PIXEL SAVED MY LIFE

My life’s game starts in 1982. Something marked me back then, like everything that followed couldn’t have gone any other way.
I’m maybe six. I walk into my cousin’s place. Next to a black-and-white TV sits a black box. I ask, “What’s that?” Pride in his voice: “ZX Spectrum. Wanna see?” I don’t know what a “Spectrum” is yet, and I have no idea my world is about to change. The TV fills with squares. They’re not random - they form shapes, shift colors, move. My cousin holds a black stick in his hand; when he moves it, the pixels on the screen respond. On a brown table there’s a box with a title I sound out: P-I-T-F-A-L-L. “Pitfall,” he says. That night I can’t sleep. One thought is stuck in my head: how does this work? Who makes this?

The next years I’m bouncing between friends’ apartments: Atari 800XL - Moon Patrol, River Raid, Boulder Dash. Atari 65XE - Bruce Lee, Zorro, Pole Position. I learn the taste of rivalry, the sting of defeat, and the joy of victory. It shapes my character.

’89 is pure madness. A friend says, “Check out what I got.” On the desk: something beautiful, with a stack of small blue floppies beside it. I can read better now: Amiga 500. North & South blows my mind - graphics, a new style of play, deeper mechanics. I’m used to big pixels; now I see tiny ones arranged into fluid images. And the sound of that first Amiga mouse - still rings in my head.

The following years I’m all in: Midnight Resistance, Lemmings, Dune II, Lotus III, Prehistorik, Cannon Fodder, Syndicate, Test Drive, Sensible Soccer… Every title brings a new quality, fresh mechanics, a story with a spark. In parallel I draw - when I can’t play, paper becomes my game board and imagination the engine.

Then Amiga 600 - compact, with a color monitor. For the first time I see colorful pixels spelling out: Mortal Kombat. “Fatality,” “Flawless Victory.” Brutal and precise. We learn the moves… and, yeah, we try them in real life too.

I want an Amiga at home. My parents can’t afford it, so at 10-12 I take my first job: cleaning office hallways after school. Still no money for the computer, but I collect gaming magazines and stare at them every day, like windows into another world. At the store, a shelf with the Amiga 500 stabs me in the heart - still too expensive. But right next to it: the Commodore 64. Not an Amiga, but a slice of the dream. I buy it. I tweak the drive head with a screwdriver, and I play: Wings of Fury, Creatures, Dizzy. And I play a lot.

The breakthrough comes from friends: one codes on the Amiga, the other draws. I discover you can make games. I buy magazines and try my first programs on the C64. The computer has a second face - a tool for creation.

Eventually a PC 386SX shows up at home. “Don’t turn it on - you’ll break it,” I’m told. I last one day. DOS greets me with a blinking cursor, and I sprint two floors down for a crash course. I come back armed with commands and new worlds: Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia, SimCity. It’s the upgrade era: more RAM, bigger drives, the first CD-ROMs, new graphics cards. Every dollar I earn goes into the PC. And then DOOM walks in - bathed in red.

DOOM pulls me into the real world too - just rougher. A fire. Mom calls: “The apartment’s on fire.” I’m on my aunt’s balcony, sirens in the distance. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you a new computer,” she says, knowing how much work I put into it. I walk through the park; the air smells like smoke. I’m down to what I’m wearing. The computer survives - some other things too - but for about seven months we have no home, staying with neighbors. That’s when the pixel saves my mind. I escape into its world. School sends me to a psychologist; the results are great, like life is stress-testing my resilience. Marked, but not broken.

Meanwhile I grow up alongside the PC: art software, 3D graphics, the first game engines. I want to study animation and gamedev - too expensive. I swap cleaning for a job as a graphic designer. That’s it - that’s me. Years fly by like Need for Speed (first saw it on a Pentium 75 MHz at another cousin’s place - jaw on the floor again). Life keeps me just off my dream path; every so often I jump onto it, then get tossed off again.

At thirty, the Amiga itch returns. I never had one - until I finally buy a used unit that spent years tucked away in a basement. Childhood dream fulfilled. I remember arcade cabinets - the magic of those titles and visuals. I build my own bartop, a console of pure nostalgia.

