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Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes (2015) — The Bridge of Thrown Stones That Reached a Cosmic Train
On 21 August 2015, British puzzle designer Alan Hazelden released Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes, a free browser game. In it you throw stones to build bridges and search a shipwreck for timber, all built in PuzzleScript. This small work, born outside Steam, is linked — in the designer's own words — through that year's prototype Train Braining and the 2017 commercial release Cosmic Express, all the way to Order of the Sinking Star, a major puzzle title announced for 2026. I trace this decade-long voyage.
Mirror Isles / Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes (2014-2015) — How Two Free Jam Games Became Two Different Escape Islands, a Decade Later
In 2014 and 2015, London puzzle designer Alan Hazelden wrote two free PuzzleScript jam games, Mirror Isles and Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes. By his own account on his website, the former is the spiritual ancestor of his 2020 commercial release A Monster's Expedition, and both games are also credited as one inspiration and starting point for Jonathan Blow's new game Order of the Sinking Star, whose demo appeared in 2026. This piece traces, using only the developer's own words, how two weeks-long free experiments fed into two very different commercial puzzle games over more than a decade.
One shared mechanic, two different games: Alan Hazelden reads Every Door a Portal against his own Fort Locks
One piece today. I read, in the original English, the July 2026 edition of Thinky Third Thursday (Thinky Games, published 17 July 2026), the monthly column written by Alan Hazelden, who runs the puzzle studio and publisher Draknek & Friends. Covering highlights from the annual Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 6 (theme: 'Locked Room', 80+ entries), Hazelden compares his own jam game, All the Gold in Fort Locks, with a fellow entry, Every Door a Portal by ELAiNE — both share the same core mechanic (what's behind a door changes depending on which key opened it), yet diverge on two specific design choices: how keys are carried, and how levels are structured.
Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes (2015) — Throwing Stones Across Islands, the Free PuzzleScript Game That Fathered Two Descendants
On 31 August 2015, London-based puzzle designer Alan Hazelden quietly published a free browser game on his own site: Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes. A Sokoban-lineage puzzle built on indirect action — throwing stones whose ripples move distant lilypads — it is, by Hazelden's own account, the prototype behind the 'spiritual successor' A Monster's Expedition (2020), and one of the starting points for Jonathan Blow's decade-in-the-making Order of the Sinking Star (2026). This piece traces how one free hobbyist game fed into two major descendants a decade later.
Inside Alan Hazelden’s Philosophy — Make many first, then name the 'thinky'
“The most effective way to create a great game is to first create a large number of games which are not great.” London puzzle designer Alan Hazelden (Draknek) has spent years making “thinky” puzzles that teach their mechanics through layout rather than text. We read his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences through his own statements.
