Scratching an Itch

Nethack is one of the defining roguelikes. I talk a bit about what it is really about from a subjective experience and compare it a bit to Hades, one the current roguelike poster-children. One of the differences, which I think is very important, is how they represent progress between runs: Nethack doesn’t represent it at all, whereas Hades has both upgrades for your character as well as narrative elements that get elaborated as you play the game. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Doki Doki Literature Club by Team Salvato is perhaps the most famous visual novel dating sim game out there because there’s a big twist. I liked both the dating sim AND the twist!The dating aspect is operationalized as poem-writing, where you have to show that you understand the girl you want to get closer to by picking the words she would like. I thought that was really neat. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Dice of Dusk by Kultisti is a puzzle roguelike game. It has random generated puzzles, progression, and builds! It also has a timer to create pressure, and one thing I forgot to mention in the episode is that this has another amazing side effect: “easy” levels become challenging in that you are trying to solve them as fast as possible to bank time for future stages. Good design serves two purposes at once. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Star Realms has player life; Ascension has a victory point pool. Both games have the core mechanic of buying cards from the center row to build your deck in a play session. However, they feel completely different. Yesterday, I talked about how that decision for the victory condition changed mechanics, and today I’m using the theory of constructed emotion to explain how that changes perception and therefore emotional experiences. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Star Realms by White Wizard Games is a deckbuilding game just like Ascension. However, unlike Ascension, Star Realms is a confrontational game, where the goal is to deplete the other player’s authority. This results in some huge mechanical and emotional differences for the same core mechanic. In this first of a two part series, I talk about the mechanical changes the win-condition results in. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Draftula by Jose Pacio is a tile-placing and drafting game. It’s a very fun game that made me realize why drafting has become a widely adopted progression mechanic for games. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Ascension by Stoneblade Entertainment is one of the seminal deckbuilding games. I’ve played it a lot recently and in this episode I talk about why I like the honor point pool and how I think it allows for adjustable challenge. I also briefly talk about why I think this game can easily become “a daily ritual game”. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Amalgamate by sunil. is a submission for the 2026 7DRL game jam. It combines a grid-based matching game with random loot generation and upgrades. There’s a small tutorial, but it intentionally holds back some key information, which became a magic moment for me when I figured it out. This realization put the world on its head and made me realize my true power, raising my score tenfold. Your mileage may vary in terms of magical moments, but it’s an addictive game regardless. Here’s what it looks like: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Yellow Game About Falling Things by Evgenii Petrov is an abstract puzzly roguelike. Throughout the experience, it has zero words and zero numbers, but I still understood the gameplay and goal very quickly. Would it have been better if it had all the usual competence supporting stuff like tutorials, goals, and leaderboards? Maybe, but I like it just the way it is.Here’s what it looks like so you get an idea: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Cult of the Lamb by Massive Monster is a roguelite where you gather followers for your flock and defeat heretics. I ramble about what a break is in a game. In this one, there are two aspects of the game: the cult-building and the rogueliking. Which one is a break from which one? What is the sound of one hand clapping?I don’t have an answer. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Rogue Crawler by Vanialviv is a first person, roguelike deckbuilder. It’s a mouthful, but with a handful of cards in combination with the positioning in the game, it’s sure to provide a good time! I talk about what this adds to regular deckbuilder, and how it’s a very satisfying loop. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

UVSU by dietzribi also has a mechanic where your past self becomes an obstacle to current you, but unlike Killover’s chaos, it’s a puzzle. In this episode, I talk about Metroidvania’s and what makes them fun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Killover by Quentin Delvallet is an action shooter and one of the winners of GMTK’s 2025 jam. It’s one of the craziest play experiences ever, with incredible amount of style and fun packed into a free game. I talk about Raph Koster’s definition of fun and how this relates to Killover. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Winterwrath by DctrElectro is a point-and-click narrative game. It got second place in the winter game jam, and it has an interesting setting—folklore horror. Apart from having gorgeous graphics, I couldn’t stop playing so I wondered why we are so driven by stories to complete them. That’s what I ramble about in this episode. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Rogue by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold defined the roguelike genre, so I wanted to see what it’s like—turns out it’s roguelike. Usually, I play itch games, but I decided to go rogue. Ok, that’s enough of that.Boss key: a key dedicated to hiding the game from your superior when they walk past. I though that was funny. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

