Notes

PlayWare is about reliving the history of game hardware — and the balance work is brutal. I mostly tune difficulty to my own sense of play, so some people may find it tough. Not “normal game balance,” either: it’s weighted toward what might have been realistic, and that makes it even harder to get right.

Besides balance, I’m still brushing up the rest. Finish line is a ways off. Still, personally, it’s a blast to work on. So many kinds of game machines once existed — that thought keeps production moving steadily.

I’m being extremely careful about copyright so nobody can say, “Hey Shiruo, that’s infringement.” It’s a severe kind of subject for a game. Whether anyone has made a game about game-hardware makers before, I don’t really know — but it feels like a fresh attempt.

Out of nowhere, I wanted to make a game for all ages.

I got hit by the urge to push AI as far as I can and make a game I can honestly call fun. Or rather — I also want to see my own game listed on Steam. That would be a learning experience too. So I started development.

If you came here from that other, more “otherworldly” side of my work, you might feel let down. Still, I want to see how far I can go with my own hands. You only live once. I really want to do what I want to do.

This time I’m making a simulation centered on game hardware. Of course I don’t want to step on copyrights, so I’m being careful — though who knows how it will turn out.

If a solo developer like me got sued, I’d blow away in an instant — lighter than fluff. For me it’s more like, “oh, that kind of thing existed, huh — interesting.” The way you watch a digest of a war from a hundred years ago and go “huh, neat.” Same vibe. I’ll be careful.