Since childhood, video games have always been a love of mine. My parents would be away at work all day, so the hours home alone, without a console or gaming device in reach, were spent imagining and reminiscing about the games I’d played, trying to recreate them in my head. Growing up brought a job and an income, and with them came access to almost every gaming device out there. I love it <3
15/04/2022 - Start Learning Godot
My first game engine is Godot, and of course, my first tutorial project for learning it is Flappy Bird XD
Next came an attempt at a platformer called Dino Run. Godot won me over fast, but it doesn’t feel quite ready for the mobile game development ecosystem yet.
18/05/2022 - Create a Wiki in Notion
Depression had a grip on me at the time, but the goal of becoming a game creator kept me going, so learning turned into a daily habit (Godot and some Unity).
Even when I was tired, I did it tired :D
27/05/2022 - First Gamedev Group Chat
Started a gamedev collab with my brother-in-law. He did the code, and I was in charge of the rest - a fun start!
We picked Unity as the game engine for this 3D project, inspired by a game called Chameleon Run by Jan Ilavský.
This project helped me a lot to learn and understand Unity workflow - early prototype looked really ugly XD
I started learning 3D modeling, texturing, UV unwrapping, and animation with Blender at this time. I kinda like the 3D art workflow more than 2D.
Having some fun :D
Really happy at the result at that moment :)
All of my games always have an easter egg about Bum, my good boy!
Combine everything, we still have ugly prototype XD
Started working on UI/UX, learning Figma, and found out this tool is really useful for both the game designer and developer workflow.
17/02/2024 - Release Poppy Pogo
A lot of testing and fixing bugs XD
Some polish on visual and new main character model.
After roundly 1 year and a half we try to publish this game on Google Play for the first time.
Boss Level
My beloved wife helped me with store assets <3
My sister support
This first release wasn’t a success in terms of profit, but my main goal for this project was to set a first commercial milestone in my game creator career.
My cozy gamedev corner.
One more thing about this game - and every game I make - there’s always an Easter egg dedicated to my beloved dog, BUM, who has passed away.
It’s my way of making sure a small part of him lives on in every world I create.
08/03/2024 - Project Justice Jumple
We’ve moved to a new place. I’ll miss my previous game development setup.
At the time, we had no idea what kind of game we wanted to make, so we chose an easy genre (Match 3) for our next project.
During development, I became much more confident with Blender and 3D modeling. XD
This project also taught us how to build and operate a live ops system for mobile games.
In the end, we had disagreements about the product direction and development pipeline, so we decided to abandon the project. Even so, I still love the genre, and I think I’ll return to it as a solo developer someday.
My wife always teases me about the way I sit after a long day of game development.
This was my game development corner at the time.
08/03/2024 - Project Suikabara
During this time, I met several freelance artists and developers who also loved making games, so I came up with a small and simple project that we could build together.
We chose a game inspired by the Suika Game genre because one of the artists was a huge fan of QSwatermelon: Money Land XD
Development wasn’t as smooth as I had expected. Since it was a hobby project, progress only moved forward when I kept pushing everyone to continue.
Whenever development slowed down, I jumped in to tackle whatever was blocking the project, and eventually we finished the game.
To be honest, I wasn’t completely happy with the final result. Most of my dissatisfaction came from disagreements about the game’s visual style and overall direction.
In the end, we released the game, but it didn’t generate the profit we had hoped for.
The biggest lesson I learned from this project was that making a game with people who are working for free is incredibly difficult. Everyone loves the idea of making games, but when reality sets in, very few people can stay committed until the end.
This project made me realize that one of my greatest strengths is persistence. I believe persistence is far more important than motivation or even talent when it comes to the indie game development journey.
01/01/2025 - Next Station Games Start
Most version control platforms impose storage limits and require paid plans to add more team members. To avoid those limitations, I self-hosted GitLab CE on a Raspberry Pi 5 for my team.
I’m really proud of this project. It significantly reduces operating costs while giving us the flexibility to collaborate with as many people as we need.
After a successful fundraising round, my team was finally able to pursue game development full-time. When it came time to name the company, I chose Next Station Games simply because I’ve always loved Japan and the concept of trains. It felt like the perfect name for the journey we were about to begin.
