Scratch · Early Projects
Older game projects
Before Unity, before GameMaker, before Bow Tie Cat Studios, there was Scratch. These five games are where I actually learned to make games: borrowing ideas from things I loved, running into a wall, and figuring my way past it. All five are still playable and embedded exactly as they ran back then.
The Perilous Void
The Perilous Void was inspired by the Atari game Adventure, which famously appears as the first Easter egg in Ready Player One. I made it after playing Adventure on an Atari mini console and wanted to capture some of that same feeling and look: the sparse graphics, the sense of a paper manual, the physical switches of the era.
The Perilous Void
Click through the menu screens to reach difficulty selection, then press space to start.
Retro Fencing → Retro Duel → Retro Duel +
Retro Fencing, and later Retro Duel, was inspired by a game that was itself inspired by Nidhogg — I've actually never played Nidhogg myself. This series has gone through more iteration than anything else I've made: it started as Retro Fencing, grew into Retro Duel, then Retro Duel +, and eventually a full reboot built in GameMaker, the version I still point people to today.
Retro Fencing — where it started
Press space for a list of moves. Player 1 uses WASD, Player 2 uses the arrow keys; matching attacks parry each other, with counters, lunges, and feints layered on top.
Retro Duel — the first sequel
Expanded the original into a fuller two-player duel: equipment options, power-ups, and the same parry/counter/lunge/feint core.
Retro Duel + — the last Scratch version
A two-player fighting game with keyboard controls for movement, parrying, and high/low attack combinations — the most refined version of the series before it moved to GameMaker.
Western Duel +
A two-player Western quick-draw duel, built with a friend (credited in-game as Dalcaftwo) over about 36 hours, with sound effects pulled from SoundBible and Free SFX. It's the odd one out in this group: not part of the fencing lineage, just its own self-contained duel.
Western Duel +
Double-click the green flag each time before playing so the game runs smoothly.