Exploit: Zero Day, our cyberpunk social puzzle game, has been in "Alpha Zero" state for almost six weeks now. A select few players have been poking at the core of the game while we prepare the framework that it will be embedded in.

Within the next month we plan ...

For a long time, we planned for Exploit: Zero Day, our social hacking puzzle game currently in closed alpha, to use a "free-to-play" or "freemium" approach to money. Not anymore.

With Exploit: Zero Day in closed alpha, we’re hard at work on two other projects, LORE and an untitled game about a car’s adventures.

You play an adorable car that gains sentience and finds itself wanting to do things its owner does… like see a movie at a theater. It ...

How much control do you have over what happens to your character in a tabletop RPG? Can people do things to your character without your permission? Do you want them to?

In most mainstream tabletop roleplaying games, you control your character's actions but not what happens to them. You choose how they feel about events, but not the other effects. A combination of the rules and the game master's judgment decides whether your character gets scared, hurt, or killed.

There's a different way.

Hello! Gregory here. Almost a year ago we released our dark, funny, satirical game Ossuary. It's a story about descending into a static underworld, talking to the people there, and corrupting them with sins that are really virtues.

A year on, it's a good time to look back and talk about how the game was made and received. In short: those who played it seem to have really liked it and understood where it was coming from, but it hasn't had the exposure, popularity, or sales that we wanted from it.

I gave my first-ever conference talk at BlendConf on web accessibility, titled "Simple Accessibility: The Bare Minimum for Compassionate Development". The slides are over on Speaker Deck, and embedded after the jump.

The only perfect computer security setup is one even the creator can't access.

I've spent the last six weeks with my left arm in an immobilizer sling. Six weeks of southern United States summer, of being a day-and-night software developer, of being a gamer, all rocking a sling that straps my left arm to a pillow that is in turn strapped to my torso and neck.

After the first 11 days, I've had some use of my left hand for things like typing, but I have limited wrist mobility and can't reach for things or hold/lift more than about two pounds. I'm in this sling 24/7 until some time after August 4.

Plenty of computer and gaming things become difficult in this situation, and I've been exploring some new configurations to get my gaming in. What's come out of this are some good practices I can take away for basic accessibility in developing games.

What's Normal?

Our work-in-progress, Exploit: Zero Day, will be a social, online game. It'll let you roleplay as a hacker with other players and even interact with the game's characters on the forums. The kind of community that forms will be essential to the game's success.

At the same time, the Internet can be an abusive place, especially in gaming spheres, and we're producing a game themed around "hacking" and computer security intrusion that is attempting to provide compelling dilemmas. There's a definite risk of our community becoming hostile, toxic, or downright dangerous.

Part of our vision statement at Future Proof Games is "audacious compassion." How do we create a community that encourages audacious compassion while being fun and financially self-sustaining? We're still working out the details, but here's our thoughts at the moment.

Last weekend we participated in the Ludum Dare game jam. Ludum Dare is a sort of video game Iron Chef. A theme is announced on a Friday evening and you have 48 or 72 hours (depending on which event you do) to make a game.

The theme was ...