Solo developer Klaus Kääriäinen, better known as "The Jester," has spent more than 15 years working across nearly every corner of the games industry before embarking on an ambitious goal - shipping 24 games in 24 months. Using Construct 3 to rapidly prototype and release small experimental games, Klaus has inspired a growing community of aspiring game creators along the way. We caught up with Klaus to talk about his journey, the lessons he's learned, and why shipping games matters more than chasing perfection.
If you want to see his progress, check out all the games he's currently released on Steam here!
Can you introduce yourself and tell us how you first discovered Construct?
Hello everyone! I’m Klaus ’The Jester’ Kääriäinen and I’m a solo game developer from Finland shipping a new game each month on Steam by using Construct 3.
Back in the nineteens I was fascinated by a game engine called ’The Games Factory’. I guess that specific tool was my jump start for almost 20 years in the game industry. I guess it was around 2012 when I first discovered Construct 2 while trying to seek for a new 2D dedicated game engine.
With my background in Games Factory the Construct 2 felt literally like home. The event system was very similar to the one in Games Factory and it had that nostalgic feel right from the get-go.
I’ve been using Construct ever since and honestly never stopped making games after that. To my development style it’s a perfect tool in so many ways.
Construct 3 also enabled me to become a solo game developer because I’m finally able to do all parts of the release process myself.
Before becoming a solo developer, you worked across many areas of the games industry. How has that experience shaped the way you make games today and what are the main lessons you've learnt?
I’ve never been that good with programming and my brain is heavily wired into visualizing stuff. I guess that’s why I also started as a 3D artist in the game industry, proceeded to project management, design, producing and art directing.
This whole process was the perfect learning environment to understand all parts of the development process to actually ship something. But also to have a mindset of making ’commercial games’.
I’ve also spent a big portion of my career educating and mentoring game developers and teams of different sizes to make games.
I guess the biggest lesson from this whole journey has been to understand the so called ”commercial side” of game development. As a game developer, I’m not making games only for myself. Even though it may sound obvious, it’s still a big challenge to keep that in mind while trying to build something unique and ’super creative’ products.
I’ve been trying to learn to keep at least one foot on the ground to think about the user experience and the scope of my projects.
Usually it’s not about the amount of content I need to deliver, it’s about being able to capture some specific atmosphere and to polish that into a clear product.
What inspired you to take on the challenge of shipping 24 games in 24 months?
I’ve been a perfectionist to the core. Even though it’s a good practice in some specific areas when making games, it had still become a major blockade for me to actually finalize a game and ship it. The pile of unfinished projects kept on growing and I always got a new, much better idea of a game I should be making.
Or I just discovered a major flaw in my design, scope or production pipeline which revealed that the game will take ages to be complete. And because of this, I just ditched the projects and went on chasing a new glowing ball that rolled downhill right next to me.
I’ve learned the trait of being very fast in making games with Construct 3, but I just couldn’t draw the line anywhere what the game actually needs to be called ”complete”.
I attended a couple of game jams and noticed that I’m able to make very polished games when there is a strict deadline. But without it, I would just wander off to new adventures.
So I decided that I need a deadline, but I also realized that if I ever want to see some actual benefits of making these small and experimental games I need to dedicate myself to it for a longer period of time.
With benefits, I mean the learning process of being able to make quality games and ship them but also to get likeminded people aware of this fun project and maybe get interested in following it.
So I established a Patreon (+ Youtube, Tiktok & Instagram) accounts and started recording my experiences from this journey right from the start.
These channels became my inspiration to keep on going, by seeing that a lot of developers out there feel inspired by this project and end up shipping games by themselves as well. Honestly, it brings a tiny droplet to my eye to even think about that. It’s such an empowering thing to see happening.
You describe yourself as having become a perfectionist - is there any friction with this personal quality against the time constraints of your challenge?
Obviously, the time constraints and the quality is the biggest challenge in this whole project. I feel that anyone can make a game within a month, but the question is that is it a good game?
