§ 01 — About
About
A small home for games I like making.
KJ's Games started as a place for me to build a few browser games and learn by actually making something. It has since grown into five live games, a bunch of shared systems behind them, and a fairly reliable way of giving myself ideas for whatever I decide needs building next.
§ 02 — Why it exists
Make something, put it live, see what happens.
I like games and I like building things, and I've always found it much easier to learn when there is something real at the end of it. KJ's Games gives me somewhere to play around with game logic, interfaces, analytics, feedback and all the smaller details that only really become obvious once something is live and people can actually use it.
I've tried to keep the games themselves simple to get into. There is nothing to install, you don't need an account, and there shouldn't be a wall of pop-ups between arriving on the site and actually playing something.
§ 03 — The games
Five games and counting.
The collection is still small enough that each game has been a slightly different experiment, which is half the fun of it.
Solitaire
Classic Klondike Solitaire. Mostly relaxing, right up until the one card you need is apparently determined never to appear.
Pyramid
A quick card game about making thirteen, clearing the pyramid and trying not to end up staring at exactly the cards you didn't need.
Pairs
Flip two cards, remember where everything went, and find out how cooperative your short-term memory is feeling today.
Scrambled
A word game with quick Free Play rounds and Theme Hunt puzzles, where every solved word gets you a little closer to figuring out the hidden answer.
Signal Grid
A compact 6×6 number puzzle about getting everything into the right place without the grid quietly proving that your very confident last move was wrong.
§ 04 — Behind the games
There is quite a bit going on underneath.
The games are the visible bit, but KJ's Games has also become somewhere I test ideas that are useful outside of games too. Shared components, reusable game foundations, analytics, deployment workflows and AI-assisted development have all ended up growing out of the site.
That stuff is interesting to me, but it shouldn't get in the way of the actual point. You should still be able to turn up, choose a game and start playing.