Hi! I'm a designer, game maker, and writer in Portland, OR. I work at Panic on Playdate. This page attempts to list all my currently usable projects. I'm also present on Bluesky as @mrgan.com, where I post food and stupid jokes. Thanks for stopping by!
Writing
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Blog
Essays, recipes, game announcements, and jokes. Also available as an RSS feed.
Speed-dating The Opening Passage of Melville’s Moby Dick
The faceless protagonist of Melville's epic novel meets a 30something from the East Village who loves animals and synth pop.
How it feels to get an AI email from a friend
Recently I received an AI-written email from a friend. I'm trying to understand why I had the reaction to it that I did.
Have You Tried Sketch?
A book of sketch comedy—the thing you normally expect to see on TV (or on the stage, assuming you live in Chicago) except in book form. I'm serious. Available on iBooks and Kindle.
Games
Hidey Spot
A game I made for Playdate: a little Christmastime adventure where searching for presents hidden around the house leads you to find much more…
The Barkless Doctrine
A Playdate game; an interactive comedy novel where YOU choose how to avoid dealing with the apocalypse.
Grayout
A text-centric game about aphasia, set in a medical dystopia. Made with James Moore. Available on iOS.
Blackbar
A game of text, censorship, and the triumph of human ingenuity over capricious authority. Made with James Moore. Available on iOS and Android.
Stagehand
A reverse platformer where you don't control your character… you control everything else. Made with Matt Comi under the Big Bucket brand. Available on iOS.
Space Age
A tactical adventure with a story out of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi; cinematic, nostalgic, cosmic. Made with Matt Comi under the Big Bucket brand. Available on iOS and Mac.
The Incident
A fast-paced, retro-style, vertical platformer. Made with Matt Comi under the Big Bucket brand. Available on iOS and Mac.
Out Line
A short interactive-fiction game experiment, all about ending an argument between a separating couple. Free on the web.
Pauper's Bride (And Gun)
A short comedy game about the narrative notion of "Chekhov's Gun". My first project made in the Bitsy editor. Free on the web.
Pie Guy
An early experiment in CSS+JS iPhone gaming; I'm keeping it up since it still kind of runs on my iPhone X and it's sort of cute? Free on the web; try it on your phone, where it may or may not work (sorry.)
Food
Pizza romana / pizza al taglio / thin pan pizza
Soft like focaccia, thin like a slice-joint pie; the optimal pizza.
Neven’s Focaccia
It's the best of all breads, and that's all there is to it.
Buttermilk Biscuits
When it comes to biscuits, there's really only one thing to master: many, many folds.
Sourdough English Muffins
Airy, bubbly, and pleasantly sour, with the requisite flat top.
Burger Buns
For fans of "hamburgers."
Neven’s Sourdough Bagels
The easiest bagels I've ever made were also the tastiest.
Neven’s Pan Pizza
Pan pizza is the best pizza you can make in a typical home oven. With this sourdough recipe, you can put it together with ~0 work.
Neven’s Pizza Dough
My current recipe for sourdough, thin-crust, Neapolitan-meets-NYC pizza. Simple, lazy, flexible, and beyond delicious.
Broccoli Breakfast Sandwich
Inspired by a Tyler Kord recipe, I have been eating broccoli breakfast sandwiches for breakfast since 2017.
Pressure Manual
A collection of recipes I frequently make in the Instant Pot. A good starting point if you've just bought one and are wondering what to make first.
Hà VL Daily Soups
My fan website for the legendary Portland restaurant serving Vietnamese soups for breakfast. It shows their rotating menu of daily soups.
Web
Check!
A simple list of tasks to complete before launching a new project or product. Reduce launch-day stress by plugging a dozen small holes in your marketing dam as you go.
Glyphboard
A very old "web app for iPhone" (lol) that lets you copy special characters not available on the iOS keyboard. I'll update this some day, I swear.