Do You Believe in What We're Building?

After 2 whole years, it's time to take Mystery Gamedev to the next level

Mystery Gamedev has clearly grown far beyond its original scope. What started as a small group chat has evolved into a shared mission, driven by hundreds of fans and developers who are passionate about the mystery game genre.

So first, thank you. Whether you’ve been following from the beginning or just joined recently, your support has helped me keep this going for the past two years.

Two Years of Growth

That’s right — since June of 2023, I’ve been working full-time to bootstrap Mystery Gamedev from scratch. My initial goal was just trying to get a decent number of mystery gamedevs in the same room, where we could help each other find solutions to our common problems, since there really just wasn't any place that could be done.

A month later, we opened the group to fans of mystery games too. And within just a few days, our Discord server instantly grew to over 100 members. Today, we're sitting at over 500 members, acquired through 100% organic, word-of-mouth traffic. Every newsletter post I now make consistently gets over 100 views by the end of the week it was posted, without question. The growth we’ve had is simply incredible.

So it was clear to me then, and still clear to me now, that I have to keep going. I've written over 100 weekly newsletters by now — writing them has become a natural part of my routine, and perhaps reading them has become a natural part of yours. The same could be said of our monthly developer Q&As and annual game jam events. Despite all the time and effort it takes for me to make these things happen, the truth is that I love every second of it.

And from what I keep hearing, you're all loving it too.

Some Words From Our Supporters

Take a look at these two messages I received:

The first message was sent to me by our very first paid subscriber back in August of 2023. And the second message was sent by email to me just a few days ago, from a completely different and much more recent subscriber.

It really gives me chills to think both messages used nearly identical words.

Because it means that people really do believe in Mystery Gamedev.

Two full years into this mission, and I've not only managed to keep that initial belief alive, but to an extent greater than it ever had been before.

And every time I talk to a mystery game developer in private, and I ask for their honest feedback, they tell me to just keep doing what I'm doing. Or sometimes unprompted, I'll get an email from a developer — without me even reaching out first — telling me they're impressed with what I've been building and they want to do anything they can to help.

I’m only mentioning all this to prove that there really is passion behind this project — not just from me, but from the people like you who support and believe in the mission.

And to be quite honest, I’ve never led a project that had this much vocal support behind it before. So it really does give me the motivation to keep going no matter what.

The Mission Ahead

Over the past two years, I’ve spent a lot of time building a project roadmap. I’ve made some progress on a lot of fronts, but there’s still much to be done.

Here’s a very condensed version of my current to-do list:

• Document, categorize, and organize all mystery games in a searchable database.

• Help even the smallest devs find fans who will fall in love with their game.

• Help fans discover new and affordable mystery games they want to play.

• Organize events where like-minded people can network and have fun.

• Offer ways for aspiring devs to learn from experienced mentors.

• Provide high-quality developer support to teams that need it.

• Release tools to build high-quality mystery games easier and faster.

• Develop educational resources that teach frameworks for mystery game design.

Even in its concise form, that's a pretty long list with some pretty big goals. And it was looking at that list, in combination with the outpouring of support I've received this past year, that made me realize the importance of keeping things going.

Keeping Things Going

I don’t share this lightly, but it’s important context for what happens next.

Like I said at the beginning, I've been working full-time for two years on Mystery Gamedev, fully bootstrapped from my own savings.

And I've known this whole time that there will be a day when those savings run out, and I’d have to either step back and treat this as a side project, or find a way to make it sustainable.

But just look at that to-do list — there’s no way it can all get done if Mystery Gamedev becomes just another side project. I’m already working on Mystery Gamedev full-time: writing weekly articles, building the database and developer tools, editing podcast episodes, organizing community events, and more. And each one of those really could be its own job!

I want to repeat that I genuinely enjoy doing all of that work, that I truly believe these problems need to be solved, and that I want to solve them all sooner than later. The only bottleneck is that it really just takes time.

Even in the past, when I worked on my own video game for 2 hours every night after getting home from work, it just wasn’t enough time for me make enough progress. That’s why I’ve been all-in on Mystery Gamedev from the beginning, to get to where we are today.

So as we begin our third year of Mystery Gamedev, it’s clear that all this work needs to become self-sustaining if it’s going to continue and grow.

And so that’s why, for the past several months, I’ve been creating a flagship product that can help support the mission while providing incredible value to anyone wanting to get started making their own mystery games.

Mystery Game Design Masterclass

Over the past several months, I’ve been working on something that pulls together everything I’ve learned into one focused resource — a complete course on mystery game design. It's the first of its kind, and it’s designed to help new and aspiring developers go from idea to prototype — from clueless to creator — using a clear and structured process.

In short, this is exactly the thing I wished existed when I was starting out.

The course will contain 50+ lessons across 6 modules:

1. Mystery Fundamentals

2. Planning Your Game

3. Setting & Characters

4. Clues & Twists

5. Adding Interactivity

6. Building Your Game

Each lesson is packed with valuable insights — not just from my 15+ years of experience making mystery games, but also from the research I’ve done and the many conversations I’ve had with other successful mystery game developers over the past two years. You’ll also receive special bonuses, including never-before-seen drafts and designs from my own mystery game series.

I estimate the total course length will be between 12 to 15 hours, though it’s hard to say exactly since I’m still recording the content. Also, there are many more lessons and recordings that I’ve already created, but they don’t necessarily fit into the above modules, so I had to cut them out or save them for later.

Finally, this will be a paid course, and I want to be clear about what that means.

All of the free content you’ve come to expect from Mystery Gamedev will remain free. I’m not retroactively putting anything behind a paywall. Instead, I’m adding new paid offers to make our mission sustainable long-term.

I’ve reached the point where continuing to grow Mystery Gamedev — with tools, content, mentorship, and more — requires a funding model that matches the scale of the mission. This course is the first major step in that direction.

I’ll be sharing more details in the coming weeks as we get closer to launch in October.

Be sure to subscribe to this newsletter to be reminded when the time comes!

Thank you again for being part of Mystery Gamedev.

Remember, we’re only just getting started!

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