13 years ago I started making a game

In 2013 I put a small game called Tic Tac Glow on the App Store. About 1,000 downloads, nothing that set the world alight, but it left me with an idea I couldn't put down: elemental pieces, a simple grid, real strategy underneath it.

I started building on that idea properly in 2014 using Unity. Called it Kohatu. Then I scrapped it. Started again. Scrapped that too. This went on, on and off, for the better part of a decade, not because the idea didn't work, but because I could never pin down what the game actually was. I'd sit down to build it, get partway through, and realize I still hadn't decided on the feature set. Every session was another attempt to nail the idea down instead of just building it, and most of them ended with the project back on the shelf.

One rule survived every rewrite, though: it had to be async multiplayer. Life doesn't stop for a board game, and I wanted something you could take a turn on between meetings, or in the same quiet 11pm slot I was usually coding in, without either player feeling obligated to be glued to their phone. Everything else about Kohatu changed across the rewrites, the engine, the mechanics, even what winning meant but "a turn should wait for you" never did.

What finally got it over the line wasn't more free time or a burst of inspiration. It was a change of job! I moved out of a job where my core role was writing software, so software development became a hobby again and not a chore.

So what is it now: a 5×5 grid strategy game built around Tiki stones and four elements: Fire, Water, Nature, Earth. Get five in a row to win, except the board is actively working against you the whole time. Weather events shift the stakes mid-match (calm sun plays it safe, a blizzard multiplies your score if you can survive it), elemental combos chain into bigger plays than any single stone could manage, and five Guardian Totems each grant a different passive depending on how you like to play. There's a campaign across four biomes, quick play, and the online async mode that's been the one non-negotiable since 2014. It's free, and deliberately not pay-to-win. coins come from playing, not from paying.

It's live and playable right now, ** Kohatu's** the web (via CrazyGames), with iOS and Android currently sitting in App Store/Play Store. If you give it a run, I'd genuinely like to know what breaks, what's confusing, and what you'd want more of. Thirteen years is a long time to build toward one board game; I'd rather find out now what's still not working than after it ships everywhere.