iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eric @mokkograd.net · 20/09/2026

It is possible that you run into the Wurf Lady towards the end of Eswahr Eternal. She likes to throw the hero at other enemies, which due to some coding quirks, also includes herself. Throw your eyes towards the game's Steam page for some critical damage: store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 19/09/2026

This week I added the world's most dangerous creature to Eswahr Eternal. I suggest you wishlist the game on Steam, or else it might come over for a visit. store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

screenshot from my videogame Eswahr Eternal. It shows a classic JRPG battlefield. The Sun is setting in the background behind some hills and our Hero has to face a Hippo that is about four times their size.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 13/09/2026

It's been a week since I published the Steam page for Eswahr Eternal. I can't see the game's numbers, so I just assume that it is, as the people might say: "trending". Have you visited said steam page? You should go there and do what needs to be done: store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 11/09/2026

This is every enemy (aside from the final bosses and some rare encounters) that you might encounters in Eswahr Eternal. Who do you guess is the most fun to fight? Visit the game's Steampage and consider your options: store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

image showing every enemy I made for my JRPG so far. It's a lot, so here are some highlights:

A small worm, A large worm that's just the small worm but upscaled, A town on legs, a Crab, Two Eggs, Some ladies with fruits for their heads. Three different versions of a lot of Swans, a Garden Knome who wields two knives.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 11/09/2026

Funny how I wrote this on Monday morning, not being aware what specific type of discourse was about bubble up again. mokkograd.net/posts/2026-0...

At some point on Sunday morning, I was a bit doubtful about the whole thing. Announcing a game and making it more "real" is always a risk, because suddenly you get a better idea of how that thing you've been working on and excited about, might be received by others. However, I then remembered that I'm making a videogame, and that videogames is full of people who spent days yelling at each other about the virtue's of yellow paint on environmental objects and thought to myself:

"The world deserves this."

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 09/09/2026

One thing I'm proud of in Eswahr Eternal are the "Field Effects" that affect both the player and the enemy. These can range from horrible weather, poisonous swamps, to a Baer with a Sniper Rifle. Feel free to consider Eswahr Eternal's Steam page here: store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 08/09/2026

There are a lot of strange beasts you need to fight in Eswahr Eternal, among the most dangerous of all is the "Egg that will rob you". Ponder the game's steam page here: store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 08/09/2026

hey, that looks a lot like mine, though you were a bit more thorough.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/09/2026

Among other things, this blog talks about the ideas behind Eswahr Eternal and how it relates to my wider thoughts about failure/mistakes in videogames, and how that in turn is connected to that whole idea of "Evil Game Design".

Videogames hate mistakes, that's why they reset players to checkpoints, or throw a game over into their faces. It's easier to have the player try again and hopefully to it "correctly" this time, then having to figure out how to deal with the fact, that the supposed hero of the story just got eaten by a Frog.

So for me, all that talk about "Evil Game Design", aside from making fun of the dorks who think that "Good Game Design" is a thing that exists and is worthy of pursuit, is to create a framework that (ideally) leads to games where players will make more mistakes and more importantly, they have to live with them.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/09/2026

Have you seen the Trailer I made for Eswahr Eternal? I would very much like you to look at it. And after the trailer, you can look at the game's Steam page andIdontknowmaybeputthegameonyourwishlistnopressurethoughwellmaybealittlebitofpressure? store.steampowered.com/app/5198420/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 06/09/2026

Just going through some screenshots I saved (and shared in more secret places). The game obviously has Mimics! I'm very proud of the system I built for them.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 06/09/2026

Honestly, the main reason why I published the page is because I've been sitting on so much cool stuff I wanted to share. For example: This game has "misfortunes" which are things that might happen to your character when they lose a battle. Here's what the "Bad Weather" misfortune looks like:

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 02/09/2026

If anything in a JRPG could be a battle, then obviously you could have a random encounter that's just a town, right?

screenshot from my other JRPG game. It shows the character in a "battle" against a "foe" called "Wanderdorf", the regular battle options like "fight" are replaced with actions you would normally do in a JRPG town.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 31/08/2026

Managed to get a lot of important work done on Other RPG last week, which means today I get to indulge myself in some pointless detail work. Such as making sure that the player character properly plops into their bed when they take a nap.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 27/08/2026

Made an annotated video for other RPG (related to that whole 'when do I announce it?' thing) and while I learned new ways to hate my video editing software, this moment alone made it all worth it.

Screenshot from a gameplay video of my JRPG game. The character is walking across some hilly terrain on a map, while above it the text "These Hills are in Range of a Baer with a Sniper Rifle."

I have not miss-spelled "Bear" here. It is a Baer, which is a German Bear but without the Umlaut.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 23/08/2026

It's great how videogames just let you put anything you want in them. You could, for example, put a desert into your JRPG, where you fight against a bad German translation of a Crypto Farm.

Screenshot from my other JRPG project showing a Battle between the game's hero and an enemy called "Kryptic Farm", which sort of resembles a server bank.
The Fight is taking place in a desert area.