With Yokai Madness, I reached the goals I had set for myself before entering the jam:* Program a game from scratch (tutorials allowed, no AI code)* Submit a game that can be replayed multiple times* Rank in the top 30 (that one was close)Click here to check it out. It’s only two taps away, and you can play it in your phone browser! This was my first game jam where I would do the coding, so that would be my only focus (along with the game design). So as I did the Godot tutorial for the 2d game, I realized that this was a pretty good game which I could easily extend and make use of.So out of the 100 games submitted, the godot tutorial placed 14th for gameplay and 22nd for fun, with my fine-tuning. It’s great to know that doing this podcast is actually giving me good ideas like including the leaderboard, and having a “waiting” mechanic, which definitely made the game better.Also, the best part about game jams is the exercise, and getting feedback and using it to improve the game is half the fun. The initial problem with the game was that it was way too hard. Instead of a one-shot mechanic, there’s now a health bar, which is depleted based on time spent in contact with the demons. Also I made the difficulty adjustable on the fly, allowing players to enter flow, hopefully. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Cookies Bakery by leafthief is a cozy Christmas game for this merry time. I hope everyone is having amazing holidays! Although it says that it’s a Visual Novel, I think it’s what GameDiscoverCO called a find-em-up. This is the first one I played (I think), and it’s basically this loop:* A person has a problem and they come to you* You’re the expert and do more research to figure out their problem* You help the personI believe this appeals to two things: altruism and mastery. It’s a very nice feeling to help other people. There’s also something incredibly satisfying in learning arcane facts and diving deep into some niche. Cookies Bakery is heavy on the help, and light on the cooking—which works in its favor. I think the context of a bakery on Christmas where you need to figure out the correct recipe is just the right amount of friction at a cozy time such as this. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Picokaiju by spoik is very cool because it’s inspired by two other games and we get to see the evolution of a concept—its iterations! Very cool, that’s kind of what I talked about last week.Crush, crumble, and chomp by Epyx inspired Chomp! by Picardy Third Entertainment which then inspired Picokaiju. Long story short, to me it looks like a lesson in removing stuff and fluff:“One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” - Bruce LeeIt’s like seeing behind the curtain to glimpse what the process is like. I wrote an article about Why Monopoly is frustrating, and one of the points is that you lose control towards the end of the game. Well, more like the early middle, and then it’s just an agonizing few hours of daily decrease that always runs to bankruptcy. But I also say that too many options is bad, and these three games are good examples. Picokaiju has the fewest options of the bunch, but it’s the most satisfying, too. Funny how that works. Now, I’m not saying that it’s a game that you can sink 20 hours into. The simplicity is great, but introducing complexities as you succeed would be awesome to create depth. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Solitomb by Jakub Wasilevski is a roguelike deck-builder based on solitaire and using poker hand mechanics. That’s a lot of concepts, and while I don’t unpack them in this episode, I just ramble about what it means to have concepts. Why are they so important? We try to shoehorn games into specific niches and most reviews start by comparing a game to some other well-known games. The key is “well-known“ because knowledge (previous experience) is what people base their understanding of new things on. We use metaphors to quickly map new things and make them less scary and more familiar as fast as possible. This helps live life efficiently. Mark Rosewater calls this piggybacking, and he talks about the many advantages of using it, go check it out for an in-depth article. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Dungeon Crawler on Demand! by redpangilian is definitely an interesting experience. Mostly for the fact that it crystalizes the very feeling that makes slot machines so addicting into a small mobile game.The variable reward ratio, discovered by the behaviorists and perfected by casinos…and video games! It is fancy-speak for the simple fact that not knowing when a reward is going to drop is very enjoyable for our brain because that keeps it entertained. I haven’t yet played a game that so purely distills this like Dungeon Crawler on Demand. Sure, you’ve got your Diablos, your Borderlands, and TikToks, they all use it, but this made it intrinsically observable for me. So visceral that I felt I could grasp it.I knew it doesn’t take much to make something fun. This taught me it doesn’t take much to make something too fun. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Oh, the French! my first narrative game, and it’s inspired by absurdist fiction. You can play it in the browser on itch, and it (probably) takes less than listening to this podcast to complete one play-through. Please check it out!I learned many, many big things by making this very, very small game. But why did I pick this project? Interactive fiction games are thing of the past with no audience! There is a thriving community, I’ll have you know. I was simply aiming to make something. I tried to follow the good old advice: finish it! A twine narrative game seemed like something I would enjoy doing and could actually do, and I wanted to go through the development loop at least once, as fast as I could. So what did I learn in this loop?* Scope creep is real: many small decisions affected later decisions which allowed me to continuously convince myself that something needed to be added to the game. Could some things have been cut without anyone noticing? Yes! Do I regret adding them? No. But only because it was such a small game that the additional time investment was negligible. However, this is precisely why I wanted to go through the loop once: to see these tendencies and plan against them. Which brings me to:* Keeping a design document is really valuable: Not everyone agrees, and it probably just depends on your work style, but for me, it really helped streamline the writing decisions for the narrative as well as keep an overview of the whole thing. For next time, I’ll also have a mood board or something to create an even stronger direction. * The GOAT was actually keeping a development diary because I had a huuuge break during development. This helped me jump right back into the mindset and decision making that led to what I had at the time. I was able to pick it up like no time had passed.* Playtesting is crucial (duh), but make it count: I posted it on reddit to get some feedback and iterate as needed. I got really valuable feedback, which made me realize some things I was approaching wrong because I put narrative before fun, which is plain wrong. It needs to be both, of course. I attempted to mend my ways, and you tell me if I succeeded. But the issue with the playtest was that I just asked for feedback. Next time, I’ll come up with 1-3 concrete (and well phrased) questions to get players to pay attention to what I want to know, and get even better feedback. All in all, I didn’t learn anything I hadn’t known, but experiencing something yourself makes all the difference! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Web Hotel by FunnyGameDev, made me feel comfortable! It deservedly got first place in the micro jam 48. My key takeaway: Tying the game together using narrative design helps make it more enjoyable. By using narrative design (for me that includes the theme as well), you can turn your game into a holistic experience. The theme for the jam was webs, so in this game you create webs in rooms by standing in front of them. This could have been it, but FunnyGameDev did one more. Why are you webbing up rooms? You are trying to ruin a guests experience. The guests are jolly and are shooting out attacks until you succeed in webbing up their room, and they are frustrated so they stop attacking you. In the end this leads to bad reviews and an article in the newspaper ruining the hotel’s reputation. Connecting everything this way makes a cohesive experience that’s easy to understand and hence, enjoyable. Fluency is the fancy term for it: the easier something is to process, the more we like it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Tiny Tarantula Tower by SeeOne is very very fun! Why? Well because you get to see whether or not you are the best in the world. But who am I, why should you listen to me? I am ranked 1st place worldwide in Tiny Tarantula Tower (as of this writing).Leaderboards: they work. Comparing yourself to others is the killer of joy in daily life, but in games it is flipped around, it can be the provider of fun. Well, only if you feel like you are progressing or winning. This is why very large competitive games use leagues to make you feel like you are doing those things. It needs to feel possible to become first relative to your group. The deeper underlying psychological need this progress is fulfilling is competence, one of three basic needs according to self-determination theory. But competence hinges on success or perceived opportunity to succeed. Bottom line: if you have a small game, use leaderboards, they’ll make it more fun for the player, or motivate them to play more. If you have a gigantic game with a large number of players, use relative leaderboards. One thing I forgot to mention in the podcast is that the game uses a one minute timer for one attempt. I think that is a great addition to a game such as this because it reduces the bigger loop of the game. Each attempt to balance a new object is like a mini loop. And each one minute run is a bigger loop of success and failure. Capping it at one minute, instead of making it endless, makes me feel like I am progressing faster or learning quicker. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

