"Good games. Useful resources. Ethical subroutines."

I'm Mark LaCroix, a developer, game designer and visual artist based in Minneapolis. Though my company, Noble Robot, I make and publish indie games, and develop free, open-source, and paid tools/resources for game development.

Sponsors will be directly contributing to the development of the free tools and resources that Noble Robot publishes to GitHub, specifically and primarily Noble Engine, the first game engine for the Playdate handheld console.

Good games

As a company, Noble Robot developed and published Widget Satchel with a small team in 2019, and began porting and publishing other developers' indie games to Nintendo Switch in 2020. Noble Robot is currently co-developing Dreamsettler, the sequel to the hit "1999-simulator" Hypnospace Outlaw,.

As a individual contributor, in 2021 I did development work and additional art for the sprawling, ambitious narrative game Closed Hands, which was nominated for an IGF award in 2022. I am currently doing design, programming, and art for Dreamsettler, and in 2023, the card game I developed with my Nice Games Club co-hosts, Glom, will be published by Indie Boards & Cards.

Useful resources

In addition to Noble Engine, I produce and co-host a weekly indiedev podcast Nice Games Club. The show is recorded out of a zero-profit coworking and event space that Noble Robot operates in Minneapolis.

The space at Noble Robot hosts in-person events for the Twin Cities chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developer's Association), of which I am a board member, including Global Game Jam and the monthly Twin Cities Playtest, and offers low-cost coworking desks for artists and developers.

Ethical subroutines

Games by Noble Robot celebrate a spirit of adventure, optimism, and humanism, with an emphasis on holistic design and mechanics that invite (and examine the implications of) multiple approaches to play.

I value empathy in work and at work, but that can't stop with my projects or my ideals. It also means a commitment to provide tools, offer assistance, foster community, and build infrastructure for others to be better able to express themselves, too.

In order to do that, what I really need is time, but since that's pretty hard to come by, I'll take some money. 😄