A scope you can defend.
A pillar tree that turns “wouldn’t it be cool if…” into a list of features that fit your runway. Cut what’s outside the box, keep what does the work.
A workbench for indie game planning
Plan the game before you build it.
Retconic is the planning layer between an idea in your head and a build in your engine. Frameworks, worksheets, and writing for indie studios who want a plan that fits on a page.
Where Retconic sits
01 · IdeaYour head
Where games begin and most stay.
02 · PlanRetconic
The bit between thinking and building.
03 · BuildYour engine
Where games actually get made.
— 01.
Three problems indie teams keep solving by hand.
The space between an idea and a build is the messiest stretch of the entire process. Retconic gives that work a name, a shape, and the tools to do it well.
A plan that fits on a page.
One page that holds together. Premise, pillars, mechanics, loop, vertical slice. Short enough to print, structured enough to ship from.
Decisions you can revisit.
A record of what was decided and why. Six months in, when a designer asks why the dash cancels the parry, the answer is in the doc — not someone’s memory.
— 02.
The frameworks, on paper, soon.
Six worksheets, a pillar tree, a one-page GDD. Use them on whatever you’re already using, before anyone touches an engine. Shipping in early 2026 — subscribe below to be the first to know.
— Flagship
THE GAMBIT
A complete scoping system for a game you can actually finish.
Six worksheets, a pillar tree, and a one-page GDD template. Walks a team from “we want to make a game like X” to a defendable scope in an afternoon.
— Free, available now
THE GAME BOARD
A guided one-page GDD in your browser.
Sixteen prompts in the order they actually fill. Print a clean grayscale handout to redraw weekly. No signup, nothing uploaded.