itch.io

That's fair! I do plan on covering text and graphic adventure games on the channel, but if you're more interested in the games I'm working on like Zeitgeist 1980 I'll be posting devlogs and gameplay vids too.

Platformer

In June I will be making an expanded version of one of May's games, possibly this one. My patreon supporters will be able to vote on which one moves forward.

In June I will be making an expanded version of one of May's games, possibly this one. My patreon supporters will be able to vote on which one moves forward.

In June I will be making an expanded version of one of May's games, possibly this one. My patreon supporters will be able to vote on which one moves forward.

This week's game is Spookum, a game in which the player, as a ghost, tries to scare children away before an evil teddy bear can murder them. You can play it in the browser. The game was developed and all assets created between the 30th of April and May 5th. Tools include Godot 4, BeepBox, ChipTone, Aseprite, and Pyxel Edit.

Play it here

Devlog Video

Lunar Lander was a game initially designed on DEC mainframe computers as a turn-based sim in 1969.  Later remakes added graphical and real-time elements, culminating in Atari's 1979 vector arcade port, and modern versions are still be produced for mobile devices.

It's a simple game. For our purposes, it's characteristics are:

• The player is trying to land safely on a surface.
• Controls are thrust and orientation
• Landing too fast or on an unsuitable surface destroys you
• You have limited fuel, consumed by thrusting

Remember, the goal here is not to recreate or upmake Lunar Lander. It is to create a new game using the above four elements. For this jam, your game can be graphical or textual, real-time or turn-based.

Good luck!

Unexpected side-scrolling take on the genre with cute visuals.

We're starting to get jam submissions, so I'd like to thank everybody for taking the time to get involved. One request - let us know if you created the sfx and music in your jam entry yourself, as that's what we'll be judging those aspects on. You can use commercial/royalty free/assets not created FOR the jam, but let us know so we don't rate you on those factors.

Thanks again, and I look forward to playing what everybody's created!

The game we'll be deconstructing and reconstructing? Atari's 1980 hit Missile Command!

Our first Recon Decon Jam’s focus is Atari’s 1980 hit Missile Command. It saw a number of ports, remakes, remasters, and clones for various home systems, and you can find web versions playable in the browser.

For our purposes, Missile Command has the following characteristics:

• You’re defending targets from attack.
• The player controls a targeting cursor
• Player shots travel to the point of impact and then explode, making the game less about reflexes and more about anticipation and leading your target.

The game of course has other qualities, but these three will be the ones considered when games are ranked. Remember, we’re not recreating Missile Command, we’re creating new games using the characteristics of Missile Command. It does not in any way have to resemble the source game, or be recognizable as it, beyond the core characteristics above.

Here's a short video on how I created the random generator that'll be picking the game to be deconstructed:

Here's a short video on the generator I created to pick the jam's focus game.

When the Jam begins the game to be mined for elements will be revealed. But how will it be chosen?

Well.

I'm making a list of games that'll work well with this concept, see? And on the day in question I'll use a random generator to select one.

If you have a game you want to suggest for the list, feel free to comment.

DeconRecon Jam is a jam where participants will be presented with a randomly selected retrogame from a carefully curated list, and tasked with creating a brand new game using its important elements. You have a week to create a new game and its visual and audio assets, then a week to play and judge submissions.
Begins the 12th of June.

https://itch.io/jam/recon-decon

Thanks for the kind words, it was a blat to work on as well.

The real prize is the friends we made along the way.

A project I've been mulling over and finally started work on is a quarterly or bi-monthly e-zine focused on interactive fiction - parser based games, choice based games, gamebooks, maybe VNs if there's interest. There'll be a few articles about obscure old games that fit the genre, the odd new release, some writing tips, but the centerpiece of each is a download link to a new work - parser based, choice based, maybe a PDF gamebook, maybe a renpy game. Depends.

What form this takes - how long the included game is, how frequently they're released, how much they cost - is dependent on interest and demand. If this kind of thing appeals to you and you'd like to give me a hand, please fill out this survey.

Finished games would also be available through itch.io, though more affordably through the zine.

After a week or so I'll post the results of the survey here, though if you want a more direct reminder there's a mailing list linked to in the survey that you can sign up for, and I'll be covering development there as well.

Not bad! Even if you have a rotten memory like I do.

Just finished work on the first episode in an interactive fiction gamebook serial. https://mcoorlim.itch.io/rascal-and-the-boxer Heavily inspired by 1980s movies, specifically "Smokey and the Bandit II" and "Any Which Way You Can."

In a few months I'll be kickstarting the art and music budget for 3 more episodes of equal length, each based on different 1980 movies - ep 2 is going to be based on Alligator and Caddyshack.

Is good.

Last minute bugfixes to 0.5.1.

Twine story inspired by 80s action comedy films, chiefly Any Which Way You Can and Smokey and the Bandit II. 80% complete.

Sceenshot of my kickin' rad 80s stylin'!

Got scope under control. Required a bit of a rewrite. Might just finish this before the end of the month.

It's okay. Feel like I need to go "less broad, more deep" with this scope of project. I'm definitely *not* going to be done unless I start finishing more scenes and keep the branching under control.

Okay - here's v. 0.2.

