- FLAPPY BLOCKS is OUT!
11 March 2021Can you believe it? You can play Flappy Blocks on Android today and experience the, er, pleasure of flying tetrominoes. Install Flappy Blocks! It has a really addictive “screw you I can do this” loop to it, and a lot…
- The Flappy gates of hell are almost open
3 December 2020Long time no see! Luckily, development of Flappy Blocks is rolling steadily to a close. Time to show off the coool customisation in the game. Dabble in all sorts of tiles, including patterns, letters, or adorable little adventurers. My personal…
- Liftoff! Making Astronaut’s Journey in 48 hours
5 December 2018Once again, Ludum Dare happened, and I had to make a game in 48 hours. And you know what? It came out ruddy great. In Astronaut’s Journey, it’s 1969, and you are tasked with flying to the moon. But unfortunately, you…
- What Makes Goal Driven Games Work So Well?
7 November 2018Most games are driven by goals in some capacity. These can be very short term (“kill all enemies in the room”), or longer term (“progress through the story”). Why has this turned into the “default” approach to game design? Let’s…
- A Short History of Radical Dog
23 October 2018I’ve been a developer long enough that it seemed fair to round up my old crap in one place. That way, you can see I didn’t come from a vacuum – in fact, I came from some very crappy games…
- The Interviews
8 October 2018I’ve conducted a handful of developer interviews, because I find that there’s always something new I can learn from others. It’s about time I put them together to make them easy to browse! Kan Gao – solo developer of To…
- The Platformer Where You Literally Cannot Die
24 September 2018Wario Death is such a typical “failure state” in platformers that it’s hard to imagine one without. Yet, for Wario Land 3, this absence makes it one of the most innovative platformers you can play, even two decades after its…
- Interview: Ben Porter
10 August 2018Hot on the heels of his early access launch of MoonQuest, I got the chance to speak to Ben Porter about its creation. He has written about the somewhat arduous 7 year journey, involving Kickstarter and numerous extra activities on…
- 7 Steps for Better Achievements
20 July 2018I’ve really enjoyed putting achievements in games, and well designed ones can get a great response from players. There’s a dark art to making them both fun and compelling, rather than a forgettable chore. So, here are the lessons I…
- Interview: Sophie Houlden
19 June 2018I had the opportunity to speak to Sophie Houlden, who is a vibrant member of the developer community, with a mountain of games spanning over a decade. Her projects include Rose & Time, Bang Bang Bang, as well as over 40…
- Platformer Mixtape 2010
6 June 2018My adorable/nasty game, Platformer Mixtape 2010, is now available to freely play in its final form! Find it on Itch.io, Armor Games, or Newgrounds. More levels Quality-of-life fixes (pause, mute, save games) Tighter controls If you’re interested in the design and development…
- 10 Ways to Prep for a Game Jam
20 May 2018The dust has settled on LDJAM 41, for which I made the rage-inducing Flappy Blocks in 48 hours. I learned a lot, and thought it was only fair to share. So here is my Top 10 List Of Things That You…
- Interview: Wild Mage
4 May 2018I saw the art of Wild Mage – Phantom Twilight, and was immediately drawn to it. It’s got a dreamy, modern twist on steampunk-like airships and floating islands, along with some interesting ideas about terrain. Lead developer Lucas McCann was kind…
- Flappy Bird + Tetris = ???
26 April 2018For LDJAM41 I made Flappy Blocks, a mashup of Flappy Bird and Tetris-style gameplay. You can play it in your browser here. The theme was, “Combine 2 incompatible genres.” I think I succeeded. All the strategy of Tetris, plus all…
- 6 ways to improve 2D jumping
16 April 2018In Platformer Mixtape 2010, I parodied several games including the excellent Super Meat Boy. This meant getting the jumping physics “just so”, or the game would be crap. This is a collection of my thoughts on what makes a good…
- Wot I made in the Meta Game Jam
8 April 2018I made a dumb game called ‘Platformer Mixtape 2010‘ for the Meta Game Jam, and you can play it in your browser here. More than anything else, this project is to establish that, hey, I’m back! I’m developing full-time for…
- Here be dragons!
16 March 2018This is the end of the recent, and the start of the old. Keep scrolling to travel back in time, to the Flash era, with all the broken links and missing images that entails. Bring a sword.
- LEGO in motion
5 March 2013A friend and I worked on the following animation. Enjoy: So yeah, I’m now editing a documentary on all this, which will also be posted here. It’ll be interesting. (For more info on that, I guess you could click here.)…
- Be snazzy.
18 February 2013Good Old Snazzy Tennis is up and available to play. (Non-exclusives are available, thankfully.) Play Snazzy Tennis In other news, I have a Twitter – just like everyone! Hurrah. Follow me here. Or don’t. Maybe you’re not that sort of…
- The Release!
