Scratching an Itch

Idle Breakout by Kodiqi is an idle version of the classic breakout. It’s a fun game although there isn’t much to learn, which goes a little against Raph Koster’s theory of fun. Still, I spent a considerable amount of time playing even after “mastering” all there is to the game (circa 30 minutes). This game builds on something fundamental: a tight action-outcome loop with guaranteed success, someth...

Nethack is one of the defining roguelikes. I talk a bit about what it is really about from a subjective experience and compare it a bit to Hades, one the current roguelike poster-children. One of the differences, which I think is very important, is how they represent progress between runs: Nethack doesn’t represent it at all, whereas Hades has both upgrades for your character as well as narrative...

Doki Doki Literature Club by Team Salvato is perhaps the most famous visual novel dating sim game out there because there’s a big twist. I liked both the dating sim AND the twist! The dating aspect is operationalized as poem-writing, where you have to show that you understand the girl you want to get closer to by picking the words she would like. I thought that was really neat. This is a public ep...

Dice of Dusk by Kultisti is a puzzle roguelike game. It has random generated puzzles, progression, and builds! It also has a timer to create pressure, and one thing I forgot to mention in the episode is that this has another amazing side effect: “easy” levels become challenging in that you are trying to solve them as fast as possible to bank time for future stages. Good design serves two purposes...

Star Realms has player life; Ascension has a victory point pool. Both games have the core mechanic of buying cards from the center row to build your deck in a play session. However, they feel completely different. Yesterday, I talked about how that decision for the victory condition changed mechanics, and today I’m using the theory of constructed emotion to explain how that changes perception and...

Star Realms by White Wizard Games is a deckbuilding game just like Ascension . However, unlike Ascension, Star Realms is a confrontational game, where the goal is to deplete the other player’s authority. This results in some huge mechanical and emotional differences for the same core mechanic. In this first of a two part series, I talk about the mechanical changes the win-condition results in. Thi...

Draftula by Jose Pacio is a tile-placing and drafting game. It’s a very fun game that made me realize why drafting has become a widely adopted progression mechanic for games. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Ascension by Stoneblade Entertainment is one of the seminal deckbuilding games. I’ve played it a lot recently and in this episode I talk about why I like the honor point pool and how I think it allows for adjustable challenge. I also briefly talk about why I think this game can easily become “a daily ritual game”. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers o...

Amalgamate by sunil. is a submission for the 2026 7DRL game jam. It combines a grid-based matching game with random loot generation and upgrades. There’s a small tutorial, but it intentionally holds back some key information, which became a magic moment for me when I figured it out. This realization put the world on its head and made me realize my true power, raising my score tenfold. Your mileage...

Yellow Game About Falling Things by Evgenii Petrov is an abstract puzzly roguelike. Throughout the experience, it has zero words and zero numbers, but I still understood the gameplay and goal very quickly. Would it have been better if it had all the usual competence supporting stuff like tutorials, goals, and leaderboards? Maybe, but I like it just the way it is. Here’s what it looks like so you g...

Cult of the Lamb by Massive Monster is a roguelite where you gather followers for your flock and defeat heretics. I ramble about what a break is in a game. In this one, there are two aspects of the game: the cult-building and the rogueliking. Which one is a break from which one? What is the sound of one hand clapping? I don’t have an answer. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss t...

Rogue Crawler by Vanialviv is a first person, roguelike deckbuilder. It’s a mouthful, but with a handful of cards in combination with the positioning in the game, it’s sure to provide a good time! I talk about what this adds to regular deckbuilder, and how it’s a very satisfying loop. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...

UVSU by dietzribi also has a mechanic where your past self becomes an obstacle to current you, but unlike Killover’s chaos, it’s a puzzle. In this episode, I talk about Metroidvania’s and what makes them fun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Killover by Quentin Delvallet is an action shooter and one of the winners of GMTK’s 2025 jam. It’s one of the craziest play experiences ever, with incredible amount of style and fun packed into a free game. I talk about Raph Koster’s definition of fun and how this relates to Killover. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...

Winterwrath by DctrElectro is a point-and-click narrative game. It got second place in the winter game jam, and it has an interesting setting—folklore horror. Apart from having gorgeous graphics, I couldn’t stop playing so I wondered why we are so driven by stories to complete them. That’s what I ramble about in this episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other s...

Rogue by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold defined the roguelike genre, so I wanted to see what it’s like—turns out it’s roguelike. Usually, I play itch games, but I decided to go rogue. Ok, that’s enough of that. Boss key: a key dedicated to hiding the game from your superior when they walk past. I though that was funny. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with ot...

With Yokai Madness, I reached the goals I had set for myself before entering the jam: * Program a game from scratch (tutorials allowed, no AI code) * Submit a game that can be replayed multiple times * Rank in the top 30 (that one was close) Click here to check it out. It’s only two taps away, and you can play it in your phone browser! This was my first game jam where I would do the coding, so tha...

Cookies Bakery by leafthief is a cozy Christmas game for this merry time. I hope everyone is having amazing holidays! Although it says that it’s a Visual Novel, I think it’s what GameDiscoverCO called a find-em-up . This is the first one I played (I think), and it’s basically this loop: * A person has a problem and they come to you * You’re the expert and do more research to figure out their probl...

Picokaiju by spoik is very cool because it’s inspired by two other games and we get to see the evolution of a concept—its iterations! Very cool, that’s kind of what I talked about last week. Crush, crumble, and chomp by Epyx inspired Chomp! by Picardy Third Entertainment which then inspired Picokaiju. Long story short, to me it looks like a lesson in removing stuff and fluff: “One does not accumul...

Solitomb by Jakub Wasilevski is a roguelike deck-builder based on solitaire and using poker hand mechanics. That’s a lot of concepts, and while I don’t unpack them in this episode, I just ramble about what it means to have concepts. Why are they so important? We try to shoehorn games into specific niches and most reviews start by comparing a game to some other well-known games. The key is “well-kn...

Dungeon Crawler on Demand! by redpangilian is definitely an interesting experience. Mostly for the fact that it crystalizes the very feeling that makes slot machines so addicting into a small mobile game. The variable reward ratio, discovered by the behaviorists and perfected by casinos…and video games! It is fancy-speak for the simple fact that not knowing when a reward is going to drop is very e...

Oh, the French! my first narrative game, and it’s inspired by absurdist fiction. You can play it in the browser on itch, and it (probably) takes less than listening to this podcast to complete one play-through. Please check it out! I learned many, many big things by making this very, very small game. But why did I pick this project? Interactive fiction games are thing of the past with no audience!...

Web Hotel by FunnyGameDev , made me feel comfortable! It deservedly got first place in the micro jam 48. My key takeaway: Tying the game together using narrative design helps make it more enjoyable. By using narrative design (for me that includes the theme as well), you can turn your game into a holistic experience. The theme for the jam was webs, so in this game you create webs in rooms by standi...

Tiny Tarantula Tower by SeeOne is very very fun! Why? Well because you get to see whether or not you are the best in the world. But who am I, why should you listen to me? I am ranked 1st place worldwide in Tiny Tarantula Tower (as of this writing). Leaderboards: they work. Comparing yourself to others is the killer of joy in daily life, but in games it is flipped around, it can be the provider of...

I’ve played three versions of the same game: * Robotron 2084 by VizKidz * Robtron 2084 Remastered by Parsimmon Factory * 2600 by dungeon My key takeaway: enemies support the main mechanic As a designer, enemies are your friends. In Robotron, the main thing is moving and shooting. So in the first level you already have an enemy that makes you move and shoot, and one which prevents you from moving e...