A needle game so bland it took me several days of cataloguing my own work to remember its existence.
Neither good enough to be enjoyable, nor the right kind of bad to be amusing, you truly aren't missing out on anything here. Perhaps the most interesting fact is the dev key I forgot to take out before release.
A 2 screens long sudoku game(?) I made on a whim to send to my friends, one of which proceeded to submit it to the wiki. An admittedly funny move.
Seeing this game in the Fangame Marathon sudoku block next year didn't make the whole thing any less bizarre.
(DBGHELP.dll might be required to make the game run smoothly.)
A short needle stage utilizing standard NANE gimmicks. Unfortunately it doesn't quite come together to feel like anything substantial. The graphics were certainly very pleasant for their time though!
The visuals were made by repurposing two other tilesets I already had, only recoloring one of them to work better together. One of the tilesets was constructed out of 3 different tile layers, a truly miserable undertaking to deal with.
Majorly spearheaded by wlfn, the culprit behind uploading the original Daniel 1. Quite approachable needle with rather pretty visuals.
I don't have much to say about it, but I can't take issue with getting your friends to make jtool screens for a game together.
Effectively a dream game for me, I Wanna Maker was where I first received proper recognition from the fangame community.
It plays well to both my strengths and interests, and it allowed me to flex my technical skill without requiring the creative discipline I sorely lacked at the time.
A 48 hour personal game jam project!
An easy, short, and well presented gimmick needle game, it has ever since been one of the most reviewed games on Delicious Fruit of this decade.
While I don't understand quite the scale of attention it got, I'm happy with how the game came together considering the restrictions. I also appreciate everyone who cited it as an influence for making small games of their own.
The original draft of this stage got conjured up on a walk, trying to figure out what I would make for a hypothetical NANC 2. The time came sooner than I expected!
For the stage gimmicks, I reached for an older document where I wrote down ideas for a 100 floor game. That project itself never even got started, but it turns out some of the ideas were quite solid.
I knew I wanted a large stage, and I remembered the trouble I had with NANC 1. That's why this stage doesn't have proper tilesets, that's why it's all on a 32px grid! It's all in service of getting work done faster.
The original plan for this stage was even more expansive, aiming for 9 world branches instead of the final 6, as well as a third part to close the stage out - a multiple screen maze room in the vein of sunlaoqq or arzztt.
Getting scaled down might have possibly been for the best. Any successes in pacing I had at this time happened primarily by accident.
My Secret Santa 2021 game for Gaborro.
Somewhat challenging but short gimmick needle game. Focusing on fairly strange and varied gimmicks, there's a bunch of cute ideas here.
Together with the general production, it would be a while until I made another Secret Santa gift I felt this proud of.
A 24 hour game made for the first I Wanna Game Jam, with the theme Magic/Fantasy.
A quite short gimmick needle game about learning spells to do platforming with.
Much of the design here was very influenced by the then recent Crimson Needle 3 developer commentary by Kale. For how little time I had, I tried to take any opportunity I saw to do something exactly once.
Pretty difficult gimmick needle game made for I Wanna Tourney. Each maker made the assets for a stage, then we took turns making screens.
Admittedly not a project I think back to often, but it is one of the more truly collaborative collabs I've taken part in.
My stage for this game is my first project released with visuals strongly influenced by Tralexium's work on the NANC2 hub. This is a visual style that's evolved with me for years afterwards.
A difficult gimmick needle game made for arzztt's I Wanna Tourney. Very inspired by VoVoVo, the game focuses on gravity gimmicks and intricate pathing.
I'm quite happy with how the platforming ended up, and how much personality I fit into the story parts. The game features speedrun medals, something I wish I saw in more games.
In the long term, this game has in several aspects unfortunately served as an example of what I wish to not make. The gameplay structure is basically entirely unchanging, and as a result unsurprising, something I nowadays view as a missed opportunity. Traverse The Harvest serves as a direct response to this criticism.
A short experimental adventure game made in a week for the second I Wanna Game Jam, with the theme Time Travel.
Perhaps the smartest game I've made, shortly into development it became clear that rather than presenting the player with proper obstacles, the game works better when focusing entirely on exploring its premise.
Emmanating contributed basically all of the level design and a couple ideas, I took care of programming and the production value.
