Web Dev Game Dev Writer
Web Dev
Game Dev
Writer
About Me
I am Spencer "Vael" Victus. I work in the financial tech industry and in my spare time I run Tinydark, a player-first indie game studio.
I live in upstate South Carolina with my wife, Evelyn Victus, and our four kids: Abel (15 years old), Violet (5 years old), Olivia (3 years old), and Everett (1 year old). I also have six cats! I spend most of my time making games, playing games, and raising my kids. I'm a motivation junkie and love staying productive, whether it's code, writing, fitness, or research.
Our Cats
Arya
Oct 15th, 2025
A runt named after Arya Stark because we found her abandoned on the street. Passed from thyroid issues.
Raja
Oct 2nd, 2022
Our first cat, inherited from my mother-in-law. His name means 'king.' Likely passed from an unfortunate encounter with a toad.
Osiris
Named for his coloring.
Primordus
Named after the fire dragon from Guild Wars 2 because I thought it'd be funny for this cute little kitty to be named after such a ferocious beast!
Fennec
Named for his coloring and resemblance to a fennec fox.
Fox
Named for his coloring and pairing with Fennec (they're brothers).
Willow
Named after the willow tree.
Lune
Named after Prince Lune from The Cat Returns.
Thanks to Pixel Cat's End for the art
My Work
Games
I publish my games under Tinydark. I adhere to a code of ethics with my design, because I believe games should be doing more to directly benefit the player.
- URPG (alpha) - Open-World Roleplaying MMORPG
- Black Crown: Exhumed (2026) - Narrative horror; revival of the original game by Rob Sherman
- Bean Grower (2018) - Casual strategy game about growing beans
- MonBre (2010) - Monster taming MMORPG
Software
- GAM3 - tinydark's proprietary web game engine
- Tinydark Hub - Single sign-on for all tinydark games
- Tinydark Lab - Prototypes and demos of unfinished games
Writing
- vaelvict.us/blog
- Two design analyses of browser games: Die2Nite and Marosia
- Calling All Heroes: Blizzard's Pernicious Diversity Initiative
Connect
vael@tinydark.com
tap to mail
vael@tinydark.com
click to copy
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Discord
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Twitch
@VaelVictus
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Steam
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GitHub
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Stack Exchange