Hello, I’m Joni Korpi.

That’s the genre of turn-based games where you move a party of adventurers around on a grid, lure opponents into vulnerable positions, safeguard your flanks, and land satisfying area-of-effect attacks. I’m carving out the core mechanics of these games and attempting to produce something that’s simple to play but hard to master.

In the game you must build an adventure party more than the sum of its parts. Success is not about how powerful each individual member of your party is, but how well you make them all work together.

Fans of Final Fantasy Tactics, Into the Breach, and Hearthstone should feel right at home.

Now, the game hasn’t been announced just yet. It’s taken far too long to develop, and this is a hell of a time to release an indie game, with AI-powered cloners lurking about and prices in the gutter. Regardless, I’m working to announce it soon. Wish me luck?

The game will be sold on Steam and is planned to run on Windows, macOS and Linux. If all goes well, I’ll also bring it to mobile soon after.

While waiting for the release, please enjoy a selection of clips and screenshots from the game’s development journey. If you’d like to see more of these or get updates on the game’s development, you can follow me on Mastodon or Bluesky.

I use the web platform for all I make: HTML, CSS, JS, WebGL, and Web Audio. While far from perfect, they make up what I think is the best software platform we have today.

These are some of the techniques and libraries I’ve come up with while making things using the web platform. Some are useful for websites, some for games, and many for both.

I haven’t written enough of these down in the last decade but I’m trying to remedy that now, bit by bit.

Webdev

Gamedev

I published these in the early days of responsive web design. I was (and still am) very interested in reconciling the stiff constraints of traditional graphic design with the variability of the web.

Some of these may be outdated or obvious by today’s standards and are not exactly well written. I’m honestly a little embarrassed to keep them around, but cool URIs don’t change and so on.

Layout experiments

CSS grid systems

Writing

I’m interested in design and development of all kinds, from webdev and gamedev all the way to architecture and interior design.

I know quite a lot about:

• Web design & front-end development
• Interaction design
• Graphic design & typography.

And these I’m still new to:

• Game design
• Programming with data-oriented design
• Stylised realtime graphics
• Procedural generation
• Additive realtime audio synthesis
• Music composition.

I believe in doing things properly or not at all, and favor simplicity, performance, accessibility and robustness. I also value art, the human effect and intent in everything we choose to put into the world.

None of the above is compatible with generative AI. I don’t use it, and hate the fact that I need to mention it here.

It pains me to watch my peers use generative AI while willfully ignoring the blindingly obvious moral and enviromental issues built into them. As a response I’m choosing to stick to my morals twice as hard, abstaining from all generative AI use. If that ends up upending my career… well, so be it.

My resumé may look a bit short to some. I don’t like changing what I do too often.

2017–

Indie video game development as Vuoro Design, while doing some freelancing on the side to keep the lights on.

2012–2017

Web design and front-end development at Kisko Labs. By my count I participated in over 50 projects of various sizes. I recommend their services and also those of Sakeus, which was founded by some of my coworkers from there.

2008–2012

Studied and did some webmaster work at Metropolia, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Media Technology.

I live in southern Finland with my wife Pauliina and an overgrown coffee plant. By now I’m roughly 40 years old.

Outside work I spend my time on food, health, art, and home improvement. To my wife’s chagrin I’ve rearranged the furniture in our apartment far too many times, forever looking for ways to optimise a small space.

I’m likely on the autism spectrum, and think it’s something that should be talked about more openly. I think people find me friendly and curious, but also a bit aloof and stubborn? Somehow those aren’t contradictory!

Some media I love

• Dark Age of Camelot
• Tears of the Kingdom
• The Last Guardian
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Civilization V
• Hearthstone
• Final Fantasy VII
• Slay the Spire

• Frieren
• Ghost in the Shell

• The Lord of the Rings
• The Expanse
• The Witcher
• Murderbot