Blocks, Boredom, and Big Cities
Mon October 20, 2025
This issue was written and edited by Ben Gillbanks. Ben is a Web Developer with over 20 years experience of building things online.
I’ve been super creative the last couple of weeks, working hard on my new 3D engine and trying to finish off BeepMini so that I can properly launch it. Plus I’ve had an email from someone asking about the Accessibility of Brush Ninja, so I’ve been filling out a VPAT form, which is a whole new thing for me.
Amidst all this I’ve also been doing a lot of things with my son who is really into Pokémon. He’s been collecting for years. Now we go to a weekly Pokémon club where he plays the games and trades cards, and has even competed in his first tournament. He’s quite shy but he’s been loving this and it’s been great to see him engaging with new people and making friends.
Outside of my own work and family time, I’ve been spotting a few new creative things online worth sharing. A new 3D game builder (which I’m a little jealous of), a video about the importance of boredom for creativity, and some interesting links I found recently.
Wareware - A simple 3D game maker
Wareware is a playful little game-making tool I can’t stop thinking about. It feels like a 3D Bitsy crossed with a pastel Minecraft, only instead of mining or surviving you are placing blocks and characters to create tiny, toy-like worlds. The style is full of wobbly text, chunky blocks, and bouncy 2D sprites that always face the camera. It has a cute, pixelly charm that makes it hard not to smile.
The editor floats in 3D space and is refreshingly simple to use. You can drop blocks and ramps into a scene, then position characters or objects and give them little actions. A character might talk when approached, change the room, play a sound, or restart the game. Rooms can be dressed as interiors or open spaces, but they are all just areas to explore. At the moment there are no enemies, but the developers have said they will be adding bump combat in the future.
What makes Wareware stand out is how approachable it feels. When you first load it up you are dropped into a basic square room. You can hit play straight away and start walking around before placing a single block. That small detail makes the whole thing less intimidating and more playful. It feels like game making for its own sake, rather than something angled at publishing or profit.
The games you make can be exported as standalone HTML files, so you can share them anywhere and they will run in any modern browser. There’s no official gallery yet, though hopefully one will be added. You can wishlist the project on Steam, and there is already a small but active community on Discord. It is all free to use in the browser during early access, which makes it very easy to experiment with.
I love how Wareware takes away much of the complexity and mysticism of game development. Instead of drowning in menus or learning a programming language, you are free to play around and build something charming in minutes. It has inspired me to think about how I could apply some of that simplicity to my own projects, and I will definitely be keeping an eye on where it goes next.
The importance of being bored
I enjoyed this video with Skottie Young, the Marvel and Image Comics artist, where he talks about the creative benefits of boredom. When we are bored, our minds have the space to wander, daydream, and make connections that constant stimulation never allows.
Downtime might look unproductive, but it can be just as important as the work itself. I often spend more time thinking about a project than making it, which means that when I finally sit down to do the work, it comes together quickly.
This hit home for me because my son hates being bored. Like a lot of kids today, he wants to be entertained all the time, and I worry he misses those quiet moments where creativity sneaks in. Being bored is a skill, and I hope he learns to value it.
Some of my best ideas arrive when I am not doing anything at all. The shower, a walk, even standing in a queue are moments when my brain drifts and comes back with something new. Boredom clears space for imagination, and it is worth holding on to.
Sparked Discoveries
Here’s a handful of links I found intriguing recently:
The Mile High City on Norman Mailer’s ‘Cannibals and Christians’
I came across a fascinating piece about the cover of Norman Mailer’s Cannibals and Christians. For the book, Mailer actually built a giant “Mile-High City” out of 20,000 LEGO bricks and used a photo of it as the cover image. The idea was to imagine cities built upwards instead of sprawling outwards. What I found funny is that Mailer disliked plastic and modern architecture, calling them flat and dead, yet he still used LEGO to bring his vision to life. He even wondered if people would ever accept living a hundred or two hundred stories in the air. It’s a strange mix of utopian thinking and critique of modern life, and it makes for a really striking cover.
IKEA Museum
IKEA has a museum in Sweden that tells the story of the company, its founder, and its impact on design and culture. The website has a virtual tour and lots of interesting articles about IKEA’s history and philosophy. Whatever you think of IKEA, it’s fascinating to see their impact on design and culture worldwide.
Chiptune
Chiptune.app is a web-based chiptune music player. It has a huge library of game music and other chiptunes. It’s designed to look like a retro commandline computer interface. As a Nintendo fan I enjoyed going back through some of my favorite games (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time) and listening to the music I had spent so much time listening to.
Bonus: Shadow of the Colossus, an Oral History
This one is a bit niche, but the games of Team Ico are up there as some of my all-time favourites. This article is a deep dive into the making of Shadow of the Colossus, with interviews from the team behind it. If you love game design, storytelling, or just want to know how such an iconic game was made, it’s a great read.