At 38 I take stock. If I don’t chase the dream now, when will I? I learn to make games: internet, books, courses - I soak it all in. I apply to develop for Nintendo Switch and send my first serious concept. Three months later: “Welcome to the family.” Shock. Joy. My first title - BringIt to MOM - lands in a few hundred homes. Failure or success? Obviously success. It’s the start of the road and the gathering of XP.

I release more games: JETPIN, Mariozza Cops. I get invited to work with iiRcade - an arcade machine like the one I built out of nostalgia. I meet amazing people who support me and enjoy my games. More titles follow: Emoji Music, LONGHEAD, SUBOCTO, UFS League, Casio GOLF, Once Upon a Time on Halloween, Santa Throw, Clauscraft. Some are welcomed wildly, others less so-but I stay on the path, listen to folks walking it, and turn criticism into experience.

Then another DOOM - life-sized. After not even two years, iiRcade shuts down. I’d just set sail, left the harbor… and hit a sandbar again. Fate tries to shove me onto “safe tracks.” Fine. The longing for the Amiga and for living with the pixel - which over the years didn’t grow, it shrank - won’t let go. I think: you’ve got the skills now, build it.

More than two years of working two jobs: one puts food on the table, the other feeds the soul with nostalgia. That’s how V2 Cucumber Scam is born - a tribute to the PIXEL and to those games so playable I could sit with them for days and nights. The graphics didn’t have to be photorealistic. What mattered was the story and the magic floating over the computers of the ’80s.

Will people like it? Will it bring the same joy I felt with the first GTA - when I was so hyped and so hungry that while slicing a roll I also sliced my hand? I don’t know. I know this: my DOOM, paradoxically, led me here. What’s next - open seas or stepping off the boat onto another path - we’ll see. Fate’s been generous enough to let me create this digital child.

This is my story: from ’82, through pixel revelations, to the road of a SOLO dreamer, NERD developer.
my corner for work

Thank you to all the players - for your support and for the time you spend in my digital worlds.

Childhood PSA: hype + knife = a lousy combo. Make the sandwich first, then we play ;)

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V2 Cucumber Scam!

Welcome to a cosmic adventure like nothing you’ve seen before! In “V2 Cucumber Scam,” you play as Mac Skin, a former captain of an interplanetary cargo ship who - rather than serving a 20-year sentence for space crimes - agreed to an experimental echomutation. He gained heightened sensory abilities at the cost of mandatory service on a remote station in the Verdun Belt.

Your quiet, routine job ends in an instant. A mysterious anomaly over V2 drags you into a real challenge - you make an emergency landing on a planet where the “Cucumbers,” a new and bizarre species that caused more harm than good on Earth, were exiled. Soon you encounter the Shadows. Wherever they gather, V2 withers - turning gray and lifeless. Your goal is to escape this cursed planet and avoid contact with the Shadows. There’s a catch, though: your only real shot at survival is a pact with the cunning Cucumbers... which entangles you in their schemes and pushes you dangerously close to the Shadows.

Expand your base, grow crops, harvest them, and build Floratrons to enrich the barren soil with minerals. Keep the lights on - if your base falls into darkness, the Shadows gain the upper hand. That’s only the beginning: explore V2, uncover its history, and peel back the planet’s secrets step by step.

The game delivers an engrossing, hours-long experience with an episodic, series-style narrative - like good science fiction - packed with adventure, cosmic farming, base building, resource gathering, and hunts for alien lifeforms. It’s all wrapped in unique, hand-drawn 2D pixel art that sets a vivid, cosmic mood.

Set out on a humorous, sarcastic, and surprise-filled journey. On V2, you’ll fight not just for survival, but for your sanity. Will you uncover what the Cucumbers are hiding before it’s too late?

¡Bienvenido a una aventura cósmica como ninguna otra! En "V2 Cucumber Scam" juegas como Mac Skin, ex capitán de una nave de carga interplanetaria que, en lugar de cumplir una condena de 20 años por delitos espaciales, aceptó una eco-mutación experimental. Ganó habilidades sensoriales a cambio de un servicio obligatorio en una estación remota del Cinturón de Verdun.

