Dev Updates: Dec 18, 2025
Looking at 2025, it’s been a lot of toiling in the background, which I’m hoping to change going forward in 2026. We’ve been heads down working on many different projects, and some of them have gone through significant changes that haven’t shipped or been announced yet.
So here’s a chance to share some of those, and tease at others. Hopefully shedding some light on what’s actually been going on here!
New Game: “The Little Rock Shop”
For the last 3 months, I’ve been hard at work developing a new game called The Little Rock Shop.
The game started out focused exclusively on Rockhounding, but now has grown to include elements of owning a store and crafting things using Lapidary equipment!
The game takes place in a fictional setting, but is heavily inspired by our family’s experience hiking and exploring the Pacific Northwest!
I’m hoping that the game will be ready for people to play a demo of early next year, and launch into Early Access on Steam so that we can continue to add and iterate on the things that you, the players, find most interesting!
Here’s a little clip of some early gameplay that I’m still working on:
Pinehearth
With the 1.0 release of Pinehearth, the goal was to ship something that would represent the vision, which could be iterated on and ported to additional platforms (such as PC). This is still sort of the plan, but with some changes related to the game that are better discussed in their own blog post.
The short version is that the game will see a narrowed focus on a single island at a time, with many more interactive elements. It will also lean more heavily into economy based mechanics, which should make gameplay more enjoyable.
Emberhold
Emberhold is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. I’ve got the concept of the game quite fleshed out, but have been running into issues regarding scope. Once “The Little Rock Shop” is out, I should be able to refocus on Emberhold, to start it moving towards a release!
Mental Math Club
I’m really proud of this educational game, but it doesn’t make sense to continue on it much more at this time. Some options I see with the game would involve a redesign the game.
It makes sense to have depth and customization with the classrooms, and give players more ways of solving math problems. Neither of these is feasible in the game’s current state.
So it’s gonna be in the ❄️ ice box ❄️ until further notice!
Moving forward
The goals of this studio are to make games, spark curiosity, and nurture creativity.
I don’t want to do this in a vacuum, and I don’t think that trying to post only the big highlights works well for me or the way my brain works! I’d rather be transparent, so that you can see the beauty in the chaos.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me on socials or via email at [email protected].
Thanks for reading!