Score Studios LLC

@scorestudios.bsky.social

2678 Followers 2073 Following

I am James Kay / Score Studios, a Tokyo-based independent videogame developer, creator of the Piczle series. Club Piczle: : www.piczle.club

Dick Bruna illustrations inside a train car
Dick Bruna on the Tokyo subway
A screengrab of a Steam user review that simply reads "Super!"
A bright blue banner announcing the Piczle World of Puzzles summer sale
A handicam, radio, instant camera, bike and Gameboy with accessories
Closeup of a Scrabble board showing the word JARL on the triple word score for 33
A banner stating it's Score Studios' 17th birthday with a special puzzle code to redeem within Piczle World of Puzzles
A banner showing in big bold letters the text "CLUB PICZLE NEWSLETTER"
A screenshot from Alundra (PS1)
Velasquez 's portrait of pope Innocent X
A verdant pond in the nature institute grounds Inn Tokyo. A white crane sits on a log.
Welcome screen in Adobe Illustrator pushing Firefly genAI in your face
A gacha Maxine
Green tree leaves against a blue cloudless sky
An image made with the Zelda logo generator that reads: "Wind Waker is the best Zelda and I will die on that hill"
A positive Steam review for Piczle World of Puzzles that reads: The world may be about to end, so you're probably concerned about your nonogram puzzle game collection, and rightfully so. There they are, scattered throughout your Steam library, maybe in different categories, perhaps some even have a desktop shortcut. But still. Don't you just wish, deep down, that there could just be one big nonogram game that had everything in one place? And that the world doesn't end, of course. Several of us are hoping for that as well. Here to grant your wish is Piczle World of Puzzles, the ultimate collection of Score Studios games, all in one place! Score, of course is famous for their nonogram style games such as Piczle Cross, Piczle Cells, Piczle Lines, and Piczle Global Thermonuclear War. You may have played some of these games already, but since they are mostly DLC for this free game that already has a generous amount of puzzles, you don't need to buy them again. But you could, you know. Just to have them. Or to quote Non Ishida, the inventor of nonograms, "ただの数字の集まりです". I don't read Japanese, but I bet it's profound. Just like you. Peace.
A new Piczle mug
My Piczle coffee mug, worn and cracked
Banner for the Club Piczle Newsletter
Old Japanese house
The Steam header for Fallout Shelter showing a group of vault people entering a vault
A trio of screenshot from the TV show Difficult People showing Julie Klausner asking the important question: "What do you think John Landis' worst contribution to society is: his alleged manslaughter or his son, Max?"
A small shrine, doors closed, with flowers and an orange perched in front, surrounded by overgrown bushes
Star Wars meme: "somehow a situation arose"
My 9 games: Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Tetris, Dishonored, Zelda Wind Waker, King's Quest 1, Ultima 6, Munch-man, Fallout New Vegas, Deus Ex
Diagonal Scrabble madness
A Scrabble board where every word is on the bottom right of a diagonal line across the board making it impossible to play any more words
"People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles."
A banner for the Piczle World of Puzzles creator competition winners puzzle pack
A snapshot of the Steam store search showing both "RogueCraft" and "Roguecraft" as separate titles.
The Piczle World of Puzzles puzzle competition banner, showing Score-chan pointing at the competition's logo.
to peek past my elbow and to reinitiate possible eye contact. To answer this move, I merely shifted my elbow ever so slightly back and again successfully blocked him from my view, never once looking up. (see figure 2) The dance can theoretically be perpetrated ad infinitum but in this instance it was repeated four times before the man got the message and meekly turned to move to a different space, far removed from this aggressively unwilling victim. Fig. 2 The Sandwich Waltz The lesson learnt is that simply ignoring the wrongdoer will yield no reasonable results so actively ignoring him while communicating loudly you are doing so, as with the Sandwich Waltz, is proven to be effective.As a side note, the tactic did eventually lead to the man changing his position to near where another passenger would give up his seat at the following stop, allowing for the aggressor to sit in comfort for the rest of the trip while yours truly remained standing. So maybe it was not a victory in comfort, if it was one in the moral sphere of commuter survival. A complete guide to becoming a talento Women who are thinking of becoming comediennes should forget it and remember their place in society. Though occasionally a woman can make it in comedy, these women are strange and will never find themselves a suitable husband. Women have a place on television and that place is next to the presenter, as eye-candy or simply to be laughed at or be helpless. Firstly you have to be either cute or have big breasts. To be both easy on the eye and busty is the ideal but either is fine. Neither is unacceptable and a career as an office lady awaits you until you snag a husband at which point you can become a professional shopper; but television is not for you. To start your first step towards talentodom you will probably have to do some photo shoots for teenager magazines or titillation books for middle-aged
