer. "I've worked in a variety of genres". Ugh. I have though! I'll try to gauge how literate the person asking might be - but even then, my main genre they literally named after me. What am I supposed to say?
"Oh like mobile games?" Yes. Some of my games run on mobile devices, that's not the most interesting thing about them but sure, that'll do. "That must be pretty.. ching ching! (*rubbing fingers together*)". THIS AGAIN.
Wait so if it doesn't make money, why are you doing it? Do you even have a job? (No.)
Once when I was interrogated by border police (not for the first or last time) they really wanted to know what I did and who I worked for. I gave as clear and straightforward answers as I could, and they kept asking again and again, obviously not believing me. Until one of them finally did a google search and shamefacedly told the other "let him go, everything he's said is true".
The Secret Lives of Games (formerly Eggplant, formerly the Spelunky Showlike) have started a year-long series talking about my work. So far the first introductory episode is up, and I think it's the best explanation so far of WHAT DOES MICHAEL EVEN DO. It's on the long side (two hours) but if you've ever wondered, here's an answer. I'm just going to link this next time someone asks me. Take that, border control.
I really appreciate that they're doing this - aside from it being personally about me, which is nice for sure - but from the perspective of taking games seriously as an artform. In any other medium, it's not unusual to have a show looking back across an artist's work; a Yuri Norstein retrospective or whatever; but even in games hardly anyone takes games seriously. This is something distinctly countercultural: the claim that play is not merely something a multi-million dollar industry can be built around, but something culturally important and worth talking about.
Thursday, 29 May 2025
868-BACK trailer: UNIFIED
Hey hey!
I am still busily working on 868-BACK. I'm very happy with how it's coming along.
It has grown! When I was crowdfunding it at the end of last year, I described it as being 'on par with the biggest games I've made before'. Now I would describe it as definitely my biggest game yet. Nobody ever expected a big 868-HACK. It still has that tight focus; it's big in a way that honours its smallness, I can't think of much like it.
I also said 'I'm aiming for a release mid-2025'. That would be around now, wouldn't it? Well, there is still a lot to do! I would like to very clearly update that to late-2025.
This is a good thing. I am giving the game the time it needs to be what it wants to be. It's become very clear to me how important it is to my work to be able to take that time when I need to. Some of my games I've made very quickly, some have gradually come together over a few years, but in both cases it's been a matter of allowing the organic process to grow to completion. I have to not rush things.
In this case, a couple of ideas arrived that really blossom the game into something extra strange and special - the kind of "blow your mind" recontextualisation that we all love - but the technicalities of making sure they work right with every other piece has added some time. There's still some uncertainty ahead. There's a small chance it ends up being "early-2026". I'm going to try to avoid that, since A) it's been way too long since I've released a game and those of you who've supported me through this time really deserve something, and B) we'll run out of money. But, if it ends up that's just the best thing for the game, I'll do it somehow. Still, there's a lot of 2025 left!
Meanwhile, we've made a trailer!
The folk from thinkygames.com asked if I could share a trailer, and I had a think. One the one hand, probably I shouldn't take on extra work - my plate is already so full. But on the other hand I am trying to do everything the best I can, to finish and promote this game above and beyond what I've done before, to get the marketing and money side right not just the making. Well, by the time I'd spent a while pondering those two hands then I had an idea for a trailer I wanted to make so I just went for it. It ended up fitting well because it gave a focus for working on audiovisual design for one of the corporations, which we needed to do anyway.
(p.s. they also had trailers for a bunch of other games that look neat, and a big discount on Steam ongoing.)
The trailer introduces UNIFIED MEGACORP, one of the three megacorporations in the game. What makes them "mega" is that they control more than one connected server, so hacking them is a multi-step process. Unified are - well I hope the video gives you a feel for them. We'll reveal the other two along the way. It's also a first taste of the game's music, which Tara is collaborating on.
I've also put up a Steam page. You can wishlist it if you want to!
