Genre: Interactive Roleplaying Novel | Version Final Release 1.0

Embark on a quest to bring magic back to a dying world!

In this interactive fantasy roleplaying novel, you create your own character and create your own path!

With hidden endings, quest lines, countless rooms, boss fights, and tons of secrets, you will have an enjoyable experience exploring The Heartstone Caverns!

Adventure Awaits:

You are an adventurer who heard tales of a mystical artifact called the Heartstone Crystal. This crystal, recently uncovered by Orcs in a cave near the town of Oakhaven, is said to to be the crystallized heart of the goddess of magic, Mreska.

Do you seek the crystal to restore magic to the world? Or will you fall victim to the dark horrors sealed away deep in the caverns?

Only a true hero with a pure soul may hope to behold the Heartsone Crystal...

Will that hero be you?

Features:

• Turn Based Combat and Leveling System: Progress from simple weapons and spells by using strategy to defeat enemies and gain XP. Explore through the map to unlock powerful weapons to aid you in your quest and help you take down stronger foes.
• Modern Text-Based UI: Evolving from the terminal style of classics like Zork, Update 1.2 rebuilt the UI to give a modern experience. Get information about your character, inventory, spells, and location on demand at all times. Click the highlighted words on screen to execute that specific action. There are now three visual themes to pick from as well, allowing you to further play how you want.
• 300+ Unique Areas: Hang out in the Douro Port Tavern, travel to a lizardfolk swamp, barter with a friendly goblin in his market, take refuge in a treetop village, talk lore at the local chapel, go artifact hunting in old crypts, or simply enjoy the eastern farmlands. There are many rooms and areas for you to explore and get lost in!
• Currently ~50 unique enemies: Fight enemies ranging from orcs, goblins, and bandits all the way to undead kings, vapor monsters, and inter-dimensional fairies!
• NPC’s With Dialogue and Quests: Every NPC has something to say! Some NPCs will have more to say than others, and some will even offer you unique rewards and unlock areas of the map. Some NPCs will even ask you to do certain tasks and retrieve certain items. The world of Valeria is there for you to interact with!
• Over 400+ items: You will find everything an adventurer will need within the crystal caverns and the surrounding areas. From the RPG staples, to artifacts like the Bloodcrystal Staff and Magic Blade, all the way to consumables like Port Wine and Strength Potions. There is a diverse set of items to collect and barter with.
• Spells and Special Attacks: Master the skill of what remains of magic by integrating these powerful yet costly attacks into your strategy. Each class will have unique spells and special attacks, allowing for a preferred playstyle to emerge.
• Shop and Stealing system: Buy and sell items at varying prices. If something looks too expensive, try to take it anyway! But be warned, if you get caught stealing at every store in Oakhaven, the Guards may finally get involved…
• Lore waiting to be uncovered: Talk to NPCs, read books, view item descriptions, and examine rooms to uncover the hidden story. Are there any gods remaining? Will releasing the Heartstone Crystal actually restore magic to the world? What ever happened to Chrono-Wing? The answers are there waiting for the right adventurer to uncover them!

While in game, you can type help to see a list of all the possible commands.

Please report any errors or bugs you may experience along the way. Any bug reports would help to continue my learning. Please give feedback on the parser as I am creating it myself.

Thank you for checking out this page. I hope this game has something fun for you.

Genre: Arcade Shooter | Version 1.0

Chrono-Wing | Wings of Time

Fight across two timelines simultaneously in this unique 2d arcade shooter! You're an ace pilot caught in a time rift, battling enemies across World War II and the distant sci-fi future of 2945.

When one era becomes too dangerous, shift through time to escape. But beware, as each timeline presents completely different challenges that demand different strategies.

Your WWII Spitfire excels at mowing down swarms of biplanes with rapid fire machine guns, while your futuristic starfighter eliminates elite threats with precision plasma shots.

The key to survival isn't just dodging bullets, it's knowing when to shift between timelines. The future of two timelines depends on your skill!

Download the zip file containing the .exe file for an endless mode toggle button, joystick implementation, screen flash/shake toggle settings, and better FPS.

Features:

• True Asymmetric Gameplay: Each era has completely different ships, weapons, enemies, and strategies
• Strategic Time-Shifting: Use timeline jumps as a defensive tool with brief invincibility and enemy-clearing pulses
• Risk vs Reward: Future enemies are deadlier but offer higher scores and power-ups
• Epic Boss Battle: Face dual timeline bosses that force you to jump between eras to exploit weaknesses
• Shifting Soundtrack: Special songs made together with this game in mind. The past and future each have their own songs (including the boss fight!), composed and played by me and my 15-key MIDI keyboard.

