It's the fifth anniversary of my first game, so I made you something.
Hello darlings.
You would think that after a few decades swimming in the stuff, I would be less surprised by time. The funny way it warps and flows and comes and goes is impossible to memorize, though, so I will continue to be flabbergasted until we find a way to preserve time and spread it on toast in the mornings.
I think that would be nice.
Five years ago (to the day), I published my first game on itch.io. The game was called The Junk Drawer, and in many ways, it wasn’t my game at all.
But before I can tell you more about that, let’s set expectations.
Contents:
1 - My wife made our first game to prank me.
2 - I am celebrating with self-indulgence. Come play?
3 - It’s fun to play with friends.
4 - I would like to write you letters.
1 - My wife made our first game to prank me.
I talk a lot about games.
You may have realized this already, since you’re currently reading a letter where I talk about games.
My partner Kathleen is an incredible listener. This is a blessing. It is also a trap which she can’t stop springing on herself.
I go through my day thinking things like, “Shit! Is Mother’s Day in October?” or, “Did I hide the remote in the cactus again?”
But Kathleen is not like this. Kathleen must instead contend with weirder, different problems. Problems like, “Does Matthew’s girlfriend, who I met once in 2017, still have that potato sensitivity she mentioned? I could cook her an alternative dish.” Or, in her retail days: “I should stop revealing to customers that I remember their pant size. It seems to unsettle them.”
One afternoon in 2020, Kathleen was a few months into spending 100% of her time with a man who physically cannot stop talking about games.
She decided to use her powers for evil.
Without pomp or ceremony, Kathleen improvised a dead-simple duet game played with pantomime. She made up some rules. The rules lampooned “the kind of games you like,” with pinpoint accuracy.
Devastatingly, it was better, simpler and cooler than the game I’d begun working on a year prior.
So why not publish it?
One good tease led to another, and Kathleen’s half-joke became the first thing ever released on our game store.
Five years and fourteen games later, here we are.
2 - I am celebrating with self-indulgence. Come play?
I imagine that for most people, self-indulgence would be best accomplished with a box of chocolates. Perhaps a day sleeping in, or a bubble bath.
I made a crossword puzzle.
This was a mistake. It was a mistake that I should have immediately recognized, because jumping into completely new disciplines and expecting a professional-looking result is something I apparently love to do.
With no spoilers, here a few things I learned about cruciverbalism.
Cruciverbalism is the art of making crosswords. Maybe I should have led with that.
American-style crosswords are supposed to be rotationally symmetrical, have a vertical and horizontal clue for every square, and make each answer at least two letters long.
That, it turns out, really goddamn hard to do.
Making a crossword themed entirely after my own art is mortifying to me. It would have been useful to know that before I started. I believe I have made appropriate efforts to atone, though you shall have to work to find them.
3 - It’s fun to play with friends.
I like to do the crossword by myself, as a little puzzle treat in quieter moments. It’s nice.
But I really like to do the crossword with my mom.
We sit in front of the grid together, chatting back and forth about what might fit in a given spot. It’s nice to have a witness to a good guess, and it’s also fun to have a thinking partner who can dig you out of trouble.
If you’d like to play with friends, my lovely Discord server is probably starting a thread right now. Perhaps they’re excited for a goofy activity. Perhaps they’re deeply disappointed that the surprise I’ve been teasing all week is a crossword puzzle. You can click here to celebrate and/or complain with them.
A note: This letter often contains glimpses of the creative, beautiful, lovely things shared by the community in my Discord server. I’m going to pause that feature for now, because organizing that portion contributed to my unintentional hiatus. If you want to see these lovely things yourself, you know where to go.
4 - I would like to write you letters.
More of them, without such yawning quiet in-between. I have a nice list of exciting things I want to share with you. I like this little ritual. It feels intimate, particularly for something analogous to a megaphone.
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Thank you for reading. Let’s see what the next five years bring, together.
Warmth,
Kurt