The toolbox
Text with a compiler behind it.
Rules, levels and tuning live as text that tools can check. When something is wrong, a test tells us, not a hunch.
How we work
How a game survives.
Most of our ideas never leave the grey. The few that do have been played, argued over and chosen by people, one honest test at a time.
The path
Six steps, and most ideas stop at three.
That is the system working, not failing.
A seed
Every candidate starts as one sentence: I am trying to ___. If we cannot finish it, the idea is not ready to build.
A greybox
Primitive shapes, real rules and full game feel from the first build. Judging an idea without coyote time and hitstop tells you nothing about the idea.
The restart test
Someone plays it, and we watch their hands. Within two weeks every prototype gets an honest verdict. Most get retired, and what we learned goes on file.
Promotion
A prototype that passes changes mode. We stop asking whether to build it and start asking how to build it out.
Rounds
Build-out happens in short rounds against a written plan. Each round ends with something a person can play and judge, so nothing drifts for long.
Ship, then listen
Players are the last and loudest playtest. We build our tools so we can respond to them quickly.
The bots
Tireless playtesters.
Bot players run our games thousands of times to prove a level can be finished and to sweep the numbers toward the targets we set.
The people
The only judges of fun.
Whether it is fun, the one unreasonable idea, the style call: those stay with people, every time, at every stage.
Pull up a chair