Shape Evade: Survivors is out to play: free in the browser on itch, and the iOS beta on TestFlight, no invite needed.

Six weapons that evolve, ten kinds of enemies, a floor that remembers every kill.

nexthardstep.itch.io/shape-evade-...
testflight.apple.com/join/FRQM4Nxs

Four strategy games in a row. I wanted one with nothing to lose: a survivors game made of geometry, not one sprite. One rule: the multiplier chain is always on screen, and every card says what it does to it before you take it.

On TestFlight now. Want to test it on iOS? Say so.

Third game, restart. Three Claude agents: designer, programmer, press. I carried files between them by hand. In a day and a half they wrote each other 23 specs and 18 reports. I got tired.

Started over: one folder, one branch, one agent. Map, fire, rain in an evening.

Third game took shape this day. No recipes at all, not even hidden ones.

A thing is numbers: hard, sharp, heavy, flexible. A craft is an action: split, grind, tie, burn. Pick two things and a person, the result is computed. When the numbers line up, the thing gets a name.

The Long Haul is closed. Four days in, I got tired of playing something that isn't interesting. It stays up on itch.

Third game starts today: crafting, a lot of it, recipes hidden, ingredients by property ("something sharp"). Phone only.
nexthardstep.itch.io/the-long-haul

New game, day three: The Long Haul.

The map is black. Six deposits are hidden under it and nothing is marked. A test hole costs $22,000 and answers at the end of the month.

Free in the browser, built for the phone:
nexthardstep.itch.io/the-long-haul

One-person studio. I design games and playtest them until they break; an LLM writes the code. No AI art — no art at all: text, tables, layout.

I make machinery: deep systems, plain surface.

First one, free in the browser:
nexthardstep.itch.io/the-debt-ledge