If any of my games feels like it's got an idea deserving another go at a more major scale, it'd be this one. Yet I think the game jam scale might have been the right fit, as I think the sheer density of ideas here is something you could easily lose.
My Secret Santa 2022 game for Daglom, an avoidance/rhythm game inspired by Overpass.
A short adventure needle game made in Godot for the 3rd Shortventure contest, with the theme "Resources."
Originally started as a collab between Smartkin and Tralexium, I was ultimately given free reign over the project as neither maker was very available for the contest period.
I'm a fan of the 2.5D aesthetic, and the Blender skills I practiced here would prove useful for creating the Fangame Awards 2024 intro.
The intro to the Fangame Awards 2022, and a playable avoidance at the same time.
My first attempt at a proper avoidance game, I aimed to create an approachable challenge. I believe the practice options provided help enough in making an enjoyable game, though I'm not a good judge of how well it stands as an avoidance without the spectacle of its premise.
A gimmick needle game on the shorter side, made for the Fangame Suffer Feast 2023 needle tournament. My favorite game I've ever made by a considerable margin.
I'm very proud of how much I got out of the core gimmick here. I did not envision all the variations when I started, but once I started exploring deeper, most of the ideas came quite naturally.
I intentionally chose to not plan the game out in advance, instead trying to stay vigilant about the design on the fly - switching things up exacly when I felt the pacing called for it, and looking out for any corners I could stash the game's secrets in.
The resulting way this game sprawls in feels incredibly organic to me, in a very pleasing way.
My Secret Santa 2023 game for letcreate.
Busy with trying to finish up Traverse The Harvest before the year ended, I instead chose to make this game very personalized to the specific recipient. I think that worked out fine, though I wish I made at least a bit more platforming.
A time attack RandRandRand-like made for arzztt's I Wanna Twourney.
Made in about a day as an emergency project when the Twourney temporarily ran out of games, it's an attempt at mixing a couple ideas I've had about using roguelike mechanics in fangames.
I sketched up the initial project setup, mostly taking care of programming and game design. UbersawMedic and RndGuy soon joined, making the bulk of the stages as well as the tutorial and score summary rooms.
The specific upgrades you can buy kept changing throughout development. The time bonus got taken out quite late as it made the pacing feel less urgent and more sluggish. As a replacement the player got more abilities to use, which feels like a more tangible kind of upgrade.
A large collab game made to close out the I Wanna Twourney, it is a pseudo-medley based off all the Twourney games.
Made during a pretty unproductive period for me, I didn't contribute as much as I could have, though I still tried to take care of the technical glue holding the game together.
Made over about 2 months, the development got pretty hectic. It was nice seeing a couple lesser known makers really get involved with this project.
A puzzle game made for Swap Jam 3, with the theme Current.
Made partly as a challenge to complete a full game using Zig and Raylib, I'm quite happy with how the game came out! Level design isn't as strong as it could be for a puzzle game, but it is the hardest part to get right and not my strong suit.
When working without a proper game development IDE, it's tempting to opt for a more arcade styled game so you don't have to figure out how to store and edit levels from scratch. I intentionally set out to make a level based game for this reason.
I'm very happy with how this project went technically. The ability to undo was added very last minute, and it feels something that would take longer to get right in a more abstract, less low level environment. Static typing is your friend!
My Secret Santa 2024 game for EchoMask.
A rather experimental title, I've often thought about the pull between making a large world without making an empty one. This game on the other hand does not try to hide how empty its world is. To that extent, I wish the world was much larger still.
My Secret Santa 2025 game for RandomErik.
Motivated by some feelings of growing stagnant in some ways, this game was an excuse to try out a whole bunch of things I might have been sleeping on. Subtle shaders, mixed tilesets, background tiles, (primitive) NPCs, this game is even the first I released with music I made myself!
The platforming is the one aspect I let myself take a little easier, instead focusing on gameplay mechanics that contribute to the environment as well. I think all the individual parts contributed to a decent amount of charm here, something I'd like to capture in future games as well.
Originally having a completely different plan I still hope to make someday, I pivoted during the last week to get at least something made for the event.
I'm happy with the environment of the stage, the train carries most of the spirit present here. The core gimmick is also quite pleasant, and a combination of mechanics like this maybe has more room to explore.
The stage unfortunately serves as an example to myself of how detrimental it can be for a segment to be way too short.
