About

Hey! I'm Reefpirate, and you've found my games.

Where it started

I've been dreaming about making games for almost as long as I can remember playing them. It started with the NES my older brother had, then the first home computer our family got, then tabletop RPGs I sometimes played but more often just loved reading the rulebooks for, then panicked games of foosball with my friends at university. Through all of it I was fascinated by the same thing: how simple rules and simple systems can lead to such chaotic and wonderful outcomes, in what people do and in how they feel.

That is what the line under the mark means. Forma ex machina is Latin for something like "form out of the machine": shapes that emerge from systems. Emergent systems and emergent play are what I love to play, and what I want to make.

What I make

Now is my chance to share those dreams with you. Games that aren't just addictive or fun, but compelling and transporting. Games that are challenging but fair, where losing tells you something and never just wastes your time. Games that are spontaneous and chaotic while staying faithful to the clear, simple rules that produce everything that emerges from them. Above all, I make games I really want to play myself. It's the best motivation I know.

The road to Full-Metal Tapped

I've been at this since my first attempts in QBASIC, and the trail behind me is mostly dead prototypes, plus two games that barely made it out the door. Full-Metal Tapped is the closest I've come to a game I'm truly proud to share with the world. It owes something to a great many games, but the ones at the front of my mind are Syndicate and Syndicate Wars, which I played to death as a kid, Dune: Imperium, the worker-placement game I've played the most, and Deus Ex.

Stay a while

So take your time: browse, play, and get absorbed into the stern but fair rules of my worlds. I hope you enjoy your stay, even if it's only for a short while. I put my heart and soul into the craft, and without players it would all be rather meaningless.

If you like what I do, please consider paying what you like on the itch.io page of one of my games or supporting me on Patreon.