Where the idea came from
A memory of a lesser-known Squaresoft game that came back out of nowhere, a tight vertical JRPG battle layout that looked more like a standoff than a chessboard, and a daughter who's going to need to learn to type someday.
Jan 11, 2026 · 3 min read
The first build
One afternoon, three placeholder enemies, a rough prototype. What I noticed playing it and why the enemies needed ATB gauges.
Jan 25, 2026 · 3 min read
Two bosses that came from other games
Falling words came from an old DOS missile game. Word grid came from raid healing in an MMO and, separately, from a spreadsheet I had open at the time.
Feb 15, 2026 · 3 min read
Two bosses that came from typing tests
Paragraph boss and line rush both come straight from the typing-test sites I'd been using for years. One is about rhythm, the other is about flow.
Feb 26, 2026 · 2 min read
Balancing a run
I started with no difficulty menu, one tuned curve, and the belief that typing speed would do the work. Playtesting broke that theory. What followed was three modes and a lot of tuning.
Mar 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Borrowing UX from typing tests
Cursor styles, caret speeds, word colors, WPM calculations, post-run graphs. The typing UI conventions Keeb Quest adapted, and why.
Apr 13, 2026 · 6 min read
Adventure mode, and why it ended up at ten minutes
Choose Your Own Adventure books, MUDs, and the first-person room description. How typing through a story changes the way you read, and why ten minutes became the right length.
Apr 30, 2026 · 6 min read
Designing for flow
No artificial pauses, no obscured words, no breaks in the action. The typing never stops, and the decisions happen while your fingers are already moving.
May 21, 2026 · 2 min read