> The Arcade Signal

Today, in my part of the world, it’s raining. And honestly, I’m not complaining. For the first time in what feels like forever, I can actually see my driveway again. The snow is finally retreating, the cold is loosening its grip, and the wind has calmed just enough to remind me that spring is on the horizon.

And with that shift in the air, something else returns too. That familiar pull toward fantasy.

There’s something about spring and fantasy that just fit together. I can’t fully explain it, but the moment the seasons begin to change, I feel this urge to dive back into those worlds. Of course, knowing my style, it won’t be some sprawling AAA epic. No, this will be something much more grounded. Something arcade-driven. Something in the spirit of Cryogrid.

Cryogrid, for me, was special. It was one of the first arcade-style games I created that truly felt like it had potential, something I could one day imagine running in a real cabinet. Maybe I’m biased, sure, but that game represents a starting point. A crawl.

And now, it’s time to walk.

Today, while I had the day off work and was, let’s just say, in a creatively altered state of mind, I made a decision. I’m rebuilding Azthengar. Not tweaking it. Not patching it. Rebuilding it from the ground up.

The old foundation? Gone.

This time, the goal is clarity. Stability. Efficiency. Doing more with less code. Making something that not only works better but feels better to build. The idea came to me while I was out, lost in my usual internal brainstorming sessions. You know the ones. The constant back-and-forth: What should I add? What should I remove? What actually matters?

And in that moment, it became clear. If I’m going to build something with passion, with love, then I have to be willing to start over.

So here we are.

The game is still AZTHENGAR… but not as it once was.

And yet, somehow, it still feels familiar. Like those dreams I’ve been having about it lately, lingering in the background, waiting for the right moment to take shape again.

Lately, I’ve also found myself diving into something completely different: old nuclear war simulation games. You remember those strange ASCII-era titles? The ones that played like a twisted version of Battleship. Always America versus the USSR. Always with box art that looked far more advanced than the game itself.

They sold you a race car… but under the hood, it was a rusted-out lawnmower.

And yet, somehow, that’s what made them memorable.

There’s a charm to it. A kind of honesty in the illusion. The clone, in many cases, ended up being better than the original idea. If you search around long enough, you’ll still find them. Especially in those old Commodore 64 archives, quietly preserved like relics of a different time.

And I love that. I really do.

Of course, reality has a way of creeping back in. I’ve got work tomorrow. Probably should have booked the rest of the week off, but hindsight is always perfect, isn’t it?

Sometimes I think about just disappearing for a while. Faking my own death. Re-emerging under a completely original and undeniably cool alias. The kind of name that would eventually end up in a movie.

The story of the guy who made Azthengar.

And if that ever happens, I truly hope they cast either Louie Anderson or Bea Arthur to play me. Honestly, that alone would make it one of the greatest films ever made. I don’t even care what the plot is. Keep it contained in a single house. Throw in themes of addiction, mystery, maybe a little chaos. Perfect.

But for now, I’m here.

Windows open. Spring air drifting in. Mind wandering in all the best ways.

Working. Building. Creating.

And that’s really what this is all about.

I’ll keep sharing these moments. The progress. The experiments. The thoughts that come and go throughout the day. Mixing game development with life itself, because the two are more connected than we sometimes realize.

At the end of it all, that’s what this is.

Just having fun. Making something meaningful. And putting it out into the world.

Because really… what else is life about?