I feel that I’ve slowly started to understand what makes a game ”good”. Sometime ago if I’d be asked that, I would just tell a story of a game I’ve played and why it felt good. Or maybe I’d be focusing on telling you about the mechanics or how the visuals would look.
But I’ve come to realize that games are experiences. It’s not about delivering a nice game mechanic and building content around it. The ’experience’ starts from the store page, where the game should already capture some specific atmosphere or feeling for the player.
Not all atmospheres and feelings are for everyone. But each game should try to focus into that one specific core atmosphere and do their best in building that experience around it.
This realization helped me to not focus on the amount of content or complex game mechanics I’m supposed to be building: It’s about trying to understand what kind of feeling I’m trying to capture with each of my games.
The problem with the strict time constraint is that I’m not always able to understand what I’m trying to build before the time is already running out. In those projects, it ends up becoming a mess which is quite hard for anyone to grasp and have an immersive feeling with.
At first, I felt bad when it happened. But after shipping nine games (so far) I’ve learned to be more forgiving to myself. All of my games can’t be super special, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to achieve it every month.
Ten games into the challenge, do you feel you are still learning with each game you make?
It’s an endless learning process. Right now I feel that I’m basically able to build anything. Instead of struggling to understand the logic of how I’m able to achieve X, Y or Z event logic: I’m finally able to start focusing into the big picture of the whole game(s).
It’s been great to realize that I’ve learned so much from the technical side of building games. But there is a long road to understanding how to use that ”power” more efficiently and to dive into the creative side of building those immersive experiences.
Construct is built around helping developers move quickly from idea to playable game. What features in Construct have been the biggest enablers for your monthly release schedule?
Construct 3 has a lot of built in behaviors, effects and systems which can be combined in weird and creative ways. And I personally feel that it’s the biggest reason why I love using it.
”Maybe if I use the bullet behavior for this object to do the X thing” or ”I could use the animation frame count as the health for this character?” And other very weird and spontaneous actions which suddenly work like a charm.
These little moments are like happy surprises and realizations which make each of the work days like a discovery journey, rather than just another day in the grinder.
Because honestly, when building a complete game within a month I don’t necessarily have the time to build a sophisticated code logic and because of it, most of the project code structure becomes a mess by the end of the project.
But because I’ve learned a lot of ’work-arounds’ and fun little tricks to bypass a lot of tiny problems with the use of Construct 3 built in systems: I feel more confident that I’m able to solve (almost) any problem that arises.
Has there been a game in the series that surprised you—either because players loved it more than expected, or because you learned something unexpected while making it?
The biggest surprise was the Buttons Up! -game I made last December. It was supposed to be a tiny little project which I would finalize in two weeks (to get a two week vacation) but it suddenly blew up and became one of the best selling games I’ve made so far.
I had to digest that for a bit, since the previous games I had made (Seeker: Quest, Cats With Standards, Runewood: Hundred Nights) were games I felt proud of. And these games were something I actually used my imagination and hard work to build. But none of those three games were able to find their audience.
But yet again, it taught me something. And that was the genre pick of my games but also, how ”clear” games I need to build. The first three games were complex and quite hard to understand what the game is about.
The players who would play for more than 15 minutes seemed to like them. But because the game feels complex already from the store page, a lot of users decided to skip those because they (most likely) didn’t get why those games could be interesting to them.
Buttons Up! Is an incremental game which seems to be (still) trending on Steam. Because of that genre pick, the game already got a huge amount of users visiting the store page but also to try it, because it was so clear from the get-go what the player is supposed to be doing.
(By the way, I share all the Steam data on my Patreon on a monthly basis in case you’re interested to see how these games perform)
Has feedback from players playing your games influenced the way you design your next game?
I think the biggest revelation has been that I tend to make games that are just plainly too hard to play or to understand in the first place. I’ve kind of had my ”head in the clouds” when building my games and forget that the users play my games for the first time when they open it.
