Raison D'être

Atman, Take the Wheel

In 10 years of video game development, I’ve made little of what’s in my heart. And of course—that was never the job. Employment trades the projects that only you could build for bigger, safer ones that you couldn’t build alone. I’m proud of my contributions to a number of the latter, and now it’s time to give the former their due.

Return to Analog

Techno-optimism made sense all my life, but as a thirty-something watching the internet self-satirize and time drain through my fingers, I’m sick of ephemera and concerned again with what I can hold. I want print, retail, library shelves—all the obsolescence. I want weight and persistence like a good little dummy in samsara. I want to roll dice in a barn when I’m not harvesting food and laugh with my friends across the air between our bodies.

Storytelling Systems

As a narrative-turned-systems designer, I treasure “ludo-narrative harmony,” or the blending of gameplay mechanics and story. In tabletop roleplaying games, storytelling often is the gameplay, and my favorite mechanics guide and energize that creativity—especially in ways that distribute authorship among multiple players or simply ease the effort of running interactive worlds.

(1/X)