Listen to the OST in the music tab!

Assets Used:

I could not have made this game in the timeframe that I did without the work of amazing people who put their awesome work online for others to use. Shout out especially to "jh2assets" who made the epic pixel art WW2 fighters, and "Timberlate007" who made the awesome sci-fi assets. Finding those assets here on itch.io really inspired me to complete this game, so I am very grateful for their work.

• WW2 assets: https://jimhatama.itch.io/ww2-aircrafts
• Shoot 'em up asset pack: https://timberlate007.itch.io/shootem-up
• Free sky backgrounds: https://free-game-assets.itch.io/free-sky-with-clouds-background-pixel-art-set
• Seamless Space Backgrounds: https://screamingbrainstudios.itch.io/seamless-space-backgrounds
• Explosion: https://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/182429/
• Random sci-fi sounds: https://freesound.org/people/Patrick_Corra/sounds/633234/
• Ethereal Woosh: https://freesound.org/people/newagesoup/sounds/462089/
• Machine Gun 002: https://freesound.org/people/pgi/sounds/212608/
• Warp Rifle Energy Blast: https://freesound.org/people/Funky_Audio/sounds/705494/
• Explosion 004: https://freesound.org/people/klangfabrik/sounds/220062/
• Uncompressed Cannon: https://freesound.org/people/baefild/sounds/91293/

I also used BandLab, the web-based DAW, to create the songs you hear. It's very basic but it allowed me to just plug the MIDI in and go straight from the computer. Then I used the GOAT audio editor Audacity to get all sounds into .wav and .ogg files.

And then I used this handy website I found to create the boss sprites and the little explosion animation you see: https://www.piskelapp.com/p/create/sprite/

Notes

This game was developed in less than one week for the Beginner's Jam Summer 2025, the theme was time travel.

Note that the web version, built with Pygbag, has a drop in performance. Please download the zip file containing the .exe if you enjoy the game and want to play it unhindered by the browser. There is some added features, plus you can always have a copy on your computer!

There is joystick support but it is a little bugged at the moment. It does not work in the web browser and may not work on the .exe file depending on the button mapping of your joystick.

Genre: Ambient Arcade | Version 1.0

Cosmic Collector

Cosmic Collector is an ambient 2D arcade game that tests your mastery of orbital physics. Navigate through progressively complex star systems, using the pull of gravity to collect valuable stardust while avoiding hazardous debris.

Entry to the GMTK Game Jam 2025! Theme: Loop

Note: The web version playable on this page is a demo and doesn't represent the full experience with all features. To save your score, use powerups, and play the secret level, please download the full version below.

Features

• Gravity Based Movement: Swing your ship into orbital loops, adjust your radius, and slingshot between planets. Mastering gravity is the key to survival.
• Eleven unique songs composed and played by me!
• Ten Challenging Levels: Progress from the simplicity of Earth's orbit to chaotic binary and triple-star systems, culminating towards being in the crossfires of a planetary war. Each of the ten levels presents it's own unique looping gravitational challenge.
• Level Specific High Scores: Chase your own personal best on each level to prove your skill and unlock later stages.
• Classic Powerups! Collect 2x multipliers, bombs to clear debris, and shields to protect against hits. Watch out for other events along the way, such as friendly UFOs that give you extra lives, or shooting stars that give extra points.
• Minimalist Retro Aesthetic: Clean, vector-style graphics and a themed soundtrack create an immersive, focused arcade experience.
• Unlockable Codex: Discover lore about the different star systems and entities you encounter on your journey!

Controls

• Arrow Keys: Control Movement / Rotation
• Spacebar: Switch Orbit (Levels 3 + 5)
• Escape: Pause Game
• Left Mouse Button: To Click Menu Buttons

Story

See the continuation of the Chrono-Wing story!

The year is 2949. It has been four years since Earth repelled the Xylosian Swarm, a bio-mechanical race of aliens from a distant star system. In the aftermath of the war, a new political faction has risen on the Xylosian homeworld. This new faction seeks a future beyond galactic conquest and offers to make a ceasefire with Earth. To honor this fragile turning point, the Solar Federation sends its most decorated pilot, the very one who destroyed the Xylosian mothership while caught in a time vortex, to represent humanity on a mission of diplomacy.

Your journey begins in Earth’s orbit, tracing a path outward through gravitational corridors and alien systems. Can you broker peace between this fragile alliance, or will figures lurking in the shadows work to undo everything?

Play Chrono-Wing here on site! The story starts earlier still, in the prequel short story Attack of the Interstellar Thing!, where the Swarm is first sighted.

