Yalfal's Adventures:
I wanted to make my first game-in-a-week as something small. Also, my littlest sister, Yalfal, has started trying to play my games, but they are too hard for her. So I decided to make a game for her.

I've wanted to make an educational game for a while, since there are a lot of little bits of game design (Will Wright stuff) that I could put to use. I wanted to have lots of toy-like parts, which resulted in the engine trails, chasing after the stars on death, and a few other minor things.

I kept a text file on my desktop, and made progress notes, using a sort of twitter format. Here.

Librarians:
In January, I spent a month working on a game that used letters on the page as battle terrain. I prototyped it, and as it seemed cool, I continued working on it. It was huge, it had a world map linking 32 battle sites, with 11 units, each with turret loadouts, etc. Mole units that tunnelled through the letters, bulldozers that cleared killzones and pushed up walls, Bunker-busters that could push aside a few letters before exploding. I finished all of that, made an AI that picked from a few random tactics, and played it. And it was horrible. I learned a harsh lesson. Again. PROTOTYPE THE FUN BIT. Seems stupid, but I didn't. I prototyped the letters, the movement system, and the world map. And forgot to make a fun prototype (instead of just a working prototype) before moving on.

Stupid. Very. But I do seem to have to learn the hard way sometimes.

So, this is me taking that engine, and spending a week hacking a game out of it. It did not turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it was fun none the less. I have hopes that some time in the future, I'll make a game more focused around playing with the letters, and less around the boring other stuff.

I kept a text file on my desktop, and made progress notes, using a sort of twitter format. Here.

Garden:
This was inspired by the idea of using a painting, as a game. I was trying to make a game with no interface over the painting. Interactivity, but not a level, a painting. I really wanted any artist making a painting for this game to be able to do any subject he wanted, and not be limited to a level or backdrop. I've been playing with this idea for a while, but this is the strongest prototype or game I've made out of it.

I have some cool ideas and suggestions. Elliot suggested that I drop all the text, and just teach the player using movement, shapes and icons (and sounds). I'd also like to do another with an actual painting, as I only used a collage because I'd been playing with the idea of doing a game in collage for a while, and had some gardening magazines on my desk (although that was for a game where you had to grow trees to unlock puzzle doors in a platformer).

I kept a text file on my desktop, and made progress notes, using a sort of twitter format. Here.

Edit: This game has a problem with certain screensizes. Download this version if it does not work on your computer.

TBS-project:
I wanted to make something using my new engine (gamestudio a7 pro), and I had a camera view that I liked for looking around a 3D level. This project turned into a swamp, slow slogging work through knee-deep glitches and too-complex systems.

The desktop twitter contains a post-mortem. There are things I like about this project and things I think I could have done better on.

I kept a text file on my desktop, and made progress notes, using a sort of twitter format. Here.

Spirit Guide:
I played waaay too much Inago Rage, and had jetpacks on the brain. So, when I went to tojam, and spent 3 days making a game, of course it had jetpacks.

The game is weird, with you flying around the underworld, finding hope, gathering lost goats and in the end, defeating the fatman.

This is the first game I've really stepped forward and done the art myself. The game uses 2D objects in a 3D world, and takes place in a sort of underworld. So, everything else aside, this was a great way to practice some weird art stuff. Thanks to Migual Sternberg for helping me through it.

My fav. game from the jam was Ryan's 'Bloat'. It is very solid, a great example of game design. He was working on it up the end, using all his time fully, yet his game is complete, with a ramping difficulty curve and tight graphics.
It's not the amount of content (anyone can have that), it's how complete it feels.

Another awesome game was Jim's boat game. I snort with laughter everytime I think about it.

PAX '09:
I did a talk at PAX this year, so I thought I'd post the slideshow. (Check back in a few days, there should be a link to a video of the talk.)