/ FROM THE ONE DESK

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DEVLOG

Build notes, design decisions and the occasional post-mortem — written from the desk where every PocketDesires game gets made.

DESIGNENGINEERINGWRITINGSTUDIO
FEATURED — DESIGN · 2026.07.28 · 6 MIN READ

Why CELLBLOCK has no money in it

Removing currency from a management sim sounds like a restriction. It turned out to be the whole design.

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2026.07.14Your thumb is the thrust: building scrubbable scenesHTML5 video cannot scrub smoothly. Here is what Pocket Desires does instead, and why it runs at 60fps on a phone.ENGINEERING · 7 MIN2026.06.30Hiding a mystery inside a grading minigameTeaching Is Hard buries its central reveal in homework margins. The player solves it without noticing they are investigating.DESIGN · 5 MIN2026.06.16Five women, one island, and the ex who is watchingSTRANDED runs on secrecy. Every design decision serves the fact that nobody can find out.WRITING · 6 MIN2026.06.02Ten moods, three tries: designing a conversation as a puzzleSomething Something never tells you what to pour. It tells you how she is feeling, and lets you work out the rest.DESIGN · 5 MIN2026.05.19How one person keeps eight games movingNo team and no publisher. What actually makes eight titles survivable is a shared foundation, one visual rule, and knowing what the real bottleneck is.STUDIO · 5 MIN

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CELLBLOCKTEACHING IS HARD... ESPECIALLY AT NIGHTSTRANDEDPOCKET DESIRESI FOUND AN APPSOMETHING SOMETHINGALL GAMES

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