Did you ever notice how under Capitalism, an empty wasteland with a functioning Crypto farm would still constitute a healthy society, because it would still generate value?

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 20/08/2026

I've since pivoted over into making RPGs. I'm still a bit away from making a proper announcement, but here's a little teaser of what it's hopefully coming your way fairly soon:

Screenshot from my current RPG project. It shows a classic JRPG battle screen. A Hero named "Wille" is facing off against an enemy called "Deadly Decapod", which looks like a big Crab.
The battlefield looks a bit like some kind of underground lake.

(spoiler: This Fight won't end well for our Hero. The Crab is called "Deadly" for a reason)

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 15/08/2026

Worked really hard on the Teaching Animals these past few days:

Screenshot from my RPG project. It shows a top-down view of something sort of looking like a town-square. The center of the image is dominated by a big tree. To the left sits a dog, and to the right a Cat.
The Cat is named Squash and is currently saying:
"I'm too tired to answer any questions. Go and talk to the Dog, if you want to learn something."

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 13/08/2026

Hello friends. "Other JRPG-Game" (not to be confused with "JRPG-Game") is almost ready for some playtesting. If you're interested helping me out here, just send me a DM (they are open), or get in touch via other means (email, discord etc.).

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 12/08/2026

Honestly, part of the joy with these RPG projects is putting together these larger images that show all the awful little guys I drew for them.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 12/08/2026

Best look at I had of the Eclipse without damaging my eyes.

Picture of some distant buildings, that are just high enough to cover up the sun. Sadly the photograph does a poor job in showing the light that radiated around the building. It was very pale.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 11/08/2026

Who knows how long it'll be until I will allow myself to actually talk about this project in public. Until then, enjoy these pictures of the little guys I'm drawing for it.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 10/08/2026

Introducing the concept of "fighting against 1800 Swans at once" to the JRPG genre.

screenshot showing a classic pixel art JRPG battle screen. Some hills are in the Background, the sun is setting and your tiny character has to fight three enemies, that from left to right are called "Schwan900", "Schwan300" and "Schwan600".

P.S.: "Schwan" is German for "Swan".

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/08/2026

I want to inform you all that the world map in "other JRPG" now has tiny clouds that move across it.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/08/2026

Oh this thing is great:

A perfect drawing of a round Kirby.

(it's actually more of a wonky egg-shaped face with tiny eyes and a tilted smile, the colouring could also do some work.)

Definitely a good Kirby drawing right there.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 03/08/2026

Virtue's Heaven is 20% off on Steam! If you ever wanted to play a game that lets you hug your friends and shoot unreasonably large laser beams at abstract representations of Techno-Fascism, you should give it a look. store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 29/07/2026

Fiddled around a bit today and stumbled over the "Octopath Traveler" button.

screenshot showing a pixel art RPG overworld map. There's an overlay effect that makes the map get very bright and overblown towards the upper and lower edges.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 28/07/2026

I've just spent two days making this tileset and I'm so happy with how it looks, that I'm breaking my "don't share anything form other RPG on blsky" rule to post this screenshot. You're welcome.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 26/07/2026

Went through my music project folder to look for tracks that I might be able to re-purpose/modify for a thing and sometimes I am my worst enemy.

screenshot showing a bunch of project files for various piece of music I made over the years. They are all called variations of "dadadada" and similar things that make it very easy and obvious which track I was working on.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 25/07/2026

Been doing this for a while now and I still get very excited when I pull them out of the oven.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 24/07/2026

I'm a bit concerned that I'm oversharing this post a bit much, but I also rarely make something that I'm genuinely proud of.

A lot of essays and talks about the state of videogames culture and game design at some point say "Games could be so much more!", when in fact they already are.

The work is already being done, different approaches to game design, production and distribution already exist. Most of what I just said, has already been said several times over.

However, as long as we cling to this idea that a videogame can only ever be a product, or a service, we will continue to ignore the things that might point us towards a better future.

Whatever exists right now is utterly hostile towards any kind of work, that does not fit into a very small set of rules.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 24/07/2026

thinking of him again...

image showing Admiral Wagenseil from Legend of Galactic Heroes. He died within 15 minutes of being introduced.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 24/07/2026

The ambivalence of modern life (check alt text if you need a translation):

picture of a paper coffee cup. It says in German "Paper instead of PET this cup is made out of sustainable (re-growing?) raw material"

picture of the same coffee cup, but slightly rotated showing a label that says in German "this product contains plastic"

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 14/07/2026

Had a window seat on my way back yesterday and obviously I had to try and take pictures of stuff (I don't fly all that often).

picture showing my hometown out of the window of an airplane.

