This is not the first game I’ve made, but it’s definitely the best.
At least, that’s my hope. I released some mobile games over a decade ago (oh my god it’s been over a decade) and have started and dropped multiple other projects over the years since, including re-makes or successors to some of those games. The one I was most proud of was “Geometrica! A Game of Shapes”:
It was a simple block-dropper puzzle game with a twist. You could only clear blocks if you stack up enough shapes of the same type in one tile (three triangles, four squares, etc). Once you stack enough up, the image would “fill” and the shape would explode, doing two things:
A) It would destroy any otherwise indestructible gray squares within a 3×3 diameter, granting points and increasing your score multiplier over time
B) it would also fill any of the same type of shape in that same area by 1 fill level, and if THAT filled it up, that shape would trigger the same effects, potentially setting off a very large combo. It could get very satisfying.
Those who played the game really enjoyed it and it’s the one I remember designing the most. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to market or create a following back then (I still don’t, if I’m honest), so its reach was much smaller than I’d hoped. Still, it’s really stuck with me and the thrill of creating a combo effect that blows across the screen is still just as captivating to me.
Then, not too long ago, a little game called “Balatro” came out and, if you hadn’t heard, had some… moderate success. I got sucked in and I felt that same satisfaction as I played it. And like all good games, I found myself thinking but how would I do it?
And so I fired up Godot and to to creating. Well, actually it was a little more cynical than that. I didn’t jump straight to creating. First, I went to Steam and looked at Roguelike Deckbuilders.
They seemed to all be roughly the same, pale imitations of greats like Slay the Spire, though newer titles had a distinctly Balatro-feel. I needed to be different. I needed… dominoes.
Now, armed with the knowledge that I was going to create the world’s next huge title, I whipped up this:
It didn’t even have a name, but it was a score-attack type roguelike where instead of buying cards, you buy dominoes. GENIUS, right? Some of those dominoes would even have effects. And maybe you could buy these things, right, that definitely aren’t jokers.. we’ll call them tuits (based on the joke “a round tuit“) because I am 90 years old inside.
The above video is even earlier than the screenshot, but you can see some of the bones of what would eventually become Pipfiend. Of course, i thought this was great. And then I had my wife play it, and she… well, she didn’t enjoy it, we’ll put it like that. At first I was defensive: how could my obviously genius idea NOT be an instant hit?
Once my ego went to sleep, I considered what she said. I came up with a whole new design document (ie, a note in my notes app on my phone) and started to brainstorm new things that might be fun and exciting. The first thing I landed on was: what if instead of just a static score, there were enemies to defeat?
And from there it was a quick jump to make the pips of the dominoes double as suits to use a tools: Swords, Shield, Magic and Hearts. I threw together some test graphics and started building. This got a much better reception from The Wife Gallery. And of course this too went through lots of iteration and improvement:
As you can see, the game has gone through a lot of evolution. Below is the absolute latest screenshot. This far into development, I’m STILL tweaking systems and balancing. I still also have a lot to do in terms of art, specifically for Charms (which are our version of Balatro’s Jokers or Slay The Spire’s relics). Most of them still have very tasteful “NO ART” graphics.
