Luminary: Echoes of the Forgotten Age

I don't think I've ever been as locked into a game as I was with Pokémon HeartGold. I played that thing until the cartridge barely worked. Walking around Johto with your starter following behind you, the Kanto postgame, the Red fight on Mt. Silver. Nothing has hit the same way since. That game shaped what I think a good RPG feels like.

I'd think about making my own version all the time as a kid. Obviously I had no idea how to actually do it back then, but the idea never really went away. I just figured one day I'd get around to it.

Claude Fable 5 is honestly what made this go from a shower thought to an actual project. I'm not an artist. I can't draw sprites from scratch. But with Fable 5, I could generate original creatures, iterate on designs, build out dialogue, and move at a pace that would've been impossible on my own.

That's kind of the whole point for me. I like adopting new tech early and figuring out what you can actually do with it. Not just reading about it, but sitting down and shipping something real. Fable 5 wasn't just a tool here, it was basically a creative partner. I handled the game design, the story direction, and the vision. It helped me execute on the parts I couldn't do alone.

Luminary is set in a region that got abandoned after some ancient civilization disappeared overnight. You're an explorer trying to figure out what happened, and along the way you befriend creatures called Luminants that are tied to the land itself.

The story is a bit darker than your typical Pokémon game. It's more mystery-driven. As you go deeper, you start realizing maybe bringing back the old civilization isn't the right move. I wanted it to feel like the games I loved as a kid but with a story that doesn't hold your hand.

I think this project is a pretty good example of how I approach things in general. I find something I'm genuinely passionate about, I figure out what tools and tech can help me get there, and then I just build it. That's how Tronic started, that's how Circuit Capital started, and that's what happened here.

Being able to pick up new technologies quickly and actually use them to make things, that's probably the most transferable skill I have. It doesn't matter if it's a web agency, a finance app, or a video game. The process is the same: get excited about something, learn what you need to learn, and ship it.

Not everything I build needs to be a business or a resume line. Sometimes you just want to make the game you wished existed when you were ten years old. And honestly, those are usually the projects you learn the most from.