About

Who I Am

I'm Stephen "Skows" Kowalski, a gameplay designer who thinks about games in terms of how they feel to play, what behaviors they encourage, and what they quietly communicate through their mechanics.

My primary focus is gameplay design—the moment-to-moment experience, the core loops, the encounters. I also work in systems design (economies, progression, balance) and player experience (how players feel and what they understand).

My work spans idle games, narrative JRPGs, mobile apps, and prototypes. The common thread is using mechanics as a design tool—not just to make numbers go up, but to shape how players think, feel, and act.

Design Philosophy

I approach design gameplay-first:

• Feel before numbers — A system can be perfectly balanced and still feel terrible. I start with how something feels to play.
• Behavior over power — I care less about how big the numbers get, and more about what players choose to do.
• Intentional constraint — Limits create decisions. Fewer options, more meaning.
• Systems that teach — Good mechanics communicate. Players should learn by playing, not by reading.
• Long-term thinking — A game that works for 10 hours might collapse at 100. I design for sustainability.

What I Work On

Current and recent projects:

• Cult of Coin — A mobile idle game where I designed the prestige system, economy balance, and progression curves. The core question: how do you make resets feel optimal without making progress feel disposable?
• Song of the Day — A social music app where you share one song a day. I designed the core loop, social systems, and overall player experience—focused on calm engagement over metrics.
• Past the End — A narrative JRPG with handcrafted encounters and exploration-based progression. Every fight is designed, not generated.

Whether it's an idle economy, a social feature, or a boss fight, the approach is the same: start with how it feels, then build the systems to support that feeling.