About

First of all, who the hell are you?

I'm a solo dev who loves making video games. A real human person living in the Pacific Northwest.

Why the name "HibachiCat Games"?

Because I like hibachi. Also, I like cats! Plus, restaurant hibachi is a culinary experience where the meal is prepared quickly in front of you with some fun and flourish, which is how I like to think I approach game development. Plus, in my research I learned that Japanese hibachi actually had a built-in cat shelf. And MOST importantly, the name wasn't taken yet.

Do you have a cat?

No… I have two! Check them out:

Have you made stuff on the internet before?

In another life I worked on a webcomic that was very popular at the time. It was fun! The webcomic space has evolved a lot since those days, with social media companies dominating all of the attention so that artists and creators are just serving their work into the content machine. Remember WEBSITES?? This is a website. Isn't that refreshing??

Do you have a background in game development?

In yet another life I directed a small independent video game studio (cool!). We made a couple mobile games (ew!) but despite the format we tried to give the games some sense of craftsmanship (hooray!) but those games failed miserably in the sea of P2W shovelware (boo!).

Are your games mobile friendly?

No. And neither am I.

How often do you make games?

I'm shooting for shipping 1 game a month. Probably a bad idea!

What's your game development process?

The most important thing is to spend WAAAY too much time actually brainstorming the game, ensuring that you can never go for a walk, take a shower, or fall asleep at night without deciding if a blob should SPLAT or POW.

Can you recommend any resources on game development?

I absolutely adore The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell. It's the closest I've seen to a single textbook that can get you from 0 to 1 as a game developer. It's excellent for showing why it takes so long to polish a game. I also enjoyed A Theory of Fun by Ralph Koster, I think about it a lot when deciding the full scope of when a game is "finished."

Why game development?

Game development lives at the intersection of entertainment and technology, which is a DIRECT HIT on my interests. I programmed my very first video game on a TI-83 plus calculator. It was a butt that toots when you poke it!

Do your games cost money to play? Do you have ads? Are you selling my information??

I might do a Patreon or donation thing down the line. No ads. And frankly, I wouldn't even know how to sell your information.

Do you use AI to make your games?

Claude Code is the primary AI tool that I use to make the games. I have a coding background but Claude has been an excellent partner in actually building these games as a solo developer. Claude is the tech lead and I am the director.

The backgrounds and music are procedurally generated under my direction in Claude. For gameplay assets, I do my own drawings and I stylize them in Gemini. Here are some samples of game assets sketches below:

How do you feel about the use of AI and robots in generating artistic projects?

Man, you are really pressing me on this, which is a surprise because I'm also the one writing the questions.

Honest answer, these projects are very much my squishy human vision with the assistance of cutting edge robot tools. Also. I know for a fact that these tools were trained on art that I produced earlier in my career, so there's THAT. But in the end the MOST honest answer is that it's FUN to build stuff on my own. I've been making games on and off for decades now, and the availability of these tools allows me to goof around in ways I've only dreamed of. The robot is an excellent paintbrush, and I still feel in control as the painter.

And I think that's the secret here. I'm making these games because they spark joy, make me laugh, and the act of creation tickles my brain in just the right way (leg kick).

What about the stolen artistic work to train these models??

Okay, I think that's enough AI questions. Can you just ask me my favorite ice cream flavor?

Sure, what's your favorite ice cream flavor, you traitor to humanity?

Chocolate chip cookie dough!

Can I get an email when a new game comes out?

Yes! There's a signup form at the bottom of the page. Unsubscribe whenever, see if I care. I'm not crying, you're crying.

How do I reach you?

Send feedback, bug reports, cat pics, whatever to hello (at) hibachicat (dot) com.