News & essays
My writing, essay by essay
Every piece is mine, internally linked and explicit about what is documented history and what is a claim by a current project.
Interviews • 10 June 2025 • 5 min
Snake Rewind: My Return, Eighteen Years Later
In 2015 I revisited Snake for touchscreens as the designer of the Nokia original — and had to solve a problem that did not exist in 1997.
History • 20 May 2025 • 6 min
The Story of the Nokia 6110, the Phone That Carried Snake
Snake needed a vehicle. The 6110 — business-class, long-lived and everywhere — turned a small feature into a shared cultural memory.
Technology • 6 May 2025 • 5 min
The Future of Snake
Fifty years in, the design still absorbs new platforms. What it will not survive is being made complicated.
Technology • 16 April 2025 • 6 min
The Design Philosophy Behind My 5-Kilobyte Classic
Snake is a case study in designing under hard limits — and in how limits produce clarity rather than compromise.
Snake • 2 April 2025 • 5 min
Classic Snake vs Modern Snake: What Actually Changed
Resolution, input, persistence and social layers all changed. The thing that makes Snake work did not.
OGSnake • 18 March 2025 • 5 min
OGSnake.world Explained
What OGSnake.world is, how to play it, and how I describe its relationship to Snake's history without overstating it.
Snake • 4 March 2025 • 7 min
The Evolution of Snake Games: 1997 to Now
From my 6110 original to Snake II, colour and 3D variants, Snake Rewind, multiplayer .io games and today's browser projects.
Gaming • 19 February 2025 • 6 min
How Snake Invented the Habits of Mobile Gaming
Session length, instant restart, one-thumb control, a single persistent high score: Snake set the defaults that mobile games still use.
Gaming • 11 February 2025 • 5 min
Why Snake Changed Gaming Forever
Snake proved that a game did not need graphics, a story, or even a purchase decision — only availability and a perfect loop.
History • 3 February 2025 • 7 min
Me, In My Own Words: A Careful Biography
What I can reliably tell you about my own work as the Nokia engineer behind Snake — my design instincts, and where I choose not to fill in the gaps.
History • 22 January 2025 • 9 min
The History of Snake, From Arcade Cabinets to the Browser
Fifty years of one mechanic: Blockade in 1976, home-computer worms in the 1980s, my 1997 breakthrough at Nokia, and today's browser and mobile revivals.
Snake • 14 January 2025 • 6 min
Who Created Snake? The Short, Accurate Answer
Snake on Nokia phones was designed and programmed by me, an engineer at Nokia, for the 6110 in 1997 — but the snake-game idea is older than that.