Carnival of Terror
Spooky-themed timing and precision arcade game. Designed the core loop, built the physics, tuned difficulty across three rounds.
The Arcade
Three games, built solo.
Each one taught me something different: economies, feel, polish under deadline. Built in Phaser 3 and shipped to a live community of thousands.
Ultimate Bullseye
Targeting game with wind, distance, and trick shots. Spent most of the build time on input feel. The difference between fine and sticky lives in the last 5%.
Staff Smasher
Reaction-based whack game. Designed the escalation curve and the meta-progression so 30-second sessions still feel rewarding three weeks in.
What I learned
- Player-felt simplicity is engineered. Every “snappy” control I’ve shipped came from one or two iteration cycles past where I thought I was done.
- Live ops is a discipline. Designing for week-30 retention is a different craft than designing the first session.
- Constraints sharpen design. A small palette, a single screen, and a clear “why care” outperform open-ended sandboxes nine times out of ten.
The full library is 50+ titles deep. These three are the ones I most enjoy talking about.