Solo Developer, Two Kids, and a Wacom Tablet: Creating The Abandoned Planet

Sure, here’s a reimagined version:

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Okay, so here I am, trying to balance a regular job—you know, the 9-to-5 grind—and the whole parenting gig. Got two kids. One, just to spice things up, was born right while I was knee-deep in making this game! Anyway, imagine me in this corner of a messy Florida bedroom—it’s a makeshift office-slash-nursery. Chaos? Absolutely. There’s this tiny desk, barely room for my trusty Moleskine, which I’m scribbling all over with sketches of game levels and little arrows. Oh, and don’t forget my toddler. He’d climb over my laptop, trying to help—sort of. What I thought would be a one-year “passion project” turned into two and a half years of this crazy solo dev journey. I was the whole package: coder, artist, musician, even invented this quirky base-7 number system and an alien alphabet. Yep, we got nerdy.

Now let’s talk pixels. Every single one in The Abandoned Planet? All me, hunched over my Wacom tablet. I obsessed over every tiny detail. The animation? Frame-by-frame. The soundscape? Eerie as heck, if I do say so myself. The game movement? Retro-style with a four-way D-Pad, but polished with just the right snap—feel me? And you’re wandering through this alien land, cracking cryptic codes and snagging weird objects. It screams ’90s adventure but with a twist for all you modern-day gamers out there.

And there I go jumping ahead. Anyway—no, hang on. Where was I? Oh yeah, the game itself. It’s like this blend of retro and modern, pixel art that’ll have you staring, and a slick, high-def UI. You get this swift movement that keeps things sharp—none of that sluggish, clunky nonsense. Classic point-and-click vibes, you know? Use what you’ve got to wake up ancient totems, or whatever, and dive into the unknown. Five acts, over 300 spots to explore—and don’t get me started on the cutscenes. Quick but dynamic, and totally adds to the story.

This game’s speaking multiple tongues too. English is in there, of course, alongside 10 other languages, complete with funky alien chatter! Oh, and while it stands alone, it’s part of a bigger series—I think the next one’s got potential. Fingers crossed, right?

You crash land on a distant planet. Literally, a wormhole spits you out, and boom, you’re exploring, trying to figure out where everyone went and how to get back home. That pixel art? Chunky and beautiful. Those countless locations? Begging to be explored. Fully voiced, whether you want it or not. It’s all about solving mysteries and reliving those ’90s game feels with a fresh twist.

Man, writing this makes me want to dive back in. Maybe this weekend—no wait, I promised a family day. See? Life’s always about balance.