Picture of some low hanging clouds with hills in the background

picture of the sun shining through the clouds down at the landscape.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/07/2026

Oh no! Only two days left to get the "Final Videogame" at 25% less than its usual price? I've heard, if you buy a copy you hasten the demise of videogames, and if that isn't a reason to give me some money (I'm broke) I don't know what else could convince you: store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 03/07/2026

Still another week or so to get Virtue's Heaven at 25% off (=around $15)! That's a shockingly low price for that many explosions, let me tell you. Please buy it on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 27/06/2026

On one hand, my kitchen is now uninhabitable. On the other hand, I have this. So who can say if this was the correct decision or not.

picture of the Pizza I just pulled out of my oven. I messed up the forming a bit, so it has a tiny hole at the center, that I desperately tried to cover up with some of the nearby salami.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 25/06/2026

It is too hot for marketing speech. Virtue's Heaven is a videogame that is also very hot, but in a more pleasant way. It is also 25% off during the Steam Summer Sale. It has never been cheaper to punch some fools into oblivion. store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 20/06/2026

And done! Neo Exdeath decided to be evil and immediately went into "I'm going to murder your party now" mode the moment he went down to his last piece. Glad he chose to do Meteo and then Maelstrom and not the other way around though.

Screenshot of my FF5 party while Neo Exdeath is crumbling into pixels

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 20/06/2026

The plan was to have Krile hide, and then rush out once Giga Flare is charging to hit it with Toad. I messed up the timing and got hit in the face for 3000 damage, but that made all the more funny.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 20/06/2026

As much as I kind of hate this party composition, it does force me to think a bit more about some bossfights. Found this funny set up for Melusine where I could repeatedly charm her, which then gave me enough space to keep attacking and hoping to score enough crits to get through her hp.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 19/06/2026

it went okay at first: I managed to get both enemies down, but messed up the timing which left me only with poor old Grandpa Galuf. I then spend 20 minutes hiding from the cannon, running out of hiding, punching it once, and going back into hiding. Here's the last 2 minutes of it:

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 15/06/2026

Look who's going to give a talk about their favourite subject for @glasgowindiegamesfest.org next month:

This talk won’t be about how to exploit players for money, or how to manipulate them into staying with your game for longer. It also won’t sing the praises of games that are needlessly hostile to its players.

It will be about treating games as statements, rather than products. About the joy in making things that are ambivalent, incoherent and obscure.

Games are made by humans and thus it is up to us decide what shape they take. If “”Good Game Design”” let to the proliferation of compulsory and exploitative systems, then it needs a counterpart. Evil Game Design is meant to offer a vision of what this might look like, but it is by no means fully formed, nor is it meant to be.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 14/06/2026

Especially this bit:

Nothing lives in a deadzone. If Steam, and Indiegames in general, are a Deadzone, then anything that exists within it is either already dead, doomed to die, or is feeding on the detritus at the bottom, and thus introducing even more toxins into it.

Indiegames are dead. What we see today is a corpse that is being driven around by financial interests, keen on producing a never ending chain of repetitive, meaningless interaction machines and to enter it either means death, or to turn into one of the worms that pilot it.

This is not the fault of any singular person. It is the result of a systemic and historic process. Sure, humans propelled this process forward, but many of those that act within it, are doing so, because they can't see any other way. The Deadzone after all, also exists within us.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 27/05/2026

I hate the word "friction" as a descriptor for idiosyncratic design elements in videgames and I wish people would stop using it:

When Dragon's Dogma 2 came out, I almost lost my mind when I kept seeing people describe the more idiosyncratic elements of its design as "friction". I've since started to really dislike this term and this relates to this idea of games as a Restaurant. The term "Friction" only makes sense, if you consider the ideal state of a videogame to be one where everything within it works to service the player's interests and desires. From that point of view, "friction" is any element that disturbs those smoothly orbiting systems and reminds the player that what they are experiencing is the result of human labour. A wonky fast-travel system in that sense is like the waiter who takes a bit too long to take your order, or the food that is slightly overcooked.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 21/05/2026

Virtue's Heaven is still discounted on Steam! Some people describe the game's systems as "cryptic", but I would describe it as having "secret depths". Regardless, the game explodes nicely when you press the button. You can also hug people to get stronger. store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 18/05/2026

To mark Virtue's Heaven's 1st Anniversary in a few days, the game is 15% off on Steam for the entire week. I'm trying to collect some thoughts about the game itself, my expectations and everything else, but until then, please give it a look: store.steampowered.com/app/1929860/...

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 07/05/2026

Trying to fix some issues with my current colour palette and if you ever want to have an illustration what it feels like to be red-green colourblind, these three colours look almost exactly the same to me, especially 1 and 3.

Screenshot showing three colours on a black background. The left most colour according to the RBG values is a shade of red, the right-most colour a shade of green. However they look exactly the same to me. The on in the middle is a bit brighter, but if I look at it longer it starts to kind of blend into the others, making it harder to recognize.

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Eric @mokkograd.net · 30/04/2026

Commenting my code with warnings for a future version of myself who will definitely still get confused and spend a day yelling at code not doing what they thought it would do.

screenshot from my Game Maker code window, showing the following comments:

sub_exit_up== GOING TOWARDS THE UPPER LAYER, NOT INCREASE THE PAGE NUMBER

sub_exit_down== GOING TOWARDS THE LOWER LAYERS, NOT DECREASE THE PAGE NUMBER

I know you will get this mixed up, I'm trying to warn you, good luck!

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