Game 01 / Neonrace
Nailed almost on the first try.
A night race through a neon grid. A couple of control fixes at the start, and we have not touched it since.
Now / This week
Six games. One home server.
The interesting thing is what faster iteration lets a family do together. An idea can survive the distance between breakfast-table nonsense and something playable on an iPad.
Current experiment / Family Arcade
Children understand fun before they understand scope.
My kids invent the premise, the characters, and the rules that matter. I help turn those instincts into mechanics, assets, and code. The result is a real game they helped make.
Read what the arcade is teaching usRunning at home
On the server
The current roster.
Game 02 / Emberfall
Trial of the Sunken Crown.
The long haul. My youngest keeps pitching ideas and we shoot most of them down together, on purpose. That conversation is my favorite part and the hardest part.
Game 03 / Beamwright
Bend the beam.
Landed on the first try. The kids picked it up, figured it out on their own, and asked for more.
Game 04 / Coaster
Draw the track, then ride it.
Deliberately silly, and the programming behind it was awful. The kids could not care less. They want to watch their characters ride their coaster.
Game 05 / Math Facts
Version two.
Version one passed every automated check I had and lost the kids in one sitting. The rebuild faced the real gate: hand it over and say nothing.
Game 06 / Cat-A-Vac
The floor is hungry.
A cat commandeers the vacuum. One control, hold a side to steer. The upgrade pass went entirely into sound, and the sound is most of the joke.
Question underneath the games
What happens when screens become materials?
Kids get handed finished software all day. On the arcade they watch a mechanic change because they argued for the change, and they learn that software is something people make.
Read the field note