How our games are made — decisions, numbers, and the reasoning behind them.
Design
TIME|EMIT: why there is no undo — the global tick tape model
In TIME|EMIT every step is final. There is no undo button and no wait action — only a clean restart. This is not austerity; it is the core of the puzzle. The game runs on what we call the global tick tape: one shared clock drives the player, the reflections, doors and ghosts alike. Each move advances the tape exactly one tick; a portal crossing flips the direction of time for everything on the field. Because one rule drives everything, any failed attempt can be replayed and understood — the game never cheats, and it never rescues you from your own steps. Reflections are what make this strictness interesting: they repeat your route one tick late, so the path you already walked turns into moving walls, keys and hazards. Fighting your own past only works if the past is written in ink. The restart is not a punishment — it is how you re-read the sentence you got wrong.
Economy
Paws vs Bots: what playtest matches taught us about risk economy
Classic lane defense pays you for waiting: plant an economy unit in the back, then watch. We replaced waiting with a decision. In Paws vs Bots the fish tank earns its base income in the safe zone — and ×3 on the frontline, right next to where robots spawn. The moment enemies get close, a rescue window of about four seconds opens: move the tank back, or lose it. Early playtest matches confirmed the design intent: the frontline is where the game is actually played. Players who kept the tank in the back had comfortable, forgettable matches; players who danced on the frontline lost tanks, won matches, and told us about it afterwards — which is exactly the kind of story a tactics game wants to generate. Balance lessons from the logs: the rescue window must stay just short enough to feel dangerous, and the ×3 must stay just valuable enough to be tempting at low health.
Platforms
Android first, iOS alongside: what mobile-first means for us
Both of our games target Android and iOS from day one. Android leads development: playtest builds go out as direct installs, so we iterate in days instead of store review cycles. iOS joins for the public release, where both worlds ship from one pipeline. Mobile-first is a design constraint, not a port decision: TIME|EMIT is portrait — one hand, a slow commute; Paws vs Bots is landscape — two thumbs, a four-minute session. We test on mid-range phones: if a game runs well there, it runs everywhere. Web builds for TIME|EMIT come later; stores will be announced when they are real.