About
Whole Bean Interactive is just me, John Hiner III, in my capacity as an independent game developer. I'm a husband, father, and programmer in my mid-thirties who believes in computer games as art, but not as Art. I trust I make myself obscure.
Here you'll find various computer game related projects of mine, including my current project, my "enhanced" version of the classic Chase, my point-and-click text adventure engine, and my blog, where you might find computer game related musings from time to time.
I also stream game development about twice a week over on Twitch.
If you have any questions or comments, or you'd just like to chat about computer games, you can reach me at ludenscogitet@protonmail.com or drop me a line on Twitter/X @JohnVsPop.
Current Project
I'll be starting my next project in early March. It's a small scale Metroidvania in which the player must reorient sections of the game world in order to progress.
The plan is to use art assets made by ansimuz. I'd also like to incorporate darkness and dynamic 2D lighting into the game, and I look forward to experimenting with adding normal maps, etc.
A screenshot and more details are forthcoming, once I make some progress. :)
Robots Revenge
I wrote the original version of this game (called simply "Robots!") specifically for Android phones in Java using the libGDX framework.
I then ported it to Windows, Linux, and web browsers in order to become more familiar with the Godot engine.
This game is an attempt to fix what I thought was a deficiency in the design of games like Robots. It was specifically designed to have an old school, simple, arcade feel, and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I also know at least 3 kids who have enjoyed it. (For kids, I recommend the 99 lives cheat. On the main menu, click on the title 5 times).
FATE
The Fantastic Adventure Text Engine (FATE for short) is a browser based point-and-click text adventure system.
What that means is that, like Zork and other classic text adventures, you play a FATE game by issuing written commands and seeing how the game reacts. However, you don't construct these commands by typing them, but by clicking on words on the screen. Each word used to describe something, record a command, or respond to a command can be clicked on and used as a building block for the next command.
FATE is a system, not a single game. It is designed to be a platform for anyone with knowledge of JavaScript to write and share adventures of their own. I do write adventures for it myself, however. :)