I'm working in Tweego using the SugarCube theme. I'm thinking I need to narrow my branching a little - players have a lot of options, but start-to-finish there isn't a lot of depth.

This release is really little more than character creation; I should have a new version out Monday that starts getting into the story a bit.

Is it cool if I post in-progress builds as we go along?

Since I was doing a Twine game for NaNoWriMo (counting my on-screen text as wordcount) I might as well join this jam as well.

Hey, still working on it, but I've been sick with con crud for a week. Should have something done by the end of the month... will update when I am well enough.

Day 5 is going to be busy, so I don't have a lot of time to code. I did come up with the logic for the knight AI.

State 1: Wandering aimlessly. They'll walk along whatever platform they're on. If they run into a ladder there's a random chance they'll take it, and then walk in a random direction.  Every so often they stop, and there's a 50-50 chance they turn around and go the other way. Hitting a wall or a platform end means they turn around and go the other way. If they see a goblin, they'll go into State 2.

State 2: Chase. They will move twice as fast (almost goblin speed) and pursue the most direct path to their target. If they see another closer goblin, it becomes their target. If they lose sight of their target for 2-3 seconds, they'll go back to State 1.

If a guard catches a goblin, that goblin dies. If the player hits a guard from behind, the guard dies.
Also made up sprites for baby goblins:

These wander around the level. Your job is to save them by killing the humans. If all the babies are killed, the game is over.

Day 4: Light work today. Came up with a placeholder sprite for the Knight enemy.

16x16 compared to the 8x8 goblin.

Started implementing its logic, but most of that will come tomorrow.

Day 3, upscaled to a 16x16 tileset (gobbo is still 8x8).  Gobbo is currently able to clear a 1-tile gap with a jump pretty easy, but doesn't have the vertical reach to jump up level to level, and that's how I want it.

Added and implemented ladders. This involved remapping "up" to mean climb and setting a dedicated jump button. Getting "jumping" and "climbing" to work together was maybe the trickiest part. Gravity effectively turns off when you're on a ladder tile. Added the climbing animation.

Next step is going to be implementing the antagonists; I think they'll also be around 16x16, much bigger than gobbo and essentially just barely fitting in the tunnels. Still considering a shift from "climbing ladders" to "climbing walls and ceilings" but for now this is fine.

Day 2 update: I've gone and implemented basic controls - wasd, arrows, joystic, d-pad. I've also got a basic placeholder tilemap.

Consideration now is for goblin mobility. Should our little guy be able to climb walls/ceilings, should we add ladders to the levels, or boost his jumping ability? I don't really see him being very bouncy - fast, yes, nimble, but he's a cave dweller, and I don't want the "escape" of being able to just jump away from foes - stealth is more important than nimbleness.

Tiles are also 8x8, but I'll probably go 16x16 eventually. Final layout will probably be more "warren-like." Tunnels and chutes to give our player room to play a bit cat n' mouse with the invading adventurers.

I'm digging these slides. Might have to start using something like them m'self.

This might just turn into a repository for devtober vlogs if I can motivate myself enough to record consistently, but we'll see.

I was sick as a dog with con-crud yesterday, but I managed to get some planning done for the first project I'm working on this Devtober. It's a fixed-screen platformer about a goblin trying to protect its warren from interlopers. A lot of dashing around and trying to stab adventurers in the back. I'm thinking some kind of stealth-focused play similar to joust where you can't just hit your foes head on? We'll see, still planning.

Progress is slow because I'm sick but I did manage to get some placeholder spritework for our protagonist worked up:

Making a godot fixed-screen platformer about a goblin protecting his warren from interlopers.

Hey, I recently noticed that there's a book category so I went ahead and uploaded eight of the novels I've written over the last seven years, along with a few ttrpgs under Physical Games.

In the Galvanic Century series dilettante Alton Bartleby, inventor James Wainwright, and gentlewoman Aldora Fiske solve mysteries and resolve injustice across the globe in a steampunk Edwardian era where galvanic killers stalk the night, sky pirates plague the skies, and Queen Victoria yet rules from her platinum throne.

There have been six released novels in the Galvanic Century series of steampunk mysteries and thrillers. Each stands well on its own, but they are presented here in chronological order:

• Bartleby and James
• A Gentlewoman's Chronicles
• March of the Cogsmen
  
• Dreams of the Damned
• Ghosts of Shaolin
• Iron Horses Can't be Broken

In the cyberpunk Shadow Decade series marketing exec Erica Crawford lost hers when a coma robbed her of all memory of the last ten years, and not even the FBI knows what she’s been up to.

Now she wanders the streets of 2025 Chicago, trying to get by on a meager allowance of government assistance credits, without friends, funds, or a work history within the last decade.

Two books have been released in the Shadow Decade series:

• Cold Reboot
• Network Protocol

Hello, I'm Michael, and I'm a novelist, podcast producer, and tabletop game designer who is edging into digital game dev. I've gone and uploaded the novels I've written as ebooks under the Books categories, the ttrpg pdfs under physical games, and I'll be uploading the computer games I'm working on as they're completed.

As far as digital game dev goes I tend to prefer to work on interactive fiction and life/managerial sims, but when an idea hits me just right I run with it. I'm currently working on games set in the world of the steampunk novels I've written.