Credits

Programming, Music, Sound Effects, Writing, and Design by - Connor | YodaInTheAttic

Special thanks to my parents for playtesting! Secret level idea by my dad :)

Story inspired by the writings of Neil Peart. All the love forever to The Professor <3

Notes

This game was developed in less than four days for the GMTK Game Jam 2025, the theme was "Loop." Previously made code was used, as Cosmic Collector used to be a work in progress game, with the only real feature being the orbital physics. This theme inspired me to iron out the concept and turn it into a full game, refactoring a vast majority of what was there into what is here now. I am thankful that this jam allowed me an opportunity to get this game out and put it in my catalog.

⚠️ Note on Web vs Download Version:

This game was developed using Python, and while that makes browser support tricky, I still wanted to provide a web demo so you can preview the experience without downloading.

That said, the downloadable version is the full game experience as intended-- with smoother performance (60fps), better visuals, and important features like powerups and a progression system. The web version is just a lightweight demo. For the complete experience, with the secret level included, please download the full version. Thanks for checking it out-- I hope you enjoy!

Genre: Interactive Science Communication | Version v1.0

TRAJECTORY PREVIEW

Live viz hydrates here

LAUNCH TRAJECTORY VIZ →

Project 90 · Open Thought Experiment

HERMES I

Version 1.0 · First public release

Psychology and Communications in a Hypothetical Crewed Venus Backflip Mission

• 565days
• 136days within 11M mi of Venus
• 6crew
• 2Venus flybys
• ~0m/s ΔV post-departure
• 13.5min max comms delay

The Premise

The Question

What would six astronauts face during a crewed mission to Venus?

HERMES I is a hypothetical crewed Venus backflip mission designed as a thought experiment. Before space agencies commit to a two to three year Mars transit, the question to be asked is: what actually happens to a small crew across nearly eighteen months of deep space isolation? The thought experiment came from this, and that is when research was done to find a mission that tested the journey without the need for a seperate landing phase. Venus was picked due to the backflip mechanics allowing more time for teleoperated science, and due to the fact landing on the surface is barred.

Research from analog environments (the Mars500 isolation study, Antarctic overwinter postings, long-duration ISS missions, and submarine deployments) tells us what tends to break down and when. Often, authority is questioned and the crew turns inward, starting to see mission control as an outgroup that cannot understand what they are experiencing. The third quarter of a long mission is historically the most dangerous psychologically. And then there is the return: splashdown does not end the mission for the people who flew it, with the effects of isolation lingering for years or forever.

HERMES I is designed to be questioned with all of this in mind. The mission does not treat crew psychology as a secondary concern to be managed, but as the primary system to be engineered with the same seriousness as propulsion, life support, or navigation. The thought experiment is an attempt to imagine what that engineering actually looks like across 565 days, three distinct mission phases, and the full arc from departure to reintegration.

What version 1.0 means

This is the first public cut published deliberately unfinished in results and deep dives on evidence. I feel the trajectory viz is cool to share, but beyond that the reasoning around this first pass is: this is a starting position rather than a conclusion, put out in the open for us to think on. I want the ideas here to be engaged with and built on as the months go by. Putting everything I have collected for this project out at once defeats the point of the thought experiment.

Mission Brief

The Mission

The Spacecraft

A crew of six is worked into the thought experiment: two mission commanders, a flight surgeon, a systems engineer, a planetary scientist, and a mission specialist. They would depart Earth's orbit in August 2034 aboard the HERMES transit vehicle (named due to the mythological connection to Venus). The spacecraft is functional, with a total habitable volume of approximately 180 cubic meters across four modules: a command and operations deck, a science and medical bay, a crew quarters module with six individual berths, and a shared commons that serves as galley, recreation space, and the psychological center of gravity for the entire mission.

The total habitable volume is something to be worked on and talked about further. One of the earliest suggestions that became clear in initial research is that the more space, the better. In a thought experiment without the barrier of physics and money (two constants of space travel), that suggestion goes down easy. In reality, more space means more money, launches, and time. As such, the thought experiment is designed with 180 cubic meters as a hard limit to bolster discussion. That is the same idea with the split commander decision: how will that impact the astronauts?

The Trajectory

HERMES I uses a free-return backflip trajectory, a gravitational architecture that requires minimal propulsion after Earth departure while delivering the crew to Venus twice. The outbound transit takes the crew away from Earth across roughly three months. On November 18, 2034, HERMES I makes its first Venus flyby at 500 km altitude.

Then, rather than continuing away from Venus, the trajectory curves. The spacecraft enters a backflip geometry, looping below the plane of the solar system by approximately 15 million kilometers (a vantage point no human has ever occupied) before returning toward Venus for a second flyby on March 9, 2035.

