!EJML%

The first game I ever tried to make was basically a Poptropica mod, if we are being generous with the word “make”. I loved Poptropica because it made the internet feel like a little passport. Every island had its own rules, its own problem, its own strange adults standing around waiting for you to click on them. I wanted to make an island where the map changed after midnight and the quest giver was lying, which was probably too much ambition for a child who mostly knew how to rename files and make a mess.

Poptropica and Toontown were also where I lived with my best friend for a while, even though she was on the other side of the country. We would Skype for hours after school, both of us with terrible microphones, homework ignored, dinner getting cold, one of us saying “wait, wait, go back” every thirty seconds. We were not doing anything impressive. We were just running around, comparing outfits, getting stuck, laughing at the same stupid thing, and treating those worlds like places we could actually meet.

Later I moved into modding more properly, or at least more stubbornly. Toontown had this cheerful corporate nightmare thing going on, which I loved before I had words for it. Then Among Us got me hooked on how quickly a group of people can invent rules, accusations, loyalties, grudges and full courtroom drama from almost nothing.

I did not think of any of that as game design at the time. I just liked changing the rules and making places for people to behave strangely together. Looking back, that is still what I am doing: building worlds with odd rules, social panic, little rituals, bad maps, secret systems and enough room for someone to call their best friend and stay too long.