25 August 2012It’s out! I present to you, Literally Insane Racing! Click here to play Literally Insane Racing! This is really trying to show what Flash games can be, to me. Each car has its own feel, and no single car is…
- Potentially Insane Developing
8 August 2012I have been hard at work on a game called “Literally Insane Racing”. It is basically everything I wanted Slide Racing to be 3 years ago, but now I have the skills required to make it. I have drawn 40…
- Summer Punch
20 July 2012Surprisingly, though I have rarely touched Flash this year, I got a job this summer working 5 days a week at Mousebreaker. (That’s this Mousebreaker). As such, I have been powering away at Flash, and with any luck I’ll come…
- Audiobook Generation
10 July 2012I bloody love audiobooks. This is definitely not a game-related post, as I cannot develop games while listening. What I can do, however, is cook, or wash up, or walk about London, or sit around waiting to meet my invariably…
- The Grammar Police
28 April 2012I saw yet another comment thread descend into minor quibbles about grammar. I have come to the conclusion that I just… don’t care about it. If someone can’t spell, it doesn’t mean they’re stupid, it just means they can’t spell.…
- A Physical Connection
13 March 2012I love getting physical games. Tearing off the plastic wrap, piggling off all the stickers the shop adorned. Flicking through the manual, even though the tutorial will cover everything. Most of all, I love how it can never be taken…
- Pretty Bums
28 February 2012Women have pretty bums. If I must stare at one for twelve hours, surely I would much rather it were a pretty one. That is the usual logic when a developer has a female main character in a videogame. Nay,…
- Subcard to the Heart
21 February 2012There is a point in your life when you do something you regret; you might let your fish die, or kill your husband’s mistress, or become a regular at Subway. Unfortunately, I have succumbed to the latter. It started at…
- Jump: Ultimate Stars
13 February 2012Last year I played an absolutely stellar game that you haven’t heard of – what’s more, it turned out to be my favourite game of the entire year. Imagine Super Smash Bros, on a handheld console. Now imagine deeper fighting…
- Get Rich Quick(ish)!
6 February 2012Also known as: Why I will never be as rich as Notch. It bothers me how often developers ask, “What’s the in genre? What will make me the most money?” I am not bothered by developers being callous and in…
- Interview: To The Moon
30 January 2012After my post on storytelling, I got a recommendation to try out “To The Moon” from Freebird Games. It truly is a special experience, and I wholeheartedly extend the recommendation to anyone interested in exploring the potential of storytelling in…
- He’s Dead, Jim!
23 January 2012Years later warning: many external links are now dead. Sorry! Post-mortems are terribly, horribly interesting. I love seeing how Flash games died. Some developers are willing to describe all the gory financial details, writing up accounts so that we can…
- Uncharted: Charted
16 January 2012I picked up the original Uncharted in the pre-Christmas rush for a little more than it usually sells for. Alas, the effort was wasted, since I failed to plug in the disc for well over a month. But hey, now…
- Storytelling Is A Game
9 January 2012You know that emotional pull, when a story grabs you in just the right way? It’s what makes Final Fantasy VII so revered, as generation after generation relives that moment where Aeris dies. Or at least, they would if it…
- Blocky McBlockinson
31 October 2011Hey, you know that game I’m not making, called Murderous James? I’m still not making it. Deal with it.
- The Cutest Massacre
18 October 2011Hey, you know that feeling when you don’t have the resources/time to develop a particular game, but really want to? Murderous James: The Cutest Massacre is that game for me. Who knows, maybe this is a project for next summer?
- Light My Fire
7 October 2011I think the Kindle Fire is going to actually make tablets feasible. Why? Because it’s cheaper than a laptop, something which has always made every other tablet just look daft. It looks like the Kindle Fire… Is a Jobs well…
- Learnin’ with 3 Dees
17 September 2011The franchise monster known as Nintendo released the 3DS not all that long ago, and then lately added a big price cut, because that’s what they do. Or because they realised that they weren’t selling enough, and that at the…
- Vanity Satisfied!
12 September 2011Just a quickie, to say that General Vimes of Game Gems did an interview with me, and wrote a nice feature. He’s a good guy. So’s anyone who’s that nice to me. Read it here! Unless you can’t read.
- A Creepy Guy
17 August 2011You Are A Creepy Guy: The Game! Released right here, right now. Look, here it is: Click it to focus, then use the arrow keys to control. I think it’s going to be a runaway success. Nope, not letting in…
- The Invisible Hulk
2 August 2011I’ve posted another development video: This one is of course about The Girl with the Invisible Heart. I think this will be my most successful game this summer, on principle of it not having much of my art in, woo!…
- The Ultimate Phone
26 July 2011Phones have lots of cool things in them, such as GPS and cameras and godawful word processors and occasionally Flash if your phone manufacturer doesn’t hold an unnecessary grudge against Adobe. However, they do not yet have one very important…
- Attack Mode!
23 July 2011This season, I’m producing not one, but two incredible games! Perhaps ‘incredible’ is too strong a word. ‘Unique’ might be more fitting. There will be one (1) sequel to The Man with the Invisible Trousers… Get pumped, it’s set after…