Tu trabajo tranquilo y rutinario termina en un instante. Una anomalía misteriosa sobre V2 te arrastra a un verdadero desafío - haces un aterrizaje de emergencia en un planeta al que fueron exiliados los "Pepinos": una especie nueva y extraña que causó más daño que beneficio en la Tierra. Pronto te topas con las Sombras. Donde se reúnen, V2 se marchita - se vuelve gris y sin vida. Tu objetivo es escapar de este planeta maldito y evitar el contacto con las Sombras. Pero hay un detalle: tu única oportunidad real de sobrevivir es un pacto con los astutos Pepinos... que te enreda en sus intrigas y te acerca peligrosamente a las Sombras.

Amplía tu base, cultiva plantas, cosecha y construye Floratrons para enriquecer el suelo estéril con minerales. Mantén las luces encendidas - si tu base cae en la oscuridad, las Sombras tendrán ventaja. Y eso es solo el comienzo: explora V2, descubre su historia y destapa, paso a paso, los secretos del planeta.

El juego ofrece una experiencia absorbente de muchas horas con una narrativa episódica al estilo de serie, como en la buena ciencia ficción - llena de aventura, agricultura cósmica, construcción de base, recolección de recursos y caza de formas de vida alienígenas. Todo envuelto en un pixel art 2D único, dibujado a mano, que crea una atmósfera cósmica vívida.

Emprende un viaje humorístico, sarcástico y lleno de sorpresas. En V2 pelearás no solo por sobrevivir, sino por tu cordura. ¿Descubrirás lo que los Pepinos esconden antes de que sea demasiado tarde?

Bienvenue dans une aventure cosmique comme vous n’en avez jamais vécue ! Dans "V2 Cucumber Scam", vous incarnez Mac Skin, ex-capitaine d’un cargo interplanétaire qui, au lieu de purger 20 ans pour crimes spatiaux, a accepté une écho-mutation expérimentale. Il a gagné des capacités sensorielles au prix d’un service obligatoire sur une station isolée de la Ceinture de Verdun.

Votre travail calme et routinier s’interrompt d’un coup. Une anomalie mystérieuse au-dessus de V2 vous entraîne dans un véritable défi - vous atterrissez en urgence sur une planète où ont été exilés les « Concombres » : une nouvelle espèce étrange qui a causé plus de tort que de bien sur Terre. Très vite, vous croisez les Ombres. Là où elles se rassemblent, V2 se fige - devient grise et sans vie. Votre objectif est de fuir cette planète maudite et d’éviter tout contact avec les Ombres. Mais il y a un piège : votre seule chance réelle de survie est un pacte avec les Concombres rusés... qui vous embarque dans leurs intrigues et vous rapproche dangereusement des Ombres.

Développez votre base, cultivez des plantes, récoltez et construisez des Floratrons pour enrichir le sol stérile en minéraux. Gardez la lumière allumée - si votre base sombre dans l’obscurité, les Ombres prendront l’avantage. Et ce n’est que le début : explorez V2, découvrez son histoire et dévoilez pas à pas les secrets de la planète.

Le jeu propose une expérience prenante de plusieurs heures avec une narration épisodique façon série, comme dans une bonne science-fiction - pleine d’aventure, d’agriculture cosmique, de construction de base, de collecte de ressources et de chasse à des formes de vie extraterrestres. Le tout en pixel art 2D unique, dessiné à la main, qui installe une atmosphère cosmique saisissante.

Partez pour une aventure humoristique, sarcastique et riche en surprises. Sur V2, vous luttez non seulement pour survivre, mais aussi pour votre santé mentale. Découvrirez-vous ce que cachent les Concombres avant qu’il ne soit trop tard ?

iiRcade community

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of the amazing iiRcade community. It has been an incredibly exciting time, full of work, passion, and joy to create games for you. Seeing you play them is the greatest reward for me. As a fun fact, Clauscraft was exclusively released for iiRcade and is the last game I created for this platform. It’s available as an APK file, which should now be playable thanks to the new feature allowing users to upload their own games to iiRcade. Unfortunately, I don’t have complete knowledge on how to set it up, but I believe the community members on the forum will be happy to help guide you through the process. Thank you Jim for your help for your support.

Free - CLAUSCRAFT for iiRcade