Loren Schmidt

Loren is a prolific artist and game developer who documents much of her process on Twitter. I am continuously inspired by her aesthetic values, the breadth of her projects, and seeing the similarities and differences in some adjacent ideas we've each had.

Mische HT

A black and white drawing of mountain ranges, one in the midground with large black patterning in the shadows, one in the background with small stipples. Water between the two ranges full of spiraling lines. Cross hatches in the sky around the blank shapes of clouds. A solid black tree line in front of the midground mountains, with a field of sketched crops in the foreground.

Mische is my partner and a reflective explorer who embraces the mess of people and the world. Their art and poetry is layered and textural.

Nuclear Throne
by Vlambeer

A top down view of a blue alien with many eyes holding a grenade launcher in the middle of a desert surrounded by explosions, monsters, and loot.

The crunchy kinaesthetic, freaky theme, and strategic gameplay feed off of each other to spectacular effect.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Mini Metro

An abstracted top down view of a city, with only a river and three short metro lines. Each metro line is a different color and has several stops in the shape of either a circle, square, or triangle

A simple, open ended puzzle game with incredible focus and clear communication. The mechanics permeated my thoughts and even dreams for many days.

Monument Valley
by ustwo

A white hooded figure on a bridge, in front of an open structure with a floating blue cube. Nearby there is a giant rotating structure with four handles.

A soft, pithy game with a sharply colorful aesthetic.

A view down a street with colorful buildings on either side - purple, pink, yellow, and green - and a green bridge going across.

Ybor City
by Miche Booz

A foreground of yellowing grass, with grey and brown rocks on either side of a shallow, clear water river.

Brook Among Rocks
by John Singer Sargent

Overgrowth
by Wolfire

Two anthropomorphic rabbits in a stone constructed environment, one in a jump kick about to hit the other.

David Rosen has an intentional, effective programming and game design and development philosophy for a very small team. The Wolfire blog was my first insight into the process of making games.