As I said above, it's not clear at this point whether the budget we have will last until the game feels definitively done. I don't want a publisher messing it up, so I'd prefer not to go there without really good reasons. I'll make it work somehow. Maybe I take a few weeks off to make a smaller game to support development of the bigger one - just six months ago that would have been impossible but my health is getting better all the time and now I do have some side-project energy, which is a really good sign. We'll see what happens! But simply, I would really appreciate it if any of you do want to support my ongoing work. I would appreciate if you buy my other games (ios link, itch.io link) - I've made a lot of them and they are still good! I would appreciate it if you support my Patreon. I would appreciate it if you just want to throw large amounts of money at me (please contact me directly).
That said, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME TO THIS POINT. I am thriving. I have gone from being absolutely smitten with covid in 2020 and not being able to work at all, to now doing my best work so far (and with better yet to come). It means so much to me that a lot of you really still appreciate all the work I've done before, and you've helped me through such a hard time and I am - still not at full strength, but definitely - BACK.
I am still busily working on 868-BACK. I'm very happy with how it's coming along.
It has grown! When I was crowdfunding it at the end of last year, I described it as being 'on par with the biggest games I've made before'. Now I would describe it as definitely my biggest game yet. Nobody ever expected a big 868-HACK. It still has that tight focus; it's big in a way that honours its smallness, I can't think of much like it.
I also said 'I'm aiming for a release mid-2025'. That would be around now, wouldn't it? Well, there is still a lot to do! I would like to very clearly update that to late-2025.
This is a good thing. I am giving the game the time it needs to be what it wants to be. It's become very clear to me how important it is to my work to be able to take that time when I need to. Some of my games I've made very quickly, some have gradually come together over a few years, but in both cases it's been a matter of allowing the organic process to grow to completion. I have to not rush things.
In this case, a couple of ideas arrived that really blossom the game into something extra strange and special - the kind of "blow your mind" recontextualisation that we all love - but the technicalities of making sure they work right with every other piece has added some time. There's still some uncertainty ahead. There's a small chance it ends up being "early-2026". I'm going to try to avoid that, since A) it's been way too long since I've released a game and those of you who've supported me through this time really deserve something, and B) we'll run out of money. But, if it ends up that's just the best thing for the game, I'll do it somehow. Still, there's a lot of 2025 left!
Meanwhile, we've made a trailer!
The folk from thinkygames.com asked if I could share a trailer, and I had a think. One the one hand, probably I shouldn't take on extra work - my plate is already so full. But on the other hand I am trying to do everything the best I can, to finish and promote this game above and beyond what I've done before, to get the marketing and money side right not just the making. Well, by the time I'd spent a while pondering those two hands then I had an idea for a trailer I wanted to make so I just went for it. It ended up fitting well because it gave a focus for working on audiovisual design for one of the corporations, which we needed to do anyway.
(p.s. they also had trailers for a bunch of other games that look neat, and a big discount on Steam ongoing.)
The trailer introduces UNIFIED MEGACORP, one of the three megacorporations in the game. What makes them "mega" is that they control more than one connected server, so hacking them is a multi-step process. Unified are - well I hope the video gives you a feel for them. We'll reveal the other two along the way. It's also a first taste of the game's music, which Tara is collaborating on.
I've also put up a Steam page. You can wishlist it if you want to!
As I said above, it's not clear at this point whether the budget we have will last until the game feels definitively done. I don't want a publisher messing it up, so I'd prefer not to go there without really good reasons. I'll make it work somehow. Maybe I take a few weeks off to make a smaller game to support development of the bigger one - just six months ago that would have been impossible but my health is getting better all the time and now I do have some side-project energy, which is a really good sign. We'll see what happens! But simply, I would really appreciate it if any of you do want to support my ongoing work. I would appreciate if you buy my other games (ios link, itch.io link) - I've made a lot of them and they are still good! I would appreciate it if you support my Patreon. I would appreciate it if you just want to throw large amounts of money at me (please contact me directly).
That said, THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED ME TO THIS POINT. I am thriving. I have gone from being absolutely smitten with covid in 2020 and not being able to work at all, to now doing my best work so far (and with better yet to come). It means so much to me that a lot of you really still appreciate all the work I've done before, and you've helped me through such a hard time and I am - still not at full strength, but definitely - BACK.
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