Between the two flybys, the crew spends 111 days in continuous proximity to Venus, remaining within a light-minute of the planet at all times. This means signal delay to Venus drops to seconds and teleoperation becomes possible, such as high flying drones that drop reinforced sensors on ground to log data in all but real time. The thought experiment allows for, and assumes, that there will be materials sent ahead to orbit Venus that are able to be controlled when the crew gets there.

After the second flyby, HERMES I begins its long return. The crew arrives home on February 24, 2036. Total mission duration: 565 days.

The Work

HERMES I carries a suite of deployable robotic assets: atmospheric probes, a semi-autonomous solar-powered aircraft designed to operate within and below the Venusian cloud deck, and a teleoperated rover targeted for deployment on Maxwell Montes. That is the planet's highest peak, where temperatures drop enough to allow weeklong surface operations. These assets are assumed to be pre-deployed by earlier robotic missions and are awaiting use. Though the thought experiment is trying to be as realistic as possible, there is a certain amount of 'wish listing' we can do to make the trip better. We are talking about back flipping across the solar system, after all.

Interactive Visualization

The Interactive Trajectory View

Explore the mission as a navigable object! I am proud to present this bit of programming. Scrub through 565 days of flight, watch the spacecraft loop below the ecliptic, thread two Venus flybys, and return home. The live mission panel updates with distance, phase, and signal delay as you move through time. Drag to rotate the view and see the backflip from underneath the plane of the solar system. I feel the geometry is hard to picture until you can see it, and then the mission becomes a lot more 'real'!

This is the part of version 1.0 that is finished enough to stand on its own, and the part most likely to be useful to someone else. If it renders something incorrectly, or you want a parameter exposed that isn't, send me a message!

LAUNCH TRAJECTORY VIZ →

Open Problems

Where To Assist

To start building solutions and putting down sourced evidence to this page, InTheAtticDev needs your help!

If you have the data, know any fun literature, or have a method that would test one of these better than the one proposed: that is the contribution I am asking for!

01 · Psychology

The third-quarter phenomenon

Looking for Longitudinal, time-series psychometric data from long-duration isolation (Mars500, Antarctic winter-overs, NEEMO, submarine deployments, long ISS increments, etc.).

To test Whether the third-quarter dip is a genuine inflection or an artifact of how missions are structured, and whether it moves when the crew is given meaningful work at the midpoint, as HERMES I does with the 111-day Venus window.

02 · Command

Split command authority

Looking for Writings and data about authority split between task and relationship. This could be expedition leadership, maritime command, surgical teams, remote industrial crews, and many others. Both the cases where it worked and the cases where it produced two rival groups.

To test Whether a dual-commander structure prevents hierarchy failure or simply relocates the conflict one level up where it is harder to see.

03 · Medicine

Earth-independent medical operations

Looking for Performance data on clinical decision support under communication blackout and documented cases of clinician, patient disagreement where no second opinion was available.

To test How much of a flight surgeon's authority can be delegated to a decision support system before the crews trust in it, or in the doctor, erodes?

04 · Communication

Protocols at thirteen minutes

Looking for Research on how teams structure messages under high one-way latency, plus anything from asynchronous-first organizations that transfers. Studies on space to ground autonomy transitions especially.

To test Whether structured protocols actually prevent the space to ground silo or merely delay its formation.

05 · Astrodynamics

A better backflip

Looking for An optimized solution for the pi transfer. The published trajectory is explicitly preliminary and not flight-optimized.

To test Whether shorter flight time or lower Earth-return velocity is achievable-- and, if so, how much of the psychological argument for the long route survives it?

06 · Countermeasures

The soft infrastructure

Looking for Evidence on non-hardware countermeasures: horticultural therapy and crew-tended growth systems, invented ritual and holiday making in isolated crews, and the durability of Overview Effect responses over months rather than days.

To test Would deliberately designed routines flatten the mid-mission dip, or can they cause friction and fuel isolation?

Credits

Source Material

Genre: 2d Narrative RPG | Version Alpha 1.0

Untitled Pacifia RPG

This is a proof of concept developed in mid summer of 2025. Roughly a month and a half of active time was spent with this game as my main creative project. This was made with the Godot engine, during the time when projects like Chrono-Wing, Cosmic Collector, and the beta builds of the ‘Crystal Caverns’ were made.

Now, a little over a year since I finished this concept, I would like to add it onto my site as a record of my work. There are no plans to continue this game project, but as you will see, it taught me invaluable lessons and set up my writing to be where it is at today. That is why I would say, overall, this was a sucessful proof of concept. Enjoy walking around a small bit of 2d Pacifia!

