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Games

I love making games, and often participate and organise game jams (short game making events). In 2020 I co-founded an independant micro studio called Portal Punch along with Tia and Ivan from Goat Planet, whose work includes digitial art, illustration, animation and visual effects with loads of experience in games as freelancers. As we worked on prototypes we decided that we needed a writer and in 2021 our team grew to include Amanda, a prolific and creative writer, bringing our team to a total of four awesome people. Now, (near end of 2021) we are close to self-publishing our first game “Leshi: Short Tales“, a visual novel where you play as a leshy – the forest guardian and trickster that appears frequently in Slavic folklore – and you must protect nature while dealing with humans who enter the forest. You can learn more about Leshi: Short Tales by following our social media. #LeshiShortTales

Where can you play games by Darren Kearney (Mind Cauldron)?

My game experiments are available to play for free on itch.io: https://darrenkearney.itch.io/

OBSTACLES is a simple retro game. It is a top-down 2D high-score chaser, which I made in a few days as part of a gamejam. I exhibitied this game at Itzacon 2019 in the vendors area, and GamerFest 2019, Galway and GamerFest 2020, Limerick in their Indie Dev Zone. It was a great experience to be able to see players play the game and get invested in besting their hi-scores with their friends. I have taken a break from exhibition during the lockdowns and look forward to returning when the time is right and I believe it safe to do so.

You can follow progress on my monthly newsletter here:

https://mailchi.mp/34eb46a0188c/mindcauldron

Why make games?

Making games is just as interesting and fun as playing them!

I take a lot of inspiration from indie game developers and other folks that have been making a solid go of it. Here’s a list in no particular order: DoomCube, Psychic Software, Squidmonkey Games, Gambrinous, Romero Games, Anna Anthropy, Tom Francis, Terry Cavanagh, Vlambeer, Subset Games, HeartMachine, Spiderweb Software, and my indie developer friends in general.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Adam Nickerson as an inspiration for setting up my own game studio, specifically because of this article on Rock Paper Shotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/10/18/secrets-of-the-developer-who-sold-half-a-million-videogames-youve-never-heard-of-on-steam/

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