Announcing Bandageman Studios, my extremely serious take on video game development

Hello! I am very excited to share my latest source of amusement. For the past several months, I’ve been learning video game development for fun, and you can see my first air-quote published works at Bandageman Studios.

Need to be convinced to click a link? In this economy? I get it, man. Here’s what you’ll get for your effort–all for the low, low cost of free:

Dream Ghoul

Animated GIF of Dream Ghoul, a dark, spooky, but sweet retro-style video game.

Dream Ghoul is a small, silly game I made my for wife for her favorite time of year. Find the keys, grab the hearts, and meet your dream ghoul! Just move around with your arrow keys and try not to bump into things. (Or do bump into things; it’s funny to watch!)

Lt. Dan’s Dream Run

Animated GIF of Lt. Dan's Dream Run, a retro-style video game featuring a dog chasing after snacks.

Have you ever wondered what your dog dreams about? I’m pretty sure my dog, Lt. Dan, dreams of running through fields and gobbling all the snacks. In Lt. Dan’s Dream Run, you get to help Lt. Dan (yes, that is his real name, and yes, he has magic legs) through his dream. Use the arrow keys to move around and eat the treats before they leave the screen. Level up every ten devoured snacks!

Powered by Pico-8

Pico-8 is the delightful little “fantasy console” behind Bandageman’s games. It’s been around for more than ten years, and I think it crossed my radar when it was new. But I didn’t get to it until this past late spring, when it should’ve stopped raining so much but hadn’t, and I felt cooped up and annoyed. It’s been a blast to write software that has absolutely nothing to do with any day job I’ve ever had, and a fun new creative outlet.

Bandageman has a profile on the Lexaloffle BBS, and you can play my games there or via SPLORE if you’ve got a Pico-8 license. (No, Pico-8 is not free–but it’s the best twenty bucks I’ve spent in some time.)

I’m planning to do a writeup on my feelings about Pico-8 as a software developer over on my soon-to-be-rebranded development blog soon. The short version–it’s been so fun to create very real things that I can share with very real people, while still being restricted to rather harsh constraints. No, the next Zelda game won’t come from Pico-8–but it’s still fun to try.