Setting

Set twenty years after the events of Beta 1.0 of ‘The Crystal Caverns’, this game was planned to follow a set protagonist as they… did something. I did not have a full story idea planned out as I did not want to set up too many threads if they were not to be used. I kinda forget the name I had for the main guy, and I do not know if I even had one, so that shows how I was more focused on getting the thing to run and the systems going.

The working title for this was simply Caverns II. As noted previously, the lore of Valeria and this fantasy world has changed tremendously since this build, and what is here is now outdated to how I picture and imagine the world. For example, in this build you will see a lake in the middle of the map. As I was making it, I had a moment where I stopped and went, ‘huh, that kinda looks like a turtle.’ And I leaned into it to shape it more like one. Thus– Turtle Lake was born, and a month later, I would create the short story about the Rogue who fled there. A lot has changed since that time, and the Rogue stories are their own wonderful thing.

So, while some elements remain, like Oakhaven, the Crystal Caves, and the Port Tavern, whole areas are different geographically in terms of scale, and some ideas are totally changed.

How to Play

In the overworld, you can move with WASD and the arrow keys, and you can click on labeled landmarks to have an interaction with them. You can also press shift to sprint to move faster, and space bar to jump in the side scrolling sections. In this build you can enter some areas and can talk to a couple NPCs briefly in Oakhaven, along with some Goblins in a cave. Right now, this build is a walking simulator with baseline mechanics, art, and styles.

(InTheAttic)Dev Log

September 10th, 2026

This proof of concept was my attempt to blend what I initially did in the first build of the Crystal Caverns with a 2d visual aspect. However, I felt the amount of content that would need to be made, and all the debugging, systems, etc. did not justify the time spent, especially when I was just about to start up a new semester of college.

Development stopped after the initial proof of concept, because I felt it showed off what I would like to do if I had more time and resources to pool into it. While it cost me next to nothing to develop the Heartstone Caverns across the last year (the only real cost being to host this website), just to get the alpha build of this going I spent around $70 or so in one and a half months.

$50 for some assets by an artist that I will link to below, $15 for Aseprite (one time buy, and has been helpful for InTheAtticZine), then add in tax. As I was developing this, I was looking into the indie game market and the surrounding ecosystem around it, and came to the conclusion that there was a good chance that the game would not recoup even that initial investment, let alone further costs like art that sells the idea of the game, marketing time/spend, etc. (Also, 40% of all games on Steam in 2025 made less than $100).

Furthermore, the 2d sidescrolling genre is fairly overstuffed and assets not made specifically unique for one game (even if altered) can be seen as a mark of low quality. As someone who considers themself a writer first, and got into development to tell unique stories, a lot of this seemed like barriers blocking me from telling stories. I spent an hour, if that, writing the quest that is in this alpha. It took me probably 20+ hours to program it into the game, and that is not counting the creation of geo, finding and tweaking assets, etc. Twenty hours is probably how much time it took me to first plan and draft out Rogue 4, which is over 15k words.

And honestly, I do not consider myself a ‘novice’ programmer, like I can get stuff done (this site!), but at times it felt like I had to reinvent the wheel because nobody would be willing to give up a system they made for free. I get it, but open source fuels many projects, such as pyodide that is the backbone of my text engine. To me it felt as though, when we use these more proprietary game engines, helpful systems are often locked behind payment.

When it is just lines of code you manage every little detail can be self made and a mingamillion packages are out there waiting to be used. My parser engine is a little, just a little (putting it nice) ramshackle, but it is mine and I learned so much. I chose to reinvent the wheel there so I could learn about interactive storytelling, but did not have to invent my own thing when I wanted to get the beta online for others to see.

That is why when I went back to the Heartstone game, we had an explosion of content, and update 1.3 was historic in how much narrative content I pushed at once. I was writing first and then going ‘how can I get this story into the game?’ I have good memories of sitting down to create the Nest area, the Red Knight stronghold, Kaitlyn’s first quest, and Marla’s inclusion in the game. I would say that update, 1.3, was when I fell in love with this fantasy world and knew for certain what stories I wanted to tell in it.

The evolution has been: Crystal Caverns 1.0 made me confident I could do fantasy storytelling, this alpha made me confident on my scope/tone of fantasy, and the Heartstone Caverns was my first draft at a sprawling fantasy epic. The upcoming novel and short novel will then be a long journey finally realized.

Credits

Programming, Design, and Writing by - Connor | YodaInTheAttic

Pixel art assets by GandalfHardcore.