23.09.2026
Last week I ran a workshop for Airtree's Pathfinders program on understanding your users. I am not a UX designer, so here is the version from someone who just needs answers: think first, audit the bets you hardcoded into your product, and build a fake dashboard before you build a real one.
07.09.2026
Ten days on one skill. I translated 3k strings by hand first to get a baseline, then split every string in the game into three groups and built the prompt out of four levels of files. Fully deterministic up to the point where it hits the LLM — and then a set of checks, a comparison against my own translation, and me ruling on every line.
01.09.2026
Larithea has a custom engine, built by me — and it is not an engine in the traditional sense. The story of getting stuck fighting AI slop early in 2026, restarting the build, and the "Jesus take the wheel" commitment that followed: every time I wanted to write code, I wrote a skill instead.
26.08.2026
A friend told me I am too pro-AI, which is fair. So here is the honest version: AI gets you 80% of the way there and then fights you for the last 20% — and the 20% is the part nobody trained it on, the part only you know. Featuring Claude's most genius idea ever.
22.08.2026
I wanted to do this for MONTHS and this morning it finally happened. Larithea is turn-based and seeded, which means a machine can play it — and if a machine can play it, a machine can playtest it. Three simulations, three player personas, each with a different idea of what a spell is worth, and A LOT of JSON.
03.07.2026
In "There is no engine" I said sprite animations were the spicier of the two things a game engine would have made easier. This month sprites came back and asked for a bigger conversation.
17.06.2026
Since the alpha went out, a few people have asked what engine Larithea is built on. The honest answer is — there isn't one. Here's why I deliberately built a web game with web tools, and what I had to build myself because of it.
21.05.2026
Why economy is easier for me to love than balance, how the Larithea loop pushes you to craft constantly, and why I now run a simulation before designing any fight in the game.
12.05.2026
Finished the one-minute opening cinematic for Larithea — the cold open that will play right after the tutorial. The characters first appeared in a novel I published in Ukraine in 2008. This week I got to watch them move.
24.04.2026
Took the game to Sandbox gym on Wednesday with one nice piece of promo and four doughnuts. Walked out with a list of assumptions to throw out.
22.04.2026
Finished Cliff Bleszinski's Control Freak this week — the story behind Gears of War and Unreal. Also: experimenting with Kling animations for some of the Larithea enemies, just for fun.
17.04.2026
The fight playout got rebuilt as comic-panel sequences. Two games shaped how it feels — Enchanted Arms for the tactics, Dragalia Lost for the charm. Also: why animations have to wait.
13.04.2026
Just finished Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier. Two chapters stood out — The Witcher 3 and Stardew Valley. Also wrapped up the design system migration and moving into playtesting.