Featured StoryLaunch Diary
72 Hours After Launch: What the Numbers Don’t Tell You
The first sale happened. The first KU pages appeared. Three days in, the biggest lesson is that launch day is a starting line, not a verdict.
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Stories From the Studio
Sharp, thoughtful dispatches on books, game development, design decisions, launches, experiments, and the work behind the worlds.
Latest Edition
The SlushBucket Journal
A 15-part Shark Protocol writing-and-launch series plus 10 development journals charting the making of The Last Cartographer.
72 Hours After Launch: What the Numbers Don’t Tell You
The first sale happened. The first KU pages appeared. Three days in, the biggest lesson is that launch day is a starting line, not a verdict.
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From Sprites to GLB: The Next Big Character Upgrade
I am laying the renderer foundation for game-ready GLB characters, with humanoid rigs, in-place animation clips and a Godot 4.7 inspection workflow.
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2 KU Pages Read: My Publishing Empire Begins
My Kindle Unlimited dashboard registered 2 pages read. Not two thousand. Two. Naturally, I have begun planning the empire.
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The First Sale: Someone Actually Bought It
The dashboard moved from zero to one. It is a tiny number and, somehow, one of the biggest numbers in the entire launch.
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Shark Protocol Is Live
Launch day arrived. Shark Protocol is officially available in ebook and paperback, and the private writing project is now a public book.
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Building The Last Cartographer: Where Development Stands Now
The project has grown from rooms and hotspots into a full adventure framework with conversations, journals, optional scoring, developer tools, accessibility and a growing character pipeline.
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The Night Before Launch
The book was done. The files were uploaded. Naturally, this seemed like the perfect time to question absolutely everything.
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Why Point-and-Click Adventures Still Work
Puzzles, optional discoveries, humor, and meaningful interaction still have a place in modern adventure games.
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Moving the Project to Godot 4.7.2
The engine upgrade was less exciting than a new puzzle, but it gave me a cleaner foundation for the renderer, tools and character work coming next.
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Journal, Find Me, Stamps and the Secret Score
I want exploration to leave a trail, so the journal now ties together clues, optional discoveries, maps, reward stamps and Sierra-style secret scoring.
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To My ARC Reviewers: Thank You
Early readers gave Shark Protocol something no solitary revision pass could provide: fresh eyes, honest reactions, and valuable feedback before launch.
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Building Developer Tools So I Stop Breaking My Own Game
Hotspots, NPC placement, walk paths, conversations and object boxes are becoming editable in-game because hand-editing everything was slowing development down.
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Making Conversations Feel Like Conversations
The dialogue system is growing from simple question lists into portraits, follow-ups, remembered topics and real branching conversations.
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Designing Puzzles That Feel Like Discovery, Not Homework
From the cemetery gate to Thomas’s desk and the underwater sequences, I am trying to make puzzles emerge from the world instead of feeling pasted onto it.
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Formatting Shark Protocol: Making Every Page Beautiful
The manuscript was finished, but the book was not. Then came margins, headers, scene breaks, chapter openings, widows, orphans, exports, proofs, and checking it all again.
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Why I Keep Coming Back to Sierra-Style Adventure Design
The old adventure games rewarded curiosity, experimentation, optional jokes and the occasional terrible idea. I want that spirit without the old frustrations.
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Turning The Last Cartographer From a Novel Into a Game
Adapting the world into an adventure game means preserving the mystery while giving players agency instead of simply replaying the novel.
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The Tiny Details That Make a Thriller Feel Real
Sometimes the detail readers remember is not the weapon or the briefing. It is the terrible coffee, the strange object, or the human habit under pressure.
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Rewriting for Tension, Not Just More Action
More explosions were not the answer. The strongest revisions came from information gaps, time pressure, consequences, and impossible choices.
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The Messy Middle: When the Conspiracy Got Too Big
The middle of a thriller cannot just be more danger. Every chapter has to change the reader’s understanding or the characters’ options.
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The First Draft Marathon
Finishing a thriller meant learning when to solve a problem immediately and when to leave myself a note and keep moving.
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Two Leads, Two Ways Into the Same Conspiracy
Jake Rourke and Alex Sinclair needed different instincts, different risks, and different relationships with the truth.
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Research Without Letting Research Take Over
Research gave Shark Protocol texture, but the hardest part was knowing which facts belonged on the page and which belonged only in my notes.
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Building a Political Thriller That Bites
The challenge was making politics create pressure and danger without turning the novel into a lecture with car chases attached.
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The Idea That Wouldn’t Let Go
Shark Protocol began with a question about power, secrecy, and what happens when a system decides a person is easier to erase than explain.
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