My wife and I designed our very first company logo together.
10/03/2025 - Next Station Games Company
This was the day Next Station Games was born.
The beginning wasn’t easy. Some of the hardest moments came from the people I trusted the most.
Looking back, I think everything happened the way it needed to. Those experiences prepared me for the road ahead. This period took a heavy toll on my mental health, and I had to confront feelings of founder’s loneliness, sadness, anger, and hope all at once.
Thankfully, I wasn’t alone. My wife stood by my side through every step of the journey, and I don’t think I could have made it through without her support.
Little by little, I regained my confidence, left the painful experiences behind, and kept moving forward.
That was the beginning of all the good things that were yet to come.
06/06/2025 - Release Petalia on Google Play
This was the first project we developed in collaboration with our angel investor. I was incredibly excited and full of hope for what we could achieve together.
The game was about matching flowers, and I poured my heart into its design. I genuinely believed players would love the mechanics and the ideas behind it.
When the game was released, I felt proud. Our team structure was finally taking shape, and we had built a solid development workflow. Even so, some issues became apparent after launch, which eventually sent me back to the planning board to rethink our direction.
During development, I also had to work with someone from our partner’s team who was very difficult to collaborate with. It was one of the most challenging communication experiences I’ve had. Eventually, I became exhausted and frustrated. I still don’t understand why some people choose to treat others poorly, regardless of the situation.
One of the best decisions I made during the development of Petalia was investing in Spine 2D. It was by far the best software purchase I made that year. I taught myself how to use it and learned how to integrate it effectively into our game development pipeline. Looking back, it paid for itself many times over.
12/01/2026 - First Annual Review with Partner and Realization
This was the moment I realized that the games we were making with our investor weren’t the kinds of games I truly wanted to create. It wasn’t anyone’s fault - we simply had different goals.
Our partner focused on making games that were profitable and efficient to produce. I wanted to make games that were, above all, fun to play. Neither approach is wrong; it’s simply the difference between a commercial studio mindset and an indie developer mindset.
Thinking back to my time at VNG and Google, I remember that almost every discussion about games revolved around metrics, revenue, scalability, retention, and profit. Those conversations never excited me. What I really wanted to hear was someone asking, “Is the game actually fun?”
At the same time, I wasn’t working alone anymore. I had employees and teammates who depended on me. I couldn’t just walk away and leave them behind. XD
So I changed my mindset. The games we developed with our angel investor became my job, and I committed to doing that job well. But I also knew that if I only worked on commercial projects, the passion that made me love game development would eventually burn out.
That’s when I started building solo projects on the side - games that I wanted to make, where I didn’t have to justify every design decision or prove every idea to anyone else. They became my creative outlet.
Looking back, I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s what has kept my passion for game development alive to this day.
09/02/2026 - First NSG Annual Meeting & Future Proof Plan
About a year after founding the company, I finally had a clear vision for our future based on everything we had experienced.
I wanted Next Station Games to grow into a sustainable studio without becoming a work-for-hire company or just another studio building games for other people.
The plan was simple.
Our paid team would continue developing projects with our angel investor, providing the stability needed to grow the company. At the same time, we would dedicate time to our own passion projects, the games we truly wanted to create.
Looking back, I think this balance has worked surprisingly well. It has kept the passion for making games alive within the team. Everyone knows that our long-term goal isn’t to make games for other people forever. One day, we’ll be known for creating our own.
During this year, I also met Seb, a developer from Colombia who was living and working in New Zealand. He was building his own take on an Overcooked-style game, and we quickly became friends.
For the first time in my career, I found someone who wanted to talk about the things I truly loved - game technology, gameplay ideas, whether a mechanic was actually fun, hand-painted art, 3D modeling, rigging, animation, and all the little details that make game development so rewarding. We rarely talked about metrics, revenue, or monetization. Instead, we talked about making great games.
That friendship reminded me why I fell in love with game development in the first place.
A thoughtful gift from Seb and his wife. <3
17/03/2026 - Release Color Pixel Smash
Release Color Pixel Smash
1/07/2026 - Release Hexabug Flow
Release Hexabug Flow