I’ve taken too much of granted that the players would be interested in diving into the game systems and learning those by themselves (while getting repeatedly beaten badly).
I’ve been trying to learn to simplify, but also to build more friendly learning curves to my games instead of dropping the player to the deep end right from the start (equipped with concrete boots).
You're very open about sharing your development journey online. What kind of responses have you received from aspiring developers, and have any stories particularly stood out to you?
Yes! You can see the Steam data from each of my games on Steam, but I also share my personal experiences and discoveries in my Patreon on a daily basis (Daily Thoughts blog posts)
I guess the biggest impact from the responses was the AI usage in my games.
I’ve been ”Anti-AI” from the start. I want to create everything by myself: The sounds, music, graphics and code. And that’s mainly because I just happen to love the process of creating something and it feels sad to give it to someone else to do. (Be it a machine or not)
In one of my projects (Mining Grounds) I decided to give it a go. Just to see how it actually feels to use AI in my project. After sharing this with my audience, they fiercely rejected this idea and told me that the Non-AI development is one of the main reasons why they follow me in the first place.
It felt bad, like… Very bad. It’s like Harvey Dent was echoing in my head saying ”you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain”.
And because of it, I ended up re-creating all the assets and everything to my game Mining Grounds because I couldn’t stand the idea of becoming the villain.
This has happened quite a few times, where the audience directs me into things I’ve been preaching about but slowly drifting to the opposite.
And I love it.
One of your goals is to encourage more people to start making games, especially at a time when breaking into the games industry is difficult. What advice would you give someone who's waiting for the "perfect" idea before they begin?
It’s a whole different topic to think about something, rather than actually doing it. I still want to be clear by saying: Making games is hard. Making GOOD games is impossible.
That’s why it’s just better to start doing: Create and ship a lot of games! Because I feel that the process is the one that teaches the most. Because ultimately on this process of shipping games, it’s more likely that you achieve the impossible: To make a GOOD game.
If someone wanted to follow a similar path, what habits or routines have helped you consistently finish and ship games instead of leaving them half-complete?
One very unexpected but important factor for this whole journey has been my realization of the importance of my physical health.
Good physical health equals better mental health and that equals being able to stay consistent with my actions. I’ve fought with anxiety as long as I can remember (and still do) but it also disabled me from trusting the things that I wanted to do.
I’m not judging myself (that much) for my every day actions, because I've learned to trust the process. If I’m living a healthy life and working with things I’m passionate about, I’m quite certain that the rest will follow.
Sure, there are bad days and even months but I still have those good routines I can slowly drift back to, which are:
- Take care of my physical health
- Allow myself to dive into the crazy creative mode when designing and building my games
- Reserve time for off-the-grid things (aka. Vacations) and to drop everything once in a while to be (actually) present with my loved ones and family.
What are your long-term ambitions for the project? Have you thought about any other ambitious challenges when you finish this one?
Honestly I’ve not thought about it yet. Right now I’m just (learning to) enjoying the journey and to remind myself frequently how lucky I am to be able to do all this.
Most likely I will extend the timeframe for my games after this one game a month challenge. But I still think there is a lot of beauty in working with small projects and to learn to make the most out of the short timeframe.
Finally, if you could give one piece of advice to Construct developers reading this interview, what would it be?
If you’re a solo game developer, or working in a small team and considering which game engine you should use: I’d say that the ”grass is not greener” on the other game engines.
It’s the matter of perfecting the craft and learning the tool of your choice inside out. Construct 3 has everything you’ll ever need to make a game and ship it.
But also, if you’ve not yet shipped a game on some store front: Challenge yourself to do it on some (quite) strict timeframe. I promise you that it will be somewhat painful, but one of the best learning journeys you’ll ever encounter.
Maybe take a look into the games I’ve released so far and see what you think of them and maybe even get inspired to make some of your own? If you do, be sure to share feedback with me!
I would love to hear it from you!
(For more inspiration, be sure to follow my Patreon page. It’s free!)