particularly useful in Japan. The next time you traverse a busy street in a hurry, why not practice some of these maneuvers always taking care not to make bodily contact or to alert the opponent he is involved in one of the richest, most historic martial arts ever to enjoy such wide popularity. Gamesmanship – part 8 Unfathomable To be held in high regard as a native-level Japanese speaker whilst simultaneously keeping a haughty attitude isn’t quite as difficult as it may seem thanks to the gamesman’s version of the old playground favourite “well, if you don’t know I’m not going to tell you!” To fully understand the Japanese is a bonus but not required; you simply pretend to listen and at choice moments in the conversation attempt to join in with a witty or poignant remark. You mutter a “well…” or “um…” and wait until the people in conversation turn to you with expectant glances eagerly awaiting your input. You then brush it off with a dismissive “nah…” or “um, no, nothing, forget about it” as if to say you thought better of it and decided to not bother anyway. The result is that the people around you perceive you to be either very humble, as if you decided your remark was unworthy, or haughty, as if they were unworthy to receive the remark; either is a good reaction for the gamesman. Most importantly, though, they will conclude that you have been able to follow the conversation closely so therefore your Japanese must be of a very high level. As you can imagine no actual Japanese skill is required, just a keen sense of timing, but people will go round telling others what a master of the language you are. A slight variation of this is the subdued chuckle: simply observe the crowd talking and whenever more than a few of them burst out laughing it is a safe bet to assume something humorous has been said. At this point, even this late in the proceedings, you should let slip a subtle “heh” to show you did understand the joke, even if you didn’t, and that, though sligh…
times to be assured comfortable transportation. When traveling on trains the professional gamesman will exude an air of trourism by wearing the right apparel, shorts, T-shirt, sandals, sunglasses, and by appropriate actions, staring at the rail map above the doors, craning around at each stop to see which station he is at, by reading tourist guides and maps. At all times the gamesman must hide his mobile phone or act with standard Japanese commuter manners: sleeping, ignoring others, reading manga. By showing the unlikelihood of Japanese speaking ability no Japanese person will dare sit next to you thus making sure you will have a spacious, comfortable ride. A warning to the amateur gamesman: if you play this part too well you run in danger of being approached by a helpful commuter offering his services and help. At this point it may be useful to have studied some non-English sentences for “I’m sorry, I don’t understand”, be it Dutch, French, German or preferably Italian. This is no guarantee that the person won’t try his damnest to help you out though, and thus this technique is only recommended for professional gamesmen or those with a lot of spare time on their hands. Sarcastic? Moi?! Considering their long-lasting love affair with all things American it is rather appropriate that the Japanese do not grasp the concepts of irony and sarcasm. Both being mainstays of British social intercourse in Japan they merely confuse and confound and hence are powerful weapons in the gamesman’s arsenal. When confronted with obvious or rhetorical questions be sure to answer sarcastically or ironically. E.g. if you’ve been to the hairdresser’s and a colleague asks “Oh, you’ve been to the hairdressers” simply answer “no, I haven’t!” Your colleague will be honestly confused with your answer as it is obvious to him you have had your hair cut. Let the matter rest for a while and bring up the subject a little later. “I read in a magazine, while I was at the hairdresser’s yesterday, th…
The title page for Japanmanship, gamesmanship in Japan, as it appeared in the PDF version of the book. It was a bonus chapter just for fun.
A snippet from a Google email: "Your Google One Premium 2 TB plan has been updated to include the same AI benefits as the Google AI Plus plan at no additional cost."
Paper doors in an old Japanese farmhouse with ink drawings and kanji texts
A DM from one of the many many scam "marketers". It starts with an innocuous "hi" to which I reply "I swear to God if you're going to try and sell me wishlists" (dear reader, they did)
A banner with big chunky letters saying "Club Piczle newsletter" with in the background a snow monkey enjoying a dip in a japanese hot spring
A screenshot from Piczle World of Puzzles showing user-made Steam Workshop nonograms, numbering 197 already.
Graffiti covered building
A black image with the Unreal Engine logo in white
Banner showing Piczle Cross Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross Rune Factory at 50%off in the Steam Winter Sale
Sign over the entrance of the puppet theatre
The exterior of the Puk puppet theatre
A screen cap from Red Letter Media's Best Of The Worst showing host Jay Bauman wearing an awesome cardigan based on the Overlook Hotel's carpet from The Shining.
Two version of the same colour nonogram puzzle, one with the puzzle's original colours, and one with the colours replaced by CUDO's easily distinguishable colours for all colour vision types
A banner showing Piczle Cross: Rune Factory and Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons both being 50% off this Steam winter sale
A pack of nuts from the brand MENGUY'S
A Piczle Autumn Sale banner
Gaudy orange entryway to consumerist hell branded as an Amazon Black Friday Market
A stack of pancakes
A banner showing Piczle World of Puzzles
A physical copy of the Nintendo Switch game "Detective Dotson" and a promotional keychain of said game.
A cake shaped like Kirby swallowed a car
A wide banner show the three Piczle games on sale in the current Steam Autumn Sale, from left to right, Piczle Cross Adventure at 90% off, Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons at 50% off and Piczle Cross: Rune Factory a;sp at 50% off
A promotional banner for Piczle Cross: Rune Factory showing the game's logo, the heroes Ares and Alice and the words "Bonus Puzzles".
The Club Piczle Newsletter banner, with in the background a screenshot of middling golf video game Pro 18 World Tour Golf, and our Piczle heroes (Score-chan, professor Matrix and Gig) to the right hand side
A blasted sliding block puzzle
A pop up message in Google Drive saying "Try AI directly in your favorite apps … Use Gemini to generate drafts and refine content, plus get Gemini Pro with access to Google's next-gen AI for ¥2,900 (scratched out) ¥0 for 1 month"