There and back (online) again
Why I'm excited for small games
The past few years have been a whirlwind in both public and private life. I was divorced, remarried, and now have a young 1-year old son all in the space of four years. Not to mention the upheaval of polarizing politics and technology that have torn through the United States and larger world. Needless to say, I didn’t really have a lot of incentive to stay terminally online and engage in social media and public commentary and its been better for my mental health to stay essentially offline.
Not that I really need a lot of incentive to stay quiet and work in peace. I’m what my wife calls a practiced extrovert and closet introvert. My personality evaluates as an ENTJ (commander) and these traits come out a lot in my role as Technical Director at Zapdot. It’s a great feeling of satisfaction at the beginning of a new project or feature to get everyone in a call, concoct a plan, and get the team moving in one direction. I enjoy the mentorship that comes with working with others closely on a small team and am really proud of how a lot of that work over time paid off with our first original title CIPHER ZERO.
I did feel like I lost something though in the tradeoff from taking on more responsibility at work and staying busy offline. When I first started trying to get into games I was working at a healthcare consulting company doing custom software integrations and trying to find anyway to bolster my game development bonafides. To do this I participated in a lot of game jams and made small games and tools to show I wasn’t a tourist to the game industry and was serious about it. I made new friends at local meetups and made contacts with the wider community that are still around to this day. The Boston MA area became home to me in a lot of ways because the game dev community here was so strong.
As I’ve gotten older, more responsible, and busier less I’ve missed a lot of that experimentation, friendship, and collaboration back and forth that my early small game development sprang from. A lot of big life changes have happened recently though that have made me reflect on that and what I’d like to change for the future. My son is starting to get old enough to where healthy sleep is possible. We’re moving soon (this week!) to Concord MA to our new house. There was a time when it felt like I had not felt settled in one place as a true home, just a place to live for a few years before moving to somewhere else, but thanks to my wife and son that time feels like its closing and a new chapter is beginning.
It feels like life is quieting down enough to a point to where I open up the trunk, blow the dust off my old sword and armor, and venture back out into the fabled land of youth where games were made very quickly and the potential for small game experiences (and the wonderful people I met making them) seemed limitless. I might even, god forbid, send out a social post or two on X (I gather X marks the spot with the dead Twitter bird) or more likely at this point Substack or Bluesky where the community and discourse seem less toxic.
My current plan is to create something small within the relatively relaxed timeframe of 2-3 months for Tiny Mass Games. It’s a Boston-based online community started by Matt Brelsford that focuses on making small games and experiences a few times a year and have done so for nearly 3 years now. It’s one of the great examples of why the Boston game dev scene here is so great; that spark of excitement for making games flares up here even as the wider industry seems to be having a rough time.
To the small games 🥂