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The Road to a Commercial Game

These articles document my path from casual game making to launching my first commercial title. I share insights on game design principles, development challenges, and creative workflows I've discovered along the way. Follow my solo journey through technical decisions like engine selection and learning as much as I can about game design and development.

series

Game Design Lessons

Analyses of what makes exceptional games fun, with practical design lessons identified from engaging mechanics, systems, and player experiences.

Game Development Tips

A collection of learnings that I've gathered, from coding to art to design, along my journey towards my first commercial release.

all game development posts

Vector to Retro: Pixelate with Shaders

Unlock pixel art aesthetics by 'demaking' your clean vector graphics with a simple Godot shader.

May 9, 25

Finding Fun #16: God of War 3

Learning ways to design for power fantasy from one of the best to ever offer it.

Apr 29, 25

Improve Your Steam Page

Applying Steam's best practices across these parts of your page can help boost your visibility.

Apr 27, 25

Stuck Finding Game Ideas

When you experience creative blocks in game design, here’s some ways to move forward.

Apr 25, 25

The Pressure Behind Your First Game

Discussing the high expectations that come with releasing your first game and ways to manage them.

Apr 24, 25

Designing Around Monetization

Learn how pricing and monetization strategies can inform your game design decisions from the start.

Apr 23, 25

Export Your Godot Game to itch.io

A quick guide to help you export your game from Godot and upload it to the web for playtesting.

Apr 22, 25

Get Your Games Tested

Learn how early and frequent playtesting helps validate ideas and build better games faster.

Apr 21, 25

Git Helps You Make Better Games

Set up version control. If not for your sanity, then do it for improving the quality of your games.

Apr 18, 25

Pixel Art Tips for Beginners

Things I wish I knew earlier about pixel art, from tool selection to the value of constraints.

Apr 15, 25

Finding Fun #15: Final Fantasy X

Seeing what game design lessons can be learned from story-driven JRPGs.

Apr 9, 25

Finding Fun #14: Animal Crossing

How intentionally slow paced and cozy game designs can arrive at fun experiences.

Apr 7, 25

Finding Fun #13: Halo 2 Multiplayer

Learning game design lessons from one of the best multiplayer games of all time.

Apr 6, 25

Finding Fun #12: Burnout Paradise

Taking a look at a racing game that took the best from realistic and arcade driving gameplay.

Apr 5, 25

Finding Fun #11: World of Warcraft

Seeing what indie developers can learn from a game as massive as an MMORPG.

Apr 4, 25

Finding Fun #10: Dark Souls

Dissecting what's fun about brutal combat difficulty and intricate world design.

Apr 2, 25

Finding Fun #9: A Link to the Past

Retro analysis of how to get players wanting to explore every corner of a map.

Mar 31, 25

Finding Fun #8: Marvel vs Capcom 3

Examining how a massive roster and fast-paced fighting can result in endless engagement.

Mar 29, 25

Finding Fun #7: Perfect Dark

From guns to aliens, what more could you want in a game?

Mar 27, 25

Finding Fun #6: Hades

A story-driven rogue-like that you don't mind dying in.

Mar 20, 25

Finding Fun #5: Pokémon Red

Unpacking the addictive loop of catching, training, and battling that launched a global franchise.

Mar 17, 25

Finding Fun #4: Katamari Damacy

A breakdown of how a ridiculous game with novel mechanics can still find a big audience.

Mar 14, 25

Finding Fun #3: Obra Dinn

An example of how real life can be a strong source of inspiration with the right adaptation.

Mar 12, 25

Finding Fun #2: Mega Man X

How choosing your boss/level sequence gives players variety that encourages replay.

Mar 9, 25

Finding Fun #1: Phantasy Star Online

An example of a light MMORPG that still has a lot of depth.

Mar 5, 25

Practicing Pixel Art via AI Sketches

A setup guide to generate pixel art sprite sketches locally and learn from them in Aseprite.

Feb 27, 25

Writing Love2D with LLMs

How modern LLM-integrated code editors make Love2D game development uniquely efficient.

Feb 17, 25

GameDev Tutorial Takeaways

Following a 20-part Godot 4 brawler tutorial and documenting key takeaways.

Feb 13, 25

Designing an Animated Sprite Pipeline

Tasking an LLM system to design a pipeline for generating animated sprites from language.

Feb 12, 25

Minigame: WordRamp

Building a word dictionary and sharing it with others. Demonstrating its usage via a simple word game of my own.

Jan 28, 25

Minigame: MirrorMatch

A minimalist UX exercise in creating a puzzle game that challenges you to match colors and patterns.

Jan 9, 25

Which game engine in 2025?

The choice of which game framework or engine to use can feel daunting.

Jan 4, 25

Casino-grade UI/UX Design

A practice in learning more complex UI/UX design via a baccarat simulation.

Dec 28, 24

Love2D vs Godot for 2025

Choosing an engine is about finding the development philosophy that resonates with your creative process.

Dec 22, 24

Pursuing Art vs Money in GameDev

Should your game be a product first (focusing on making money), or an artistic vision?

Dec 18, 24

The Scope Creep Struggle

I keep losing to scope creep. How does this happen so easily?

Dec 17, 24

Dream Big, Start Small

Exploring the benefits of designing for a series rather than a single game as a solodev.

Nov 29, 24

First Public Games: KiokuSocial

A collection of browser-based mini-games built with various web technologies and game engines.

Nov 27, 24