I’ve played three versions of the same game:* Robotron 2084 by VizKidz* Robtron 2084 Remastered by Parsimmon Factory* 2600 by dungeonMy key takeaway: enemies support the main mechanic As a designer, enemies are your friends. In Robotron, the main thing is moving and shooting. So in the first level you already have an enemy that makes you move and shoot, and one which prevents you from moving everywhere. Later enemies demand even more map awareness and precise movement, i.e. they increase the difficulty by requiring greater skill. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

nubitoad’s Bomb or Kill puts you on the spot by demanding jokes. You play a comedian in front of an audience who needs to get laughs to get money. I found it interesting that the comments were so amazed by the technology, they forgot their pitchforks!This game definitely KILLED. My takeaways:* Each mini-loop works toward making you feel the emotional core of the game.* A perfect theme to use AI in the best way* The scope and design is a certified chef’s KISS: keep it simple stupidLet me know what you think! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Break the TowerA chaotic but addictive arcade game by torcado. The Ludum Dare entry’s core loop is a twist on Breakout (I keep saying brick because there was a Color Switch mode with that title [those who nose]): you bounce a ball off a platform to break through layers of bricks, collect coins, and unlock upgrades like faster dash recharge. The unique twist mechanic is charging and redirecting the ball mid-air and something special, which I can’t spoil.Key insight for me:What makes the game memorable isn’t the great mechanics—it’s the unexpected extra. That surprise is what elevates a game for me. As a designer, it's worth going beyond “the minimum” to include something unexpected that can transform a fun game into an unforgettable one—even if it takes a toll in time and effort.please consider subscribing, so I don’t have to sell copper in bulk to make money (it’s knochenarbeit) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

Voices in Static - the.sus This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com

I played howling dogs, an award-winning interactive fiction game, by porpentine. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit zivanovic.substack.com